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Pirates of Paynetown 2009 - Bloomington, IN
Chapter 2nd - Saturday Day - Providing more detail on the camp, the surgeon's spread, other displays and vendors. Also including an account of the first battle - which ended badly for our heroes, but proved most entertaining for several people swimming.
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
I arrived Saturday morning fresh from my motel (Motel motto: Built in the
60s and kept that way for your convenience.) As I have explained in
the past, the whole camping thing lost its luster for me about
twenty years ago, so I usually opt for enclosed dwellings - preferably
ones located near Panera Bread restaurants.
The camp was stirring with life. The crew was washing the breakfast dishes - something which I stayed far away from. (I didn't want to get in the way again, you see.)
Mark Gist of the Pirates of the Scioto (right) was planning his strategy for the battle which was scheduled for the early afternoon. (Of course pirates schedule their battles!) Little realizing what he was in for, he offered to let me man the gun at the prow of the boat. (That there's sailor talk ) He took me to the boat to explain my job, going carefully over its loading and firing and explaining that the gun must be well secured or it will cause you problems when firing. (Note: This is called 'foreshadowing.' It's a sign of quality writing - other great authors like Jane Austen and Shakespeare also use it.)
(Photo:
Tartan Jack)
At left is the site where the boats were beached. There
were other boats anchored in the bay as well. Notice all the swimmers in
the well-defined swimming area? (More foreshadowing!)
The boats here (starting with the red flagged in back) were: the fireship aka. the Powder Tender; next is Mark's white and tan boat Firefly which we manned; the long yellow boat is Mike Dollinger's boat Wespe; the closest is the Tantrum.
You'll note I skipped the black boat with mast. Since I don't know its name, let's call it the Lollipop.
(Photo: Mission)
Once I had completely emptied my mind of all pertinent information regarding
the firing of the Firefly's gun, I decided it was a good time to
set up the surgeon's shop. Mr. Andrew Priddy, esq. (right) had roped off an area
for his interesting display and since he appeared to me to have
extra room, I arranged with him to set up my surgical gear
there. Realizing that I also needed a table and the only way I could
provide myself with one was by placing a board over the XLR (with the
top down), I begged Kate Souris/Bagley to use the new table Michael had
created. Fortunately she agreed. (The board probably would have
scratched the paint on the borrowed Caddy.)
I thus placed my gear in a borrowed place on a borrowed platform. (below left) Now if I could only find a way to borrow the surgical gear my life would be complete. Mine was a nice shady spot, next to Andrew's interesting display of sailor items (below right). I guess my surgical gear was pretty fascinating, because a knot of people formed to watch me place things on the table and bench. I'd like to say that I had something valuable and fascinating to offer, but most of them wandered off while I continued setting up.
Right: My fellow displayer Andrew Priddy enjoying a large plate of bacon.
(Photo: Mission)
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 (Photo: Mission)
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Despite the initial clot of people who watched me set everything up, things slowed down to a nice easy pace. I had many opportunities to present and explain 17th/18th century surgical gear, mixed with a lot of opportunities to wander around and look at other displays and sites. I could see my set-up from several different areas, so it was easy to notice folks gathering around my stuff. This allowed me to amble over and offer to explain the surgeon's job and gear. All in all, I must say this was the most splendid presentation environment I've come across yet.
Among the other period presentations, there were many people minding their knitting (and sewing and stitching and whatnot.) This is foreign ground to me because, ever since the Great Pink Flamingo Jams Debacle of 1985 (when you could actually wear pink flamingo jams without public embarrassment) I avoid sewing. Fortunately, Michael Bagley/Micky Souris has been most solicitous in helping me create my look. However, here there were people not only willing to sew and participating in sewing-oriented activities, they were practically flaunting it! You could see the whole process from the making of the material (Diana Stevens, below left) to Stephen Priddy and Rosanne knitting (center - well, Rosanne's knitting, Stephen's just being a bother) and stitching (right). Even children could do it! I was humbled; it was most impressive. (Well it was to me. Such bravery in the face of potential Pink Flamingo Jam Disasters.)
 (Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises)
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(Photo: Tartan Jack)
The grounds were a regular hive of excitement featuring a wide variety of
other interesting activities. Some were informal presentations like
Captain Priddy's display and my surgical gear. Others were semi-formal
presentations and activities like Mark
Gist's black powder weapons discussion in the pavilion (right). Still
others were
informal and on-going like the sewing displays mentioned above.
Among other things to be seen were the camp blacksmith, complete with hand-operated bellows (below left), people spitting and cooking large animals for the dinner Saturday evening, Ben Fridley/Dan Needham cleaning his very long gun (center), folks rolling cartridges and Krista Graves...uh, eating an orange, I believe. (below right) You know, this all sounds a bit like one of those lurid Us Magazine features where they show pictures of movie stars doing regular everyday things under the title "Movie Stars!! They're Just Like Us! (Only with better tailoring.)" (Uh... not that I regularly read Us or anything. My sister, er, subscribes, and I see it from time to time. By accident. *Ahem*)
(Photo: Tartan Jack)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Tartan Jack)
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Some were just people going about day-to-day life like they might have if it were several hundred years earlier. There were many different and unique characterizations as well. One trouble with pirate re-enacting you occasionally see is that everyone wants to be Captain Something, even the women. (Female captains were unheard of during period.) Granted, you expect to find a lot of sailors in a crew of pirates, but not all of them captains! You occasionally find loads of Captain Something-with-a-color-and-a-beard at events... names like Captain Redbeard, Bluebeard, Greenbeard, Pucebeard, Rainbowbritebeard, Chocolatebeardwithsprinkles, etc. (Someone needs to be Nobeard the pirate captain.)
But this was not the case at Paynetown. Here we had many different people and tasks. Of course, the event benefited from having several folks playing characters who would not have been pirates - RevWar, French & Indian war and other land-based re-enactors - which may explain it. Still, a town of nothing but pirates is hardly realistic. Below are some examples of excellent characterizations. From left, Parson Jarboe; Maggie Delaney, his indentured servant; Aimee Graves and her strange, hairy dog Phydeaux; Chole Black, proprietress of the C. Black Coffee House.
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Tartan Jack)
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(Photo: Tartan Jack)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Tartan Jack)
Another facet of the village was the imaginatively-named Market Street.
There were several different period vendors, which is typical of events,
but still fascinating. If there is one thing I have learned about
re-enacting it is that there is always a reason to spend more money on
your costume and "impression." If there are two things I have
learned, the second is that vendors with on-line sites often
have far more interesting stuff at their stores than they ever
mention on their website. If there are three things I have learned about
re-enacting, it is that you always need a good head scarf. Well, actually
I just wanted to get myself another head scarf. I have an obnoxiously
yellow one that was just begging to be replaced by a sensible color (like
blue). I figured this would be the place to do it. So let's shop...
Left: One view of Market Street. It sort of goes around the corner to the right there...
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
I espied a likely looking place across the street and up a bit from my
surgical display location where I managed to procure a bright blue silk
head scarf (left - the scarf and the hair queue stylishly in place). It turned out to be organizer
Nathanael Logsdon's own Taylor Rose Historical Outfitters (above left), staffed by Amanda Jacobi. She
had to get me a blue scarf out of the back. This is because a splendid bright
blue silk head scarf on display would probably cause a run on the market
and they'd have to close up shop like the banks in the documentary Mary
Poppins. Virginia Floor Cloth Company (above right)
also had scarves, but I missed them on the first go round. The
Floor Cloths they sold were interesting weatherproof designs that I was told were
period correct. (However, this event covered 1650-1800, so I'm not exactly
sure what period we're talking about.)
There was also a fine pottery shop next to C. Chole's Coffee Shop by the name of J. Henderson Artifacts (below left). It was owned by...get this...Jay Henderson! Both he and Chole are members of the Great Lakes River Pirates. Further up the street was a store featuring hand made journals called Bonjiorno Forge and Foundry. Thos. Bonjiorno, prop. The White Pavilion Clothiers (who vended at PiP) were there with a skeleton, which I thought was a terrific marketing ploy (below right).
 (Photo: Mission's
badly balanced photos)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Silas Thatcher)
The battle was scheduled for 2pm that day, so we all gathered around
1:30 to try and launch the boats from the wee spit of land bordering on
the swimming area...which was filled with people who thought they were
safely fending off the heat in the very clearly delineated swimming area.
(Still more foreshadowing!)
Our crew can be seen at right preparing Mark Gist's boat Firefly - the beautiful white boat with the beautiful wood interior - for launch. In the photo, from left: Thomas in the dark blue coat, Tartan Jack (with his back to the camera), Mark G (in white with the dark gray monmouth cap) and your author Mission, adjusting the gun. The gun needed to be tight so that it didn't kick back. I was trying to tighten it by hand here. In the foreground are Great Lakes River Pirates Jay Henderson (in green with the tan cap) and Captain Brian McCrary getting Jay's boat Tantrum ready to sail. Mark G. explained that the odd-shaped board on the side of their boat is a stabilizer used in place of a keel.
(Photo: Nathaneal Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings) The Wespe containing a girl in red head-scarf, Mike Dollinger rowing and "cool girl" Suzanne Larner in front. |
(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings) Captain Priddy steers while someone rows in a top hat. (Ya' may as well row with style.) Doesn't the captain look very captainish? |
We had a duced difficult time getting the boat out of the little harbor, what with the strident wind and the large waves. I quickly realized that period shoes and socks were not going to cut it, so I stripped them off and stuffed them into the front of the boat. Working with the others like a crack squad of untrained orangutans, we managed to get the boat sitting in the water sidewise to the waves, which allowed them the best opportunity to wash into the boat. (I used a little paddle to help - which they quickly decided should be taken away from me.) Fortunately Mark G. was at the rudder. He managed to get us straightened around despite all our efforts to resist. We got into the harbor where the other boaters were all rowing about, waiting for the signal over the PC walkie-talkies to begin firing.
Once the command came to fire, I swung into action like a deranged lemur. I faced forward and looking at the gun (below left) on it's wobbly platform. In my lap I had the tools of the small gunner's trade (below right). My job was to open the leather protective pouch (1) and remove the paper wrapped powder loads (2). Then I was to shove the powder down the maw of the cannon and load the cannon touchhole with even more powder from the powder loading thingee (3), making sure to sprinkle copious quantities of powder into the wind so that it could fall inside the boat onto the flammable canvas bag (4). I hoped a fire wouldn't start as a result of all this loose powder, causing us to have to abandon the ship (5) and hitch a ride with another boat using our thumbs (6). (Confused? You ain't seen nothin yet.)
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings)
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(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings)
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While I was dealing with my problems up front, focusing on what was in front of us, they were having their own problems behind me. The wind and current were playing hell with navigation. Every time they'd stop to reload their pistols and fire (above left), the boat would move rapidly towards the worst possible place (the rocks, the fire boat (above right), the swimming area, Iraq, etc.) It was as if a giant boat magnet was sucking us in the wrong direction. We got so close to the fire boat that I recall feeling the heat as it blew up. Fortunately they had already taken the paddle away from me so I could do less damage in my efforts to assist them.
The highlight of our troubles for the crowd was when we floated over the submerged wall into the swimming area where a lot of people were standing neck-deep in water watching us. (See the crowd and swimmers watching appreciatively below right.) The boat made a horrible sound as it crossed the great concrete divide. Fortunately the boat suffered no serious damage. Eventually a couple of the taller swimmers had pity on us and helped swim our boat out of their area.
(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings)
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(Photo: Mission)
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Meanwhile there was a whole battle going on land-side. I missed most of this as I was more focused on not blowing up the boat by placing the slow match too near the powder I had spilled. I gradually moved the slow match further and further away from the cannon until it eventually wound up in the boat behind us. (I was quite relieved when Mark agreed that I could put it out.) Below is our view of the British occupied land (below left) and a fine portrait of a cannon crew, none of whom I know the names of (below right).
(Photo: Mission)
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(Photo: Nathanael Logsdon, Graphic Enterprises ©Cummings)
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This also meant that I missed the brave surrender of the Dread Pyrate Rats to the British. I, like you, only got to see it after the fact in the following series of Rats Action Shots (below).
(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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(Photo: Kate Bagley
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(Photo: Kate Bagley)
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