Found on flickr

Ahoy matey, originally uploaded by A30_Tsitika.

These are playmobil figures that come with their own toys that they play with, and they're pirates!

Found on flickr

pirate on segueway - RESSY 2008, originally uploaded by ressydm.

A segway pirate.

Captain Jack Sparrow Speed Painting

Jack Sparrow - Pirate of Caribbean speed painting

I found this via David Walsh's web development blog. I've never seen someone paint a face by rendering a skull first in such detail.

Weird Pirate Tattoo

bonepirate, originally uploaded by ghostninj@.

Found on flickr.

A Plethora of Pirate Festivals

I found a list of a great many number of pirate festivals. In fact, this site seems dedicated to just that. You can even search by location (in other words, by state) and you can email your festival in to be listed.

More Long Island Pirate Festival Photos

IMG_3647_1, originally uploaded by johnathaneric.

flickr user johnathaneric has posted some more great photos from the Long Island Pirate Festival. There is also a flickr group for the festival.

Of Pirates and Parrots

The Hostage by N. C. Wyeth, 1911, for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Did pirates keep parrots? Long John Silver's parrot, Captain Flint, may be fictional, but he has some basis in fact. While there are no records of well known pirates keeping parrots, there was a trade in exotic animals during the golden age of piracy. And where there was trade, it goes without saying, there were pirates. In seems reasonable that parrots, being easy to tame, quite colorful and rare would have been taken as booty if found. Also of note is the fact that those engaged piracy often liked to dress, eat or otherwise engage in practices that were usually reserved for the higher classes, so keeping an exotic pet would not be out of the question. But it is almost certainly Treasure Island that cemented parrots into the popular view of pirates.

Sources:
Pirate (DK Eyewitness Books) by Richard Platt
A Pyrate's Life: Pirates, Parrots, & Pets

Rock Hall Pirate Festival: August 9 - 10

Captain Kathy of Pirates for Sail has informed me that they will be performing at the Rock Hall Pirate Festival in Rock Hall, Maryland.

Click here to visit the festival website.

Long Island Pirate Festival: Some Photos

Click here to see more photos.

Video: Pirates For Sail - The Long Island Pirate Festival

Click here to go to the Pirates For Sail website.

Gentlemen of Fourtune

I have come across an amazing website called Gentlemen Of Fourtune. It contains a wealth of information about pirates clothing, weapons, ships and other information. The focus is on accuracy for re-enactors and living history groups. The attention to detail is amazing. I especially like their section on period shoes, and how virtually nobody that dresses up like pirates wear shoes that are accurate to the Golden Age. The photo above comes from their website.

Click here to go there.

Rulers of Europe during the Golden Age of Piracy

The height of the golden age of piracy ran from about 1650 - 1727* (depending on who you ask). The European powers shifted alliances and fought a lot during this period. The constant war making gave rise to privateers, and peace making made many privateers turn to piracy. This is a rough guide, as political history in Europe was quite complicated during this period (at least as far as this silly American is concerned). Here are some of the rulers of the Golden Age:

England/Great Britain
Charles I: 1625–1649 (House of Stuart)
Oliver Cromwell: 1653-1658 (Commonwealth)
Richard Cromwell: 1658-1659 (Commonwealth)
Charles II: 1660-1685 (House of Stuart)
James II: 1685-1688 (House of Stuart)
William III: 1689-1702 (House of Stuart)
Mary II: 1689-1694 (House of Stuart)
Anne: 1702-1714 (House of Stuart)
George I 1714-1727 (House of Hanover)

Spain
Philip IV: 1621-1665 (House of Habsburg)
Charles II: 1665-1770 (House of Habsburg)
Philip V: 1700-1746 (House of Bourbon)
Louis I: Ruled briefly in 1724 when his father, Philip V abdicated

France
Louis XIV: 1643-1715 (House of Bourbon)
Louis XV: 1715-1774 (House of Bourbon)

Portugal
John IV: 1640-1656
Afonso VI: 1656-1657
Peter II: 1667-1706
John V: 1706-1750

Republic of the Seven United Netherlands
Jacob Cats: 1636-1651
Adriaan Pauw: 1651-1653
Johan de Witt: 1653-1672
Gaspar Fagel: 1672-1688
Michiel ten Hove: 1688-1689
Anthonie Heinsius: 1689-1720
Isaac van Hoornbeek: 1720-1727

Austria/Germany/Hungary/Holy Roman Empire
Ferdinand III: 1637-1657 (House of Habsburg)
Leopold I: 1657-1705 (House of Habsburg)
Joeseph I: 1705-1711 (House of Habsburg)
Charles VI: 1711-1740 (House of Habsburg)

Source: wikipedia

* According to wikipedia, the execution of William Fly "is used by historian Marcus Rediker to mark the end of the Golden Age of Pirates."

Even more old paper images (free graphics)

Continuing in our series of posts of free images that you can use to make treasure maps, invitations or other pirate images, here are some more free old paper textures.



vintage grunge textures by Princess-of-Shadows



05 Large Paper Grunge Textures by ~omnigenus

I found these via designreviver.com

Previously on The Pirate Shack:
Old paper (more free images)
Free Skull graphics
Free Scroll graphics

Real pirates in the Caribbean

Pirates are, in fact a problem in the Caribbean after all. God's speed, Prince William (although I think he is going after drug runners more than yacht raiders). From chron.com:

CHATEAUBELAIR, ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES — When two men wielding cutlasses and a third brandishing a gun burst onto their yacht at 1:30 a.m., Allison Botros and the seven other people aboard realized that Pirates of the Caribbean is not just a movie.

"Give us your money, or we will kill you," the Cleveland mother of three recalled the robbers telling them during the 15-minute plundering of the 70-foot Sway, which was anchored in this harbor.

Attacks on yachters across the Caribbean have marred the luxurious cruising life with increasing frequency as the number of vessels sailing the lush islands grows year to year, and with it the lure of the sailors' valuables to thieves and drug traffickers in the region.

More...

Disney's own Treasure Island

flickr user Better Living Through Imagineering has some pretty good scans of the map given to visitors of Treasure Island. The island is in Bay Lake near The Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It is no longer open to the public. It was originally conceived as Blackbeard's Island, a pirate theme island adventure area. It was renamed Treasure Island and was to feature a number of attractions from the Treasure Island story. The project was expensive and kept getting scaled back. One feature that was built was the wreck of the Hispañola, a concept of which is below.



The island eventually became a bird sanctuary and was open to the public until 1999, when the birds and animals were relocated to Animal Kingdom and zoos.

Most recently, Jim Hill Media reports that there are now talks to reopen the island as a pirate themed attraction, owing mainly to the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

More info:
Click here for wikipedia article.
Click here for another article.
Click here to see maps and tickets from Disney's Treasure Island.

New Playmobil Pirate Sets

Playmobil has added their totally revised pirate line on their US website. It includes a new (and expensive) pirate ship with cannons that can hideaway to make it look like a merchantman. There are also new Spanish soldiers and a light house/fortress. Perhaps coolest of all is a special set that includes a small prison, a single masted ship (on what I call the schooner hull), and lots of figures (pirates and older styles of soldiers) and accessories. This set (5775) is also on sale. You can't find it by looking through the regular pirate categories, but if you search for 5775, it will be there.

Click here to go to the Playmobil store!

Old paper (more free images)

Found on flickr and free to use under a creative commons license are four great old, aged and wrinkled paper backgrounds. These would be great for treasure maps, invitations, letters of marque or other epistolary pirate paraphernalia (pirate things on paper), courtesy of bittbox.

Click here to see the set. To download one, go to the set, click on it, and then click on the "all sizes" button above the image.

Other free graphics previously mentioned:
Free Skull graphics
Free Scroll graphics

Pirates Magazine

Shack friend Jeff Menges let me know about Pirates Magazine the other day. They seem to cover a lot of festivals, news, interviews and history. Its a quarterly and costs $26.00 to subscribe for a year. They say the magazine is available in some major book retailers in the U.S. All of the ads on their site are full of piratey goodness too!

Click here to visit their site.

Some more Pirate Festivals

Summer is festival season, so here are some more upcoming events:

Shakespeare and Friends Renaissance Faire presents: The Age of Pirates.
June 7th - 8th, 2008
Crockett Spring Park
Rogersville, TN
http://www.shakespeareandfriends.org/

Harborfest - Northfolk, VA
Norfolk's Town Point Park
June 6th - 8th

Speaking of events, I have ordered a shirt from Spreadshirt to promote this here blog at Long Island's own pirate festival. I'm thinking about opening a Spreadshirt store so you too can join in the fun. Stay tuned for updates.

Canadian Helicopter Scares Off Somali Pirates

A Sea King helicopter from HMCS Calgary scared off two small skiffs that were attacking a commercial fishing boat in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates fled back into Somali waters. Meanwhile, the UN has indeed passed a resolution allowing foreign warships to enter Somali waters to combat piracy.

More Pirate Coins

In the Angus Konstam book mentioned in my recent post on pirate coinage, he mentions how a character in Robert Louis Steveson's Treasure Island (Billy Bones) has in his notebook a table for converting one nations coins to the value of another's. Also mentioned in Treasure Island are some more types of coins found as part of Captain Flint's treasure.

It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones's hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish,Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years,...

Louis d'or (gold, 1640 - French Revolution): A gold coin from France. Replaced by the Franc.

Guinea (gold, 1663 - 1816): A gold coin from England. Worth 21 shillings.

Moidore (gold, 1614 - 1732): A gold coin from Portugal.

Sequin (gold, 1543 - ?): A gold coin from The Republic of Venice (in Italy). They also minted silver Ducats.

Source: Wikipedia and Treasure Island

The Shipwrecked Pirate Music Festival

From what I can tell, the Shipwrecked Pirate Music Festival may not be taking place on dry land or at sea, but you can still hear some music in cyberspace. Head on over to the festival's MySpace page for some pirate tunes. Incidentally, festival leader and scurvy pirate Captain Jim Lash happens to be a fan of the Pirate Shack on our feacbook page. Why not become a fan yourself?

Click here to go the Shipwrecked Pirate Music Festival.

A pegleg pirate made of sand

neal's handiwork. , originally uploaded by m. day.

Found on flickr.

Prince William becomes a pirate hunter

The prince will serve aboard the HMS Iron Duke. He will be hunting cocaine smugglers in the the Caribbean for two months, he he won't be getting special treatment, according to Rear Admiral Bob Cooling. His duties will include boarding suspicious vessels (he will be heavily armed). He will take part in emergency training in a hull breach simulator and may take part in firefighting exercises. Link to news arrrrrticle.

The Long Island Pirate Festival

Its finally happening, a pirate festival on Long Island (my neck 'o the woods, err, sea). Ye Pyrate Brotherhood, a Long Island based re-enactment group is hosting the festival at the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville. It will be June 14th and 15th, 10 AM to 6 PM, rain or shine. Their website states that there will be roving bands of pirates and encourages people to come in costume! They are calling it the Long Island's 1st Annual Pirate Festival. Yarrrrr!

Pirate News and Link Roundup!

Avast! Today be the last day of the Blackbeard Pirate Festival, featuring the Blackbeard's Crew re-enactment group in Hampton, VA.

Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship is open in Philadelphia. It runs from May 31st to November 2nd, and its more of an exhibit than a festival. Click here to see the National Geographic page about the exhibition.

Why not spice up your next pirate ship or spanish fort diorama with a 10 foot life size fiberglass cannon from Largo Cargo? There's even a smoke option available. Great for creating your own pirate theme park ride scenery. (Or build your own cannon from foam if you have the time.)

deviantArt user mo013 has recreated the Pirates of the Caribbean (movie) logo in pencil (below). Great work!



deviantArt has lots of other great pirate artwork!