Bilgemunky

No gypsies, but the Chevalier de Grammont might fit the bill of a noble on the run, turning buccaneer if not outright pirate. Definitely a rarity, in any case.

Foxe asked:

Do we know of any historical nobles who went on the account to escape <fill in crap excuse here>?

I believe that Stede Bonnet is reputed to going pirate in order to escape a nagging wife

While I hate to condone sitting at the computer all day, if Sid Meiers' isn't an option, have you checked out Pirates of the Burning Sea? Nothing like an MMO to let you virtually live the life - especially when there's other pirates out there playing alongsides!

Also, I have an IRC chatroom during my weekly pirate radio show - it's a great way to chat with other pirates real time for three hours. Monday nights - www.bilgemunkyradio.com.

"Suitable steamer gear" at PiP seems to me an oxymoron. As someone who's not attending this year, and who's never dressed the part of an airship pirate, I really don't have a horse in this race and should probably keep my yap shut. But this strikes to the heart of one of my pet peeves.

My usual pirate get-up is far more hollywood than historical - which is perfectly suitable for most of the events I attend. But when I had the opportunity a few years back to attend PiP, I made efforts to modify my look to be as historical as I could manage, as this seemed most appropriate from what I'd read about the atmosphere and purpose of PiP. Upon arrival I found that it was indeed an event that prided itself on historical accuracy, and yet everyone was very nice and very supportive of each others' varied efforts to look the part - not a stitch nazi in the bunch. It hardly mattered whether you were 99% accurate or 25%, so long as you did your best with your knowledge and resources.

Airship Pirates, however, are the very definition of making efforts to NOT look accurate, and seem to me to be entirely against the nature of PiP and other reenactor-based events. While suitable and welcome at pop-culture driven pirate events such as PyrateCon, PyrateDaze, and a whole mess of others, I just don't see how they're a good fit at historically based events.

I've bellyached about the steampunk thing in other media and have given some the impression that I have a beef with steampunk in general. Far from it - steampunk is a fantastic thing (I myself own several steampunk albums, own a victorian home that I'm restoring with some steampunk inspiration, greatly enjoy Jules Vern, etc. etc.) But while steampunk and pirate can blend exceedingly well under some circumstances, they hardly blend well under *all* circumstances - although this appears to be the growing trend.

Perhaps I'm alone in this opinion - I've seen the steampunk/pirate connection strongly supported and encouraged by many, many folks within our community - some of them with legendary pirate street cred. But I just don't understand why all pirate events should become a haven for steampunk (any more than I'd understand why all steampunk events should welcome golden age pirates.)

1) Freedom of speech is a fundamental right and as long as it is not of malicious intent, it should be supported and condoned.

Just because we're free to speak doesn't mean it's always appropriate or a good idea. But please note that not once have I suggested the moderators should intervene - I am not a supporter of censorship. A little etiquette, however, is a wonderful thing.

This thread started with a sort of a "dancing on Andre's grave, Mitch is the hero of day" sort of post. It wasn't a link to a court decision or newspaper article, it was more word of mouth from someone who clearly has an axe to grind - an axe that, while possibly justified, had little to nothing to do with the public aspects of PyrateCon, which people can (and should) feel free to openly discuss. But there is a such thing as personal and professional decorum which seems to be sadly lacking amongst the PyrateCon scufflers.

And for the record, please don't interpret my fatigue regarding the PyrateCon he-said she-said as defending or condemning either side - the complaints regarding Andre seem legion, and while some of them don't fully add up, I'd be quite daft if I was to assume it was all born of nothing but malcontents and active imaginations. If folks have been wronged, they should absolutely seek due compensation and I hope that justice is served. But The Pub isn’t in a position to serve justice – in this paritular case it seems ill-suited for much of anything except gossip, rumors, and venting.

Oh, and I eventually clicked the link - the result was idiotic and juvenile.

However, Bilge, there are others outside of Southern California who've had the misfortune of getting the shaft by this said individual, they just don't talk about it here.

Good for them - I'm glad to hear that not everyone feels a public forum for pirate enthusiasts is the place to air grievances that are better addressed through other, more productive channels.

I suppose I could relent that the PyrateCon fueding is 10% relevant, but still 90% crap. There is clearly a lot of bitterness in southern california, and I'm not much inclined to believe any post I read as being unbiased, especially when most are overly long, juvenille, and full seething anger, petty jabs, and unsubstantiated rumors that don't matter a lick to those of us involved.

"Person A has just been caught stealing from Person B and Person A has also kicks puppies so if you've ever had business relations with Person A WATCH YOUR BACK Person B is now starting their own pirate festival and it will definitely be the BEST FESTIVAL EVER you should never ever ever go to Person A's events because they robbed me of tens of thousands of dollars THIS IS IN THE PUBLIC RECORDS!!!"

Really, that's how it all reads anymore. Hell, even the PR piece about Mitch's new Pirate Daze published in the NQG 15th Anniversary Issue was 2/3s about how bad Andre is, and how Mitch and his mother (yes, his mother) have a good lawyer. Only the final paragraph bothered to explain to us - the potential attendees - what the event actually has in store and why we should wish to patronize their efforts.

Seriously, are we still talking about this? Whatever litigation is on between Mitch and Andre is not a public affair - I'm happy to see folks talk about the pros and cons of attending PyrateCon, but not this crap. And Tess, I don't like the look of that link. What the hell does it go to? It's a rather abnormal URL - maybe it's a forum, maybe it's malware. But I won't be the first to click it and find out.

I noticed the same thing, Tartan. Hopefully that will be an easy and quick fix, as "new content" was the only area I ever visited (saved soooo much time.) Currently "Recent Posts" doesn't quite measure up.

Very impressive! Now, how did you get the hole just the right size? Was it trial and error, or did you just adjust the amount of sand in the bottles?

First I started with a small hole, and held the flange over the opening and dumped sand from one of the bottles into a bowl. A small hole clogs up with this system - so making a full 'hour' glass would need some serious experimentation. So I made the hole bigger and bigger until it was smooth flowing and approaching the 28 second mark, at which point I refilled the bottle with sand yet again, set a timer, and started dumping. When the timer hit 28 seconds I stopped, set aside whatever sand remained in the bottle, put the 28 seconds worth back in and voila - commenced the rest of construction.

Consider the flange to be a disc of thick leather with a hole in it. The hole is almost exactly the size needed to throttle the sand to about 28 seconds. The disc itself is of a size that perfectly sandwiches between the two bottles so that they're not actually touching. Does that sort of make sense?

The wooden pieces are actually blank clock faces from Michaels. They had predrilled holes in the centers, which is why I opted to place a rope handle for hanging on both ends of the hourglass (didn't want a hole there for no reason.) I drilled six more holes around the perimeters to thread the twine through.

So I found myself in want of some navigation tools for an upcoming quasi-educational engagement, but didn't want to fork out the dough to buy the real things. Thus I adopted the common question of "What would a pirate do?", which I often ask myself when my pirate garb doesn't fit right, or some other obstacle comes my way. In this case, when in need of navigation tools, but not having real ones available, what would a pirate do? Short answer, drink some rum. Long answer, take a couple of rum bottles (once emptied) and craft a 28 second hourglass from them. And BAM!, you're well on your way to being able to gage your ship speed (once you craft a chip log, which should certainly be easier than an hourglass.) Although certainly unconventional, the event I'll be working is something of a "shipwrecked pirate crew" thing, so making my tools from flotsam is a perfect fit.

My result:

2 pyrat rum bottles with a leather "flange" between them with a hole in it to pace out the sand. They're joined at the throats with some dried rawhide and hemp twine, which do a remarkable job of holding the two halves together even without the wooden end peices lashed on.

Indeed, and I can personally vouch for the "fights scurvy" claim - since drinking RootJack I've been 100% scurvy free!

I believe it's supposed to be Julyish, as is the new Tales of Monkey Island.

I can't even say how stoked I am that Monkey Island is back from the dead!!! And on multiple fronts as well. JOY!

Bilgemunky- it's the perspective I have. I don't do faires, so I don't see that type of person. When we go to a bar in kit, it's generally on the way home from an event, so we are in our usual appearance.

From April to November I spend at least 3 weekends a month under canvas, whether it be pirate, border reiver, or RevWar gunner. We've been hired for a few events, but we don't change our operational standards for them.

I understand that not everybody lives like I do (I feel sorry for them, but I understand ). On the other hand, as QM James said, everybody has dirty jobs to do wherever they live, from painting the bathroom, to changing the oil, to mowing the lawn. That's why I asked the question. With so many opportunities to crud up clothing naturally, doing the movie FX stuff just didn't make sense.

And in your situation, it makes every sense to let your clothing age naturally. But this thread continues to amaze me at how many folks consider one way of ageing to be "right," and the other to be wrong. The simple fact is that there are multiple means of achieving the same goal - that of portraying a pirate look that fits our goals for the event at hand. For some it would make sense to let it age naturally, others not so much. Were I to simply let my own real-world dirty work age my pirate clothes, believe me I'd get hassled for the non-period stains.

One point stands true, though - artificial aging is an art, and when poorly executed looks just plain awful. But when done well it can lead to some stellar looks that put a newbie in his or her brightly colored, fresh garb to shame. And this is nothing new - in the military, it's the new recruits in their off-the-shelf uniforms that get hassled by their mates, and nothing sucks more than having having to dispose of a much-loved but no longer up to standards working uniform shirt only to don a new piece of wretch fresh from the package that still has that "new shirt smell", and itches something awful. And before the invention of stonewashed jeans, how many kids and adults alike purposely ran their pants through the washer extra times to get a proper faded look? Hell, I'll bet even in pirate days a freshly recruited landlubber might have done everything within their means to artificially speed up the aging process so they wouldn't look quite so out of place.

Hawkyns,

You continue to support your statements solely from the reenactor perspective. I *don't* spend the majority of my weekends at outdoor pirate events with the ability to sleep in pirate clothes and engage in dirty pirate activities. Most of the events I attend are relatively clean - a pirate party at a bar, a pirate festvial in town, etc. And often times I'm at the event hired to be a pirate DJ, and the establishment - to say nothing of its clientelle - wouldn't take kindly to me stinking the place up. I'm there to entertain, not educate.

I certainly agree that anyone who spends a good chunk of time reenacting might be best served just letting their clothing age naturally. But there are many of us, all for different reasons, who approach piracy from different perspecitives. And for us, artificial aging is often a must.

This question carries the common presumption that we're all reenactors, and have the luxury of allowing clothing to age naturally. For me, waiting for natural aging has two primary flaws - first, I just can't make it to enough lengthy, dirty, outdoor events, so my clothing would end up looking new for a very, very long time. The second problem is regarding hygeine and smell - many times I need to look the part of a dirty pirate while amongst "normal" folks - folks that can appreciate a dirty, period looking pirate, but who might be less keen on historically accurate smells. I'm sure Spareribs would agree that sometimes you've got to be selective in just which parts of piracy you portray around the public, and which parts you gloss over.

Sorry Patrick, but that's pretty weak. If you have legitimate news about why this festival shouldn't be supported, then share it. If you have a personal greivance that's not appropriate for public discussion, then keep it to yourself. But to ask anyone to cancel their plans of attending NorCal simply based on your unsupported statement is unfair to all involved.

I'll agree that it seems unlikely to get into the "big" money piratin - I usually hover around 50,000 on the books. But like I said, more than enough to restock. And I'm really not sure what I'd need more money for since I steal my ships anyway. Guess I'm a pirate of simple means

So far I've managed to do all right via the pirate lifestyle - level 28 and never bought a ship or participated in the "respectable" economy. No plantations or shipyards, just a couple of warehouse for storing plunder, and I only sail in vessels I've properly "acquired" upon the sea. I'm hardly wealthy, but I only ever use money for buying cannonballs and other consumable items, so my expenses are pretty low.

Gage - I'm in Blackbeard too. What society are you in? I've not dealt much with other players ingame (I'm in a society of two )

(I'm drunk too, but not as drunk as Bilge Munky)

Few are.

I was gonna say "what's the point of even trying age a fake flintlock"???

But then I saw yer results, and I stand humbeled.

And drunk, but hats not yer doing.

Rather than go defensive, I'd try turning the tables a bit.

pirate=honorless idiots who decided to say screw the government, soap, and rules, and let's go sail the seas robbing ships till we get hung

I don't accept the premise, as this statement makes two false assumptions:

1. If Pirates=Bad, then Government=Good. Let's look at the governments of the day, shall we? Let's ask the Incas what they thought of the Spanish Government, or let's ask a homeless street urchin what they thought of the French goverment, or a pressed sailor with years of backwages and a starving family at home what he thought of the English government. For that matter, let's ask the Africans what they thought of European governments in general.

2. If Pirates=Bad, then Rules=Good. Similar to #1. These were days of female and minority oppression, of closed societies, of state and church sanctioned torture (and I'm talking "real" torture - not the kind you walk away from). These were times when it was ok for a ship's captain to beat a man nearly to death without benefit of a trial. These were times of witch trials in Salem, and all sorts of other rule-enforced pleasantries world-wide.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, but the point is that before making the case that pirates were bad because they defied the government and societies rules, your friend needs to demonstrate that these are effective standards for establishing what is good and honorable. My guess is he'll find it a much more difficult task than he'd expect.

As to soap, I'll concede.

This year there was less rain, but I could also see my breath, so what's that tell you?

Moving the festival has been broached time and again, but the idea has never been considered feasible by the owner, as it seems all other weekends are already booked solid. Still, this particular weekend is feeling increasingly like jousting windmills.

Yeah, that thread was just now pointed out to me, although I'm still a little surprised. The guy has demonstrated immaturity and bone-headedness - not maliciously evil intentions. I'm not saying what he did was OK - not by a longshot. But to treat him like a social pariah seems a little harsh. Odds are he just needs to lay low and grow up, and good luck to him on that.

And please don't anyone think that the Port Washington Pirate Festival is now in jeapardy because of this one drunken act - I know firsthand that the festival has a host of challenges facing it - many of them self-imposed. If there should be no festival in 2010, it won't be Blackthorne that sunk it.