Misson

I actually stopped driving much outside of need when it hit $3 a gallon. (Mostly because I was annoyed that it had hit $3 a gallon. Just for that, you can't have my money. Nya!) Since I didn't start going to events until this year, it has had no impact on my driving habits with regard to events. (And I am damned lucky to have made the airline reservations to PiP when gas was still near $3 a gallon. They slipped that baggage charge in on me, though... BTW, if we have to, I say we create a fund to get the Quartermaster to PiP...I'd sure miss him.) In the long run, I suspect this is what's going to actually create better vehicles - in one form or another. America is such that until it hurts, we don't do much about things. (Well, humanity is sort of like that - we're quite reactionary.) Once the suffering starts, however, we get to work. And the solution doesn't usually come from the gov. (The gov repeatedly proves itself to be dammed useless at doing anything but underhandedly costing us money while explaining how much it's doing to ease our burden - on handbills that we indirectly pay for the printing of!) No, fixing problems is usually the purvue of the rabble - entrepreneurs essentially exist to solve problems like this. (Here's some really bizarre proof: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/envi...cle4133668.ece) I have a feeling something is going to change dramatically in the next couple of years. It takes a breaking point like this to produce such.

This is also in Atkins' A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies. He is talking about his visit to Port Royal in 1722. "Port-Royal has suffered remarkably every ten years, for the thirty past. In 1692, an Earthquake sunk above half the Town; the Rubbish of those Building being still seen under Water, in the shallow Channel that now continues to divide it from the Main. In 1702, it was burnt down. In 1712, August 28th, happened a dreadful Hurricane. And now, August 28th, 1722, a more dreadful one, that besides the Damage it Spread over most parts of the Island did here in particular split the Castle, lay the Church and two hundred People in the Ruins;..."

I found this in Atkins' A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies. He is talking about his visit to Port Royal in 1722: "Bitts of 7 d 1/2 [This is in reference to the prices, which are in units of Bitts.] Dinner - 5 A Bottle of Small-Beer - x A Bottle of Ale - 4 Coffee per Dish - 1 A Quart of Rum Punch - 4 Lodgings per Night - 8 Ordinaries are filled with a Mixture of Land and Seafaring People, who have three or four sorts of Cookery at Dinner, and each a Pint of Madeira, with a Desart of Guavas, and other insipid or ill-tasted Fruit. One of our Dishes is frequently Turtle, much esteemed in this part of the World, and are supplied to the Market here by Sloops, and sold at a Bitt a Pound, like other Flesh; now also increased to a tolerable Plenty, by the Planters having set apart Servants, Pens, and Pasture-Grounds, for rearing up all kinds of Domestick Animals, in which of late Years they have found their account; our Ships Companies being victualled here twice a Week with Fresh Beef, during a stay of 6 Months; and an Hospital on shore provided with lighter Food. Bartering is the easiest way of Living on shore; or rather, no Man can live long without it: Madeira Wines, refined Sugars, Linnens, and Necessaries of almost all kinds, selling from 100 l. to 150 per Cent. Advance. Their Rum to you, 3 Bitts per Gallon; Sugars, from 4 to 7 Dollars a hundred, both superior to Barbados. Other Commodities are Ginger, Piemento, Cocoa, Indigo, Cotton, Tortoise-shell, Dyers Wood, Cedar, Mohogany and Machineel-woods, and allow 35 per Cent. Advance on Money." (Atkins, p. 243-4)

I thought Temple of Doom was unnecessarily dark overall. Indy is supposed to be an homage of the 40s serials, so it should have been bright and fun and hokey like the first and third ones. Instead most of the sets were dark and gloomy, the slavery of the kids was depressing, the cult and voodoo aspects weighed things down, etc. (Lucas actually has said it's because he was going through a divorce when he conceived it.) The other problem with it was the whole set up - plane crash, improbable boat sledding and then going in search of a stone that does...what? It's never made clear what use the stone is to the village other than the fact that Mola Ram uses the lot of them together for some vague evil plan. Plus Willie was so annoying that you almost wished she would get eaten by the bugs. If that were possible. (I sort of liked Short Round, though.) On another note, I saw a comment on the new one that I thought made a good point. After the first half of the film, Indy doesn't really solve any problems or put together the pieces of the puzzle (other than finding the entrance into the temple or whatever it is), he just sort of follows the path that events lead him on. Still, it's not a horrible movie, it's just not as good as 1 and 3 IMO.

Ooh, ahh...for all your period surgeon buffs, I stumbled across an ad for this in the back of the book A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil and the West Indies by John Atkins. (The reprint book reprinted all the advertisements!): Prosodia chirurgica: being a lexicon calculated for the use of young students in surgery. Wherein all the terms of art are accounted for, their most received sense given; ... their pronunciation, Published London : printed for T. Corbett, 1729 And, unlike most of these period surgical monsters, I found it free on-line! Check out this Google Books Link!

I have read that it was estimated to be lower than that in the late 17th/early 18th, although as I mentioned there weren't really consistent records (journals) until 1703 and those that survive are sort of vague from what few I've seen copies of. Although they were pretty good about noting deaths. (It seems to me I read that a lot of the journals from the early/mid 18th were not kept or were lost...) There was also a decided dislike on the part of many surgeons for tying ligatures (silk ties) to close severed arteries and the lack of interest in the "flap method" of leaving an extra flap of skin so it could be sewn over the stump. Both had been discovered by the 17th century (the flap method is from the 16th), but neither was widely used during GAoP according to Keevil.

Yeah, but if enough people ask, the retail store will ask the distributor about it. That's how pull marketing works. Ask at a couple of stores if you feel brave. Me, I liked the Key Lime straight. I don't quite see how it's proper rum, but what do I know? I hold forth on the topic on this page in my surgeon's journal for Hampton.

a LIVING HISTORIAN...staying in a HOTEL......??? ok...i got nuthin to say on that one. That's ok - I wouldn't listen anywise. (You enjoy events your way and I'll enjoy them mine.)

Actually, that brings up my concern about traveling with Mad Dogge. (I actually live in Monroe which is so backwater it's beyond Downriver, so that's not my concern. ) It's that I want to stay at a hotel and that means I need to have access to a vehicle. Plus I just have this annoying need for autonomy.) Since I'm not bringing camping gear, I travel pretty light, but MDs stuff wouldn't fit in the Avalanche with your stuff, Michael. From his description of going to events, he packs his vehicle to the gills...and gets stopped by police because there's sometimes a cannon poking out of the back at the car behind him. The only way I'd probably want to ride in someone's vehicle is if they were willing to give me the keys during the event. As Michael knows, I could give a flip who actually drives, even if it's my vehicle.

Nope, don't recall it. I do remember that when they are departing (complete with falling ribbons and such) and Bugs is waving and hollering (probably "Bon-Voy-a-gee!") he is waved off by a mouse on the dock. The mouse says, in what I recall as a thick brogue, "He's not long for this world." It's on the Golden Disc Collection, V. 1, Disc 3 which I don't freaking have. I really need to get all of those just so's I can pluck images and soundtracks offa' 'em. Michael, I seriously do have a travel plan that I want to pursue and have fall completely apart on me before I commit to a carpool.

Ah, a recipe for Manatee (or, as he calls them, Manatea) from Atkins: "...they (the people of Signor Joseph, a 'Christian Negro' who lived in Sierra Leone) brought one [a Manatee] ashore in two hours time, and we had stewed, roast, and boiled, with a clean Table-cloth, Knives and Fork, and Variety of Wines and strong Beer, for our Entertainment. The Flesh of this Creature was white, and not fishy; but very tough, and seasoned high (as are all their Dishes) with Ochre, Malaguetta, and Bell-Pepper." (Atkins, p. 55)

I so tried to find a pic on-line of the cartoon Mutiny on the Bunny where Yosemite Sam was conning Bugs into taking a "Free" ocean voyage. Couldn't find it, drat it.

Hmm....so far you're really not selling me on this...

I didn't see a topic for this, so I guess I am starting it. I am sort of planning to attend the Beaufort Pirate Invasion in August. As my chosen crew is really just a PiP special, and Surgeon Mission is sort of a floater pirate (not (necessarily) because he fell overboard), I am giving notice that I am looking to sign on with a crew for the event. I'll be the one in the Patrick Hand original planter's hat. (I have an intriguing idea about transportation that will most likely fall through miserably and leave me with no ride if past experience is any indication. If so, I will most likely drive from Detroit as I will definitely stay in a hotel somewhere nearby and will need a vehicle to cart my sorry bum back and forth.

Inadequate? You don't understand...since I decided to write a book, I have been reading voraciously. Plus, I stopped reading Dampier to pick up Atkins because Atkins is a library book and I can only have it 3 weeks; so it's not like I finished Dampier or anything. (When I am enthusiastic for a topic, I find it's best to exploit that before it dims.) Being related intimately to medicine (today), diet is one of my chapters, so this information interests me. The way my research for stuff like this goes, I read, highlight and then re-copy relevant info into my notes in Word. (240 pages and counting). That way when I start to write, I will review the notes under a particular topic like Diet and then be fresh and ready to write on the topic - I will also be re-acquainted with which quotes are relevant for inclusion in my text and will already have them typed in for easy manuscript insertion. So popping stuff up here is just a sideline of what I'm really doing. No worries! Besides, I think websites like this are great repositories of information like this and the next poor soul who comes looking for info on a pirate's diet may stumble across this forum - say in five years - and will have properly cited research. I used to post on another forum and I frequently go back there and look up my old posts when they are relevant and repost parts of them here. (You can't keep all this stuff in your head.) CPR - we should start a sailor's medical self-care topic. I just read some really fascinating stuff about that in another book. Plus I have a pdf of a early 17th century book called Helps for suddain accidents endangering life by Stephen Bradwell than I really wanted to read. Such a topic might give me incentive to take it up - once I finish Atkins.

It's available to distributors in Virginia. The distributor told me so when I was at the Hampton Blackbeard Festival. I think the Pirate's Choice people are hoping you contact your local local stores and ask them to stock it for you Then they can contact their distributors and if the distributors get enough requests they will contact the Pirate's Choice people. It's a form of pull marketing. So ask and you may eventually receive. (I suggest you ask at a small liquor store, especially one you frequent, if you want to get any results.)

So now I'm in the middle of A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, & the West Indies in His Majesty's Ships The Swallow and Weymouth, by Surgeon John Atkins. He also talks about fishing and I thought it might contribute a little to what's come before: "While our Ships lay to here, we had good Fishing with our Lines; took Breams (or Porgas) Skip-jacks, Grouper, a Rock-fish (thick, short, and of a deep yellow on the Belly, Gills and Mouth) and the Jew-Fish; which has a double Mouth, the uppermost not to swallow Food, but full of Air-pipes and finned like a Cod, all well tasted: and having washed them down with a Bowl, our Friends and we parted..." (Atkins, p. 32) "We saw also abundance of flying Fish, and their continual Enemies, the Albicore and Dolphin, the latter we strike now and then with a Fizgig, or Harping-iron. It is a glorious-colour'd, strait Fish, four or five Foot long, forked Tail, perpendicular to the Horizon: plays familiarly about Ships; is of dry Taste, but makes good Broth. They are seldom seen out of the Latitudes of a Trade wind; and the flying fish never: These are the bigness of small Herrings; their Wings about two thirds its length; come narrow from the Body, and end broad; they fly by the help of them a Furlong at a time when pursued, turning in their Flight, sometimes dip in the Sea, and so up again,; the Wind making them, but this Expedient, fleeter." (Atkins, p. 33-4) "There are in the Bays of this River [the Gambia at Sierra Leone], variety of good Fish, that supplies the Scarcity of Flesh; Turtle, Mullet, Skate, Ten-pounders (Ten Pounders are like Mullets, but full of small Bones, like Herring-bones), Old-wives (Old-wives; a scaly, flat Fish, half as thick as long, called so from some Resemblance the face is fancied to have, with that of a Nun's), Cavalloes (Cavalloes; a bright, silver-colour'd Fish, with a pricklyRidge on each side, half its length) Barricudoes (Barricudoes; a well-tasted Fish, one Foot and an half long, not wholesome if the Roof of the Mouth is black), Sucking-Fish (Sucking-Fish; something like the Dog Fish; underneath he has an oval Flat, of three Inches and an half over, granulated like a Nutmeg grater; with this he flicks so fast, as difficulty to be torn from the Deck. He often infests the Shirk, sticks fast, and sucks his Nourishment from him.), Oysters, Cat-Fish (Cat-Fish, so called from four slender Fibres like Whiskers, sprouting from the under part of his Mouth), Bream and Numb-Fish; the most of which we catched in great numbers with our Searn; two or three Hours in a Morning supplying a Belly-full to the whole Ship's Company." (Atkins, p. 46-7) Ok...is a "Searn" the same thing as a Seine? Also, just to note, the s's in this book are more like someone said with very short cross=bars than the other books I've read. It makes translating them much easier, if not easy.

We went from no ideas (other than just living in the camp) to too many ideas! Better than no ideas. What's interesting is that everyone seems to want to do it the way they've seen it last. (And, on that note, I wish you could have seen what I saw - everything was right there for three hours and it was literally non-stop people. I occasionally wished for a break in the tide, but I was enjoying myself too much to take more than a breather.) The way I remember from camp at Key West is that four or five groups walked through the site when I was there. Many of them on their way to the beach and did not really understand what we were doing there. I'm pretty sure setting out my surgical stuff wouldn't have been the tipping point on the walk-through interest scale. To be honest, I'd sort of be afraid of having it stolen if I just let it all sit out. I now have over a thousand dollars of surgical equipment alone. Maybe the map thing would work. What I have doubts about is that an educational display would work for three straight days; they didn't even do that in Virginia where the focus had a more educational slant to it. God bless you folks who are actors - you make re-enacting really fun for most of the public. However, I suspect we're talking about two very different animals. The actors have the whole weekend to engage in their skill (through skits, battles, posing for pictures, interacting with groups of people). As my original post explained, I was thinking we could create a fairly light-weight, primarily educational event. To be honest, my style is more professorial than it is actor. This is why the surgery after battle thing doesn't interest me very much at this point. When you think of my style, think "Captain Twill in Key West" and you've a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. The educational re-enactment idea I have involves speaking about what you've learned about a particular period role or practicing a particular period skill like sewing, cooking or weaving. Then you invite people to ask questions. Anyhow...I would be more than happy to be in charge of organizing my little vision if there were enough people interested in preparing an educational display in advance. I don't want to sell anything or act skits out or task people with spending all day in the camp - I just want to have a couple (2 or 1.5?) hour interactive educational opportunity where those with particular knowledge and/or skills can practice them and invite others to watch. I don't even know if it will work in this environment at all - that's why I thought a short trial on Sunday afternoon would be best. If it sucks for attendance, we can give it up as a lost cause after an hour or so. Besides, I'm not even sure the interest is there to do this at all - so far, only two people have really expressed interest in participating in the education concept. I probably wouldn't bother to schedule it unless we had five or more.

Great Scott! I hope it's not as serious as all that! Good point. Done.

Actually, I think doing something is interesting in and of itself. A key to all any such station (from my HF Greenfield Village experience) is the "Hi there!" (brightly) part. If you do that, people know they can talk to you and ask questions. The only time they didn't do that was at the bottle-making exhibit, where there was a paid spokesmodel who answered questions.

Every Mercury crew member would have signed the article, no one could be missed on a proper pirate ship...no one, except, by coincidence, me. [/Lee Marvin]. (Surgeon's were rarely made to sign the pirate articles.) (For a really interesting account of how hard it was to avoid signing a pirate ship's articles even when forced to be a pirate, read Philip Ashton's A History of the Strange Adventures and Signal Deliverances of Mr. Philip Ashton Jun. of Marblehead.)

I really think it would be better in the fort for the first year. There's a lot more traffic oriented to the event in there. Plus it'd give people something for their fee entrée. As for full time - ok, it's not hard for a few hours, but more than that and it's work. While I like edutaining as much as the next person, I'm also on vaca. Plus you'd basically have to have enough people hanging around all the time doing something period appropriate to make it truly worthwhile. Time here and there - ok. A schedule? None for me thanks, I'm vaca-ing. 'Tis a fine line between work and fun re-enacting. Conch fritters are callllling...battle be damned!

See, being the surgeon is really just an extension of one of my other hobbies - designing haunted house rooms and props.

Ah, the eBay gods have smiled upon the Mercury ship's surgeon this week. Here's the plunder: I confess, I'm not sure about all of these, I was really after the forceps. I believe the middle two instruments were for retrieving things from open wounds (bullets, bits of cloth that went in with the bullet, arrow heads, splinters (which were more a more common source of death during period than bullets). The bottom one looks like it would be used to root around in wounds as well. Pretty cool, huh? Various fancy (suspicously French-looking) trocars. Trocars are great fun to describe - they are basically metal straws with daggers in them. You plunged them into some body cavity that was filled with liquid, removed the dagger part and you had a straw out of while foul bodily fluids drained... These could be anything from what I'm going to use them for to some sort of machine conductors, but they appear to be the right sort of material for what my intent - cauteries. I am going to blacken the blunt ends. For those of you who don't know, some surgeons during period closed open wounds by cauterizing - basically burning - them. Heat 'em up and apply 'em. Sizzzzle. A nice dental tool - a tooth extractor. Seriously. Think about it... When not in use, could also be a blacksmith tool.

Now wait just a minute. She signed the Mercury articles! (If only we had a captain to defend the Mercury's rights...)