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What’s in a Name? Musings on Ship’s Names and History

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16th Century England's Most  Infamous Privateer Ahead of the curve on the handlebar moustache trend. I f you do any research into 16 th maritime history, there’s no denying that Sir Francis Drake was an incredible mariner, explorer, tactician, and businessman. It should also be noted, however, that he got his start as a slave trader, thanks to his earlier association with his cousin Christopher Hawkins. Starting as the son of a tenant farmer, he was able to make his way to the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I. By the age of 40 he had travelled all over the known world and amassed great wealth and fame; he was also the second person to circumnavigate the globe and claimed California for England. As a privateer, he was a national hero as he filled England’s coffers with plundered Spanish gold and silver; to the Spanish, he was known as a dreaded pirate with a bounty on his head. Capturing the Nuestra de Whatever In 1577, Queen Elizabeth asked Drake to attack Spanish s...
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The Jerky Buccaneer: A Brief History of Pirates and Smoked Meat

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The origin of the word "buccaneer" leads you down the barbecue trail! A " Buccaneer " was a type of privateer or pirate who typically roamed the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries.  The origin of the name comes from a corruption of the name used by the French to describe the hunters of wild boars and cattle in the largely uninhabited areas of Tortuga and Hispaniola. The me at from the animals they caught was slowly smoked over a low fire on a wooden framework or hurdle the native people called a “buccan” or “boucan.” The French called them boucanes which were used to make viande boucanée – what we would call jerked meat or jerky. The Spanish called the same process "barbacoa," which later became known as "barbecue." The illustration to the right is a depiction of a "Buccaneer of the Caribbean" by famous pirate artist Howard Pyle.  The most popular meat for smoking on the boucan was pork, but any meat wo...
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Breaking Bread with the Past: Making an 18th Century Dough Bowl

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The Art of Chipping Away at a Block of Maple Until Something Useful Appears The finished bowl, ready for use. A dough bowl, also called a kneading trough, is a wooden vessel traditionally used for mixing, raising, and kneading yeast dough for making bread. It was hand carved from a single piece of wood. It could be oval, round or rectangular in shape, and vary in size and width—typically from 24" to 36" long, 10" to 18" wide, and 3" to 8" deep. It often had small handles or grips on either end. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings often depict bakers using a similar vessel to knead dough for bread making; in literature, they are mentioned as early as 1386 in Chaucer’s The Miller's Tale. This type of dough bowl was typically used by home bakers for small batches of bread; large scale commercial bakeries or bread makers for large households used a much larger, lidded, framed container called a dough box or dough trough. A good dough bowl ...
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A Health to the Company: A Brief Overview of 18th Century Shipboard Medicine

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Enemy Fire Wasn't A Sailor's Greatest Threat to Health Demonstrations of 18th century medicine are fairly common at reenactments and historical sites. It’s both interesting and frightening for people as they imagine themselves in the place of an injured or sick person 300 years ago. I enjoy this particular bit of living history because, although primitive to us today, they really were practicing the height of technology of their time—and some of it obviously worked, because here we are today--at least some of our more hearty ancestors survived it, though it might have “cost them an arm and a leg.” My shipboard medical and surgical kit, ready for action. Oh, and a nosegay, so it smells nice. Early 18th  century shipboard medicine and the treatment of injuries and disease sounds just as perilous to us, if not more so, than the general medicine of the times. Doctors and surgeons were mostly self-taught, with the idea of standardized medical schools still a...
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Knowing the Ropes: A Twist on 18th Century Rope Making

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Making and Demonstrating the Art and Craft of Natural Fiber Rope Making Rope making is one of the first and most useful skills developed by humans. It predates other ancient tools and technologies such as the wheel and the ax. Not only was rope necessary for outfitting watercraft, it was needed to secure animals (and other humans), bundle goods, control horses, for tent making, for making simple footwear, and for team-based heavy lifting and pulling. And, in a pinch, holding up your pants. Without rope, the early Egyptians and ancient Chinese would be paddling their barges and feluccas up and down rivers, limiting the distance they could reasonably travel and the weight of goods they could hall. Both strong and flexible, the uses are endless. A rope might not seem very important, but it was critical to the emergence of early cultures around the globe.   Rope making demonstration with a young apprenti ce. Demonstrating 18 th century rope making is one of my favorite acti...
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Brown-Bagging It: Recreating an 18th Century Leather Portmanteau

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The finished case ready to "port" a "manteau" Adventures in Colonial Luggage! A Portmanteau (from the French “porter” meaning “to carry” and “manteau” meaning “cloak” or “gown”) is a valise or suitcase made from heavy leather that was used to carry a cloak or other necessities and is shaped to be secured behind the saddle of a horse. The cloak or other clothing would be rolled, not folded, into the case. It was also used by post riders to transport mail or newspapers. It could be round- or flat-bottomed with buckles and straps to secure the lid, and often had a handle on the side or top , and could include a shoulder strap .  In some examples, portmanteaus (or should it be "portmanteaux"?) were covered with tarpaulin cloth, India rubber or oilcloth to increase the waterproofing and protect the contents. These were so common and so durably made that many extant examples still exist in a variety of sizes for men, women, and even ...
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