elanya

so, it does seem like all I talk about lately is TV. Well, don't worry, I'm all caught up on all my shows now (well, save Black Sails, I suppose, where there is one episode I haven't seen). And I have Things to Say. A few things, anyway. I'm gonna start with Black Sails, and I'll get back to True Detective later. I have more Things to Say about Rust.


So, this show. I have more thoughts on what's missing from the setting.. but in fact this show is really setting light. We don't know what the non-pirate population is doing, other than the Guthries and the guy who ran the whorehouse. Are we supposed to believe there is no one there but pirates? The more we see about the Guthries' operation, the more I am kind of shaking my head and sighing. I did say that there was a merchant on HI who may have worked with the pirates, but thinking that he had some kind of trade monopoly, or any kind of control over them, is taking things a bit too far. That said, there were merchants in the 1680's who successfully pulled that off in Madagascar! The agent was someone Adam Baldrige, but I can't remember the name of the merchant who financed him - having remembered that (before I have even finished my tea!), I can also then tell you that his financial backer was Frederick Philipse (more info here). By 1700 that kind of operation was no longer viable, as the English crown was slowly tightening its hold over its colonies.

Getting back on the topic of locals and the lack of their presence in the show, I wanted to briefly say something about wrecking. Wrecking is an old local term for salvage, and it has been one of the more profitable ways of surviving in the Bahamas for Europeans since before they were a colony up until, well, the early twentieth century really. The islands can be tricky to navigate, and lots of ships wreck or get stuck, and you can get by pretty well going out to rescue people, cargo, and of course he ships themselves. Sometimes salvaged ships are themselves salable, and otherwise you can break them down into component parts and recycle them into new ships. I've read a letter which is basically like a wishlist of things sent to a salvage company listing ship's equipment, spars, and so on, that a shipbuilder was hoping to pick up second hand.

So not only is this a big industry (as far as industries ever went in the early colonial Bahamas), but the pirates who made Nassau their home? Came first because of wrecking. You know how in the show they keep talking about going after a big Spanish treasure galleon? Well, there was a storm in, um... I wanna say it was 1716 but I can't remember exactly, that sank one of the Spanish treasure fleets off the coast of Florida, nearish the straights. And people came from all over to try and get rich from Salvage. There were some clashes with the Spanish, and some big politics gong on there, but really there wasn't much either side could do. The salvers set up in Nassau (because it was close, there was no adult supervision real government, although it did have a bit of a fort, ish, still). And when you're already skirmishing with the Spanish over who can try and salvage the wreck, it is a slippery slope to just sort of being a little proactive about your operation... So a lot of them turned pirate, and it attracted other, and snowballed from there. I think the fact that the British government didn't officially support the work of the Slavers may have also been a little push - they were already doing something illegal, after all.

So that's where the pirates came from - nothing to do with the Guthries or having a good fence or anything. Mostly pirates stole for themselves. They weren't really in it for profit so much - it was a subsistence life, and the attractiveness had a lot to do with personal freedom and autonomy. They capture some of *that* in the show at least - we see how tenuous a captain's position, or any position could be.

I have to say that I was *delighted* that they brought up, and showed, Careening, even if the ship didn't really need it. There wasn't much on that hull to cause drag! It's not the barnacles so much that are a problem, but the long strands of algae and sea grass. And of course the other reason to careen is to replace planks in the hull that have been rendered into Swiss cheese by teredo worms, which are a marine boring organism that thrive in warm waters and love delicious hull planking! And how much am I nerd am I? I wrote a drabble about pirates careening two years ago. It has Benjamin Hornigold! or Hornygold, or whichever of the many different as I have seen his name spelled, because 18thC spelling could be a little inconsistent ;p John Darvell was a real pirate in Hornigold's crew as well. I think he was from Harbour Island, and I think I posted something about it when I wrote that... Ah, here it is! Speaking of Hornigold, let me just say that for all of Flint's talk, if ever there was a Pirate King in Nassau, it was Hornigold. I'm hoping for more out of him.

Okay, that's a lot of Things, and I have barely even touched on the Characters >.> I admit that I'm not super sucked in to any of their little dramas. I like Max. I like Billy. I like Jack. I want more out of Anne, who does not feel like Anne Bonney at all too me - she was not a subdued or stoic woman. I think you have her confused with Mary Read, writers :p I love Vane's tight pants, and I also a entertained by their read on him. he was a huge dick, and not my favourite of the violent psycho pirates (that's Ned Low by a longshot), but he makes a decent focus character, whenever I'm not full of all the lols because opium, whut?

Next time I'd like to talk more about... the Lords Proprietors, maybe? Material culture?

Oh maybe plot and characters? Mrs. Barlowe? Well I can lump her in with the LPs I suppose, and possibly talk about the historical wifeswapping that the pre-pirate Bahamas had ;)