Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Pirates invade Maryland

I was at the Grande Muster at Saint Mary's City, Maryland. This was Maryland's original capitol. The muster is a gathering of 17th century reenactors. Usually they represent colonial militia or units from the English Civil War or the 30 Years War. All three of these were represented, as usual, but an additional group showed up - the Sea Rats of the Atlantic who are pirates. They also brought a small rowboat.

In addition, a trio of people from Henricus colony near modern Richmond brought a really nice boat. We figured it up and it could hold ten.

Saturday afternoon features a tactical battle. Because the number of reenactors has been dropping for years, it was suggested that we just fight an imaginary foe. Then the Sea Rats told us how many people they had. We ended up fighting them.

Of course, they were slaughtered. Not only were they outnumbered, but our side has some really good musketeers. Everyone had fun.

On Sunday we launched both boats then stormed the camp from the water. We had a mixture of Sea Rats and colonial troops attacking. The rest of the Sea Rats helped the Saint Mary's Militia fight off the attack (even though we successfully stormed the gun emplacement).

This was so much fun that it will be the tactical event next year.

After that I got to go sailing on the bigger boat. It did pretty well but the wind was weak and fitful so we didn't get very far.

An award is given to the best group. This year the Sea Rats got it.

Next year there will be two events at Saint Mary's City. In addition to the fall muster, they will celebrate Maryland's 375th anniversary on June 20. That event will feature several tall ships.


The Sea Rats' camp.

A couple of marooned pirates.

Lining up for the award ceremony.

Setting up the boats.

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