pirate interviews

[murvosh]

Pyracy Pub moderator and members,

I'm a graduate student at Emporia State University in the Library Science and Information Management program, which has a distance learning site in Portland. I'm part of a group of four grad students who are researching pirate re-enactors in the Portland area.

I'm posting here in hopes that you and your members would be willing to help us.

We're trying to learn how people involved in pirate-related activities communicate about where events are, costuming and other things related to being a pirate re-enactor. Obviously Pyracy Pub is one of the places and we're trying to find out how things have changed over a time period of up to 10 years.

My group has loosely define pirate re-enactors as people who don pirate garb, attends events, such as the Portland Pirate Festival, at least once a year. This definition also includes people who are hard-core re-enactors who embrace their characters and have accurate costumes or are involved in performances.

If you're living in the Portland area and interested in helping us out, one of us would interview you either over the phone or in person.

Questions would include: How long have you been involved in pirate activities? How do you learn about activities, costuming and other things? What has changed in regards to getting the communication methods from when you first joined to now? If you belong to other groups, listservs, etc., what has changed about them since you first started?

If you are interested, please send me an e-mail either mmurvosh@emporia.edu or murvosh@yahoo.com.

Cheers,

Marta Murvosh

mmurvosh@emporia.edu

murvosh@yahoo.com

[Duchess]

Merely out of curiosity...

You chosen subject of investigation could loosely be summed up as "communication amongst a subset of people with a common interest." What lead you to specify that common interest as Pirate Re-enactors?

[Ransom]

I would think that, after perusing the different threads on the Pub, and the posted links to other sites, that most of your questions would be answered, without the necessity of personal interviews, not that those are objectionable. As with Duchess, I wonder, merely out of curiosity, why pyrates and not, say, Civil War reenactors, or Mountain Man Rondevous participants?

[captscurvy_nc]

If your willing to consider someone outside the Portalnd area send me a msg. I live in Raleigh NC but travel as much as my job and finances allow.

[Raphael Misson]

Questions would include: [1] How long have you been involved in pirate activities? [2] How do you learn about activities, costuming and other things? [3] What has changed in regards to getting the communication methods from when you first joined to now? [4] If you belong to other groups, listservs, etc., what has changed about them since you first started?

Personally I think she's approaching this from the wrong angle - pirate re-enactors seem more to come from many far flung places and gather whereever they find an event that's reasonably close (sometimes) or that they like. To focus on one geographic area where a pirate re-enactor lives is to dramatically limit your pool of research subjects. You'd be better advised to find a re-enactment group dedicated to an event that happened in the Portland area. It seems to me that this would draw local re-enactors more readily than piracy. (Especially piracy in Portland. Was there ever any pirate activity in Portland? I don't know of any.)

For me (in Michigan, where there were probably also never any pirates.)

1. I've been interested in pirates since I was a kid, got involved with re-enactors here in 2004, started re-enacting in 2007.

2. Almost entirely from this board and most usually from the long-term [say a year or more tenure] posters.

3. Like any group, as I got to more events, I find the people I particularly enjoy hanging around with and go to the events they go to (when they are close and affordable given my particular needs for an event.)

4. I do not belong to any other pirate re-enacting groups. (This question seems vaguely stated to me.)

Edited September 14, 2009 by Raphael Misson

[Quartermaster James]

By no means assuming to presume to answer for the original poster, allow me to suppose while anticipating her reply:

My supposition is that the students have latched onto pirate reenactors because they find themselves immersed in a time and place resplendent with such, namely: Portland, Oregon, Summer 2009.

Now, I do not know how a distance learning center works. Are the students local to the center and learn at a distance from Emporia, or are they sent fresh from the fields of Kansas to far and distant Portlandia? If the latter, they may not have ever before encountered pirates. In July, they would have seen the streets of downtown Portland overrun with pirates for the 166th annual Plunderathon, or perhaps they had been in a bar raided by pirates, or noticed several of the aforementioned establishments already pirate themed, or found a pirate store in the mall (Aye! here in Portland, pirattitude has penetrated even the most hallowed temple of our culture!), or been told tales of Sea Dog Nights, or observed pirates at the Faire in the Grove, or seen pirates in the Starlight Parade. And now, as summer's end comes into view, we approach the Portland Pirate Festival next weekend. Of course it doesn't hurt that we are but a short sail away from the birthplace of ITLAP day!

I wonder if they've even seen a Mountain Man or Civil War reenactor around these parts in a while? We do have both. Perhaps neither were chosen because 1) Civil War reenactors have been studied a bit already, 2) Mountain Men tend to fly under the radar. Just supposin'...

[William Brand]

How long have you been involved in pirate activities?

Rape, murder and theft? Never. Well, I've taken an office pen perhaps, but never on the high seas. As for Pirate living history, the interest goes back many years but the activity starts more or less in 2003.

How do you learn about activities, costuming and other things?

I've learned about activities, costuming and other things primarily through friends and associates here on the Pub and at Pirates in Paradise. I have also learned my share of things by researching specific subjects of sailing, carpentry, ship draughts, canons, clothing and customs while working on the Watch Dog project and Mercury crew.

What has changed in regards to getting the communication methods from when you first joined to now?

Very little. There are so many ways of learning things about piracy from pure research to pure accident. Association with others of the hobby has proved advantageous in many ways and I often find that there are enough of us researching various aspects of piracy to teach one another.

If you belong to other groups, listservs, etc., what has changed about them since you first started?

They've become less important as reference sites as the Pub has grown, apart from a handful that have proven useful time and time again. I can usually find the information or link to the information I need right here if I pay attention and ask the proper questions.

[murvosh]

Everyone,

Thank you for responding to my post.

I apologize for shorting pirate re-enacting activities to pirate activities. I met no insult, especially to folks who know whether a sword is historically accurate or not.

Here are answers to your questions:

- Why pirate re-enactors?

One of the group members suggested pirate re-enactors because of the upcoming Portland Pirate Festival (this weekend.) The rest of us thought pirate re-enactors sounded interesting and fun.

Besides fun, we also thought that developments in technology in the past 10 years likely made for some changes in how pirate enthusiasts and re-enactors communicate about things that are important to the community. We also thought there might be other things affecting how the community communicates and uses information. For instance, did the Pirates of the Caribbean films bring pirate enthusiasts to re-enacting?

Other groups in our cohort have picked the Society for Creative Anachronism, people who foster animals and urban chicken keeping. Even though we're grad students, we try not to be too stuffy. :-)

Based on my experience with friends in SCA and similar groups, I personally thought that pirate re-enactors would be very aware of how information is shared and used and that would help our research.

- In anticipation of the question, our assignment is to:

Investigate the changes in the information transfer cycle as it affects a specific professional, social, or cultural community. Describe whether or not it has changed over the past 10 years.

- Why Portland?

Partially it's convenience. We have to define the community and that includes geography. We meet each month in Portland for face to face classes and the rest of the work is online. Portland also has the upcoming pirate festival and other pirate-related events, as well as several pirate re-enactor groups. Three of the people in my group live in Portland. I live in Northwestern Washington.

- Did we get plucked from our sheltered lives in Kansas and dropped us into in Portland and were shocked at the sight of pirate re-enactors (or a pirate bar raid) that we were so overcome by the novelty that we had to study you like stuffy 19^th Century Western European explorers?

Nope. :-) I can't speak for the other group members, but I have attended a civil war re-enactment (though not in the South, so it may not count,) a couple of mountain men rendezvous (they aren't under the radar in Nevada or Utah,) a few renaissance fairs, several pagan festivals, numerous science fiction conventions and a war horse demonstration.

- Why not pirate re-enactors from many locations?

A couple of reasons. First, it's not a thesis. We have a couple of months to research and present what we found. We just don't have the time and resources for a big study.

- Why not focus on a group of re-enactors?

Part of what we're looking at is how information is transferred, used and shared. If we only look at one group, then we might find ourselves unable to observe that.

That said we are in the process of contacting some of the re-enactor groups in Portland. We're also

- Why not just look at the threads on the Pub?

We are. But we can't answer all of our questions, especially about how things have changed over the past 10 years, without interviews.

- What to do if you're interested?

Send me an e-mail at mmurvosh@emporia.edu or murvosh@yahoo.com. We have more questions than what I posted. They are little more specific.

Cheers,

Marta Murvosh

[murvosh]

Quartermaster James,

As moderator of the Pub, I wonder if you'd be willing to answer some questions about the Pub in general. If so, shoot me an e-mail at mmurvosh@emporia.edu and I can send you them.

Thanks,

Marta

[Quartermaster James]

Dear Marta,

Thank you for your well written and enjoyable response to the varied queries put you.

As but one of many moderators in this environment, and the newest at that, I respectfully refrain from participating in your research project.

Best regards,

Quartermaster James

[blackjohn]

Besides fun, we also thought that developments in technology in the past 10 years likely made for some changes in how pirate enthusiasts and re-enactors communicate about things that are important to the community. We also thought there might be other things affecting how the community communicates and uses information. For instance, did the Pirates of the Caribbean films bring pirate enthusiasts to re-enacting?

Boy, has it ever! I have seen the way we communicate go through at least three technological leaps... with a couple sidebars along the way.

[murvosh]

Quartermaster James. Thank you for your reply. I wish you well. Marta

As but one of many moderators in this environment, and the newest at that, I respectfully refrain from participating in your research project. Quartermaster James