Brayman - Adventure with Pirates - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

AARGH! It's time for this year's story for the International Talk Like A Pirate Day. 

You can sing along with co-creators Baur and Summers and syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry (whose promotion really publicized Talk Like a Pirate Day) on their "Drunken Sailor" Sing Along A-Go-Go video.^[6] Beyond that, Michigan filk musician Tom Smith wrote the original "Talk Like a Pirate Day" song in 2003.

Of course the holiday demands finding a pirate story and that can be a bit like "walking the plank."

James O. Brayman calls himself the editor  of Thrilling Adventures by Land and Sea which he goes on to add "BEING REMARKABLE HISTORICAL FACTS, GATHERED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES." What those sources might be is never given, but his Preface gives a clue to what interested him and, he trusted, his readers:  

There is in the adventures of the daring and heroic, something that interests all. There is a charm about them which, while it partakes of the nature of Romance, does not exercise the same influence upon the mind or heart. When there are noble purposes and noble ends connected with them, they excite in the mind of the reader, noble impulses.

There are many stories in the book, but, of course, "Adventure with Pirates" caught my eye. Its tale of resourcefulness in danger is enjoyable. The most difficult thing about it is the need for a bit of explanation of nautical terms to landlubbers. "Grapling" is a grappling iron, "a hooked iron used for grappling and holding fast a vessel or other object" and it's fastened to a rope connecting two ships or a ship and an object. A Spar is any pole used to support sails (mast, boom, gaff). A Gaff is the angled spar that forms the top edge (head) of a gaff sail. The Halyard is the rope (line) that hoists a sail or a spar. 

This AI illustration of a sail might help. 

Now to hear the tale of an old Maine fisherman and his four sons forced to outwit a pirate.

ADVENTURE WITH PIRATES.

There lived, not many years ago, on the eastern shore of Mt. Desert--a large island off the coast of Maine--an old fisherman, by the name of Jedediah Spinnet, who owned a schooner of some hundred tons burden, in which he, together with some four stout sons, was wont to go, about once a year, to the Grand Banks, for the purpose of catching codfish. The old man had five things, upon the peculiar merits of which he loved to boast--his schooner, "Betsy Jenkins," and his four sons. The four sons were all their father represented them to be, and no one ever doubted his word, when he said that their like was not to be found for fifty miles around. The oldest was thirty-two, while the youngest had just completed his twenty-sixth year, and they answered to the names of Seth, Andrew, John, and Samuel.

One morning a stranger called upon Jedediah to engage him to take to Havana some iron machinery belonging to steam engines for sugar plantations. The terms were soon agreed upon, and the old man and his sons immediately set about putting the machinery on board; that accomplished, they set sail for Havana, with a fair wind, and for several days proceeded on their course without any adventure of any kind. One morning, however, a vessel was descried off their starboard quarter, which, after some hesitation, the old man pronounced a pirate. There was not much time allowed them for doubting, for the vessel soon saluted them with a very agreeable whizzing of an eighteen pound shot under the stern.

"That means for us to heave to," remarked the old man.

"Then I guess we'd better do it hadn't we?" said Seth.

"Of course."

Accordingly, the Betsy Jenkins was brought up into the wind, and her main-boom hauled over to windward.

"Now boys," said the old man, as soon as the schooner came to a stand, "all we can do is to be as cool as possible, and to trust to fortune. There is no way to escape that I can see now; but, perhaps, if we are civil, they will take such stuff as they want, then let us go. At any rate there is no use crying about it, for it can't be helped. Now get your pistols, and see that they are surely loaded, and have your knives ready, but be sure and hide them, so that the pirates shall see no show of resistance. In a few moments all the arms which the schooner afforded, with the exception of one or two old muskets, were secured about the persons of our Down Easters, and they quietly awaited the coming of the schooner.

"One word more, boys," said the old man, just as the pirate came round under the stern.

"Now watch every movement I make, and be ready to jump the moment I speak."

As Captain Spinnet ceased speaking, the pirate luffed under the fisherman's lee-quarter, and, in a moment more, the latter's deck was graced with the presence of a dozen as savage-looking mortals as eyes ever rested upon.

"Are you the captain of this vessel," demanded the leader of the boarders, as he approached the old man.

"Yes sir."

"What is your cargo?"

"Machinery for ingines."

"Nothing else?" asked the pirate with a searching look.

At this moment, Captain Spinnet's eye caught what looked like a sail off to the southward and eastward, but no sign betrayed the discovery, and, while a brilliant idea shot through his mind, he hesitatingly replied:

"Well, there is a leetle something else."

"Ha! and what is it?"

"Why, sir, perhaps I hadn't ought to tell," said Captain Spinnet, counterfeiting the most extreme perturbation. "You see, 'twas given to me as a sort of trust, an' 't wouldn't be right for me to give up. You can take any thing else you please, for I s'pose I can't help myself."

"You are an honest codger, at any rate," said the pirate; "but, if you would live ten minutes longer, just tell me what you've got on board, and exactly where it lays."

The sight of the cocked pistol brought the old man to his senses, and, in a deprecating tone, he muttered:

"Don't kill me, sir, don't, I'll tell you all. We have got forty thousand silver dollars nailed up in boxes and stowed away under some of the boxes just forward of the cabin bulkhead, but Mr. Defoe didn't suspect that any body would have thought of looking for it there."

"Perhaps so," chuckled the pirate, while his eyes sparkled with delight. And then, turning to his own vessel, he ordered all but three of his men to jump on board the Yankee.

In a few moments the pirates had taken off the hatches, and, in their haste to get at the "silver dollars," they forgot all else; but not so with Spinnet; he had his wits at work, and no sooner had the last of the villains disappeared below the hatchway, than he turned to his boys.

"Now, boys, for our lives. Seth, you clap your knife across the fore throat and peak halyards; and you, John, cut the main. Be quick now, an' the moment you've done it, jump aboard the pirate. Andrew and Sam, you cast off the pirate's graplings; an' then you jump--then we'll walk into them three chaps aboard the clipper. Now for it."

No sooner were the last words out of the old man's mouth, than his sons did exactly as they had been directed. The fore and main halyards were cut, and the two graplings cast off at the same instant, and, as the heavy gaffs came rattling down, our five heroes leaped on board the pirate. The moment the clipper felt at liberty, her head swung off, and, before the astonished buccaneers could gain the decks of the fisherman, their own vessel was a cable's length to leeward, sweeping gracefully away before the wind, while the three men left in charge were easily secured.

"Halloa, there!" shouted Captain Spinnet, as the luckless pirates crowded around the lee gangway of their prize, "when you find them silver dollars, just let us know, will you?"

Half a dozen pistol shots was all the answer the old man got, but they did him no harm; and, crowding up all sail, he made for the vessel he had discovered, which lay dead to leeward of him, and which he made out to be a large ship. The clipper cut through the water like a dolphin, and, in a remarkably short space of time, Spinnet luffed up under the ship's stern, and explained all that had happened. The ship proved to be an East Indiaman, bound for Charleston, having, all told, thirty men on board, twenty of whom at once jumped into the clipper and offered their services in helping to take the pirate.

Before dark, Captain Spinnet was once more within hailing distance of his own vessel, and raising a trumpet to his mouth, he shouted:

"Schooner ahoy! Will you quietly surrender yourselves prisoners, if we come on board!"

"Come and try it!" returned the pirate captain, as he brandished his cutlass above his head in a threatening manner, which seemed to indicate that he would fight to the last.

But that was his last moment, for Seth was crouched below the bulwarks, taking deliberate aim along the barrel of a heavy rifle, and, as the bloody villain was in the act of turning to his men, the sharp crack of Seth Spinnet's weapon rang its fatal death-peal, and the next moment the captain fell back into the arms of his men, with a brace of bullets in his heart.

"Now," shouted the old man, as he leveled the long pivot gun, and seized a lighted match, "I'll give you just five minutes to make your minds up in, and, if you don't surrender, I'll blow every one of you into the other world."

The death of their captain, and, withal the sight of the pivot gun--its peculiar properties they knew full well--brought the pirates to their senses, and they threw down their weapons, and agreed to give themselves up.

In two days from that time, Captain Spinnet delivered his cargo safely in Havana, gave the pirates into the hands of the civil authorities, and delivered the clipper up to the government, in return for which, he received a sum of money sufficient for an independence during the remainder of his life, as well as a very handsome medal from the government.

****

While Brayman doesn't bother to give his sources, I like that he says they are "REMARKABLE HISTORICAL FACTS, GATHERED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES." Of course those sources are all long gone, so if it's a "fish tale" there's no one around now to deny it.  It might even be possible that up around Mt. Desert--a large island off the coast of Maine -- folks still talk about an old fisherman by the name of Jedediah Spinnet, I think he deserves to be remembered.

****************************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, “Keeping the Public in Public Domain.” The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20^th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering them.

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

See the sidebar for other Public Domain story resources I recommend on the page “Public Domain Story Resources."

 

 

Wood - Romance of Treasure-Trove - Keeping the Public in Publis Domain

From http://talklikeapirate.com/wordpress/

 

Every year, since 2002, September the 19th has been International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  If you go to the link above you will find how it started with "pirate guys" John Baur and Mark Summers with some help from columnist Dave Barry.  Their story may or may not interest you, but let's shout "AHOY, MATEYS!" and dive into a story worth retelling.

There are many tales of Blackbeard the pirate ( Captain Edward Teach) and Sir Henry Morgan, but I want to give a lesser known incident about treasure hunting that may have originated with buried pirate treasure.  It (along with stories of Blackbeard and Morgan) is one of many stories in Eric Wood's The Boy's Book of the Sea.  It's in the section called

ROMANCE OF TREASURE-TROVE 

Which goes on to say "These are True Stories of Treasure, and they are as Strange as Fiction."  Dropping down within that chapter, the storyteller in me was taken by this very true story of shipwreck and a fight to the death.

Sometimes the romance of treasure-trove is over-clouded by tragedy; and very often for nothing. The story is told of the foundering of the American ship Reliance, Captain Harding and his crew of twelve men barely escaping with their lives in the boats. Then a storm broke upon them and separated the boats, and Hiram Manly, mate, and nine men found themselves alone on the watery waste, being buffeted about, in danger every minute of being swamped. They worked desperately to keep her afloat, happy to be so far safe. Then one man was washed overboard by a huge wave, another fell dead from his exertions, and the survivors, day after day under pitiless sun, and night after night, held on their way, economising the few provisions and little water they had, becoming delirious as the anxiety told on them. Two more men were lost one night—perhaps the madness seized them, and they flung themselves overboard to end it all; perhaps a wave took them. But, whatever it was, they disappeared without a sound. The survivors, after what seemed an eternity of suffering, were at last flung upon a coral island, where they found water, which, because of the uncontrolled thirst upon them, killed two of them. Then fish was found; Hiram built a fire from drift wood, lighted it by the crystal glass of a watch and the sun’s rays, and then went to rouse his sleeping comrades. One man was dead.

Then the three castaways fell to eating their first good meal for many a day, and afterwards set out to explore the island, Manly going in one direction and the other two—Dillon and Harper—in another. They found no sign of human beings, and presently Dillon and Manly met.

“Where’s Harper?” asked Manly.

“We’ll never see him again,” was the reply. “He’s dead.”

“Dead!” cried Manly. “Where did it happen, and how?”

“Sharks!” said Dillon. “He went to bathe, and—and they got him!”

“Did the body come ashore?” Manly asked, filled with horror, and wondering when his own turn would come. “Let’s go and see!”

“No!” exclaimed Dillon. “It’s no use. We should never find him!”

But Manly persisted, and ran off in the direction from which Dillon had come; and in half an hour came upon the body of Harper, with a knife wound in his chest!

Instantly Manly’s thought flew to the agitation of Dillon when he suggested seeking the body, and he knew that there had been treachery. But why? Why should Dillon kill Harper, a man with nothing of value on him? Not even his clothes were worth having, torn and ragged as they were.

Manly raised himself from beside the dead man, turned, and, turning, saw Dillon creeping towards him with an open knife in his hand. Weaponless, Manly for a moment was filled with terror; then, catching up a handful of sand, he flung it into the murderer’s eyes, blinding him for the minute. Then, with a bound, Manly was upon him, clutching him by the throat and wrestling for the knife. For a long time the two men fought, biting, scratching, Dillon seeking to use his knife, Manly trying to seize it; but at last, with a sharp twist, Manly sent the murderer headlong to the ground, and the next instant was upon him, and, joy! he had the knife.

Again they fought.... And Dillon met the fate of the man he had killed.

Panting from his exertions, Manly sat on the sand beside the dead man, and his bleared eyes looked out to sea. He leapt to his feet, weariness all gone, all thought of the tragedy forgotten; he waved his hands frenziedly, yelled hysterically:

“A sail! A sail!”

Away out there was a ship.

Tearing his shirt from his back, Manly rushed to the water’s edge and waved it long and feverishly, waved it till there came from the ship the boom of a gun, that told him he had been seen. And then reaction set in; he dropped senseless to the earth.

They found him thus; found Dillon, too, lying dead, and knew that some tragedy had been enacted on the silent, lonely strand. When Manly came round he blurted out his story, telling all.

“But why should he have killed Harper?” said the officer who had come ashore with the boat party.

“It fails me,” said Manly.

The next moment the pair were startled as a seaman rushed towards them with a cry upon his lips. He placed something in the officer’s hand. They were two small golden coins.

They were coins such as Manly knew none of his comrades had possessed, and there was a gleam in his eyes as he looked at the officer, neither speaking a word.

Quietly they walked over to Dillon, searched him, and found three more coins of the same kind.

“Reckon that was the motive, sir,” said Manly. “They found these while they were exploring the island, and Dillon, thinking he had come across treasure-trove, decided to kill us both off. Harper went first, and my turn would have come very soon. Thank God I went in search of Harper!”

The officer agreed with Manly in his suggestion, and soon had his men searching the beach; but not another coin was discovered. Instead, they found the skeleton of a man—of some poor mariner, no doubt, who had been cast ashore, his worldly possessions consisting of the five gold coins that had roused the cupidity of Dillon, and had brought tragedy upon them.

Presently Manly was taken on board the Bristol, and sailed away from the coral island, the scene of a tragedy of treasure that never existed.

Everyone has heard of the treasure of Cocos Islands, off Panama, to which many expeditions have been sent, though without success. The treasure was hidden by a pirate named Beneto Bonito, and hidden so securely that, although many expeditions—some of them recent ones—have been sent out to find it, none has yet succeeded. But, despite failure, year after year men go forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of riches that they fondly believe they will some day find.

Perhaps they will.

***

Love that part about the coins being found on a skeleton, an earlier castaway on the island.

I'm uncertain if the mention at the end of Cocos Island or Beneto Bonito is meant to be part of this story.  I doubt it, but would certainly agree with the final two sentences: But, despite failure, year after year men go forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of riches that they fondly believe they will some day find.

Perhaps they will.  

AARGH!

May you enjoy tales of pirates and treasure and. . . September the 19th when you, too, can join in  International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

If you find yourself at a loss for sufficient pirate commentary, batten down the hatches and go to "40 useful pirate phrases for international talk like a pirate day"

*********** 

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for December 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

Talk Like a Pirate / Pyle - "The Pirate Avary" - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Seen last weekend while storytelling in South Haven...Piracy on the Great Lakes?!?

AAARGH!  Facebook's International Talk Like A Pirate Day says Krispy Kreme after 4 years isn't giving out free donuts on September 19, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, BUT Long John Silver's is upping the ante with a "bar of gold"... a Deep Fried Twinkie.  (With pirates you expected health food?!?)

For a great Public Domain book on Pirates, you really must see Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates or as the title page explains: Fiction, Fact & Fancy concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main.  (I challenge you to read the first chapter to learn how they came to be known as "buccaneers" and also about the practice of marooning.) Howard Pyle was both illustrator and author.  I value his anthologies and no less than Vincent Van Gogh said Pyle's artwork "struck me dumb with admiration."  The pirate book just comes in under the wire as Public Domain and was compiled by his publisher, Harper, and Merle Johnson, after his death.

To challenge you to hunt up the book brimming with pirate pictures, I won't give more than the book's traditional cover and this brief story about a pirate fun to tell.  Avast, maties!

No picture of the Captain is known, but the Avarians are an ethnic subgroup within the Russian Caucasus known for their warlike origins.  Prior to invading the Caucasus they were in the mix of Eastern Europe known as Pannonia in the late 8th and early to mid-9th century

Source: The forum at Paradox Interactive - specifically https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/cultures-in-pannonia-and-its-surroundings-in-769-and-867.959369/

It's the perfect background for an early Pirate.  It's enough to Shiver me timbers!
********* 
This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

 

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ and put in http://www.story-lovers.com/ in the search box.  I recommend using the latest "snapshot" on November 2016

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

   

You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  For an example of using the "Wayback Machine", list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is gone, but using the Wayback Machine you can still see it.  At the Wayback Machine I put in his site's address, then chose 2006 since it was a later year and clicked until I reached the Library at http://www.pjtss.net/library/.  
Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Talk Like a Pirate Day with a Keeping the Public In Public Domain story and more

AARGH! 

Let me shout AHOY, MATEY!  (Pirate volume always seems to be at shout level.)

September 19 is a great date to tell pirate-inspired tales.

September 19, 2016 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. While you might call it a  pseudo-holiday, since it only began in 1995, it even has an interesting story connected with its founding in Albany, Oregon.  According to Wikipedia two men were playing racquetball. One of the men was injured and called out “Arrr.” The pirate-sounding lament lead to the holiday’s invention, although it didn't hurt (at least not as much as the racquetball injury) that Dave Barry decided to promote it in his syndicated humor column.  To the best of my knowledge there's absolutely no restriction on using the title or the above graphic (unlike a few recent events which have had me grumbling, but I guess, when not shouting, pirates do tend to grumble along with an occasional AARGH!)  Even better, at last check there were a few fast food places dispensing free food to Piratical linguists who also bother to dress the part on Talk Like a Pirate Day: Krispy Kreme gave out free doughnuts and, of course, Long John Silver did something, too.  I've gone to their maps, er websites and haven't been able to verify this is still true, but even a free bit of grog is worth calling a nearby store to be sure the treasure is still out there.  By the way, be sure to check the Wikipedia paragraph about "Linguistic Background", too, for how we came to think pirates sounded this way.

Well this is as good an excuse as any for some of those pirate-inspired tales.  If you look here with the label of Pirates you'll find a lot of ideas as that was the Summer Reading Club theme and my 2013 Summer Reading Club program was "Dig for Treasure in the 398s" complete with my puppy puppet Buzz dressed up as a pirate.  Frankly you can take that mate, make him walk the plank, and I guarantee he'll survive doing, what else?, the dog paddle.  Aaaargh!

If that joke doesn't work for you, be sure to visit that post as it includes some online spots for pirate humor.

I also want to give you a bit of an update to that article.  One of the places I suggested you go was to the blog of my storytelling friend, Karen Chace, who always positively overflows with ideas and resources.

When I let Karen know what I was planning, Shiver my timbers!  -- she went to my 2013 article and verified all her links for you.  She also sent me this newer picture of herself.  It does an excellent job of capturing her spirit.  Speaking of spirit, drop down to the resources in my haunted library which always follows segments of Keeping the Public in Public Domain. Karen is there in the Blogroll of Honor I made listing sites who also have Public Domain stories for you.  As you might expect, my friends there are listed alphabetically by last name as I could never hope to rank them otherwise.  Karen's second there, but her blog started way back in 2008 and she probably takes second place to no one when it comes to storytelling resources.

Earlier we were tossing around a few pirate jokes, but pirates aren't all humor, by any means (especially what passes for piracy nowadays -- but we're enjoying the stereotype here) and some even manage to be perfect for spooky storytelling, too, which is perfect for looking ahead to October.
Today's story is from a journal wanting stories passed along and is short enough to tell in any event.

 

Since that's so short, if you want more I recommend heartily Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates, yes, including a ghost story.  The stories are all too long to post here.  There are various editions, Pyle died in 1911, and I really thought it was overdue for an ebook online.  A Google search said NO, but fortunately I double-checked and Project Gutenberg says YES.  Prior to that only LibriVox dared to record it and put it online.

The title page gives this subtitle: Fiction, Fact & Fancy concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main.  This is the same edition Project Gutenberg used and is from 1921.  It was only as I was writing the subtitle that I noticed it continued: From the Writing & Pictures of Howard Pyle: Compiled by Merle Johnson.  Compiling is a thankless job, but personally I loved the way the stories feature areas where I've been telling stories all over the "Spanish Main."  Of all the places I especially enjoy the Dominican Republic which is roughly half of Hispaniola, sharing the island with Haiti.

Thinking in a ghostly way today, plus various inquiries from venues have me working ahead and thinking ahead.  October here will probably have spooky stories from the Public Domain so I'm free to hit the road.  Hmmmm.  Hope I don't find any urban legend Vanishing Hitchhikers, as that's not one of my favorite stories, but I put the link to Google's search if you like it.  Although there is a local variant dating back to Prohibition here in our area that I do enjoy telling. . .
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Here's my closing for days when I have a story in Keeping the Public in Public Domain. 
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  


At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it. 
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend -

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

• The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
             - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
             - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain
             - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
             - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
             - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/
             - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html
  
   
  This reminds me, you're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site is so huge, probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online after she could no longer maintain it.  For an example of using the "Wayback Machine", list member, Papa Joe is on both Time Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is gone, but you can still see it.  I put in his site's address, then chose 2006 since it was a later year and clicked until I reached the Library at http://www.pjtss.net/library/. 

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Don't Walk the Plank!

Guess I should walk the plank for not catching something.  Looked at last month's blog, Are Ballads Really Storytelling?, and found my opening picture had vanished!  Tried to use my Summer Reading postcard design from my Vistaprint folder, but that design stopped appearing where I inserted it.  Murphy's Law is still in force, even for pirates.  My puppy puppet, Buzz, turns pirate for the summer of 2013 as we "Dig for Treasure in the 398s" and he misses the pawprints appearing all over the card design.  Guess it's time to get my own paws digging for some of that treasure.

There's always a wealth of resources at any library, both in books and online.  I'm just beginning to think about what I want to tell.  My first choice: tales of treasure, especially if pirates are part of the story.  Last month looked at Ballads as Storytelling and I have decided the song "High Barbaree" is a must.

A recent comment on the state email list for librarians, MICHLIB-L, included a request for material to use with a pirate puppet.  This post includes resources for that and much more.

For the youngest lovers of anything Pirate-related, I've fallen in love with a new (to me!) resource, Storytime Katie, which is subtitled "one librarian's journey into storytimeland."  More years ago than I'm willing to admit I tried documenting my themes and material used, but like a diary, eventually stopped writing it.  (I justified it with the idea that not only do materials come and go, but it also may produce some fresh thinking.)  Thanks to blogging, Katie gives us both her own and readers resources for: crafts, flannelboards, fingerplays, songs, and THEMES, including, yes, indeed, Pirates.  She's also one-stop linking for early childhood resources, so go to both her Resources page and also her Blogroll.  So far it's 3 years of work -- the very reason I stopped recording back in pre-computer days, so let's hear it for Better Storytelling Through Technology!

Karen Chace

Moving on beyond early childhood material is sometimes more difficult, but not if you know my friend and colleague out in Massachusetts, Karen Chace.  She has a website, Catch the Story Bug, and a blog,  packed to overflowing with treasure of all kinds and, like me, she works with all ages.  Her recent Talk Like a Pirate Day blog article is great to find pirate stories, music, crafts, and even curriculum material from the New England Pirate Museum, plus such miscellaneous material for some of those jokes I plan to inflict, er share with my audiences.




Does anybody know where I can find some pirate socks for my puppy, Buzz?  They need to be AAARGYLE.   He's been Baaarking over that and other jokes. Yes, a lot over-use the pirate's favorite letter...the letter, Aaar, but you can find pirate jokes scattered at these sites:

• Yarrgh! Pirate Jokes

• Pirate Jokes And Riddles For Kids 

• Pirate Treasure Now is a club that anyone interested in pirates and treasure may join, so you might not want it open to young children.  It still is a good resource as they do have a great assortment of pirate activities and facts and clearly differentiate between their Pirate Jokes and a section of "Rude Pirate Jokes" not intended for children

• last of all, but definitely not the least is Enchanted Learning.com where you can go from their definitely kid-friendly jokes to their PirateTheme page for crafts and worksheets, many of which would make great handouts for preschool to about grade 3.

Friend and colleague, Jackie Baldwin, at her wonderful Story-Lovers site, as always, has so many resources, yes, even the "Talk Like a Pirate" topic.  Click on the hotlink listed above to see pirate material, but also do yourself a favor and explore her entire site.  Especially lovely is her printing of classic fairy tale art for stationery, cards, prints, and much more, but you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to find that.  The SOS: Searching Out Stories section is now 12 years old!  It includes a great deal contributed by the members of the international email list Storytell -- but she definitely adds to that with books and other media related to any topic.  This will give you even more material, be it books, stories, or that loveliest of treasure..."miscellaneous" to avoid Walking the Plank whenever you want to have pirates as a theme.  (Yes, yes, Buzz, that includes you, too.)

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Here's a great idea I just found at the blog,  Sunflower Storytime, whose author also is thinking about the Dig into Reading multi-state cooperative Summer Reading theme.  There are many different ways to Dig into Reading, but if you want to dig up "Magic Treasure Rocks" the formula uses

• Baking Soda
• Vinegar
• Water
• Food Coloring
• Treasures
• Glitter (optional)

In a bowl mix a few drops of food coloring into baking soda.  To make RAINBOW rocks, mix each color separately   Slowly add water to the bowl, mixing in-between.  It is easy to add to much water so you definitely want to add it slowly.  Add enough baking soda to mold it and holds it's shape.  Too much water will keep the baking soda from molding. 

Inside each "rock" you can hide a small treasure inside.  Then lay your baking soda rocks out to dry.  Once dry you can bury them in dirt or a sandbox and let children find them.   For added fun, once they are found, spray them with vinegar and the rocks fizz and disappear, leaving the treasure!