#golden age of sail

[full-of-terrors]

Starting my July exploration read early

[lightthewaybackhome]

What is it about the Age of Sail that makes me so happy?

[salemlinnet]

some oc’s guest starring fang xianya

[abbydjonesoffaerie]

I'm only giving this 3 stars because it was such a challenging read. It was good and fun, but I was also largely just going with the flow most of the time.

I love the Golden Age of Sail and the Napoleonic wars. That era of history is such an odd mixture of artistic beauty and formality and also horror, death, and ruin. There is something unbelievably wonderful about these ships with their sails filled with wind, and there is something deeply unsettling about the high seas and fighting a war on them.

This book was fun to read. I did enjoy it. The difficulty came in all the technology jargon. I thought I had a fair familiarity with sailing ships. I was wrong. There were actual math problems in this book and whole lists of parts of ships that made it hard to follow what was happening. Then, there was the writing style. Many times, he would switch scenes and even sometimes locations without making it clear what was happening. At one point, I wasn't even sure if one of the side characters was alive or dead because he just ended the scene without making it clear. I spent so much of this book backtracking trying to figure out where I went wrong. I reread scenes trying to figure out who said what. It was such a confusing mess!!! And then all the sailing terms!

And yet, I had fun and want to read the next one. Ha! What even?

[readersmagnet]

Stormrider: A Historical Novel Based on True Events by Gordon L. "Box" Bocher

Embark on a thrilling high seas adventure with Stormrider, the historical novel based on true events by Gordon L. "Box" Bocher. Follow young sailor Jack Steele as he joins a daring plot to outwit a notorious pirate and reclaim stolen treasure. Get your copy today and experience the excitement of the Golden Age of Sail!

Journey into the dangerous world of piracy. Get your copy at www.stormrider11g.com today!

[the-golden-vanity]

I miss this... North Atlantic Ocean, near Block Island, 8/12/24.

[ltwilliammowett]

The American extreme Clipper Golden State - Built at New York by Jacob A. Westervelt in 1852, the "Golden State" is recorded as having the longest record of service of any ship in the China Trade, by Leslie A. Wilcox (1904-1982)

[clove-pinks]

A pair of Mediterranean seascapes: a capriccio of a coastal view; and a naval battle. Circle of Orazio Grevenbroeck (1676–1729).

[memecatwings]

i do admit that black sails fans are pretentious but i mean have you seen the show? if you dont come out of it at least somewhat pretentious about television dramas then i dont think you really understood it. you need to watch it again. here i'll give you some discussion questions to help you get thinking, your repsonses are due next wee- [GUNSHOT]

[gellavonhamster]

I am the sea and nobody owns me

[bantarleton]

A drunken English soldier accidentally giving away Francis Drake's planned ambush on the Spanish silver train at Venta Cruces in February 1573. Drake's expedition had trekked through the jungle to attack the train as it left from Panama City, capturing several mules laden with silver before escaping. Art by the great Angus McBride.

[lightthewaybackhome]

For a ship is the noblest of all man's works—a cunning fabric of wood, and iron, and hemp, wonderfully propelled by wings of canvas, and seeming at times to have the very breath of life.

Mutiny On The Bounty by Nordhoff and Hall

[transjudas]

i’m reading this scholarly paper about make pirates gender performance during the golden age of piracy, particularly “hypervirility”/hypermasculinity vs and together with effeminacy and so far this is my favorite part:

[ID: A scene from the biography “Of Captain Martel,” in which pirates posture as effeminate beaus, demonstrates again the sartorial closeness of hypervirility and effeminacy. In one of the letters to added to the second Captain Evans describes how his ship fell victim to Martel’s crew and how the pirates raided his personal cabin. This is what he sees when they return: Notwithstanding the melancholy Situation I was in, I could not refrain laughing when I saw the Fellows who went on aboard the Greyhound, return to their own Ship; for they had, in rummaging my Cabin, met with a Leather Powder Bag and Puff, with which they had powder’d themselves from Head to Foot, walk’d the Decks with their Hats under their Arms, minced their Oaths, and affected all the Airs of a Beau, with an Aukwardness [that] would have forced a Smile from a Cynick. END ID]

i just love the image of pirates dressing up and doing a pantomime of a gentleman. Including, and especially, “mincing oaths” which i had to look up and means using alternatives to swear words. So like saying heck or darn or shoot instead of hell, damn, shit. A group of outlaws living in one of the most unforgiving environments, those who aren’t captains most likely coming from more meager circumstances, or at least not lavish, pretending to be upper class fellows with over the top good manners. A humorous spectacle not only to those being plundered, but surely to themselves.

Mocking the wealthy they’re attacking while also just… playing dress up because it’s funny and brings levity and, i’m sure, laughing amongst each other.

[barbossas-wench]

Piracy and Enlightenment

There's the historical connection between enlightenment and pirates

We all know the pirates are lawbreakers but there's a connection between enlightenment and Piracy on the same time

Piracy had been a very long time to this day, especially Golden Age of Piracy dates from 1650s-1730s

Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) dates from 1685-1815 was a movement with intellectual and philosophical influences and effects.

The movement's main ideas are humanity, reason, descience and liberty. The Enlightenment influence two grandest revolutions, the American revolution and French Revolution. The two revolutions influenced other countries independence in following years

Also, there are enlightened ideas of modern democracy, including vote for rights

Pirate government system is modern democracy. They have voting election to elect new captain or new second mate.

Some enlightened ideas about natural human rights (life, liberty, and property). Enlightened philosophers wanted to improve human conditions on earth than concern with skepticism

In Piracy, being aboard on pirate ships are more civilized than life on merchant ships that merchant sailors were treated poorly there. Piracy also offered to poor men who are unemployed. Pirates may be respect to each other despite their different backgrounds.

Since American Revolution influenced by enlightenment ideals, some pirates help America free from Britain

Pirate code was influenced by enlightenment as US Constitution, despite they have different similarities on their own and each other. And it has significant on process of American democracy.

So that means Pirates are enlightened rebels on the sea

[burningvelvet]

"It is no very uncommon thing for a Child that is a Native of Paris, to go and seek his Fortune abroad, and to entertain a fixed Design of becoming a Man engaged in hazardous Adventures. This City, within which most of the Wonders of the World are contained, and which is perhaps the greatest that can be met with, ought, in my Opinion, to have the Preference of any other upon the Face of the Earth. But who is he that can penetrate into the Secrets of Nature, and give a Reason for some sort of Inclinations she works in the Minds of Mortals? As for my self, I must confess I am not able to give an Account of the Depth of my Desires; and all that I can say, is, That I have always had a most passionate Disposition for Travel."

— opening lines from the journals of French pirate Raveneau de Lussan, pub. 1695.

[the-golden-vanity]

You're gonna need a bigger boat bookshelf.