Chapter Selection Menu: P 1 2 3 4 E Next>>
Santa Maria Pirate Weekend, September 2012 - Columbus, OH
Photo: Mark Gist
Morning of the Pirates! (A good movie title.) Chapter 1st: Morning at the Santa Maria; The new paint job; Folks arriving, having breakfast and going about their business; On holding Alexander; Various displays aboard the Santa Maria; The arrival of of the very animated good pirate Gary and lunch. (Among certain other things.)
I arrived at the Santa Maria in the morning and was jarred by the difference in the old girl - she had a new paint job! I actually knew about this because Mark Gist had posted photos as they were painting her, but it's one thing to see a photograph of something like this and it's a whole different thing to actually stand in front of it!
Of course, you're not standing in front of it, you're looking at photos, so you probably won't get quite the same impression, but I took a bunch of photos and saw some other good ones, so I had to post them and let everyone see. Trust me - it was quite dramatic. I've never seen the ship look quite so vibrant.
 Photo: Dolphin Danie The Santa Maria and her boats |
 Photo: Mission View of the new paint from gang plank |
 Photo: MissionNew paint at the back of the ship |
When I got on the ship, the Gists were fretting over the number of pirates we were going to have on hand that day.
Photo: Mission
Look! Birds! ...seen here playing on the Santa Maria's Main Deck canvas
Thomas Alleman had planned to come down but his car had apparently broke down and he couldn't make it. George had bailed as mentioned to clean his room. So we were going to have about 1/4 of the manpower we'd had in the spring.
I was helping to fret when I noticed a bunch of birds hopping around on the tarp the covers the majority of the main deck. Not that your surgeon gets distracted easily, but... birds! I have half a dozen photos of this, of which I'll only post one to save you from too much of it.
Mark lit the stove so that Jennie could cook the lunch soup and we all commented on how unusual the flame was. Naturally, there were several photos of this, but again, I will spare you by only posting the one below left.
The Dufrenses arrived allowing Mark and Jennie to be relieved of their duty to fret. It looked like we would have an adequate, if somewhat smaller than usual, assembly of pirates to greet the visitors that day.
 Photo: Mission The cooking box's singular flame |
 Photo: Mission Wave 1 of the Dufrense Forces |
 Photo: Mark Gist ...and Wave 2 of the Dufrense Forces |
I hadn't had breakfast (despite passing a Tim Horton's on the way - egg and cheese breakfast wrap...mmmm), so Captain J. and I had broken open the cheese and crackers and proceeded to nibble. Fortunately, the Dufrenses brought organic fruit, which they set out on a convenient barrel for all to enjoy.
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Zach with an apple |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Fruit on the barrel head! Dufrense provender brought for breakfast |
 Photo: Mission Danie & Zeke enjoying the fruit |
With breakfast accomplished, I toddled over to set up my surgical instruments in preparation of the day's presentation. While I was doing that, Ruth appeared in front of the table with her dolls. I asked her about them and she showed me one, explaining that Danie had made it for her. (Didn't I tell you that Danie was cool?) I finished setting up and waited for this ship to open.
 Photo: Mission Girls on the Santa Maria stairs |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Mission's Instruments, Artfully Captured |
 Photo: Mission Ruth showing me her dolls |
Photo: Mission
John Rieske showed upsome time after that with his two mortars in tow (literally). He came on deck and talked with the Dufrenses as you see in the photo at left. John is always fun to talk with as he embraces the pirate reenacting sport on the Santa Maria with great gusto.
Something else you may notice at the far right side of that photo is Alexander. Alexander was five weeks old at this point. Most of the time Trudi (aka mom) was holding him and he was typically quiet for that. However, the Holding Alexander Duty was spread across all members of the family who were old enough to be trusted with it. (This is why your ship's surgeon would not be a valuable member of this family. Dennis offered to let me hold the baby, but I steadfastly refused this honor.)
Anyhow, holding Alexander seemed like a whole new twist on event fads, so I figured I'd better capture it here for posterity.
 Photo: Mission Danie |
 Photo: Mission Dennis holding him |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Elizabeth holding him |
 Photo: Mission Ruth |
 Photo: Mission Trudi holding Alexander |
The ship opened and I went to my station. It was a bit slow at first. I kind of like it that way because it allows me to warm up. (You have to kind of get in the groove with the surgeon patter. Or something.) In a way, this reminds me of working haunted house rooms. I am certain the first couple of groups in don't get near the experience that the last couple do. Then again, the last groups through get a bunch of tired people. (So I guess the moral of this paragraph is that if you're going to see pirate reenactors or haunted houses, you want to aim for the middle of the time that the event is open.)
 Photo: Mission Dennis welcoming a group aboard |
 Photo: Mission A group listening to one of the tour guides |
 Photo: Mission Learning all about pirates |
Photo: Mission
The kids booth and article signing table
Because we didn't have as many people as we usually do, we also didn't have quite as many displays. However, the ones we did have seemed to make the people happy. (And why not? I can still remember grousing about being the only person doing a display on this ship. We definitely had that beat.)
Jennie Gist and Dan Needham were at the first pirate stop on the tour. (Dan had showed up when no one was looking.) They were manning what I've come to call the Kid's Table. At the last couple of events this has been put together and run by the SOS Boss Collective. They had other things going this weekend and couldn't be here - probably the Annual Collective Barbecue or something. They did, however, send some of the supplies needed to run this booth, so that was a nice addition.
The next display, if folks were going the right way, were the ship's articles. It would be really keen to post a photo of the articles here or at least tell you what they were, but I didn't think to photograph them or write them down. So you'll just have to imagine what they were. I can tell you that one of them was "No man shall, in time of battle, be carrying his teddy bear with him for security or he shall receive Moses Law." Several of the folks visiting the ship actually stopped to read the articles as you see below right.
Most of the crew members signed the articles, like Dan is seen doing below. Someone told me I had to sign them because I was a pirate until I patiently explained that surgeons were exempt from signing the articles. See, signing the articles was akin to signing your death warrant if they fell into the hands of the authorities, so to keep the surgeon happy they essentially told him if he did a good job repairing them, he didn't have to sign the articles.
 Photo: Mission Checking out the articles |
 Photo: Mission Dan Needham signs the pirate articles (and his death warrant if we get caught) |
Photo: Mark Gist
A very cool photo of your ship's surgeon at work
Next up was my station - the surgical table. At this point in the Journal, I usually launch into a detailed explanation of all the things that have been added to my collection, but there really isn't much to mention. I did get a bunch of tweezers, several of which had ear scoops attached to them, but I didn't get photos of them and, let's be honest here, it's just not interesting enough to rate a photo. In fact, I don't think they even rate a paragraph. Forget that you ever read this.
While things started out slow, they picked up after an hour or so and never slowed down much after that. In fact, when I later went off to battle, I covered the tools up to indicate that my station was closed only to find that people had uncovered them and were looking through the instruments when I returned. So I guess there was a lot of pent up demand for information on 17th and 18th century surgical gear. I guess I'll never starve. (Well, if I got paid for doing this, I wouldn't.)
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Mission waiting |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Another satisfied group of customers at the surgeon's station |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Holding the dental pelican |
Photo: Mission
Mark Gist explaining navigation to a large group
After my table, if the people continued walking into the covered part of the main deck, they came to Mark Gist. Mark was explaining the cannons, how the ship was steered and navigational equipment. He can do all that because he has been an active part of the Santa Maria floating museum since 1992.
He really had a lot to say about the navigational equipment this time around. The groups frequently seemed quite interested in this display. While I never saw the whole presentation, I could hear him giving it when no one was at my table.
The one I really recall is the ship's glass, which you can see in the photo below right. Mark explained that it was used to keep time and when it was turned over to start a new half hour, the bell was rung on a pirate ship. The kids loved that. Mark also explained that on Columbus's Santa Maria, they wouldn't ring the bell, but they would recite a prayer. You can sort of see the prayer in the photo below left - it is mounted to the mast post on the right side of the table.
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Girl at Navigation Table |
 Photo: Mission Ringing bell |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Brass Quadrant for Navigation |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie The ship's glass |
Photo: Mark Gist
A very cool photo of your ship's surgeon at workThere was one other display that I saw. Actually, it was more of an informal display. I happened to see it when I was visiting the little boy's room during the day.
Zeke was carrying around a pouch that contained a small wooden bowling set. As I was strolling down the gangplank, he was setting it all up near the park across from the ship in front of a boy, explaining how the rules worked.
Now, it looks for all the world like bowling to me, but if you've read these Journals in the past, you know that it couldn't possibly be that comprehensible. It no doubt has some obscure 18th century name like nobbly-scups or something. In fact, if I were you and I was curious about this, I'd go to Google and look it up. (Personally, I'm fine with calling it bowling.)
There are a couple of other people I want to mention here before I move the narrative on. The first is Gary, who works on the ship, repairing, painting and doing what he can to keep her sea-worthy. Wanting to get into the spirit of the pirate weekends, Gary had gone out and gotten himself some pirate garb. He also decided he was going to be a one armed pirate - which is highly appropriate when you consider that he is standing in front of my table in the photo below left. Gary's outfit was far from period correct, but he had a wonderful way with kids.
The other is the Rieske (rhymes with 'risky') Cannon Crew, seen below right. They don't usually get quite as much ink in these journals as other reenactors because they always set up their mortar out on the sidewalk away from the gangplank. Far be it from me not to mention them though because they also have a nice way with people - John (seen with his arms behind his back in the photo) is especially good at adopting the mein of a crazy pirate artillery man.
 Photo: Mission Gary the one-armed pirate |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie The Rieske Cannon Crew entertaining folks in the park |
Photo: Dolphin Danie
Photo: Mission
Two things happened that told me it was getting close to the time for the battle. (And thus close to the time to end this chapter. I nearly always start a new one for the battles, you see.)
First, Jennie Gist came over with lunch for me in a special, vegetarian container. (Well, technically the soup was vegetarian, not the container.) She is so good to me.
Second, the boys started hanging around in the back of the ship rolling cartridges. So with those two things happening, let's move on to Chapter 2nd.