Raphael Misson

This quote from Henry Teonge's Diary was just full of all sorts of stuff. I learned several things. “[Jan. 6, 1676] …for this day being the Twelfth Day [of Christmas]¹… we had much mirth on board, for we had a great cake made², in which was put a bean for the king, a pea for the queen, a clove for the knave, a forked stick for the cuckold, a rag for the slut. The cake was cut into several pieces in the great cabin, and all put into a napkin³, out of which everyone took his piece, as out of a lottery; then each piece is broken to see what was in it, which caused much laughter, to see our Lieutenant prove the cuckold, and more to see us tumble one over the other in the cabin, ye reason of the weather.” (Teonge, p. 120) ¹ At first I wasn't sure what "Twelfth Day" meant until I puzzled out the date. Turns out the twelve Days of Christmas was a sort of church holiday in England - something I didn't know. It's sometimes called Christmastide according to wiki and the Epiphany (which I actually knew, but had never thought about as a holiday). I also rambled across an interesting (if possibly untrue) explanation of the song the 12 Days of Christmas on this site ²This is something else I've come across in the past that I didn't realize had such deep roots. I was working in Lousiana right after Christmas many years ago and they made a "King's Cake" which contained 2 plastic babies. Note that not only were the items embedded in the cake different, the interpretations were as well. If you wound up with one of the babies you were scheduled for a live birth in your family in the coming year. (Ergo, when I was there, getting a baby was considered a bad thing.) ³ Napkins on ship! (Well, it was the officer's mess.) Teonge's descriptions of the food and drink are very different than other contemporary accounts, particularly Barlow's. You really get a feel for the differences in food that the officers got and what the sailors got by contrasting Teonge's Diary with Barlow's Journal.

I suspect that I read more interesting than I appear. However, you can't miss me - I wear a large Patrick Hand original planter's hat at times.

The very one. I like him, but that was just silly. (Although you gotta' admit...Rafe sound better than Ralf.)

I grow no foodstuffs except the random herb or two on the kitchen sill. I have several tropical plants that must needs be brought inside and artificially lit. Three of them reside on the Plank Shelves is my Pirate-Themed Living Room. Three others make their home in the Key West Themed Dining Room. NOTE: You'll have to scroll about half way down the page to see the three plants in the area marked Corner Plant Stand. Be aware that the dining room web pages are not complete (mostly because the dining room is not complete) which is why there is no link to them from anywhere on my webpage. So you're getting a look at the "in progress" pages. (I do so hate broken links and links to incomplete pages. It's the Judger in me.) For the curious, that odd thing at the top of the page is a message to someone I have asked to design a very interesting dining room table - it seemed expedient to just post the pics on the web page for them and put my thoughts there for their review. It also gave me incentive to build the pages, most of which are actually done - although they are not yet linked from that page (The persistent can get to them, though. ) Speaking of which, yesterday I came up with the most curious idea. If you look at that page, you'll notice a large indoor window at the back of the room overlooking my Florida Room. I had wanted to make (or get made - I know not nearly enough about the process) a stained-glass window for that spot. Several weeks ago I sketched a rough outline of a Keys-themed picture I have had in mind for almost twenty years (the outline of which I won't share now as sharing my artistic ideas seems to diminish my interest in them for some odd reason). I set the sketch aside to simmer. Yesterday it hit me that it would be really cool to make and paint for myself a sort of three dimensional painting of this picture. The way the painting would work would be this: I would mount three or four panes of glass the full size of the window in a box that would fit inside the widow aperture.The box would have small wood spacers around the edges to keep the panes about 1/16 - 3/16" apart. The picture is of a landscape and has three rough parts - foreground, mid-ground and distant. It occurred to me that the closest objects could be painted on the front of the first pane of glass and would appear at the bottom, the slightly recessed foreground objects would be painted on the back of the same pane. This would be done similarly for the mid and distant panes, although the mid pane would occupy the middle of the glass and the distant part the top part of the glass. The work would have to make best use of shadows that would appear when viewing the work. There would be overlap in the painting so that if you looked at a certain spot at an angle, you would not see blank areas on panes behind the front. I plan to it as a slightly impressionistic work to allow for the best use of the shadow effect. I don't know if I'll do it or not, but I have been noodling with it and have had several really interesting (and, dare I say, clever) ideas about how to make the best use of this 3D painting. So that was the most interesting part of my yesterday. (If there is something better than mentally toying with creative projects, I couldn't possibly tell you what it was. It's better than making them or even seeing them complete - although if they are never completed, it's sort of useless as an exercise...there's that J again.)

I have been using Ed's excellent references and by jove if I didn't find some of these on-line for the asking! No one need whine that the period accounts of sailing are too expensive or HTF any longer. If we ever reach the ballyhooed moneyless state, Google will surely have had a hand in it. I had heard that U of M(ichigan) was working with Google to put their catalog on-line and here is proof. Save yourself time and angst, grab a .pdf and run with it. The Diary of Henry Teonge Dampier's New Voyage Round the World -- Sterling, this is the original and it is different than the copy I have - I see it has those damned s's for f's - so if you want the real honest-to-John thing (which you probably don't want to have to pay for) this is about as good as it gets. Toss the pride in your library aside and add a .pdf to your collection. Ned Ward's Wooden World Dissected I have looked longingly at U of M's library in the past (they don't do inter-library loan with the common libraries) and it is the most complete I know of, so keep a sharp eye out for the other books on this list. My understanding is that the scanning of books is ever on-going, slow though it may be.

Dutch, I did get your PM, but I was on a hotel computer and had to get off before I could answer it...and thus forgot. I have Culpepper's book. It is still being printed! (You have to be careful, though, some verionss have been 'updated' it for modern consumption.) I must confess, however, that the apothecary side of this interests me less than the other parts and so I have spent little time researching it. I actually stopped inan apothecary shop/museum in Niagra on the Lake, but it was from the mid 19th century and thus not so very enlightening viz. my current topic.

Weird. I couldn't see my post until I replied - it never showed a second page.

I thought this info from Henry Teonge's Diary was pretty interesting. "[Nov. 27, 1675] A pigeon was sent from Scanderoon [Alexandretta] to Aleppo this day, to give notice of a French merchant that came in today. 'Tis distant sixty miles. [Endnote 122: See also Hakluyt Soc., vol lxxxvii, p. 32, for an account of the pigeon-service in 1599. The name of the ship, and time of arrival was always sent to Aleppo.]" (Teonge, p. 93) "[Dec 5, 1675] Here [Cilicia] is an art (I mean from the three factories [located in Scanderoon/Alexandretta]) to send a pigeon single, and sometimes two together, from hence to Aleppo upon any sudden occasion of shipping coming in, or any other business. The pigeons are bred at Aleppo, and brought down on horseback in cages; and, when occasion serves, a small note made fast to their wing, close to their body with a silk, yet so as not to hurt the wing; and then take them to the top of the factory and let him go, and the pigeon will fly home (which any of our pigeons would also do), and the pigeon coming home, thinking to creep into his old habitation, is caught as it were in a coffer (Endnote 142: MS cofer - a box or chest), trapped and taken, and examined." (Teonge, p. 107)

More yummy descriptions: “[Oct. 5, 1675] Here [Cyprus] is plenty of locust and wild honey, which the inhabitants will carry about in a wooden platter, or tray, and proffer you a piece on a knife as you walk the streets, not asking anything for it: it looks almost like resin, but do but touch it and it melts.” (Teonge, p. 87)

Sergeant Schultz was in charge of a toy company before WWII. The Germans were noted wooden toymakers from beginning in the late 18th century.

What we can say that the phrase goes back to 1734 and would probably have been in use at that time and before. It almost certainly goes back farther than that, but print is the only definable way that I can think of that we have to trace words and phrases to certain periods. One of the interesting things I find about The Diary of Henry Teonge is that editor G.E. Manwaring has noted when Teonge's diary is the first print usage of various terms and words. No book is absolutely factual. I would argue 'absolute factuality' nearly doesn't even exist in the human realm; it's more of an agreement to accept something as being a fact. (Actually, I have done so in Beyond several times.) The author of the General History appears to have gotten much of his info second hand which leaves the door open for all sorts of 'factual' errors. Every bit of print, including first hand accounts are open to errors in memory and re-telling. We interpret everything we take in. The most current research suggests that our memories are constructed of high points of events. When we 'recall' them, we actually go back and fill in the bits that were not high points, often, provably, incorrectly. However, the attribution is not disproved just because there are some disagreements in data between one source and another. I would argue it could never be disproved (unless someone invents a time machine). Still, I suspect Roberts would probably like that it was attributed to him even if he didn't say it. Like Picasso, he'd probably claim a work that increased his notoriety whether it was his or not. As for the authorship of the General History, I used to think that Defoe was the author until I looked into it more deeply. The General History was not ascribed by historians to Defoe until the 1930s. I highly recommend the book The Canon-isation of Daniel Defoe by P.N Furbanks and W.R. Owens. There's a lot of evidence against Defoe as author while much of the evidence for it is rather weak. However, I won't re-recite it here - you can find what I learned on my webpage if you're curious: http://www.markck.com/images/Piracy/Author...l%20History.htm (Even if you do read that, I'd get a copy of the book and read it for myself if I were you. There's nothing like direct experience. I'm sure your local library can procure it for you.)

Yesterday I worked the wagon and wheelchair booth at the county fair. (It's a volunteer thing.) You would think people watching at a county fair would be interesting, but being a rural area, they're fairly homogeneous. You mostly get families and teenagers. Then I went home and made some more monolithically slow progress on my kitchen cabinets with the sliding shelves. And indoor skydiving reminds me of Harry Potter.

Cool! The gold teeth are a great idea...most Bucky skeletons have those two missing teeth... Got any photos of him in the gibbet?

I really like that last picture. It reminds me of an early ore dock. This is way OT, but there's an abandoned ore dock in downtown Marquette, MI that I've always liked. When I first fell in love with it, someone who lived there told me the city owned it and they'd probably sell it to me for a dollar if I could figure out what to do with it. I made many grand (and unworkable) plans and finally reconciled myself to never owning an ore dock. I guess there are currently plans by the city to turn it into a sort of tourist thing. Isn't that cool? (Sorry for going so far OT, the chute just reminded me of that.)

Author of Quick and EZ Amputation Using Every-Day Tools Found Shipboard (Amaze Your Friends! Practice on Your Enemies!) and Self-Administration of the Clyster in the Privacy of Your Own Hammock (What happens in the hammock, stays in the hammock. Unfortunately.)

There! (Best I can do with my crappy tools.) If it were big enough, that would make an awesome avatar. Maybe I'll put it in my profile photo eventually.

Alas, TotGM is not on DVD. Put your name on the officious Amazon "notify me when this comes out" and that might help get the series released. (Everyone is invited. ) Thanks for the pic! That is nice - much nicer than the ones we took when I was there, albeit fuzzy as you noted. (It's the lighting that makes 'em blurry - years of attempted Haunted House photography has taught me that.) It might be a bit much for an avatar, tho' - TMI (TM Digital I)

My new avatar is actually an old avatar which I believe is from the POTC ride at Disney Land. (I've never been to Disney Land, but I'm pretty sure he isn't at Disney World.) While it could never touch Hobbes as a cool avatar, I actually think he is more representative of my interest in pirates. See, he looks like he's explaining something...probably how to do an amputation in under 2 minutes. And the old ones I haven't listed before that I can remember are: Luna Lovegood - an odd choice, I must admit. Not sure why I did that. Jack from Tales of the Gold Monkey. Kept that one for a long time, I did. Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez...known as the Rat... (Clearly not resized.)

Still neutral.

Yesterday I picked all the green beans worth picking along with some broccoli and had a fine meal of it. This year's garden has been most productive. I also picked some of my herbs and baked them with red and white potatoes in foil packets with scallions and Shitake mushrooms. Plus I made monolithically slow progress on my latest on-going kitchen project - sliding shelves for one of the upper cabinets. I plan to affix these wire letter containers to the sliding shelves so I can display the dishes, yet still slide them out to get them. I'll post pics on my website once this mess is done - well, provided it comes out. You never can tell how well such things will come out...

Here's one from The Diary of Henry Teonge: "[June 15, 1676] We are as far as the lighthouse, on Capt Tygta. (Endnote 214: Cape Kiti [Cyprus]; the S.W. point of the Gulf of Larnaka.)" (Teonge, p. 171)

Very interesting. I thought whaling took place more in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Joan Druett's book Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea Under Sail focuses a great deal on medicine and the whaling industry. On top of all the normal dangers associated with sea travel during the age of sail, whaling itself added an extra layer of danger as you suggest. I wonder what they thought of the noisome whaling shipboard environment in:re health? "Bad air" (or mal-air) was widely believed to be the cause of many fevers and sicknesses at this time. Being on a stinky old whaling ship must surely have been regarded as an unhealthy business on top of everything else associated with such a voyage.

I chose Raphael with great deliberation. It has two meanings. (And that's all I'm gonna say. ) Marc Mission. Marc Mission? Marcus Mission? Marc Mission, CPA. Marc Mission, PhD. "Oh yeah, and who the Billy Shears are you?" "Who? Ah, who indeed am I?" "Jeremy…" "Hilary…" "Boob…?" "Phuddt!" "Who? " "Eminent physicist, polyglot cladicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-writing satirist, talented pianist. Good dentist, too! Ha-ha!" "Lousy poet." "Critic's voice — take your choice!"

For the skull. I asked someone to freeze my ID at the skull many years ago, but it's nigh impossible with the software, so I just switched user IDs the first time it happened. I wasn't going to tell anyone, but being a mod, that confused people who needed help the first time, so I then realized that I had to explain it. And once you start doing something stupid like that... The proper response is probably something like "Noted and understood." Or (shrug). Or nothing but

And not buying any virtual rounds. (It may just be me, but I think virtual rounds are silly.) My Misson ID has reached the coveted 1000 posts and the cool skull icon, so in keeping with the ancient tradition that I just made up, Misson gets the double skull and that ID gets retired. Misson is a(n allegedly) French surname, so I chose a French given name that fits my motif. The noted Captain Misson had no given name recorded and since he was fictional, there isn't any given name to research and discover. (I, of course, am not Captain Misson as I've never been able to reconcile myself to such a lofty title that I in no way deserve.) And so on and so forth. Mission = Caraccioli = Misson = Raphael Misson Now that's all secret, so don't tell anyone.