[OT] Arr! It be National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

[MeepoTheMighty]

Yarrr, I love that song.

Me buckos and I had a pirate party a few months ago. I'd post links to the pictures, but they seem to have disappeared off the net. Yar.

And well-made grog is about the best tasting stuff in the world.

 

[barsoomcore]

What is it with Canadians and pirate songs? Is there some part of our history that Pierre Burton hasn't written about yet?

BARRETT'S PRIVATEERS

Oh, the year was 1778, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
A letter of marque come from the king,
To the scummiest vessel I'd ever seen,

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

Oh, Elcid Barrett cried the town, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
For twenty brave men all fishermen who
would make for him the Antelope's crew

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
She'd a list to the port and and her sails in rags
And the cook in scuppers with the staggers and the jags

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

On the King's birthday we put to sea, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
We were 91 days to Montego Bay
Pumping like madmen all the way

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

On the 96th day we sailed again, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked four pounders we made to fight

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

The Yankee lay low down with gold, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
She was broad and fat and loose in the stays
But to catch her took the Antelope two whole days

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

Then at length we stood two cables away, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
Our cracked four pounders made an awful din
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

The Antelope shook and pitched on her side, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs
And the Maintruck carried off both me legs

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

So here I lay in my 23rd year, HOW I WISH I WAS IN SHERBROOKE NOW!
It's been 6 years since we sailed away
And I just made Halifax yesterday

God damn them all!
I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
We'd fire no guns-shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett's Privateers.

 

[Enkhidu]

Ahhh, the rich shanties of Stan Rogers be music to me piratical ears...

 

[reapersaurus]

What's a pirate's favorite TV show?

"E Arrrrrrrh!"

What's a pirates favorite place to get kid's gifts from?

"Toys Arrrrr Us"

 

[Wolf72]

ARRR, it not be a pirate song matey, but it's a great bunch o' lads who sing it!

...

fifteen birds
in five fir trees

... ARRR me forgets the rest!

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Arrr, I've got ye all beat -- I've gotten the entire staff of the NC State University Library (where I work at) to talk like Pirates!

The looks on the students faces be priceless.....

 

[Jeph]

Arrrrrrrrr! I be havin nothing to say! Arrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Yarrrr, I checked this thread because it said someone had posted something new, and ye scurvy curs decieved me. Shiver me timbers!

 

[Katerek]

LOVE that song. If you've never heard it sung by a half-dozen fierce, stomping pirates, you've missed something.

Check out the Jolly Rogers at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival - and wherever else they may play.

Thats neat. Several of the Jolly Rogers are good friends of mine. They play every year at the KC Ren Fest, they also do Councel Bluffs IA, and a year or so ago they played the Sea Shanty Festival in Poland, I think in Krakow.

 

[TSL]

A Cut at History

I'm glad you lot of swabs are having a bit o' fun talking Pirate - but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that what you think of as 'pirate speak' wasn't spoken by pirates.

It was, more or less, created by Robert Newton in his definitive turn as Long John Silver in Disney's 1950 version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Bob spoke to a number of longshoremen, a few of them old friends, to prepare for his role. His mix of 'sea-talk' and 'shanty-speak' is now, more or less, what the world thinks pirates sounded like.

In truth, he probably wasn't completely off the mark. The greater bulk of Caribbean pirates came from the English Navy and were a mix of the various U.K. peoples, often, the poorer ones. Cockney slang and Scottish brogues mixed with garbled Portugese, French, Spanish and the occasional African and/or Arawak/Carib tongues would be close to undeciferable to a modern listener, but made up the greater bulk of "pirate" speech. However, if it was all rendered into English - I think it may have sounded a little like Newton's version.

That, at least, is what my heart tells me.

Hope you all check out Skull & Bones from Green Ronin in January.