Dutchman

mission, we have an extra stage barrel with your name on it. you can stay there if you like.

well we had a couple cases stashed in the tent, but it seems to have wandered and no dead soldiers laying about as evidence. well some dead soldiers and lots o headaches the next morn- so i think i can account for all of it. anyhow, i'm not so much for the key lime striaght up, but if you want to makeone of those fruity drinks with it- its darned good- so i've heard from grace. i prefer the molasses myself. mission is correct. as its a new rum, there are still state to state issues being worked out by don (the distributor) but contact him and he will be more than happy to tell you how to get it locally. in virginia you can only buy it by the case at $150- i think?- as it is special order and the stores are state owned. however, if there is enough demand and it is put on the shelves the price is almost cut in half. I've been waiting for two weeks for my case to come in- darned state red tape. I've had a chance to talk to don at a few events and he certainly is not bashful about his marketing strategy so i hope he does not mind me plugging for him here. rather than waste money with glossy adds- spend the money making more run and take it to events where PIRATES can get their hands on it. Seems to me to be a good strategy as you cant taste a picture.

true in society unless you were so poor you did not have pants of some sort or thats what was done in your region ie field workers- aboard ship working, not so sure.- not common but did happen, i'll have to dig back and find the book but -mr x who was sickly took to his daily chores wearing his shirt- not the exact quote but close. i think wearing one loose on deck would work, but i'd be a bit nervous in the rigging with a tail flapping like a penant.

dear god man- do you ever sleep. i feel.... well..... a bit inadequate in my own thread (Scuffs feet and walks away). amazing work- i'm in the middle of a book and am searching for anything to add but coming up with nothing but i do have a good 16th century description of cpr if you're interested- i can't remember if i shared it with you yet or not.

nice score! top picture middle two look to be spreaders used to separate the chest cavity or other appropriate hole where bone and muscle provide resistance. the bottom one has me- what are the markings on it? i agree with amanjiria- you're sick. hehehehe i knew i liked you.

well then say at pip. the blackbeard festival is an honest family affair where nothing ever goes wrong and people never get offended at us......... yeah right, how many cases of rum dissapeared from my tent alone?

hey now. no talk of brawl without the home crews involvement. if'n there is to be any of that.... i'll let grace and pern do my dirty work.

doing the living history side can be an absolute ball and as mission discovered, kids will defitiely keep you on your toes. its also great when the lightbulb goes on and they get what you are doing. you can manipulate your schtik to have all sorts of results. from talking with sterling, their hanging has a couple of different endings depending on the crowd- i can't wait to see it!!! its also fun to see what others are doing and woe betide you get a few who try to outdo each other- not that this group would EVER do anything like that!!! at a recent event we ended up with two surgeons, three naviguessers and lots of cooks. its amazing to listen to folks compare notes and see how displays evolve over time. (thanks to kevin duffus, we have to completely redo blackbeard after nine years). another thing is watching the changes that occur over time as new projects must be altered. the three john smith schallopes were all uniquely different. over time, the explorer is changing its unpractical sailing rig, sultana changed her banks, reedville did some hull design changes. all three are starting to look alike now. the point is don't get stuck in a rut and be willing to change as history and new ideas surface. -man i wish i could make it this year.

we had to do a bit of digging to make sure we were safe selling the rum cakes to benefit the colonial seaport foundation (our nonprofit leg). virginia allows home made baked goods as long as the ingredients and bakers name appear on the packaging and done in an approved kitchen (the church around the corner). you will need to check florida laws.

no worries. when ever you get to it. i just wanted to make sure its there. computers are not my friend.

me too. i had to do a doubletake of the name when i saw it then doublechecked before i posted it. i'm not even sure which way this one hangs. it looks like it hangs as posted. if you tip it over so the white edge is leading to the right the star of david is off. if you have the white strip to the left the hand is upside down. an interesting obsrvation is the right hand. in some cultures it is obscene to offer or use the left. what in the world is the divider looking object in the middle?

boy this is full of usefull information facility permitting, you all can do so much that other venues would not be able to handle. a smythe, a built in goal for starters. you can certainly go from static display to full living history and do a smashing job of it. for those who would like to plan something but have no idea where to start. here are some humble observations about living history vs reenactment or a static display. -Keep your verbage short and simple. you can only keep someones attention for about three minutes. -have an ends to your goal. if you are tying knots at 10a and tying the same knots at 2p people loose interest. if you make a hammock, a net, or baggywrinkle with those knots now you're on to something to keep attention- people like to see progress. along the same lines, don't make something so big that you are destine to fail. -don't be afraid to take a break, but make sure there is someone doing something else to replace you- it does not need to be the exact same thing, the idea is to not allow free space and time to go to waste. -if you talk the talk be able to walk the walk. my personal favorite... another local crew had a character that professed to be a shipwright. well me being the shipwrights mate for the crew go to talk shop with said shipwright. oh bad results ensued. seems he was a house framer and was clueless. i'm sure others can add more useful tips...

http://www.sfmission.com/cgi-bin/gallery/i...sa.jpg&img=&tt= found this link. interesting. maybe someone can link the actual picture for me? i wonder how they happened across this gem? anyone able to decipher the writing or give an attempt to "read" the meanings of the symbols?

aye, i'm back and well rested from three weekends of rowing. well two rowing- yes i do that- and one as coxwaine. i'm taking this weekend off, i've dropped eight pounds this month. yeah, i have not heard much from edward either, hope he did not take things personal. so how goes it in your world? did you attend port washington last weekend?

and now for video of fridays dock raid. dratted pirate hunters- i would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that pesky harbormaster! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3...wKoTY-gGhtvjADA

matusalem, thanks for providing those links. the shallop was from project sultana- much better suited for sailing than the explorer. day three found us sweltering by sun up and aground on the first row of the day. my latchetts and socks now reek of tangier goo- and no i was not at the helm- i was crew. i realized my fatal flaw of going over to push us off (we only draw two feet- it can't be that bad) as i made the two feet to bottom then kept going another two in the muck. a sad note- one of the islanders passed away this morning- we met him last night at the party. the rest of the day was spent under the shade of the crab shack as there were no takers for a mid day sun bake. clam fritters for lunch again. nap around noon and then off to the airstrip for another party- same dj, same song set, same games- seems to be a theme here. however the highlight was getting flagged over to the police officers golf cart by our friend larry who had WAY too much *ahem* sprite for his own good and was unable to get out of the drivers seat without help. its not every night you see a drunk on a dry island stuck in the drivers seat of a police golf cart. off to the B&B. day four found a knock on the door at sun up. wes proclaimed krunch was ready to head out. we arrive in time to stow our bags and throw lines from the explorer. wesley, having found the ultimate 10 year olds playground for the weekend was still asleep in the r2d2 tend on the fly bridge- so being flat water and no wind we head out. opting for an early morning short cut we head out the west cut and straight for the before mentioned bombing range- clearly marked on the charts as Danger bombing range unexploded ordinance stay clear. apparently that does not apply to us venturers. as we bid farewell to tangier and find our first derelect hull, wes proclaims "s#^t". hmmm... this can't be good now can it pubsters? seems the electronics decided to sleep in whilst mid range. no loran, no gps on the boat to start, and radios are down. so the compass works and we have a decent chart. dead reconing for an hour and finally the kilmarnock water tower emerges. take a heading of 215 and home we go. we arrive in deltaville in fine fasion as the steering gave out at the channel and we had to use the explorer hauled tight astern for directional guidance with the tent still on the fly bridge. as a side note- i now know what gatorade smells like sweating out of your system- yuk. not the most exciting venture but a venture all the same

ahoy thighbiter, just ordered a copy through paypal but the computer farted at the last second. let me know if there was a snag. thanks -dutch

well of course in period!! now the explorer in florida... would that not be a ball. and by the way why do you think i was so generous with the rowing lessons- we need to get to the fishing grounds somehow next year. can you link me to your web page- i would love to read about your ventures at the fest- or will it be posted here at the pub- the first chapter was great. I'm going to turn the crab scrape into a shoal seine net and leave the gill net as it is, but cut it back to around 12x50- that will still leave me LOTS o net for other projects. my net will be left on the frame as a continuous work in progress for displays and eventually use it as a cast net.

lady b, unless it was to be used almost immediately, raw meat was not brought aboard. it was salted or dried first then added to. on the fishing front my new friend norm from tangier is going to save his crab scrape and gill nets for me when he is done for the season. these are huge hand tied cotton nets. so mission- upon or next venture together i believe we shall go'a fishing-yes? i asked one of the tangiermen to work with me on my net and man can he fly for eighty something, but my net is coming along nicely.

aye matusalem, thanks for the overhead- but we gotta check that scale of reference. we tracked only 23 miles on the gps to get there. 19 as the crow flies, but had to account for the bombing range and a bit of current set=23. cruising at 7 knots we took just under 4 hours- the math won't add as we fished a bit. we'll save the range story for the last days tale- its always fun!! day two found us feeding our faces by seven with the rest of the crew, who were already tired of eating manly-man food, at the only eatery open- the b&b. it seems the night before the school principal had cornered john smith and asked if the school could come visit- well thats why were here- sure. so around ten thirty here comes the combined school of fifty. so loads of ten off we go in 100 degree heat with humidity. (note of interest- by our count only half the kids said they could swim and fewer had ever rowed a boat- odd for a fishing island community) we wrap that up in time for lunch at the crab house on the dock that opened at 11 when the ferries came and closed at 4 when they left- five hour work days. durring lunch, the locals warmed up a bit and we were truly exposed to the cornish dialect matusalem referenced. wow what a grand time talking with these folks. hard workers who enjoy themselves. up and fishing by three or four. in by noon and still till four or so then back to work for a few more hours when the heat breaks- then community gathering till bed time. so we wandered the docks and crab shacks till dinner time. more crab cakes and clam fritters, then off to the airstrip to party. the party tonight consisted of hotdogs, burgers, bbq, soda, cotton candy, an inflatable bouncy ride, and last nights dj- with the same record track. dag those kids can dance. of course as we had beer on the boat we were popular. no original containers allowed so we made use of the many empty bottles of gatorade left about the boat. the local police (just one on the island) officer politely pointed out he had busted up an underage party on monday and said to be sure not to give any to the kids. Grace danced like a fool all night then off to the B&B.

ahoy all, i have just returned from tangier island located in the middle of the chesapeake. the original plan was to row the explorer from the museum in Deltaville Va. to the island to commemorate john smith's arrival 400 years later. (17 miles) here is the venture. arrived at the docks very early thursday morn with my beloved grace to head off on what was described in the billing as a manly-man weekend where only meat would be eaten and showers frowned upon. why grace wanted in i have no idea, but this played out favorably later. The idea was to row/sail to the island, upon seeing the water flat, hazy and narry a ripple of wind, we opted to tow- we have learned something in 400 years!!! so our tow boat is a recently donated 42ft deadrise workboat about 40 years old. it was donated for a reason- nuf said. the compliment of 15 has reduced to 7. myself, grace, wes, wes' son wesley, ed the history dude who did not like heat or silence, dennis who came along to portray john smith, later christopher columbus- who according to tangier legend actually discovered tangier, new one by me but ok, and kaptain krunch- really thats his name around town, he's the museum coordinator for this trip. trip went smoothly to the island, ed and john cristopher columbus smith were left to gesticulate and revel in glory for the four hour trip. as they were well behind us being towed we have no idea what they talked about but arms flailed the entire time. arrived at the island, population 600, just as the ferries were leaving for the day. to our amazement we were now to be the entertainment/ beer supply for the weekend. did i mention its a dry island. we had planned on a ration of few cases a day with 15 of us. we were now down to four who could medically and legally consume. the lines are not even made fast when grace decides that the boat is no place for her after two weekends of events already and heads off to find a b&b. yup she finds one- that serves two meals a day has a/c AND showers. upon her return she informs me of her executive decision and says we will indeed enjoy ourselves. as i watch the haze shimmer and wafte from the decaying marsh grass and get a nose full of this pugnant aroma mixed with dead fish and crabs i say okie dokie and off we plod to the golf cart taxi (no cars). upon arriving we find dinner under way (3:00 pm) and not wanting to be rude promply plop down to enjoy unlimmitted crab cakes and clam fritters mixed with lots of comfort food. we roll outside to find the street closed (no litterally- the one street!) for a block party. all the islanders have turned out for the museum opening. we run into our wayward and hungry crew, who made fun of us for wimping out, at the museum -we do a brief dog and pony show and head back to the boat where the locals are eyeing the new vessels in the harbor. its not every day you see a new 400 year old oversized rowboat and a derelect deadrise which should not have been able to make the crossing. Wes has fired up the grill and is working on a set of ribs, which became flesh toned around two am. so the sleeping arangements were two in the b&b, john smith in the shallope because he wanted to. ed the history dude on the tow boats engine box, wes' in a pup tent on the boats bridge, giving a bit of an r2d2 appearance and krunch in the v birth. thus concludes day 1.

uh no pictures?????? withoutaname is also withoutacamera?? tease! say hi to the other half- was indeed great meeting you both.

hey folks, i'm back in town. hope all are well and recovering from your own ventures. wow! lots of great photos out there- thank you all for posting them. well in perns defense, he and the rest of the crew were being blown about the harbor between skits when the tax incident of 1718 broke loose. as there was a bit of a breeze and the Explorers crew were delayed getting back to me, those of us who were left opted to improv a bit and had a bit of a go on land. as sterling pointed out- darned good and it fed off of fridays raid on the pier. can't wait to develope this one more!

for being an improv job- i think the taxation skit went rather well. by the end of it i thought capt sterling and his crew were going to be mobbed by angry gas tax protesters- heck all i wanted was to moor my craft and unload my goods. but it did sound good in the distance with guns going off under the bridge and echoing off buildings.

looking at the crews site, we are coming up with a lot more found than lost than normal. if anyone has lost anything please go to www.blackbeardscrew.org and go to the tavern (our forums) if anything looks familiar, yell and i'll pull it out for you -or- if you have lost anything, post here and i'll add it in there. the site was sterile when we left monday morn- so someone has the missing stuff. just a matter of getting it home. -dutch