Ahoy Matie,

Many folks dress like a pirate, but many have not learned the fine art of talking like one, so Tiger Lee, Dead Red n Rusty Reg have created a series of two videos that be coverin' the subject in a quick n' humorous way.  Let me know what ye be thinking?

This part 1 How to Talk Like a Pirate, we covers greeting n replies, pirate verbiage, word replacement, n' colorful expressions.

In part 2 we cover coming up with a pirate name, how to sound more like a salty dog, posing like a buccaneer, curing like a rogue, giving directions, period garb, scurvy dog drinking cheers, n' grammar.

Special Gasparilla Krewe SALE, Aug 18 to 20. 

Normally we don't have sales at Pirate Fashions, but fer this weekend only, things be different. The more beads ye buy, the bigger the discount!  Ye can buy just fer yarself or yar entire krewe can combine the order (must be done all together under one payment). Speciality bead cases count as 2 cases for the discount.

5 Cases = 5% Discount
10 Cases = 7.5% Discount
25 Cases = 10% Discount
50 Cases = 12.5% Discount
100 or more Cases = 15% Discount

Get a FREE Pirate Fashion Bead Bag ($15 value) with every 5 boxes of beads purchased.  These are deluxe 100% cotton canvas bags with extra long handle you can loop over yar shoulder fer easier carrying (not the cheap poly bags that everybody else sells. Arrr customers who order beads will also earn a Spin on the Wheel of Plunder to win Freebies such Bead Bags, PF Coin Bead, Light Up Bead, Etc.  

Ye can get a Standard Case of 60 Dozen Round Throw Beads fer as low as $45.90, instead of the regular price of $54. The discount applies to all our throw n' many of our speciality beads. The accord be ye pay now n pick up yar bead order In-Store during the month of Dec. 

WI just came across an pirate magazine out of Canada. It be a 16 page magazine that be printed in a paper version fer $1.50 or a free on-line version at L'Echo Des Mers.  Issue 2 came out in Oct 2015, while Issue 22 came out in May 2017 (featuring an article on Pirate Fashions), n' they have every issue in-between fer viewing. The magazine be designed to promote the international pirate entertainment industry. The magazine has reporters in 8 countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Tasmania, USA) that supply articles in either French or English or sometimes both.  

Mark Forget be the captain of this endeavor, who has spent 30 years with the Royal Canadian Air Force n' be currently posted in Ottawa. When he was deployed to Tyndal AFB near Panama City Beach, FL, he came across his first pirate festival.  He enjoyed this experience so much, he decided to start his own pirate organiazation.  He started a website called  Festival des Pirate, as well as pirate radio program called Echo Des Mers.

As I be alway interested in piracy in other counties, I asked him about pirating in Canada.  He said "During the best Canadian pirate event survey done by the Écho des mers pirate magazine show that there is around 5000 pirates enthusiasts is Québec and Ontario but  not all in garbs though and the rest of 7000 are distributed through Canada Maritime Provinces.  

Last year it was the Tallahassee Days Pirate Festival 2015 near Halifax N.S. that won the Écho des mers most popular pirate event in Canada with over 5000 visitors in 2.5 days.  But Canada has pirate events from cost to cost, there even pirate activity around the Canadian tall ship festival in all major cities like Richmond Bc. Vancouver Bc. Halifax Ns. Québec city Qc, Montréal Qc and Brockville On. There are too many to start to name all of them. But here a list of some event than Écho des mers coved."

Avast, I be assuming that if ye be a true pirate loving soul, n' one of my fine customers, ye have already seen the latest of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I bought my entire Krewe to watch the movie on opening night.

Overall me Krewe n' I be thinking it be a pretty good movie. It be light n' satisfying, nothing horribly accursed or truly amazing. So Arrr big question be this, "Will there be another POTC Movie?" or will this one be the last.

The pirate n' business owner in me, say's "Aye, Aye"; but the true answer will hinge on two factors. Disney and Johnny Depp.  The East India Mouse Company will do another one if they make more money than the last one. Here be the records of POTC according  to Box Office Mojo as we when the DVD came out:

This movie will push the series to over $4.5 Billion in sales, which is an extremely profitable feat. The least profitable movie of the franchise be the first one, n' it's considered the best o' the bunch.  So if a movie makes over half a billion profit, they would highly consider doing another one.

Fer the other issue, Johnny says he loves playing Captain Jack Sparrow. In the other POTC movies, Jack be an active pirate captain who moves the plot forward. In this movie he is a passive character, who has lost his crew, ship n' compass.  The other characters move the plot along n' be vital to the story. Jack Sparrow hardly uses his cutlass or pistol. The only thing he figures out quickly is to drop a sword to Barbossa to kill Captain Salazar.  

The critics tore Johnny apart with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 31%. We will see if he wants to avoid a black spot on his reputation n' move onto something else that would progress this career. Could their be a POTC without a Captain Jack Sparrow?

There be one pirate that struck fear into all men and women throughout the Caribbean and the colonies in the early 18th Century above all others, the infamous Blackbeard! 

Also known as Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, Blackbeard is easily the most notorious pirate when we look through history n' media. He is very recognizable because of his moniker n' his reputation as a hellish, savage man. One may not suspect it, but the persona of Blackbeard may have been driven more by playing a part than Teach being a savage brute himself.

Someone like Blackbeard would be expected to maintain discipline through the use of brute force, but Teach was actually a very shrewd, calculating leader. He would dress from head to toe in black clothing, and use fire and smoke effects on himself with the express purpose of intimidation. And yet, he commanded his own crews and ships with the respect, n' permission of his crews.

Fer pirates across history, the idea of actually fightin' a bloody battle is actually unappealing fer multiple reasons. Ye would not want to damage any potential plunder, n' ye would certainly not wish to put yarself at risk! Believe it or not, most pirates were likely normal people who also had no desire to kill someone unless they had to.

Most pirates would want a ship to surrender rather than fight. So nowadays we see Blackbeard as a master the art of intimidation n' theatricality. He used his talents and strategy to strike fear into people's hearts to get what he want, as a distinct preference to torture or violence. 

There be no actual accounts of him murdering a prisoner or captive, so violence fer the sake of violence would have been rather out o' character we predict. In a business of calculatin' n' clever businessmen, we suspect he was one o' the most famous.

When ye be lookin' at Blackbeard just remember, he's a hell of an actor!

Feast yar eyes on the Pirate Fashions Blunderbuss! The ideal weapon for clearing a deck o' enemy sailors, sometimes it be called a Musketoon. This basically be a short, carbine-like musket with a flared barrel. While we discuss the blunderbuss we can bust a few myths!

Because o' its flared barrel-end it is assumed that its primary purpose was that it was a shotgun style weapon, in reality the flared barrel allows the shooter to easily load a weapon with shot. While at sea or on horseback it made loading the weapon much easier because ye could dump your ammo into the barrel without worrying about precision. They were shortened muskets essentially so that also helped with loading. They were indeed great compact weapons for close quarters, but their shotgun status should be regarded with some skepticism. If the barrel's flare had an effect on the shotgun's spread we would see more flared barrels today.

We also have a false perception that "anything" could be loaded into a blunderbuss, but the barrel would not last long firing silverware or debris- ye would destroy it internally. With most blackpowder weapons ye could actually load multiple rounds o' shot into the muzzle (two was recommended if ye were to do so.) Ye could fire multiple metal balls with a musket, pistol or blunderbuss. Ye could also load buckshot (numerous small balls) into a weapon n' use it in a shotgun capacity, similar to how a ship's guns could fire Grapeshot.

Arrr Armory has Firing Blunderbusses from most of the Colonial powers in the Spanish Main, n' we also have non-firing replicas- less expensive, but purely for prop usage. Browse Arrr Selection, we've for English, French, Dutch n' Spanish! http://bit.ly/2raJ4vK

If a Pirate's Success was measured by the sheer number o' ships captured then Bartholomew Roberts be the most Successful Pirate in the Golden Age of Piracy! Posthumously he would be known as "Black Bart," n' while bein' an incredibly accomplished rogue, he is also known for his strict pirate code n' a lack of alcohol. Roberts preferred tea o'er rum! While this may have made him seem like a bit of a dandy, his crew would be unlikely to judge him, for they profited greatly from their Cap'n!

On Bart Roberts' ship a pirate was not allowed to gamble, party below decks after 8:00 in the evenin', or allowed to neglect the maintenance of their blackpowder or melee weaponry. Seducing or kidnapping a woman or a boy, n' bringing them aboard the ship was punishable by death. These be examples o' the policies that he enacted aboard his ships. With his achievements he was allowed to have strict policies.

O'er the course o' his three year career in piracy, Roberts was able to take 400-500 ships. Before he became a pirate, Roberts was a crewman aboard a slaver ship known as the Princess. When pirates captured the ship off the coast of Africa in 1719 he was pressed (forcibly recruited) into the crew as a navigator. He was quite reluctant, but when pirates see an asset, they do not take no for an answer.

Half a year into his pirate career, Roberts was chosen to be the Captain of his kidnappers. He began a pirating spree from Africa to Brazil, the Caribbean n' up the coasts to Canada. Off the coast of Brazil, Roberts was able to covertly capture a Portuguese treasure ship (the wealthiest in its fleet) n' extract it from a guarded fleet o' 42 ships with a two war ship escort. It took weeks of studying n' planning but the haul was estimated to set most men up for life. O'er three years Roberts was estimated to have made the equivalent of 100,000,000+ British Pounds in plunder.

His career was cut short by pirate hunters however. He died fightin' n' became a pirate legend! 

Though Anne Bonny n' Mary Read were likely far from being the only female Buccaneers they certainly be the most famous! They be a dynamic duo that make for quite a piratical tale!

Before Anne met Calico Jack she was married to a poor sailor named James Bonny, business had brought them from England to Nassau where she freely mingled with other pirates n' sailors. She had a reputation for bein' a fiery, confrontational Irish girl. When she got into her affair with Jack Rackham she quickly left her husband fer a life at sea.

As a crewman aboard his ship she had allegedly tried to strike up another affair with a sailor, who in this case turned out to be Mary Read! Read had been disguised as a man to allow her the liberty to pirate freely without dealing with the pressures of bein' a woman in an Age not known for fair treatment of women. The two became close n' it wasn't until Jack became murderously jealous of this "man" that Read's identity was revealed to the crew.

Read (still disguised as a man) had actually fought in one of the several wars that were waged in the early 18th Century between Britain n' Spain, after-which she married an allied Dutch soldier n' made a life in Holland, following his death she sailed to the Caribbean n' became a pirate.

The women sailed the Caribbean with Rackham for about a year before they were captured by English Pirate Hunters and sentenced to hang. Bonny n' Read were able to "plead the belly," meaning they were pregnant, which temporarily exempted them from the noose. Jack was not so lucky, n' met his fate in Kingston. Read unfortunately died in childbirth, n' Bonny may have been executed though there likely would have been a record of it.

There be theories that Anne Bonny returned to her husband in Nassau, her family home in England or perhaps she resumed a life of piracy. The world may never know the rest o' her story! http://bit.ly/2lRL7nb

Show Pirate Fashionsyar Pirate Loot n' Swag! We love to see Arrr wares on ye rogues n' vagrants when ye go ashore! Email us photos inyar pirate garb n' just let us know where ye were adventurin' n' what ye be wearin'.

Ye may also be featured in Arrr Newsletters to the Pirate Fashions Brotherhood across the seas! We've had pirates carry Arrr Swag from the Ybor City Pub Crawl to Live Theater Shows for Treasure Island or Pirate Festivals! 

Keep a weathered eyefer Arrr piratical exploits as well! We've had Arrr products n' designs appear on the Starz Show- Black Sails, AMC's Turn, Salem n' Blackbeard's Outfitfer Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. Additionally,arrr products have appeared in museums n' pirate venuesfer entertainment!   

Pirate Fashions has its own supply o' Cannon foryar ships! When we talk about cannon itbe important to remember that the second ye put'em on a ship they are henceforth referred to as guns. Takefer example the Swivel Gun! It's a small cannon thatbe designedfer ships n' gun emplacements.

Swivel Guns themselves be a convenient weapon, unlike their larger counterparts they were mounted on a stand or fork that allowed them to "swivel" n' turn in a wide arc. They were small enough that they could be taken ashore by a 2-3 man team, n' used in impromptu land based combat or fortifications. Ye could even mount one on a longboat as ye escape a ship or make your way to a hostile coastline!

A breech loaded gun could be fired in relatively rapid succession using canisters of preparedblackpowder n' projectiles called Mugs. One pirate could feasibly use a swivel gun independently to wreak havoc on sailors aboard enemy ships, they made deadly anti-personnel weaponsfer tightly packed groups aboard a deck. A muzzle loaded swivel gun was still quite a force to be reckoned with!

Check out Arrr Supply o' Cannon n' start building upyar Arsenal!

http://bit.ly/2pvdJ3w