tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51466629613840208752024-03-18T22:43:13.381-07:00The Pirate EmpireFascinating facts about Pirates, their lives, weapons, ships, and history, by the author of The Pirate Empire, available on Amazon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-46609427982422677642018-07-10T20:41:00.002-07:002018-07-10T20:41:21.383-07:00The Successful Pyrate<br />
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The Successful Pyrate is a play by Charles Johnson. It was
first performed 1712 and published 1713, and dealt with the life of the pirate
Henry Avery (Every).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Charles Johnson (1679 – 11 March 1748) was an English
playwright and a tavern keeper. He claimed that he had been trained in law, but
there is no evidence of this. At the same time, it is possible that he actually
was a lawyer, as his first two published works, (<u>Marlborough; on the Late
Glorious Victory Near Hochstet </u>in Germany and <u>The Queen; a Pindaric Ode</u>)
list him as living in Gray's Inn. This was one of the four “Inns of Court” and
in order to practice law in England or Wales a person must belong to one of
these inns. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He married a Mary Bradbury in Gray's Inn
chapel in 1709, the year of his first play, <u>Love and Liberty</u>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drury Lane Theater, still in use today</td></tr>
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Around the year 1710, Johnson became friends with Robert
Wilks, the actor-manager of Drury Lane Theatre. Wilks was able to see that Johnson's
plays received consideration. In 1711, <u>The</u> <u>Wife's Relief, or, The
Husband's Cure</u> was a great success. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1712, <u>The Successful Pyrate</u> was produced, and complaints
were made to Charles Killigrew, Master of the Revels that the play glamorized
the pirate Henry Every. However, the play's controversy helped its profitability,
and it was a theatrical success.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist's conception of Henry Avery</td></tr>
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<u>The Successful Pyrate</u> is a glamorized adaptation of two
episodes contained in a pamphlet about the career of pirate Henry Avery: his
capture of the Mogul ship <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gang-i-sawai</i>,
allegedly carrying the Mogul's granddaughter, and a plot against Avery by his
lieutenant De Sale and other pirates.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the play, Avery goes under the name Arviragus, and has
made himself a King in Madagascar, the legendary east-African pirate island. He
captures the Indian princess Zaida and tries to force her to marry him, but she
is in love with a young man named Aranes. The two have an offstage fight and
Aranes is reportedly killed; meanwhile, De Sale, who has confided to the
audience that he is plotting to overthrow Arviragus and become King,
ingratiates himself with Zaida.<o:p></o:p></div>
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De Sale's fellow plotters are blundering fools and their
plans are easily thwarted. A comic trial scene follows. Then it is revealed
that Aranes is Arviragus' long lost son, and that he is still alive, his friend
Alvarez having died in his place. The plotters are executed and Aranes and
Zaida marry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist's conception of Avery meeting the Mogul's granddaughter</td></tr>
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The play is reportedly more comedy than anything else. The
pirates are mostly fools, especially Sir Gaudy Tulip, an aged and cowardly
London beau. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gang-i-sawai</i> is, for
comic effect, carrying two European ladies, Tulip's ex-mistress and another
pirate's ex-wife, who exchange comedic comments with the men. The drunken
conspirators and outrageously partial court are played entirely for laughs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Charles Johnson’s name may very well have inspired the pseudonym
of another great pirate author. A General History of the Robberies and Murders
of the Most Notorious Pyrates was written, supposedly by Captain Charles Johnson.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>General Histotry</i></td></tr>
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Who was this person? Arne Bialuschewski of the University of
Kiel in Germany has recently suggested Nathaniel Mist, a former sailor,
journalist, and publisher of the Weekly Journal, as a more likely candidate.
Charles Rivington (publisher of the History), had printed books for Mist, who
lived near his office. The General History was registered at Her Majesty's
Stationery Office in Mist's name. As a former seaman who had sailed the West
Indies, Mist, of all London's writer-publishers, was uniquely qualified to have
penned the History.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So why use Johnson’s name? Some scholars think that, to someone
who knew pirates and respected them, Mist was affronted by Johnson’s treatment of
the much-respected Avery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this true?
We may never know, but it seems plausible. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com120tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-49638424676700900442018-07-03T19:07:00.003-07:002018-07-03T19:07:32.904-07:00Were Pirates Happy?<br />
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“A short life and a merry one,” was the call of many
pirates. If you’ve read much of my writing, you know that I believe that many
pirates joined the ranks of the Gentlemen of Fortune because they were sick of
working under horrible conditions for little pay. Pirates simply said, “I’m mad
as hell and I won’t take it anymore.” Then they went off to have fun.</div>
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I’m coming to this train of thought after reading “Sapiens”
by Yuval Noah Harari. The book tells about the biological history of the human
race and its cultural development. One of the facts recounted in the book is
that happiness is ultimately brought about because of chemicals released in the
brain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The book asks some intriguing questions. For instance, is it
possible for a medieval peasant who has just put a new roof on his mud hut to
be just a happy as a modern-day lawyer who has just paid off a penthouse
apartment? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The book says “yes” and I agree, while reserving that a
medieval peasant had a lot less stress on his mind to distract him from his happiness.
A triumph is a triumph, and if you are doing better than your friends, you will
probably feel pretty smug about that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, how does this relate to pirates?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Many books portray the lives of pirates as short, miserable and
brutish. They are largely right. Sailors of the age did not live long. They ate
poor food, were often sick with fevers, and suffered from liver trouble from
the liquor they drank, and vitamin deficiencies from a limited diet. Pirates
also lived a violent life, with frequent ship battles and occasional on-shore
brawls.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>How could people who lived like this be happy?</div>
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Because they were relatively much better than other men from
similar backgrounds. If pirates did not live long, they lived as long as
sailors could expect. Sailors died from sickness, storms and injury. Pirates
faced the same risks. But where common sailors also complained that their ships
put into ports where sickness was common, or were poorly maintained, pirates were
free to leave a rotting or damaged ship behind and did not put into any port that
the crew did not agree to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates may have often eaten the poorly preserved food of
their day. But they lived in a society where everyone ate the same food, ship’s
officers to the lowest member of the crew. This put everyone on equal footing.
If pirates were considered the scum of the earth by the good citizens of the world,
they were all scum together, making their relative position higher than their
law-abiding brothers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition, pirate food was probably objectively better
than the food of regular sailors. When the people who procure the food also
have to eat it, you tend to have better food. Thought the diet of salt beef,
salt pork, ship’s biscuit and dried peas would be revolting to modern diners,
it was better than what the other guy was eating.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates also had more leisure time than their counterparts.
In a society that did not value leisure time (see: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic" target="_blank">The Protestant Work Ethic</a>) pirates took extravagant “vacations” on a regular basis, living a life of
ease after a few weeks spent plundering. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In short, pirates became pirates in order to attain the
things that they believed led to a happy life. And, according to reports, they succeeded. . <o:p></o:p></div>
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The piratical way of life also solved a problem that modern
people face when searching for happiness. This is the tendency of human nature
to “smooth out” moods. According to this theory, unless strongly acted upon, we
tend to return to a certain level of happiness which is our own “normal.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, putting a new roof on the old mud hut or paying off the penthouse
brings a rush of joy. But in a few days it begins to lesson, and soon we are no
more happy than we were.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Change is the answer to maintaining an elevated level of
happiness. The medieval peasant had to wait between shots of happiness, but the
modern lawyer who pays off a mortgage can continue searching for the “hit” of
happiness. He can take a mistress, win a promotion, buy a better car, go on a
vacation (or a better vacation.) get a better mistress, party with expensive
hookers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He doesn’t have to do these things, but the pleasures are
available and tempting. Of course, most people would say that this is not the
way to true contentment, but it is certainly an effective method of feeding an addiction.
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Pirates could feed any addiction they had for the happiness
jolt by frightening, assaulting and beating up their “betters,” the same people
who had formerly looked down on them. They had nearly endless quantities of
liquor, which was what they had dreamed of, and enough different kinds to provide
variety. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
possibility existed of sailing off to Madagascar, exploring the pirate-friendly
ports of New York and Boston, or plundering Spanish cities in Central and South
America. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Most of all, pirates had the chance to dream. Poor folk of
the time had little or no chance to raise themselves in society. But a pirate could
dream his way to the very top, imagining himself even as a Member of
Parliament. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, and
hard labor; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power;
and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is
run for it, at worst, is only a sour look or two at choking. No, a merry life
and a short one, shall be my motto.” Bartholomew Roberts, pirate captain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com83tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-34684948718541916892018-06-19T18:48:00.000-07:002018-06-19T18:48:56.786-07:00Songs Pirates Sang<br />
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Over and over I come back to the music that pirates in the
Golden Age would have heard and sung. So much music has come and gone since
1715 that it’s hard for us to get a handle on what music was like back then. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We tend to concentrate on sea shanties, but most of the
shanties we know are products of the 18<sup>th</sup> century. I believe that
the influx of sailors of African origin into European shipping changed sea-songs
permanently. Shanties, I think, were influenced strongly by the African
tradition of call-and response song structure. (I also believe that this African
structure strongly influenced the creation of the military “jody” or call-and-response
marching cadence. But that’s a discussion for another time.”)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Music was everywhere in the early 1700’s. People did not
wait until they were “professional quality” before singing or playing and instrument
in public. Anyone who Often could scrape a song out on a fiddle or toot a horn
would do so. People sang while they worked. People danced when they were happy.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Often songs educated their listeners. In the absence of
history classes, the ballads about Robin Hood provided a glimpse of English
history. We know they inspired Sam Bellamy and his crews. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So here are a few 17<sup>th</sup> century songs. (I don’t
note 18<sup>th</sup> century songs, since so many of them date from long after
the Age of Pirates.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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My favorite of the old songs remains “The Fair Maid of
Amsterdam” also called “A-Rovin’.” This is a Really Old Song. The earlies
records of it come from 1608, and it was not a new song then. This means that
it was a song sung not only by Blackbeard, but by Avery, and even by Sir Frances
Drake, king of the Elizabethan Sea Dogs. And yet we can listen to it easily, with
no more than the click of a button. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWToR3PG6-w" target="_blank">The Fair Maid of Amsterdam</a><br />
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Next, I’m going to share a slightly more recent song. Many
English ballads were collected by Francis James Child during the second half of
the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as
the 2,500-page book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The English
and Scottish Popular Ballads</i>. The tunes of most of the ballads were
collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Scholarly work like this has enabled us to enjoy these old
songs. I am sharing a popular Robin Hood ballad from about 1640. If you enjoy
it, other songs from the Child Ballads are available on YouTube. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCYuE-i_KI" target="_blank">Robin Hood Meets Little John</a><br />
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And our last song is younger yet. “Over the Hills and Far
Away” goes back far enough that we aren’t sure of its origins, but this version
was produced for a play in 1706, right in the middle of our time period. I also
like the sentiment, one of running away from cares and seeking adventure. (OK,
maybe I don’t believe in dumping spouses and children. But <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Our 'prentice Tom may now refuse<o:p></o:p></div>
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To wipe his scoundrel master's shoes<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sounds like the road to piracy, and all in a good cause.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFAMbgHu3L0" target="_blank">Over the Hills and Far Away</a><br />
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There you go. A bit of research will lead you to yet more songs and ballads... The search gets easier every day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-56064947864881694522018-06-13T19:44:00.001-07:002018-06-13T19:44:24.275-07:00Port Washington Family Pirate Daze<br />
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve been going to the Port Washington Pirate Festival since
its inception. It was my first ever Pirate event, and has done a lot to shape
my ideas of what pirate events look like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It has also shaped my performing career as a pirate storyteller. When
the fest went on hiatus for several years, I was dejected. But now that it’s
back, I continue to build my performance credentials. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This year in addition to being booked as an on-stage
performer, I brought my tent for True Pyarte Tales, ready to story-tell all day,
in between my scheduled performances. As usual, I had copies of my books to
sell. However, setting up on Friday during 18mph wind gusts was quite the
challenge!<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have an Easy-Up style tent, which I have modified by
creating a linen canvas top and muslin sidewalls. (Yes, I know, an Easy-Up is
hardly 18<sup>th</sup> century, but I’m doing the best I can.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Setting this baby up in my backyard takes all
of 15 minutes, even with the additional sidewalls, which attach with ties, and
the linen top, which has to be layered on top of the nylon cover the tent came
with. . But with high winds off Lake Michigan, this process suddenly turned
into a 2-hour ordeal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Setup begins by carrying the collapsed tent to its proper
location, setting it on its feet, pulling on the corners until it expands to
full diameter, then locking the corners in place and raising the legs to their
full height. It took nearly an hour to confirm our location in Rotary Park, a
spit of land jutting into harbor, and winds were steadily rising. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My friend Jeff and I had dressed for the weather –chilly-
but the rising winds were grabbing at our equipment, blowing hats and table
covers all over. Before anything else happened, the tent had to go up. Our
problem was that the top of an Easy-Up looks a lot like a parachute. Today it
was acting like one. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As soon as one of us let go of a tent-side, it wanted to
lift up into the air. Positioning the tent was crucial. Other educational
presenters would be nearby and needed their space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the tent was finally in position, I let
go and ran to our wagon to fetch the stakes and hammer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A huge gust of wind roared by and suddenly the entire tent
was in the air, headed toward the harbor. Only my first-mate Jeff, frantically
holding on to one leg and a corner of the top, preventing it from leaving us
all together! Good thing Jeff had a big lunch. If not, he might have been
carried away like Dorothy, to the Land of Oz.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When the gust passed, I ran in with the equipment and showed
him how to drive in the stakes. (Jeff’s a great guy, but definitely a city
boy.) Four twelve-inch iron tent stakes eventually attached the structure to
the ground, but with every gust, the aluminum tent poles bent until lit looked
like they would snap. Fortunately, I was prepared. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We added 3 additional tie down ropes, with stakes,
one in the middle of each side (except the front.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each side panel needed to be attached
individually, a nightmare process, as knots untied themselves and the large
pieces of fabric tried over and over to escape. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When we had finished, things still looked dicey. The sides
billowed like sails in a storm. The linen top really wanted to head out on its
own. Standing inside the tent felt almost as stressful as running around out in
the gusts. We needed more rope to control all the whipping fabric. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We had an additional coil, but it had been intended as
piratical decoration. We had no way to cut it. Then I remembered! A dear
friend, a woodworker and member of my writing group, had sharpened my sword,
turning it into a real weapon. I pulled out the blade and began cutting rope
into usable pieces. We roped down the sides, tied them to the tent stakes, and
passed a long section over the top of the tent to hold down the errant linen
cover. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The time for my first storytelling presentation came, and I
dashed off to do that. High winds prevented putting up my sign, but my new
sound system worked well, and people seemed to enjoy my tales. Afterward we
made one more trip to the tent, but it was useless to do anything further to
prevent disaster.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next morning, the linen top had disappeared. We found it
hanging down the back of the tent, still secured by a single piece of rope. As
we were trying to drag it back into position, Jeff told me, “I’m so often
impressed by your commitment to realism. But now I want Velcro. Lots and lots
of Velcro.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Velcro would have been a very good thing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That day, Saturday, was quiet. Apart from feeling odd
whenever I left the tent – I was actually missing the moving walls- life was
pretty good. I did my shows, and had a chance to check out some of the other
performers and the Thieves’ Market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did
a little shopping. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And then Jeff tells me that the next day will have thirty
mile an hour winds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We packed up that night, put the tent in the car, and with
the organizer’s blessing, moved my table, signage and books into the vendor’s
tent. The people who had put their tent next to us spent most of Sunday just
keeping it from blowing away. As for us, we lived. I made my last show at 5:00
Sunday, and we went home. I can’t say it was really fun, but it was an
adventure, and now I can write with authority about wind. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-38244567085870703642018-06-05T20:47:00.004-07:002018-06-05T20:48:17.097-07:00The Pirate Empire Presents: Fun With Flags. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was attending Port Washington Family Pirate Daze in Wisconsin
over the weekend, and saw a flag I didn’t recognize, It was this one:<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FNB4Jz9uDEA/WxdYIokSTXI/AAAAAAAAERQ/NhgOlVG69I8V_4AgZyOG4UmZaAcPio93ACLcBGAs/s1600/Elizabeth%2BII.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FNB4Jz9uDEA/WxdYIokSTXI/AAAAAAAAERQ/NhgOlVG69I8V_4AgZyOG4UmZaAcPio93ACLcBGAs/s320/Elizabeth%2BII.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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It’s the Royal Standard of the Sovereign <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the United Kingdom – the Official standard
(officially a war-banner) used by Queen Elizabeth II and all British rulers
since 1837. It flies over whatever home, castle, ship or limo they happen to be
in. The date a little late (ok, a lot late) for our time period, but it got the
thinking about how various flags have changed over the years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This one features (twice) the three royal lions of England,
the single royal lion of Scotland, and the harp of Ireland. (When in Scotland,
the flag is changed to this one, with two Scottish lions. Apparently, the Scots
are very persistent in getting what they want. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the earliest flag of England – a red cross on a
white field. It is the Cross of St. George, the patron saint of England, and
has been in use since the Middle Ages, when England, like almost all or Europe,
was a catholic country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7RauSRWuR3o/WxdYHp_bsVI/AAAAAAAAERI/Mp2ZWcJPZaYmKHrnEh_sQY0nNyIuz8bdQCEwYBhgL/s1600/800px-Flag_of_England.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7RauSRWuR3o/WxdYHp_bsVI/AAAAAAAAERI/Mp2ZWcJPZaYmKHrnEh_sQY0nNyIuz8bdQCEwYBhgL/s320/800px-Flag_of_England.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The so-called Union Jack, which became the national flag of
the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales) in 1707, had been used as a
flag by the Royal Navy since 1606, and was therefore the flag that most pirates
in the Caribbean would have been familiar with. The fact that it began as a
sea-flag also explains why it is commonly called a “jack.” At seam the “ack” was
a flag flown from the front of a ship on a short pole called a jackstaff. It is
said that both jack and jackstaff relate to the name of James I, king of
England in whose reign (1603–1625) the flag was designed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<img height="192" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p6x7S5iPB1E/WxdYLe8BQWI/AAAAAAAAERs/VsF99iCB0OojWQ9liP9_A0tDMjkr4UQ1gCEwYBhgL/h120/Union%2BJack.png" width="320" /></div>
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Like the previous flag, Scotland had to be special, and had
a versions of the flag where the white saltire went over the red cross. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pj9oyp1DSOs/WxdYLMn4nDI/AAAAAAAAERo/G9yZf27B-x4b9GVEzvevDd9sudRYNT_WgCEwYBhgL/h120/Union%2BJack%2BScot.png" /> </o:p></div>
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France, a country with a long Catholic history, has long had
the fleurs-de-lis <o:p></o:p></div>
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as its symbol, since the flower is a symbol of several Catholic
saints. Since the days of Joan of Arc, French national heroine, the color white
has been associated with the royal house of France. During the Golden Age, the French
national flag was a white field strewn with many gold fleurs-de-lis. The naval
flag of France, however, was a plain white flag, signifying purity of purpose.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<img height="213" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JP6TdVCvCH4/WxdYJii5CaI/AAAAAAAAERY/40StB4qWl9QVrB3aigeW_PCGkSDmzMrjwCEwYBhgL/h120/France.png" width="320" /></div>
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‘The fact that a white flag also represents surrender or a
pause for parlay was probably a source of amusement among the English. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Dutch flag has been a similar design since the Middle Ages,
Originally the red stripe was orange, in honor of William of Orange. But orange
was not a traditional heraldic color for flags, and was hard to decide on a shade.
In 1630 the orange was officially changed to red. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The flag of Portugal, like the flag of France, was mostly white.
The basic flag design was a crown over a shield that bore the country’s
coat-of-arms. It was refurbished occasionally to reflect fashion trends in both.
Peter II who became king in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in 1667, he
adapted the crown by transforming it into a five-arched crown. It was
refurbished again by Peter's son John V, in 1707. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A red beret was then added under the crown and the shield was
given a new shape. This flag then survived into the mid-1800’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Spanish, ever the conservatives, were late to come to
the concept of a national flag. Ships flew the flag of the saint who was assigned
the task of guarding the ship, and sometimes a regional flag. In the late Middle
Ages, ships were encouraged to fly the cross of burgundy, but it could be embroidered
on either a yellow or white background. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The flag below, which is mostly Spain’s coat of arms, was
officially adopted in 1701 and flew until 1760 so most pirates would have recognized
it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
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o:borderbottomcolor="yellow pure" o:borderrightcolor="yellow pure">
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o:title="Bourbonic flag (1701â1760) "/>
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So that’s it, the basic flags that Golden Age pirate would
have seen and recognized. Sometime soon, we’ll have to take a closer look at
the time period between 1701 and 1715. A lot was happening, and much of it
affected pirates. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-26244084350309675732018-05-29T20:06:00.002-07:002018-05-29T20:06:46.945-07:00Where Have I Been? Looking for Treasure (Island) <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sorry for
the long hiatus. Sometimes, in spite of a firm commitment to piracy, the World
just gets in the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">What have
I been up to? Well, in addition to my house flooding with sewage (amazing how
much creativity a thing like that takes out of you) I’ve been working on my latest book: Treasure Island Explained. And getting ready to Port Washington
Pirate Daze (formerly the Port Washington Pirate Fest.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<img alt="Image result for port washington pirate Daze" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQI4y5ymrS7dR0Yjj9dw8Fbs7aa7X7muuFvJeAZ90WkArtNPHY3-A" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The book:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve read
Treasure Island several times, and have been on a years’ long quest to see as
many different movie versions as possible. Four or five years ago, I refreshed
my direct knowledge of the novel by listening to on CD over several days during
my morning commute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">A good
reader can add a lot to the listener’s understanding of a book, and after a
week or so of commuter-listening, I felt that I had a good, deep grasp of what
Robert Lewis Stevenson was trying to say. But I was also aware of just how hard
some of the vocabulary is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve been
reading about pirates, and ships, for over ten years, and I’ve been reading
history for thirty. In addition, I have the skill of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">picking up vocabulary in context. </i>I’m not sure this is taught in
schools anymore. But between old-fashioned words, pirate slang, and poor
grammar, accurately recorded, there was ample opportunity for some people to
struggle with this book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">For a long
time, I had a desire to create an annotated version. All the words or concepts
that folks might not “get” would be explained in sidebars. The book would be
more readable to all the people who might enjoy it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zFDUNJcqL._AC_SL230_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for pirate vocabulary" border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zFDUNJcqL._AC_SL230_.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">One
problem stood in my way – no digital copy of the book’s contents that could be
converted to Word.. Sure, I could have typed it all out from one of my several
hard copies. But if you folks haven’t noticed yet, I’m not an especially good
typist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Finally, a
friend with better computer skills helped me out. (Hi, Katherine!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At last, the annotated Treasure Island could
become a reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Looking up
words, reading up on the English Justice System, and generally keeping my nose
to the grindstone to make this edition happen has taken an incredible amount of
time. The job became consuming. How do you fire one of those old pistols? What are
the parts of the ship? And what about the song, “Yo ho ho and a Bottle of Rum?”
So many things needed to be included. I lost sleep, unable to go to bed with
the project incomplete. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Then there
was the proof-reading, the beta reader, (Hi, Jeff!) the re-proof reading, the
formatting issues and the search for cover artwork. Finally, though a book emerged
that I could be proud of. It went out to the printer, and copies are now <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Island-Explained-Unabridged-Explanations/dp/171757095X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527649558&sr=8-1&keywords=ts+rhodes+treasure+island+explained" target="_blank">availableon Amazon</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JyK28pCUGe4/Ww4UOY4U3NI/AAAAAAAAEQk/6GS_Bo_AHaAPa8DhK-IiUmewMXlAqMoyACLcBGAs/s320/Cover%2BGold.jpg" width="256" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Along the
way, I read Robert Lewis Stevenson’s masterpiece more closely than ever before.
Even on the surface, it’s a great read, exciting and engrossing. But reading
closely, it’s possible to see some wonderful inside jokes that aren’t
immediately apparent. In one instance, Long Joh Silver askes another pirate a
question about the sails, and by the time all the words are defined and the
purpose of the objects in question are known, Silver has just asked “Are you
some kind of blockhead?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Stevenson
also follows the tradition of characters saying “the deuce” to avoid naming the
devil. But Long John Silver freely says ‘to the devil with you. ” Instead, he
avoids saying the name of God, in its place referring to “The Powers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">It’s also
interesting to compare the book to the movies. In the novel, Dr. Livesey is
quite hard on Jim for having run off to spy on the pirates. Never mind that Jim
is only about 13 years old, and he had the best intentions. In spite of saving
them all, Jim has to face some hard words from his companions. Most movies
leave that out, but it says a lot about what was expected of “Englishmen” back
in the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">One thing
that the movies and the book have in common. At the end, Long John Silver is
still at large. This, I think, is the thing that makes the book a classic. We
can still dream of running off with the famous pirate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BMOjB5OF4wM/Ww4U5nH1Y1I/AAAAAAAAEQs/n77HHkAsV2I2-Dcg1V_T9rHEQOLTDAqHQCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="258" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BMOjB5OF4wM/Ww4U5nH1Y1I/AAAAAAAAEQs/n77HHkAsV2I2-Dcg1V_T9rHEQOLTDAqHQCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Treasure
Island has defined the image of pirates for generations. If you haven’t read
the book, you should. Check out a copy from your local library, or maybe pick
up a copy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Island-Explained-Unabridged-Explanations/dp/171757095X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527649558&sr=8-1&keywords=ts+rhodes+treasure+island+explained" target="_blank">Treasure Island Explained.</a> You’ll be glad you did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-40998267055990875402018-01-30T20:32:00.002-08:002018-01-30T20:32:22.073-08:00Pirate Nests<div class="MsoNormal">
The image of a pirate haunt – or pirate nest, as they were
sometimes called by royal authorities and customs officials, calls up images of
violence, debauchery and decay. After all, who would let pirates wander freely
around their town, among their wives and children?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, as it turns out, a lot of people would. Pirate “nests”
included Charleston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Newport, and
Boston. These were towns where a pirate ship could go through the charade of
stowing the Jolly Roger, breaking out a more acceptable flag, and sailing
grandly into port. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNEY3wguais/WnFF6yyUExI/AAAAAAAAEPQ/ud96_BWTaOwJVFZ6uGOGGzXRqAi3yJUDwCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="481" height="202" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNEY3wguais/WnFF6yyUExI/AAAAAAAAEPQ/ud96_BWTaOwJVFZ6uGOGGzXRqAi3yJUDwCLcBGAs/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philadelphia, Pirate Nest. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Then, with a wink and a nod, the ne’r do wells would go
about selling wares of dubious origin. If questions were asked, the answer
might be that the goods “Had been retrieved from a ship that was taking on water,
and needed to lighten her load.” This, they claimed, explained the lack of
manifests, bills of sale, or known port of origin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But questions were seldom asked. When good are being sold at
half, perhaps a third, of their actual value, why ask? Everyone knew the sellers
were pirates, after all. And those that played along made a handsome profit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yiMJftHi6WM/WnFF6ZvYM_I/AAAAAAAAEPM/bjnDuonv0MkDp33Y3GnLAn82TelYN8rggCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="448" height="202" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yiMJftHi6WM/WnFF6ZvYM_I/AAAAAAAAEPM/bjnDuonv0MkDp33Y3GnLAn82TelYN8rggCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boston Harbor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>In the late 1600’s goods were coming from all over the world.
Pirates, who had been robbing the Spanish for over a century, were also taking
silks, velvets, gold and ivory from the Moghul Empire in India. Many pirates of
the time used the island of Madagascar as a base of operations, but they needed
civilization to fence their goods. So when it was time to settle down, they
went to English colonies in North America.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HluYr6KvXjU/WnFF7w0Tw1I/AAAAAAAAEPU/1KfnagLKqvkHjPbZGHXZYp0AWV4kyMXUQCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HluYr6KvXjU/WnFF7w0Tw1I/AAAAAAAAEPU/1KfnagLKqvkHjPbZGHXZYp0AWV4kyMXUQCLcBGAs/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most Englishmen were okay with robbing this guy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Goods purloined from merchant ships helped to build the New
World. Dealing with pirates helped the British colonies feel – and be – independent
of the Crown. Here, far from “the law” fortunes could be made. All you had to
do was to not look too closely at who you were dealing with.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the better-prepared pirates wanted to leave the life,
they might settle down in such a place. The Governor Eden of North Carolina
issued the King’s pardon to Blackbeard, then helped him to set up a suitable
house. Local rumors said that the newly pardoned pirate married a local girl –
though there is no proof.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BJkxKjf5bKw/WnFF54DsR9I/AAAAAAAAEPA/MwAZvwmLTgE_ZsT5prGedMDsiq1wBrjUwCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BJkxKjf5bKw/WnFF54DsR9I/AAAAAAAAEPA/MwAZvwmLTgE_ZsT5prGedMDsiq1wBrjUwCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The man who signed Blackbeard's pardon/ </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>But many respectable merchants were fathers-in-law to
retired pirates. Money mattered more than family in the new world, and when a
dashing, rakish young man showed up with plenty of money and a history of
dealing with the locals, it was natural that young women would be interested,
and their fathers accepting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When pirates bought property, and married into prominent
local families, it was natural that communities would rally around a pirate who
was under attack or suspicion from the authorities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jailbreaks and riots organized in support of alleged pirates
happened throughout the British Empire during the late seventeenth century.
Local political leaders openly protected men who committed acts of piracy
against powers that were nominally allied or at peace with England. In large
part, these leaders were protecting their own hides: Colonists wanted to
prevent depositions proving that they had harbored pirates or purchased their
goods. Some of the instigators were fathers-in-law of pirates.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KquOuA0V2TA/WnFF5887UvI/AAAAAAAAEPI/-sGGV5EhWCkv4xXAaAGpXKLWdp7kn-kiwCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="800" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KquOuA0V2TA/WnFF5887UvI/AAAAAAAAEPI/-sGGV5EhWCkv4xXAaAGpXKLWdp7kn-kiwCLcBGAs/s320/1111.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riot in progress!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>One example of a pirate protected by his community was a
former pirate named Moses Butterworth, who in 1701, was languishing in a Middletown,
New Jersey jail, accused of piracy. Butterworth had already confessed to
sailing with the notorious Captain Kid.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Governor Andrew Hamilton and his entourage rushed to
Monmouth County Court to try Butterworth for his crimes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Samuel Willet, a community leader, sent a drummer to
sound the alarm. Thomas Johnson gathered a company of men who, armed with guns
and clubs, attacked the courthouse. A contemporary estimated the crowd at over
a hundred East Jersey residents. The noise of shouting men, along with the
“Drum beating,” made it impossible to speak to Butterworth. No one was able to
ask him about his financial and social relationships with the local gentry.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a scuffle in which two townsfolk were injured, the
so-called pirate was freed and the Governor, a sheriff and judge were locked up in his place. When
the judge and his people were finally released they confessed that they had
feared for their lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDWMSjJvgnA/WnFF55svDvI/AAAAAAAAEPE/i2EopWfMsEIflnVyu2XZVsLmABSvLS4bgCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="224" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FDWMSjJvgnA/WnFF55svDvI/AAAAAAAAEPE/i2EopWfMsEIflnVyu2XZVsLmABSvLS4bgCLcBGAs/s200/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Governor Andrew Hamilton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>The townspeople believed that they were protecting their own
freedom to deal with whomever they pleased. But these people were protecting
their own hides as well. Colonists
wanted to prevent depositions proving that they had harbored pirates or
purchased their goods. Some of these instigators were fathers-in-law of
pirates.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But these otherwise upstanding members of the community
rebelled in support of sea marauders. Many colonists were afraid that
crack-downs on piracy hid darker intentions to strengthen royal authority, or perhaps
set up admiralty courts (which operated without juries,) or even force free-thinking
colonials to join the Anglican Church.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So protecting pirates was a social, economic and political
statement. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-44266992031818941792018-01-23T20:12:00.002-08:002018-01-23T20:12:22.244-08:00William Hogarth – a Picture of Pirate Times<div class="MsoNormal">
Much as we would like to know what pirates really, <i>really</i> looked like, there is little
pictorial evidence available. No cameras existed at the time, and people with
the talent to make accurate pictures did not hang out with pirates – or if they
did (many sailors, after all, have proved talented artists) their work has been
lost to time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most artwork was paid for by the rich and powerful – people
who wanted beautiful paintings of their friends or themselves, or of lovely
landscapes. Pirates, or the poor, the downtrodden, or the often homeless or
hungry people who became pirates, were not things people necessary wanted
pictures of.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZncJhNw1-Aw/WmgAM3pAQaI/AAAAAAAAENo/27nOnH3AmKk61UPNIY6G3QURH4sxMrlowCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_m6jwbcG5pU1qm6oc3o1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZncJhNw1-Aw/WmgAM3pAQaI/AAAAAAAAENo/27nOnH3AmKk61UPNIY6G3QURH4sxMrlowCLcBGAs/s320/tumblr_m6jwbcG5pU1qm6oc3o1_500.gif" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A woodcut of Jack Rackham<br />Not as detailed as an engraving</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But one man – William Hogarth, an engraver with an eye for
the humor and a love of the street life of London – has given us a wonderful
group of works that portray what the early lives of pirates <i>might </i>have been.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-grdYKrM_ASU/WmgAM-0FXeI/AAAAAAAAENg/XAOq_W8OKqo0VCGQomzHfVPJnEwG3_EDACLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="479" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-grdYKrM_ASU/WmgAM-0FXeI/AAAAAAAAENg/XAOq_W8OKqo0VCGQomzHfVPJnEwG3_EDACLcBGAs/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Self-portrait of Hogarth<br />Using engraving </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hogarth came from the lowest rank of the middle class. He
was apprenticed in his early teens to an engraver. This was an up-and-coming
art form, which catered to the less affluent of London’s citizens.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Engraving was one of the early forms of reproducing artwork.
It involved etching an image into a metal plate. When ink was rubbed across the
plate, it remained in the etched lines and came off the smooth metal surface.
Such a plate could be used to make hundreds of images. The technique was also
made an image that was much more subtle and detailed than the method of carving
a picture into wood, which had come before it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h0bGNxsXR44/WmgAMUhWi2I/AAAAAAAAENc/w-gHr_e88eA82CG5K0yiHinevG4erlAUgCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="1200" height="237" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h0bGNxsXR44/WmgAMUhWi2I/AAAAAAAAENc/w-gHr_e88eA82CG5K0yiHinevG4erlAUgCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Idle Prentice in a gaming den</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Hogarth worked in a shop that created what were called Trade
Cards. These earliest versions of business cards were commissioned by shop
owners to promote their businesses. The cards showed pictures – the business,
or some image representing it – a sheep for a wool merchant, cupids for someone
who sold perfume, and so on.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r_-ffI5JLBA/WmgHcyXlnAI/AAAAAAAAEOc/eQ4QUy_onrgGrRr-BxfttqikFf5XgcoZACLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1024" height="206" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r_-ffI5JLBA/WmgHcyXlnAI/AAAAAAAAEOc/eQ4QUy_onrgGrRr-BxfttqikFf5XgcoZACLcBGAs/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The cards quickly became popular as an end to themselves
(they would later be called Trading Cards) and the business of engraving
pictures for them created a new art form.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hogarth was so good at his craft that he was a self-employed
engraver by the age of 23, and at 27 was to create a
painting. The client initially rejected the painting, saying Hogarth was “an
engraver, and no painter” but he successfully sued and won the money promised
in the contract. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--Zdkzea-c5k/WmgHc84XaBI/AAAAAAAAEOg/Sf1XgYtcFD0UfJ2ZW5947kWMElC106hgQCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="986" height="236" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--Zdkzea-c5k/WmgHc84XaBI/AAAAAAAAEOg/Sf1XgYtcFD0UfJ2ZW5947kWMElC106hgQCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The South Sea bubble - colorized.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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After this, Hogarth began creating large-sized engravings
suitable for framing. He favored satire – in other words, humor with a message.
His first work was a comedy about the so-called “South Sea Bubble.” This was a
stock-issuing company that was supposed to explore the Pacific Ocean. Instead,
it did little beside sell stock, in a Bernie Madoff-style pyramid scheme.
Thousands of Londoners lost fortunes, even as others clamored to get in on the
action.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MmRndV5X0ZE/WmgAJoPAHKI/AAAAAAAAENI/rn96Qnyn_d49gFbxdGwPM4c3V2PwYUPLwCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="243" height="340" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MmRndV5X0ZE/WmgAJoPAHKI/AAAAAAAAENI/rn96Qnyn_d49gFbxdGwPM4c3V2PwYUPLwCLcBGAs/s400/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Enraged Musician</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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After that, he created more works. Some were paintings of
the well-to-do. But he increasingly leaned toward images of London itself, with
its drunks, prostitutes, madmen and street children. One work, “The Enraged
Musician,” is visual image of the sounds of the city. While a well-to-do
violinist tries to practice his craft, he is enveloped by street noises. A
milkmaid calls her wares, a coachman blows his horn, a knife sharpener works
his grindstone, a homeless woman with a baby sings in hopes of earning a few
coins. These were probably the sounds Sam Bellamy heard as a boy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IDQGvGC0INQ/WmgAK4LDtVI/AAAAAAAAENQ/0qFRa8rfqXwifQ6uk6H6BpLj5k-E5foJQCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1500" height="311" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IDQGvGC0INQ/WmgAK4LDtVI/AAAAAAAAENQ/0qFRa8rfqXwifQ6uk6H6BpLj5k-E5foJQCLcBGAs/s400/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Distressed Poet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Many of Hogarth’s engravings illustrate the homes of the
very poor. “The Distressed Poet” shows a would-be writer living in a garret
with a foodless pantry and a bill collector at the door. In “The Harlot’s
Progress,” a series of six prints, we see a young woman’s seduction into
prostitution, and her slow downfall to abject poverty and death. Of special
note is the third image, which shows her at home in a common small apartment.
The picture is so detailed that we can make out the kinds of cheap artworks the
harlot has pasted to her wall – a picture of a famous outlaw, and some trading
cards, it looks like.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6e92gVIqmbU/WmgAKHzRT-I/AAAAAAAAENM/YopU3p1IQYoreWOYuuCSEPJ_o14tf7e0gCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="1500" height="326" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6e92gVIqmbU/WmgAKHzRT-I/AAAAAAAAENM/YopU3p1IQYoreWOYuuCSEPJ_o14tf7e0gCLcBGAs/s400/1111.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From "The Harlot's Progress"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The series, “Industry and Idleness” shows the progress of
two young men, one who obeys the status quo and rises through London society,
the other who is put off by the dull work required of him as an apprentice and falls
into bad company while looking for fun. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjrO0WZTIyM/WmgALuDVgpI/AAAAAAAAENU/3cZlfCrBBdwrq_ydMNJuOCOhM5WRw5iGwCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="1300" height="253" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjrO0WZTIyM/WmgALuDVgpI/AAAAAAAAENU/3cZlfCrBBdwrq_ydMNJuOCOhM5WRw5iGwCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Idle goes to sea</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As “Tom Idle” falls through the ranks of society, he chooses
to go to sea. This indicates the low social status of sailors, and also shows
us exactly what seamen were wearing in 1747. Later we see him in the room of a
prostitute (which probably hadn’t changed much in the last 30 years) and in a
rowdy, lower-class drinking house. Both settings suggest that “Tom” might have
been engaging in a little piracy during his travels. (Watches in the hands of
the lower classes – see the prostitute looking at the dangling watch – was usually a visual shorthand indicting
theft. A poor person couldn’t afford and wouldn’t need a watch.)</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-87hMIk6eNmg/WmgAM5dijiI/AAAAAAAAENk/DU__mDAEVRQFCPsjD5YgNKhPFU7yGqqtgCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1156" data-original-width="1500" height="307" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-87hMIk6eNmg/WmgAM5dijiI/AAAAAAAAENk/DU__mDAEVRQFCPsjD5YgNKhPFU7yGqqtgCLcBGAs/s400/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In a garret room with his whore</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The industries apprentice also offers some interesting
details. One image shows the morning after his marriage to his boss’s daughter.
While the industrious apprentice – now an apprentice no more – hands out coins
to people who have come to beg outside his window, a servant scrapes leftovers
into the apron of a poor woman, who seems mighty pleased to have them.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-70ONVbezXvo/WmgEhrM4L5I/AAAAAAAAEOE/TTz4SO-LQekar_f7h79e33U3p_2kXT55wCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1500" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-70ONVbezXvo/WmgEhrM4L5I/AAAAAAAAEOE/TTz4SO-LQekar_f7h79e33U3p_2kXT55wCLcBGAs/s400/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notice the woman by the door receiving table scraps. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A certain level of poverty there folks. When the leavings
off someone’s plate is a treat. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly we will look at the twin pictures “Beer Street and
Gin Lane.” These imaginary streets show the difference between the best side of
the English lower classes – the idealized beer drinkers, and the kind of
poverty caused by people trying to drown their sorrows in gin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7f7C9aN4Xeg/WmgEhxH6MoI/AAAAAAAAEOI/DN0GxnjVS4UblcpAG-3Ze9lucGmDRJIvgCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="883" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7f7C9aN4Xeg/WmgEhxH6MoI/AAAAAAAAEOI/DN0GxnjVS4UblcpAG-3Ze9lucGmDRJIvgCLcBGAs/s400/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="343" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gin Lane</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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Gin was a new drink in England, and because it was strong
and cheap it was causing social problems. On “Gin Lane” people pawn their tools
and household goods to buy liquor (the three balls over the door signal a
pawnshop.) We see people starving, fighting with dogs for bones, abandoning
their children, and dying young, as buildings collapse form neglect.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ7X7eFB5pU/WmgEiOmoTwI/AAAAAAAAEOM/LiTY_KepsgYU_4nT3aOdp5_Fxf2kFNJTACLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1412" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ7X7eFB5pU/WmgEiOmoTwI/AAAAAAAAEOM/LiTY_KepsgYU_4nT3aOdp5_Fxf2kFNJTACLcBGAs/s400/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" width="338" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beer Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the more idealized Beer Street, everyone seems happy and
healthy. (It is interesting to note that British beer is so nutritious that
even today, British alcoholics do not suffer the same malnutrition as American
ones.) It may be interesting to note the couple “making out” in the street, as
well as the ragged condition of the artist painting an advertisement for gin.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A single blog can't even begin to scratch the surface of these engravings. I strongly urge you to look at some of them yourself. In a world with Google Images it's easy to see his work. Look, and look deep - there's a three hundred year old world in there. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-64305031884263363572018-01-16T20:26:00.003-08:002018-01-16T20:26:35.593-08:00The Port Royal Earthquake<div class="MsoNormal">
So many things about Pirates are uncertain. Even the dates
of the Golden Age of Piracy are open to debate. Some people say that the era
ended with the hanging of Jack Rackham in 1720. Others note the hanging of
William Fly in 1725. And yet others claim that the Golden Age went on into the
1740’s – or beyond.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QC6RV8p8XL4/Wl7PF7rUFnI/AAAAAAAAEMQ/apqek3Mfs682ckRZ35-rP_GyXhCw2biogCLcBGAs/s1600/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QC6RV8p8XL4/Wl7PF7rUFnI/AAAAAAAAEMQ/apqek3Mfs682ckRZ35-rP_GyXhCw2biogCLcBGAs/s400/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the Age of the Buccaneers – now that has a definite end
point. A very specific end point. The era of piracy ended at 11:43, on June 7,
1692. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This time and date mark the Great Jamaica Earthquake of
1692.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jamaica had been captured buy the English in 1655. Though
initially laid low by unfriendly natives and tropical diseases, the English
(Among whom was a very young Henry Morgan) held the territory. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Spanish had
not considered the island valuable, since it had no reserves of gold or silver.
But for the piratical English, it was a toehold in the New World. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short order, the city of Port Royal was the busiest – and
the wickedest – place in the New World. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pirates and whores rubbed shoulders
with prosperous merchants and King’s officers, rum flowed like water, and the
party never stopped. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-52Pillk4a3o/Wl7PDEmdVRI/AAAAAAAAEMI/xzW1TOTvQKgC-ntxQxQqAhD8NaX7Y00HQCEwYBhgL/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="647" height="210" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-52Pillk4a3o/Wl7PDEmdVRI/AAAAAAAAEMI/xzW1TOTvQKgC-ntxQxQqAhD8NaX7Y00HQCEwYBhgL/s400/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n%2B-%2BCopy%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost at once, ministers told their parishioners that God
did not like what went on in the wicked city, and that his wrath was sure to
strike down the pirates. But nobody listened. They were too busy making money
and spending it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What they should have been paying attention to was the
mysterious shaking that troubled the island. No one knew what caused it.
Theories ranged from underground wind storms that battered the land to tempests
in an underground ocean. Today we know that Jamaica lies at the boundary of the
Caribbean tectonic plate with the Gonave microplate. The area is not
geologically stable, and earth tremors happened monthly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Spanish, when they had held the island, had built
low-slung houses, supported by wooden pillars sunk deep into the earth. The
English however – celebrating piratical loot that was making the town wealthy,
chose to replicate the brick-and-stone architectural style of their homeland.
Some stone structures were three stories high, built on volcanic sand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The day of Saturday, June 7<sup>th</sup> was hot and still –
what is now called “earthquake weather.” The ships in the harbor had been
becalmed for weeks, and lack of wind had brought trade to a standstill. The
rich men of the town may have gone to church – the local minister read prayers
every day, in attempt to save the souls of his extremely wayward flock – and
the merchant’s wives were mostly in bed, suffering from nervous stress and
headaches – further signs that something was not right, if anyone had realized.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h4s9AKcFjzk/Wl7PZkNgcdI/AAAAAAAAEMk/rGkcb2V9K0ocxEHSiHl8St3RvuAUH8c9gCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="234" height="367" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h4s9AKcFjzk/Wl7PZkNgcdI/AAAAAAAAEMk/rGkcb2V9K0ocxEHSiHl8St3RvuAUH8c9gCLcBGAs/s400/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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When the quake came (an estimated 10 on the Mercer scale)
the first sign was a wave that towered over the 3-story fort at the mouth of
the harbor. The ground shook, then shook again so strongly that the town’s
stone buildings collapsed. Survivors spoke of the ground moving exactly like
waves on the sea. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At the same time, sea water rose up under the sand, causing
both buildings and people to sink into what had become quicksand. Movement of
the tectonic plates and shifting of the waves caused people to be swept away as
if they were adrift in a storm. One gentleman was sure he was going to perish,
but saw the upper part of a house surging past. He caught onto the roof and was
saved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5xIKlRW2o38/Wl7PYSDXUQI/AAAAAAAAEMs/jfFmNLMFgdoUG8TfVn1veu2MAUyKhdTBgCEwYBhgL/s1600/1111%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5xIKlRW2o38/Wl7PYSDXUQI/AAAAAAAAEMs/jfFmNLMFgdoUG8TfVn1veu2MAUyKhdTBgCEwYBhgL/s1600/1111%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Other weren’t so lucky. The mixture of sand and water
dragged them down, and they were never seen again. Geysers also shot up
unexpectedly, catching other people and throwing them a hundred feet in the
air. At least one man was dragged down into the sand, and into an underground
river of salt water that had not been there five minutes before. Then a geyser
lifted him into the light again. He later named this as the moment he “found
God.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Some people were only partially engulfed, and screamed as
they lay trapped, knee deep, hip deep or waist deep in sand. Some were sucked
down until only their heads were clear, and remained there until they
suffocated, or were eaten by wild dogs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwmpWIFN2f4/Wl7PYq2XtHI/AAAAAAAAEMs/DlyzMcxCj9g7Gus1qQIMhtdeOuHJm_L0ACEwYBhgL/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="610" height="106" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gwmpWIFN2f4/Wl7PYq2XtHI/AAAAAAAAEMs/DlyzMcxCj9g7Gus1qQIMhtdeOuHJm_L0ACEwYBhgL/s320/1111.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The scene was absolute chaos. There were no police, no
firefighters. Most of the militia had been one of the three forts, which had
either collapsed or been engulfed in water.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next tremor caused turmoil in the harbor. Ships tore
from their moorings and smashed to pieces, which surged into the town further
damaging buildings and beating people to mush. One three-master was lifted up,
carried over the ruins, and deposited on top of a house, several hundred yards
inland. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Ro4oEqZYOU/Wl7PYoCOmII/AAAAAAAAEMs/b-6x-QO5KTIT6i8V286LS7z4Od62GzjsQCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7Ro4oEqZYOU/Wl7PYoCOmII/AAAAAAAAEMs/b-6x-QO5KTIT6i8V286LS7z4Od62GzjsQCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
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And the tomb Sir Henry Morgan, pirate, privateer, Lieutenant
Governor of Jamaica and Knight of the Realm was ripped open, the lead-lined
coffin carried out to sea.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Almost at once, looters began to do their work. The stone
buildings – almost universally homes to the rich merchants and government
officials, had been utterly destroyed, but the humble huts used by escaped salves,
natives, prostitutes, and pirates had scarcely been touched. The pirates
stripped gold, silver and jewels from the hands of the dead, raided the
collapsed warehouses to steal trade goods like tobacco and luxury item like
silk, and waded into the ruins of taverns to see if any rum casks remained
intact. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bU5kr0xPT_A/Wl7PbO2D_kI/AAAAAAAAEMs/heylSJuTLdk8hMNz19ctWvlG_99_9QEiwCEwYBhgL/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1513" data-original-width="1600" height="302" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bU5kr0xPT_A/Wl7PbO2D_kI/AAAAAAAAEMs/heylSJuTLdk8hMNz19ctWvlG_99_9QEiwCEwYBhgL/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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That night a wild party broke out, a reminder of Port
Royal’s halcyon days, when Morgen’s fleet was in town, and the man himself was
buying rounds and matching his followers drink for drink.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the morning there would be cholera, profiteering on water
supplies, and a continuation of the screams of the wounded. One third of Port
Royal had sunk into the sea. One half of her population was dead, or would die
in the next few days. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Preachers used the disaster as a warning against the
supposed sins of the city. Drunkenness, theft, and lust, they said, had angered
God and caused the disaster. But no one ever mentioned the rich
merchants (whose measuring scales, excavated from the ruins, were proven to be
tampered with, giving a greater profit to these merchants) and the
slave-holding aristocrats who beat, tortured, raped of killed their
“property.” </div>
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These men were well on their way to creating a slave culture that would go on in the Caribbean for over two hundred years. But it was easier to blame the pirates, who did not live by the tenants of "polite society" A clean coat and weekly attendance at church covered a multitude of sins.</div>
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As it still does.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nel1z8QP_Js/Wl7PYmVSU4I/AAAAAAAAEMs/xEw7BNdovHQrguCFholkRIkqplOGIebNwCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="800" height="208" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nel1z8QP_Js/Wl7PYmVSU4I/AAAAAAAAEMs/xEw7BNdovHQrguCFholkRIkqplOGIebNwCEwYBhgL/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-32915916973045565932018-01-09T19:05:00.000-08:002018-01-09T19:05:01.602-08:00The Buccaneers TV Show<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay – It’s cold, the sky is grey, and a lot of us are
sitting at home, thanking heaven for central heating and wishing that new
episodes of Black Sails were still coming out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qUwn0Dngzqg/WlWBMIjiD9I/AAAAAAAAELw/S4Me_qII2QMwDyAvxYBOarh0_k546wSaACLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qUwn0Dngzqg/WlWBMIjiD9I/AAAAAAAAELw/S4Me_qII2QMwDyAvxYBOarh0_k546wSaACLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As seen on Amazon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Never fear. Today I present to you a TV show that folks in
the US have probably never seen. It’s available on Amazon Prime right now, and
DVD’s of the series are available for less than $10.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m talking about the 1956 British series <i>The Buccaneers</i>, a children’s show
starring Robert Shaw (who also played Quint in <i>Jaws</i>.) And before you say “kid’s series,” and flee, this is not
quite “<i>Jake and the</i> <i>Neverland Pirates</i>.” Remember <i>Dr. Who, </i>which also started out as a
kid’s series at about the same time. It turned out ok.</div>
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The year is 1720. Though Shaw was supposed to be the star, he was not available for shooting when the first two episodes were produced. At first the series seems to be about
a real person, Woods Rogers, as he shows up to take over the position of
Governor to the island of Nassau in the Bahamas. Given the fact that Rogers is
supposed to be a good guy in the 1950’s mold (kind, wise, and good-looking) the
transfer of power goes off in a surprisingly historical fashion. The island is
in chaos, but Roger’s offer of pardons brings most of the pirates to heel.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HV7a1HMpxgM/WlWBLhlVSlI/AAAAAAAAEL4/e66aFzHHWtI1RiCMjMhAI5WZXRYg_FkcQCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="256" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HV7a1HMpxgM/WlWBLhlVSlI/AAAAAAAAEL4/e66aFzHHWtI1RiCMjMhAI5WZXRYg_FkcQCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woods Rodgers didn't actually look like this.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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We get a good, quick look at Ben Hornigold, Jack Rackham, Charles
Vane and Blackbeard, and all behave in a way that’s fairly close to history.
It’s important to note that someone seemed to want to use this show to teach
British history to children, so a high percentage of the details are right. I
also think that the time period of the show – 1956, when service men who had
served in WWII were still settling down after the war. After all, the arrival
of Rogers in the islands signaled a “taming” of pirates, just as the people of
the 1940’s and early 50’s were expected to turn their backs on the wild lives
they had lived before.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s the third episode before Shaw, in the form of pirate
captain Dan Tempest. Too late to accept the pardon, Tempest is arrested for
piracy, and then given a chance to redeem himself by captaining a trade ship to
Jamaica. He encounters Blackbeard along the way, wins and engagement, and
somewhat redeems himself. Tempest considers still considers himself a pirate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EEV9L3MejaA/WlWBLGhMy3I/AAAAAAAAEL4/QflVmFDJTe4yiYUj8_con2Yz12OeDWRwgCEwYBhgL/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EEV9L3MejaA/WlWBLGhMy3I/AAAAAAAAEL4/QflVmFDJTe4yiYUj8_con2Yz12OeDWRwgCEwYBhgL/s320/1111.jpg" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Shaw</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Now, remember that these are half-hour episodes, created in
black-and-white half a century ago. But by this time I was already seeing
things about this series that I really liked. Little things like the fact that
some of the ships have tillers instead of wheels for steering. (The early 1700s
were a period of transitions between the two.) Also, some of the pirates wear
their 3-cornered hats with a flat side in the front instead of a point, which
is also historically accurate. When the sailors move heavy objects, such as
cannons, they use correct the correct knots in the ropes.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Little things like this go a long way with me. Simply put,
this early TV series is not tied down to decades of cinematic pirate lore, so
different from actual history. The series had the use of a real ship, and made
good use of it, showing some actual sailing, with correct orders being given,
and the actions of sails, line and anchors makes sense. Britain has always been
a sailing nation, and put at least as much concern into historic ships as
America does into cowboy epics. In addition, in 1956 some sailing ships were
still hauling cargo professionally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jb5ia55AR8U/WlWBK1JR05I/AAAAAAAAEL4/ZDAipMEfGoMsUfH5vly5kvoHLHREGakiACEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="208" data-original-width="242" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jb5ia55AR8U/WlWBK1JR05I/AAAAAAAAEL4/ZDAipMEfGoMsUfH5vly5kvoHLHREGakiACEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" /></a></div>
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As the show went on, I saw issues being dealt with that you
don’t see in modern movies. Slavery, for instance. Dan Tempest doesn’t like
slavery, but the practice was perfectly legal during his time. When he
encounters a ship full of rebellious slaves (both Black and White, it should be
noted), what does he do about it? Other episodes deal with shortages of
gunpowder, diseases such as typhus, relations with Native Americans, the
scarcity of women, and issues with the legal rights of indentured servants. And
most of the classic “Pirate’s Articles” are repeated by a group that’s going
out “on the account.” Including, “Lights out by 8:00” and, “no drinking below
decks.” Someone did quite a bit of homework. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And throughout all of this is Dan Tempest. Robert Shaw plays
a pirate as I have always liked my pirates to be played. He moves and speaks
and acts as if life may be over at any moment, and he needs to wring all the
pleasure possible out of it right now.
He drinks, fights, and talks back to authority figures with an
enthusiastic pirate spirit. This is the first time Shaw sang “Farewell Spanish
Ladies” on screen, and also the show that taught him to fight with a sword. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Early episodes try to make him into a farmer in the island’s
interior, but he quickly finds his way back onto the high seas. Early episodes
also ty to tie him down to a wife and family. (See above: the taming of the
pirates.) But, whether because the show wasn’t doing as well as the sponsors
would have liked, or because whoever wanted the moralizing tone worked into the
program let their attention wander to some other project, Dan Tempest does not
settle down as expected. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvymYVxJTkw/WlWBMjtEqsI/AAAAAAAAEL4/bDtRnqV9Xfw8vkiT1QWBYsJRILh6zRbTQCEwYBhgL/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvymYVxJTkw/WlWBMjtEqsI/AAAAAAAAEL4/bDtRnqV9Xfw8vkiT1QWBYsJRILh6zRbTQCEwYBhgL/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blackbeard is the bad guy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fiery Spanish tavern-singer who has been the love of his
life runs off the Jamaica, leaving only a note saying, “I don’t cook, I don’t
clean!” Dan himself does not seem to be too honest. If bags of gold aren’t
being watched, he’s perfectly willing to pocket them. Even when he’s trying to
“go straight” he practices some sharp trading. He’s also willing to kiss a lady or two, even
if she’s being courted by someone else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Buccaneers</i> makes
good use of its budget for sets, but this is no Black Sails. Some of the fight scenes are laughable, with
actors obviously pulling punches and missing hits. A few of the episodes are
obviously padded out, with lots of shouting about the same thing over and over
instead of character development. But all-in-all it’s a very pleasant surprise.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m watching it one episode a day, to make it last.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UAfki3CbU-Y/WlWBK1aETgI/AAAAAAAAEL4/7OaSZP3pgtEFwVVzzfQkTy8EwcAxYbgyACEwYBhgL/s1600/1111%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UAfki3CbU-Y/WlWBK1aETgI/AAAAAAAAEL4/7OaSZP3pgtEFwVVzzfQkTy8EwcAxYbgyACEwYBhgL/s320/1111%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-13652056947091751212018-01-02T18:35:00.000-08:002018-01-02T18:41:29.261-08:00The Whores of Old Port Royal<div class="MsoNormal">
In the days of Captain Morgan – yes, that red-coated fellow
on the rum bottle – Port Royal was officially the Wickedest City on Earth. Not
only was the place officially an “open port” – a place where pirates were not
prosecuted, and could come, go, and sell their ill-gotten goods without
interference from the authorities. Not only was it a place nearly drowned in
rum, where one in three buildings housed a tavern. But it was also a place
where prostitution was legal, and where working women made names for themselves
– and fortunes to take back to England. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ukbYJCCnxKg/WkxAZsvDYsI/AAAAAAAAELE/lyaGzfMW7TIdC84yOyG50LUW1VL5mYmBwCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ukbYJCCnxKg/WkxAZsvDYsI/AAAAAAAAELE/lyaGzfMW7TIdC84yOyG50LUW1VL5mYmBwCLcBGAs/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The women were colorful – one could afford to be, in a city
filled with pirates. They sported names like Salt-Beef Peg, No-Conscience Nan,
and Buttock-de-Clink Jenny. Attitude was everything. A contemporary writes: <o:p></o:p></div>
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“A little Reputation among the Women goes a great way; and
if their Actions be answerable to their looks, they may vie (in) Wickedness
with the Devil: an Impudent Air, being the only Charms of their Countenance,
and a Lewd Carriage the Studied grace of their Deportment. They are such who
have been Scandalous in England to the utmost degree, either transported by the
State or led by their Vicious Inclinations; (to) where they may be Wicked
without Shame, and Whore on without Punishment.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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In other words, the Port Royal prostitutes made more money
if they had a reputation. They looked like prostitutes, and made no pretense of
being anything else. Exactly what made up their “wickedness” is not specified,
but this was a time period when women were not supposed to have any sort of
independent sexual life. Merely acting “sexy,” or taking lovers for pleasure as
well as profit may have been what shocked the writer of the passage above.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Notice that, while
some of these women have been “transported” – meaning shipped to the English
colonies as punishment for crimes, others have come to the New World out of
choice. Why? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The answer is that, when the pirate fleets were in port,
money flowed like rain-water. Men were walking around with the equivalent of
hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pockets, and also carrying an
understanding that disease, injury, enemy weapons or the sea itself might kill
them at any moment. They wanted a good time, right now, and were willing to pay for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How good a time, and how much money? Three hundred and fifty
years have passed since Morgan’s day, but some stories remain. In one case, a
pirate paid a certain woman the modern equivalent of $25,000 merely to strip
naked. (Women’s clothing of the time was so bulky and hard to take off that
women who did not have servants rarely removed all of it. Prostitutes serviced
customers by lifting their skirts, even if they had a room for the night.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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But most famous of the ladies of Port Royal was Mary
Carleton. She had been born in the English district of Canterbury, daughter of
a fiddler. But in 1663 she rode a barge into London, walked into the first
tavern that would admit a woman, and became Maria von Wolway, a German
princess, running away from an arranged marriage. Mary claimed that her common
clothing was a disguise, and that she was a rich orphan who had left estates
and jewels behind her because she wanted to marry for love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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She threw herself on “the kindness of strangers” and since
she was pretty, and presumably rich, she found no shortage of kindness. She quickly
married a man named John Carleton who thought he was getting a prize. It soon
turned out that Mary was not only not German and not a princess, but that she
was already married to a shoemaker named Thomas Stedman, and had borne him two
children, neither of which had survived.</div>
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In the mid-1600s divorce was impossible. But John Carleton
took Mary to court for bigamy and false representation. Mary countered by
accusing her husband of falsely representing himself as a lord. Both sides
published pamphlets publicizing their side of the conflict. The case became a
popular scandal, the talk of taverns and coffee houses all over London. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary on stage</td></tr>
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At her trial, Mary announced that, even though she wasn’t a
princess, she had worked hard to cultivate the accomplishments of one, and that
ought to count for something. She was
acquitted. After the trial, she wrote an autobiography (probably ghost-written)
and starred in a play about her life. This brought her more admirers. Once of
them persuaded her to marry him. Shortly after she did, Mary ran off with his
money, valuables, and keys while he was drunk.</div>
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For the next ten years, Mary made a career of pretending to
be a rich virgin heiress on the run from an arranged marriage. She duped many
men and stole many valuables, often from husbands who were too embarrassed to
admit they’d been taken. She was finally convicted of stealing a sliver tankard
and sentenced to penal transportation - in other words, she was thrown out of
England and sent to live in Port Royal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For two years she was the toast of the wicked town. She may
have had sex with Morgan himself. She certainly serviced his men. But Port
Royal lacked the thing that Mary loved – gullible guys who wanted to marry a
rich virgin. Pirates were more direct, less inclined to marry, and apparently
more impressed with practiced skill than blushing virginity. After two years, Mary stowed away on a ship and went back to England, where she was soon up to
her old tricks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In many ways, Mary Carleton was like the pirates she knew.
Though she made an enormous amount of money over the course of her life – not
only stealing valuables, but receiving many rich presents from men who courted
her – she never used the money to set up a comfortable life for herself. She seems to have been addicted to the thrill
of the chase. I believe that it is significant that she never pretended to be a
rich widow – only a virgin heiress. Apparently playing this part was more
important to her than life itself. In December of 1672 she was captured when a
man searching for stolen loot recognized her. She was tried in the Old Bailey.
Because she had returned from penal transportation without permission, the
sentence was death, and Mary was executed by hanging on January 22, 1673.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-88532182699772161772017-12-20T20:10:00.000-08:002017-12-20T20:10:13.514-08:00Pirate Santa - Again!<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
Of all the posts I've made over the years, this is the one I get the most requests to re-post.<br />
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Christmas is nearly upon us; it’s time for eggnog, presents and… Pirates?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, yes. As a matter of fact, Santa dressed as a pirate, or pirates dressed as Santa, is a “thing”. And it make sense, after all. Both pirate captains and St. Nick lead rag-tag bands of outcasts. (When was the last time you saw an elf in polite society?) And they both have a history of re-distributing wealth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One reason it’s so easy to link the two is that Santa has a backstory that’s s lot more fierce than his current incarnations. The gift-bringer was once known to bring coal (representing the fires of hell) to kids who weren’t good enough. And before that, he was linked to Odin, the Norse father-god who wandered the world and occasionally meted out justice, in the forms of rewards or punishment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s generally believed, even by folks who don’t “Believe” in Santa, that the man in the red suit is a powerful force of nature. In movies like “Rise of the Guardians” he’s a Russian-accented powerhouse, leading the other guardians of childhood to protect the world. In “The Nightmare Before Christmas” Jack Skellington nearly wrecks the holiday, but when Santa is set free at the last minute, he calmly states that he has the power to set everything right by dawn.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So Santa, like a pirate captain, has impressive power, and the ability to travel. He might be carrying anything from gold to coal to the kind of odds and ends that might be accumulating in the hold of a pirate ship – or Santa’s bag of holding.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Both characters are often jolly. And even though Santa is gifted with glasses of milk on Christmas Eve, no one has ever claimed that he doesn’t enjoy a mixed drink after he’s finished driving the sleigh.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Santa’s long red coat with the white fur cuffs easily translated into an 18<sup>th</sup> century pirate coat, and red is a color that’s been associated with pirates ever since Captain Morgan donned his best red silk coat while recruiting a privateer navy to fight the Spanish.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Santa’s boots look quite a bit like pirate-style footwear. And various other details – his beard, reminiscent of Blackbeard, his sack full of loot, his wide-buckled black belt – all add to the likeness. Some artists have added a hook hand made from a candy cane, and it blends right in,<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s even easy to see Santa in the tropics. After all, he needs some kind of vacation after the big night.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Santa as a pirate, or a pirate as Santa, is an image that goes back decades, and has been memorialized in nutcrackers, Christmas ornaments, paintings, and photos.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Probably the ultimate link is the children's book, "Pirate Santa" featuring Cap'n Slappy, one of the gentlemen who brought us Talk Like a Pirate Day. The story is one dear to a pirate's heart, about how Slappy, Santa's cousin, sets out to bring Christmas cheer to kids who were a little too - um - nonconforming, to make Santa's "nice" list.</div>
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The book makes a grand Christmas gift for a child, and since it's available by download, it can still be purchased in time for the holiday. </div>
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Or, for grownups, pick up a copy of my own novels, Gentlemen and Fortune, Bloody Seas, and Storm Season, the tales of my redheaded female pirate captain and her adventures in the man's world of piracy. </div>
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As an added bonus this year, I'll gift you with a little Pirate Santa music - enjoy! Yo Ho Ho Ho and a Merry Christmas to all!<o:p></o:p><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-3299975270458500242017-12-12T19:37:00.001-08:002017-12-12T19:40:08.285-08:00Libertalia - The Pirate Utopia<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">As I have mentioned
before, Golden Age pirates were pirates with a purpose. The piratical call of
“Freedom!” has been preserved through the ages, but the rallying cry of “Give a
working man a chance!” has not, even though
it was a more common statement at the time. Pirates, representing a variety of
people who were being abused by the economic system of the time, were trying to
promote a system in which every person had similar opportunities in life, and
(at least) enough to eat and a place to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Enter Libertalia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Libertalia was a
legendary free colony forged by pirates. It was founded and ruled by the pirate
Captain Misson (sometimes spelled Missin) a semi-legendary piratical figure
described in <i>The Robberies and Murders of
the most Notorious Pyrates </i>(1724). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Historian and activist
Marcus Rediker describes the pirates as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>These pirates who settled
in Libertalia would be "vigilant
Guardians of the People's Rights and Liberties"; they would stand as
"Barriers against the Rich and Powerful" of their day. By waging war
on behalf of "the Oppressed" against the "Oppressors," they
would see that "Justice was equally distributed."</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w-sCtw-TmLw/WjCfr_ZjaLI/AAAAAAAAEJk/W6YGU5KsTgINmQozlQs3cEbTxxX-3uK_wCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w-sCtw-TmLw/WjCfr_ZjaLI/AAAAAAAAEJk/W6YGU5KsTgINmQozlQs3cEbTxxX-3uK_wCEwYBhgL/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">No one knows for sure if
Libertatia actually existed. Pirates aren’t noted for keeping good records
about their societies. But real or not, the
radical ideas that it represented inspired undisputed real-life events. For
example, after the American Revolution, a group of pirates fleeing from England
were wrecked on an island and set up their own society. They called their new
island "the Republic of Spensonia", after a fictional country created
by the English author and political reformer Thomas Spence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cD4i-eqRIyA/WjCfsyL-AEI/AAAAAAAAEJ0/D4Fo7zdcnj4CoepMZ6CiGrlSD-pNEj3_wCEwYBhgL/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cD4i-eqRIyA/WjCfsyL-AEI/AAAAAAAAEJ0/D4Fo7zdcnj4CoepMZ6CiGrlSD-pNEj3_wCEwYBhgL/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">These pirates stood
against monarchies, slavery, and capitalism as a way of distributing wealth.
The pirates practiced a form of direct democracy, (one man one vote) where the crew
held the authority to make laws and rules. Their system encouraged leaders to
think of themselves as the equals, not the superiors, of those they led. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">The pirates insisted that
"every Man was born free, and had as much Right to what would support him,
as to the Air he respired." They resented the "encroachments" by
which "Villains" and "unmerciful Creditors" grew
"immensely rich" as others became "wretchedly miserable."
They spoke of the "Natural right" to "a Share of the Earth as is
necessary for our Support." They saw piracy as a war of self-preservation,
and had no need for money "where every Thing was in common, and no Hedge
bounded any particular Man's Property," and they decreed that "the
Treasure and Cattle they were Masters of should be equally divided."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Libertalia’s motto was said
to be "for God and liberty," and its flag was white, in contrast to a
Jolly Roger. Thecitizens were anarchists, waging war against states and
lawmakers, attacking ships, sparing prisoners, and freeing slaves. It is said
that Misson's crews often were equal parts African and European, as he did not
support slavery. The pirates of Libertalia called themselves Liberi, and lived
under a communal city rule, a sort of worker owned corporation of piracy. They
had articles (shared codes of conduct), and used elected systems of re-callable
delegates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MDLAApNNguE/WjCftJ5psRI/AAAAAAAAEJ4/50vdwAcgdkMP9L34-J4Xya_1x2sKqiC4wCEwYBhgL/s1600/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MDLAApNNguE/WjCftJ5psRI/AAAAAAAAEJ4/50vdwAcgdkMP9L34-J4Xya_1x2sKqiC4wCEwYBhgL/s1600/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Captain Misson, founder of Libertalia, was French, born
in Provence, while in Rome he ran into Caraccioli - a "lewd Priest" who
gradually converted Misson and a sizeable portion of his crew to his way of
thinking:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i>he fell upon Government,
and shew'd, that every Man was born free, and had as much Right to what would
support him, as to the Air he respired... that the vast Difference betwixt Man
and Man, the one wallowing in Luxury, and the other in the most pinching
Necessity, was owing only to Avarice and Ambition on the one Hand, and a
pusillanimous Subjection on the other.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Convinced by the priest’s
persuasion, the whole crew became pirates. They shared everything, including
the ship, and freed the first cargo of slaves they encountered, urging the
Africans to join them as brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Off the coast of
Madagascar, Misson found a perfect bay in an area with fertile soil, fresh
water and friendly natives. Here the pirates built Libertalia. No more were
they English, French, Dutch or African. They were Liberi. They created their own language, a polyglot
mixture of African languages, combined with French, English, Dutch, Portuguese
and native Malagasy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wh0a7hQli8/WjCfr2fJ6xI/AAAAAAAAEJo/yfqccp2_D18_v1NsHakMTj3XokGYocOUwCEwYBhgL/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wh0a7hQli8/WjCfr2fJ6xI/AAAAAAAAEJo/yfqccp2_D18_v1NsHakMTj3XokGYocOUwCEwYBhgL/s320/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thomas Tew</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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Shortly after work on the
colony began, they were joined by the pirate Thomas Tew. The Liberi -
"Enemies to Slavery," aimed to boost their numbers by capturing
another slave ship. Off the coast of Angola, Tew's crew took an English slave
ship with 240 men, women and children below decks. The African members of the
pirate crew found that many friends and relatives were among the formerly
enslaved.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">The pirates settled down
to become farmers, holding the land in common - "no Hedge bounded any
particular Man's Property." Prizes and money taken at sea were
"carry'd into the common Treasury, Money being of no Use where every Thing
was in common."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Was the colony real? The
pirates of the time certainly believed it was. Members of the infamous “Flying
Gang” who took Nassau in the Bahamas in 1715, and held it until 1718, claimed
to anyone who would listen that they would “Make another Madagascar” of their
new conquest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWkFscOpWpI/WjCfsEmpKUI/AAAAAAAAEJs/DsbnQ-VUd74WTbQdeV1Qpr6eT8VM0lPhgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1200" height="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QWkFscOpWpI/WjCfsEmpKUI/AAAAAAAAEJs/DsbnQ-VUd74WTbQdeV1Qpr6eT8VM0lPhgCEwYBhgL/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">But modern scholarship doubt
that Libertalia (or Libertatia) was ever a real place. Certainly there were
pirate settlements on and around Madagascar, which Libertalia may have been
based on: Abraham Samuel at Port Dauphin, Adam Baldridge at Ile Ste.-Marie, and
James Plaintain at Ranter Bay were all ex-pirates who founded trading posts and
towns. These locations appear frequently in official accounts and letters from
the period, while Libertalia appears only in Johnson’s General History, Volume
2. Give the piratical tendency to – um – overstatement, especially when telling
stories, the whole thing may be a myth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">But it’s a telling myth.
A powerful statement about a desire for a bold social experiment, conceived by outlaws
considered the dregs of society. It’s interesting to note that these pirates
didn’t dream of fantastical wealth, ultimate power, or eternal life. All they
wanted was a peaceful existence where no one took advantage of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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So far, there has never
been a serious archeological search for Libertalia. What would we do if we
found it? </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com92tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-28391781174028523432017-12-06T21:34:00.001-08:002017-12-06T21:34:09.317-08:00Fire Ship!<div class="MsoNormal">
The Golden Age of Piracy was a time of wooden ships- wooden
ships, held together with tar, and waterproofed with pitch. They were floating
death traps, tinderboxes, piles of kindling. And they were filled with fire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The galley, of course, kept a kitchen fire burning. The best
kind of galleys had a floor lined with sheets of tin, an effort to keep sparks
from setting the ship alight. Often the only “stove” was a steel box to hold
the fire. The box might be sitting in a bed of sand – a known insulator – or it
might contain sand, as a base for the fire. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HVJ7wNyOHSI/WijRXuNkYjI/AAAAAAAAEI8/qTnpjN3MewAz4dUa4fJVv15hYaBUT3ylwCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HVJ7wNyOHSI/WijRXuNkYjI/AAAAAAAAEI8/qTnpjN3MewAz4dUa4fJVv15hYaBUT3ylwCLcBGAs/s400/1111.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cutaway model showing a ship's galley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>But the fire, a simple thing like a campfire, burned night
and day. It was necessary to cook food for perhaps a hundred men, in a space
perhaps six by six feet. Pots of boiling water were secured on the moving ship
as well as they could be. An overturned pot could mean scalding wounds that meant
almost certain death, either from the immediate injury, or, more horribly, from
lingering infection.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But there was much more fire. Every light source was fire. Lanterns,
candles, everyone was a possible source of conflagration for the entire ship. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, precautions were taken. Simply the fact that almost
all candles were confined behind glass was one. However, in these primitive
times glass was sometimes not available. In this case, very thin pieces of
animal horn, straightened by boiling or soaking in ammonia, were used as we might
use plastic. Of course, this meant that the light of the candle behind the
protective layer of horn was dimmed by the non-transparent layer, but it was
better than setting the boat on fire.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9Mgay1Dk_0/WijRVadro6I/AAAAAAAAEIo/lFDnBXgt4OksakDParubNcVKZtWp3Tq0wCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9Mgay1Dk_0/WijRVadro6I/AAAAAAAAEIo/lFDnBXgt4OksakDParubNcVKZtWp3Tq0wCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lantern with a horn window</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Smoking was also often prohibited. On merchant or navy ships
smoking might be completely banned, but pirates embraced a more easygoing
lifestyle. In order to allow their crews to smoke as they liked, pirate ships
permitted the practice, but limited it to the open-air deck.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some pirate ships even supported open-air smoking by
providing their crews with a long, slow-burning fuse on deck, which made
lighting a pipe easier. They also might provide a tub of wet sand for
extinguishing pipes and cigars.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLrCLMZ2x6w/WijRWxqFNYI/AAAAAAAAEI0/17HJRhSV1Agl--V129yL04y4aIMYlhObgCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="512" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLrCLMZ2x6w/WijRWxqFNYI/AAAAAAAAEI0/17HJRhSV1Agl--V129yL04y4aIMYlhObgCLcBGAs/s320/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most secure was the powder room. Home to the ship’s
gunpowder, this room was as completely secure as the technology of the time
could make it. Not only was it sealed tightly, but no lights -candles or lanterns.
Instead, a window – leading into the rest of the ship, and covered with
unbreakable horn, not delicate glass – let illumination in. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyone working in the powder room, either stowing supplies
or handing gunpowder out to power the cannons during an attack, was required to
take off all metal, which posed the danger of striking a spark. These people
were also required to give up their shoes. Special slippers were used instead.
Pirates didn’t yet understand that static sparks were electricity, but they did
grasp that any spark at all could set off the powder and kill everyone on
board.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q3zYgiwr4s0/WijRXMVXx2I/AAAAAAAAEI4/FqWxg2fayEw5ARwteQr8bvLxRQTmAR7LwCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="490" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q3zYgiwr4s0/WijRXMVXx2I/AAAAAAAAEI4/FqWxg2fayEw5ARwteQr8bvLxRQTmAR7LwCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A barrel of pitch going up in flames</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>So what happen if a ship did catch on fire?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For one thing, there was little use putting it out. Literally
everything on the boat was flammable. If the fire was tiny, someone might be
able to throw drinking water on it. Or if it spread unusually slowly, someone
might be able to set up the ship’s pumps to direct a stream of water on it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But fires tend to go up, and that meant flames getting into
the great canvas sails. The sails would burn, and drop flaming material all
over. Unless luck was on the side of the sailors, the only thing to do was
abandon ship. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If everyone was quick, the ship’s small boats could be
lowered, and people could pile into them. If they weren’t so fortunate, the
crew might find themselves in the water clinging to whatever was floating
nearby.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ship blows up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p>The boat might burn and sink. Or it might not sink quickly
enough, and the gunpowder would explode.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Eyewitnesses to such events speak of the ship’s cannons,
usually kept loaded, firing themselves one by one, set off by the intense heat.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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An exploding powder magazine destroyed the entire ship
instantly. Bodies of those unfortunate enough to still be aboard were torn to
bit and thrown for as far as a mile. If
any other ships were nearby, they would probably be set on fire by flying
debris. The shockwave could be heard for miles. Humans anywhere in the vicinity
were deafened for hours, even days, by the enormous blast of sound. An
exploding ship was such a horrible event, it might leave witnesses with PTSD.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates – and the military – were happy to put these
horrifying facts to use. Setting an older, damaged, or un-needed ship on fire
and sending it into a mass of enemy shipping was sure to start a panic. The
secret was to steer the un-manned ship into enemy lines, while preventing the
sails from catching on fire until it had crashed into the enemy. Doing so was a
matter of both luck and skill.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23WBT13QQFM/WijRYORKsBI/AAAAAAAAEJE/UDO4tIGEZy8KhiDqTrmKNJHnUBWnJKLewCLcBGAs/s1600/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="602" height="246" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-23WBT13QQFM/WijRYORKsBI/AAAAAAAAEJE/UDO4tIGEZy8KhiDqTrmKNJHnUBWnJKLewCLcBGAs/s320/main-qimg-34b835e82d55815aeb916d9ee79704a2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Armada hit by fire ships</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p>When Spain attacked England with an armada of 130 warships,
Sir Francis Drake, pirate, admirable and English patriot, raided their
supplies, then sent fire ships into the massed formations.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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History credits storms for the destruction of this invading
force, but Drake, his piratical crews, and their fire ships were at least
equally responsible for turning back this invading force and changing the
history of the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-29874181453958957252017-11-28T19:17:00.000-08:002017-11-28T19:17:03.051-08:00Fried Chicken in the Pirate Era<div class="MsoNormal">
As a person raised in the southern United States, it’s hard
for me to imagine a time when fried chicken didn’t exist. It’s the perfect
celebration food, a perfect picnic food (it travels well at room temperature)
and has been on my table on Sundays for most of my life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In fact, a Roman cookbook written in the 4th century contains
a recipe for deep-fried chicken called <i>Pullum
Frontonianum</i>. This dish, attributed to Apicius, a famous lover of good
food, was probably an exotic treat for the well-to-do, rather than a weekly
staple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But most people agree that the first Europeans to really
popularize deep fried chicken were the Scots. </div>
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They may or may not have been
using the extra calories to fend off the notorious cold and wet weather of
their homeland, but they also proved that they possessed something necessary
for fried chicken – a reliable source of fat. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After all, this was an era when you couldn’t just go down to
the store and buy a can of Crisco. </div>
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Animal fat was the order of the day, and you
had to be the owner of healthy, well fed livestock to have enough fat available
for deep-frying. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3AT9XSUeVjg/Wh4leWakmFI/AAAAAAAAEII/tFYSDiknszYqIk26oFLpd64sBwDxze9rgCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3AT9XSUeVjg/Wh4leWakmFI/AAAAAAAAEII/tFYSDiknszYqIk26oFLpd64sBwDxze9rgCLcBGAs/s1600/fc3c132f5e544ca6e25ad1b2c884fd51--th-century-clothing-life-pictures.jpg" /></a></div>
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What created the fried chicken that we know today was
contact between Europeans traders and African cooks. Because while the Scots deep fried their chickens, they did not use breading or spices. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Africans, who had access to a wide variety of spices, cooked
their chickens in palm oil, but they used breading and a spice mix to add
interest. A typical West African spice mix might include paprika, various
chilies, black pepper, and mint. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When Africans were taken as slaves, they were often given
the undesirable job of cooking, and it didn’t take them long to improve on the
Scottish method of deep-frying chickens in animal derived fat. In addition, slaves
were sometimes allowed to keep their own chickens as livestock. This led to the
pejorative association of fried chicken with African-American culture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qVCR3I6-2CM/Wh4leKMXVmI/AAAAAAAAEIA/O5Np9Pzsh5ksr1CAIyIm8wjTeeRRlXufgCLcBGAs/s1600/BARBUDA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qVCR3I6-2CM/Wh4leKMXVmI/AAAAAAAAEIA/O5Np9Pzsh5ksr1CAIyIm8wjTeeRRlXufgCLcBGAs/s320/BARBUDA.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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That’s too bad, because fried chicken is a gift we all appreciate.
A perfectly fried piece of chicken, with its crisp, well-seasoned skin, tender
and juicy meat, and comfort-food feel is about as good as it gets. We all enjoy
it, so let’s give credit where it’s due. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But what has this to do with pirates?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, like those early slave-owners, pirates had what it
took to make good fried chicken. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Ships were known to have an excess of food-grade fat
available. When boiling the traditional meal of salted beef or pork, fat rose
to the surface of the pot and was skimmed off by the ship’s cook. The material,
called “slush” was considered the property of the cook, who often sold it when
the ship was in port. The money made from this was called the “slush fund,” a
term still in use today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aKjwKRBdh8/Wh4lctwvdOI/AAAAAAAAEH0/_39lhZk7tTUFjkb-AiT4oKZNBoTyCsYgQCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="396" height="207" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9aKjwKRBdh8/Wh4lctwvdOI/AAAAAAAAEH0/_39lhZk7tTUFjkb-AiT4oKZNBoTyCsYgQCLcBGAs/s320/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On a pirate ship, where the cook made a share of the
profits, he could be assumed to be a lot more generous with his slush, so
cooking in hot oil became a possibility. Pirates were also known to party on
deserted beaches, where having a large pot of boiling oil would be safer than
on the deck of a moving ship.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Also present were chickens. Merchant captains often kept a
dozen or more birds alive on ship. The chickens provided eggs and fresh meat
for the captain, and could be fed off crumbs of ship’s biscuit and the weevils
that accumulated in the bread.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OqxYxDY7_lA/Wh4ldkt9KbI/AAAAAAAAEH8/mPEngGTa0EgPXKXI2cDnJohjQGZDRu6UgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1500" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OqxYxDY7_lA/Wh4ldkt9KbI/AAAAAAAAEH8/mPEngGTa0EgPXKXI2cDnJohjQGZDRu6UgCLcBGAs/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pirate who captured a ship rich in chickens were likely to
turn the creatures into meat. Part of this could be attributed to the “live for
today” philosophy of the brigands, and part of it was the more pragmatic fact
that any eggs laid would be too few for everyone to have a share. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirate ships often carried a high percentage of African crew
members, whether as escaped slaves or simply as sailors whose ancestors came
from Africa. And pirate cooks had access to a wide variety of expensive spices.
After all, spices from the Caribbean were shipped all over the world, and
captured spices didn’t have to be paid for.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0ORPvBtC6rs/Wh4lcc_IUXI/AAAAAAAAEHs/1TpJEUKXffwo8LJsWV-ht3gihuZx16NkgCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="254" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0ORPvBtC6rs/Wh4lcc_IUXI/AAAAAAAAEHs/1TpJEUKXffwo8LJsWV-ht3gihuZx16NkgCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ship's galley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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A wide variety of sources confirm that pirates enjoyed spicy
food and unusual taste combinations. So a pirate crew would be open to trying a
Scottish dish with West African flair. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fried chicken on a pirate ship. Who would have thought? <o:p></o:p></div>
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** I was inspired to write this blog while doing research for my series of novels - The Pirate Empire. Many folks have said that they learn as much from my fiction work as they have from other writer's non-fiction. Want to have even more fun while learning about Golden Age pirates? Pick up a copy of Gentlemen and Fortune. Available on Amazon now!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-54648950422378340992017-11-21T17:05:00.002-08:002017-11-21T17:05:23.304-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>An apology to my readers. Due to flooding, I had to abandon
my home for about 8 days, and then come back and make repairs. It’s all done
now, thank goodness. I appreciate your patience. </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<img alt="Image result for devil seam ship 18th century" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/05/57/55/055755583215a25c093474d3b09a2ed5.jpg" /></div>
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It is said that sailors did not like to speak the name of
the Devil. Some people believe that naming a thing adds to its power (as in “he
who will not be named.) For this reason, it is said, that sailors on general
and pirates in particular, coined the name Davy Jones. Keeper of the infamous
Davy Jones’ Locker. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Locker, of course, it at the bottom of the sea – final
resting place for drowned sailors. The seafaring men of the era had their own
heaven – Fiddler’s Green – and their own hell as well. It’s consistent with
their understanding of themselves as a breed apart. Sailors had an entirely
different knowledge base than landsmen. They traveled far more – fragments of
Chinese pottery in the 17<sup>th</sup> century ruins of Port Royal indicate
that at least some of the pirates there had sailed to China. And they lived
vastly different day-to-day lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gT9ZDV73h2U/WhTLP1wRyeI/AAAAAAAAEGo/y512uLWVurMW0mp-w_Q7HvgW_hhtLiS8gCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gT9ZDV73h2U/WhTLP1wRyeI/AAAAAAAAEGo/y512uLWVurMW0mp-w_Q7HvgW_hhtLiS8gCLcBGAs/s320/1111.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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But I, personally, don’t agree with those who think that
sailors were too afraid of the Devil to mention his name. In fact, there was a
part of the called “The Devil”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ll explain what it was to the best of my landsman’s
ability. It’s pretty easy to understand what the deck of a ship is. It’s the
part that you usually stand on. The upper deck, which is open to the weather,
is called the weather deck. The side of the ship – the outside – is called the
hull. The place where the two meet is called the Devil.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is an important part of the ship. The attachment of the
hull to the decks is literally what holds everything together. Decks on wooden
ships always had seams – the boards making up the deck. The devil-seam is the
longest of them all. Because of its curve, it is actually longer than the boat.
And it is also a place where water can enter the ship. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-phBiLUZklMs/WhTLP4osy1I/AAAAAAAAEGk/F4oWhVHRyh46gjs1FXfiaEBFc3lPVIR5QCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="528" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-phBiLUZklMs/WhTLP4osy1I/AAAAAAAAEGk/F4oWhVHRyh46gjs1FXfiaEBFc3lPVIR5QCLcBGAs/s320/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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This gives us several interesting sayings. “Between the Devil
and the Deep Blue Sea” is one. This saying has probably survived because it
makes sense to the rest of us. The Devil is a bad person. The deep blue sea is
dangerous. So being stuck between the Devil and the deep blue sea is not a good
place to be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But when you think of it in nautical terms, it becomes even
worse. Because the “devil” is the very outside edge of the boat. The only thing
between “the devil and the sea” is air. Not something you want to be trying to
stand on. Add the fact that few 18<sup>th</sup> century sailors knew how to
swim, and you have described a horrible situation. The moment when Wile E.
Coyote realizes he’s standing on nothing, and plunges to his doom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DYYFK4GjFaI/WhTMuFkncTI/AAAAAAAAEHI/Qc6jJnRNeJkDWCSBpwdWEI7b9LIm480ZgCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_m6jwbcG5pU1qm6oc3o1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DYYFK4GjFaI/WhTMuFkncTI/AAAAAAAAEHI/Qc6jJnRNeJkDWCSBpwdWEI7b9LIm480ZgCLcBGAs/s320/tumblr_m6jwbcG5pU1qm6oc3o1_500.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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The other famous quote about this nautical “devil” is one
you probably don’t associate with boats at all. “The Devil to pay” certainly
gets its meaning across. After all, the Devil requires his due. So when things
are looking bad, and someone says, “There’ll be the Devil to pay.” It surely
signifies that someone is in trouble.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, not quite. Remember the devil-seam? Well, things on
wooden boats need to be sealed so they are watertight. This is called “paying”
them. In the case of a join between two pieces of wood, the common method of
“paying’ was to stuff something into any large holes or cracks. Usually this
was pieces of frayed rope – it’s already long, thin and flexible, and
natural-fiber rope breaks down under the sun, saltwater and strain of shipboard
use. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eCmXIdVfByw/WhTLPs6Rd9I/AAAAAAAAEGg/rmA48G6efIY7KamtkD7w851L2PmSk5suQCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eCmXIdVfByw/WhTLPs6Rd9I/AAAAAAAAEGg/rmA48G6efIY7KamtkD7w851L2PmSk5suQCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" /></a></div>
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The second step of “paying” was to pour hot tar (a petroleum
product) or pitch (pine tree sap, harvested for the purpose) into the frayed
rope, and smooth it all down. The pitch made it watertight, while the fibrous
material made it hold together better. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Both pitch and tar had to be heated, a difficult and
dangerous thing on a moving ship. Vessels of the time were highly flammable,
being made from dry wood, soaked in pitch and tar. Any fire presented a hazard.
In addition, there were no safety measures for handling the scalding, sticky,
flammable material. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjV3SSpuY-A/WhTLRcUQcrI/AAAAAAAAEG8/6_jqRHQCfvQZBDDXQ-0rO8louO3zpU8-gCLcBGAs/s1600/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="1200" height="174" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jjV3SSpuY-A/WhTLRcUQcrI/AAAAAAAAEG8/6_jqRHQCfvQZBDDXQ-0rO8louO3zpU8-gCLcBGAs/s320/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tar bubbling up from the ground </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The pitch might be heated over a portable stove placed on
the deck, in which case the pot might turn over due to the ship’s movement,
spilling dangerously hot material over a deck mostly populated by men who were
barefoot. Flying liquid could touch human’s skin, as well, for there was not
much in the way of protective clothing, either, and it would stick to men’s
skin, even as it burned them.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Carrying buckets of the stuff was little safer. The handles
of pots would also be hot, and there were no safety-approved handguards. Rags
were all that was available. If the material was heated on the galley stove and
carried up to where it would be used, it would need to be carried up a ladder.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt2OHGGphT4/WhTNPzNuUtI/AAAAAAAAEHQ/VD3gaLAdkdES22zoXx802uQGKXv03qyJQCLcBGAs/s1600/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xt2OHGGphT4/WhTNPzNuUtI/AAAAAAAAEHQ/VD3gaLAdkdES22zoXx802uQGKXv03qyJQCLcBGAs/s320/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burning pitch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The full phrase isn’t just “The devil to pay.” It’s “the
devil to pay and no pitch hot.” Meaning that sailors would have to go through
the dangerous job of heating the pitch, and then the smelly, difficult, and
only slightly less dangerous job of spreading it over the longest seam of the
ship.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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So my assentation is that sailors were plenty brave enough
to talk about the Devil. They just found that too much of their regular work
seemed to be inspired by him. Thank goodness that today we have better
protection when performing dangerous work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-29152619437154668432017-10-24T20:56:00.000-07:002017-10-24T20:56:04.392-07:00Pirate Headgear<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve written about how to make pirate hats, but I’ve never written
about the actual fashion of pirate hats. By my reckoning, the Golden Age of Piracy
spanned the time between 1690 and 1720. Fashion in mens’ hats changed over this
time, but some things stayed the same.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X4O831BvkdI/WfAKXA0MvHI/AAAAAAAAEFk/QDAJYTqwbP4qigWMR5e8ACzEMG7TzuBBQCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="772" height="370" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X4O831BvkdI/WfAKXA0MvHI/AAAAAAAAEFk/QDAJYTqwbP4qigWMR5e8ACzEMG7TzuBBQCEwYBhgL/s400/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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To begin with, the basic structure of the man’s hat had not
changed much since the early 1600’s. The basis of men’s hats was a large piece
of heavy felt, shaped to the top of the head, with a wide brim. Some of the
hats were round in the crown, and some were flat topped. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_6HmSgTXLA/WfAKVZAQMaI/AAAAAAAAEFM/WMSLeTFPqyI6YZXJeNJmVS7FYkFnWzdcQCEwYBhgL/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="479" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_6HmSgTXLA/WfAKVZAQMaI/AAAAAAAAEFM/WMSLeTFPqyI6YZXJeNJmVS7FYkFnWzdcQCEwYBhgL/s320/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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A major fashion divergence (in England) took place during
the age of the Puritans and the English Civil War. Put very simply, this was a
conflict between religious conservatives (who strongly supported a “plain”
lifestyle and dress code) and Royalists, supporters of the English king, who espoused a
more luxurious lifestyle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8n98qiJqK0/WfAKVWL7MZI/AAAAAAAAEFQ/fi_50KiDxOYDaJHEteXkfHdOK36wu7psgCEwYBhgL/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="475" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8n98qiJqK0/WfAKVWL7MZI/AAAAAAAAEFQ/fi_50KiDxOYDaJHEteXkfHdOK36wu7psgCEwYBhgL/s320/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" width="279" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Of course, the political clash was much more complex. But
the two sides showed their loyalties by their dress, especially their hats. In
fact, the conservative religious side became known as “roundheads” for their tendency
to wear their hats with the brims flat and the round crowns unadorned. In
contrast, the Cavaliers adorned their hats and lavishly, especially with
plumes. They also turned up the brims of their hats in a fashionable manner.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By the late 1600’s, the style – for the stylish – was to turn
up the brim of the hat in 3 sections, making the early form that we know as the
“tricorn” – literally “three horned” from the three points made by the
turned-up sides. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9u1GI3tA2j4/WfAKV0LuqrI/AAAAAAAAEFY/DvusfTcyBQE2shgzuTJ-B2hzRf4-4CE6QCEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9u1GI3tA2j4/WfAKV0LuqrI/AAAAAAAAEFY/DvusfTcyBQE2shgzuTJ-B2hzRf4-4CE6QCEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very battered fabric tricorn</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This is the form that we most strongly associate with
pirates. But pirates did not in any way have a monopoly on these hats. In fact,
throughout most of the Golden Age, pirates wore hats of this shape simply
because, if a person set out to buy a “men’s hat” this is what they would be
offered.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The style had first come into use during warfare between
France and Spain during the 1650’s. The style then moved to France where it
became “fashionable.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The English tended to offer these hats plain- with no more
than a contrasting colored trim around the edge of the brim. Italians tended
more toward metallic trims around the brims, while the French added a fluffy
feathered detail all around the edge of the brim.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G3F9Ra5lKyI/WfAKY_EbkmI/AAAAAAAAEFs/vc9Buws2k6wCaGWoDWZ-nWPt9C0VoKhzwCEwYBhgL/s1600/captainjohnsmith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="761" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G3F9Ra5lKyI/WfAKY_EbkmI/AAAAAAAAEFs/vc9Buws2k6wCaGWoDWZ-nWPt9C0VoKhzwCEwYBhgL/s320/captainjohnsmith.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
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Now, how did pirates use these hats?<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the first place sailors did not wear their hats in the
same way as landsmen. Today, we see hats worn always with one of the tips
pointing perfectly forward, directly over the wearer’s nose. But men did not
always wear their hats this way. For example, soldiers who marched with a rifle
or musket on their shoulders, put the flat side of the hat on that side. This made
it less likely that they would knock the hat off with the musket. It also gave
the front of the hat an odd, lopsided look, with the front point off center.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NGz-W2dmVo/WfAKViIAXTI/AAAAAAAAEFs/ysh5DYndTs8Di-ib-c5LNQLjFzAKuyM2ACEwYBhgL/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="683" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NGz-W2dmVo/WfAKViIAXTI/AAAAAAAAEFs/ysh5DYndTs8Di-ib-c5LNQLjFzAKuyM2ACEwYBhgL/s320/1111.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Sailors wore their hats with a flat side in front, and a
point in the back. This looks strange to us, but it allowed the wearer to work
in close quarters without knocking the hat off. The point coming over the owner’s
neck may also have offered some protection from the sun.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xXNWZE7wKS0/WfAKWG4WMRI/AAAAAAAAEFs/EfR8gutRsogo9Ou5IdIZGEV-_RvkmMYmgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xXNWZE7wKS0/WfAKWG4WMRI/AAAAAAAAEFs/EfR8gutRsogo9Ou5IdIZGEV-_RvkmMYmgCEwYBhgL/s320/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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However, hats were expensive, and many plain sailors wore a
simple fabric cap with a narrow brim. Owning a real hat would have been a step
up that pirates might aspire to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Working pirates also probably wore some kind of bandana or
fabric headband. This was for the pragmatic reason of keeping sweat out of the
eyes. Pirates had more money to buy scarves with, and may also have cut down
stolen clothing to make brightly colored head scarves. People of the time
valued bright colors, because they were expensive as well as being pretty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bPAzrjggCaI/WfAKWnBdMcI/AAAAAAAAEFs/eouJzA0UUTI-meB8DulBlJmsoWO_xypGACEwYBhgL/s1600/WORLD2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="210" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bPAzrjggCaI/WfAKWnBdMcI/AAAAAAAAEFs/eouJzA0UUTI-meB8DulBlJmsoWO_xypGACEwYBhgL/s1600/WORLD2.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A captain and a common sailor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As well as hats, rich men also wore huge, elaborate wigs.
There is some contention as to whether pirate captains wore these wigs or not.
To people of the time, it would seem entirely natural that a person in
authority. But pirate captains often came from working-class backgrounds. They
may have valued the comfort of a wig-less existence, and profited from a more
egalitarian look among their men.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It does seem, however, that lower-tier pirates wore the wigs
during attacks. The startling look of tanned, hard-bitten men in elegant wigs
must have been startling, even frightening to pirate victims. This may be a
reason why pirates would have favored the most elaborate hats that they could
lay hands on. Since they didn’t have to pay for them, they could afford the
very best.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com155tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-38975183003660295152017-10-17T20:17:00.003-07:002017-10-17T20:17:54.669-07:00Pictures, Pirates and Bunny Ears<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do I write this blog?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I began this blog over four years ago because I was
researching the pirate books I was writing, and had discovered so many really
cool facts about the Golden Age of Piracy that I wanted to share. As I have
learned more, I’ve celebrated pirates in pop culture – always an interesting
topic – and delved into several aspects of 18<sup>th</sup> century life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This last is one of my longest-lasting topics. It has become
one of my goals to help people to see what was going on in the heads of people
who became pirates, even as I try to understand that myself. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Because people are
products of their time and place. No matter how much we strive to be
individuals, or to rebel, our surroundings influence us in ways we may never
realize, and can even steer us by giving us something to rebel against.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gej2vVUpHnw/WebHgasc5oI/AAAAAAAAEEo/SL2YTtt_gCggJ-zhuiPk6JAoT9M2gQubwCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="800" height="232" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gej2vVUpHnw/WebHgasc5oI/AAAAAAAAEEo/SL2YTtt_gCggJ-zhuiPk6JAoT9M2gQubwCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Even today, lingering echoes from hundreds of years ago
influence our thoughts and feelings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And that brings us to bunny ears.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You all know the pictures where one person puts their
fingers behind another person’s head, so it looks like their friend is wearing
a pair of rabbit ears. Everyone knows it’s kind of a naughty thing to do, but
no one seems to know why.<o:p></o:p></div>
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People did something similar in the 17<sup>th</sup> and 18<sup>th</sup>
century, although of course, it was done in paintings and engravings. Why?
Because in the 18<sup>th</sup> century, it mean something quite specific. It
meant that the guy’s wife was cheating on him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The two fingers were not bunny ears. They were horns.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKaymWvOTPE/WebDMWb93NI/AAAAAAAAEEM/2FQkvxIozIcR0BCi1fn2nMrPu1VETy4jwCLcBGAs/s1600/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="600" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IKaymWvOTPE/WebDMWb93NI/AAAAAAAAEEM/2FQkvxIozIcR0BCi1fn2nMrPu1VETy4jwCLcBGAs/s320/21752319_10214483407902518_2367564566198166117_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a really old painting</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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The phrase “putting horn on him” is supposed to come from
Spain, specifically Andalusia, and even in modern times, men there use it to
mean that their wives are fooling around. Supposedly, </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andalusian men don’t like
to be seen in public rubbing or scratching their foreheads, because folk might
think that they are spontaneously growing horns. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So what do male horns have to do with female sex? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The phrase is so old, it’s hard to tell. My favorite
explanation is that Andalusia is an area with many goats. Female goats, unlike
female sheep, have horns, and goat’s horns have long symbolized the devil. In
this instance, the horns also symbolize female power, specifically female
sexual power, which has terrified men at least since the Dark Ages. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lTAWJUuwD48/WebDMbQo7sI/AAAAAAAAEEU/0_nHgHqNqgk5Ykj-Vo6f14TCivkHiP1hgCEwYBhgL/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="589" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lTAWJUuwD48/WebDMbQo7sI/AAAAAAAAEEU/0_nHgHqNqgk5Ykj-Vo6f14TCivkHiP1hgCEwYBhgL/s320/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A woman with and "evil" hairdo, looking like horns</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this version of the story, the wife, who is acting the
part of a man by fooling around, “puts” the feminine horns on her husband,
signify that he must now take the female role of standing by while his spouse
takes lovers.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
This may seem very far-fetched, and almost Freudian. But one
thing is certain. However the phrase came to be, people of the early 1700’s
were very familiar with the phrase, the image, and its meaning.<br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In this section of Hogarth’s “Four Times of Day
– Afternoon” we see an example of the phrase’s usage in art. The picture show a
family visiting a tourist town. Like many families on holiday, things aren’t
working out well. The wife, pregnant, is overdressed, hot and uncomfortable. The kids are crying. The husband, struggling to carry a toddler, looks exhausted. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
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</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UOdVdRUtGTY/WebHnyCrObI/AAAAAAAAEEs/PRRL_ctGrE0Cdcf5_aTxhl9ZsrinvlrlQCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UOdVdRUtGTY/WebHnyCrObI/AAAAAAAAEEs/PRRL_ctGrE0Cdcf5_aTxhl9ZsrinvlrlQCLcBGAs/s1600/1111.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But if you look
closely, you will see that a cow has been strategically placed behind him, so
that its horns appear to be growing out of his head. Hogarth loved to put
telling details and visual jokes in his paintings and prints, and this one
shares the information that this man is caring for children who are not his
own. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is, if you will, a very early example of “bunny ears” in
a picture. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not only did pictures show things like this, but people used
it in real life. There is a story of a French nobleman whose wife began an
affair with the King. Now, normally husbands liked it when their wives had a
royal affair. Few aristocratic marriages were love-matches, so there was not
necessarily any betrayal of affection involved. And Kings were known to reward
accommodating husbands by giving them titles, land, and other desirable goodies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8WUoQzhlhE/WebDMWJTI5I/AAAAAAAAEEg/2SMUDutb2qUgbDGEJ7tQweKiH1c_b5NeACEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="304" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M8WUoQzhlhE/WebDMWJTI5I/AAAAAAAAEEg/2SMUDutb2qUgbDGEJ7tQweKiH1c_b5NeACEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A woman (as a giraffe) her husband (in the horns) <br />and the men who are "riding" her. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But this particular nobleman was not happy that his wife was
sleeping with another man. So he had a pair of stag’s horns attached to the top
of his carriage, and rode through Paris, showing off the fact that his wife
wasn’t faithful and he was unhappy about it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some people say that, by the early 1700’s the exact meaning
that the wife was “putting horns on her husband” had loosened just a little. By
this time, a man was able to point out that another man was wearing horns. And
the fact of pointing it out brought in a possible additional meaning. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Your wife is having an affair with ME.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today the sense of wickedness in putting up “bunny ears”
still exists. But if you’re a pirate, remember that things were different 300
years ago. Be careful in those photos!<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-9531712281368094602017-10-10T20:38:00.000-07:002017-10-10T20:38:11.920-07:00Lady Pirate – Mary/Elizabeth Killigrew<div class="MsoNormal">
The rocky coast of Cornwall (in England) has been home to
smugglers and wreckers for as long as anyone can remember. It was also home to
a strong female pirate – Mary (sometimes Elizabeth) Killigrew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nJ7-MPsvr2I/Wd2OLwh5eCI/AAAAAAAAEDQ/cTG0SpP5j6UAF3Af_N4afujLNClb_IBXgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="231" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nJ7-MPsvr2I/Wd2OLwh5eCI/AAAAAAAAEDQ/cTG0SpP5j6UAF3Af_N4afujLNClb_IBXgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lady Mary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary was the daughter of a Phillip Wolverton, Lord of
Wolverton Hall, and a former Suffolk pirate. She was born some time before
1525, and was married to Henry Knyvett, who died in 1547.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLSnklbbobw/Wd2OLzORHYI/AAAAAAAAEDM/o-Ibv2L0q_MDaI9ZIt1iK5kxof9cqndPgCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="290" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kLSnklbbobw/Wd2OLzORHYI/AAAAAAAAEDM/o-Ibv2L0q_MDaI9ZIt1iK5kxof9cqndPgCLcBGAs/s320/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry Knyvett</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mary's second husband was Sir Henry Killigrew, a pirate who was
later made a Vice-Admiral by Queen Elizabeth I. These were the days when piracy
was something of a national pastime in England. Because of its official
Protestant religion, (among other things) England was at odds with Spain, and
Spain was in the process of looting gold, silver and emeralds from the New
World. There was money to be made in stealing from Spain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sir Henry was heir to Arwenack castle, a Cornish stronghold
near what is now the town of Falmouth, and in a position to control the mouth
of the river Fal – the third-largest natural port in the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7bUEJ2FoxZs/Wd2OMmScorI/AAAAAAAAEDc/cbfH5MtsYNA1DREYV9vOYtliIWwumtH7QCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="1024" height="125" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7bUEJ2FoxZs/Wd2OMmScorI/AAAAAAAAEDc/cbfH5MtsYNA1DREYV9vOYtliIWwumtH7QCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arwenack House</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sir H<span style="font-family: inherit;">e</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">nry had been in trouble under Queen Mary, the last
Catholic queen of England. He and his father were</span> even imprisoned for their
opposition, though their actual jailtime amounted to only 3 weeks. When Elizabeth
I, a Protestant, came to the throne, the Killigrews were back in favor.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not that any of them were angels. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #111111;">A national beauty in her day, with her long auburn hair, Lady Mary Killigrew became Cornwall’s own super villain (or hero, if you like); leading a double life as noble aristocrat by day and ruthless pirate by night! It is said that she often entertained nobles and ship captains in order to extract information about treasure. Both she and her husband used this information later in their robberies. Lady Mary was said to love the excitement. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Under Elizabeth’s protection, Sir Henry became notorious for engaging in cattle theft, "evil usage in keeping of a castle" and for abuses of his power as a Justice of the peace.
By the time he was appointed a Commissioner to inquire into piracy, he was
heavily engaged in that activity himself, and traded with smugglers and pirates
who frequented the waters around his home castle. He was the subject of an
official investigation in 1565.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But pirates brought money into the royal coffers (good
pirates of the period kicked back to the ruler they sailed under) but
appearances must be maintained. Elizabeth I needed to placate her Spanish peers,
even as she was accepting money from men like Francis Drake.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R-NKGZvKhPE/Wd2R4DYuWhI/AAAAAAAAEDw/ezRPw3GRZlEJxWfa2XUA_0-gclGqIXh4gCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="185" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R-NKGZvKhPE/Wd2R4DYuWhI/AAAAAAAAEDw/ezRPw3GRZlEJxWfa2XUA_0-gclGqIXh4gCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elizabeth had her reputation, too.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Mary was, by all accounts, an enthusiastic supporter of her
husband’s less than legal activities. She re-designed Arwenak to better hold
stolen goods, cut deals with smugglers, and occasionally sent her servants out
to raid ships driven into the huge natural harbor by storm or other misfortune.
It’s possible that all this took place with Queen Elizabeth’s approval, or at
least while she turned a blind eye.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The final straw, however, came in 1570. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A ship came in to the Far-mouth harbor, sadly knocked about
from a major storm, possible dismasted. Some sources call the ship a German
merchant. Others say the ship was Spanish (which I believe is the more likely.)
Mary was at home with only her servants – Sir Henry was out pirating. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ngDYSszlWjU/Wd2OMcm7jEI/AAAAAAAAEDY/o9SxGxU-tLw0_ZmqFADKnKC2i971c3U5ACLcBGAs/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="736" height="231" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ngDYSszlWjU/Wd2OMcm7jEI/AAAAAAAAEDY/o9SxGxU-tLw0_ZmqFADKnKC2i971c3U5ACLcBGAs/s320/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raid on a Spanish treasure ship</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>Seeing the opportunity to make a huge profit, Mary sent a
raiding party out in the dead of night to capture the ship. The more romantic
pirate fans say she led the attack herself. This is unlikely, though she
probably planned it. And who knows? There's no proof she didn't either. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Her men did not do things halfway. They not only captured
the ship’s cargo, but the ship itself. After unloading their plunder, they
supposedly sailed the ship to Ireland to sell it. With all the cargo hidden in
a castle, and the ship itself sold far away, it looked like the perfect crime.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the ship’s owner went directly to the Queen. Faced with
such obvious evidence of piracy (the robbing and stealing of the ship)
something, at last, had to be done.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(This, by the way, is why I believe the ship was not German.
Germany wasn’t even a country yet… Nobody cared if the Germans were angry. Rich,
powerful Spain, however, was another matter.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Queen Elizabeth had Lady Mary arrested and brought to trial.
Some sources say she was sentenced to death and then pardoned by the Queen.
Others say her family bribed the jurors and she was acquitted. (The family had
been bribing government officials to cover up their nefarious activities for
generations. Piracy is profitable enough to make that kind of thing possible.)
Whether due to bribes or the efforts of Queen Elizabeth, Mary served only a
short term in prison, though two of her servants were hanged. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1xsh38rzkYo/Wd2R4DI82TI/AAAAAAAAEDs/JlxHIN9F3l8-Iu5YP17WPsHlmx2_cphCgCLcBGAs/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="236" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1xsh38rzkYo/Wd2R4DI82TI/AAAAAAAAEDs/JlxHIN9F3l8-Iu5YP17WPsHlmx2_cphCgCLcBGAs/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lady Mary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>It was about this time that Mary began to be known as
Elizabeth. This has confused historians, and everyone else, and many sources speak of Mary and Elizabeth Killigrew as two separate female pirates. But these were
times when changing one’s name was pretty much as simple as asking people to
call you something else. Did Mary, bearing the name of Elizabeth’s former
rival, change her name to Elizabeth to curry royal favor? We will likely never
know, but it seems plausible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever transpired, Mary gave up pirating and spent the
rest of her life storing her husband’s ill-gotten gains and fencing stolen
goods, until she died several years later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-21160220631590620872017-10-03T21:05:00.000-07:002017-10-03T21:05:06.917-07:00Tobacco - Part II - Pirates Stealing and Smoking<div class="MsoNormal">
Though wild tobacco plants grew in both North and South
America, but when the fad of smoking hit Europe, the colonists wanted tobacco farms,
and were soon growing the plant in quantities never seen before. The new
farming industry required new methods of preserving and transporting the crop.
When Europeans first began to harvest tobacco, the plants were simply covered
with hay and left in the field to cure or "sweat." <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the use of hay diminished the availability of animal
fodder. In 1618, new regulations prohibited the use hay for preserving tobacco.
As often happens, government regulations drove innovation. A better method of
curing tobacco was developed. The wilted leaves were hung on lines or sticks.
Though at first hung outside on fence rails, but the 1620s, tobacco barns for
housing the crop were in use.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During this curing period, which lasted about four to six
weeks, the color of the tobacco changed from a greenish yellow to a light tan.
Mold was a danger during the curing time. The leaves must stay damp and
pliable, but must not hold too much moisture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the tobacco was ready, and preferably during a period
of damp weather, workers struck the tobacco and laid the leaves on the floor of
the barn to sweat for a week or two. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPIK8u9aTI/WdRdUS1UxKI/AAAAAAAAECo/V2NyQLY64bQWDqu4N_wUdjiScOYrxFSKgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="800" height="220" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPIK8u9aTI/WdRdUS1UxKI/AAAAAAAAECo/V2NyQLY64bQWDqu4N_wUdjiScOYrxFSKgCLcBGAs/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though drying and preserving techniques were constantly
being improved, by the Golden Age of Piracy the preparation of tobacco for
shipping was still simple. The tobacco leaves were twisted and rolled, then
spun into rope, which was wound into balls weighing as much as a hundred pounds.
These balls were protected in canvas or barrels. Many inventories of stolen
goods or pirate plunder include a notation of one or two barrels of tobacco. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7QTbN3S8nsM/WdRdUvV0V-I/AAAAAAAAECw/Fb3POdgTREQAzJzTK16y10W7jWg8lax2wCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="800" height="190" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7QTbN3S8nsM/WdRdUvV0V-I/AAAAAAAAECw/Fb3POdgTREQAzJzTK16y10W7jWg8lax2wCLcBGAs/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the export of bulk tobacco was not outlawed until
1730, a large barrel called a "hogshead" soon became the favored
container throughout the colonial period. Even though its capacity varied
slightly, governed by the regulations of the day, the average weight of the
tobacco stored in a hogshead barrel was about a thousand pounds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Captain of merchant vessels did not load up a single-product
cargo in a single port. Instead, they traveled from one plantation dock to the
next, loading up with barrels of tobacco as they moved along the river. If they
had trouble getting their cargos of tobacco into England, they might resort to
employing smugglers, the cousins of pirates, to get their cargos into the
country.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in the Caribbean, pirates smoked “like the devil” to
quote a phrase used at the time. Excavation of known pirate camps reveal that
as many as one third of recovered artifacts are clay pipes. Divers in the
sunken city of Port Royal recover broken pipe stems by the hundreds. Why did
pirates smoke so much? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-50Okuk_1YL0/WdRdT1Q7DkI/AAAAAAAAECk/hwt_wnPE1wYSdh8EQCVFMVs8tftrFGyagCLcBGAs/s1600/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="625" height="216" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-50Okuk_1YL0/WdRdT1Q7DkI/AAAAAAAAECk/hwt_wnPE1wYSdh8EQCVFMVs8tftrFGyagCLcBGAs/s320/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proof of a serious smoking habit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>For one thing, they had the time. Part of the lure of pirate
life was leisure time – something that wasn’t available to most working-class
folk. Large crews meant that the work-load on ship was light, leaving time to
enjoy activities like smoking</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On navy and merchant ships, smoking was strictly controlled
and highly discouraged. Boats were flammable. Even on pirate ships, smoking below
decks was likely prohibited.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some pirate ships, however, provided their crews with a
small smoking luxury – a means to light their pipes. In the days before
matches, pipes and candles were most often lit from an existing fire.
Households kept a supply of long wooden splinters at hand. These were lighted
from an existing fire, then used as we would a match.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But open fires were not popular on ships. So the pirates got
around this by using slow-burning cannon fuse. Ships would allow a length of
this material to smolder in some convenient location, often near a tub of
water. Anyone wishing to smoke only needed to wander over to ignite a pipe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In town, taverns often supplied pipes. Tavern pipes were
often used by many smokers, being cleaned and kept on pipe stands when not in
use. The many pieces of broken pipe stem found at archaeological sites has led
some people to believe that 18<sup>th</sup> century smokers broke the tips off their
pipes in order to protect against the transfer of germs or sickness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-whUlTmh9dU8/WdRdTlXQYfI/AAAAAAAAECc/YikWkJk-aTM2nkpoBlHh0cm-uk3K_ml6QCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-whUlTmh9dU8/WdRdTlXQYfI/AAAAAAAAECc/YikWkJk-aTM2nkpoBlHh0cm-uk3K_ml6QCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" /></a></div>
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It’s a great story, but there is no supporting evidence.
People in the 18<sup>th</sup> century didn’t know about germs. It’s more likely
that pipe stems were broken as a method of cleaning, or simply because the pipe
stems were long and delicate.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, of course, modern pirate re-enactors are more likely
to smoke cigarettes. A tobacco product that was not invented until 150 years
after piracy’s golden age. But never fear! Creative entrepreneurs have invented
a device that hide a modern cigarette inside a false pipe. For your smoking
pleasure. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uGy8uZB4rr4/WdRdUZSVrRI/AAAAAAAAECs/4aBOA1gKyaMJGHb3sZgYJwCNfjbDMV4zACLcBGAs/s1600/WORLD2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="570" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uGy8uZB4rr4/WdRdUZSVrRI/AAAAAAAAECs/4aBOA1gKyaMJGHb3sZgYJwCNfjbDMV4zACLcBGAs/s320/WORLD2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/248311915/rennie-hide-a-cig-pipe?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=conceal%20cigarettes&ref=sr_gallery_3" target="_blank">Vendor here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-69050680908075509542017-09-26T20:01:00.001-07:002017-09-26T20:01:23.869-07:00Tobacco – Cash Crop of the New World<div class="MsoNormal">
Whenever we see an accurate depiction of pirates, there is always
tobacco near at hand. Whether it be a long clay pipe or a thin black cigar,
pirates – like many European of the time – loved to smoke. And since tobacco
was still a luxury item in the early 1700’s, it was a habit taken up both to
enjoy amd to show off affluence. This made it especially popular with pirates,
who had often moved from deep poverty to sudden wealth.</div>
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Smoking is an unusual way of ingesting a drug. At the time
of the European invasion in the 1500s, smoking was found only in the Americas
and in a few parts of Africa. Europeans were unfamiliar with this activity and
were, at times, amazed when they encountered it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tobacco grows wild in many parts of the Americas and
archaeological evidence suggests that Natives in the Andes mountains of South
American had begun to cultivate tobacco about 7,000 years ago. The practice of
growing tobacco spread north into the tribal traditions of what is now the United
States and Canada and out to the Caribbean Islands. When Christopher Columbus
and his men struck land in the Caribbean, they became first Westerners to see
people smoking tobacco. A 16<sup>th</sup> century Spanish historian vividly
described how the first scouts sent by Columbus into the interior of Cuba found:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>men
with half-burned wood in their hands and certain herbs to take their smokes,
which are some dry herbs put in a certain leaf, also dry, like those the boys
make on the day of the Passover of the Holy Ghost; and having lighted one part
of it, by the other they suck, absorb, or receive that smoke inside with the
breath, by which they become benumbed and almost drunk, and so it is said they
do not feel fatigue. These, muskets as we will call them, they call tabacos. I
knew Spaniards on this island of Española who were accustomed to take it, and
being reprimanded for it, by telling them it was a vice, they replied they were
unable to cease using it. I do not know what relish or benefit they found in
it.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The Europeans were immediately fascinated, and traded with the
natives for this captivating new plant. One of Columbus' lieutenants was so drawn to
primitive cigar smoking that he smoked every single day on the long journey back
home. Because the natives of the Caribbean smoked tobacco in cigar form, cigars
and the Spanish have been linked ever since.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cigar smoking became quite popular in Spain and Portugal.
The French ambassador to Portugal, picked up the habit and brought cigars back
in his home country. From there it spread to Italy and other European nations. While
some rulers such as King Phillip II of Spain and King James I of England
denounced smoking as being evil, the cigar grew in popularity as companies
started growing tobacco for commercial consumption.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is important to remember that tobacco can be used by in
many different ways. It can be sniffed, chewed, eaten, smeared on the skin,
drunk, used in eye drops and enemas, and smoked. Europeans began smoking
because that was the usage they saw. Taken in small doses, tobacco has a mild
effect on those who use it. However, taken in large doses it can produce
hallucinations, trances, and even death.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For the natives of North America, tobacco was a spiritual herb.
As long as 3,000 years ago, the people living around North America’s Great
Lakes were smoking tobacco in pipes. For these people, every act of smoking a
pipe contained some measure or ritual. When the pipe was first lit, it would be
offered to the directions (four, six, or seven, depending on the culture.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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When asking the advice of an elder it was (and still is)
customary to give the elder tobacco. When gathering wild plants for ceremonial
use, one left a small offering of tobacco for the spirits of the plants. In
preparing the fire for the sweat lodge, tobacco offerings are given to the
fire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The tribes of North America most commonly used tobacco by
smoking it in a pipe. Indians used pipes made from many different materials in
a variety of shapes. The one we now best is the Plains Indian “peace” pipe with
its stone bowl and long wooden stem. But the Indian people in the eastern part
of the United States frequently made pipes from clay. It was this clay pipe
which the English copied when they first began to smoke tobacco. And the clay
tobacco pipe was the standard for English and Dutch pirates. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tobacco was an early fad in European and cultivation of the plant
was one of the driving forces for profit that helped to encourage immigration to
the New World. Huge profits could be made in the weed. The cultivation of
tobacco as a cash crop in America marked a shift from a subsistence economy to
an agrarian economy. Tobacco’s value led to it being used as a currency in
colonies. Tobacco was also backed by the gold standard which meant that there
was an established conversion rate from tobacco to gold.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vReKVxM9B3Q/WcsT-uD2dCI/AAAAAAAAEBs/PuSOxM4ciL8fVl7pnuCZmtRbr7_IU7CwwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="250" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vReKVxM9B3Q/WcsT-uD2dCI/AAAAAAAAEBs/PuSOxM4ciL8fVl7pnuCZmtRbr7_IU7CwwCEwYBhgL/s200/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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But this led to changes. In the beginning, plantations that
grew tobacco used indentured servants to cultivate the crop. But this sort of
farming requires large amounts of land and labor. Early indentured servants were promised land
grants in exchange for their years of service – but when their time was up,
landowners did not want to part with such profitable land. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One answer was to find ways to deny indentured servants
their due. Another was to search for a fresh source of labor that would be
permanent and not require land as a reward. Tobacco in North America, like sugar
in the Caribbean, drove unfair labor practices and the need for slaves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next week… Tobacco as cash. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-32660129914450760932017-09-19T20:24:00.001-07:002017-09-19T20:24:25.618-07:00Dropping Out of Piracy<div class="MsoNormal">
This post is inspired by a question asked at one of my
events. A gentleman wanted to know if there were any pirate stories with a
happy ending for the pirates. At the time I answered him with the stories of
Jennings and Hornigold, two captains who hated each other. Both took the pardon
offered by the King. Jennings then took his ill-gotten gains, bought into
society, purchased a plantation, and lived out his life in comfort.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hornigold was not quite so fortunate. He had lived a more
classically “piratical” life, and had little money when he was pardoned.
Consequently, he went back to work as a ship’s captain and, interestingly
enough, pirate hunter, and died in a storm some 18 months later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So what happened to the pirates?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Moralists wanted us to believe that most, if not all,
pirates died at the end of a rope. The “short drop with a sharp stop” that was
the hangman’s noose may have ended a certain number of piratical careers, but
not every pirate died at ropes’ end. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of the nine pirates in Sam Bellamy’s fleet who survived the
wreck of the <i>Whydah</i> and her (little) sister ship the <i>Mary Anne</i>, two were acquitted.
Bellamy has conscripted them, and so they were determined to not be pirates of their
own free will. Six were hanged. One, John Julian, a Mosquito Indian, was sold
into slavery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And these were the guys who got caught. Roughly 146 died in
the wreck. Was is better, or different at all, to die in a storm as a pirate?
My guess is, no. Pirates and honest sailors both died in storms at sea, so in
that way, a pirate’s life was no different than any sailor’s. Except that it
contained more rum and friendly women. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Some pirates simply disappeared. One of the most notorious
of these was Anne Bonny, close *ahem* friend of Calico Jack Rackham. Anne was
pregnant when she was arrested, and so was held in custody. When the child was
born, she was supposed to be hanged. But we have no records of either of these
events happening. Anne, the most notorious woman in the Western Hemisphere, simply
vanished. Theories range from breakouts, to bribery to an unheeded, anonymous
death. We’ll never know for sure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But other pirates – the sort of rank-and-file deck hands and
topmast jacks – often drifted in and out of the life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates were known to free slaves, and many a pirate crew
was swollen with these recruits. Africans sometimes fell into slavery as prisoners
of war, and they made a terrifying addition to the attack force of a pirate
fleet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But few of these men were skilled sailors, and at least some
of them probably found their way out of piracy and into the colonies of escaped
slaves called Maroons that dotted the Caribbean. These people would have lived
out their lives as farmers, hunters and scouts, and left behind descendants who
still live in the Caribbean today. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But if a man went ashore with his share of pirate plunder,
and was a little better than his friends at budgeting his cash, he might have a
problem. Waking up after a six-week drunk, he might find out that the pirate
ship had sailed off without him! Pirate crews usually partied until the money
ran out (it usually took a couple of months.) Then, penniless, they went back
to sea to raise more funds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But if one or two pirates made the money last a little
longer, they might be without a pirate ship to join. Some men moved between
crews this way, but if no pirate ship was available, the hung-over pirate might
be in need of an honest job to provide food and shelter. So he would sign on to
a merchant vessel, and be a regular sailor once again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Did he become a pirate again? Some probably did, and some
probably did not. Either way, these men of little reputation did not leave
behind much to tell folks 300 years later what happened to them. These are the men
who lived to tell pirate stories to “Captain Johnson” as he gathered material
for his book, <i>The Robberies and Murders
of the Most Notorious Pyates</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, one of the smallest percentages, are the guys who
took the money and ran. A pirate could make as much a two-year’s salary in as
little as six weeks, without even doing anything so noteworthy that people in
our age would find out about it. They made the most of their anonymity, and went
home with a truck full of treasure. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jgv0R2cpZZY/WcHerBoSNAI/AAAAAAAAEA0/CTLlAqjQPSEi32akEDDt7rTb3np2zSf8gCLcBGAs/s1600/0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="236" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jgv0R2cpZZY/WcHerBoSNAI/AAAAAAAAEA0/CTLlAqjQPSEi32akEDDt7rTb3np2zSf8gCLcBGAs/s400/0001.jpg" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sailor returning home with a chest of gold. <br />In the lower right corner is his mother-in-law, so impressed that she likes him now!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p>A small group, it is sure. This kind of planning and
financial restraint is completely contrary to human nature. And yet, people do
manage it.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I like to imagine this fellow coming home, with enough gold
to buy a small business, or a herd of sheep, or some other investment that
would make his life easier, and enrich the lives of his wife and children. Or perhaps
he suddenly had enough cash to pay a debt, or to marry the girl of his dreams.
But whatever else he bought with him, he had stories of his life as a pirate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-2304023623741614782017-09-12T20:59:00.001-07:002017-09-12T20:59:41.586-07:00The Caribbean's Violent Winds<div class="MsoNormal">
If you love pirates, you must, by necessity, love the
Caribbean. Pirates of the Golden Age were utterly formed by this vast area of
sea, sun, water and scattered islands. Here they bartered with the last of the
free natives, exchanging scurvy preventing fruit for guns that the natives used
in an attempt the stave off the colonial powers bent on destroying their
culture and making them slaves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates drank rum produced by the local sugar plantations
and made it a legend. They hid among the scattered volcanic islands, marooned their
undesirables on deserted beaches, and formed free communities, hidden from the
powers that be. And they raided ships of many nations, playing off the politics
of what was, at that time, the farthest reaches of the wild, wild west.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirates faced the fury of the elements. On June 7, 1692, a
massive earthquake hit the wickedest city on earth. At 11:43 (according to a
stopped pocket watch found among the ruins) 2/3 of one of the largest cities in
the Caribbean sank into the waves. The grave of the infamous Captain Morgan was
lost forever, and some 3,000 people died.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UDmcM7KVPs/Wbir2njLsJI/AAAAAAAAEAE/23QP7wEAFu0vdegEDLx6jpmjhEa9Izt-QCLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="550" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UDmcM7KVPs/Wbir2njLsJI/AAAAAAAAEAE/23QP7wEAFu0vdegEDLx6jpmjhEa9Izt-QCLcBGAs/s320/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In true piratical fashion, the survivors looted the bodies,
cutting rings from the fingers of the dead.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On July 31 1715, a large hurricane struck the Florida coast
just as Spain’s Treasure Fleet, was passing by. 11 out of 12 vessels sank, and
gold washed ashore on the Florida coast like sea foam. Treasure hunters form
all over the New World came to loot the site, and many men who came as looters left as pirates. Even today, finds of gold and precious gems ignite the
imagination – and sometimes enrich the bank accounts – of modern day explorers. </div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AEA9NbkK134/Wbir2T0UonI/AAAAAAAAEAA/kWFxw5A4u6s4agjZhUCnYmAxT2eZCOktgCLcBGAs/s1600/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="500" height="222" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AEA9NbkK134/Wbir2T0UonI/AAAAAAAAEAA/kWFxw5A4u6s4agjZhUCnYmAxT2eZCOktgCLcBGAs/s320/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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On April 26, 1717, an unseasonable hurricane wrecked the
<i>Whydah Galley</i> and ended the career of one of the most successful pirate captains
of all time, Sam Bellamy. Sam lost his
life, and those of some 150 of his loyal followers, but the legend of the <i>Whydah</i>
remained. When recovery began in 1984, the ship’s remains became the only fully
authenticated Golden Age pirate shipwreck ever discovered. Some 26 million dollars’
worth of gold was hauled from the wreckage, but the archaeological evidence was
beyond price, inspiring Barry Clifford, leader of the expedition to say, “It’s
not what you find, it’s what you find out!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64jrhJf_KnU/Wbir32rflQI/AAAAAAAAEAU/gZ4Y1B0ae9oCwp9_MoWZB_uaF6vXus1zgCLcBGAs/s1600/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="1024" height="160" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64jrhJf_KnU/Wbir32rflQI/AAAAAAAAEAU/gZ4Y1B0ae9oCwp9_MoWZB_uaF6vXus1zgCLcBGAs/s320/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you love pirates, then you should love the Caribbean,
with all its violence and unpredictability. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And the Caribbean has been hard hit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As many thousands of Americans watched the news nervously,
awaiting news of friends or relatives in Florida, the islands of the Caribbean
were just coming to terms with a wake of unimaginable destruction. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The tiny island of Barbuda, home to proud people who fought
for their freedom, was not easily conquered, though it was discovered by
Columbus on his second voyage. Like many Caribbean islands, this tiny piece of
land was eventually settled by European colonists, and stocked with slaves. The
dirty business of slave export was one way the colonists made money, in addition
to raising sugar cane. But even when the
British government freed slaves, these people were not given land or any way to
buy other means of support. They remained as substance farm workers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dsTvojIQstI/Wbir2ojXwHI/AAAAAAAAEAI/rr_yub9CuA0RS2vDzBg4k7LHvdF0QdKjwCLcBGAs/s1600/Barbuda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="720" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dsTvojIQstI/Wbir2ojXwHI/AAAAAAAAEAI/rr_yub9CuA0RS2vDzBg4k7LHvdF0QdKjwCLcBGAs/s320/Barbuda.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before and after Irma</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Today the island is mostly Black, mostly poor, and now
mostly gone. After Hurricane Irma, 90% of the island’s structure has been
either completely destroyed or left roofless. So much vegetation has been
washed away that aerial photos show a change in color. And another hurricane is
bearing down.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Donations are being accepted by UNICEF, which is working to
protect the most vulnerable victims including malnourished children. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/disaster-relief-help-protect-children-harm/32787?utm_campaign=2017_misc&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=0178/2/_Google&utm_content=irma&ms=cpc_dig_2017_misc_0178/2/_Google_irma&initialms=cpc_dig_2017_misc_0178/2/_Google_irma">https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/disaster-relief-help-protect-children-harm/32787?utm_campaign=2017_misc&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=0178/2/_Google&utm_content=irma&ms=cpc_dig_2017_misc_0178/2/_Google_irma&initialms=cpc_dig_2017_misc_0178/2/_Google_irma</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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For a more local effort, the Halo group had a donation page
dedicated to Barbuda specifically. <a href="https://foundationhalo.org/cause/barbuda-relief-effort/">https://foundationhalo.org/cause/barbuda-relief-effort/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9oJJ64bSMno/Wbir3p9cbzI/AAAAAAAAEAQ/kZhQQGtFHYEeuLhIW2TyowPLRSyQMtJngCLcBGAs/s1600/download.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9oJJ64bSMno/Wbir3p9cbzI/AAAAAAAAEAQ/kZhQQGtFHYEeuLhIW2TyowPLRSyQMtJngCLcBGAs/s320/download.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Elsewhere, on the island of Saint Martin/Sint Martaan, the
only place in the word where France and the Netherlands share a border, has
been severely ravaged. In addition to being hit squarely by Irma, the tension
and terror have inflamed long-standing issues of race and class, as resident recount
how pale skin and cash seemed to strongly influence evacuation effort. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We know which side the pirates would have been on! While
this island is still linked to powerful European nations, there is still
concern that the locals, lacking power or influence, will be forgotten. US
charities are moving in to help, but residents say that at the moment, “We have
nothing.” Here’s a link to sites where donations are being accepted. <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/irma">https://www.gofundme.com/irma</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Americans are already working to help their Caribbean
neighbors. The US territory of Puerto Rico has already become a refugee center
for harder-hit islands and a supply hub for donations. Six shipping containers
of items from hammers to diapers have already headed to the British Virgin
Islands, and privately owned boats are bringing the homeless to safety. But the
island’s infrastructure has been crumbling for years, and the stress may be
beginning to show. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.generosity.com/emergencies-fundraising/irma-puerto-rico-real-time-recovery-fund">https://www.generosity.com/emergencies-fundraising/irma-puerto-rico-real-time-recovery-fund</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rM7vDSAMZ_0/Wbir3k_Io8I/AAAAAAAAEAM/2rW4IcWitTEn-2mJk-rfSmD4aKdhyLoMQCLcBGAs/s1600/Havana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="900" height="216" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rM7vDSAMZ_0/Wbir3k_Io8I/AAAAAAAAEAM/2rW4IcWitTEn-2mJk-rfSmD4aKdhyLoMQCLcBGAs/s320/Havana.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cuba, after the storm</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Cuba, one-time gathering place for Spanish Treasure fleets,
and the probably location where Anne Bonney gave birth to her only child, was
hard hit by the storm. Much of the northern coast of the island is underwater,
power is out, and many buildings are without roofs. Even some dolphins have
been evacuated. Destruction of resorts will have a lasting effect on Cuba’s
tourist industry, and farm fields contaminated by salt water may not return to
normal productivity for decades. More than a million people have been
evacuated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-irma-relief-fund/">https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-irma-relief-fund/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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In a time of growing nationalism, it would be easy to say “Take
care of our own first.” But citizens of the Caribbean lack many of the luxuries
available to Americans – such as the ability to get out of the storm’s path by
road. Though the residents of the Caribbean are hard-working, the region is
still damaged by European invasion and conquest, and by the history for slavery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Holding back aid is simply not the pirate way. Pirates
fought their battles in the name of the poor and downtrodden (starting with
themselves of course) and it would be keeping in the pirate spirit to give, and
give generously, to help rebuild the region that they loved. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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(And, as we all know, landlubbers can try to trick honest
pirates. Not all of the donation centers listed here can be checked out at this
time. When in doubt, give to well-known charities. But please give. It’s the
piratical thing to do.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-42971493048175748952017-09-05T21:48:00.001-07:002017-09-05T21:48:32.925-07:00World Events During Piracy's Golden Age <div class="MsoNormal">
Part 2</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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For those interested in how the events of the world fit together, here is the second part of my list of world events. For purposes of brevity, war related entries are kept to a minimum. </div>
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1705<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The town of Bath is incorporated in the Province of
Carolina, It is the first incorporated town in present-day North Carolina. The
town becomes the political center and capital of the northern portion of the
Province of Carolina, until Edenton is incorporated in 1722.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k-RsM-4BYUY/Wa9862XkxsI/AAAAAAAAD_k/Qz3BZUzOCbYmql3cNYtJIYqsfu9w8oJtQCLcBGAs/s1600/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="341" height="138" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k-RsM-4BYUY/Wa9862XkxsI/AAAAAAAAD_k/Qz3BZUzOCbYmql3cNYtJIYqsfu9w8oJtQCLcBGAs/s320/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Isaac Newton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anne, Queen of Great Britain honors Isaac Newton with a
Knighthood.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1706<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The English Parliament establishes the first “turnpike
trusts.” These trusts place a length of
road under the control of trustees, drawn from local landowners and traders. The
turnpike trusts borrow capital for road maintenance against the security of
tolls, and this arrangement becomes the common method of road maintenance for
the next 150 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Twinings, founded by Thomas Twining, starts England’s first
tea room at 216 Strand, London. It is still open.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-amqLa1I1cdc/Wa984lBQQ4I/AAAAAAAAD_A/ogVYYMpr4nEkKGhjU9ZD1oPMNrQkTvj1wCEwYBhgL/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-amqLa1I1cdc/Wa984lBQQ4I/AAAAAAAAD_A/ogVYYMpr4nEkKGhjU9ZD1oPMNrQkTvj1wCEwYBhgL/s1600/Dalaway_Saw%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" /></a></div>
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1707<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Kingdom of Great Britain is formed when The Treaty (or
Act) of Union, created from the union of the two Kingdoms of Scotland and
England, is ratified by the Parliament of Scotland.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji begins in Japan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9EkuVqo-cys/Wa985JFp3AI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/NwPc6QhYKH45j76pdhVraW3UspY9Rh4AwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="306" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9EkuVqo-cys/Wa985JFp3AI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/NwPc6QhYKH45j76pdhVraW3UspY9Rh4AwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>1708</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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A Native American attack in Haverhill, Massachusetts kills
16 settlers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed as chamber musician and
organist to the court in Weimar.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Company of Merchants of London Trading merges with the
East Indies, and the more recently established English Company Trading to the
East Indies, to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the
East Indies, known as the “Honourable East India Company.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sH68hpX74kc/Wa986IhIPjI/AAAAAAAAD_U/ybmLhru25MUPJObSJaxuUj457OI6GWs7wCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sH68hpX74kc/Wa986IhIPjI/AAAAAAAAD_U/ybmLhru25MUPJObSJaxuUj457OI6GWs7wCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2.jpg" /></a></div>
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1709<o:p></o:p></div>
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Western Europe's Great Frost of 1709, the coldest period in
500 years, begins. It lasting three months, and its effects are felt for the
entire year. In France, the Atlantic coast and Seine River freeze, crops fail,
and 24,000 Parisians die. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2LTi8sz5Po/Wa986dtIyfI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/oMJedfjdPLIdNDwzmNY57aH54qbIy7n1QCEwYBhgL/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="1600" height="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2LTi8sz5Po/Wa986dtIyfI/AAAAAAAAD_Y/oMJedfjdPLIdNDwzmNY57aH54qbIy7n1QCEwYBhgL/s320/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Abraham Darby I successfully produces the first cast iron,
using coke fuel at his blast furnace in Shropshire, England.<o:p></o:p></div>
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During his first voyage, Captain Woodes Rogers – who will
later become governor of the pirate island of New Providence - encounters
marooned privateer Alexander Selkirk, and rescues him from of the Juan
Fernández Islands, where Selkirk had been marooned for four years. This incident
inspired Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The city of Chihuahua, Mexico is founded.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BWUj-FrA9M4/Wa9847GV_hI/AAAAAAAAD_E/1I4NeKS1j3MXSA8oNdSGPhsZuBYvP81igCEwYBhgL/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1131" data-original-width="1536" height="235" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BWUj-FrA9M4/Wa9847GV_hI/AAAAAAAAD_E/1I4NeKS1j3MXSA8oNdSGPhsZuBYvP81igCEwYBhgL/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>The first modern edition of William Shakespeare's plays is
published in London, edited by Nicholas Rowe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1710<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute
of Anne, becomes effective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L31PQdawI2c/Wa986VEdrCI/AAAAAAAAD_c/TPNGS1mUvrkJ0r_DgVUnkT4_saLwE5MqgCEwYBhgL/s1600/captainjohnsmith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L31PQdawI2c/Wa986VEdrCI/AAAAAAAAD_c/TPNGS1mUvrkJ0r_DgVUnkT4_saLwE5MqgCEwYBhgL/s320/captainjohnsmith.jpg" width="173" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Great Britain seizes Nova Scotia from Spain<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1711<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
French settlers at Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrate Mardi
Gras in Mobile Alabama, by parading a large papier-mache ox head on a cart. This
is the first Mardi Gras parade in America.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tuscarora War begins when Tuscarora natives under the
command of Chief Hancock raid settlements along the south bank of the Pamlico
River, within modern-day North Carolina, killing around 130 people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1712<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New York City's Slave Insurrection. The result is that 9
whites are killed, and 21 slaves and other blacks are convicted and executed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NPoG6xjuCVs/Wa984DxcX7I/AAAAAAAAD-8/ler5TXRGKUIwwD6innQrgBcnsvIUCdLHQCEwYBhgL/s1600/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NPoG6xjuCVs/Wa984DxcX7I/AAAAAAAAD-8/ler5TXRGKUIwwD6innQrgBcnsvIUCdLHQCEwYBhgL/s1600/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Arbuthnot creates the character of John Bull, to
represent Britain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1713<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First Treaty of Utrecht between Great Britain and Spain. In
it, Philip V is accepted by Britain and Austria as king of Spain, and Spain
cedes Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Second Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of the Spanish
Succession. In it, France cedes Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay and St Kitts
to Britain. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Treaty of Portsmouth brings an end to Queen Anne's War.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1714<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The initial offer of the Longitude prize. The Parliament of
Great Britain votes "to offer a reward for such person or persons as shall
discover the Longitude" They offer £10,000 for any method capable of
determining a ship's longitude within 1 degree; £15,000, within 40 minutes, and
£20,000 within ½ a degree.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8QLvPIWz9PI/Wa985XmbQLI/AAAAAAAAD_M/dBybHzbON_A_BxG6t4XfvfjRK4BEbIWJACEwYBhgL/s1600/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="220" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8QLvPIWz9PI/Wa985XmbQLI/AAAAAAAAD_M/dBybHzbON_A_BxG6t4XfvfjRK4BEbIWJACEwYBhgL/s1600/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The world's earliest surviving mixed gender school, Archbishop
Tenison's School, is established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Croydon,
south of London, England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1715<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Tuscarora Native Americans and their allies sign a peace
treaty with the Province of Carolina, and agree to move to a reservation near
Lake Mattamuskeet, effectively ending the Tuscarora War. Large numbers of
Tuscarora then move to New York.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England,
Sweden and Finland. Another will not be seen in the region for 900 years. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wxxBTvt0EwQ/Wa985EhOBYI/AAAAAAAAD_I/ai-KWOezh2YlplM1JhLyfy3O489c0JQcwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wxxBTvt0EwQ/Wa985EhOBYI/AAAAAAAAD_I/ai-KWOezh2YlplM1JhLyfy3O489c0JQcwCEwYBhgL/s320/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships, sailing under General
Don Juan Ubilla, leaves Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 11 of them sink in a
storm off the coast of Florida This will cause a “gold rush” for the spilled
treasure. Gold from the wrecks is still being recovered today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
King Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, dies after a reign
of 72 years, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1716<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi River,
is founded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wapping, England, a notable slum and childhood home of many English
pirates, is struck by a huge fire, destroying 150 houses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1717<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sam Bellamy’s pirate ship the <i>Whydah Galley</i>, sinks off the coast of Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first known Druid revival ceremony is held in London by
John Toland at the Autumnal Equinox.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1ToQhIjdtc/Wa984Cc9QCI/AAAAAAAAD-4/oOWIULXfixoDGXS63WerqNi9E75r50vjQCEwYBhgL/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K1ToQhIjdtc/Wa984Cc9QCI/AAAAAAAAD-4/oOWIULXfixoDGXS63WerqNi9E75r50vjQCEwYBhgL/s320/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain,
shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1718<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New Orleans is founded.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The white potato reaches New England from England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1719<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Daniel Defoe publishes <i>Robinson
Crusoe</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1720<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first great financial scandal, the "South Sea Bubble" ruins thousands of investors in
England. It is a scheme for the South Sea Company to take over most of the
national debt of Britain, and the result of the rumors massively inflates share
prices. The Lords Justice in Great Britain attempt to curb some of the excesses
of the stock markets during the South Sea Bubble. They dissolve a number of
petitions for patents and charters of similar institutions, and abolish more
than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit. But this has little effect. The
English stock market crashes, started by dropping prices for stock in the South
Sea Company.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--dhEMzwgmYc/Wa986dbg55I/AAAAAAAAD_g/Hxk4Yntvb64CZ8PpvmuJJppTV9AotGUyQCEwYBhgL/s1600/download.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--dhEMzwgmYc/Wa986dbg55I/AAAAAAAAD_g/Hxk4Yntvb64CZ8PpvmuJJppTV9AotGUyQCEwYBhgL/s1600/download.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146662961384020875.post-43700790264450387342017-08-28T21:24:00.002-07:002017-08-28T21:25:41.460-07:00World Events During Piracy's Golden Age<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Part I</span><br />
<br />
The dates of the Golden Age of Piracy have never been exact.
Some people calculate that this period began sometime in the mid 1600’s, and it
has been said to last as long as 1760. For my own use, I list the Golden Age of
Piracy as beginning 1690, the start of Henry Avery’s adventures, and ending
with the death of William Fly in 1725.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--5CwdD1-YK4/WaTqW9zeSCI/AAAAAAAAD-M/joR4hF4tiOko59ufbFkv1BDHcuWly23twCLcBGAs/s1600/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="302" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--5CwdD1-YK4/WaTqW9zeSCI/AAAAAAAAD-M/joR4hF4tiOko59ufbFkv1BDHcuWly23twCLcBGAs/s1600/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That makes 35 years of piracy. Pirates were very busy during
these years. But the rest of the world was busy, too. Let’s take a look at what
was going on outside the Caribbean. (For purposes of this article, I have chosen not to inclued most military events.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1690 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
January – The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg Germany<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QM7YYZuaiW8/WaTqSLeYwfI/AAAAAAAAD9Y/OH2qm_jaqoo6RUkoEpUEassDOULlsxxiACLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QM7YYZuaiW8/WaTqSLeYwfI/AAAAAAAAD9Y/OH2qm_jaqoo6RUkoEpUEassDOULlsxxiACLcBGAs/s1600/1_boston__0000_istock_000011012295large.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
July – A French landing party raids and burns Teignmouth in
Devon, England. Despite this success, plans for a full invasion are scrapped, and
Teignmouth is the last-ever French attack on England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
August – The East India Company establishes a trading post
in what is now Calcutta, India.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_i1jTnW_YEQ/WaTqT4cLYWI/AAAAAAAAD9s/FKKlPiy0zUQvtHYRWhL6vsmsHND4XXmnwCLcBGAs/s1600/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="936" height="243" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_i1jTnW_YEQ/WaTqT4cLYWI/AAAAAAAAD9s/FKKlPiy0zUQvtHYRWhL6vsmsHND4XXmnwCLcBGAs/s320/Fairfield-WPA-Mural-Tomilson-High-School-FMHC_2014_Pano_Pequot_-800x272-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
December – The planet Uranus is first sighted and recorded,
by John Flamsteed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1691<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leisler's Rebellion – German American militia leader Jacob Leister
seized control of the southern part of the English colony of New York. Late in
the year, England sent a new governor with troops, to the colony. They
re-captured the colony, and Leister was convicted of treason and hanged.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QEKV7Vx4mgk/WaTqUSzwExI/AAAAAAAAD90/FhIa4OIikzArSJEQzkb2Ew367dBpjjmqQCLcBGAs/s1600/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="369" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QEKV7Vx4mgk/WaTqUSzwExI/AAAAAAAAD90/FhIa4OIikzArSJEQzkb2Ew367dBpjjmqQCLcBGAs/s320/OldStateHouse-204x323.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Spanish Inquisition condemned and forcibly
baptized 219 xuetas (forcibly converted ethnic Jews) in Palma, Majorca. When 37
tried to escape the island, they were burned alive at the stake. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1692<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Salem Witch Trials <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
June 7 – The Jamaica earthquake. An earthquake and related
tsunami destroyed Port Royal, capital of Jamaica, and submerge a major part of
it; an estimated 2,000 people were immediately killed, 2,300 injured, and a
probable additional 2,000 died from the diseases which ravage the island in the
following months. The capital of Jamaica was then moved to Kingston. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r6LbOnkaSr4/WaTqWRZ3oHI/AAAAAAAAD-E/QauPtJApo8oH7M56xIonMdUteHXLkZqTACLcBGAs/s1600/captainjohnsmith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="382" height="249" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r6LbOnkaSr4/WaTqWRZ3oHI/AAAAAAAAD-E/QauPtJApo8oH7M56xIonMdUteHXLkZqTACLcBGAs/s320/captainjohnsmith.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Slaves staged an uprising on the island of
Barbados. The revolt was crushed by the authorities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1693<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
College of William and Mary in the colony of Virginia was
given a Royal Charter from King William III and Queen Mary II of England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1694<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Queen Mary II of England died of smallpox at the age of 32,
leaving her husband King William III to rule alone and without an heir. Mary's
sister Princess Anne was summoned back to court (having been banished after a
violent disagreement with the queen), as his official heiress.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vIs217zvOHk/WaTqSdWWfyI/AAAAAAAAD9g/hGOK2VEAOy0g6vekLTxN6p7be7xgmG9FwCLcBGAs/s1600/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="220" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vIs217zvOHk/WaTqSdWWfyI/AAAAAAAAD9g/hGOK2VEAOy0g6vekLTxN6p7be7xgmG9FwCLcBGAs/s1600/89974-004-CB37FF6F.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Mary</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The voyage of English slave ship Hannibal (part of the
Atlantic slave trade out of Benin) ended with the death of nearly half of the
692 slaves aboard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1695<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
English pirate Henry Every perpetrates one of the most
profitable raids in history, with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship
Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to put an end to all
English trading in India.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gold discovered in Brazil<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5GTJi8KOZ2A/WaTqWmqpxcI/AAAAAAAAD-I/rJp5Nt4gBjsgx5AM4t0zRu-svolgpNC6gCLcBGAs/s1600/download.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="291" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5GTJi8KOZ2A/WaTqWmqpxcI/AAAAAAAAD-I/rJp5Nt4gBjsgx5AM4t0zRu-svolgpNC6gCLcBGAs/s1600/download.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Facing competition with fabrics from India, English
manufacturers called for an embargo on Indian cloth, and silk weavers picketed
the House of Commons of England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1696<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Inquisition burns a number of Marrano Jews in Évora,
Portugal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1697<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The end of the last independent indigenous nation in the
Americas as Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya Kingdom falls to the Spanish.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Royal African Company loses its monopoly on the slave
trade<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1698<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First offshore lighthouse illuminated in England<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MNl3kfoJcRA/WaTqSDB_umI/AAAAAAAAD9c/cRJJMOv1N8QTdkQKCdTD7wxcclbTBJ0WgCLcBGAs/s1600/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="620" height="170" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MNl3kfoJcRA/WaTqSDB_umI/AAAAAAAAD9c/cRJJMOv1N8QTdkQKCdTD7wxcclbTBJ0WgCLcBGAs/s320/Alt-%2BLeft%2BThugs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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First English patent on a steam engine. <o:p></o:p></div>
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1699<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founded the first European
settlement in the Mississippi River Valley, at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean
Springs, Mississippi).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pirate Captain William Kidd was arrested and imprisoned in
Boston, Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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William Dampier's expedition to Australia, in HMS Roebuck,
reached Dirk Hartog Island, at the mouth of what he calls Shark Bay in Western
Australia, and he began to produce the first detailed record of Australian
flora and fauna<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXMerpYkE0o/WaTqU_48doI/AAAAAAAAD94/4u9d6gnMtLYSSeF3tHyVDCZRBNOidBpogCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="250" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LXMerpYkE0o/WaTqU_48doI/AAAAAAAAD94/4u9d6gnMtLYSSeF3tHyVDCZRBNOidBpogCLcBGAs/s1600/World2%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Dampier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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1700</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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William Penn (Member of the Quaker faith and founder of
Pennsylvania) begins monthly meetings for blacks, advocating emancipation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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1701<o:p></o:p></div>
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Beginning of the War of Spanish Succession (also called
Queen Anne’s War.) Sometimes called the first worldwide war, naval engagements
will be a training ground for thousands of young men who will eventually become
pirates. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Japan, the young daimyōs Asano Naganori is ordered to
commit seppuku (ritual suicide). A group of samurai of his service begin
planning to avenge his death – creating the legend of the 47 Ronin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o-8GciLYkXs/WaTqWPu1avI/AAAAAAAAD-A/kV430wDEs_kJugWmx1D065Axr-SVHJdFwCLcBGAs/s1600/World2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="1251" height="181" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o-8GciLYkXs/WaTqWPu1avI/AAAAAAAAD-A/kV430wDEs_kJugWmx1D065Axr-SVHJdFwCLcBGAs/s400/World2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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1702<o:p></o:p></div>
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Death of deposed King James II of England (James VII of Scotland)
during exile in France. His supporters, the Jacobites, turn to his son James
Francis Edward Stuart, whom they recognize as James VIII and III. Louis XIV of
France, the Papal States and Spain also recognize him as the “rightful heir.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yale University chartered in Connecticut. <o:p></o:p></div>
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1703<o:p></o:p></div>
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King William of England dies, and is succeeded by Queen
Anne.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xLnSHN0MbD0/WaTsS4nkGTI/AAAAAAAAD-c/iA013YXUz4Mi99DNTW6yCUqxib0AApKogCLcBGAs/s1600/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="204" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xLnSHN0MbD0/WaTsS4nkGTI/AAAAAAAAD-c/iA013YXUz4Mi99DNTW6yCUqxib0AApKogCLcBGAs/s1600/images%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Anne</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p>Icelandic census – the first complete census of <u>any</u> country.</div>
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Revenge of the 47 Ronin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Man in the Iron Mask dies in the Bastille. – Yes, this
was a real thing: The man was arrested in about 1670, and his name and face
remain unknown.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps77J5igp4g/WaTqT5BmIUI/AAAAAAAAD9w/N8tx9_adwwQ0zgcnecoZ3AzHX3S5hFILQCLcBGAs/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ps77J5igp4g/WaTqT5BmIUI/AAAAAAAAD9w/N8tx9_adwwQ0zgcnecoZ3AzHX3S5hFILQCLcBGAs/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy.jpeg" /></a></div>
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1704<o:p></o:p></div>
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English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their
native allies staged a series of brutal raids against a largely pacific
population of Apalachee natives in Spanish Florida.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First Mardi Gras held in the capital of Louisiana (Mobile,
not yet New Orleans.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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First publication of the Boston News Letter – first newspaper
in the Americas. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pXalu1JbbQg/WaTqXrW2-6I/AAAAAAAAD-Q/UBBisYT531oXm0CSWSX3yxNtsY7XOuYigCLcBGAs/s1600/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="480" height="227" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pXalu1JbbQg/WaTqXrW2-6I/AAAAAAAAD-Q/UBBisYT531oXm0CSWSX3yxNtsY7XOuYigCLcBGAs/s320/poi_gallery_image-image-a729196f-ef6d-4532-8b79-fd3991b0cf06.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thomas Darley purchases the bay Arabian horse Darley Arabian
in Syria, and ships him to stand at stud in England. The Darley will become the
most important foundation sire of all modern thoroughbred racing bloodstock.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2AXNMi3nYX4/WaTqTwH48-I/AAAAAAAAD9o/RnQPTTElSAITTjjSA12Vdz0le_vFSV0wgCLcBGAs/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="267" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2AXNMi3nYX4/WaTqTwH48-I/AAAAAAAAD9o/RnQPTTElSAITTjjSA12Vdz0le_vFSV0wgCLcBGAs/s1600/Irish%2Bslave%2B-%2BCopy%2B%25282%2529.jpeg" /></a></div>
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To be continued...</div>
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