Music of my time

Although I started out as a impoverished boy in Vienna. I am no longer in such dire straits. I attempt to keep up with culture so as to be able to deal with the fopish bores that tend to inhabit the governors mansions of the various colonies I visit.

To that end I find John Playfords "The English Dancing Master" as a good guide. It was published years ago back in 1651. However little has changed out here in the cultural hell that is the Caribbean. In France this will not due. In France all run in fear of the dancing masters that ply the halls of Versailles. The french nobility seem to be condemed not only to fall at the feet of these villains but to actually walk as they do. Well we all have our gaits so I will not complain too bitterly about them.

Of higher culture in music the leaders, so I gather, are Henry Purcell in England and Jean Baptiste Lully in France. I know neither though I have actaully seen the latter when I visited Versailles some years ago. I also understand that M. Lully has subsequently died of an infected foot. This too is not uncommon in my century.

There are several crewman that posess instruments, bagpipes, a recorder, fiddle, etc. They liven up our journey's quite a bit. However I know not what songs they are playing since they are all muslims and I know of none of that kind of music.

1693 the year I exist in...so far...

To pigeon whole myself in a certain year is to leave oneself open to all sorts of unforeseen consequences. Suffice to say that, to me, it is the year 1693. So what was going on in my world. Where here is a brief list of events for this year.

Some pitiful college in America was founded by the usurper William of Orange and his illegitimate queen Mary.

In May Heidelberg falls to Louis XIV's forces. Not to allow the ancient castle to exist, the French blow the citadel up.

My rover acquaintances have no longer seen any evidence of the Dodo.

Oh and we have NO set agreement on Longitude. It's anybodies guess.

The primary kings that drive all the hurly-burly of privateering and colonial consternation are: Louis XIV of France, William III of England, and Charles II of Spain.



I take no emotional connection to any of these brutes. However since France is much richer than the other two I tend to take more of Louis money, as a privateer that is. Ostensibly the king of France is sticking up for his cousin King James II. James has been deposed by William of Orange and is living at Fontainebleau under the protection of Louis.

So I get to attack English and Dutch ships.

The other kings of this age are so dull compare to the Roi Soleil of France. Though I care not for his haughty nature, I find in myself a great respect for such a man to tame the unruly lords of France, and I find the love he sheds upon his bastards quite a fine thing indeed. For his bastard son Louis Alexander, though only 15, is at present my lord as Admiral of France. I also hear tell that the miscreant lords of his kingdom are shocked by his open love for his illegitimate kin. His legal children flee from the king in terror while showing little intellect. His children from Montespan show all the brillance of la Soleil.

Osprey's Vanguard book #70

For more info on the nature of the pirate ship this book is the one to have. Tis full of all sorts of nautical mumbo jumbo. If Capt. Fyre wishes plunder it off me then I will surrender it for a time.

My ship called the Induna, this is Zulu for headman, leader, topdog, etc, is a smaller vessel than Teach's Queen Anne's Revenge. When I aquired it the ship was a 3 masted frigate of 24 guns. We refit her with an additional series of guns to bring her total armament to 34 guns that breaks down as follows:

22 16-pounders on the gun deck
10 8-pounders on the weather deck
2 8-pounder chase guns in the forcastle

Our refit also included the ripping out of all the bulkheads below deck save for the great cabin in the stern. We then repurposed the timber to build more bracing below the gun deck to support more guns. We also crafdted a strong box to hold the goods we acquired on our voyages.

The blulkheads of the quarter deck were removed as was the bulkheads of the forcastle. This gave us shelter from the rains, and grape shot, but also allowed free access to the guns on the weather deck. We also enalarged the scuppers and torn down the railings, replacing them with solid planks.

Currently our crew cosists of 225 souls.
Our vessel displaces God only knows, but I think roughly 250 tonnes.

Auguste Racinet provides lots of good Illustrations

In the 1870's a little Frenchman historian, named Auguste Racinet, created a multivolume history of European costume entitled Le Costume Historique. I have the 1987 edition. It can still be purchased via the net or Powells for about 10 bucks.

My ship is so complicated

Some swabs ask me what was the biggest surprise I had upon embarking on my Privateer career. Well as soon as I stood upon the weather deck I took note of how godawful complicated a sailing vessel is. Sails, masts, yard arms, all that rigging, then all the jiggery pokery on deck and below! The reason that so many who call the sea home become "mad" is that most of their brains are filled with the data required to make a machine of such mind manggling complexiy move in any given direction.

This is why, in my own mind, piracy is so silly. To be a good pirate you need to act upon your prey with speed and violence. Big ships are slow and capable of great violence in that they can mount more and heavier guns and you can cram more souls aboard them. Small vessels are fast and manuverable and you don't need so many damnable crewmen who all want their cut, but these ships are not well armed and a good deal of bluster and repuation is needed. The cost to outfit one of these ships, big or small, is also high. People that think they can get rich by piracy better have a pretty good angle or they are just stupid and doomed.

I opt for a mid sized vessel. If a first rate ship showed up un crewed all I would do with it is sell it. Too damn big, slow, and needing way to many men for my purposes. The Sloop, for me, is too small. I do not like the sea in my vessel, sloops founder easily in storms. Also one cannot arm them with what would be needed to take a port. So I have my ship of 32 guns. Not too big and not too small.

She was built in England, saw service for a while under an English flag. Then was taken off the island of Salgem Grande by me. It was dumb luck to take her. Yet here I sit in her great cabin. As for crewing a ship such as this there is much to lament. A hundred men are too little and 250, though proper, is too many creedy hands.

Tis gone 8 bells so here I Rave

Why is it that all would-be pirate types attempt either a Robert Newton impersonation or a Jack Sparrow impersonation? As if the pirates that sent many a good God fearing soul to the briney deep were all English. The truth of it is that pirates came from every nation and tribe. And have committed their atrocities since man took to the seas low those many millenia ago.

I cannot claim to be of a different nature than those rovers. I have, from time to time, attempted to seperate myself and crew from the likes of La'Olonais, or Roc Brasiliano but this is a failed attempt. For in the thick of battling on the seas or in ports, though I carry Letters of Marque, we still perpetrate all manner of devilishness.

We have taken our leave of Portland and the festival therein. Twas a record breaking brawl. We are now heading south with all the canvas hung. Back to warmer climates. No sign of the English sloops of war that we tangled with two weeks ago.