National Talk Like A Pirate Day

Al Letellier_9

You guys are really "off the wall"....pardon the pun!

Supply House Rick

September 19th Arrrrgh

It's that time again mateys...

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Mitch_4

but

ARRRR, you goin to p-ARRRRR-ticipate?

Tim_34

What kind of socks do pirates wear?

Arrrrgyles!

kevin coppinger_4

how much does..

it cost to have a pirates' ear pierced...
a bucc-aneer!

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Paul Fredricks_3

On Halloween, dirty Johnie walked up to a door and rang the bell. A lady answered the door and said, "Oh my, what a cute pirate. But where are your buckeneers?". Dirty Johnie answered, "Right under my buckin' hat lady!"

J.C.A._3

Avast ye Maties!

A pirate walks into a bar with a ships wheel attached to his trousers. The bartender asks why he's got a ships wheel attached to his pants, and the pirate replies...."AAAARRRRR, It's driving me NUTS!". Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Myers. Chris

Perry_3

Just give me your

money, gold, jewelery, and other valuables and start swimming for shore...

Perry

Bill W@Honeywell

The fates of some well-known pirates...

Cap't. William Kidd Hanged, London 1701.
Blackbeard(Edward Teach) Shot,decapitated N. Carolina 1718.
Black Bart Roberts cannon ball, at sea 1722.
Stede Bonnett Hanged, Charleston, SC 1720.
Henry Every Natural Causes, date unknown.
Howell Davis Sword wounds, 1720 at sea.
Calico Jack Rackam Hanged, West Indies 1720.
Charles Vane Hanged, London 1718.
Edward England liver disease, Madagascar 1718.
Ann Bonney Imprisoned, fate unknown.
Mary Read "Prison fever" 1722.

The Golden Age of Piracy started about 1690 and ended in 1722, after the last mass hanging of pirates at Cape Coast Castle in Africa. Pirates still exist, and terrorize fishermen and local traders around the South China Sea, off the Phillipines and in places in the Indian Ocean. Another example of Hollywood glamorizing thugs and murderers.

Perry_3

Priacy is alive and well...

Piracy is still very common in the south pacific, off the african coast, and to some extents in the carribian.

Anyone with a fancy yatch is likely to be well armed and have crewmembers specifically trained in repelling boarders. You are required to declare the weapons on board to the custom officials when visiting foreign ports - and vertually nothing is illegle to own in most countries as long as it stays on your vessel.

International shipping is hit all the time (normally they get a container or two... and the pirates seem to be well informed about what is on which ship). In some cases they take the entier ship, paint a new name on it at sea, and show up in another part of the world to sell the cargo. In most cases international shipping does not defend itself as statistically more crew survives by allowing the takeover than by fighting it.

While you can name what happened to a few pirates; the fact is that the average pirate did quite well and lived a normal - or better than normal - life for a seaman of the era.

Oh, and that does not count the people who operated under "letters of marque." It was entirely legal for them to return with a ship and cargo (and sell the crew and passangers of the captured ship as slaves). Many people became weathy operating under letters of marque.

The fact that an number of the original crew and passangers of a captured vessel were "disposed" of at sea is a fact of the operation (and is still a common fact today for certain kinds of piracy).

But, at least I talked like a real pirate... on talk like a pirate day.

Perry

Unknown

Stumpies...

ARRRRR,,,so ye want to talk pirates. I dares ye to get a copy of Ion Idriess' "Coral Sea Calling" and read the story of "Jemmy the Hook". He'll show you what to do for pirates! Let me start you out...I'm skipping over some stuff to make it shorter:

"In those days the tomahawk was a necessity aboard the small vessels of the trepang fishers, an essential tool for rough carpentering and general shipboard work. In emergency it was ready for instant use to hack away cordage; a few swift blows and an entangling spar would be cut free in a squall, a fallen mast chopped free in disaster when every moment counts. One blow, and a tough rope would be severed to right a laboring vessel. One blow at a dinghy's anchor rope, and her bow would be up and she would be ready for action."

"Yes, a handy tool indeed, a deadly weapon also, but-with two sides to it. For in a flash it could be used by, or against, it's owner."

Which explains why, increasingly with the years, "Stumpies" appeared among the trepang crews. A man with his hand chopped off at the wrist, another and another with fingers chopped off, some rugged face with an ugly hole where an ear had been."

"The native crew at a prearranged signal would seize tomahawks and attack the few whites aboard. A startled shout, and a man was overboard, else he would be chopped to pieces. Surfacing with a gasp, he would immediately strike out to join the bedlam now raging aboard ship or boat. He would clutch up at the gunwhale and - a lightning blow, and fingers or hand would be gone. To that exultant yell he would fall back, floundering, moaning there, bleeding to death in the crimsoning water."

The man in the water, if his hand had been chopped off, might just stare hopelessly a moment, faintly sigh, and sink. Usually he would turn his back to the vessel and strike out for the shore, followed by the jeering yells of the crew. "Ah Ha! Ha! Shark 'e come! Quick feller you swim!"

"...even with a hand chopped off, there were some men who would never give up. Nicholas the Greek was one, and Jemmy the Hook, others also."

"And this happened not once, but TWICE, to Jemmy the Hook."

"When Jemmy lost his left hand his two surviving mates thought he was surely done this time. Not Jemmy. His blacksmith made him another hook, and a still further improved hook for the right arm.

Jemmy the Hook sailed again."

Now you must find a copy of the book, out of print of course, and find out how Jemmy finishes things out! Unless you're the queasy sort that is...

Unknown

Where'd ye's all go?

Hiding from pirates under your beds now I presume...

LOL...

If you make it through "Coral" get "The Drums of Mer" next. I was hiding under MY bed for a week after THAT one.

Idriess makes Hemingway look like a schoolgirl...

LOL...

Unknown

Follow up...

I noticed my Jemmy reference over at the boat trip thread was pulled. It was naturally just a joke. The fact is that historically speaking that boat IS quite similar to one of the styles used in fishing the South Pacific. I posted the Jemmy condensation elswhere as a thread and replied to questions with the following, thought it might be ok to put it here too. While it's not about pipes and hot water it IS about Deadmen and finding dusty old books tucked away on shelves. So it might fit?

here goes...

That is by far one of the most brutal stories I have ever read. His "Drums of Mer" is another. I think he has you shaking in your boots by the 4th page in that one. I'd have to go look to be sure though, it might even be by page two! His style was to research an area, collect it's folklore and either write it factually or take fact and create fiction. So the story of Jemmy could very well be fact. The whole deal about "Stumpies" is, that's history. He goes into more detail on it. That was 6 pages condensed.

Idriess is one of the best writers you'll ever read. (Besides Dan of course... )His prowess is claimed to have come from being an ace WWI scout/sniper resulting in an amazing gift for attention to detail that he was able to capture on paper. He was a very interesting individual in his own right and one of Australia's most beloved sons. I had the privilege of getting to know one of his great nephews through purchasing some books from him, hence my interest. He was selling me his "second" collection privately when he passed away. Many of them first editions. If it ever gets here I have completed collecting all his titles with, ironically enough, his last book, "Challenge of the North". It's on the way from a bookstore in Sydney and apparently it's a beautiful copy.

He wrote almost 50 books, 47 IIRC

"Coral Sea Calling" is just that, a collection of short stories based on the history and folklore of the South Pacific. It is a very good read.

Addendum: In most cases, the south pacific natives did not pirate ships for gold and valuables, the most prized thing on the vessel was the IRON! They had no use for gold and would gladly trade you a big lump of gold for a piece of iron.

Perry_3

The other thing..

You are correct that there were often many other things of value than gold, silver, or damsels. Most ships did not have much of any of those.

Many times pirates would want the ship or boat itself.

Often times they would want the cargo - even if all they could get was part of it. The same often holds true today.

Perry

ps: if you were wondering why the thread kinda died. Only one day a year is "talk like a pirate day" Past that....

Perry

Unknown

What?

Who's talking like a pirate anymore?

You're right, if was a cargo ship that was part of the prize, but in the case of the fishing boats it was generally for the tools and iron. Especially the "trepang" or what we know as the "sea cucumber" boats. It is a delicacy in the far east but the natives thought it was disgusting that anyone would eat it. So they had no interest in it at all. Then there were the "pearlers" whose main job was to collect oyster SHELL for mother of pearl while actual pearls were more of a by product and a bonanza when they were found. The cargo on those did have value. As it was with the Americas, when outsiders first made contact with the natives down south they were still using sticks and stones for weapons and tools. They had no iron. Iron became a very big commodity very quickly down there. It really is a fascinating history.