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| "'Merchant' of the Elizabeth II - Susan Ogden |
My daughter Kaileigh and her
family were visiting for a week, i got nothing that appeared as work
done on my house, save for a an hour or so puttying nail holes in the
trim!
i used my week to show them around and give them
places to explore and enjoy the last week before school begins and
Lileigh starts kindergarten...and Noah begins preschool.
We
visited Festival Park...a tiny island off of Roanoke Island, where
there is a full scale replica of a 16th century Merchant ship called the
Elizabeth II, one of seven ships in the original Roanoke Voyage. It is
an interactive ship with “Pirates" on board that explain what all the
things are ON the ship, should you want to know and are not afraid to
ask! There is also a replica of a Native American village where the
ship is docked ...also interactive and a lot of fun to explore, The
Museum was tons of fun, as well...again interactive...including
Elizabethan clothing to dress up in, lifting the crates onto a ship,
fishing in a small boat, hunting ducks, camping as a Confederate or
Union soldier and more!
This Pirate appeared to have
been part of the crew. According to him you did what you needed to do
and not much else! He had propped himself in front of a window for a
cross breeze and appeared to be have been half asleep or had too much
rum!
I learned that the crews of these ships did NOT
know how to swim. They felt that they did not NEED to ...that the ship
was the only thing going into the water! They did in fact have a
superstitious belief about water, and that it needed to be avoided,
which justified them having one bath a year! (No wonder he was sitting
near the window!!! )
i also learned that they had small
(very long and thin) cannon looking things attached to the sides of the
ship. They were more like primitive shotguns and were used with small
musket balls to fire upon passing ship sails to slow them down in order
to pillage the ship! If they met resistance they would fire broken
glass and other “Hazards” onto the deck of the other ship so as to cut
the feet of the those on board and cause them to be too much in agony to
fight. These “Merchants” were really rather nasty!!! It was amazing
how very well equipped the ship was, including two primitive bilge
pumps. and a brick stove of sorts for cooking...bunks with space
underneath to store their goods, lanterns for light (altho how they did
not burn the ship down is beyond me, with those candles swaying on the
rise and fall of the sea!!!)
Elizabethan England was very apparent in the whole place, and it was quite fascinating. I do very much enjoy hands on history!
I am also happy to say the Susan, the self described "free spirited introvert" has provided some bio information for us.
"[Susan] loves being alone, reading, and creating when i am not out exploring with my camera. My photography can be seen on Zenfolio.com (altho admittedly i need to update that, because I am a procrastinator who works best under pressure!), on Facebook and on Flickr. I will be having a 3 month showing of my work (Photography and Paintings and some repurposed cabinet doors that incorporate my photography and are now towel and coat racks as well as repurposed vintage windows) The show will be at National Wildlife Preserve, Alligator River in Manteo, NC beginning in November...with another to follow in summer of 2016.
Susan Ogden (aka Susea)
Images Thruthelookingglass,llc
Susan can be reached for inquiries at spiritographer024@gmail.com
A big thank you to Susan for sharing her photography and her story with us. If I was anywhere near where she is doing her show I would be there. If you are, go. Come back to the blog in (less than) a week for the next Photographic Tale of the Week from the Flickr group, Pictures with a Story. Also keep up to date with my other activities and featured photographers on Facebook and Twitter.
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