January 2019, Issue 43

Page 1

Mark your Calender for 2019’s Events

3 years of

January 2019


Timber Gray Wolf

Star~Dust

Head of Operations Designer, photographer

Motivator

Elise W’nstrom Editor

Issue #43 Great Lake Pirates is published monthly freelying through ISSUU.

G L P

TL GREA AKES

p IR ATES es

t.

20

15

No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted into any form by any means without written consent from the publisher. Any photos entered for contest will be treated as propriety those that entered them. If photograph has a watermark/logo, credit will be placed. If we are informed of a photographer, they will be credited. If we are not informed by contestants, we hold no guilt for using photos. If any issue rises of not being credited, message us within 5 days of upload, informing which page, photos, your businesses. We will update information on ISSUU.com. Great Lake Pirates will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication, copyright purposes and use are subject to Great Lake Pirates unrestricted right to edit and comment.

/GreatLakePiratesMagazine


Contents

Do you have an awsome article that you would want to share? Email us the article and if the staff loves it, You will know soon enough. What will you need? The document in a Word Doc., any photos that would go along withe article and a clear photo of you. GreatLakePirates@gmail.com


The idea that all the Pirates of history were old grizzly men, that saw their days of blood and gore. In all reality many of them were actually in their 20’s, given there are a few that were much older. These individuals had been merchant and navy sailors who couldn’t make a living based on that salary, and the life of a pirate actually offered more freedom and democracy as well. Some of them started out on the seas pillaging other ships legally - at least, legally according to their countries. Many pirates were first privateers, men employed by their governments to attack enemy merchant ships.



Ahoy me mateys, it’d be a late Saterdee nigh, n be about time for me rum review. Ye may’ve heard that I was recently disposed in me ship Docs cabin. Aye that be true and I be fellin much better nohe. I did have an ailment that needed some tending. That’s all fixed up nohe. In that time, I’ve run across many a ship that held the usual rums an let them be, hoping to find that one that’s not been had by this Captain. Eventually I did run across one I had heard from a fellow pirate so I ordered it, from me distant trader to come in by cutter. A spicy dram from the south Caribbean seated in the wilds of Guyana. Well I got the brand but not the spiced rum. Nohe I’d be hopping mad if it had been any other rum but at leas it be one not in me book. Lemon Hart n Son 1804 original black rum, the Lemon Hart story begins 50 years before Lehman “Lemon” Hart birth, in 1720 Abraham Hart,

a young enterprising merchant who settled in Pentance from Germany, began to importing and trading rums that were a sourced from all over the Caribbean islands. Some 80 years later his grandson Lehman would transform the family business. He created a unique blend of the finest rums, this earning him the inaugural appointment from the Admiralty as Supplier of rum to the British Royal Navy. The rum now comes out of Guyana near the Demerara river and is one of the rums that can be considered as a Demerara rum. There is not an age statement on the bottle or on any written account I’ve found. The rum is bottled at a proof of 80. The color can only be described as a very deep dark amber,with low lights of mahogany. The legs just seem to pop out and fall rapidly like they no


time to say anything. Truth be told they tell a lot if I’ve read correctly. They tell that the rum has a slow evaporation rate which say they have additives after being distilled and aged for however long they were. Color and flavor enhancements are common in a lot of spirits now days. A thin viscosity also tells a part of that story.

I do want to mention the double holster in the last photo was made by Chris Santangelo and his company Jackdaw’s Landing. He has a great assortment of ship and pirate needs. The company can be found on Etsy under that name.

The nose, first off oak and burnt sugar are noticed then a dark cacao. There are hints of caramel and vanilla but they are very mild and we’re almost not even smelled but a whiff.

So until the shipment or pillaging, stay safe, stay alert, stay alive and drink responsibly mates. Plunder well I hope your Christmas will bring you lots of goodies and plunder here in the next couple days. So until the next time, down the hatch.

My first sip and impression of the original 1804 black rum is of a very heavy char. I’ll put it this way its so heavy in char that other flavors are almost hidden. It’s a good thing I’ve a taste bud for this. There are hints of semisweet dark chocolate like what you bake with during the holidays, island spices of ginger and clove are present but barely noted due to the overbearing flavor of the dark chocolate. The rum isn’t very sweet at all. It’s no El Dorado 15 and not likely it’d get it again. I guess you have to have a taste for this one, I don’t. It’s not the best sipper I’ve had for sure, not even ice helps cut the char. It’s almost sour like and not in the good lemon head way. I’d only recommend mixing this with dark cola to up the sugar taste and counteract the char. Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola, Pepsi would be best maybe even a root beer. I wouldn’t count on ginger ale/beer to mix well with this one. A rum Old Fashioned maybe but you’ll need to add some additional sugar content.

Captain Jameson von Greywolfe


Ahoy! We are running a sale on our MIRATE design PROMOCODE: “SCARYGOOD”

WWW.teeseetee.COM



Mark your Calendar, and get ready for the Event season to kick off for 2019. As the year goes on, we shall add more events and update any dates that may change.

2019

January

12th - Renaissance Masqued Dinner and Ball

• 3pm to Midnight • Sullivan’s Black Forest, 281 Heinlein, Frankenmuth, Michigan 48734

February

22nd~24th - Official 4th Annual Michigan Nordic Fire Festival • 620 W Shepherd St, Charlotte, MI 4881

March

8th~10th -Grand Rapids Symphony; Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

• Fri: 8pm, Sat: 8pm, Sun: 3pm • DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

9th - Shiver Me Timbers

• Woodshire Place Banquet Facility • 6520 W Grand River Rd, Fowlerville, Michigan 48836

16th~17th - 44th Kalamazoo Living History Show

• 9am t0 4pm • Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 2900 Lake St, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49048

April

13th - Frankenfeast (Feast)

• Kicks off at 2pm • Bavarian Inn Restaurant, 713 S. Main Street, Frankenmuth, MI 48734


27th - Chicago Rum Festival 2019

• 12:30 PM - 6:30 PM • Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 North Kedzie Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60647

April

14th~15th - South Haven Mermaid Megafest • The city of South Haven Michigan

June

7th~9th - Port Washington Pirate Festival • Fri 5pm-11pm, Sat 10am-11pm, Sun 10am-6pm • Rotary park, Port Washington, Wisconsin 53074


Many historical Pirates and ships we cover are usually pre-1800 to 1700’s. This month we found a “pirate a little closer to our time than many will think. In the time when the United States of Amermica was at war with itself. Those that colded themselves Priviteers made a name for themselves. One being a Confederate officer by the name of Raphael Semmes. Here is an article writen by “William the Drake, the Dread Pirate Drummond” On this 15 December 1865, Rear Admiral of the Confederate States of America Raphael Semmes is arrested by the United States on charges of Treason. Raphael Semmes was one of the most successful Confederate privateers of the American Civil War. Born in Maryland and graduating from Charlotte Hall Naval Academy as a midshipman, Semmes served in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American war. Afterwards, when the State of Alabama, where Semmes now resided, formally seceded from the Union, Semmes followed suit in resigning his commission from the Navy, and durned his sights to assist the Confederacy.

would captain a cruiser with the intent of disrupting Union trade. Raphael Semmes had been assigned as a “Commerce Raider,” a slightly more legitimate privateer, whose purpose it was to engage and raid enemy merchant vessels, rather than face warships. His first vessel was the CSS “Sumpter,” a refitted packet steamship formerly known as the “Havana.” Semmes proved successful commanding the Sumpter, capturing some 18 Union merchantmen before having the Sumpter converted back into a merchant herself.

Semmes was initially assigned to the Confederate Lighthouse Board, much to Semmes’ chagrin. With some political maneuvering, he was eventually assigned to a more appealing role in which he

Later, Semmes was assigned to a newly commissioned steam sloop-of-war cruiser he christened the CSS “Alabama,” named


after his home state. Semmes and the Alabama cruised the North Atlantic, harassing Union shipping mainly around the Açores. After three months, Semmes had captured and burned some 65 Union merchantmen, far surpassing is work on the Sumter. This success would not last, however, as Semmes and the Alabama would be cornered in France. Semmes attempted to dock in Cherbourg, France for repairs after successive raiding cruise. Soon after the Union vessel USS Kearsarge, a sloop-of-war that had been hunting the Alabama for almost two years, blockaded the port. Not wishing to see his ship and crew captured while in drydock, Semmes ordered to sail out and engage the Kearsarge. On June 19, 1864, the two ships clashed. The two vessels exchanged fire at close distance. Due to poor powder and shells on the part of the Alabama, and to the chain armor of the Kearsarge, the Alabama was soundly defeated. After almost an hour, the CSS Alabama was sinking below the waves. Semmes himself was able to escape capture, fleeing to England and later Cuba until he returned to Alabama in November 1864, where he was eventually promoted to Rear Admiral of the Confederate Navy for his exploits. At the conclusion of the war, Semmes was eventually arrested on December 15, 1865 on charges of treason (and in some accounts, piracy). These charges were never brought to court, however, as Semmes was later released with no incident, eventually serving as a judge and later as a professor at Louisiana State University. Today, the legacy of Raphael Semmes is still debated. The legality of his actions and his position as a “Commerce Raider” are questionable. Much like the Continental Navy during the American Revolution, the Confederate Navy relied heavily on attacking commerce rather than navy-on-navy engagements, ad just like the early American exploits, the activities of the Confederate privateers and “commerce raiders” are established on shaky foundations. The Confederate States of America was never recognized by any Sovereign Nation as a separate entity from the United State of America. Without its own sovereignty being recognized, the CSA

was (from a legal standpoint) seen as simply the rebelling southern states (much like how during the Revolution, the United States were seen only as the rebelling colonies until France publicly and formally acknowledged their sovereignty via an alliance). As such, any and all letters of marque, the official legal document designating a privateer from a lawless pirate, were not seen as legitimate by the United States or any other world power, meaning that in they eyes of everyone save the Confederacy, these privateers and “commerce raiders” were nothing more than pirates. Raphael Semmes’ legacy does live on, however, as there is a statue dedicated to him in Mobile Alabama. Some places have decided to distance themselves from his legacy however: In the past year, a road previously name Raphael Semmes Road on the Campus of Louisiana State University, where Semmes taught as a professor, was recently changed to “Veterans Drive” recognizing all veterans.

Read more great Articles by William the Drake at

TheDreadPirateDrummond




The vessel was purchased in August of 1696 for £8,000 ($9238.76), in today’s value £968,571 ($1,118,549.38). She had been launched on 4 December 1695 from Captain William Castle’s dockyard in Deptford on the outskirts of London. Her design combined sails and oars, an unusual combination for warships at that time, that incorporated three ship-rigged masts and two banks of oars. This allowed her to make 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) under full sail and 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) under oar. Although rowing was slow it enabled the ship to manoeuvre against the wind, or in calm conditions where other vessels that relied on sails alone could not make any progress. A number of British warships had been built to similar designs following the lessons learned from the wars against the Barbary pirates (Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs) of North Africa, whose galleys had proved formidable opponents, and trading companies such as the East India Company also built oared frigates.Castle’s yard, where Adventure Galley was built, was one of the largest private shipyards in England and was a supplier of vessels to the East Trading Company.

William Kidd

Born: 1654, Greenock, Scotland Died: 23 May 1701 (aged 47) Wapping, England


Adventure Galley was acquired for William Kidd by a consortium of investors who backed a scheme to hunt down pirates, recover their booty and redistribute it among the investors. He had enlisted the support of Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont and governor-general of the British Province of New York and the ambitious Robert Livingston the Younger, who later became the mayor of Albany, New York. With Coote’s backing, Kidd obtained a commission from King William III to operate as a privateer. The other investors who came aboard the scheme after it met with the king’s approval were the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Romney, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Lord Chancellor, Sir Edmund Harrison and John Somers. The king himself was not an investor but was nonetheless entitled to one tenth of the proceeds. Adventure Galley was well-armed with a complement of 32 guns (saker or light cannon) It is not clear whether she was in

fact a new vessel or had originally been intended for the navy; she may have been a commercial vessel under refit at Castle’s yard before she was acquired by Kidd’s consortium. She does not appear to have been particularly well-built, to judge from the problems that Kidd faced with her seaworthiness during her short career in his service. It was not uncommon for shipyards to cut corners and use substandard materials, and to pocket the difference in costs as extra profit. Although no picture has survived of Adventure Galley, HMS Charles Galley, which was recorded in contemporary paintings, provides a good example of how the English adapted the oared frigate design for warfare. After leaving Deptford on 6 April 1696, Kidd brought Adventure Galley along the coast to Plymouth in south-western England. He set sail from there on 23 April, bound for New York, and reached the city around 4th of July. The ship


was accompanied by a French fishing vessel that Kidd captured during the Atlantic crossing. He had the French boat condemned in New York as prize, and recruited more crewmen and set sail again on 6 September, heading for the Indian Ocean. Adventure Galley called at Madeira (reached on 8 October) and Boa Vista, Cape Verde (on 19 October) to pick up supplies en route. The long voyage down the western coast of Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope took the rest of the year and it was not until 27th of January, 1697 that Adventure Galley made landfall at Tuléar (now Toliara), Madagascar. By this time Adventure Galley was in need of fresh sail and rigging. The fact that the ship’s existing supplies had barely lasted eight months suggests that

the dockyard may have indeed installed substandard equipment. After staying a month in Tuléar, Adventure Galley sailed towards Johanna (now Anjouan) in the Comoros on March 18th, where East India Company ships often refitted. However, Kidd was unable to obtain credit from local merchants to buy new rigging or sails, and chose instead to take Adventure Galley to another island for careening, to clean her hull of encrusted barnacles and weeds. This was accomplished successfully over the course of a month, but up to a third of her crew died in an outbreak of an epidemic disease, possibly malaria or yellow fever. Kidd sailed back to Johanna to find replacement crewmen and this time was able to raise enough credit to buy new sails and rigging that was need. According to Kidd’s testimony, he “steered for India” on 25 April 1697. By now he was a year out of London and had no prize money to show for his efforts. He had failed to find any pirates and tried his hand to piracy to makeup for the lack of prize money. Adventure Galley did not go immediately to India, but travelled to the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, where she is said to have unsuccessfully tried to attack a Mughal convoy. In September 1697, Adventure Galley arrived on the Malabar Coast of India, where Kidd finally managed to capture two ships travelling under French passes – a pair of merchantmen, Rouparelle and Quedah Merchant.


Unfortunately for Kidd, the latter ship was captained by an Englishman and when news of her capture reached London he was publicly condemned as a pirate. Adventure Galley final stage of her voyage took her to the Île Sainte-Marie, a pirate haven off the north-east coast of Madagascar. By now, according to Kidd’s narrative, “his gally [thus was it written] was very leaky”, probably because of a rotten hull. The ship arrived there about the 1st of April, accompanied by the Rouparelle (renamed November) and Quedah Merchant (renamed Adventure Prize). On arrival, most of the crew promptly deserted to another pirate captain, Robert Culliford and

sank the November. Kidd was left with only thirteen men to crew Adventure Prize and the now-unseaworthy Adventure Galley. According to one of her crew, William Jenkins, after the rest of the crew had deserted Kidd “run Adventure Galley on shoar in Madagascar. They stript her furnishings and set her on fire to get her iron works.” This is contradicted by Kidd’s own account, which stated that his skeleton crew “could not keep the galley from sinking, and went on board of the prize [i.e. Quedah Merchant].”

Timber Gray Wolf


Twattle: (TWA-tul) noun: 1. Trivial, feeble, silly, or tedious talking or writing verb: 1. To talk in a digressive or long-winded way.

Used in a Sentence:

“My sister twattles on all day about nothing.�

Source: www.facebook.com/Grabdiloquentwords


Shanties Upon the Silver Moon

Ooooh, a captain’s life seems elegant, With far more booze than regiment. He’s required to provide, For all the crew aboard. When provisions are running short, And if the ship is far from port, The Cap himself must sacrifice For all the crew aboard. There’s no rum in the captain’s barrel. There’s rum on the captain’s table, And rum in the captain’s crew, So buy the captain rum. No rum in the captain’s barrel. There’s rum on the captain’s table, And rum in the captain’s crew, So buy the captain rum. He opens up his lighter, fair, And from his barrels he must prepare, Intoxicants of the finest sort, For all the crew aboard.

The Captain Run -Abney Park

But when provisions are running short, And if the ship is far from port, The Cap himself must sacrifice For all the crew aboard. No rum in the captain’s barrel. There’s rum on the captain’s table, And rum in the captain’s crew, So buy the captain rum. No rum in the captain’s barrel. There’s rum on the captain’s table, And rum in the captain’s crew, So buy the captain rum. ... What should we do with the drunken sailor What should we do with the drunken sailor What should we do with the drunken sailor Early in the morning!


Mermaid MegaFest 2019 is a festival of mermaids and pirates, dedicated to the preservation of our planet’s aquatic ecosystem through public awareness, community education, and social activism. This Year’s Festival will take place in the beautiful beach town of South Haven Michigan located on the coastline of Lake Michigan, the 14th and 15th of June 2019. We are happy to announce that we will be working with South Haven’s Harborfest this year!




Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.