Captain Jim

I received mine yesterday. Excellent in every way. I highly recommend this and the following draughts to anyone with space on the wall or interest in sailing of the time as reference works. Both highly decorative and informative. Support Your Local Pyrate!

Not acceptable, simply not acceptable. PiP will not be all we can make it without you. We will try, surely, but still...

On review of my company e-mail I called this Genocidal Empire-Builder's Day, but I've been told not to use that again.

PiP is getting to look better all the time. And Patrick, you could have saved yourself all the trouble of research and authenticity. No one will notice either one of us.

As it happens I have the day off today because I work for a large development services company that celebrates Columbus Day. I think it may be their way of honoring the first developer to reach this shore, take property by eminent domain and use it for personal gain. The president of the company has called to tell me I am no longer to refer to this holiday as Genocidal Plunderer's Day in company e-mails. Therefore I hereby adopt Incompetent European Navagation Day until further edicts from on high.

Welcome aboard Harry. I'm looking forward to seeing you in KW again and I will be filling out a camping application shortly.

A question: Would not an original have been tarred or pitched in order to preserve it, make it stiffer and more effective?

50 guns and 1000 flints? 20 flints per gun. Seems like a lot.

To get a translation of the entire page, use Babelfish. Enter the address, choose the translation (German to English in my case) and presto! Translated reasonably well.

Small nough? And now you know why I use my colors for my avatar and save the larger space of the signature graphic for my handsome mug.

McBanacle...um... I think you might want to tell the guy in the red coat to plug the other ear...Its the one pointed at the cannon that gets filled with loudness. Unless he's already deaf in that one. Nice arsenal by the way. I'm jealous.

There are no words. Two hundred and twenty tons on a barge. In case you think that this is PhotoShopped, I also have pictures of it going on the barge, but that will have to wait until Saturday. This is the Lamb House, relocating from Palmetto FL to Ruskin via Tampa Bay right through the Sunshine Skyway. The 98-year-old house will be used as a retreat for ministers and missionaries. It's a good thing that someone saved this old place or I might have done something unwise/stupid with money. I have watched this house for 43 years, afraid that it would be torn down to make way for "progress." I once broke in to look around (it was abandoned[!] at the time) and found that the original woodwork was still largely in place. The last use of the house was as a County run halfway house for "mentally challenged" individuals. A(nother) condominium is going up where it once stood on the banks of the Manatee River. Definition of surreal, isn't it?

*Heavy Scots accent* This 'ere be mah gonne Vera; Verra Loud. Wish I'd thought of that one...

Aye, the Fusil de Tulle was the imported French trade gun and came in several grades from plain-Jane to finely engraved. Note also that the barrels were longer than most you will encounter. I have seen references to barrels as long as 60 inches! The minimum seems to be somewhere in the area of 48 inches. Most KY/Penn rifles top out at 44 inches. Big, long gun. The doglock 'buss is definately shipboard and early and can carry you over to the late GaOP. Easier to carry. I think I'll get one too, come to think of it...

Good for you. I really don't try to discourage people from trying gunsmithing, but I do want them to be careful. Try a Pedersoli Queen Anne. Smaller overall and you can slim down the grip to fit your hand. It seems that you are willing to take and modify a weapon without the “second guessing” and doubt that besets most. So take a file to the stock and shape it to fit. Or…. Buy a kit and go from there. Talk to the people at Muzzleloader Builder's Supply. They have breathtakingly fast service so far as my experience goes, and they have several European parts sets available. That is the Martinoni gun, barrel 5 inches. Have fun...

See? I told you that William knew jack...

It may be hard to believe, but I'm sure Key West has a UPS/FEDEX or USPS somewhere on the island. Or you could entrust the shipping to one of your Pyrate friends. I'll ship it to you ...eventually.

The Bess is out of our time period. Go with a doglock to cover the entire period or a Fusil de Tulle to cover from mid period to the end. Some Tulle examples and kits can be found at Track of the Wolf. Of course you could opt for a blunderbuss...Smaller and easier to carry if you don't actually plan to shoot at anything with any accuracy.

To answer your main question, no, they are not supposed to be angled as you describe. Now you have three choices, in descending order of desirability: 1. Send it back, either for repair or replacement. These are good people and stand behind their product. 2. Have a professional gunsmith repair it. Voids any supplier warranty that you may have, written or implied. 3. Repair it yourself. Unless you are a really competent craftsperson or preternaturally gifted, you run the likelihood of screwing everything up, voiding your warranty and making the aforementioned gunsmith very happy, because you will now spend much more money than before.

I think 'tis a pyrate dining society. Ya eats, drinks and skips out on the bill... Merely jestin'...not self respectin' pyrate skips on a bar tab. Bar tabs are sacred bonds.

Okay, just re-read the thread and pirates ashore with sail shelters seems perfectly normal for the short term. But if I am to be ashore for long, I want something to keep the wind off at night. Ships carried lots of spare canvas, and a successful pirate ship would carry even more, the canvas of several ships, having pillaged it along the way. So let's set up a scenario: It is late hurricane season, don't want to go north now so the crew votes to pull into a small but snug harbor to winter. So now it's mid-December and a succession of cold fronts have moved through and we, the crew, have had enough. We all want to head north in the spring, so going south is out. Besides, thar be wenches here. (Sorry, pyrate speak foul) We all want tents, privacy and to keep our bums warm. So we set the sailmaker to making us tents. Especially me. I'm the captain, after all. In case you're wondering, I'm setting up an argument for having a tent at PiP this year. So the question is this; Is this tent and fly plausible for a sailmaker-built period shelter? Storage tent and fly. Also, I intend to go back next year as a vendor and this tent could serve double duty as living quarters and "booth", saving me from having to spend money twice. So, what's the verdict?

Backwards.

Be not sheepish for this is exactly the place for this sort of commerce. Post yer prices, and we'll see. I've tried twice to paint mine, and the results were not so good. Too stiff. If you can do my flag at a reasonable price, I have other things that I can attend to myself. See my signature and avatar for what I am after, four foot on the fly, except I intend to replace the 1861 cutlass with a more period sword depiction.

Those prices under "All flintlock kits" are for the lock parts as cast. You will still need to polish, assemble and regulate them. But those prices are for the lock kit only. Fully asembled, $120. Kentucky pistol kit, $410 and out of period for us anyway. Does that answer your question?

Yeah I'm one of those Twillies... No no, not picking on you. Just pointing out that there is Hollywood style garb and then there is Hollywood garb. Sort of "How much more Hollywood can you get than real Hollywood?" observation.