Deacon Frye

Another thought occurs to me. The moviemakers may have been influenced in their choice by the gorgeous photos of the Rose in the galleries at the Travels With The Tall Ship Rose site. And yes, the fact that the organization was having trouble making ends meet made it an apparent win-win deal. But she looks like she could use a bit of help at this point.

A couple of thoughts: I won't swear to it, but I believe the replica Rose was lengthened relative to the original in order to provide room for the engines. (As is the case with several other replicas of period vessels.) The "prehistory" of the HMS Surprise of the novels is actually rather vague. Let me quote from Bruce Trinque's excellent site, The Ships of Jack Aubrey: The length here is the length on the gun deck. For comparison with the replica Rose, see: http://www.tallshiprose.org/info/shipspecs.html The Rose actually seems to be somewhat longer than the historical Surprise, but a very close match overall. It should be noted here that while O'Brian was a stickler for accuracy in some areas, time wasn't one of them. He expanded and collapsed time at will as it suited his needs. To get a really good feel for the size of the historical Surprise next to other frigates (as well as other types of naval vessels), see: http://members.aol.com/batrnq/aubrey4.htm

Can't help you with an email address. I believe he lives in Brighton, Sussex, UK. You might want to contact one of his recent publishers, such as Bloomsbury Publishing, London, and see if they'll act as a go-between.

You might try Marcus Rediker at University of Pittsburgh: http://www.pitt.edu/~pitthist/fac-rediker.html He's the author of The Many-Headed Hydra and Between the Devil and the Deep-Blue Sea. He also has Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age coming out this spring. Mind you, he is coming from a Marxist agenda, but this could make for some interesting answers. He also has contact info at his own website: http://www.marcusrediker.com/ Oh, by the way, you've got my curiosity up. Would you care to share the five questions so we can play historian?

Bob, can you shed a little light on how he proofs them? I'm thinking particularly of how to put a bit of distance between oneself and the piece being fired. And thanks for the info regarding the shipping of the guns proofed and drilled direct with the locks coming separately. It wasn't clear to me that this was one of the options when I last visited the site.

A vlieboot was a vessel with a hull designed to handle deep water, but still get through the Vlie, the channel off the island of Vlieland. Henry Hudson's Half Moon was a vlieboot. The term came into English as flyboat, and French as flibot. The Spanish also had a version, but I can't recall the spelling. To get back to freebooter, and also our word filibuster, there was a whole lot of going back and forth on these. Sort of an etymologist's field day. One take: Another: Note that Zorq's suggestion of the vessel name contributing to the term comes in here, but with regard to filibuster. There is also a suggestion, though not explicit, of this in the following: PS: I didn't put those beer drinkers in there to liven up that passage, though Lord knows it could use it. It's just a natural occurrence.

Not as fearsome as the infamous running wolf perhaps, but those cute little Eichhörnchens can put up an impressive front when need be: http://www.superkwax.de/bilder/Funbilder/funbilder1.htm

Free Booty. I'll drink to that.

BTW, on the basic version the best I did was 568.5, but a teenage girl I know did 619.5. Us old guys are lookin' bad, Cap'n William.

You can extend your range with the help of steroids here: http://games.apropo.ro/ (Thanks, Jeff)

Our enemy has more than twice our guns, twice our numbers ... and we are supposed to stop her ...

Now, how can you mention Newfoundland and not talk about Peter Easton?

"No original weapons were harmed in the filming of this movie." I don't know for sure, but I think it unlikely that any original swords were "used" in the movie in the sense of fight use, though the sword may very well have been used in close-up shots. Generally, the swords of the main characters have high-grade aluminum blades for several reasons, safety being one of the big ones. Where there's no original, they will use another copy of the sword with a steel blade for close-ups. I'm not pushing a particular agenda here, and I realize this can be a hot-button topic. There are folks who routinely use centuries-old Japanese swords worth tens of thousands of $ for cutting practice, risking destruction of the sword. They feel perfectly entitled to do so, and perhaps they are. Certainly legally they are. Their are times when you have to inflict a bit of wear and tear to gain knowledge. Metallurgical analysis, for instance, still requires sacrifice of a small amount of a sword's metal, for instance. The noted writer and educator on swords, Ewart Oakeshott, was a big believer in putting original swords into people's hands so that they could understand what they felt like. And yes, his swords (which I believe he carried to lectures in a golf bag at times) did see some wear and tear. Personally, I think the concept of stewardship is important. That is the idea that the gun, sword, whatever is a piece of history temporarily in my care; as opposed to "it's mine, I can do whatever I want with it". For an interesting article on Hollywood's past sins in this department, see: http://hometown.aol.com/machood/studioswords.html

Start 'em out right: http://www.hottopic.com/

I'm not sure I fully understand what you're saying here, Capt'n Jack, but the value of an old piece isn't just in the amount of money it brings. It's a piece of history. If destroyed, it cannot be recovered.

Hey, how'd I get in your signature picture?

I'd be interested to know more about the origins of that "Downeastah drawl". It seems to me it's often attributed to northeast/east England, but I suspect the southwesterners were a major influence. Speaking of "enhancement". My father was from Maine, albeit the North. I can't help but notice the dilution of the accent over the decades since I was a kid. However, I was in a convenience store a few years ago in Boothbay, and there was a young man speaking in the thickest Maine dialect I've ever heard, at least that I can recall. At first I thought he was putting it on, but realized he was engrossed in a conversation with the cashier, whom he knew, about his mother's house being robbed, and this was just the way he spoke. I found it quite heartening.

Did that include the officers? Thanks to you and Hawkyns for the comments on the clothing.

I'm a bit hazy on the clothing of the period, Foxe, but I'd thought breeches of the period were pointed to the doublet. Yet a lot of these folks seem to be wearing belts. Also, are those button flies correct?

While I agree with Bob that it is the fair's prerogative, and I understand that it may be "fine" with you, Isabella, I personally don't see it as being "fine".

Say Ten, Pirata.

There are actually two Depeeka models, as Capt Sparrow pointed out earlier. The 1742, I believe, has a curved blade. The folks here are looking for a replica of the one in the movie. I would be interested to know where you can pick up a decent hanger blade of this sort for $50-$75.

Bob, I've reviewed relevant portions of the film (the battle between the Pearl and the Interceptor, and the scenes in the pirate cavern). Barbossa does in fact, appear to be wearing a sword of the style shown in the examples above. He also uses one in the fight with Jack. Here are two copies of the sword made for the character by Tony Swatton, from his Sword and Stone site. The first is listed as "Barbossa Sword", the second "Captain's Sword": The descriptions: Although they are listed on the site under the "Double-Edged" category, they appear to me to be backswords, not broadswords. I would guess that Swatton made at least one other copy of the sword with a high-grade aluminum blade for actual fighting, as that is his specialty. I don't know why they chose this sword, but the skeletonized scallop shell may have appealed to them. Get it, mate, skeletonized? Sorry. There's no question that the use of this sword is an anachronism, but it is a very small anachronism that only a very small percentage of the audience would be capable of discerning. And after all, we are talking about a movie that features undead, skeleton pirates! I don't recall seeing rush using a cutlass, falchion-bladed or not, but I haven't reviewed the entire movie to look for it, either. Interestingly, Swatton did make a "Rush Cutlass" for the film:

I thought Murphy was from Pennsylvania.

Nigel, a a pirate carrying the pistol in the left hand to leave the sword-arm free would still most likely be carrying a right-handed gun. Capt. William--the double-barrelled guns are indeed very impressive, but if you're going to shoot a double-barrelled muzzleloader, make very sure that the ball in the second barrel doesn't shift foreward under the impact of recoil when the first barrell is fired.