JoshuaRed

Sparrow was not that uncommon of a name, and Jack or John was certainly run of the mill. There were probably many J. Sparrows in the western hemisphere. Whoever first coined the name was probably just rummaging thru genealogy lists and the moniker struck a tone with them so they decided to use it.

Cool. Any word on if the world premiere might be at Disneyworld this time?

Well Angus looks perfect....don't know how they'll convince us that Thailand is North Carolina...

Innnnteresting! For U.S. tv, or abroad?

Negro Pirate, go to Amazon and you'll find tons of great shanty cds to buy. I recommend two in particular: Round Cape Horn Blow The Man Down Those are the album names, search under classical I think. Or Folk. You should be able to listen to clips on the album's page.

I'd love to see Avery on the big screen. What an epic adventure he had, going to sea on a slaver, stealing the ship, crusing the Indies and South America, then enjoying the pirate haven of Madagascar, and looting the Mogul's prize treasure ship - still one of the single largest robberies ever commited in history, and what a tragically perfect end, him dying a nameless pauper in England.

Yeah take a drive through just about any NewEngland cemetery dating back to the 18th century and you'll see at least a couple of death's head motifs on some stones. Often they have wings, cross bones and the hourglass. Truly compelling folk art. In the cemetery at Williamsburg there is one of those above ground graves with a nice large skull n' crossbones on the side.

I'll scan them and upload - truly some beautiful and mostly accurate stuff! Especially his buccaneers.

You're right Foxe, it's not period. I have a coffee-table book called Pirates And Buccaneers that features a number of works by that artist. I think he was German, and did them in the 1920's, definitely 20th century. When I first saw them I was impressed with the quality and did some research on the artist. I'll dig 'em out again.

*sigh*...you guys are merciless. I wouldn't expect anything less. :) Ok, a bare-bones camera crew on board, but that's it. Of course a modern cruising yacht would follow behind with all 21st century necessaries... How cool would it be? To follow a crew from London, around the Horn and across the world?

I was just in the "Pirates Bazaar" at POTC DIsneyworld last weekend and they have some SWEET stuff...far more than they did before the movie. The only thing I couldn't find was any Marc Davis art, either cards or posters. Shame.

Foxe, did you see Colonial House, also by PBS? It was shot in Eastern Maine, and was "set" circa 1620-30ish if I recall. Aspects of it were great, but damn if they don't pick the WORST possible participants everytime! I did watch The Ship and for the most part it was ok. I would like to see it done again, except using only bona fide tall ship crewmen and reenactors. Ones willing to sign waivers allowing the producers to ditch all modern gear, from GPS to diesel engines to cell phones. Absolutely NOTHING that wasn't present in 1710. Yeah.

Oh man that would be insane! Who would volunteer to be the "victim"? They could take their pick of being strung up by the ankles and disemboweled, be forced to eat their own heart, have their lips fried in a skillet or spit-roasted. Of course using simple scarecrow type dummies could add a wonderful comic/satirical element to it...if such a thing is possible with those atrocities.... Better yet...teddy bears!

Excellent research and info Foxe, thanks for sharing.

There is no doubt in my mind that geography was a huge part. Specifically Massachusets Bay, which basically entails from Southern Maine to Rhode Island. This flag in question seems to be a trend among a group of pirates, all of whom are somehow or other connected through crew lineage. If it's not the actual same flag or flags getting "inherited" by new offshoots of subsequent crews, then it's a case of Pirate Joe on Ship X saying "Ya know, when I was on So-And-So's ship, we had this really neat flag with a dart, blood drops, the whole nine. Why don't we adopt that look for our colors?" The security & law enforcement of the time in New England was VERY porous at best. Sewall himself notes how many pirates of Quelch's crew escaped or were let go. Toss bribes into the mix, and it's easy to see how an active group of New England pirates could come and go from the various pirate vessels operating in the Atlantic in this period. The flag design had to be passed on like folklore. What I want to know is HOW this flag ever came to be associated with Blackbeard...unless this design was really so popular as to be used by most Atlantic pirates of the period...

Yeah but did you read Sewall's account yet? It's so cool.... Anyway, so what we have are several different descriptions of what sounds like the same flag. Made by different people, but all eminating from the Mass Bay Colony, circa 1723-1725. Here's a couple of my theories: 1: These witnesses were confusing this flag with someone else's. 2: One or more pirates were at one time or another members of ALL those pirate crews, and merely carried this same (and only) flag around with them between ships & captains. Perhaps it was just one guy who had this flag and used it several times off New England for a couple years. I think this is pretty likely given the extremely localized nature of the sightings. 3: perhaps all these seperate pirates purchased different copies of the same flag by the same flagmaker, perhaps just some whore in the West Indies trying to earn extra coin by sewing pirate colors on the side. Not likely, but interesting to think about. Maybe it was a mini-fad! I think #2 is quite feasible.

I just came across this Foxe, but I'm not sure it's anything solid. In "The Pirate's Who's Who" by Philip Gosse (Rio Grande Press - 1924), Quelch's entry contains the following lines: They hoisted a flag, the "Old Roger", described as having "in the middle of it an Anatomy with an Hourglars in one hand and a dart in the Heart with three drops of Blood proceeding from it in the other." This sounds like what you've been reading too. The quote certainly sounds period, but that doesn't mean a thing. Gosse could have mistakenly used this quote here, when it was really about another pirate, or paraphrased, or intentionally borrowed this quote from a completely different pirate's trial proceeding. Or, it could be Mather! I'm intrigued...now I want to read Mather's sermon too!

A packet of Smarties? That's it? Why, they cut up your mouth and everything! I'd far prefer a proper pint... Anyway, I scanned Sewall's entire account of the Quelch Affair and made a handy-dandy PDF file. This is one of his longest accounts, at about 8 pages. The footnotes are also of interest, so I scanned it at a little higher resolution so they could be read. Total file size is about 930K. You can download it by clicking Here - Sewall's Quelch Commentary. Enjoy! My favorite part is when Sewall dines with his sister-in-law while his brother (her husband) goes chasing the pirates to the Isle of Shoals. She's a nervous wreck, and Samuel spends the night trying to comfort her, while he himself is scared stiff of what might happen. Namely bloodshed. It puts a very timeless, human touch on these events. Incidentally I read through all my accounts of Quelch today and found no mention made of his flag anywhere. I wonder if somewhere in Portugal there is a Colonial Papers collection containing period accounts by the victims of Quelch's piracies off Brazil.... Also - in the footnotes they mention that a sketch (presumably biographic and not artistic, sadly) is to be found in the Dictionary of American Biography, published in New York, 1928. Could contain new info, but more than likely is just a rehash of Paine, etc.

I'll do so tonight, but Sewall doesn't mention Quelch's flag. Although the execution sounded like quite the spectacle! I think I have a mention of his flag somewhere...didn't they hang it on the gallows?

Extensively so, Foxe. In fact it's one of his longest entries. He was personally involved in their apprehension and the aftermath. He also attended the very Cotton Mather sermon to the pirates that you're looking for as well as the hanging. I'll scan the pages and post them as jpgs - it's way too much to transcribe. :) Sewall was also the first and only to publicly recant the witch trials and aplogogize to the families for his involvement, fwiw.

While I don't have Mather's works Foxe, I do have a great 2 volume collection of Samuel Sewall's journals covering almost the entire "Golden Age" from 1674-1719. Provides a much more secular commentary on life in and around Boston. Terrific stuff.

True that nice, high quality buttons were a show of wealth. Literally 18th century Bling. All the more reason pirates would covet them! And in hard times, you still needed to keep your cuffs/coats buttoned, so enter the proverbial wood, bone, cheese, etc.

Hey and I'll be at Disneyworld! I'll get a few loops around the Caribbean in too. Woohoo!

Oops

Just awesome. Are those spectacles actually tinted, ya think? Or just drawn that way? It never ceases to amaze me how many period pics I see of flat-topped cocked hats, yet I never see them available from any sutler. Guess it's time for a custom job!