I visited the factory that makes some of our fine pirate garb, such as the Sea Wolf line. This is my second visit here and I checked over arrrr  women's crossdressing outfit which will be coming into the shop the next season. There are no children working in this factory, the worker are highly motivated and the area is clean and well organized.  We discussed some issues with getting the fabric dyers to accept small orders . We will try projecting a years supply of fabric and ordering it all at one time which is a large initial investment but will help solve the issues with shipping delays.

I then traveled to a small city about 2.5 hours from New Delhi. This be the factory that makes many of our metal items such as swords, buckles, etc.  You can see some of the new items we are working on: a jailers key, plug bayonets and a short cuttoe sword. Examining the forge and heavy duty laser cutter was impressive.  We also had to figure out some buckle issue with the new men's muskeeter boot.   Having dinner to cement a good relationship is always part of why I travel half way around the world.

I had a chance to visit one of the largest couture houses in India.  This is hand made, high end fashion for Bollywood actresses and Indian weddings.  I was able to see their entire operation from art design, hand embroidery, draping, sewing to shoe making.  I got to try my hand at actually doing some of the work.  Most of work in Indian sewing factories is done by men, while in many other countries it is mostly done by women.  

In between all my meetings, I did get in a little sight seeing. Here I am at  Humayuns Tomb, which be the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.  

I am also at the factory which make my wonderful corsets and bodices.  We have been doing business together for over 6 years. Currently we are revising the reversible panel corset to get a better shape based on customer feedback.  I am also looking at some new fabrics for future corsets.

Remember 200 years ago, the English ruled India through the East India Trading Company.  Much of the treasure pirate plunder come from India. So it makes sense for Pirate Fashions to have some of our products made here. All the items we have produced here are from our own designs and are made exclusively for us.  Next blog we will cover my trip to Kathmandu, Nepal n' what it means for Pirate Fashions.

Tiger takes voyages to acquire new treasures throughout the new n' old world. Most small boutiques don't have anything made fer them, they just buy existing products from different distributors.  Since we serve a small niche we don't have thousands of sources that main stream shops would have.

Tiger visits foreign countries to find companies to create special pirate products for Pirate Fashions.  We find if ye use websites such as Aliexpress, you get middle men pretending to be manufacturers, which results in higher prices (because they have to take their cut) n' inconsistent result because they might use a different factory with each order of the same item.  It is harder to travel half way around the world n' meet face to face to go over exactly what you want instead of clicking a few buttons on a computer screen. Tiger looks fer long term relationships with companies that want to produce quality products instead of the cheapest products.

Tiger went to India three years ago to meet with the owners of 2 factories that he has been using for a few years already n' to explore 3 new factories.  Pirate Fashions has since stopped doing business with one of those factories and is in the process of phasing out another one.  Tiger went back to the 3 current factories to go over new products, fix problems with existing products n' discuss how we can improve certain processes such as shipping cost, reduction in production times n' customs issues.  Many times it takes an entire year or longer to bring a new product idea to  the shelf fer ye to buy.

Next month we will go over what happened on Tiger's voyage to New Delhi, Kathmandu and Istanbul. 

In October I took a OLLI-USF course called: "The Making of a Museum Exhibit: Treasure Seekers: Conquistadors, Pirates n' Shipwrecks". At the Tampa Bay History Center, the class got a behind the scenes glimpse into the creation, construction and promotion of the museums newest $11 million expansion schedule to open in mid-Feburary 2018.

The center's leadership walk us through the basics of exhibit design, artifact acquisition, display and hosted a private tour of the new gallery in the middle of construction of the 8500 foot expansion will feature Conquistadors, Pirates and Shipwrecks as well as the new Touchton Map Library..  

It will be a wonderful place fer those interested in pirates, sea navigation and local history. It will feature a 17th century bronze ship's bell, a 17th century bronze astrolabe, and a 18th century 6 pounder cannon recovered from a Barbary coast pirate ship shipwrecked in the Mediterranean.  The pirate sloop is being built by the team from Creative Arts, who we worked with on their History Channel Museum Men TV series two year back.

Gasparilla be the 3rd largest parade in the US n' occurred 104 times.     This be a guild on how to dress fer Tampa Bays largest event, Gasparilla.

Two way to dress for Gasparilla. Street Pirate or Pirate Lite vs Authentic Real Pirate. If ye be out in the crowd and be limited in funds, go for the Street Pirate look of a hot pirate t-shirt with a red sash n’ bandana fer guys or a Molly Roger tanktop and hip scarf. This be great way to show yar pirate spirit while being comfortable.

 If ye be part of a krewe or want to impress, then go with the authentic real pirate looks. It consist of three basic parts: long waistcoat with a pirate shirt n’ knee breeches. Pirate coat be option as they are hot and expensive. Add accessories is what make the outfit look real. Start with matching sash, bandana, socks, then a go to the leather stuff such as belt, pouch, boots and baldric. A hat and jewelry will finish off the outfit.

The women’s outfit also consist of three basic parts: blouse, skirt and corset. The corset be the most important, so start their first. You have two ways to go with the bottoms. One be proper or formal looks consist of a long petticoat with a overskirt draped up. The second way be modern look consist of one short skirt. The difference between a lady pirate and a common wench outfit wise, be that a lady pirate wears a pirate hat and weapons.

Guild to weapons at Gasparilla be only plastic toy weapons if ye be on the street in the crowd. If ye be part of a Gasparilla krewe or on a boat or private property you can wear metal weapons, but can not pull them out.

Pirate Fashions be vending at Jimmy Buffet's Parrothead national conversion, called Meeting of the Mind. I decided to visit the Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas National Park. This small pit of an island be located 67 miles west of Key West n take a high speed ferry 2 hours to get to.  It be discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513 and named Tortuga due to the many turtles that inhabited the key.  Dry was later added to the name to inform sailors of it's lack of drinkable water.

After the British sailed up to Washington, DC and burned it in the War of 1812, the US came up with the plan to build a number of forts to protect our nation, since it could not afford to build a large navy. The fort is the largest brick structure built in the US, which consist of 16 million bricks.  It was designed to hold 420 heavy guns including the 15 inch Rodman smoothbore cannon that weighted 25 tons each.  At its height in the 1860, 2000 people lived on this small key.  The construction of the fort began in 1846 and continued for 30 years, but was never finished.

This be an amazing place to visit, even if it never had any pirate history to it, as it was made over century after the Golden Age, but I am sure pirate probably made a quick stop fer some turtle soup, arrrgh!

In 1968 a father n' son build a pirate ship in their back yard in San Diego. This be a 1/3 replica of a 16th century Spanish galleon or 43 foot sailing ship.  In 1980 the ship be purchased by Homemade Films fer the Terry Gilliam's movie "Time Bandits".  After a stint as at our boat in Newport Beach, it was brough to Big Bear Lake in 1998.  It be a popular tourist attraction, which take a 90 minute cruise around the lake.  It be the highlight of the Big Bear Pirate Festival, which I used to vend at in my early days.   On Feb 29 , 2014 it sunk during a severe storm.  After spending two weeks underwater, they resurrected the ship n' she sails once more.

We tried to follow the pack of what Amazon n' most other commerce websites be doing, but the Free Shipping offer only lost us all arrrr profit n' didn't increase arrr sales.  Arrrrgh! before the ship sinks n' we go undertone water, we be cancelling the experiment.

We make many of the products arrr selves here in the New World, so arrrrr profit margins not be as high as most other e-commerce websites.  Most other company don't make anything, they just buy the cheapest stuff they can find from overseas.  I hope that you will continue to support Pirate Fashions. We arrrrr working on a new benefit that be coming out at the end of the year.

We be switching from getting our wool hat blanks from a distributor to directly from the USA oldest and largest hat factory.  

These hat blanks have a shorter crown and larger brim.  The wool is thicker, stiffer n' more consistent.  The edges are smooth and even, instead of ragged.  

The only draw back is we be losing arrrr larger 7 7/8 size hat.  The wool blanks is the base of arrrr custom hat.  We still sew the hat lace and edging, steam, shape, cock, n' feather the hat right here in our Tampa retail store. From this hat blank we make the 8 different custom hat style from:  Able Seamen, Landsmen, Bosum, Its Mate, Captains, Gunner as well as the Swashbuckler n Crow's Nest.

I loved the Black Sails TV series done by Starz, it just finished its fourth n’ final season. My life revolves around piracy.  I think about it, work it, n’ live it full time.  I try to visit pirate landmarks, pirate events n’ see what people make fer the pirate industry. Below be the reasons why me thinks it be the Best Pirate TV or Movie every made, arrrgh!

Time: Longer be Better, More Time to Enjoy Maties! Black Sails be the longest running pirate TV series with 38 Episodes of 49-65 minutes each, fer about 38 hours total. The 1958 Adventures of Long John Silver only be 26 episodes of 30 minutes apiece. The 1986 Return of Treasure Island only be 10 episodes of about 12 hours total time. The five Pirates of the Caribbean movies series be a mere combined total of 12 hours run time.

Realistic: Who Said Pirates Be fer Kids? Most pirate programs cast the pirate as a good guy, but history has shown time n’ time again that pirates be self servin’ criminals. Up till now, most pirate programs be made up, n’ followed pirate mythology o’er history. Pirates in media come with made up or embellished tropes, like parrots, eye patches, hooks, buried treasure, walking the plank, crew blindly following the all-powerful captain.

Points of Interests: Walking the plank be a myth made up by Robert Louis Stevenson in Treasure Island. Hollywood decided to popularize the plank o’er keelhauling (dragging someone along the bottom o’ the ship.)  I believe that Black Sails be the first program to realistically portray of keelhauling, when Woodes Rogers killed Black Beard.

Pirates wrote up a Code that stated the rules fer discipline, division of stolen goods, compensation fer injury, as well as voting fer a captain. The only time a captain is truly in charge is when the crew had voted to fight or plunder. There be a lot of politics involved n’ not all of it could be solved at the point o’ a sword. Black Sails did a grand job of illustrating many of these points.

African Slavery n’ the Maroon Rebels: Sometimes pirates treated black slaves as just cargo to be sold. Other times they could be invited on as regular crew member with a right to vote n’ earn shares o’ plunder. Black Sails showcased both scenarios, but not the third option of working them on the ship as slaves with no vote or a share. It were common that some pirate crews did use both press-ganged sailors n’ slaves; so the regular crew would do less work n’ gain more plunder. It was a dangerous practice howe’er, if ye got too many disgruntled workers they would often mutiny.

Black Sails did address the topic of maroons, who were escaped slaves from the Caribbean Islands. They banded together to create hidden communities, which threatened the British Government’s control o’er important regions in the West Indies. Jamaica itself experienced multiple Maroon uprisings in the 18^th Century. The first Maroon War began in 1731, with the ending around 10 years later with the British government recognizing their freedom n’ some territory in Jamaica as long as they would support the British against foreign invasion.

Sexuality n’ Prostitution: Most other programs show nude women as 2 dimensional show pieces, while Black Sails give their prostitutes more character n’ real plots in the story line. They also give screen time to both women n’ men nudity, as well as addressing gay, lesbian n’ bisexual roles from minor to major characters.

Business End of Piracy: The purser counted up the plunder to calculate the shares after expenses, instead of the more common dividing of plunder piece by piece on the deck. They also show the selling of plunder to a merchant at a pirate friendly port that would ship it off to sell at a pirate unfriendly port for more profit.  Without these kinds of intricate business relationships, piracy could not survive.

The Action: Black Sails showed more variety than the standard swing across on rope boarding action which end with the two captains having an empty deck to fence on fer 10 minutes. They showed surrendering without a fight scene as well as showing barricading down in the ship hull stand offs. Black Sails shows more than just cutlasses n’ pistols. They used muskets, blunderbuss, cavalry lances, hammers, daggers n’ boarding axes as well. I would just add more Boarding pikes.

Even though Black Sails gets a whole bunch of things right, they still get a number of things wrong.

Costumes be much better than the 1950 pirate movies, but they still mix clothing from 1650 with 1775 with 1815. The program is set in 1715, so almost none of it be correct. I know this happened because movie prop houses have a lot of stuff left over from doing Revolutionary and Napoleonic war films. They changed thar garb to be more distressed and dirty to fool the audience to believe that it is historically accurate. Fashion aged just as quickly in the 18^th Century as it does today. Wearing an outfit from the 1600s in 1715 would still be like wearing 1980’s clothes today in terms of fashion!

The size of the ship that pirates normally used be smaller single masted sloops which were fast. They might be 85 feet long with eight cannon and a crew of 120.  Many of the ships featured, be three masted, First or Second Rate Man o’ War ships with two or three decks of guns. They be around 200 feet long n’ be needing a crew of 750. Those types o’ ships be so slow they wouldn’t be able to capture any prizes.  Pirates went after lightly armed or unarmed merchant ships.

Conclusion: I don’t think Black Sails got the exposure that it should’ve, as I believe it to be a far better program than Game of Thrones. This be partly due to the fact that HBO network has more pull than Starz network. Overall I was impressed with the flow of the story, the character arcs of characters like John Silver going from nobody to pirate hero and Charles Vane from villain to leader of a rebellion. Black Sails is the first media program to portray pirates in a realistic n’ adult manner. I hope that it not be the last of such a portrayal. Until then, I’ll have some more rum n’ watch 4 seasons of Black Sails on my Blue Ray collection.