Happy Belated Birthday, Pirates of the Caribbean!

Pirates of the Caribbean is 45...yesterday!

It's nearly impossible to get a good photograph inside the ride without a high-end camera.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

(As long as I don't have to hurt anyone or steal anything.)

Pirate Julie

OK, if I can't post pictures of myself in pirate costumes on Halloween, when can I?

(Oh, I made all those clothes, by the way.  Just not the hat/headscarf/socks/shoes.)

Arrrr! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates!

Arrr, mateys! I hope ye be enjoyin' Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I figured it be a fine day t' review a piratical book I acquired in me travels.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates, by Gail Selinger with W. Thomas Smith Jr. be startin' out with the whole history o' sailing an' pirates, though at least one reviewer were complain' about a lack of historical accuracy. I can't much speak much to that, as I be writin' fantasy pirates, not real ones. I can tell ye the first few chapters were a mite boring, 'til they got to talkin' about real pirates. And not all of them were so interesting either.

The book be laid out in chapters, with big headings an' smaller headings throughout, an' outlines o' what the chapters be coverin' at the start an' recaps o' what they covered at the end. It still be surprisingly hard t' find some of the information when ye need it, though the index be all right.

I thought things picked up around Part 2, an' particularly around Chapter 7, when they be startin' to outline life on a ship an' talkin' about press gangin' sailors. Apparently glass-bottom tankards were t' help keep people from bein' forced into service! I ain't so sure about th' Cat o' Nine Tails bein' the origin for lettin' the cat out o' the bag.  Part 3, more about specific pirates, be havin' some points o' interest too. Later on, the parts about the Barbary Corsairs and the Christians and Muslims fightin' had such acts o' cruelty they be makin' a pirate blush. I ain't sure if they were relevant to a lad or lass with an interest in piratin' or not.

Overall the book helped me t' understand Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides much more, with the bits on press-ganging, the mutual hatred between the Spanish an' English, the storin' of weapons away from the sailors to prevent mutiny, an' of course the difference between a pirate an' a privateer.  Made me wonder if the writers o' the script read this book.

I can be speakin' for a few bits o' historical matters which may or may not be right. They be tellin' a heartbreakin' story about Captain William Kidd bein' forced back into piracy, but a quick search o' the Internet and I couldn't find nothin' about him bein' forced to go back t' sea against his will, just that it ain't clear why he did. Their account may true, may not. Their tale about Captain Bartholomew Roberts don't sound in the least like this biography I recently acquired using me special offers enabled magic readin' device, though I admit I haven't read it yet to be sure. Again, I ain't sayin' the book ain't right, but it don't seem to match with what I be seein' elsewhere.

But the one that be worryin' me the most is near the end when they be talkin' about Chinese woman pirate Lai Choi San, a.k.a. Lai Sho Sz'en. They spin a fine yarn about her, then say that "no reputable pirate historian has been able to verify (reporter) Lilius's claims" an' that "with no 'hard' evidence Lao's story needs to be classified as fiction." The fiction bit be disappointin' enough. But I don't understand why they be callin' Ms. Lai "Lao" by the end o' the section. An' then at the end o' the chapter they reiterate "Lai Choi Shan emerged in the 1920s and continued her family's traditions of piracy." That be the fourth way o' spellin' her name by me count. I know Chinese names be hard t' spell in English, but didn't they just say they be relatin' a fictional tale about her, on account o' the fact they didn't have any hard facts? I be more than a touch concerned that they be sayin' the tale was real after all, and that they don't know how to be spellin' her name.

The glossary be o' limited value to landlubbers, as it don't be definin' port, starboard, bow, or stern!

Anyway, true or not, the book be worth a look, particularly the middle sections. I be trustin' the bits about nautical life pretty well. The book credits say Ms. Selinger be a gunner on tall ships in her spare time, so could be she knows a bit about the sea. But as far as the history be concerned, I'd be double-checkin' the "facts" if you be lookin' at this for any serious purposes. Fairly warned be ye, says I.

(I acquired this book at an annual used book market fer substantially less than retail price, but it weren't free. Avast with ye, FCC!)

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

So I FINALLY saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides. I'm not sorry I waited for it to hit the cheap theaters. I am not sorry I saw it in 2-D either...there were a lot of dark scenes that I think would've been hard in 3-D (at least, every 3-D movie I've been to was really dark!).

Oh, my ship's wheel picture is on the HMS Surprise, which played the HMS Providence in the film.



The HMS Surprise out of movie make-up.

Mild spoilers below!

I liked the film, though my expectations were bilge-low, so I was delighted the film turned out to be OK. For a movie that's over 2 hours long, it seemed odd there were so many loose ends. I didn't really buy any of the romance, and while I love to see faith and religion at least alluded to in a movie, the only characters who ended up making God any sort of priority by the end were the Spanish Catholics!

To me, there seemed to be more effort at integrating history in this one, at least. Although actually, almost all the historical aspects were also covered in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates. So I'm not sure if the movie writers read that book for research, or if the authors of the research book were influenced by Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides (which I haven't read).

And actually, if I hadn't been familiar with the material of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates, parts like sailors being forcibly impressed into service might have gone over my head. Though if you go to one of these movies for the plot, I reckon you have the wrong idea...I found it to be a bit more fun than movies 2 and 3. Then again, some people find the idea of swinging from great heights in human-bone cages hilarious, so if you're one of those, you might not like Stranger Tides nearly as much!

Anyway, I found it enjoyable and worth seeing for $2 on the big screen!

Star of India Exhibits - San Diego Maritime Museum - 2008

This is from the Maritime Museum of San Diego, aka the Star of India. Quick explanation of the place (and some really neat interior ferry pictures!) and a link to other adventures here.

The Star of India, formerly known as the Euterpe, is an 1860s sailing ship. Since it's a holiday, I'll save the ship pictures for next week and do the educational ones today. Sorry about the blur in some of them; it's hard to get pictures behind glass.







OK; here is a little hint of the ship...yes, these "exhibit cases" used to be bunks for sailors!





I think the brig took a cannonball to the mast.











I find it incredible to imagine the difficulty of navigating the open seas back in the day.











Pictures of the immigrants.


I wish I could go back and look closer at all this. Around this point I was sort of taking pictures more than reading, as my patient mother was ready enough to leave...









"Vasa 1628, An ill fated royal galleon":




More info on the Vasa here! (Apparently about 30-40 people died when it sank on its maiden voyage!)

HMS Surprise at the San Diego Maritime Museum - 2008

Again, this is from the Maritime Museum of San Diego, aka the Star of India. Quick explanation of the place (and some really neat interior ferry pictures!) and a link to other adventures here.

Perhaps the most impressive ship at the museum was the HMS Surprise, as seen in Master and Commander (and evidently it was the Providence in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides?). It's a replica of a 1700s British sailing ship.

It's also where my profile picture came from!



This was around 4 PM late November.


From outside:


If no one had done this before, there wouldn't be a sign...






The number of lines on the ship is RIDICULOUS.


For some reason 2008 Julie said:
"The lines on a ship aren't labeled, but if you ask a sailor new to your ship to find a particular line, the odds are very good that they will find it on the first try.  :)  The lines tend to be in the same place on every ship, of course, and I'm sure they see where the lines run to and stuff."




The ship was originally named the Rose, but it was re-christened after its role in Master and Commander.


Displays below deck!

This "powder monkey" does look pretty happy, despite his stump-hands.


They explained "knots"--around 1600 they came up with a "chip log" that would float in a fixed position if thrown overboard. So they threw it overboard and reeled out a knotted line to measure how many 48-foot-spaced "knots" the ship traveled in 28 seconds.

Tools to measure speed:


They had a few notes on grog (rum and water--dates back to 1740 from the Royal Navy) and salmagundi (a gross-sounding stew).



Also info on hardtack (also gross). They noted that men often ate in the dark so they wouldn't see the weevils in their hard tack!


Captain's room! I had probably a minute here all to myself. It was amazing.






Movie costumes if you were interested.


This was where they'd keep the chickens (and as the voyage progressed, presumably eat some). It must be late in the voyage....just one hen (and one rat!).


The first sailor to circumnavigate the globe twice was a GOAT! I'd assume a female goat. (And as C.S. Lewis informed us in "Voyage of the Dawn Treader," the smellier parts in a sailing ship would be kept in the FRONT.


Ammunition:


Weapons:


Looking out at the cruise ships.


Outside!


Anyway, it's a lovely ship, full of exhibits. Pretty sure there was a whole deck below the deck I was on, too, but that wasn't accessible to guests.



Next Monday, inside a Russian submarine!