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Three Women Who Didn't Shy From Piracy

11/27/2014

You may have heard of the female pirate Mary Read, who sometimes dressed as a male, and died in prison after being captured.

Mary's mother supposedly put her in boy's clothing at a very young age, letting Mary pretend to be her deceased half-brother, Mark. This was important to the mother because Mark's grandmother was willing to give money for Mark's support.
http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/mary-read.php

Charlotte de Berry disguised herself as a male so she could sail with the man she loved. When someone had her love flogged to death, Charlotte took matters into her own hands once she landed on shore. She shot the man. Charlotte separated another man's head from his body later, gaining the respect of pirates, and sailed with them.
http://femalepirates.weebly.com/charlotte-de-berry.html

Madame Ching was supposedly one of the best pirates--ever. She disciplined her crew as needed--or as she thought they needed, but it seems to have worked for her. She was later pardoned by her government. The attached link leads to a website which tells of her rule of beheading as a method of control.

http://zowienews.com/2011/12/13/madame-ching-worlds-greatest-female-pirate/ and also the book Piratepedia

I'd heard that sailors thought women could be bad luck on a ship, and at least two of these women were definitely bad luck when upset.

Light the Way

11/21/2014

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These lamps may not be accurate for my time frame, but the photos illustrate a way to keep lamps still as a ship sails. The first light can only move a small amount and the second is tied at the base.

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Keeping My Sails Straight

11/16/2014

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I'd never before thought about when windows in built into a ship stopped being square and became round portholes, or when the 15th century rudder was replaced by the captain's wheel, but I needed to know to be as accurate as I could about my ship in A Captain and A Rogue.

I found a list of ships contracted by the East India Company in the time frame, and mentally chose a small one to base my Ascalon on. I decided on a 432 ton (water displacement area), two-masted ship with a crew of only 32 men. It needed to be small to be able to take an unscheduled trip to an island, especially if the boat was to be sailing in an area which might be more like an obstacle coarse than a sea. I tried not to mention specifics, knowing many photos and drawings show 3 masted ships..

Even naming the ship wasn't as easy as I expected, I named it Goldenrod first and then I thought about the plant. I didn't even know if that would have been the name of a plant an Englishman would have known, or named his ship for in the early 1800's. I think it would have worked, but before I researched that, I changed the name to that of a legendary sword and moved forward.

In researching, I walked on a replica of a pre-1500's ship. It carried scent of a pine forest because it had been coated with the pine waterproofing material of the day.

It was more soundproof than I expected because of the thick plank sides.

It was also more combustible. You have lit lamps with breakable glass on a bobbing object coated in a flammable rosin, and the water to put out the fire is a wooden wall away from you. I believe Alexander Hamilton, the face on the USA ten dollar bill, was once on a ship which caught fire. A fairly slight man, he was lowered over the side to bring up water for fire fighting.

Even on the replica, the lanterns were secured to keep them from excessive movement.

After stepping on board one sailing vessel, I wanted to tour many more.

Starting the research was a struggle, but so was ending. I could have happily immersed myself in another bout of study--just not on ships away from port. I don't swim.

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Pirate Notes

11/10/2014

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1. Blackbeard may have used homemade grenades. Glass bottles with gunpowder inside them. (Source: Pirates of the Carolinas, by Terrance Zepke, page 28

2. When a pirate promises that he will free a captive "upon his honor" if the captive serves the pirate for three months, it might do the captive good to remember that a pirate's honor might be as good as his job history.
Source: The History of the Buccaneers of America. (Free on Google books in several different versions. The author is Alexandre Exquemerling. I believe the accuracy of this book has been disputed by...a pirate.)

3. Blackbeard would have had his own cosmetics case if he'd thought it would have made him look more ferocious. The pirate sported burning coils of rope either under his hat ,or in his beard.
I could see him trying it once. Burning hemp on your head would get a little warm. A smoking beard might obstruct vision. I'm thinking he might have tried it just enough to get the stories started.
For an easy read written for the young audience but worth a look at any age, check out: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pirates/bbeard.html

Photo above from fotolia.com.

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Mermaids and Wedgwood Buttons

11/9/2014

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In the beginning of button history, the orbs were ornamental and worn almost as clothing jewelry.

As legend has it, later they had a more practical purpose. The non-functioning buttons on the cuff area of a jacket sleeve may have originally been put there to keep the wearer from using the sleeve to wipe his nose.

When I saw a picture of a family of mermaids on Wedgwood buttons from the late 1700's, I knew these were the fastenings a captain from a well-to-do family could locate and have on his seaman's coat, so I imagined them on Captain Forrester's clothing in A Captain and a Rogue.

Because I didn't know how to get replicas to the cover art department, I didn't describe them in the story. Buttons like these would have been very dear in cost, and not easily tossed aside when the clothing wore out.

I once worked in a retail store, and we had a garment, one only, with a very unique and unusual button. The manager brought the jacket to me one day and showed me where the fastening had been removed.Yes, someone stole a single button from a charity resale shop.

Apparently, not only fictional characters and authors like buttons.

The link for the site which shows the mermaid, her husband and three children on a Josiah Wedgwood blue center button is at:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mermaid#mediaviewer/File:Boulton%26Wedgewood_merfamily_button_f%26b.jpg

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Pirates. Evil Under Sail

11/7/2014

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In writing A Captain and A Rogue, I wanted to research pirates. Why not? These were men who made their living sailing the seas.

William Dampier, in the book A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, is noted as saying that even though he sailed with them for years--he was not a pirate, and to get off their ship, he had to escape. In reading the details of a pirate's life recounted by Dampier, I began to think of them as sea savages. The Captain Jack Sparrow image was replaced in my thoughts by something more Quenton Tarrentino.

Sometimes pirates did meet the wrong victim though. They captured Julius Caesar and held him for ransom. He reportedly informed them they were asking for too little money, and they increased the amount of funds needed for his release. They made the mistake of freeing him. Afterwards, Caesar had his captors caught and he exacted revenge. Permanently and decisively.

Photo assistance: Thanks to my model for patiently posing with a machete.

Note: More posts about sailing vessels, pirates and mermaids to follow.

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Ship shape and Ready to Walk the Plank

11/3/2014

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"Never again."

When I was in the middle of trying to research my novel, I just wanted to get off the ship. I read about how weevils tasted--I can't remember if the little ones or the big ones are the most bitter. I discovered that some captains knew the extent of punishment, as in number of lashes, that a man could handle and still survive. The book had a bit of a chart.

The romance of the sea sank a quick death while I was researching.

In Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Dana tells of a man who fell overboard, but could not swim. If a ship is under sail, moving quickly, it can take a bit before the crew can react enough to attempt a rescue. The man drowned, and his belongings were auctioned to provide money to give to his family.

So when a ship returned to port, I realized families couldn't readily assume their loved one would be on board

And the ship probably smelled better than the crew.

By the end of the research I did have more of a fascination with sailing, and a vast respect for the hardiness of anyone who could survive a voyage in earlier times.

I think I might enjoy writing another book set on a sailing vessel, but never would I want to experience what the sailors dealt with on a daily basis. Or even once.

Photos taken in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.
Replica of Christopher Columbus ship which floated up the Arkansas River.

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A Captain, A Rogue, and Me

11/2/2014

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I received a phone call telling me the new books had been dropped off at my house. I was happy, but this wasn't my first rodeo. It was my second.

This time I could finish out my errands instead of rushing home to open the box. I'd already seen a photo of the cover and even posted it on this website.

Click on the Cover Commentary site to the left, and look at the second photo if you want to see how it felt—at least to me, when I saw the actual book for the first time.

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