Sea Chests

[Dutchman]

for clarification- the "duncan" he is refering to is NOT Duncan Mcguyver of the Crewe of the Vigilant.

[Ivan Henry aka Moose]

That's a nice reenforced banded chest Mooseworth.

Are there any photos of the bottom, back with hinges and the insides?

-Tar Bucket Bill

YEs... :et me see what I can do.

[Tartan Jack]

OK . . .

What is THAT lid from?

A 18th C. safe?

[PoD]

It's the locking mechanism used in one of these:

It's hidden beneath the cutout metal plated on this particular one. I actually started to make one of these a couple of days ago (minus the locking bit as I have no idea how that bugger supposed to work)

They are the chests carried by the Armada or Treasure Fleets that held the treasures taken from the New World

Edited April 23, 2010 by PoD

[Tartan Jack]

So . . .

It IS an 18th C. portable safe!

[PoD]

So . . .

It IS an 18th C. portable safe!

Ha ha yep pretty much but more likely a 17th C. portable safe

[IronTom]

Cool chests. Remember, pyrates usually had double the normal crew for raiding purposes so compared to any other crew they would have had much more free time. Other than Rum, most would gamble or carve wood or hard cheese in their spare time. It is entirely posssible that they would personalize their chest for no other reason other than to ward others away! Skulls, sharks, Kraken, dire!

[oderlesseye]

Well despite my set back.. Eye now have my seaman's chest completed.. It weighs a bit..like at least 25 LBS. So If I just use it for clothing and odds and ends, I think Eye still can handle it on my own though I have to admit an extra person on the other side is a big help.. This said, Eye really don't think a seaman moved his chest around too much because of weight.

[capn'rob]

Well despite my set back.. Eye now have my seaman's chest completed.. It weighs a bit..like at least 25 LBS. So If I just use it for clothing and odds and ends, I think Eye still can handle it on my own though I have to admit an extra person on the other side is a big help.. This said, Eye really don't think a seaman moved his chest around too much because of weight.

[capn'rob]

I believe that transport from ship to ship would have employed a wheelbarrow to move Sea Chests. I think it was in the beginning of Moby Dick, with Gregory Peck, when loading the Pequod this was in practice.

[Mission]

OK, so I have this quote from Leo Eloesser's 1926 article "Pirate and Buccaneer Doctors."

"...the French West Indies it came to a head that he [Edward Low] wanted a doctor's chest, so he put four French captives aboard a prize sloop and sent them off to St. Thomas to tell the Governor that if he'd not sell him a good chest for the money his captive brought with them he'd kill all the Frenchmen and burn ten or more French vessels that he had in his hands. His captives returned with the chest."

I want to use it, but I can't find the original source. Does anyone know what this is from? It doesn't seem to be in the 3rd edition of the General History, which is where I would have expected to find this. Is there another contemporary Low source? Or did Eloesser somehow confuse the Blackbeard account with Low?

[Mission]

Never mind, I found it. I really need to read Dow and Edmond's The Pirates of the New England Coast one of these days...