michaelsbagley

As someone who used to be heavily into late Dark Age/Early Medieval re-enacting... One should use a great deal of caution when citing the Bayeaux Tapestry as a colour reference for anything other than tapestry/ebroidery colours. Several panels of the Bayeaux Tapestry show blue and green horses... I think it is safe to say that there were never blue (and by blue I mean navy blue) or green horses historically, and the various colours shown on the tapestry were to show contrasting colours and decoration and not an actual depiction of what colours were a part of the scenes depicted. There are of course other depictions of red and white striped sails being used by the Vikings though... So I'm kind of debating both sides of this evidence...

And here is the mostly complete prototype. I still need to do a more appropriate hat and finish the waistcoat (which is in the blue)... I hope to eventually replace the buttons with domed ones. I like the current buttons, they just don't have the look I was going for. I am undecided as to use dome brass or pewter, but I am leaning towards pewter. There are some other little details to finish it off, but it is definately complete enough to begin use. So what do you all think?

Got 'em sharp and had Jack grind the points off (I bought him a grinder for our anniversary a few years back and he puts it to good use dressing swords and sharpening axes.) Cool stuff.... What did it start out as? One of those 1740s style British hangers that are pretty easy to find and generally around $125 give or take? Or did it start as something else? I am very interested because I am in the final stages of putting together a Queen Anne War era Red Coat outfit, and I think that style of sword would be a great touch, and much cheaper than most of the alternatives I have been looking at.

Hey Jill, The second sword from the top... It looks as if the tip is rounded or dulled for stage fighting. Is that the case? Or is that just a quirk in the photograph? If it is a well blunted and round tipped stage steel weapon, you have to tell me where you got it!!! The third one is a Paul Chen mortuary sword, is it not? Did you get the stage version with the rounded tip? Or the sharp version?

I second Mission's suggestion of this film being a must see.... It's funny how this came up, I literally just rented it of fNetFlix three weeks ago as I thought it had been too long since I had seen it. As for Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) as Captain Blood... I think he could pull off the acting well enough, but he is a bit too gruff looking in my opinion... I really think a more "pretty-boy" look is needed to pull of an Errol Flynn portraying a Doctor turned pirate kind of role. If they go the pretty-boy route... I just hope they don't go with Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy from "Grey's Anatomy")...

Not to diminish the good informatopn Capt. Thighbiter has shared, but the Muzzle Loading Forum is an amazing place to get information on this type of thing. There are folks from all over the country that would be able to provide regional insights to help you further. Not living in New York, and not travelling there much, I haven't paid much mind to the situation there, but I seem to hear some buzz on the Muzzle Loading Forum and other 18th century re-enacting forums that New York can be a prickly state for black powder use in re-enactment. Apparently updtate New York is easier going than the areas closer to New York City though.

That's really cool news Bess. Captain Blood is one of my personal favs! What sad (to me) is that I think Orlando Bloom would make a decent replacement for Errol Flynn... But with him having three pirate movies under his belt, I'm guessing he won't make the casting list (well not any official ones anyways). Jude Law might be able to do a decent job, but I haven't seen him in any movies recently, so he might have aged while I wasn't looking.

There's no easy answer to your question.... But if you check any of the following existing threads on the pub you will see various ideas and suggestions.... Getting Tentage ready for PiP GAoP Encampment A Seaman's Camp The Mercury, 1720 Careening Camp Creating the 1720 Late GAoP careening camp Period Camping And here is a pic of what I am using.... With a link to the incomplete set of instructions I wrote on making it.... Patrick Hand wrote something similar, but completed his, and did it better. My INCOMPLETE instructions for making a Tarp/Sail Tent

Welcome to the pub Afira! So far you're only likely to find about 5 or 6 people that were at the Santa Maria thing this past weekend at the pub, althugh it is conceivable that Mark, Jennie, Thomas or some of the others may join us here eventually.

Damn woman... I have in the last 24 hours spelled your name "Ophera" and "Ephera", just figures I couldn't get it right. It was a pleasure having you and Grizz along and I can;t wait to see you guys again. Don't worry about the garb, it comes with time.

Mark posted this on the Scioto PIrates discussion forum.... It was written last week about our first demo that we did back in July... An article about the Demo back in July 2008

Just wanted to give a big thanks to all of those who came out for this event yesterday! Thank you Mission for coming down with your awesome array of medical tools and knowledge! And for dragging the gibbetted Bucky with you! Thanks to Perkeo and friends for coming in and helping out with the battles. Thanks to Lady Seahawk for dropping by and helping with the photography and banter during the battle. Here is a link to Jessica and my photos from yesterday, Perkeo should be posting some more within the next few days along with some video footage that was taken. A great time was had by all, and it was one of the busiest days I have seen at the Santa Maria despite having to work against a great deal of the city being without power for most of the week leading up to the event.

It will be good to meet you too Perkeo.... I have to ask, because it seems I am getting behind on my acronym speak again (I'm REALLY bad with acronyms), but what the heck does "ITLAPD" translate to? Anyone? Edit: I finally got it... ITLAPD = Interntaional Talk Like A Pirate Day .... Duh, It's a good thing I'm pretty....

Inside pockets are a modern convention (as far as I know)... As for the outside pockets, from what I have read, there were both false or decorative pockets, and real functional pockets.

There are still a few I am working on talking into coming down with us... So we might be able to beat that "93" number... By the way, what was last years count?

Bump... Okay, to catch things up here... Most who are interested have been following over on the tavern, but in case there are any that were/are interested that didn't poke their noses in the tavern.. This demo is on for this Saturday. Participation is open to all, historical clothing (GAoP era) is preferred, but more entertainer pirate gear is welcome as long as you can be thick skinned about it when you are cited as an example of what pirates most likely did not look like. That said, we have the ship and a small rowboat to have a small naval battle between, lots of deck space for any other historical demos anyone is willing or able to do. Participants who would like to, are welcome to camp over night on the ship (please bring your own sleeping bag/pillow (or whatever compact sleeping utensils you prefer). Smoking is absolutely forbidden on the ship, you will have to leave the ship in order to enjoy your tobacco (be it period pipe or modern rolled paper), drinking is absolutely not allowed during showtime hours (noon to 6:00 PM), and alcohol is only allowed o be consumed on the ship after hours (meaning don't bring your drink off ship into the surrounding park). If you need to smoke and drink at the same time, either clone yourself, or use the gangplank (we're not joking) We might be getting some local media attention, so if you are camera shy, please let us knnow in advance so we can work to help you preserve your privacy. Please do not wait until you have been captured in film or video to notify us about being camera shy, by then it will be too late. If I can think of anything else, I'll post more, if anyone has any questions, please post here, or private message or email me if you prefer.

Might you be able to trade the Tues. to Thurs for the Fri. Sat. Sun.? Heck forget the Friday even, you could drive here after work... and depending on your work hours, you might even be able to get home before work on Sunday.... Saturday is the one that really counts (depending on your work schedule and tavel time). I really doubt we will be able to extend the pirate demo beyond the Saturday, but the ship's staff seem to be pirate friendly, so an unofficial visit on Friday (without arms) might go off okay. Being Sept. the tourist season (not that Columbus really has one) wouldn't be much of a factor. Honestly, if we were going to try and do anything Friday, the most effective use of time would likely be just bombing around the city handing out flyers or something to draw attention to the Saturday demo.

Okay, finally got the official word... We are good to go for a demo on the Santa Maria on Saturday September the 20th. The demo will go from noon until about 6:00 PM. Last time we were allowed to use the ship's stove to cook our dinner on after close, although I haven't heard anything to this effect, I am guessing we will be doing this again. Now here is the cool part. We get to "camp" the night on the ship for those inclined to. For those who would rather stay in a more comfortable setting, Jessica and I could put up a few people if there is anyone who wants to come who would like a place to stay. Another change, is it sounds like they will be allowing us the use of the small boat (holds 4? people) to conduct a fire fight from the ship to the boat... I think those are the biggest details for now, if I can think of anything else, I'll post again. If anyone has any questions, concerns or constructive ideas, I'd love to hear them. Please also do let me know if you are thinking of coming down and if there is anything reasonable I can do in order to help you get here. Cheers

Good summary M.A. d'Dogge... Considering your options Bo, take the classical/sports fencing at the university (because I am guessing stage fighting won't be an option, but if it is choose that!). If they have choices as to which of the three styles mentioned in my last post, choose "foil". I found that foil fencing focusses on tip and blade control the most out of the three sport styles, while foil does also teach sneaky attacks, the stress on point control adds a lot of safety that offsets the sneakiness in my opinion. Out of the three sport styles, sabre (which is probably the most historically appropriate for pirates) happens to be the "wildest" of the sport styles and would most likely lend itself to habits that are not particularly good for re-enactment or stage fighting.

Personally, while a movie that was fairly true to the events it was supposed to be depicting would be great... I would be happy with a highly dramatized version of the story as long as the film makers got the visual elements correct. Things like pirates/sailors wearing shoes instead of boots, short coats instead of frocks/justacorps... things like that. I think a lot more myths about pirates could be extinguished from an accurate depiction of them set to an embelished story rather than a true(ish) story with typical Hollywood costuming.

Hey Bo, I studied sports/classical fencing for quite a few years... There are three sorts of sports/classical fencing. 1. Foil - poking attacks only, target areas are torso only. Head, arms and legs are off target. 2. Epee - poking attacks only, whole body is valid target (from tip of toes to top of head). 3. Sabre - Slashing attacks, anything above waist is valid target. Odds are your university will have one or more of the above styles available. Then you get into a lot of gray areas. Various fencing styles that can generally be lumped into modern attempts to replicate rapier fencing. The SCA has a pretty good system for this. There are lots of other variants, most I have seen are somewhat similar, but there is a wide range of styles and rulesets for "rapier" and there are no "official" or "sport" standards. These styles tend to be better for re-enactment and stage combat. I usually advise the SCA for fencing, as the SCA is the closest thing to a national standard... But then you are in Missouri... And for some strange reason, the SCA groups in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Northern Arkansas are the ONLY SCA groups that don't do the rapier combat... Which really sucks. Hope this has helped, feel free to ask more. I'm sure M.A. d'Dogge will pipe up as well, from talking to him on the trip to and from North Carolina, he seems to know as much as I do, if not more....

I think he is using a walker that squirts fake blood and gore and stuff these days.

Did I mention the tickets were won... So the concert is like... free!