• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

A Merry Read an Bonney - Reading Suggestions

a month ago i got two books via amazon.com

the first one is: port royal, jamaica ( michael pawson and david buisseret ) and it describes a town from it beginings to the end. has many interesting facts about pirates, ships, trade and colonists. i would say must read for anyone who is interested in history of port royal and pirates.

the other one is: sugar and slaves ( richard s. dunn ) and its all about slavery, planters and sugar production with little bit of history of development of islands under english rule 1624-1713.

both of these books are very interesting from historical point of view, imho
 
not really a pirate book, but it fits the theme:

the mutiny on the bounty (the trilogy)

this book is about the entire story of the bounty, each book in a different perspective. the first one is about the initial story, and later about the men that stayed behind on tahiti, the second one is the story of the mutineers that went to the island pitcairn to escape hanging, and the third is about the captain, who had been put on a lifeboat with a few loyal crewmembers and sailed thousands of miles to timor in it. the entire story is real, and written by several survivors of the mutiny. in the first book it one of the midshipmen, in the second it's alex, one of the mutineers, and in the third it's the ship's doctor.
 
Also not a book about pirates but which may be of interest to people here is "Sea Eagle", by E. P. Hoyt. This is about the WW1 German commerce raider <i>Seeadler</i> ("Sea Eagle" being the English translation of that name). The story of a commerce raider might be interesting enough by itself, but what made <i>Seeadler</i> special was that at a time when most other ships, and certainly any which would have been hunting her, were steam powered, she was the last active fighting ship driven by sails.
 
that one certainly sounds like a book for me.

well, in the genre of sailing books i have 'along the clipper way' and 'gipsy moth circles the world', but i don't have any pirate themed books.
 
Not a book about pirates but of life in colonies: Forts of St. Maarten ( J. Hartog ), available on amazon.

Same author has few books more about the Dutch colonies during age of sails. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bookish.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":mm" border="0" alt="bookish.gif" />
 
i just finished reading 'the last grain race', which is about an english boy taking a job as a sailor on the Swedish clipper 'Moshulu'. the book is an autobiography, and gives a really good picture of life aboard a clipper. it's completely different from any other book of this genre i've read. in the beginning, the book is a bit hard to understand, but it get's less all along the book. you just need to read over te ship's terms. (note: you can find a map of the ship's rigging and all the names of the components in the back, as well as the ship's log) the book is absolutely littered with humor, among which sarcasmic humor, slapstick, and all kinds of wacky shenanigans. the two pigs on board are absolutely hilarious. there is one picture of them where the first is sticking his head out of the fo'c'sle door while next to the head you can see the huge arse of the other sticking out, both of them pretty much stuck in the doorway. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" /> on one occasion, in a storm, the pigs would frequently slide sqealing past the crew's bunks on their butt's after which you would hear a loud *thwump*. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> another good example is this (copied from the book):

'north of the line the NE trades began to blow. we painted the fo'c'sle light grey and white, and tore down a couple of bunks, throwing them overboard. all our belongings were out on deck and we decided to jettison the worst of them. everyone was happily running backwards and forwards to the rail with other people's posessions, shouting: "är de din?" (swedish for is it yours, i think) "är de din?" if the owner did not respond immediatly they where thrown into the atlantic.

"i jus' trowed your vest and vind trousers into the bloddy sea," Sedelquist said airily. "your name vas on them."
"you'd better speak to Alvar about them," i said happily.
"why Alvar?"
"because i've just sold them to him for a pot of jam. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":))" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> "
later Alvar approached me. "about those trousers..."
"if it's about the jam, i've already eaten it." <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

another good example is this:


''if ye haven't seen melbourne, ye have seen fock nottin'."
"why? what is there to see?"
"fock nottin'." <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":facepalm" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" />

here's one that made me snigger a bit:

becuase the writer had accidentally dropped a pot of red lead on someone while ledding the side of the ship, the victim said:

"focking bastard!"*

underneath the page, it said:

*fock--Swedish word meaning foresail. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":))" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" />
 
I borrowed a book in the library: Admiral Nelson by Robert Southey

very good book with plenty of details about naval tactics and terms of 18th century, imho

oh yeah, i forgot...

there is an excellent book of Ion L. Idriess - Headhunters of the Coral sea, about 4 young boys growing up between headhunters on the islands of Torres passage, north of Australia.

not a pirate one, but has a lot stuff about the sea
 
Two books found on the Project Gutenberg:

The Pirate`s Who`s Who - by Philip Gosse

and

The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the 17th century - by Clarence Henry Haring


<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/" target="_blank">http://www.gutenberg.org/</a>
Project Gutenberg Free eBook Library - Project Gutenberg

<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Buccaneers of America - entire book online: <a href="http://home.wanadoo.nl/m.bruyneel/archive/tboa/tboa001.htm" target="_blank">http://home.wanadoo.nl/m.bruyneel/archive/tboa/tboa001.htm</a>

Enjoy yourself <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="me.gif" />
 
that is going to take a looooooooong time to read. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/8q.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":8q" border="0" alt="8q.gif" /> i'll start reading bits and pieces of it when i've got nothing to do. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":yes" border="0" alt="yes.gif" />
 
Yes, it is a bit unconvenient to read it online, page by page. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />

However its a very good sourcebook written in the very time of piracy by the firsthand witness <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sailr.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":sail" border="0" alt="sailr.gif" />
 
Ah, Esquemeling, he sailed with Morgan and didn't much like him, calling him a cheat <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dp_nogd.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ng" border="0" alt="dp_nogd.gif" /> after the Panama debacle. Morgan claimed that Esquemeling slandered <img src="http://www.funwithmsn.com/msnsmileys/angry/angry-30.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /> his character.
 
ooh. i'd better start hating him then eh? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />
 
Don't worry, Morgan, I believe you sued Esquemeling's publisher. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
The Sultan's Admiral - The Life Of Barbarossa
Ernle Bradford

The Great Siege : Malta 1565
Ernle Bradford

The Barbary Corsairs
Stanley Lane-Poole
 
I picked up a nice book today called "The Pirate Dictionary." Author is Terry Breverton, published by Pelican Publishing Company. The book explains sailor terms from the 15 to the 18 Centuries. An example is
Galleypepper, which is the soot and ashes that fall into a sailors meal from the cook's open fire in the galley.
Lots of interesting terms in this book.
 
I put together a biblographic list for some friends interested in roleplaying on Pirates of The Burning Sea. Interestingly, I didn't see any mentioned yet (though I've learned about a bunch of books I should probably add to it):

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Reference Library Offline

"Run Out The Guns!: Adventure Kit" By Iron Crown Enterprises. This is the first, last and only basic resource a player needs to RP just about anything piratical. If you can find it. It's fairly rare and long out of print. Even harder to find is "All Hands On Deck", the only supplement published. This is a very historical game with details on every aspect of piracy and shipboard life. Because it is so rare, and so vital, I will (hopefully) be excerpting rather generously from it in future articles. While set in the mid 1600's, the heyday of piracy, most aspects will fit neatly into the darker and more dismal era of the 1720's. Dismal for the hard pressed pirates at least.

"GURPs Swashbucklers: Roleplaying In The World of Pirates and Musketeers." Also very handy but taking a broader view of the swashbuckling theme as a whole and a wider geopolitical take on the historical era than just The Caribbean. Interesting notes on cinematic approaches to fencing and the like.

"Tall Ships of The World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia" by C. Keith Wilbur. This is, despite its grandious claims of encyclopedic stature, a very slim volume. Wonderful handwritten text and hand-drawn illustrations give this resource a comfortable and intimate feeling. Of all the books I've gone through on tall ships this one is probably the most user-friendly when coming to, generally, understand how they function and the nuances of shipboard life. While the focus is on 19th century and early 20th century commercial sailing ships much also applies to our era in PoTBS.

"The Oxford Companion To Ships & The Sea" Edited by Peter Kemp. If you see a term you don't know, look it up in this highly functional but also ideosyncratic volume. And don't be surprised if you get sidetracked by an interesting entry on some historical figure, ship, battle or odd turn of phrase. It covers material far beyond our sphere of interest and, pound for pound, isn't quite as essential as the previous works. But it is the key to getting comfortable with many odd and obscure references while also putting them in a highly readable context even a layman can enjoy.

"Superstitions of The Sea" by James Clary. Let's face it, PoTBS is playing up the same spooky aspects of piratical lore that made Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" so off-the-hook cool, if doing it in a more subdued fashion. Well, here are the bloody and ominous legends and habits, along with historical tidbits and rationales, for much of what this has been lifted from. What was the real legend of Davy Jones and his locker...?

"Seamanship In The Age of Sail" by John Harland. Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good but I still don't feel like I can sail a sloop in my spare time. Here's the one, perhaps only, book you've been looking for. Detailed descriptions, complete with illustrations and diagrams, of how tall ships operate, nautical terms, the workings of sail, line and tackle and the language seamen of the era actually used. This is for hardcores only but given how much time our characters spend on a ship it might be the single most important book for realistic storytelling (at least in forum RP). It's not as obtuse as some similar works, while also being far more complete, and it is accessable to the motivated layman reader.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://crewisfamily.com/devilshands/index.php?topic=7.0" target="_blank">http://crewisfamily.com/devilshands/index.php?topic=7.0</a>

Captain Oragon is a friend of mine who runs the site. I was known there as Mandash Grim, my alter ego who captains an altogether different kind of ship in Star Wars Galaxies.
 
Found another good book for people who might like roleplaying as, or just talking like, pirates:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Introduction to <i>The Pirate Primer</i> by George Choundas

Table of Contents:

Part I: What To Say
Chapter 1: Greetings and Partings
Chapter 2: Calls
Chapter 3: Flourishes
Chapter 4: Commands
Chapter 5: Threats
Chapter 6: Oaths
Chapter 7: Curses
Chapter 9: Epithets
Chapter 10: Respectful Address
Chapter 11: Retorts
Chapter 12: Questions & Replies
Chapter 13: Toasts and Delcamations
Chapter 14: Contractions
Chapter 15: Arrgh
Chapter 16: Cultural Terms

Part II: How to Say It

Chapter 17: Pronunciation
Chapter 18: Wrong Talk (Double negatives, etc.)
Chapter 19: Conversions
Chapter 20: Structural Forms
Chapter 21: Functional Forms
Chapter 22: Parts of Speech

Appendices:

Appendix A: Conversational Openers, Middlers and Closers
Appendix B: Sound List
Appendix C: Pirate Company Articles<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This guy's the Tolkien of piracy seems like. He cobbles together examples from fiction and history to try and design a real, logical, pirate tongue - and it works. Wonderful stuff, if as fanciful as factual, but - hey. Real piracy isn't nearly as much fun as the Hollywood kind anyhow. This is a brand new book just published this year and recently from the looks of it.
 
Really found myself enjoying reading, <b><u>The Republic of Pirates</u></b>, by Colin Woodard, and I thought there might be a few others around here that might like it as well.

Here is a link to the website for the book; <a href="http://www.republicofpirates.net/" target="_blank">http://www.republicofpirates.net/</a> , which should give you most of the information you might want about the book. I just wanted to comment upon how enjoyable a read I found this book to be. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

Sounds to me like the jury is still out on Blackbeard, he sounds like a good fella to me... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />

"Arghm gonna make ye an offer ye cain't refuse!" <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/guns.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":2guns" border="0" alt="guns.gif" />
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top