Pirates in Paradise 2008 - Key West, Fl
Chapter 7th - Of the daytime events of Saturday, including inclement weather, the salvage of the surgeon's carelessly mislaid instruments; a slow start; a brief recap of the Tryal of Anne Bonny and Mary Read; the utter failure of the Dead Man's Sea Chest Auction following; and a complete account of the second battle, focusing particularly upon the M.A. d'Dogge and All Girls Cannon Crews. That oughta' keep the little squirts happy. Also, upon realizing that he failed to mention the battle in the original journal, surgeon Mission decides to pad this page with lots of pics and made up text.
(Photo: Cheeky)
2/6/08 Day, Today started with a fine misty rain. The bike ride
to the fort was thus one more episode in the saga of weathering my garb. I
was soaked by the time I got there, even though the rain didn't seem
that bad when I started. Thanks Captain Sterling (right) for retrieving all my raw
steel surgical gear from the picnic table near their site. I was so happy
I even kissed him. (On the cheek! Who do you think I am?) There were some
minor rust spots - steel will rust in about 10 seconds if it even thinks
about getting damp - but for the most part it survived. Thanks again to
the Archangels. It could just be that they wanted to make sure they could
cut to the head of the line when the Mercury paste was being daubed on to
cure the rampant venereal disease that pirates get when they make
landfall, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
Above right: Captain Sterling, master of all he surveys. (Except what's behind him.)
(Photo: Jessica Bagley)
I arrived at 10:30. The camp was still moving sluggishly and
seemed only recently to have started stirring at all. I was told that when people
awoke around 7 or 8am, they looked the whole soupy world over and decided to give
sunrise a miss. The party was going hale and hearty when I left last
night, so that may have had something to do with it. Speaking of the camp,
it continues to grow as more people show up. I counted 29 period tents
(not including flies). It's really something to see. Those of you
who saw the little area where we camping on the map in the forum? We
exploded beyond that long ago. We will soon have our own zip code.
Left: Life giving coffee! Dutch, Grace, Edward, Willie (and Michael in the distance).
(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
Captain Sophia expressed interest in seeing the trial of Anne Bonny and Mary
Read, so we toddled over to the fort. The tryal was held inside the fort
quarter's building which they are renovating. It is an
ideal setting, really, except for the steel beams that
are holding up the structure. The room was kind of small for the crowd,
so it got hot. The acoustics were also not well designed (what were they thinking
in 1862?) so that confused things a bit.
After a while, Sophia decided it enough for her so she decided to go back to camp.
I wandered outside and talked to Spike from Bone Island for a bit. Spike has the amazing ability to make you feel like you're more interesting than you really are so we chatted about this and that. Then I went back in to see Cascabel's bit (right) (He's the perfect guy for it.) I spotted Red Jessi and Stynky along a wall so I went over and introduced them to each other.
Below: the Tryal of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. From left:
Captain Jim considering going in; Anne (Bawdy Be) and Mary (Diosa)
looking surly; the swearing in of Thomas Dillon by Bailiff Harry;
Jonathan Barnett (aka. Braze) testifies.
(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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( Callahans)
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(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey", Callahan Digital Art)
After the trial, everyone was eager to get out of the building,
so they quickly left. This meant that Captain Jim didn't get a chance to
start the Dead Seaman's Chest auction. This is good because I hadn't put my contribution into the
chest yet. (Mental note: don't pack things so tightly next time.) It will
be auctioned off today at the closing ceremonies. The seamen's chest is a
neat little box full of all sorts of goodies.
Stynky tried to palm a dagger from it, but your sharp-eyed old surgeon caught the miscreant and we divested him of his stolen loot. We should have put him in the stockade, but it didn't occur to us.
Speaking of which I watched one of the vendors try to wrestle Scarlett Jai or possibly Rai into the stockade yesterday. I'm quite sure he regrets that this morning as that woman can fight!
Left: Your ship's surgeon Mission, Stynky Tudor and Red Jessi just after the tryal. You may think that Stynky is being all warm and friendly here, but he is actually picking our pockets.
Below: Tiger Lee, owner of a fine stockade for taking photos with is on the search for a victim. He seems to prefer the ladies, doesn't he? Below right, he tries to get Scarlett Jai in the stockade. (My money's on her.)
(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: Callahans)
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(Photo: Callahan Digital Art)
(Photo: Callahans)
I hung around the fort because Jessi had mentioned that she had been
invited to be on a cannon crew in the second battle and it's something I try to participate in
at every event so's I can keep my membership in the Cannon Firing
Surgeon's Club. (You are so jealous, I just know it.) Many of the crew
spent time shopping at the vendors. There is a place that has leather
bound journals of hand made paper at which I may just have to spend some
coin. Surgeons kept journals and I covet one.
We eventually headed up to the top of the fort for cannon crew training. Someone had told me to be there at 1am which was apparently a joke designed to see how many people could be convinced to stand on hot concrete in the now blazing sun for an hour to no purpose. I snagged a bit of shade and several Mercury and Archangel crew quickly joined me.
Left: Mission (with Rusty Nell behind) frustrated with the standing around in the hot sun. Right: As smug as a bug in a (shady) rug.
(Photo: Jessica Bagley) |
Above: A sampling of the wares at the journal shoppe. Hand-tooled leather covers, regular leather & fur with hand made paper. Very cool.
(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
I was on the M.A. d'Dogge cannon crew (at right). From left, Keith/Edward O'Keefe
sponged and tamped the cannon. M.A. d'Dogge was the crew's captain. I
(Mission) held my thumb on the touchhole during cleaning and inspected the
stinky sponge for bits of the previous charge. If found, I ordered Edward to swab
again - I did this several times, mostly for my own amusement. (OK, that's not
true.) I also pricked the charge (I was the prick - if you read my other pirate
journals, you'll notice I never tire of that joke.), put in the fuse (prime) and
lit the cannon. Mad Dog (this is getting confusing) who does a nice
Jack Sparrow handled the load and corkscrew thing (it has a name of
some sort).
For the first time as far back as anyone at this event can remember (which is probably yesterday...the rum...) they had an all girls cannon crew (below left), led by Grace. From left, Rusty Nell, Captain Madam Grace, Red Jessi & Kate Souris. And Josh Merriweather as the powder monkey At right, initiation with the stinky sponge.
(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" , Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
Several Bone Islanders
had gun one (right picture front). Chrispy is preparing the fuse on the
mortar. Our crew was on gun two, the All Girls Cannon Crew had gun 3 and a group
of Key Westers with redcoat uniforms were on the small, but extraordinarily loud
gun four. Harry was the Captain-Commandant-Leftenant-Commander (or something like that)
and in charge of all four of us cannon crews. The Viceroy (in the dark
coat walking away from the camera here) was in charge of Harry.
Captain M.A. d'Dogge knew the routine, so we just practiced a few times and were ready. We fired five times and a good time was had by all - even if the all are now deaf. (What?) M.A. d'Dogge told me that normally I would be in charge of the cannon if he were not there. This is just frightening and you can all be thankful to Captain d'Dogge that Key West is not currently afire. Before the cannon firing, I, like many others, had been wandering about, sullen, promising never to drink rum again. Afterward, I was zippy and raring to go - I could have taken on Scarlett Jai. (Or not.) A little cannon firing sure puts a spring in your step.
As far as the battle went, it was a day for the pirates. They were once again out standing in their field with cannon support from the Schooner Wolf. There were a lot more pirates today for some reason (see below). I guess no one told them how hot and dusty it was out there.
(Photo: James Eric Callahan, Callahan Digital Art) |
Below left: Captain-Admiral-etc.-etc. Harry barks orders to Chrispy and Crudbeard (the keeper of Oreo) while the tourists look on uselessly. Below right: One of the pirate field cannon crews. From left: Tiger Lee, Dutch, don't know, don't know, Scarlett Jai and, last, but certainly not least, don't know.
(Photo: James Eric Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
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(Photo: "Poppa Ratsey" Callahan, Callahan Digital Art)
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