So You Want to Be a Pirate!, Wednesday, period two

[betterthanaplan]

"Welcome back, me mateys!" Duke greeted, this time greeting the class from a lean against the center mast of the Danger Shop's ship program. "Ye've been on me crew for two weeks now, and it's time to start pullin' your weight. But before I can start orderin' you to swab the poop deck or batten down the hatches, you're going to need to know what the hell those things are." He pulled a sheath of papers from his waist coat and brandished them in the air. "For that we have worksheets." Because Duke was not at all above stealing a kid's ship parts activity from the National Park Service. At all.

"Take a look at that and if ye've got a pen and can write, give a shot at labelling it on yer own time." Duke shrugged. "Or rip it apart and throw it in the sea. That's probably more pirate-y. But it should cover the basics."

He started to pace across the deck, his hands folded behind his back.. "Now there be several types of sailing ship — or 'tall ship' as they're sometimes called. This one. . . ." He frowned up at the masts, his pirate accent petering right out. ". . . I'm guessing is a galleon? Probably? Look, tall ships be not my area of expertise. My own boat runs on a motor." He shrugged. "But! It is much easier to swing dramatically into battle when your ship is covered with ropes and sails! Square ones in this case. And the lateen one at the back, for when the wind's against you. Down here on the decks, we have our main deck, as we're standing on here, the forecastle at the front by the bow of the ship, the poop deck naturally enough in the rear! Or stern, to be nautical, because we can't call things the same as they do on land. There's a rule. Which means that that way is port!" He pointed to the left. "And that'd be starboard." The right. "For masts! We have the foremast!" He pointed to the one up front. "The main mast!" The center. "And the mizzenmast!" The rear. "The crossbeams there are called yardarms, the ropes are rigging, and that little bucket up there at the top is the crow's nest. That . . . should about cover it for our purposes, really." He rubbed the back of his head. "Take a look around and explore. See if you can name any of the stuff I skipped. Fuck around with the rigging for awhile and see what it does. I'm pretty sure we can't actually break anything in here, so — go nuts really." He swung his fist and gave a little sneer. "It be the pirate way."

Comments

Listen to the lecture

[betterthanaplan]

Try to memorize port and starboard, ye landlubbers

Re: Listen to the lecture

[rotten2thecore]

Evie was trying so hard not to snicker or giggle out loud. She could just imagine what kind of fun Uma and her crew or Harriet's crew could have in a class like this.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[in_sidon_we_trust]

Ah, see, now this was fantastic! Sidon certainly loved to learn new things and the proper terms for things, even though he didn't imagine he'd ever spend much time on a ship like this, not even with the hundreds of years hopefully still left in his lifetime. But it seemed very good to know, and the hardest part for him about the lecture was not the listening, but instead just refraining from making bright commentary and appreciation for the knowledge they were being given at every turn, especially to the small round bluebird on his shoulders, because it was just so natural to want to share his appreciation for the lesson with Vette even in her current...persistant feathered form.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[following_my_fishie]

Del's outfit was all black today. Black boots, black floofy pants with black lace around the cuff, black fluffy lace shirt, a black pirate coat with black buttons, black fingerless lace gloves, and a black tricorn pirate hat. It was not merely black, it was really most sincerely black. A depth to the darkness that almost hurt the eyes to look upon, worse than the inky black of a starless night, darker than the depths of a coal mine. A black so black that somewhere Anish Kapoor was producing so much rage-froth that he couldn't wipe it from his face without a thick towel.

The stitching and embroidery were done in holographic thread that caught the light and reflected it in a shifting kaleidoscope of colors. Phoenixes took wing from the hem of the jacket and flew toward her head. Not literally - for once.