michaelsbagley

Just a reminder, this event is rapidly approaching... It looks like it will be a good sized crowd (well over thirty by my count)... And we already have a couple of handful of auction items on hand by various generous donors (the first three donors to get their donations in, were all pubbers! Thanks guys and gals!). So please sound off if you are still coming, or thing your coming, or hope your coming, or if you found out you unfortunately can't make it. Looking forward to this one!

Happy birthday Chrispy! All the best to another year of being the teller of great rock n' roll stories, the most awesome auctioneer, and a generally great guy all around!

Hey Bambi, you're the second Civil War re-enactor o have become acquainted with in recent months making the transition to this era.... Here's the bad news... very litle is available for this era "off the rack" that meets exacting tastes. If you are flexible, there is a lot available that is close enough though. Really good items for trade or custom commission do appear in the" Thieves Market" section regularly. There are a ton of great artisans and crafters here... but as for many it is a sideline, availability can be hit or miss.

Just a bump here to point out the thread on the auction.... Also to let folks know that there is some small work going on to mix things up a little for this event. We're likely not changing much of the parts that people like, but more adding small things to expand and make the event a bit better! Last weekend Jennie G, Mark G, and I had a short talk at the ship when we visited to assist in cleaning the mud up from the recent flooding that has plagued the area. (Just so everyone knows, there was no real damage, just a mess to clean up to prevent some wood and rope from being rotted out by the dampness of the flooding). I'd also like to take this opportunity to ask if anyone has suggestions for the event? We'd love to hear what the others that make this event great (and the well wishers that haven't been able to make it) have to say! Cheers

Hey folks, just wanted to put this out there.... We will be doing another auction for the Santa Maria Pirate weekend this May 14th and 15th (and 13th for participants only). I'll post the links to the auctions when they are ready. We'll likely try and run the auctions concurrently with the event again. We have already received a few items from generous benefactors, but I am partly posting this to fish for more donations. So if you have anything you don't need or want anymor eand are feeling generous to the cause, please let us know (contact either myself, Mark G, or Kate Souris). All donations are great whether they are pirate themed, nautical themed, historical or not. We would like all items to be in our possession by the last day of April to allow us time to set up the auctions (likely on eBay again), as setting up the eBay auctions the week of the event in the past has been very hard on us, specially since we are almost always frantically trying to get a ton of last minute things for the event done that week. Anyways, here's hoping we get some more great auction items, and thanks again for all those who have donated in the past!

While it didn't come out at the event (Jolly Rogers are a later period thing, and Searle's is an early period event), we did hoist the colours as we were packing up to head home Sunday morning from St. Augustine.

I feel bad for being so late in posting this... But I got home from vacation to get slammed by work... That aside, I too want to thank Lieut. Johnson, Capt. William, Manny "Doug" Namus, Ensign Wobble, and Mr. Conrad for putting on another great event! We actually don't have any pictures to share though! (which is most odd for us)... But on the other hand I am glad the wife got out from behind the lens and had a good time playing instead. It was great to meet some new faces (specially our neighbors Greg and Maria, Greg who I have been talking to online for some time now). It was good to meet !Augustus! (that's Gus Gus to the rest of us), Mike the gunsmith (who along with the Blacksmith whose name I did not catch, hardened a frizzen on a pistol to loan out that I thought would be impossible to perform in those conditions), And as always awesome to see so many faces I missed, Diosa, Red Jessi (and to meet her boyfriend Patrick), Capt. J, Janet, Ivan Henry, Christopher, Melissa/Melvin, John and Paula (great to see them, even though they were not able to stay nearly as long as I would have liked) and so many more I know that I am forgetting. And a special thanks to DB and Anne Marie, who really went over the top making this an extra special vacation for us and spent a good part of the week with us! The Searle's Raid event continues to be one of my favourites because of all these people and so many other reasons. I can't wait to do it again next year (for my fourth year running, even though Ivan Henry convinced me I missed a year) One special request for next year.... While Conrad's cooking was indeed very good... I feel spoiled from experiencing the culinary delight of Melissa and team's work from the past two year.... Would the officer's of Searle's please pass on the message to Melvin to beg his sister to come back? Pretty please! I do really like Melvin, and enjoyed his company, but if I had to choose between the two, Melissa wins every time! Edit: I don't know how I almost forgot this (okay I was drunk when it happened), but having William Red Wake Skype in for a brief face to face chat was awesome. It really did almost feel like he was at the event for a brief time.... Kind of made me sad when I realized he actually wasn't. But all the same, thanks for taking the time to visit with us Quartermaster!

While I don't know all the intimate details of PHPBB's software (what I think the Pub uses as it's "engine"), I think users from certain domains can be blocked from registering, or perhaps even set to undergo more review before being allowed to register.... An easy solution would be to set those features on ALL ".ru" email addresses.

Neat article. Thanks for sharing! To add to Mission's tangent, of all countries Australia has the highest percentage in the world with 3% of population registered with "Jedi" as their religion.

Yeah, poor Mr. Henry is still likely too busy cleaning the drool stains off his to post the pics himself. Nice work Jim!

What about "bagged" hair? I gave seen references to that in military (I know, not sailors) manuals dating to the first decade of the 1700s.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make this one... Paynetown is on the same weekend. It's a real shame, it would have been great to back the crew on this one.

Dude... i'm on vacation in Florida.... but he ran late at the conference he was at and had to cancel on me last minute... so we are gonna meet week after next when I am back and things are slower for him.

Well I have bad news and good news... I'll deal with the bad news first..... I got a call from the organizer on my drive home from work, and we are meeting tomorrow meaning we have less time than I had hoped to discuss and brain storm ideas. We still have this evening, and I am fairly sure ideas could be added in, but please, please, please, if you have anything you want asked, or ideas to contribute, post or message me this evening. The good news is.... The skirmish is almost a lock. There are a few small details to hash out, but including a skirmish is a very likely addition this year. The good impression all those left last year has given the mayor, the local police, the event organizers, and anyone else who has a say the confidence to move forward with this idea. I still don't know what our predecessors did that caused the trepidation for us last year, but I know what we did to overcome it. A great job! The organizer and I did briefly discuss some items on the phone, in our excitement, and it sounds like many of the ideas that have been posted here, have been thought of by him as well (some ideas the same, some he had similar ideas to).... So it does seem there is a good synchronicity between those involved in this event, which is always a good thing! All that said, I will be trying to call some of you (time permitting) this evening to try and help get as many ideas as possible so I can g to the meeting tomorrow with everyone's best interests and ideas in mind. If you have a burning idea, don't want to post it or message me, please do call me (if you have my number), or message me for my number if you don't have it.

that swears... :lol: (unless you have little ones around the house)

While not a primary source, it is a great short book that has a good bibliography, "The Armies and Uniforms of Marlborough's Wars Vol 1" (and Vol 2) by CS Grant, published by Partisan Press (available from Caliver Books) has a ton of good descriptions of uniforms of this period. I just ordered these a month ago, and finally just received them today (it takes time for things to get here from the UK it seems). Volume 1 seems to be have all the info about the English (as well as the Dutch, Danish, German states, Prussians etc.) where as Volume two seems to focus more on the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. For some reason the French troops got lumped into Vol 1. Going back a few posts to Cross's question about Marine mitre hats... It seems there were many versions of the mitre hat, and Fusiliers/Marines (which seem to be synonymous during the Queen Anne period) seem to have a variety based on the unit (and country)... That said, it isn't unreasonable to say that Fusiliers seemed to be found in the shorter mitre hats more than the taller grenadier type. All that said, the Fusilier/Marine type soldier was still a rarity during this period. I think I found it written that there were only 7 (or was it 9?) fusilier/marine regiments during the period, and they were all disbanded after the War of Spanish Succession and not formed again until the (late?) 1730s. I have yet to find any evidence of Fusilier/Marine units in the colonies during the GAoP, and I have been looking pretty hard. Of course those who favour the more "could have" style of backstory, it might be reasonable for a "former marine" to have kept his uniform after the war and worn it for years after... But whatever... I don't feel comfortable scanning any of the mitre cap images and posting them as they are currently available books still in copywrite. But they are not expensive to buy them, and if you are really only interested in English, you only need volume 1 (which is about $20 + shipping, which will bring it to about $30ish)

Awesome stuff! Are you gonna share your recipes? Or is that part secret? I specially love the art of the early 19th century sailor!

Well Mission, it has been requested that we attempt to double or more or numbers from last year... Whether we get that many or not is another story, but I don't think it should be too much of a challenge considering how much more notice we have. Heck last year we had about a dozen souls, and that we scrounged up with only a few weeks short notice. Getting around 20 or more for this year should be a breeze..... Specially if The Foresaken join us (which I do hope happens). Although I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "showcasing skills on the stage". Are you suggesting we do the display we do in camp all day in a more condensed formal 3 to 5 minute deal on the stage? Or am I way off course here? It sounds like a goo idea, but I just want to be sure I fully understanmd it. Unrelated to suggestions... there is one more thing of note, we have been confirmed for the same camp area as we had last year (which I am thrillled about). For those who were not there last year who are considering this year, our camp area is about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the main strip and the park where we display during the day. While having to transport the bulk of our displays back and forth each day is a minor inconvenience, it does give all the option of getting sleep. Just so you know, the other option for our camp was IN the park across the street from the main strip, and considering the number of bars an night clubs on the main strip, sleep would likely not be much of an option if we had to try and sleep there. So I think the camping arrangement and the short walk is all for the better!

In one of the emails it was mentioned that the Niagara will not be attending this year, but they are atively searching for a replacement. Either way, boat battle suggestion will be passed on.

Well the organizer and I have been exchanging emails pretty regularly over this, and because the re-enactors that were involved last year left such a good impression (THANKS YOU ALL FOR THAT!!!), the Mayor is more open to new ideas for the festival. The first thing I suggested was a skirmish, as that is often a favourite part of events like this, for participants and spectators alike. I'm not (and can't) say this is going to happen, but the idea has been noted (by the Mayor), and there is a willingness to discuss it. That said, the organizer and I will be trying to set up a face to face in the coming weeks to hash out ideas and talk things through as email on top of being slow, is not always the ideal way for those kind of conversations. So, I am asking anyone and everyone here to let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions that you think I should take to the table? After all, this is not a "crew" event, and in the spirit of that, it should reflect all the individuals involved... Specially since it is all of us working together that will make or break this event. I would also like to hear suggestion of those who have not been able to make or can not for whaever reasons. I'd prefer the discussions stay on the form and be public, but if you are really shy about posting your ideas, don't hesitate to private message me about them. The first week or two of March was mentioned for the face to face meeting, so please share by that time!

9 feet square is more than enough for our tent. We'll be bringing a loaner tent for Red and guest, the tarp shelter takes up about 13 feet square.

Ask and you shall receive!

Mr. Mission is the LAST doctor you should trust... A patient once went to him with complaints of a headache... He pulled out a bone saw he could perfectly identify the name of... I don't want to shock anyone by mentioning some of the other tools and practices he has perfectly named to cure such things as bullet wounds (a clyster, wasn't it?).... As I sit here rereading what I am about to post, I think to myself.... Damn! I actually do learn stuff from the Surgeon's Journals!

Awesome work Wes! It's great to see his collection growing, specially since they are being made by someone in the community! I know I always favour the items made by folks I know, and I am fairly certain Mission tends to have similar views regarding that... Even if he is hearing birds sing....

So I have started a blog on my experiences on my second run through making a bodiced gown. So far I have only put the first part up, I expect it will be weeks before I complete writing this, so please be patient with the pace I am taking with this. Hope this helps someone.