Longarm

Vacation

Now that looks like fun.

Well I'll show my lack of learning. Just who was, is or might have been Cotton Mather? He doesn't sound to popular here.

But why Iceland? What could they have wanted from there? I've heard the women are very beautiful but is that enough for such a dangerous voyage?

I've decided, after looking at some of your creations for as long as I've been at the pub, if ever I get up enough loot to have an outfit custom made, you dear lady will be my first choice of tailors.

This is the first time I've heard of Algerian pirates raiding Iceland. It wasn't until I stareted reading about Grace O'Malley that I heard about raids on England and Ireland by Mediterranean corsairs. It's hard to believe their ships could handle the northern atlantic.

Are you guessing certain gentlemen of fortune might have stopped of a time or two for a little tradeing of goods? I think after a long sea voyage trading an expensive Chinese vase for fresh food and water might not seem like a bad deal at the time.

So the Chinese most likely were crewmen or their decendents from the Manilla Galleon. And I don't doubt slavery had something to do with there being there as well. Well it makes more sense then on a long trip such as that crewmen would need to be replaced and from the losses getting there. Then knowing how hard the return trip was going to be a captain would be a fool not to stock up on crew for journy back.

More things to buy when I hit the Lottery. The list just keeps growing. It better be one big jackpot. I wonder what they'll come up with next?

Wasn,t Grace O'Malley attacked by Algerian pirates while giveing birth to one of her children below decks? That is if the stories are true.

Now this is new. I've never even heard that there were Chinese anywhere in the area, let alone enough to fill out a militia company. I bet they had an interesting story on how they got there. From what little I know the Chinese stuck close to home with the exception of one admiral and a great fleet I saw on the history channel once. I don't think he made it to Acapulco though?

If you nice folks are going to be there I just might have to volunteer at the Spirit of South Carolina shipyard again this year. I got to meet Casabel and his good Lady last year.

That was great! Thanks for taking the time to put that together. If this doesn't make people go PIP 05 then nothing will, that or their dead. Thanks again.

First off Patrick your outfit and determination, are awesome. The fact that the buccaneers, like you, had to make and repair their own clothing and equipment and clothing themselves gives you alot more leeway in fit, looks, and material than you think. Alot would depend on materials available and how well one could sew, carve and create what one needed. This could leave alot room for creativity and self-expression when it comes to accessories. Secondly, don't you find it funny that the "good stuff" nowadays was the "cheap stuff" back then?

OK now I'm disappointed and bummed-out. After reading The Lost Fleet I was hopeing to find more on de Griff as well. Now I hear that finding out more just might be imposible without some kind of extensive degree in lanquages and reseach. This guys career and life sounds like it beats the heck out of, as corsair said, all the rehashes of Kidd, Morgan and the others, ie.. Bonney, Rackem and even ol' Blackbeard hisself.

Oh yea, Cannon Drill 101, or "How Do I Make This Thing Go Bang Without Blowing Myself Up In The Process?" by Kent Aist and Dexter Guptill, is a nice guide to have around. It may not be as indepth as other instructionals and it shouldn't be used to teach oneself about gunnery but it does help explain what the gunners are doing and why if your watching a cannon demo.

If you want a good guide for gunners read: The Gunners Instructions written and composed byStephan Barratt, a gunner in His Majesties Service. Or you could ask our own Master Hawkyns to tell you about it after all, if I'm not mistaken, he wrote it.

I have a theory as to why the wearing of earings went out of fashion during the GAoP. (Ijust hope I can explain it in a way it will make sense.) In the years leading up to the GAoP the continual wars between nations requiered them to press more and more landsmen into service. If not pressed many signed on to privateers with dreams of wealth or to avoid being pressed into the military. It has been shown that earings were not in fashion on land at this time so, the new swollen ranks of sailors would not have worn them. With peace came alot of unemployed sailors and privateers many of whom would have be stuck in whatever port they happened to be in when the news of peace arrived. Far from home and having nothing to show for their labors, piracy, naturally followed. But as more countries made piracy an unhealthy way of living, those that could went back to trying to make a living on land. This would leave a core of true sailors behind. With peace, trade and exploration expanded allowing this core of sailors to be exposed to different cultures and customs. Sailors, especially the deep water sailors, have always prided themselves on who and what they are so, the wearing of earings again shows up as a way of standing out from others or a kind-of right of passage. So the fashion at sea might not have been influenced as much by what was the fashion on land but, more by the politics on land that sent men to sea. If sailors cared so much about what was fashionable and proper on land, why is landlover or landlubber a derogatory word? In what little I know and have read about sailors there is very little that they have ever envied about life on land so, why care about what some sissy landsman thought was cool? Just my two cents on what is becoming an old thread but, could still apply to some of the newer ones as well.

Mmm That's a tough one, valentine or death?...valentine or death? I'll have to think about that one. Both have a way of hurting a man's constitution. One can't be to hasty about something like that.

The more things change the more things stay the same.

So where did the myth come from? Why would Pyle and others like him add earings to there pirates? Was it to make them appear more exotic and different from everyone else? Did they use examples of sailors and peoples of countries as examples? How much has the myths about improved eyesight and to pay for burial influenced artist and writers to portray pirates wearing earrings? Was there ever a time in history when sailors wore earrings as a matter of fashion or tradition? If so did this influence our ideas about pirates and earrings?

I don't know if I should ask this here or on your site or both. Just what is that fist symbol on the flag attributed to Stede Bonnet?

I'm curious about something. In all the first hand and documented accounts on pirates and sailors in general was there much about what kind of jewelery or adornment that was being worn?

I just finished: A Pirate of Exquisite Mind /Explorer Naturalist and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier By Diana & Michael Preston Walker Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8027-1425-0 This was very interesting, I'm going to have two find his books. I had no idea that the works of Capt. Cook, Charles Darwin and Daniel Defoe were inspired by and even copied from Dampier. He may not have been a very successful buccaneer or even a leader of men but, his talents for observation and deduction more than made up for it.