Piracy Pub Captain Twill Forum Archive

Pyracy Pub Forum Main Page in 2005 Once upon a time there was a forum called the Piracy Pub where the author used to spend a great deal of his time discussing things like pirate history, reenacting and related topics. The Pub started around 2003 and was one of the great places to go to discuss these things in the decade that followed. Many interesting and sometimes revealing discussions were held, much information and misinformation was shared and people there actually got together at events simply so they could meet the person behind the voices involved in this forum. Alas, with the rise of social media, forums declined and the Pub saw significant declines in activity beginning around 2012. By 2015, there were less than a few posts a month and the owner of the forum - Paul 'Stynky Tudor' P. Smythe got tired of paying to keep the thing going for the one or two people who occasionally dropped in. So it got the axe. During its decline, a Facebook page was established for the site, which William Pace looks after to this day, posting interesting bits of historical pirate information daily.

When we knew shutdown of the Pub was imminent, several of the old posters who had high regard for some of the information
Pyracy Pub Forum 'Flag' that had been shared there started copying threads of discussion. Being a moderator of the Captain Twill Forum which was concerned with historical accuracy, I selected about 200 posts that I thought were interesting and saved them as MS Word files. These can be accessed below.

Please note that the original format suffered in copying these threads because each user's boilerplate info is listed at the top of every single one of their posts in that thread. Normally this info would appear off to the side in tiny print, but Word could make head nor tail of this and just stuck it at the top. So you have to wade through all that. When looking for relevant data, you are advised to be selective since the discussions contain a mix of interesting, well-researched information along with questionable, poorly sourced comments. As such, it is best to pay the closest attention to the users who give sources for the responses they give and discussion points they raise.

The Threads have been subdivided by topic with the intent of making them easier to peruse. They include: Behavoirs in the Golden Age of Piracy - Clothing, Appearance and Personal Items - Containers - Flags - Food and Drink - GAoP (Golden Age of Piracy) Era & History - GAoP People - Health and Medicine - Other - Punishment - Reenacting - Ships and Ship Elements - Treasure and Cargo - and, finally, Weapons. You can click on any of those hotlinks to jump directly to that section if you like.

Behavoirs in the Golden Age of Piracy
A sailors life	A sailors normal day
Behaving in a Golden Age Tavern	Casing the Joint How Pirates Gathered Intelligence
Cigarettes - were pirates smoking them	Cigars
Crossed Writing	Disposal of goods
Gay Blades	How parasitic were pirates
Indians on English-British Pirates Ships	Making fire
merchant seamans sign on articles	Mourning Practices
Perfumed Pirates	Pirates Holidays at Sea
Pirates Seeking Freedom From Oppression	pirates the savers
Question about marriage at sea	Religion during the GAoP
Religion on Pirate Ships	Rude Gestures of the Era
Smuggling and luxury items	swearing among pirates alike
The Pirate Accent	Tobacco use in the Golden Age
where did they keep their money	Women who liked to slum with pirates

Clothing, Appearance and Personal Items
A Ladys things	An earring for your perusal
But I stole em from a...	Cocked Hats Backwards
Coins Being Worn	Corset or Bodice
earings, sashes.... now STRIPEY Trousers	foul weather gear fabric
Gambling Markers	Inventory of Mr John Chapman's goods, deceased. 1700
keeping cool in a period fashion	Kilted Pirates
Kilts	Merchant slops
Neck Ties	PC Facial Hair...
Period Buckles	Period Wool Blankets
Pirate brands-tattoos	pirate tattoos (not jolly roger) and brandings
Queue (hair) Wrappings	Reptile leather in the 17th and 18th century
Shoes and slippy decks	Shoes, Latchets, Buckles
Soap	Stripey Stockings Dilema
Swing low, sweet....hammock	tattoos
The Admiralty Slop Contracts	Tricorne, Felt, Leather or straw...
What the heck... sleeved waistcoat	Wooden Shoes

Piracy Pub Members Photo at Pirates in Paradise in Key West, December, 2009
Containers
Barrels, Bales and Bags	Chests
Firkin measurements	Haversacks, Ditty Bags, Snapsacks and Wallets
Period Correct Barrels	Period Correct Containers
Sea Chests

Flags
1716 Skull and Crossbones design	Flags and the Deaths Head 'Memento Mori'
GAoP Privateer' colours	Pirate Flag Construction
Rare Crimson Jolly Roger Restored	Union Jack

Food and Drink
Bread	Chickens onboard
Coffee in the GAOP	Dampiers Coco-nut
Flip	Gone fishing
Historically Accurate Rum	Manyoco - Yuca Root - from the General History
More evidence for Period beer Bottles	Pannadon
Period Correct Plates, Tankards, Eating Stuff	Period Grog
Pork during the GAoP	Punch
Salmagundi	Shipboard cooking
Ships biscuits... GAoP	the colonial inn
the food sailors ate	The Tin Kitchen
Tools of the Trade

Piracy Pub Reenactment Section of the Forum From 2012
GAoP Era & History
Account of piracies on the Virginia Coast, 1724	Captain Twill
Gaop pirate nationalities.....	GAOP
Pirate Words and Phrases Meanings, Origins, Etc	Price and Cost of Day to Day items
Reliability of Charles Johnson	Scallywag
When was the Golden Age of Piracy

GAoP People
Alexander Selkirk, Woodes Rodgers, Dampier	Pirate Diary
Roberts Lieutenants	Sea-Captain Alexander Hamilton on Sea-Life & Piracy

Health and Medicine
A Period Fairy Tale (of a dental nature)	Eye Glasses during the GAoP
Gold teeth	Hand hooks
Let's talk dental hygiene	Maritime Quarantine
Medicine at sea	Medicine in General
Medicine in the GAop	Of the Pox and Mercury
On Making a Medicine Chest	Phantom Limbs
Posterior Flaps in Amputation	Preventive medicine in the Golden Age
Recreational Drugs... 1600s - 1700s	Seagoing Medicines
Ships surgeons	Some of the Surgeons Tools
Some Period Surgical Procedures	Something Like the Red Cross
Sunblocker	The barber in Barber-Surgeon
The Fighting Surgeon	The Pirate's Eye Patch

Piracy Pub Members at the Pirates in Paradise Celebration in Key West in 2007
Other
Errors Propigated Through the Ages	Hurricanes - where did they find shelter
Interesting Period Descriptions	Lighthouses
Looking for GAoP Images	Mosquito netting
Pen pals...	Period Glass
Pirate Mythtory	Shipwreck recovery
Some interesting images	Standing Armies
The Value of Books during the GAoP	Trying to Reason With the Hurricane Season
White Indentured slaves-Servants

Punishment
Ball and Chain	Did they flog men at noon, but hang them in the morning
Flogging merchant and naval officers	Hanging pirates from a Yardam
Period hanging methods	Stocks
Torture and Punishment

Reenacting
Do You Want to Be Truly Period Correct	GAOP Encampment
grommets in period tents	New impression Idea
Paint color questions- Tallow	Proper Period Proof

Piracy Pub Forum List As It Appeared in 2007
Ships and Ship Elements
Clearing for Battle	Fastest ship
Fighting Fires	Galleys in the Golden Age
Historically Accurate Wooden Sailing Ships-Replicas	Minimum crew for a 10 gun sloop
Period correct tools	Pirate Ship names list
Powder monkeys	Privateer Ship Names
Proper name for the cargo opening-covering	Pulleys
Quartermasters - the evidence	Question pirate hunting ships circa 1721
Row boat, long boat, tender boat,, etc...	sail construction
Sails, Masts, and Rigging	Scrubbing the deck
Ships Lanterns Rush Candles, Frog Lanterns &c	Sloops every pirate vessel
Spare Parts	Techniques of Boarding
The Humble Sailmaker...	The Largest Pirate Ships
The Seven-Watch System	The Statues At front of ships... figureheads
What Atlantic maps were available in 1714	whats a coker
Where's the head	Why lateen sails on the mizzenmast
Women on Ships

Treasure and Cargo
Lead Pb in what form was it shipped	tea bricks-blocks
Treasures and loot

Weapons
A squib	Cannon size and ammunition types
Fireballs	Howitzers in the tops
What is a cutlass	Would all Pirates have Blades