Do you remember when Jack is giving orders to himselves in the Locker and he says "Scandalise the lateens"? Course you do!

And you've probably already seen The Glossary of Nautical Terms.

So you know this:

Scandalize - To reduce the area and efficiency of a sail by expedient means (slacking the peak and tricing up the tack) without properly ( Read more... )

From Pirate Walks in Bristol:

"Many of the pirates who sailed from Bristol to the Caribbean became pirates."

One amazing fact can justify hours of painstaking research.

I had such fun writing Tall Ship Tales, and people seem to appreciate the background that went into it.  A lot of my "research" was just googling around, but here are some actual books that I actually read.  I recommend them all, especially the first and the last.

The expedition of the St Jean-Baptiste to the Pacific 1769-1770.  From the Journals ( Read more... )