The Chapman

Billy strolled the deck. It was surprisingly quiet. He had been told the Port was always bustling with activity, and he wasn’t sure why it was so still. Even the Samuel’s crew - altho’ likely not to be a crew for long, each of them deciding their separate way as soon as cargo unloaded - was unhurried, almost silent. A song echoed from below decks, faintly… a familiar tune, but someone else’s tune… Billy hummed, tapping his fingertips together, his own song he remembered from home, a lifetime ago. ‘Ay see say yango, Ay see say yango, eh…’ It was quiet enough that from some distance away he could hear the sound of a land walker losing their repast, and wondered how anyone could become ill while sitting in port.

Billy leaned on the rail, his pipe cradled in his hands. He was thinking, remembering. Images flowed through his mind, washing over each other, fading, displacing, roiling. He studied his hands, gauged their firm steadiness, not like so many of the men on ships, ruined by rum and white men’s habits. He struck tinder, his last match flaring. It was fine to be on deck, smoking where he liked. It pleased him, a simple pleasure, but good none the less. The clay bowl warmed to the touch, and he puffed satisfied. “Hoy, Billy”, the white man called Byrd said quietly, in passing, nodding his head slightly, “How goes”. He moved on, to his posting. Billy did not respond. He was busy with his pipe, and was thinking again, now remembering the man’s first memorable action. He knew that white man wasn’t like others. Byrd could pronounce ‘Billy’s’ name as it really was, and as far as he knew was the only other human in the world who knew it. The man was intelligent, true, but something about him was off. He wanted to say ‘cruel’, but that seemed not right, ‘specially in light of some of the others’ behaviors, himself no exception, and at the beginning… The pyrates, or whatever they were or called themselves, had overtaken a lumbering slaver in a sloop, their sails trimmed to run so fast they couldn’t be beat; and had been Billy’s salvation. The hull of the merchantman was jammed with Africans, dying at a rapid rate. Three days earlier, in calm waters, the transporters had allowed the cargo on the deck for air, and ‘Billy’ had rushed the dividing fence, bent on taking one of the guards. He had lived through the attempt, astonishingly enough, and they had not thrown him overboard. But he was beaten severely and could best be described as half-alive; or half-dead. The pyrates looted for what they could find, and dragged their living spoils on deck for an inspection. They began throwing the sick over the side. When they got to Billy, he dragged himself to full height, the pain obvious, pointed to the nearest man’s belt knife, and to the slaver’s master. After a brief discussion, none of which he understood, they gave him the knife and let him go. When confronted the master put on a bold face, contemptuous of his lesser, and steeled himself; but Billy had the dedication of a man making balances; and was more than equal to the challenge. He strung him up by one ankle and went to work. When finally the slaver passed mortal coil, he was screaming hideous, and no longer recognizable as a man. Billy did not find any sense of what the whites called ‘revenge’, really. He was simply creating an evening out. If the slaver beat him, he would come back with same. It was only fair. But the pyrates found his actions most amusing, and diverted from their spoils had gathered to watch, vastly entertained and cheering and shouting. At the end, exhausted from his efforts (which had taken some time), when he had sat down to rest and ease his oozing back, the pyrates had unmindfully pounded him enthusiastically and dragged him off, splashing strong liquid down his throat and shouting in celebration. He had become a pyrate. Now he was on the ‘Samuel’, in Port Royal harbor, watching activities unfold, a Spanish hulk some distance before him, and at the moment without much to do but figure a time to go ashore and find entertainments of satisfactory kind. He tapped the ash from his pipe and walked along the deck.

Oh, and Matusalem, I forgot to mention this; How did ships get into tight spaces and harbors? Well, one word: KEDGING! ...and I'm sure it was every bit as much fun as it sounds.

There are rules for sailing boats arranged for general order, at least in the US territorial waters; kind of like flight approach regulations of the FAA. They have to do with yielding and such, with account taken for wind direction; For overtaking, the rule is simply 'stay well clear', whatever that means. H. Teonage in the Mediterranean fleet in the late 1600s describes being in a fog bank, requiring the crew to ring bells, blow whistles, fire muskets, etc. to establish their presence to others. And there have been protocols or polite behaviors since the first Homo Sapiens shoved his hollowed-out log into the river as far as warning against collisions; but still, there must have been an arrangement for the stereotypical 'ships passing in the night'. Watches would have established the presence of other ships. I guess I was just wondering if the idea of establishing what the other pilot is going to do had some structure, or was based on observation and mutual unspoken agreement (see my above post about the staging yard).

I wonder if the item in Hogarth's picture is the boy's cat, the smaller, less damaging version of the 'cat 'o' nine tails. The series is about a 'boy', I suppose. I read this thread about two weeks ago and I have to say something that's been bothering me, please nobody take this the wrong way: I don't think it's a good idea to doubt the brutality of the time. You'd be surprised at the ability of human beings to perform tasks when they have no option but total, mindless obedience. As far as people being 'disabled' or unable to work, I spent a lot of years on construction crews made up of the progeny of these people of the time: hicks, hillbillies, rednecks and the descendants of indentured servants. Don't underestimate any of these folks' ability to work more or less effectively through astounding injuries and pain, such as would cripple for life your average pasty-faced office worker. Personally, I'm absolutely convinced that if you want to see what real 'pyrate crewes' were like, look no further than a modern-day US prison. Not only that, but all those redneck criminals probably speak a dialect much closer to the English of the time than the English do now. But anyway. The political and economic system of the time period was characterized by extreme and unlimited violence against a segment of the population perceived as 'lesser'; and I'm one of those socio-political cranks that feels that the design and authenticity of a repro 'cat', while interesting and significant as a part of living history, is less important than the fact that such a 'disciplinary tool' existed at all. That said, Naval traditions being what they are, there may be some useful information in Hodgskin's AN ESSAY ON NAVAL DISCIPLINE. And there is some information on useage on www.corpun.com.

I got interested in the period of 1600s-1700s era due to an interest in the broadsheets. I write and draw graphic novels (fancy comic books), and have done extensive research on printed and visual popular culture through human history. Prior to studying broadsheets I had been unaware of the sheer scale of the things; a single printer producing a quarter-million chapbooks/broadsheets a year? Those are HUGE numbers. It pointed out that the Bible didn't keep printers in business; chapbooks and broadsheets did. And look at the subject material: crime, romance, adventure, gossip, all the same stuff people buy and read now. Digging deeper into the past of these items got me progressively more interested in the time period, and the only people that seem to really study the worldview of the mercantilism of the time are pyracy groups. English Civil War doesn't interest me at all; Rev War bores me; and even the 'pyrate' thing doesn't really turn me on, but the the so-called GAoP is very much a central hub around which the events of the time revolve. It's pretty obvious that pyracy and smuggling put the colonies 'on the map', and formed them into what they were, far more than the stereotype of a bunch of dour Puritans trudging to church. The mercantilism of the time was worldwide in view and scope; these were globalists. They knew what they were doing, and they shrunk the world. And really the only living history groups that begin to recognize the importance, and the formative influence, of the events of this period, are GAoP. I've not got involved with re-enacting mostly because I perceived it as more a Renfair type thing. This I avoided due to health concerns, i.e. lute-strumming psuedo-Raphaelites make me sick.

Sleep.

Quite well and relaxing, I'm getting some time on the computer. Later I'm picking up the little girl and going to a museum. Can you draw, and if so, what do you feel you draw the best?

I was thinking yesterday about indicator lights, particularly after running through a staging yard. There was one other driver (from another company), and he was pulling out as I was pulling in. We both braked, made hand signals through the windshields (Oh no, after you, Alphonse!), and manuevered around each other. We just understood where and what the other was doing and going, and what we were going to do. Now, since modern-day hauling is still called SHIPPING, I come to my point (finally). I'm going to do my own research anyway, but what arrangement was there in period shipping for agreement of right-of-way, or directional signalling? In modern shipping, which is extremely crowded, a nautical mile is considered close, and much under that is way too close for comfort. Accounting for well-traveled lanes, dictated by wind and currents, it seems like most ships of the period would have been largely in the same general 'highway'. Were there then established or agreed-upon right/left (or left/right for the Brits) directional agreements? Which side did you pass on? Is there much documentation of ships colliding by accident in the time period? Also, in the general pyracy era, a lot of ships would have been avoiding well-traveled routes (although obviously the well-traveled road is physically the easiest and safest). Anyway, just thinking about it at work. What was the procedure for signalling directional intent upon meeting another ship, either oncoming or while overtaking? It helps to think about this stuff while I'm driving. I don't practice tying knots anymore, after inadvertently securing my left thumb to the steering wheel while speeding through Milwaukee with a load of furnaces. THAT would have been special to explain to the State Police.

I am not finding any information on the use of isinglass/mica/muscovite in lanthorn use of the period being discussed here. It's entirely possible it was used, I just can't find anything, and I've talked to some of our stove suppliers at my job who ought to know about isinglass. Horn appears to be the most 'authentic' material for lights (or, as spelled in the construction trade so as to differentiate from natural light, 'lite'). Boring trivia: The above material is mined commercially in India, where a vertical shaft is cut; the 'mica' accessed; and the material is split into 'books', or sheets, some of which have been notated as larger than three feet (meter) square. 'Scrap' mica/isinglass is found in the Carolinas of the USA, where it is largely ground up and used for a glittery effect on wallpaper and such; larger chunks are used in the electrical industry as insulators. For period authenticity if you're writing about Russians, apparently its most well-known use in the past was as windows in both Russian houses and in ships from that locale, hence the moniker 'Muscovite'. Good Lord I'm boring. Well, that's what happens when you drive a truck all day. Personal experience and observation about early artificial light: In my own experience about ambient light, I've found that total darkness in nature is very rare, and for the most part the idea of total darkness is a man-made creation unless you are deep in a cave. If the eye is accustomed to ambient light, it's not unduly difficult to function normally in what most modern eyes would view as extremely dim lighting. When I was working for a utility in what I'll politely call a 'low-income' area, I was constantly wandering around in the basements of apartment buildings, the lighting of which had long since been stolen, destroyed, or disabled. You just stop for a minute, allow your eyes to get used to the dark, and almost always I could do what I needed to do without recourse to artificial light, i.e. my Maglite/bludgeon. Well, actually I didn't like turning on the flashlight for two reasons. Firstly, if you turn it on then off, you are blind for a minute. Not good. Secondly, who knew what was in those basements? Turning on a light just seemed like announcing, "Here I am, please shoot me!" As far as natural light at night, I once drove South to Cheyenne on Highway 85 from Torrington, Wyoming in the middle of the night. I went almost 60 miles without seeing an artificial light or another car. I had trouble outrunning my headlights, so I stopped, got out, walked around for while, and then turned the headlights off. There was no moon, and the starlight was so bright I had a clearly defined shadow; I drove easily by that light, and having not really had an experience like that previously, I was amazed at how bright natural 'darkness' really is. Also, a single artificial illumination, when I finally saw one, was visible for a distance of what I would estimate as more than a mile. And, since in my childhood I lived in a house with no electricity, I learned about candles, lamps, etc. And chopping wood. Stupid crazy hippie parents.

No, I don't really disappear, I work a lot ( I drive truck, mostly) and don't have a lot of time on the computer.

Absolutely post pictures and such. Firstly, the discussion about metallurgy is very interesting, and since I work on the principle that it's not possible to know too much about anything (or at least have the information handy), cannon casting certainly fills a bill. Also, I live in a region where manufacturing jobs continue taking wing and flying over the ocean; it's pleasing to see US shops and outfits taking the initiative to foray into new areas to keep their people working. Good for them. Too, think of working at a place like that. You're at the bar: "So, what do you do?" "I work at Unified Widget. We make impellers for circulating pumps. What do you do?" " I work at Rustbelt Industry. we make CANNONS".

Some thoughts on lanterns after looking through the PIP discussion. Free standing or hand lanterns are probably different in style than actual ship's lanterns, which (?) tended to be fixed in place, although probably removable. I am eminently correctable. Glass was a scarce and valuable commodity at the time and I wonder if it would have been a good idea to have glass panes in a handheld lantern, i.e. breakage, etc. I suspect the key is in the word 'lanthorn'. Panes would likely have been cowhorn. Now, if you want to get all picky,the horn itself is processed relatively simply (by a craftsman known as, what else, a 'horner'): soaking in water for a few weeks, boiled for until soft(er), and then peeled like the rind of an onion. If you're in a rush or a hack, you can boil the horn quickly in ash, but I suspect the reason this technique was not universally used is the rapid heat would, in my opinion, render the product brittle in the end. The pieces would be selected into darker and lighter depending on use, obviously the lightest panels being chosen for lanthorn lights. Pieces could be cut into squares and flattened between two heated metal plates (iron?), or easier, and which leads me to believe a lot of lanthorns were cylindrical in shape, left curved and set into wood muntins in a hardwood... uhh... body? What's the name for that? Anyone? Anyway, a typical shape for a cheapie quick and cool type lantern would be two wood circles with wood posts attaching them, a spike inset for a candle, and thinly peeled cowhorn of the lighter type cut and inset in lieu of glass. Actually, I think I'll add that to the projects list; it sounds like fun.

For close work in dim light a glass globe filled with water, according to a source (around here somewhere), was I guess known as a shoemaker's or lacemaker's lamp; it was placed between a candle and the work being done. The same effect can be achieved using, say, a round goldfish-type bowl. I've tried it, it works pretty well. I have also read that reflectors, mirrors or polished metal, were also sometimes used.

Thanks for the welcome.

Registration should not have been so much trouble for me, and I'm obviously too tired for this. I'll post a bio later. Right now I'm on, glad to be here, and hpoefully I'll be more coherent tomorrow. Thank you very much.