I’d never heard o’ Lee Romao before our mate Jeff Coyle posted a link to Romao’s portrait o’ one o’ the world’s best known sailors – POPEYE. This is spectacular…
Popeye by Lee Romao
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To The Bayou & Back
On Bayou Dularge: Master Gunner Irish, Ricky Verrett (aka "Bayou Fabio") QM Seika Hellbound, Capt. John Swallow
Well mates, we’ve returned from our annual adventures in our other home – New Orleans, Louisiana! What a grand time we had with our mates during NOLA Pyrate Week – sharing food, drink, entertainment, adventure & discovery – while volunteering and giving back to one o’ the great homes o’ our Pyrate ancestors!
This year we were privileged to spend even more time with our mates in Bayou Dularge (South Louisiana) and discuss ways we can promote more awareness, education and assistance to the South Louisiana community.
Ye can read more about our adventures and see a few photos at the NOLA Pyrate Week website.
Corktown, Ceol Cara & Crustaceans
Join us this Sunday night (7pm-11pm) for a land-locked Nite O’ Jolly Rogerin’™ at Hamilton’s historic pub, The Corktown (corner o’ Young St. & Ferguson Ave. S.)!
The fine lads o’ Ceol Cara will be joinin’ us to serenade ye with chanteys, reels and other musical offerings – feel free to drink & sing along (we find the one improves the other).
We’ll regale ye with tales o’ Pyrate history on the Great Lakes, the High Seas and places in between. There’ll be a Wench & Cabin Boy Auction – ye can bid, or put yerself on the block (proceeds to PPD)…a contest to judge yer manner o’ dress and a raffle that could net ye some fine treasure!
It’s all part o’ the pre-Samhain celebrations (and 3rd Year Anniversary) o’ the monthly Hammertown Pagan Pub Moot.
And the crustaceans? There aren’t any…but it made ye look, didn’t it?
Avast Ye Scurrilous Seadogs!
Elegant and excellent was that Pyrate’s answer to the great Macedonian Alexander, who had taken him; the King asking him how he durst molest the seas so, he replied with a free spirit: “How darest thou molest the whole earth? But because I do it only with a little ship, I am called Brigand: thou doing it with a great navy art called Emperor.” (St. Augustine, City of God, Book IV)
Sept. 19th has been christened “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” thanks to our mates Cap’n. Slappy & Ol’ Chumbucket – hilarity ensues at their website.
We do try to educate folk in the language o’ Pyrates and other sea going types anywhere we travel; in spite o’ the frequent shouts o’ “Arrr!” (and related Hollywood-isms) – “Avast” maybe, “Ahoy!” certainly, but never “Arrr!” unless yer nickname be “Chum” and ye’ve a hankerin’ to swim in shark infested waters!
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
– Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Pyrates, in fact, speak no differently than anyone else from whate’er port they hail from – what makes it seem different is the vernacular o’ the sea and the mixing o’ many cultures (at a time when cultures weren’t mixing well). On a Pyrate ship ye might easily find Irish, English, Scots, French, Moroccan, West African, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese…and anyone else who climbed aboard! Mix in specific nautical terms (scurvy, bilge rat, sea dog, mizzen, belay…) and ye begin to see why “regular” folk think it’s a whole new language!
So…read a book or three and learn some real Pyrate history (perhaps even the history o’ some o’ yer ancestors) and remember, the correct answer to “What’s a Pyrate’s favourite letter?” is “A Letter O’ Marque”!
Speaking of his ancestors:
According to tradition, some of them were pirates and slavers in Elizabeth’s time. But this is no discredit to them, for so were Drake and Hawkins and the others. It was a respectable trade, then, and monarchs were partners in it. In my time I have had desires to be a pirate myself.
– Mark Twain’s Autobiography, chapter published in the North American Review, Sept. 1907
Telling Tales Festival of Stories
The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived. ~Howard Pyle
Join us this Sunday (Sept. 18) from 10am – 4pm at Westfield Heritage Village, the 3rd Annual Telling Tales Festival Of Stories! We’ll present ye with Pyratical tales, fact vs. fiction and maybe even a chantey or two – of course there’s MUCH more to see & do!
Step through Westfield’s Gates of Time into a storybook village where historical figures mingle with contemporary children’s literary stars on this magical day. All ages will find it entertaining and unforgettable. More than a celebration of stories and storytelling, Telling Tales is an important fundraising event, committed to providing financial assistance to much-needed local literacy programs.
Tales of all kinds for the young – and young at heart – storytellers throughout the village, living history, authors with new and interesting books, music, treats and more! Plan to visit the Telling Tales Giant Book Swap and Shop Tent, a place to bring your slightly worn children’s books, donate them to literacy and, if you choose, purchase second hand titles for just loonies and toonies.
Get on a free bus to Telling Tales! Free bus transportation will be available on a first-come first-serve basis. Buses will leave at 10 a.m. from the Centre Mall, Eastgate Square, Limeridge Mall and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s Education Centre in downtown Hamilton (parking lot siding on King Street West and Bay Street). All buses will return to the city at 3 p.m.
Go Ahead, Learn Something!
While our scheduled walks are over for the season, we are available for private walks (min. 5 people) in Port Dover, Niagara-On-The-Lake & Hamilton.
Why not share some “living history” with your group? We are available to share the history of Pyrates, The Great Lakes and Canada with schools, museums, libraries, youth/senior groups, team building…just about anywhere!