Mitchell Loughlin > Recent Status Updates

Part of the reason carpenters were so valued was they were able to safely gut the internals of a ship that was intended to haul cargo. Removing walls, opening holes for guns and keeping the boat in good shape.

Pirates often had to beach there ships to check the bottom’s condition and scrape off all the seaweed that would otherwise cause drag

Realizing how little I care to read about pirate movies in the early 1900s. Snooze.

Pirate ships neeeed to have 3 attributes. Fast- sea worthy and armed to the teeth. Pirates , by the nature however could not afford to have a ship commissioned so they took what they could get. Often much smaller then those seen in movies do to there maneuverability

The end of the golden era of piracy was perhaps started with a massive earthquake in Jamaica which flooded or destroyed the majority of the long standing pirate communes. This was viewed as an opportunity to stamp out piracy and the English king appointed captain Hornigold (very pirate sounding) to govern the island, fortify defenses and limit the crime. It only kindof worked

Jade sneaks out to give Amy the math test. What is her intentions here, good freind or pushing to do bad

She sees the little girl. Why?

Amy tries to sleep but can’t. Considers checking on Damone opening his door. Decides to ask Will for a book but learns he hallowed out the books to store his medication

Cameron still missing

Cameron is nowhere to be found. Amy thinks about ratting him out but desides against it because of his temper. Jade eggs her on a bit more.

At some point she must have told jade she was seeing things. She almost told her family but didn’t when they freaked out that she mentioned someone she knew might be seeing things

It wasn’t blood it was strawberry jelly. And he was naked. Normally he wears all his clothes and now he has none. He is terrified he is going it die
Dr beck tricks him into the other seclusion room for the night.

Cameron can’t be alseep because he is a light sleeper. So where is he

Cameron Mia
Dents on the door -let me out
Goes to see marry who yelled at a kid about a swing
Her sewing needles look real, made of steal
She is scared she won’t live the night because of Damone and gives her an extra sewing needle for protection
She talks to Ramona who gives her jades chart, she caves and tries to look but the lights go out. Damone might be free. God’s son walks into the room covered in blood

The punishment for being found guilty of piracy was also heavy handed. Often the captain would be suspended in a metal cage unable to move at a port untill they died of starvation and the flesh began to rot. If they failed to plead guilty or otherwise they were tied to the ground and rocks would be added slowly untill the man or women was crushed to death or they plead.

Boats are a primo spot to to torture someone

Often when a pirate would take a boat there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. We envision them as quick affairs based on movies but often they would take there time sometimes spending days squeezing the crew for all they could. This often involved a heavy amount of torture when the invaded crew was not helpful. Torture seemed to be a much more common affair especially with merchant crews (Hense the mutinies)

Pirates needed carpenters and coopers (barrel makers) and often took these skilled men from their prizes (surrendering ships). Other booty included household items that pirates had a hard time trading for on land including candles, rope, ship repair parts, pots, pans, rations. There goal was treasure but hey, a man’s got to eat.

Complaint:
Pictures isolated to the middle of the book instead of with related info

Black flags often meant that surrender would be offered. In fact many pirates would fire one warning shot showing the black flag and expect surrender. It was common for quickly surrendering ships to be treated without hostility.

The origin of the Jolly Roger is believed to come from a nickname of the devil old Roger

The flags often showed symbols of death and time to strike fear and haste into surrendering ships

Flags

When thinking of imaginary surrounding pirates the first thing many minds will consider is the black flag with a skull and cross-bones/cutlases. These were often used but not the only flag spotted by pirates.
In fact many pirates rotated flags to portray different messages. They would occasionally hoist flags of various countries trying to fool other ships. Red flags signified no quarter (surrender)

Also interesting is that the shares of spoils were divided fairly evenly. The captain, doctor, quartermaster, and carpenter would get 2-5x the regular share of the men which was considered fair but never did they hoard all the value. Even still many of the men on board would blow all of there income on gambling, and buying “items of little worth”

Some of the rules set forth also governed there expected behavior with “the later sex” but did not ever outline relationships within the crew. There are two main thoughts on why’ either it was so rampant and expected that it need not be said or pirates were too many to ever think about having gay sex.
That being said captains were oft accused of taking advantage of young men on the crew

They were often drunk, having preferred strong liquor to water when they could find it. Many of there revelries were caused by the influence of alcohol.

Pirates and in fact all marinara at the time were very skilled at determining latitude using the suns night at mid day. They were unfortunately never able
To determine there longitude. Often they would go to the latitude they wanted then try to go as straight as possible along that line to navigate.

Some pirates had doctrines that governed behavior and set standards for pay, injury, and rules amoung them.

One of the most successful pirates ever was Ching I Sao (or wife of Cheng 🙄) who had more than 2k ships under her command which was more then most countries had in there navy at the time. Her pirates caused such issues for China and outnumber there navy so Chinas only recourse was to offer her and her men pardons.

She negotiated the the pardon or 17k pirates many of which went on to serve in chinas navy

Black beard is said to have more than 14 wives, most quite young with the 14th being only 16 years of age. He is prepared to have enjoyed watching several of his close friends take his new wife against her will throughout the night. Just a little color of what life was like back then. Even those fortunate enough to merry were not treated like humans

Marry was swept off her feet and away from her husband to board the boat of a captain. She got preggers and after having the baby fell in love with a hot deckhand. After revealing herself as a women to the man the man revealed that he (Bonney) was also a women. They eventually were caught and found guilty of piracy. To avoid being hung they both announced there pregnancy’s and both died soon after

Women pirates! They were a thing but often had to hide there gender so to there being many conspiracies about bring a women on a ship. Mostly men being jealous. Big surprise.

There were often teen boys on ships so this was the way women hid themselves most often. The two most famous women were Mary read and Bonney ____
Both had been raised as boys, Bonny’s parents wanted a boy and Mary’s mother was unfaithful

“Excessive and frequent” drinking. A doctor thought it would be good to give him Emma’s of a healthy persons urine but this almost immediately killed him

Rather than letting the English take it. They scoured the surround islands for treasure but it only amounted to about £15 per man.

Still it was a victory and Morgan was knighted for the accomplishment. After this he settled down in Jamaica with his wife in a 1000 achers of land containing several sugar plantations (where there be sugar there be rum.)
He got sick probably with his liver shutting down due to ..

Where he brought a well trained force against a rag tag group of volunteers. It went as well as it sounds as Morgan routed the Panama City. The mayor thought it would be a good idea to have 200 bulls charge Morgan’s forces as a final defence but they ran right around them. The goal was to take from a land notoriously filled with silver and gold but the mayor shipped everything out and burned the city to the ground

Captain Henry Morgan, yes that one, was an English captain working in the Caribbean to steal from the Spanish. He spent much of his time between Jamaica and cow island and claim to fame came from two major battles. In the first he and a band of buccaneers stormed a castle and seized a port from the Spanish. He blackmailed them out of £200k. The second battle came on the island of Panama….

The embossed double tower print on the pesos become what is today’s $ symbol with two lines instead of the one shown.
Drake was considered to be a gentlemen by all accounts, not quite a pirate as he was very patriotic and was eventually knighted.

One of his major festa was sacking the treasure ship Cacafuego which translates to shitfire

Drake was at first not very successful but over time become very good at what he did bring the English crown millions of dollars in jewels as well as becoming the first captain to successfully circumnavigate the globe (and live, one other boat did but that captain died)

Dublooms (gold) and pieces of 8 (silver, became pesos) where Spanish coins and become the standard trading currency of the time.

Spanish soldiers enforced a no trading rule with other countries across the shore and fiercely defended what they thought was there’s. This came to a head when an English merchant by the name of Hawkins was trapped and nearly killed along with most of his men. On the boat at the time was Sir Francis Drake who became really pissed off.

Drake spent the rest of his life ambushing Spanish ships and cargo trains

Spanish explorer most notably Cortes stumbled across what is now Mexico, a land ruled by the Aztecs and quickly realized two things.
1. This land loaded with treasure
2. These people are outmatched by modern artillery

This lead them to exporting close to a billion dollars worth (modern) of gold silver and gems. Unsurprisingly news of this spread and other country’s wanted their piece of the pie

The treasure they capture was mostly slaves but they also followed pilgrimage routes to capture women.

They were not gentile, well dressed or literate like films may sometimes show. Often they were savage, beyond morality. Typically me. Around the age of 27 dude to demands of the trade.

Most pirates 🏴‍☠️ where first privateers who were hired by the royal navy to police there shores. Unfortunately this lifestyle was too atraxtive for many.

Pirates were mostly American and English coming from ports. They typically held slaves and were democrating in choosing there captain. They however did not have terms, if you were ineffective you were out.