capnwilliam

Wow! Glad to see that this old thread was resurrected!

Glad also to be able to recount that our cannon crew is doing a lot better than I was forced to indicate back in my November 2004 message.

Capt. William

It must be a hardy fish. They still survive in Lake Michigan.

Capt. William

Here's an alewife with no "distended abdomen"!

(me as alewife at the Bachmann Tavern, summer 2002)

Yer abdomen and the rest of yerself look fine to me, Kass!

Capt. William

First matter: the movie

It WAS based on a REAL series of events. In the movie, they postulate it was a lion covered in armour. When I saw it (told to watch it by SEVERAL inc. BOTH brother in laws-> originally I had ignored it as so much science fiction), I did some research on the background. It was VERY interesting. Contemporary theories were ALL over the place, with MOST thinking it was some sort of GIANT wolf. The large cat-theory seems like a rather plausible solution. Whether it was trained to kill (like and evil Sigfreid and Roy) or just someone brought a kitten home with them and "released" it when it got bigger (see below).

The modern News: There now seem to be a NUMBER of wild cats found in the wild when they USED to be extinct.

There are wild cats now in Britain, which there has not been in centuries (from what I understand). In my OWN area, there used to be panthers/mountain lions, aka catamounts-> Cats of the Mount-ain, a large brown/tan cougar-like indigenous large cat, but it was officially extinct. THIS is the ORIGIN of the Carolina Panther football team name, though the local panther was brown and the team used a black one as a mascot. There were occasional reports of them being seen BUT no bodies or recent skeletons, so it was seen as a "mountain myth." HOWEVER, there are now REAL reports, sightings, and even KILLINGS of BLACK panthers, esp in the mountains west of Charlotte, but expanding south and north along that Aps. I've heard/seen reports of the "return of the mountain lions," but I have doubts that these cats have ANYTHING to do with the indigenous cats. MY postulation (and one a number of experts ALSO came to) is that people BOUGHT (illegally) cute and cuddly black panther kittens in honor of the football team. However, as the cats got bigger, their owners could no longer afford the large amounts of food. So, they did the "humane" thing and released the cats "back to nature." The PROBLEM, however, is that the cats were/are NOT NATIVE and do not have a natural territory nor place in the food chain. Therefore, the natural balanced was altered by the introduction of a top level predator into a people-heavy "nature" where folks hike, camp, etc.

Most of the European things are likely similar matters, esp cats from the 60s/70s that their owners could not really afford to feed, so they were released. I also seem to recall a similar rise in the popularity of large cat kittens in the late 90s/early 2000s. So, I would postulate that the NEW problems are THOSE cats and their descendants.

The British wild cat seems to be a new breed from the interbreeding of various types of wild cats in the "Wilds of the Isle."

SO, what do bo the rest of ya'll think of that?

Your analysis seems right on the mark to me, Wages.

Capt. William

If yer interested in Elizabethan Seadogs...I started a Yahoo Group list -

http://www.seadogges-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

- years ago, when I was active in the SCA.

It still exists, but has been inactive for a long time.

Capt. William

Yer doing a great service, Kass!

I have a hard enough time trying to get my Battle of New Orleans Baratarian cannon crew to dress for 1815, rather than for their conception of 1715 (which generally turns out to be 1775 anyway; when it isn't Johnny Depp! )

Capt. William

40 years ago in a southeast asian jungle i carried a 12 ga. remmington shotgun with a bandolier that held 50+ extra rounds of 00 buckshot and 2 -9mm browning pistols with 6 extra clips and at least 6 "baseball" fragmentation grenades and of course my 2 knives ......weapons and ammo alone were about 40-50 pounds and we covered lots of miles in an average day add to that packs with explosives and detinators another 10-15 pounds ......we did what we needed to do to survive ....

I don't doubt it, Callenish. I salute you fer yer service! But you were a soldier, going up against other soldiers: everyone armed and ready to fight to the death.

Somehow I doubt that pirates felt the need for so many small arms. If intimidation via the black flag didn't do the trick, I would think a shot fired over the prey vessel's bow would. Remember that pirates weren't - voluntarily - going up against the Royal Navy, but rather poorly armed merchants, manned by crewmen not inclined to fight it out with them.

I'm still curious as to what period documentation exists that pirates carryied multiple braces of pistols: other than the Blackbeard portrait.

Capt. William

What a cutie! Congratulations!

Capt. William

Aye, set yer controls for "the beginning", and you'll have 223 topics to contend with!

Capt. William

I read somewhere that it was common during the period for painters to embellish a subject's clothing and jewelry, at least for portraits of wealthy clients. Gotta look your best and all then some. All the fancy portraits are really over the top and not as accurate as they could be. I could see the same mentatlity bleeding over into pieces of a more common vein. A pirate looks more fearsome with four guns than just one.

Pogue

Aye to that!

I believe you can see the same idea at work in those famous posed Civil War photos of ordinary Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs, posing in the studio with sabres, Bowies, a pair of .44 revolvers, etc.

People today would take that as "period documentation" of what rank and file soldiers actually carried into battle, when in reality it's nothing but a souvenir photo of a young recruit trying to look fearsome for the folks back home.

But, I'm getting out of period here.

Capt. William

I tend to take the whole "carrying multiple pistols" idea with a large grain of salt. Police friends have told me what a blessing it is to unbuckle that single, two-pound .357 or 10-round .40 at the end of an 8-hour shift.

I believe that our conception of pirates walking around with 4 - 8 huge pistols in baldrics or sashes is based on a drawing of Blackbeard so attired. Whether he or anyone else actually did so in real life is debatable.

Anyone who wants to carry multiple heavy pistols should first try carryimg ONE around for several hours.

Capt. William

I went to Zack's lecture when he was here in New Orleans a couple of years ago: have a signed copy of the book, but haven't read it yet. Just not enough time....

I'm currently reading Remini's book about The Battle of New Orleans: The Blue and the Gray, a terrific history of the Civil War, compiled from excerpts of original documents: and Swords Around a Throne, about Napoleon's Grand Army.

Capt. William

You always make great stuff, Patrick!

Capt. William

FOOD!

Anything other than liver or lima beans!

Capt. William

I'd want a harness that kept ME IN the boat. To hell with the rod and reel!

Capt. William

We have a banana tree at the house we just moved into: haven't seen any bananas on it yet, though, it's a young tree. How old before they start bearing fruit? Anyone know?

Capt. William

No fair, Bess, no fair...

Like when the time comes to depart the office for field work and I tell my co-workers its "Time to cast off..." or I tell them to close the tailgate on the truck by saying “Secure that hatch…” I also use that term when telling them to save their work on the computer as in “secure your work and let’s shove off for lunch…”

I have yet to tell anyone to “avast” only because I’ve stopped myself.

I'm a civilian employee of the Department of the Navy. You'd fit right in at my office! We "secure" it at night: buildings have "decks" rather than floors!

Capt. William

Longbows and crossbows alike were passe before 1600. But, anything's possible.

Crossbows are sometimes used to this day by special operations groups, for silent work.

Butchers and divers still use chain mail, for that matter.

Capt. William

Beautiful stuff!

Some day I'd like to get a fighting-quality cutlass - not a fantasy piece or wallhanger, but something 1815 era, that could actually be used.

A Bowie knife, too!

Capt. William

Skull and crossed cutlasses, hands down (unintentional pun).

Capt. William

I highly recommend barrels and kegs around camp. They look great, add a real note of authenticity, can be used to store things (out-of-period, and otherwise), and make great camp chairs.

I always sit on one when we Baratarians do our vignette for the tourists.

Capt. William

Armour of any sort - save for the (ornamental anyway) gorget. and the heavy cavalrayman's cuirass - was passe by the GAOP.

And as others have pointed out: armour is heavy, restricts yer movements, is hot, would drag ye down to Davey Jones' locker if you fell overboard while wearin' it, and wouldn't provide much protection against bullets.

Capt. William

I especially like the Homeward Bound one.

Capt. William

Here's an idea: they wore the glove on their left hand in the movie because it looked cool!

I suspect you figured out the real reason!

It's always risky trying to figure out real life reasons for reel life situations.

Capt. William

This is true for earlier periods like the Elizabethan era, Capt. Jack, but by the GAOP, I doubt that there was much use of the off-hand in a sword fight: unless it contained a pistol!

Capt. William