Frequently Flogged (Asked) Questions

"Are you from England?"
Like your average floating kennel of mutts, we are quite a varied crew. Capt. Moone and Kat hail from jolly olde England; Drake is also a Brit from the Isle of Jersey (what inlet?) Peg is from Belfast, Ireland; and Skivee was raised by wolves in Portugee.

"What is that instrument?"
It's a guitar. Oh, you mean THAT one... it's a hammered dulcimer. But we call it the kindling. For more info on hammered dulcimers, check out Kat's other life.

"Why do you have women on your crew?"
Why not? History has some fine examples of female pyrates who were as rough and tough as any man. Grace O'Malley and Mary Reed are the most famous.

"Is that gun real?"
Well, they're all real, heh heh... But yes, some crewmembers are the proud owners of genuine black powder pistols that actually fire. Others carry reasonable facsimiles for effect (i.e. they look cool).

"How did you meet?"
Most members of the group worked at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in some capacity. Capt. Moone founded the group with Capt. Calico Jack Rackham and three others. The original crew (except for Capt. Moone) have all since retired. Most of the remaining members of the crew were already performing or working at the festival and invited to join whenever there was a vacancy. However we have recruited outside the festival, at other music and performing venues.

"Where do you live?"
Aboard ship and on any shore we manage to reach!

"What do you do when you're not a pyrate?"
Whoops, you found us out! No, we're not really English and we're not really 16th-Century pyrates. We all have day jobs of one sort or another. When we're "on duty" at a festival we enjoy staying in character even in between sets -- we like to keep the illusion going, and as performers we are asked to do so.

"I want to learn the words to your songs -- can you give them to me?"
Well, that's rather easier said than done -- we have a really large repetoire of music. Come to our shows and buy our CDs... the words will sink in eventually. Yup, it's all a ploy just to get you to spend more money on us. Well, we are pyrates, after all, whadidja expect?

"Why don't you put the words to your songs on the webpage?"
That is a very good question and a good idea. Believe me, I have thought of it. Here's my biggest reason against doing that -- protecting intellectual property. Yes, the songs that we sing are mostly traditional, so they aren't anyone's intellectual property. But we are known for re-writing some of the traditional lyrics to make the songs more humorous or entertaining. It would be far too easy for people to take our original lyrics off of our webpage and use them for their own acts... without giving us credit or royalties.

"But couldn't someone steal your jokes and lyrics after listening to your CDs?"
That's certainly true. But at least the person in question paid for the CD. To try and bilk even more money out of our fans, however, I am considering "publishing" some songbooks and selling those to the general public. In a books, we can also put in writing that any original lyrics are protected by copyright laws.