michaelsbagley

Yeah, count me in too.

I will try and post pics later, but my interpretation of this is basically a vented sleeve on my doublet style coat. Last year at Searle's raid (and maybe the year before as well) I did wear my slitted arm green doublet, and when I got too warm I put my arms through the vents to cool off and it looked similar to that.

What are the actual dates. I have one more War of 1812 obligation this season (and I think it is on the same weekend)... But if they are different weekends, I would definitely consider it. Regarding the woods walk shoot. Do they have different categories for smooth-bore and rifle? Or would smoothbores be competing against rifles (hardly fair)... I have both, so can compete either way (as long as it isn;t the same weekend as the Muster on the Wabash event).

I would second the recommendation from McCool, for fiction with a pretty decent historical flair, I really enjoyed the James L Nelson series "The Guardship", "The Blackbirder", and "The Pirate Round". Almost any of the three could be read independently as a standalone(except for maybe the last one), but they are best as a series.

Love it. Oderless hit the nail on the head when he called it minimalist. That belt/rig epitomizes the best in "less is more" working gear. Well done Dutch

Cool, it's great to hear that there is a shift in things and thoughts to make things better, even if you can't share those until the event (meaning I don't get to find out about them until after )... And I'm with Mission, the pogs were great! We need more pogs! More so than even cowbell!

I guess the punctuation here is stressing "in the battle". Most of us can blow off some powder at any opportunity. But being in a dynamic battle makes blowing dome powder off infinitely more interesting. Being offered the chance for a sunset salute isn't much consolation for being marginalized in the battle. And I thing the Sunday wide flank was a great first step, and I hope more ideas like that will be forthcoming. And I do appreciate the thoughts and openness to suggestion and constructive critique this whole event is done with. But i feel it fair to point out the small arms folks get the really raw end.. any casualties (which were cried for by the audience, and repeated in the Sunday battle planning) have to come from small arms, as it is unsafe for artillery to take casualties (diminishing a firing crew), the pace and flow of the battle is dictated by artillery (again safety reasons), the previous two factors pretty much all but keep small arms out of the sword fighting (but not necessarily so). What can be done to throw the small arms folks some incentive for the battles?

I don't like raising points like this, specially on game year I am not attending... Haunting Lily, you raise a good point about the battle being changed rocking the boat of the artilerists who at often significant personal expense travelled with their canons to the event.... but in that same breath, what about those with small arms who travel equally far? I really felt last year the small arms folks were heavily marginalized in the canon battles. I did raise the issue at a battle meeting, and a small concession was made and attempted (to reasonable success), but that only changed it so that a small percentage of the small arms folks got to be involved in a dynamic way (4 of us out of the 20 something small arms participants). Not sure if there is a solution to that at the moment or not with the current constraints, but it might be worth keeping in mind for future years.

Answers already covered... stupid phone didn't display them when I typed the response... please ignore

Weekend late in June, Put-In-Bay pirate festival

I'm considering it.... I'm still on the fence about it though. I will definitely make a firm decision when the time comes.

Possible.... well maybe. Likely, not very. Rifles were a rare and valuable item in their early years. And rifles barrels are more susceptible to rust than smooth bores. Rifles really did not start to become common in the colonies until after the GAoP. And they were first popularized as a hunting tool, not a weapon, and ship records would likely have noted such an uncommon item being on board.

I both agree and disagree with you here William. Last year while there, I found that there were far too many people at the meetings, and there was a lot of chatter going on, and half the message of the meetings were lost. I do believe folks need to attend and pay attention to the meetings, but I think fewer should go. However... I also don't see that happening, as I think the odds of the message not getting relayed is too high, nor do I envision a willingness for folks to not attend and make a modest effort to get the information after. Kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Worst part was those I felt needed to listen the most were not...

The NPS training and certification is definitely good for general handling and demonstrating firing. It is probably some of the best you can get with regards to that, however if battle re-enactment is what you are interested, I would suggest one of the State systems... Although you would want to do a bit of research on which states have decent training for such a thing. Or better yet, train with one of the bigger Rev-War or F&IW societies, they will train you in shoulder to shoulder firing, but it is easy to adapt that to more open formation use. Another good source for general black powder training would be the NMLRA (National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association), they are basically the NRA for black powder. Membership is about $40 a year. Speaking more on topic and in general, I would advocate more for the open adaptation of one of the big established societies rules for open pirate combat rather than building up something new (why reinvent the wheel, when you can take the training wheels off and use tried and true methods?). Considering how "proprietary" some of the regional or smaller groups can get, I would be very reluctant to "buy into" a local ruleset trying to go national.... Let's "pirate" a national rulset and adapt it as an open source project rather than start with someone's "branded" rules.

What group in Ohio? I wasn't aware of a pirate group in Ohio? Specially one that uses caplocks! NPS training won't help you for visiting other sites.... Well it is a big name, and people who don't know better might be impressed by it. But those who are in the "know", know that NPS rules STRICTLY forbids "Opposed firing" of any sort. which means the mock battles most events do are completely outside of NPS rules and hence having an NPS certification won't help you out. Don;t mean to knock your idea, just trying to ensure you know what you are getting out of your time and/or money spent on NPS training.

I don't want to stir the pot on this, but has it not been that flashguards have been in the rules for this event for years? And not very strictly enforced? Or at least judging from the weapons I have seen on the field.

To add to Foxe's comments.... I have been volunteering on the Santa Maria for 5 years now, and regularly climb (low) in the rigging. I've done it in shoes many times, and barefoot... ONCE... Never again. I disagree with this... Strongly. Canvas is more readily available and cheaper than leather even in period, specially for sailors. Gaiters are starting to become commonplace by the 1690s, and likely earlier than that. Why wear expensive boots when even Dragoons (light cavalry) wear shoes and gaiters in the period? If you do any research on the military of the period (which I have done a lot of), you will find that pretty much only TRUE cavalry (as in heavy cavalry) wear boots. I know the 1699 Rene Desportes (sp?) painting show gaiters for the guy on a hunting trip. He's a gentleman who could likely afford boots and CHOSE shoes and gaiters over boots. Historical evidence, critical analysis, and common logic all dictate (at this point) boots are an affectation of ego/pride in pirate re-creationists and have no real basis in history.

Although I recently swore to take a 6 to 8 month break from pirate events.... recent changes in my constantly fluctuating life put short odds of my being able to attend this year. I'll know better by early October, but for now please list me as very tentative. (With the Mercury Crew)

Nice... looks like it also may be a turn off barrel. Is it? Will you be reproducing it as such if it is?

As one last plug for this event... How often do we as re-enactors get to actually engage in piracy as a part of an event. Picture curtesy of M.A. d'Dogge...

I don't have the citation handy... but I think I posted it here in this topic some ways back. The citation was a report that some island militia (I think Bermuda? Maybe Bahamas?) were dressing in all red to emulate proper soldiers. The tone of the report made me believe it was an u common thing, so going from that one peice of evidence militias were likely nit very uniform.

It is also worth mentioning that for the third year running, one of the re-enactors won the grand prize in the costume contest (trip for two to the Caymans), and this year it was Tiger Billie! A huge congrats to Billie on that. Taking third place was another of our lot, Shannon! (I think it is a 5 day all expense trip to Put-In-Bay, which is by no means a cheap trip)! I believe Shannon took second last year (the year Cheeky one first place). Let's hope this trend keeps up! A bunch of more deserving prize winners there could not be! But the suggestion for expanding the boat battle Friday is most appreciated.... and I think it will likely be a welcome suggestion by both the owners of the boats and the festival organizers! That battle was a ton of fun. For those interested, we have been asked to try increase our numbers again for next year... I would love to see upwards of fourty re-enactors out for this, and with our recent success on the Santa Maria, I know that to be a realistic goal. The festival organizer has made a tentative meeting with me for this autumn, and I would guess we will meet again in the spring to talk things through as well. I can see next year being a big expansion year for this one. Just as an aside, I have always focused on the re-ensactment angle of this festival in my posts... and why wouldn't I? That is what I am most interested in... But this festival is really for anything and everything pirate related! The re-enactment encampment I mostly organize is only a small corner of the greater festival.

I would rate this event as one of the most enjoyable I have been to in a very long time. Everyone seemed to have an awesome time (kind of hard not to, when just about everyone was blind drunk when we were not demo-ing in the park). Pictures are abounding around Facebook, but I managed to edit down some of the video footage I got into this fun little clip... http://youtu.be/EjclVmHEpqk I'm already starting to plan and plot ideas for this one for next year....

Not sure if this has been posted or discussed here before, but saw it come up on another forum and figured there would be interest here... Museum of London http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/Collections-online/object.aspx?objectID=object-83031&rows=1&start=2&sort=summaryTitle%20asc