JoshuaRed

This has got to be one of the most bizarre threads I've seen here. Try a google image search.

LOL - that's why I suggested wranglin' a dead one.

And WHAT would Christopher Lowell think??

Last two times I was in the Everglades I came across dead gators. 1 roadkill, 1 natural causes, I think.

While yer a Kmart getting the shoes pick up a cheap digital cam too! :)

well I haven't gotten too much use out of them yet, but the year is still young. So far so good, though! They do help a little bit with traction...

Yeah I guess you'd have to use synthetic gator skin, unless you know the right people in Florida. Actually - you could probably get in touch with one of the many Gator farms down there and maybe they would save a dead one for ya. Blech. Dead gator is about the single worst stench I've encountered.

I just came across an interesting tidbit about how buccaneers were known to make sheaths for their knive and cuttoes from alligator or croc skin. Would be a nice touch for a kit!

They used to "armor" the heels by driving a series of nails into the heel for added wear. Here's a pic of my shoes:

Yeah as Greg has stated, it's cheaper to go authentic than fantasy!

Hey Bess - thanks for posting that link. I found that site about a year ago and lost it. Now I have it back, yippee! I love studying about the Baymen and their ragtag settlements.

I fall somewhere in between. I think that the vast majority of English mariners where a cohesive work force and probably looked, acted and sounded very similar, whether engaged in merchant, naval or private service. Just like today: a trucker is a trucker, and doesn't behave or dress any different whether he's hauling goods for the local junkyard or Dupont or the Government....or the Mob. So by and large I think those sailors that made brief forays into piracy remained inclusive of the overall maritime culture. BUT - I also think that those pirates who virtually dropped off the map, making LONG deepwater voyages around the world, or most of it, probably evolved their own bizarre little cultures, and upon emerging in the civilized world probably looked and sounded quite unique. After all, they were absent from Europe for years at a time, out of touch with popular culture, while at the same time soaking up OTHER cultures almost unknown to Europeans. Their crews were also a motley gang of sailors from every port in the world. I feel this especially applies to those pirates that made their home on Madagascar - they were quite aware of themselves as sort of selfmade outcast colonizers or warlords. Imagine the strange tales of them that visiting traders or Naval vessels would bring back to New York or London. In short, the longer a pirate voyage lasted, and the further it went, the more "pirate culture" probably evolved on it. I don't think this would really apply to planned privateer voyages like Rogers' as their constant goal was to get home with loot, not to escape society and the law.

Though I hesitate to even call this tidbit a "clue" into whether or not men were wearing earrings in the GAOP, it does make me stop and think. It's from Woodes Rogers' "A Cruising Voyage Round The World" from 1712. The version I have is the one edited by Robert Leslie in 1894, called "Life Aboard A British Privateer In The Time Of Queen Anne". Anyway, it was during this voyage that Rogers made his famous sack of Guiaquil in Peru. This tidbit in question is from when the officers of the Duke & Duchess are writing up rules of plunder for the raiding party to abide by. They get very specific about what is considered allowable for the sailors to keep for themselves, what must be divided, and what must be left alone. Rogers was very concerned about preserving the legitimacy of this expedition, lest he meet a similar fate as Kidd upon returning to England. The following excerpt is Robert Leslie, quoting Roger's original text: Now then. What struck me about this, is that IF men were not generally known to wear earrings during this time, then why would Rogers even feel the need to specify womens' earrings? He could just as easily say "guys, don't rob the women of the jewelry they're wearing." Or, "guys, don't take out any earrings" and the men would know he meant WOMEN. One could infer that Rogers was saying it was ok to take men's earrings as a trophy or prize, but not womens'. I dunno. It could well be nothing.

Wouldn't it be an utter blast to have a true buccaneer rendezvous on a deserted island in the West Indies? :)

I see facial hair on more than one of those gents!

Get some black silk, soak it in salt water and put it out in a sunny spot in the back yard, leave it there for a few months and see if it fades. Course, here is another facet: flags were only run up when intending to communicate with other ships. Usually ships sailing along did not constantly fly a flag, especially the jolly roger. So they may not have worn to gray merely because they didn't catch that many rays.

LOL instead of hearing the crisp snap of a flag atop the mizzen with tarred/painted canvas it would be "ka-thud. Bang. Fwap. Ka-thud...."

yep, Hogarth does eyepatches and peglegs, but I haven't seen an earring yet.

Now that I'm thinking about this, it seems to me that a large flag of heavy canvas weighted down with a couple coats of paint or tar would not fly very well at all. So perhaps it was more frequently dyed.

That's 19th century through and through. I could be wrong, but I THINK it was for "The Pirates Own Book" which was 1837, right? Anyone? Another pic that I think is from this book is the pirates riding monks, as well as the pirates "sweating" the captain around the mast.

Somewhere here is a LONG thread about this very thing. The final consensus of which was that they probably used whatever was on hand, be it actual black silk, or just canvas painted black with the symbol whitewashed on to it.

No you're right Foxe, and I wasn't disagreeing with you. I think what I was trying to say about Hogarth should have been a separate point from the beard issue and I just didn't convey it very well at all. What I was getting at was that in the era, there really was no such thing as "candid" art that would show something as brazen as a beard on a proper Englishman. It would be like painting a sea captain shirtless and barefoot. And Hogarth on the other hand, DID show the candid side of English life, which itself is devoid of beards. So it is quite safe to assume that beards were rare. My first post made it sound like it was an artist conspiracy to erase those tasteless foul beards from society, which was wrong. Sorry!

No, I meant that Hogarth was the execption because he showed an honest, gritty portrayal of the citizens of England, instead of sugarcoating life. :)

As far as I know, the fashion of the time dictated that only godless heathens went around unshaven. I recently read somewhere (forget source) that in New England men went clean shaven so as not to offend the Indians, who apparently were apt to kill white men with beards. *Shrugs*. But it was probably mostly just fashion. Shaving no doubt helped the sailors while far away from home and civilization feel more connected and well, more "civilized". Course on the flip side, I'd be willing to bet that many a lazy sailor would let the beard flow once away from his nagging wife, provided he sailed under a captain who didn't mind. The reason no artist depicts beards, is probably because the natural tendency was towards depicting Englishmen in the best possible light (with the exception of Hogarth, which is why he stands out) and showing the folks at home their valiant brave men out there braving the world and looking good at the same time.

Yeah it was funny on the E! Red Carpet, Star Jones gushed to Johnny about what a POTC fan she was and said something to effect of "And I see you still have some of the gold teeth in from Pirates!", not realizing that it was due to the filming for POTC 2 & 3 kicking in. Anyway, good news. Thanks Bess! He must have been wicked excited to get back into his Sparrow duds, eh?