John Maddox Roberts

The assymetrical physique makes sense in this case. With his weak, bowed legs, this man probably used his arms to haul himself aloft. with his powerful arms, shoulders and chest, and his weak, stunted legs, this guy was a human chimp, ideal for a topman. And remember, while people of that era averaged shorter than modern westerners, the difference wasn't all that great. His 5'2" height was partially because of his deformed legs. Had he not suffered from ricketts, he probably would have been around 5'7" or so. Diet was also a factor. George Washington, raised on an aristocrat's diet, was 6'3", quite tall for a man of that era but not unheard of. Skeletons recently recovered from Herculaneum show that Italians of 2000 years ago averaged nearly as tall as their modern descendants.

Museum Replicas Limited (owned by Windlass) sells its swords unsharpened for legal reasons (lots of dummies out there who will sue if they cut themselves on that sharp thing they bought). "Battle-ready " means the sword is made of quality steel with a wide tang and furniture adequate for the stresses of combat. MRL will sharpen its swords on request, but sharpening voids the return policy, which is one of MRL's strongest points. Probably the best idea is, if you're otherwise satisfied with the sword, send it back for sharpening and eat the mailing costs, give it to someone who knows how to sharpen a sword properly, or do it yourself if you know how. By the way, edge-to-edge contact will damage blunt swords, too, just not as badly as if they were sharpened. Usually, blocking a sword cut with the flat of your blade means bending your wrist, a big no-no in combat. Beating it aside is safer and less damaging all around.

HarborMaster: That triangular guard is called by collectors a "sail" guard, from its shape. I have one almost identical to the one in the picture. I got it from MRL (actually, it was given to me by Hank Reinhardt, the founder of MRL) about 18 years ago, along with a cup hilt and a swept hilt rapier, but the sail guards are contemporary with the cup hilts, not the swept hilts.

You might want to look into Neal Stephenson's huge trilogy that began with "Quicksilver," continues with "The Confusion" and will end with "The System of the World." They deal with the whole of Europe in the late 16th-early 17th centuries and involve many of the people who created the modern world: Newton, Leibnitz, the Royal Society, the inventors of modern finance in the Low countries, plus lots of pirates, galley slaves, Charles II, Louis XIV, Prince William of Orange, a former harem slave from an unpronounceable country who becomes a spy and financial adviser to French royalty, and a Rogue called Half-Cocked Jack (due to an accident with a red-hot iron being applied to cauterize syphilitic lesions. ouch.) Jack is a great swordsman and adventurer, despite his loss. a great read.

See the version of "Treasure Island" with Charlton Heston as Long John. It is the most faithful to the book, the running musket fights through the woods are convincing, the music by the Chieftains is wonderfully evocative, and, above all, Heston very wisely doesn't try to outdo Robert Newton's definitive portrayal of Long John in the Disney TI. It's a sterling effort. Plus, Jim Hawkins isn't a dewy-eyed ingenue as in other adaptations. He's a tough little guttersnipe. But, the sailors do eye him with a certain, shall we say, affection.

A couple more: "Loose cannon" in a rough sea a cannon could burst its breechings and then you had a ton or more of metal and wood on wheels careening around. Itr could crush people and even, if it dropped down a hatch could possibly go out through the bottom and sink the ship. Now used to mean a wildly out of control person. I don't know if the following is true, but it should be: A cannonball rack that went around a mast was called a "monkey." The holes in the monkey were just slightly smaller than the circumference of the shot for secure seating. Cannonballs were iron. If the monkey was iron, no problem. But sometimes it was brass. Brass and iron shrink with cold at different rates, brass more slowly. In very cold weather, the iron shot could contract enough to fall through onto the deck. Thus it was literally "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."

Next we'll be havin' pirate yoga classes. Imagine a crew of pirates sitting crosslegged on the deck, eyes shut, slowly chanting "aaaaaaarrrrrrr, aaaaaarrrrrr, aaaaaarrrrrr."

Recall also that most pirates never saw "treasure" in the cherished image that we know it - chests full of gold coins. Coined money was the best plunder of all - it could be divided evenly and spent without a discount, but it was rare. Mostly what they got was trade goods that had to be sold to port middlemen. Like all thieves throughout history, they usually got about 10% of what their swag was worth. The real fortunes were made by the middlemen. Many very respectable fortunes in New England, Charleston and elsewhere were founded by pirate fences. They buried the treasure indeed - in their bank accounts.

Concerning matelotage, a quick search turns this up from Exquemelin: "When a man has finished his service (bond servitude,jmr) he seeks out a partner and they pool all they possess. They draw up a document, in some cases saying that the partner who lives longer shall have everything, in others that the survivor is bound to give part to the dead man'sfriends or to his wife, if he was married. Having made this arrangement, some go off marauding, others to hunt, and others to plant tobacco, as they think best." chapter 4. Le Golif says that most buccaneers had matelots, and that they shared everything, including wives. Someone (I think Masefield) said that this was a frequent arrangment among sailors, even in his own day. I am reminded of how Ishmael and Queequeg in Moby Dick pledge to be partners. Any homosexual subtext was, I am sure entirely between consenting adults.

Fun bit of trivia: The original title was "The Red Pirate," but during filming Burt got called to Washington to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, busily saving the world from communist influence. Producers decided that the word "red" was bad juju and changed it. Ah, the good old days.

Pitch, powder smoke, rum an' blood!

Iron Bess: Just took the 17-mile drive last week. What treasure ship did you plunder to be able to afford that sort o' real estate, if ye don't mind me askin'?

I sails the high seas of New Mexico.

I second the swordforum international recommendation. They can put you in touch with schools and sparring partners in your area. Just be clear on the kind of fighting that interests you and someone there should be able to fix you up. Don't neglect the "sword movies and movie swords" forum on SFI. Several professional stunt fighters that contribute to that one.

Arr, that comic book cover of "The Buccaneers" do take me back. Anybody remember that old 50s show? That's a very young Robert Shaw ye see there -- "Let's go a-rovin', a-rovin across the ocean----"

HarborMaster: Dixie Gun Works offers a Queen Anne kit for $195, or $245 assembled

Aye, I be gettin' gray, (56 last time I looked) but it just means I was craftier and more treacherous than them whose bones I left bleachin' behind me.

Actually, Museum Replicas was always a part of Atlanta Cutlery. Hank Reinhardt, founder of MR, is one of my oldest friends. The split with del Tin was a business problem, I believe when a different del Tin brother took over the business and he and Hank could not come to an agreement. In time, Windlass Steelcrafts of India bought the company out and Hank stayed on only in an advisory capacity. There was indeed a falloff in the quality of the swords, although the armor made by Windlass was good for the price. Recent reports say that the quality of the swords has increased greatly and is now near to the old standards. Keep in mind, though, that MR has always tried to keep prices within range of what the average college student could afford, so swords are usually of munition quality - trustworthy in combat but without the bells and whistles of a custom-made piece. That said, their pirate cutlass is really cool.

I'm a professional novelist, I was exposed to pirates early, and I think one of the attractions for creative people is that we are all fantasists of one sort or another, and pirates created and lived a life that was straight out of fantasy - only we know that it really happened.

I first went to Disneyland in 1956, the year after it opened. The pirate ship was indeed Captain Hook's, but it wasn't a real ship and was permanently attached to the bottom of its cement "sea." In those days it was sponsored by Chicken of the Sea and the fare was, unsurprisingly, heavy on tuna. Pretty good tuna salad sandwiches, as I recall. Yes, it's a shame it's gone, along with the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit, made of the original sets and props right down to the giant squid, and the skyway cable cars, probably scrapped for fear of lawsuits should some fool jump. Went there a couple of years back and was saddened to see how much of the old Disneyland was gone.

"If I didn't kill some of ye from time to time, ye'd forget who's captain!" (Or words to that effect) Blackbeard

Newfoundland seems an unlikely venue for pirates, but it was often the first landfall for ships sailing from Europe and, at the end of their supplies, they'd put in there for fresh water and provisions. Likewise, ships heading from the New World across the Atlantic often put in for stores for the last leg of the voyage. That made it a natural lurking-place for pirates. Also, you could plunder the local fishermen (Newfoundland was the greatest cod-fishery in the world at that time) and lay in some barrels of salt cod to provision your further adventure

Mate: How about "The Filibusters?" The word was used both for pirates and for the private military invaders of Spanish (later Mexican) territory in the southwest and Mexico. By the way, I lives in Estancia, just an hour's sail south of ye.

I've toured the Balclutha in San Francisco and the Falls of Clyde in Honolulu; both big, steel-hulled Cape Horners and wonderful ships in their own way. Read Sterling Hayden's (yes, that Sterling Hayden) novel "Voyage" for a wonderful yarn about living on those beautiful, brutal ships. The problem with the steel-hulled, steel-masted ships rigged with steel cable, is that they don't creak like a wooden, hemp-rigged ship.

Salem Bob: It should be noted that Robert Newton's "Arrrs" in the Disney Treasure Island" are far more subdued than generations of Newton impersonators have made them. That's the way with impersonation: take a few mannerisms and exaggerate the hell out of them. Personally, I was more impressed as a kid by the way Newton talked with his eyebrows. That said, for years after seeing Treasure Island my brother and I would always conclude our prayers with a resounding "Armen!" The nuns were not amused.