Pirate Company and Crew

Every member of a pirate crew was important. Skills and seafaring knowledge may vary but, generally speaking, it took many men to sail a ship. Add to that, to expertly be ready for action. Discipline, responsibility, and working together ensured success, or at the very least staying afloat.

Here is a brief look at what made up a crew.

The Captain

The captain, having proven himself worthy of the title, was elected by the crew. He was a good leader, cunning, and courageous. He took command of the ship during battle, determined when to give chase and when to seek safer waters. The crew looked to him to find treasure, be that a prized ship, goods, or riches, and to keep them alive.

The Quartermaster

The quartermaster, who was also elected, was just as important as the captain, possibly more so. He was the voice of the crew, representing their best interests. He was usually the most trusted member of the crew and may have been seen as the captain’s equal. He handled the plunder. This meant that he determined what goods would fetch a fine price in port and allocating fair shares to the crew. Though he distributed the booty, he also doled out justice and punishments. Rationing food and drink fell to him, as well.

Navigator, aka Sailing Master

This seaman knew the sea and stars. He had to be literate, good in mathematics, and be able plot courses, especially in dangerous waters, reefs, and shoals.

Surgeon, aka Barber

Scarce and highly sought after, the surgeon tended to the injured and sick. He was a busy man treating illnesses such as dysentery, fever, and venereal diseases. He also had a nice variety of tools and knives used for surgical procedures. *shivers*

Master Gunner

He was in charge of the shipboard guns and ammunition. It took years of experience to become a master gunner. Gun crews had to work together quickly and with precision. The master gunner trained and oversaw the gun crews to ensure not only their effectiveness but their safety, too.

Boatswain (Pronounced Bosun, often spelled bo’sun)

The boatswain was like a department manager. He supervised all deck activities, crewman working the decks, the ship’s rigging, sails, anchors, and carrying out any other duties asked of him by one of the ship’s officers.

Cook, aka Barbeque

A pirate’s gotta eat and the cook was the guy that prepared the meals.

Carpenter

If it was wood, the carpenter was responsible for its maintenance. Namely the ship’s hull, yardarms, and masts. He quite literally kept the ship afloat by plugging holes, filling seams, and repairing damage caused by battle, worms, weather, rocks, and rough seas. Sometimes, the carpenter was also the ship’s surgeon.

Lesser known crew:

First mate - the second-in-command to the captain, which he chooses. Incidentally, the first mate does not outweigh the quartermaster. Many crews didn’t have first mates or, because they were second-in-command, might be interchangeable with the quartermaster, depending on the abilities of  the pirate filling the role. Other mates, such as a bo’sun mate or gunner mate, would act as apprentices.

Helmsman - the fellow at the wheel

Cooper - the barrel maker was in charge of maintenance and repairs of all casks, which held food, water, and, of course, the rum.

Coxswain - in charge of the ship’s launch boats

Prize crew - pirates assigned to take over the command of a captured ship

Topman - this sailor wouldn’t be squeamish of heights. He worked high up in the masts on rigging.

Watch - one or more men on deck duty that watched for land sightings, ships, or anything afoul, be it bad weather, shifts in tides or wind, or unwanted visitors. Watch can also mean the shift of shipboard duties

Anchor watch, stand-by watch - one or more men who were on deck duty while the ship in anchored and/or while the rest of the crew is on shore. They watched for

Rope maker - you guessed it, he makes and repairs ropes. And there is a boatload of rope on a ship, pun intended.

Armourer - in charge of all small arms—muskets, blunderbusses, pistols, etc. Crewmen didn’t carry these weapons on them. They were stored until needed.

Supercargo, aka Cape-merchant - handles the business transactions of cargo

Cabin boy - a young boy who served as valet to the captain

Fo’c’sle jack - any crewman who is not an officer

A.B.S. - simply put, able-bodied seaman

Musicians - as non-essential as they were, those with musical talent, even just a tiny bit, were favored. They played jigs and sea shanties for merriment and roused fighting spirit during battles.

Everyone on board played a role in the crew. They all worked hard.  It’s no wonder they partied hard, too. Pass the rum!

About the Author

Jennifer is the award-winning author of the Romancing the Pirate series. Visit her at www.jbrayweber.com or join her mailing list for sneak peeks, excerpts, and giveaways.

WHAT IT TOOK TO SURVIVE THROUGHOUT HISTORY by Kathleen Bittner Roth

Welcome back to History Undressed, our regular first Tuesday blogger and author, Kathleen Bittner Roth! Kathleen Bittner Roth! 

WHAT IT TOOK TO SURVIVE THROUGHOUT HISTORY

by
Kathleen Bittner Roth

Historically, right before one is to “make it,” to realize his or her lofty dream, there exists a kind of dark, sticky space that causes people to feel that, alas, it is impossible to pass through and get any farther.

No matter how hard one had struggled up to this point, here is the critical turning point where most people gave up.

They quit.

They caved in.

They packed it in. And in the quitting, they lost a vital part of themselves - and a future filled with self-empowerment and peace.

Only about two percent of the population throughout the entire history of the world has managed to make it through that sticky space and on to fulfilling their dreams and goals. If you think you cannot possibly be part of the two percent, you can. The secret to success is simple, but not necessarily easy. It is commitment. And commitment means to never give up.

Here’s the secret successful people knew throughout history: It all begins with our thinking. What we think, we literally become. There is a simple order to this. Thought produces feelings, not the other way around. It is our feelings that will cause us to take action. It is the action we take that produces the form of our life goals. The sticky space I spoke of is usually found right before we keep on keeping on by taking action. Most people fail because they fail to take action and their dreams die.

The thing is to be aware of this before we commit to our goals and successful people throughout history knew this: Do our goals flow with our purpose in life? We all have a life purpose to fulfill. We also have free will.


Our life purpose is going to be difficult to attain. It is meant to be. The ease of it is in moving out of what is called “life issues”. Life issues are the opposite of our life purpose. They are the things that stand in our way. In truth, they are the fool things that stop us.

Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, had a life purpose. His was to become a world-class speaker; his destiny was to touch the lives of millions through his words. But when he learned to talk as a child, he stuttered! The stuttering was an issue against his life purpose. When he was learning to overcome the stuttering, he must have hit that “sticky space”. He could have given up, become a victim of his impairment. He did not. He never gave up.

Two young officers, helicopter pilots, were held prisoner in a Viet Cong prison during the war in Viet Nam. One evening, the perfect opportunity for escape arose. They slipped out of their cells and under a moonless sky found the still, murky waters where they could swim to their freedom.

“We are going in circles,” the one called to the other after swimming for hours in total darkness.
“Keep swimming,” the other whispered. “Keep the shoreline we seek in your mind’s eye.”

After a long while, the one stopped swimming. “We are doomed,” he said, growing weaker with his very words.

“No!” growled the other, renewed energy spurning him on. “Don’t think that way. Don’t give up. Keep swimming.”

Soon, he could no longer locate his partner’s voice. Still, he continued on. Finally, he reached the opposite shore just as the gray haze of dawn permeated the black shroud of night that had protected him. Exhausted, he crawled under a low bush and fell asleep.

He awoke to a dull and cloudy day. Peering through the bushes he spied his buddy. "Oh, God," he groaned. For there was his friend, floating face down in the murky water—only nine feet from shore.
Never give up.

Author John Grisham, on the bestseller list for years, was rejected by sixteen agents and fifteen publishers. I saw him on a talk show after his initial big hit. He said it was actually his second book. His first published book didn’t sell well. In fact, he said he had over nine hundred copies buried in his backyard that he’d bought up himself and couldn’t give away! But he kept on writing.

Never give up.

The publisher who accepted Jane Austin’s first book, Northanger Abbey, sat on it for six years before Ms. Austin wrote back and asked of its fate. The publisher responded that he was under no obligation to publish it. He refused to release it, to the public or to her, and it was not published during her lifetime. She just kept writing.

Never give up.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning received this rejection: “This is the work of an inexperienced imagination…” but she kept writing and submitting, with one thought in her mind—seeing her books on library book shelves.

Never give up.

Agatha Christie made the rounds of virtually every publisher she could find. Finally, after four long years, she was accepted and wrote on to become one of the most financially successful authors of all time.

Never give up.

It is rare for an author to be accepted the first time out by the first publisher. Most all famous authors were rejected again and again, and some quite cruelly. Take these few for example: Louis L’amour, the western author who never went beyond the third grade, was rejected over 350 times.

W. Somerset Maugham received this rejection: “There is some ability here but not very much.”
One of William Faulkner’s rejections read thusly: “…you don’t seem to have any story to tell and I contend that a novel should tell a story and tell it well. Yours does neither.”

Or how about George Bernard Shaw’s first rejection: “…It suffers, in our opinion, from the fatal effect on a novel, of not being very interesting.”

Never give up. Keep your mind focused on your goal. Your feelings will be stimulated by your thoughts. Action will follow. The reality, the form of your committed goal, will come to pass.
No matter what it is you are putting your heart into remember the words of words of Sir Winston Churchill in his famous speech to Parliament during World War II: “Never, never, never, never, never give up!

Kathleen Bittner Roth thrives on creating passionate stories featuring characters who are forced to draw on their strength of spirit to overcome adversity and find unending love. Her own fairy tale wedding in a Scottish castle led her to her current residence in Budapest, Hungary, considered one of Europe’s most romantic cities. However, she still keeps one boot firmly in Texas and the other in her home state of Minnesota. A member of Romance Writers of America®, she was a finalist in the prestigious Golden Heart® contest. Find Kathleen on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Pinterest and www.kathleenbittnerroth.com.

PORTRAIT OF A FORBIDDEN LADY is book two in Those Magnificent Malverns series: A young widow returns to her childhood home after a forced absence and faces her first and only love, but despite their powerful attraction, danger compels her to remain his forbidden lady.  ORDER YOUR COPY!

THE SEDUCTION OF SARAH MARKS is book one in Those Magnificent Malverns series: When a proper Victorian miss awakens next to a handsome stranger, she must rely on the man's benevolence as she struggles to regain her memory and hold onto her heart. ORDER YOUR COPY!

NELLIE BLY, Pioneering Journalist ~ by Tara Kingston

Bold...Brilliant...Brave...Heroines Throughout History ~

Nellie Bly

Today, I’m taking a look at the fascinating reporter known as Nellie Bly, a pioneer of investigative journalism. In an era when women were expected to tend home and hearth, Nellie Bly’s undercover investigations exposed corruption, inhumane conditions in a mental health facility, and poor working conditions in factories.

Five Facts about Nellie Bly:

~ In November 1889, Nellie Bly embarked on a journey around the world. Striving to travel the globe in less than the eighty days that it took fictional character Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, Nellie Bly employed an assortment of transportation, including ship, horse, rickshaw, and burro to accomplished the feat. Her journey took seventy-two days and six hours, which at that time was a world’s record.

~ Working for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, Nellie Bly’s daring undercover investigation of a mental institution exposed deplorable treatment of the mentally ill. Feigning amnesia and insanity, she was committed to the Women’s Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York for ten days. Her subsequent exposé prompted an investigation of the asylum and reforms to the treatment of patients.

~ Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in 1864 in Pennsylvania. The third of her mother’s five children, she was considered the most rebellious child in her family.

~ In 1885, her rebuttal to a column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch that criticized working women brought her to the attention of the paper’s editor, who hired her and gave her the pen name, Nellie Bly.

~ Working for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, Nellie Bly published articles on the experiences of factory girls and traveled to Mexico to serve as a foreign correspondent. After her return, she was assigned to the women’s page, covering subjects such as fashion and gardening, prompting Nellie to leave Pittsburgh to New York.

These are only a few facts about Nellie Bly’s trailblazing life and journalistic accomplishments. Next month, I’ll take a more detailed look at her experiences on her travels around the world.

To learn more about Nellie Bly, check out these sources:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/peopleevents/pande01.html

http://www.biography.com/people/nellie-bly-9216680

https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/youngandbrave/bly.html

Photographs of Nellie Bly used in this post are in the public domain.

  

Click here to learn more about When A Lady Deceives

News About My New Release, When A Lady Deceives.

I’m thrilled that my Victorian romantic thriller, When A Lady Deceives, is now available. Like Nellie Bly, the heroine of When A Lady Deceives is a crusading investigative journalist. Jennie Quinn, star reporter for a London paper, is a daring woman who will overcome daunting obstacles to get the facts and fight for justice. She anticipates the danger of her investigation of an informant’s murder. But she doesn’t expect to fall in love, especially not with a very dangerous man. Here’s a little about the story:

A woman with a secret and a dangerous man forge an undeniable passion.

In Victorian London, reporter Jennie Quinn employs deception as a weapon. Going undercover to seek justice for a murdered informant, she’s drawn into a powerful criminal’s seductive game of cat and mouse. Enigmatic former lawman Matthew Colton is as dangerous as he is clever, but the passion in his kiss is too tempting to resist. She aches to trust him, but she will not abandon her quest for the truth.

Colton is a man with secrets of his own. Thirsting for vengeance, the disgraced Scotland Yard detective has infiltrated the criminal world he’s vowed to destroy. Jennie intrigues him, even as she breaks down the barriers around his heart. He yearns to uncover her secrets—in and out of his bed. Driven to shield her, he’ll risk everything to protect the woman whose love heals his soul.

To read more about When A Lady Deceives and enjoy an excerpt, please click here.