Misson

Some random thoughts... I get the impression from my reading that the sailor had only a few suits of clothes. Edward Barlow does mention having more than one in his trunk at one point, though. (However, he lost his trunk at least twice so far - once when captured by the Dutch and a second time when it was staved in and thrown overboard for reasons I don't recall. There may have been other times, but I haven't really been focusing on that.) As for tropical clothing...I have the idea that the British may have valued form over function. Besides, if a man didn't want to wear his waistcoat because it was long and hot, would he spend what little he had to get a shorter one made or would he just not wear it at all? Actually, he might sell his clothing when on shore - Barlow mentions this practice at least twice. I haven't got the quote handy, but he talks about a ship's purser bringing clothing with him on a voyage specifically so that he could give it to the men mid-voyage in lieu of their future pay at rather exorbitant rates. The men would then take it on shore and turn around and sell it so they could buy drink. I only recently read it and it went something like: the clothing cost 6-7 shillings (I think it was shillings) in England, the purser sold it for 8-10 shillings and the men could only get 4-5 shillings on shore. On the topic of tropical clothing, I have an interesting quote in my notes from John Keevil's book Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume II – 1640-1714: “Unfortunately the planning committee made no recommendations regarding tropical clothing, the customary seaman’s slops being supplied by the clothiers. Only when, on December 11, 1655, the Navy Commissioners had their attention drawn to the matter was a rig suited to a hot climate advocated… They could not, however, undo all the harm which had long since resulted from the oversights of the planning committee, among which was a complete failure to deal with the clothing of the soldiers. The known association between the ragged and dirty clothing of newly pressed soldiers and typhus, together with Cromwell’s recognition of their endangering the health of ships’ companies, makes this omission so inexplicable that it appears more probable the recommendation was made but could not be acted upon.” (Keevil, p. 57-8) (None of which helps you on the question of a short vest. Ask Michael Bagley - he knows an awful lot about this.)

Nice description of the four humoural types. (Ever notice how personality types are nearly always grouped in fours? I believe that started with the four humoural types.) I have yet to read a really good book on the Galenic humoural theory and blood-letting. (Although this page is a pretty good one on the topic. it contains good info on the instruments that were used instead of leeches during period.) I figure to put a whole chapter on the subject of blood letting in my tome since it was considered the solution to damn near every health problem. I'd really like to find a good modern book on the topic, but I'd also sort of like to lay my hands on Nicholas Culpepper's Two treatises, the first of blood-letting and the diseases to be cured thereby, the second of cupping and scarifying, and the diseases to be cured thereby. (Although it's probably full of f's for s's and impossible spellings.) Culpepper wrote a notable book on healing herbs that I have managed to get (and not read). BTW, leech jars are very popular collectibles. They seem to fetch pretty decent prices on eBay.

You got to fly a real war-era plane? Cool! For some reason I thought you were flying your plane. How did it compare to newer planes? How different were the controls from modern planes? Have you ever flown an F4U Corsair? (I love Baa Baa Black Sheep.)

Ah, Nick and Nora. Anyone who thinks b/w films are too old to be worth watching really must see some of the Thin Man movies. The sequel films are of the same caliber as the one taken from Hammett's novel. Although if I remember it rightly, the novel is a little less whimsical than the films were. As I said, it's been awhile. As for music, I don't tend to prefer songs. I prefer instrumental music. My iPod is probably about half recorded lectures of one form or another, 30 or 40 percent instrumental music and the balance consists of songs. So I am not even much for the poetic side of music. Still self-analyzing; perhaps I will discover why.

Interesting jewelry those allied pilots wore. Did you have to make your plane look period?

Never let it be said I didn't do the least I could do.

Yet another: "[1687] And at eight at night we were abreast of Dungeness Lighthouse; and having then a fresh gale at north, we steered away west-south-west and sometimes 'lasked' [Footnote 1: 'Lasked' may be best defined by the modern term 'reached'] to the southward; and the next day at eleven of the clock we made land upon the coast of France..." (Barlow, p. 387) While looking for a web page to give me more details on that lighthouse, I came across this page which those looking for info on lighthouses may find interesting: http://www.lanternroom.com/lighthouses/nlharsel.htm It seems quite extensive. Check out the Arizona lighthouse in particular!

Actually, I paint, draw, design, write (prose) monthly columns on success concepts, give trainings (including one on creativity) and even sculpt. For proof of my creative ventures, feel free to check out my website for some of the crap (and some of it really is crap) that I've made. (Although the life-sized velociraptor is one of my favorite projects.) [Daffy Duck]So there.[/Daffy Duck] And I drink tasteless red wines, single malt scotch and (lately) interesting rums straight. (Be careful what you promise, I remember such promises. Come to PiP sir!) As for the poem - credit to you for having it rhyme. What do you think of poems that don't rhyme? (Although I have a particular dislike of them, the last one I wrote didn't rhyme at all. Ah, but we are complex creatures. Since getting into this discussion, I have been wondering why I have never liked poetry, but the only reason I can come up with other than the reason offered previously is poetry's decided bent towards sentimentality - which I usually try to eschew. Doesn't seem enough, does it? Perhaps there is some deep dark psychological reason which I have yet to uncover. Probably not though. I think it may be that poetry is (in my view) intrinsically impractical. While I like creating things, I like creating practical things. Like life-sized velociraptors.) And I have read Hammett's Matlese Falcon and The Thin Man, although it has been a long time. In fact, The Thin Man is a favorite movies series of mine.

http://pyracy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10017 See the last post (well, that may change over time - the fifth post.)

Ah, so he is writing it. It didn't specifically say, so I assumed he was just proofing it. Sorry about that, then. (You can just figure me to be an opinionated philistine when it comes to poetry, if you like. I've made similar noises in other threads around here when the topic came up.)

Well, it wasn't meant as a specific insult to you or anyone else. If you wrote the book, I apologize to you viz. any potential insult you find to your person. I have actually written the stuff and I know it is hard work. However, I've never found it to be worth all the work. Your experience may vary. I have dropped two classes specifically because they focused on poetry. Poetry intentionally disguises its meaning which seems counter-purpose to me. Thus I find it inane and foolish as a medium. The only poem I have ever found that I enjoyed was The Raven and it mostly because Poe consistently rhymes within rhymes and I thought that pretty clever (and recognized how much work it must have been.)

How did getting out of the bay go? (As I recall our trip, it gets pretty choppy. In fact, I was just thinking about our trip when I posted that thing in Twill about all the men going to one side of the boat causing it to tip over. )

After having read a couple surgical books, particularly James Yonge's Journal, I was surprised at how popular poetry was around this time. Yonge mentions several esteemed people, including his father if I recall correctly, writing poems. (I suppose it surprises me that he mentions poetry as much as he does because it has always struck me as such a fatuous medium and surgery such a pragmatic one.)

Edward Barlow's Journal just contains so many interesting accounts of things going on during period. “[1680] And a little before we came [to Jamaica], there happened a great loss and accident: a good ship of near 400 tons, having delivered all her goods ashore, and had taken about thirty hogs of sugar and some log-wood, being hauled off the quay and ‘rid’ at her moorings, she, being a little top-heavy, would not bear herself very well; and all the men running over on one side to do some work, she was fallen over and overset and sunk down to Rights, and about ten or a dozen men ‘drownded’, and all the sugar lost. She was sunk in nine fathoms water, yet there being several good divers, with great cost and trouble, she not being laden, she was weighed again and recovered, being new fitted and prepared again, having had no harm but only the cost and loss of the men’s lives and goods, which was one thousand pounds damage to the owners of the ship and merchants. And had it been in many places, the ship and all had been lost, but the harbour being a fine smooth clear harbour, they, with much trouble, did save the ship.” (Barlow, p. 331-2)

And another one - "[1681]...and then we began to look out for land, and sounding again had sixty fathoms, and by the 'osey' ground we were in the latitude of the Island of Scilly or to the northward of it; so we steered easy by south and E.S.E, intending to steer so till ten of the clock at night; and at seven we espied the lighthouse, which is placed upon the island [of St. Agnes in the Isles of Scilly], and at twelve of the clock the light bore north from us, and the wind veering to the north-west, we steered easy by north; and in the morning we were in sight of England." (Barlow, p. 349)

Here's an interesting quote from Woodes Rogers book about the Spanish attitude toward syphilis in the New World: “[1709, the city of Guiaquil] Few of those prisoners that fell into our hands were healthy and sound; near half of our Spaniards discover’d publickly to our Coders their Malady, in order to get Physick from them against the French Disease, which is so common here, that they reckon it not Scandal to be deep in the Powdering Tub [a sweating-tub used for treating venereal disease]; and the Heat of the Country facilitating the Cure, they make wry light of it.” (Rogers, p. 111)

Buccaneers were noted for their appetite for meat. I have come across several period accounts of sailors poaching local beef when they spotted it. (Particularly Spanish beef.) However, I am very curious what "surloin" meant during period. Barlow repeatedly speaks very disparagingly of it in his journal. For example, one entry on the sailor's Christmas fare (Barlow has complained four or five times about the fare at Christmas during various years so far): "[1668, Yarmouth Frigate] So it being December, we kept our Christmas Day there [‘Ligorne’ Road], but we wanted such Christmas cheer as many a one had in England, for we had nothing to our Christmas dinner but a bit of old rusty salt beef, which had lain in pickle eighteen or twenty months, and a piece of it for three men, about three-quarters of a pound, which was picked out of all the rest, for the officers having the first choice always, nothing was left for the poor men but the surloin next to the horns [Emphasis mine], and they have Hobson’s choice [‘that or noe’]; and if they do but speak against it, then they are in danger of being drubbed or beaten with twenty or thirty blows on the back, and a poor man dare not speak for that which is his right, for the captain and purser and other officers, having the best of all things, a poor man is not to be heard amongst them, but he must be content to take what they will give him, they many times putting that into their pockets which is a poor man’s due.” (Barlow, p. 161-2) I asked a friend who raises beef cattle about this and she said she had never heard anything like that before. According to her, sirloin is one of the better cuts of meat and it is nowhere near the horns. So I remain puzzled about this one as he uses the term several times in this way. It may be that the whole cow was referred to as surloin. Or it may be that Barlow just referred to it that way. Or maybe none of those things. Color me curious.

Serpent in Paradise by Dea Birkett. It's about the experiences of a woman who stayed on Pitcairn Island in the early 1990s. A friend really wanted me to read this, so I'm taking a short break from period medical stuff. It's pretty light reading, although it gave me an idea for a success article which I may or may not use. It also provided a notion about why the marooned Andrew Selkirk was so agile when chasing goats on Juan Fernandez Island and why he couldn't comfortably wear shoes for quite awhile after Woodes Roger's ships picked him up. However, things related to period medicine wait impatiently in the wings. Yesterday I picked up two books I ordered from the library, Barlow's Journal of his life at sea in king's ships, East & West Indiamen & other merchantmen from 1659 to 1703, Volume 2 by Edward Barlow and Viruses, Plagues, and History by Michael Oldstone. I plan to skim the latter for the period-relevant parts. I think I saw it in one of Briarrose Kildare's posts and, after skimming the table of contents at Amazon, decided it would be worth a look. A lot of it is outside of period, but a couple chapters look like they may contain useful info on some of the deadly period fevers and dysentery.

You'd have never found this thread, though. I knew it was in Beyond (and you have to use the search function within the specific forum you're searching - which kinda' sucks for this sort of thing) and I also knew it was called "Where the Magic...something." So I was able to find it thanks to those otherwise useless braincells storing that info. So no worries! I was just giving you a hand.

I'm not meaning to cast aspersions on this fine thread idea, but it has been brought up before in the Beyond forum. You may like to check out this thread.

I can see you and I are, to use a term in keeping with this thread, diametrically opposed in this respect. I got into reenacting to have personal experiences. And have I had some doozies! Well, I like having adventures too, but my primary interest is learning things. And it's through stories that you learn things (and find yourself being massively entertained most of the time.) Plus I have this aching need to write and stories are amongst the best things you can write about. As for your stories...well I've mentioned to you before that there are three people I'd decided I wanted to meet in my first month on this forum. Yet, I've not met a singled damned one of you! I would very much like to hear your stories. I would like to put bits and pieces of them into a Surgeon's Tale. I would like to take you up on that single malt scotch you promised me long ago. ________ "I would like... I would like? I would like a trip to Europe!"

But we will not be naming any offspring after Mr. D'Ogge!!! Name 'em Jack. (Espeially if it's a girl. A girl named Jack would be so cool.) ______________ "And the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk wasn't after no wabbit, was he?" "Well, I guess that is correct..." "He was after Jack. And he's Jack." "It's a lie! My name is....Aloisius. He's Jack! Jack Rabbit!" "No. You are Jack and you know it because it is a fact." "I am not! He's Jack!"

From my experience, tooth extractors tend to go for $60 - $150. The fact that this already has a bid although it appears to have just been posted suggests it will go for over $100 from what I've seen. Tooth extractors actually quite popular for some reason. And that one is now going for $202.50. That is the highest I've seen a tooth extractor go for on eBay, although I've only watched a few because they often fetch such high prices. Still, I appreciate the link! On another note, the mechanical pencil wasn't invented until 1822, long after period. (Being an engineer, these things interest me. )

Well, they were allowed on board as nurses and laundresses until the BRN decided that was a bad plan. “In 1703 nurses and laundresses were assigned to the British fleet and paid at the same rate as seamen. Recruited from seaport towns, these women often were the wives of sailors. However, women aboard the vessels caused discipline problems and were the source of much discontent and friction among the crew. Later they were replaced with male nurses, the reason for the policy change given by the navy being the predilection of the women for drink.” (Zachary B. Friedenberg, Medicine Under Sail, p. 25)

We couldn't yet drink beer when I used to play. I had this guy who played the perfect character. I couldn't kill that SOB Paladin off - he had an item or potion or some counter for every possible tragedy. I finally figured out a way to amputate his arm and when he re-grew it, discovered it had been cursed resulting in a skeletal arm which dramatically lowered his Charisma. (Do they still have Charisma as a primary character trait?) He got it cured once they left the boundaries of the castle, however.