Deacon Frye

Hi Capt. William. I'm not Hitman, but on the other thread he mentioned The Confederate Privateers, by William Morrison Robinson, Jr.

Aye, that be soundin' a terrible fate. What is it? You're right, Hitman, there is some confusion here. I don't know about the privateers, but some of the commerce raiders were definitely purchased and even built to order in England. They were largely fitted out there, but the armament could be added elsewhere, as with the Alabama. The guns were from England, but they joined her only after she had sailed to the Azores. I'd thought the raiders were your primary interest.

Pearl, there was a woman poster on another board a couple of years back that I thought highly of. Elissa was one of the major loves of her life. She had a large investment of time and energy in the barque, as did at least one of her daughters, and seemed to have a significant amount of responsibility with regard to training, upkeep of the barque, and she frequently served as helmswoman. So much for Pop and your brother. Just go ahead and contact them.

Why Elissa, Pearl?

Ah, the old edge-on-edge or not question that one's good for hours of debate. Is this the little baskethilt cutlass designed by Eddie Floyd that we're talking about? If so, you can probably get him to make a version in the steel of your choice: Swordplay Alliance

I'm not following you, hitman. How does England "disallowing condemnation (presumably of prizes?) in her waters" negate the fitting out of privateers?

Greetings, It would be more persuasive if Joe had done his homework on the actual geo-engineering of the site. The existence of the side-tunnels pretty well undercuts his argument. The best source info on OI in print are the books by Harris and Crooker--both have at least some familiarity with both geology and engineering. Regards, The Corsair The "side tunnels" don't undercut his argument at all, Corsair. They're to be expected in this sort of limestone formation. (Typo edited)

Try asking your dentist, and also local specialty jewelers.

Another interesting Oak Island site: A Critical Analysis of the Oak Island Legend

The Skeptical Inquirer has a rather persuasive article on Oak Island by Jor Nickell: The Secrets of Oak Island He maintains that the pit is simply a natural formation, layered over with several generations of Masonic obfuscation. On the chance that it was a pirate, however, my nod would go to Peter Easton. Reported to have had 5000 pirates under him (albeit not all at the same time), he was based in the neighborhood. He also knocked over the Spanish treasure fleet before retiring to live happily ever after on the Cote d'Azur. He had means, incentive, and opportunity. (And probably some coconut mats used to package the Spanish cargo.)

I wish you a full and speedy recovery, Cap'n Flint.

Casting my net on the web, I find this posted on another message board by one "Foxe" (a familiar name!): http://www.piratesinfo.com/mysql/phorum/re...1&i=5516&t=5516 The only other reference I've found so far to this particular Roebuck is this: http://www.oicexchange.com/index.php?ch=5&pg=211&ac=38

Hornigold is an English name. As with most names, there was quite a bit of spelling variation. The Mormon online database pulls up forms ranging from Horningall to "Horneygold".

I haven't read him in years, but that's the first thing I thought of as well.

I'm not the best person to answer your question, Cap't William, since I don't have hands-on experience with these, but it seems strange to me that they'd offer the gun in two calibers .02" apart. Perhaps a "one-off (or .02" off) run on the part of their manufacturer? Or a misunderstanding on the part of the person who wrote the copy? I think you should ask directly about this, and what size ball works best with the pistol. When you get above .58 caliber, your choices for ready-made balls narrows considerably. Things also become more expensive. And if you invest in equipment to mold you own, you'll want to be sure the gun likes what your mold puts out. For comparison, 100 .495 cold swaged balls from Hornady cost $9.23. (This would be appropriate for the Pederson "Queen Anne"). They don't produce balls above 58 (.570) caliber. 25 62 caliber (.60) balls from Cabela's, on the other hand, cost &8.49. At Track of the Wolf, you can get 25 hand cast balls of .60 or .61 actual diameter for $7.50. At .595" diameter, the price goes down to 50 for $8.25. I guess I'm digressin' a bit here, but my point is if you plan on shooting the piece with ball, you might want to pin them down a bit as to the actual diameter of the bore, and whether there is in fact a variance. I believe .62 is "standard" and equates to 20 gauge.

Now that's interesting. I've been procrastinating on reading Rediker.

I find this interesting: If they can be removed easily, why don't they do it? We're not talking an antique here, who's value might be harmed by cleaning. You mention Military Heritage, HarborMaster. Are you talking about their new blunderbuss? Military Heritage

This is a running auction, and it really is a small world, after all, so I'll limit my observations to pointing out that the seller really commits himself to only one thing in his representation of the gun, which is: "I purchased these pistols I am putting on from a gentleman".

Aye Deacon Fry, I'd say you have the right of it seeing the pistol up close - it looks like a fairly typical Brescian pistol, down to the chasework plates on the sides of the stock, save for the unfortunate, awkward, non-18th century appearing skull on the side of the butt of the pistol. Had they put some real thought into it, they would have been better off making a buttcap proper, with the motif of a skull, following the 18th century fashion for grotesqes as buttcaps on high quality pistols. This placement on the side of the cap unfortuneatly is hoakey, and looks as screwed up as a soup-sandwich when comparing to original pistols. I knew positive it had to be Med. basin, but Italian it is rather than Greek. It's not a reworked original for certes. You know what, Bob? I took a second look at that picture today. With indistinct pictures like this, I know it's often best to stay with your first impression--the more you look, the more your imagination goes to work. But having said this, the pistol is starting to look to me like a tarted-up version of your basic georgian-era english "heavy" dragoon pistol. Strip the froufrou from it and see what you think. Speaking of the froufrou, it appears from the picture that it is affixed to the surface of the stock, rather than being inlaid or inletted. And the bit at the muzzle appears to be a sleeve. The cock is all wrong (and part of it appears too slender to survive in the real world), but it may simply have been whittled down or substituted by the prop maker.

The problem is, a lot of swords are being sold by folks far away--in many cases overseas. It's not like you can go down to your local cutler's shop and test out a few. Fortunately, there are some good internet resources that provide a lot of information on the sword market, including reviews. Among them: NetSword myArmoury.com Sword Forum International It's not easy to get to the forums on Sword Forum without registering, but if you want to peek, here they are: Forums. To post, you'll have to register under your real name.

DP, I'm not familiar with Capt. MacRae, but if you stick MacRae and Pirate into Google, or MacRae and Madras, or just Captain Macrae, there's a lot of material out there.

Hmm, nice ... coat.

That's interesting. The originals weighed about 1.5 pounds, which is fairly light as swords go. (Though the smallswords of the period were even lighter.) Do you have means of weighing the sword? I'd be interested to know what it comes in at. Reproductions are generally heavier than originals, and reproductions intended for reenactment are often not merely unsharpened, but have thicker edges, which can add to the weight. It's unfortunate that they don't accept credit cards. I hadn't realized that. It removes a layer of protection for the buyer, though I haven't heard of anyone having problems with them.

Thanks, Col., that does help a bit. The pistol has an Italianate feel to me. In particular, it reminds me of some of the Brescian pistols I've seen for sale at various internet sites. If this is based on an original, I wouldn't be surprised if it came from that neck of the woods.