Dutchman

ok, well we are still waiting on our budget to finish on the chopping block.

In the meantime betty, from the williamsburg wigmakers, has signed on board with her ladies. Gentlemen, bring your purses! Foppish hair pieces are to be had for reasonable prices!

A new twist has happened on the boat front. The shallop Explorer will be returning this year. The Deltaville museum will be manning her this year. There may be a new vessel on the water as well...................................................

Powder for battery point is en-route.

more to follow............

I'm partial to #14!

ahoy mr. smythe, thank you for asking about peace tying and weapon safety. the city does not require visitors to peace tie weapons, but scabbards are highly encouraged and we prefer blunted tips and edges if no scabbard. Festival crew pirates ARE required to have all edged weapons in a scabbard, blunted and inspected upon check in. The festival follows a script so no ad hock or pick up fights are permitted.

The only past incidents we have had were swords sticking out like tails behind a pirate- perfect eye level to wee ones. the carrier was asked to reposition the offending sword- No biggie.

OK. the first tall ship contract has been confirmed- welcome Pride of Baltimore!

edit* TWO new guns will be joining battery park!

ahoy all- just a quick update on the festival.

Two tall ships from op-sail will be joining the fleet this year. From what I understand the contracts are both on East Coast Ships which have not been to the festival before.

The re-enactors and ships contracts have been submitted and being worked over. All of our regular groups have signed back on and we anticipate approval on one new unit.

Grace reports that two new period vendors have requested space. One will be an anchor vendor over by the air and space center. The second is a local and will add flare to the camp.

I'm in charge of the camp and re-enactors and have requested a larger camp footprint. We anticipate having the largest number of re-enactors yet this year! If things go well, the Foundation will have a work in progress over the festival and opsail weekend.

Running a safe and family friendly event remains at the top of the committees concerns. Our man in blue is working on our various permits. A friendly reminder that random firing of weapons, brandishing weapons (including sharp pointy things)and open alcohol containers outside of licensed venues may place visitors at risk of city provided lodging as well as an embarrassing ride across town in a police golf cart.

If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to chime in!

thanks gang. found the info i needed. hook, thats a wild find. i knew about the sunken chains and barrels, but had no idea about those critters. wow!

does anyone know what the wooden barricades seen around various historical sites are called. im referring to the wooden trunks on their sides with poles crossing through them.

aye jenny, cant let the cat out yet but i did talk to them last week and the schedule is being cleared. as a side i talked to betty as well and gave her a hand full of drawings. she is seriously considering doing some GAOP pieces. She did her first one last year at fort fred. Tis the one I use for Mr. Fitz-Williams, the custom agent which is in last years festival thread.

battery park has continued to grow. so much that it is a bit unwieldy on the point so the extra room will indeed be nice. now if we can just get lawrence to ..... oh never mind.

james- would love to make the acquaintanceship.

make plans now for 2012! June 1-3

this year will be an adventure as we have a few bits of great news! To start-----

-OPSail 2012 will be in Norfolk the following weekend, so plan on being with us for 2 weeks! Plans are in the works to have one or two ships arrive early to join us.

-We have a new period vendor signing on as an anchor merchant over at the hunters camp. I saw the tent foot print request and that's a lot of merchandise! I'll let you know who it is once the contract is in.

-Yes, vendors extraordinaire greg and everett will be in the pirate camp as well as J. R. and black bear.

-A tradesman from Colonial Williamsburg is clearing her schedule to set up shop as well. If all goes well we shall have many happy gentlemen sporting new looks for the ball.

-Battery point will have more territory to fire from!

-The 18th century bread makers will be on hand to fill our bellies!

- Presentations based on Hampton's connections with Black Beard as well as Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island !

-the Friday night ball!

-weather permitting, fireworks Saturday night. The waterfall from the bridge is an amazing thing to see!

Visit our website at http://blackbeardpiratefestival.com/ and i'm here to answer any questions.

-God save the King, indeed!

im going with sailmaker too. the bench is a specific tool. tailors are normaly depicted with tabletops and patterns.

cross, i still have the planks for your bench and the pattern off mine. just let me know when......

ahoy pirate family,

we learned today that "Taz" crutchfield from the shadowplayers passed away yesterday. We were fortunate to spend most of the summer working the mid-atlantic festivals with him and the rest of the shadowplayers. A true showman and gentleman- god speed friend.

which leads us right into a discussion I had with someone last week. . . . . how was fabric shipped to the colonies? Was it on spindles or folded or some other way? It seems a bit impractical to make it on a roll, undo it, fold it, then ship......... any ideas?

i would have to guess it was rolls of fabric.

actually lubber, it gives us a lot to work with. this is a good find!

looking at the legs, they are pegged and splayed out instead of narrow boards. this is typical of a loft bench rather than one found afloat. if the right hand legs are set the same distance as the left, the end of the bench is just out of view. looking at the bench v/s bum ratio, our sailmaker takes up about 1/3 of the bench. so basing the bum on an 18 to 24 inch beam the bench would be 4 1/2 to 6 feet long- about as short as you would want it to be. while there is no cow pen to hold his tools, there is an interesting piece there. obviously the knife, the small round blob seems to be a pin cusion. i have no idea about the thing falling off the corner of the bench. now look at the front of the bench and material. lo and behold we have a taylors third hand! ti's a small clamp used to hold the material onto the bench to keep the material from moving much like a modern sailmakers hook. the shelves on the wall hold fids or fit blades of some sort but i have no idea about the rolls on the right.

whoa! frayed knot! welcome back. i've been to your site and drooled many many times. we are honored to have another knotsman on board. We have a thread going here https://pyracy.com/index.php?showtopic=18197 asking for pictures and how to's for knotwork. we would all love to see some of your work.

as usual..... amazing work patrick. how long did it take you?

scarry stuff isn't it. makes one happy to work with folks that all sing off one safety sheet- or - work often enough with others to know what to expect from them and be able to work along with their knowledge. standing back every now and then is a good thing to see how other folks are working and see what the big picture is. the problem with being on the line all the time is you only see who is screwing up if they are right next to you.

and a blunderbuss......

snicker- graye fox's gunpowder incident got me thinking about one of our folks. Seems he had dropped a few rolled charge ends in his shirt pocket rather than litter the ground- nice environmental sort he is- well he was headed home pulled out the cigarettes and lighter that were in the same pocket and hit the lighter flint- burned his eyebrows off.

remember you'r region mate. That stuff might get hot. i have a light raw silk weskit and it is wonderful to wear. a high thread count linen would look nice too

nicely done! how long is it?

cheese grater?

wait- you have kids- first one to turn this cool shell into powder wins a prize!

"sqeezin" MUCH larger ships that maneuver with difficulty to the edge of a channel then trying to claim right of way..........

leaving the helm to fire a cannon..............

firing canons at ships "doin dumb shit".............

"guns loaded too hot"........

"Tolchester got a broadside on the way to Rock Hall Pirates this year, too. We didn't break any of their windows, so they invited us in for mudslides. They got a couple more guns on our way back to the Bay."....... please, please say it was the following morning and neither the vessel or guns were being operated after consuming alcohol

ah yes... the nykel. i believe that vessel was hailed on the radio and asked to give way to vessels maneuvering in restricted waters. ...........

just got to a computer that would show the pics- nicely done!

put me in for one!