Scallywags Be on Ye Ol’ Facebox

That is right boys and girls! The Pirate Ship set sail for its maiden voyage the first weekend in April, and it knocked them out of the water! Check out their story on the Facebox!

ARGH! Get Back to Work Ye Scallywags!!

Yesterday, Saturday, Chris and I made our way to Prescott to visit the wrecking yard. Boy, did we hit the motherload! We found a conversion van that was loaded! A 1993 Chevy conversion van gave its life for the greater good of the Pirate Ship… so we pillaged and plundered, like any good pirate would! Check out this booty!

We got lights

…and other wood fixtures

What good pirate does without his trusty clipboard? Wait, what?! Well, we have that covered too.

We even have a first aid kit, for when our mates get wounded.

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Today, only a few of us were able to make it to church, others had plans. But, rest assured, all will be there next week.

We got quite a lot done today. Chris was able to run wire for most of the Pirate Ship. I am nearly finished with the poop deck, and will be ready to make way on the Wench’s Deck next Sunday. I have four more braces to weld, and this thing is solid!

Sean had an appointment to keep, but was able to stop by in the early morning, and let us know the plans for his upcoming projects. That way we could work in harmony with what he wanted to do.

I think he will be happy with how the poop deck is coming along. It is already much stronger than we had anticipated, but since we are to add speakers beneath it, I will be reinforcing it even more. I have two 45° angles to weld on each end, bottom and top, for a total of four structural braces. Chris wants to put two 10″ subwoofers and two 6×9 speakers inside the underbelly of the poop deck.

Oh, speaking of… Today, we found out the origin of the word “poop deck” – from the French word for stern, la poupe, from Latin puppis.

Thank you Google, and damn you Frenchies! Why must you give us such silly names for things?

And on that note… I will see you again soon! Tune in next week, when we learn about… Haha! I kid!

We will be building more pirate ship next week. Stick around, and see what we come up with next!

Yo Ho… Oh NO!!

You may have been wondering what has come of the Pirate Ship… I haven’t heard from you in awhile, how is everything going? You may be asking.

Well, the Pirate Ship is no longer — a truck. You heard right. While I have been out in the middle of the ocean, playing pirate on a drill ship, the Pirate Ship has decided it will not be moved under its own power.

I got a call from Chris stating that the engine stopped, and would not start back up. They did everything they possibly could, in order to get it up and running again, but all attempts were futile. In the end, the tired engine just gave up, and they had to give it a proper burial. They sold the cab and the transmission, and now the Pirate Ship is a towed trailer.

You didn’t think that a little issue of propulsion (or lack thereof) was going to keep these pirates down, did you?

While the northeastern United States in snowed in, under three feet of snow, these guys are in shorts and tee shirts… in January. I love it!!

As sad as I am to see this not be completed as a pickup… now “There is room for activities!”

This will actually open up many possibilities for us.

Here you can see the poop deck taking shape (I promise it is a real thing). This will be a seating area for scallywags and sea wenches.

Dennis made this bad ass treasure chest!

While everyone will be watching the Superbowl, I will be in Trinidad on the lookout for a few key items — Rum, cigars, and anything piratey!

I will keep you posted on what I come across!

When Pictures Speak Louder than Words

The Pirate Ship has been coming along pretty nicely. We got a canopy up, and did some more wood and metal work to it, we are getting it ready to install the poop deck.

Sean was able to craft up some stairs, and get a helm started (the big steering wheel in the back).

We got some new pirate flags for it. What would a pirate ship be, without a few Jolly Rogers? Here is a picture of one of them — our recruiting flag!

Chris got some blue florescent lights, the tubes make for the actual lighting, and the LED lights that sporadically blink, subtly creat the illusion of water beneath us.

We had to test fit the bar back bottle keep…

…and a name drop, with some clever product placement, to all my friends on the little Island of Gran Canaria, I think it worked out just fine!

Yo, Ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me!

Where were we? Ah yes, I was explaining what it was we had done to transform a simple little C30 pickup truck into an awe inspiring pirate ship bar.

So, Sean comes over and begins his magic work. The back of the truck is starting to take form. At this point, we were not thinking straight, as I do not believe the rum had fully kicked in. By this time, the only thing we had in mind for this truck, was Tiki Bar. As we were building ideas out loud, this bar was nearly destined to become a rolling Margaritaville. *The travesty!*

We kept building the bar, knowing that it would lead us to the righteous path. We all started slowly realizing that we are not 49 year old women, and we should not be making tribute to a man that lost a sandal, and failed to remember where he got that tattoo, all in the same day.

NO! We are indeed MEN! And manly men… with beards! And we drink… Powerade? No! Well, yes. (It was 110°F that day.) But, no! We drink RUM! Who else drinks rum? Pirates of course! And how much more manly does it get than to be a pirate – Sail the seven seas. Take what you want. Leave no bottle unturned…

Unfortunately, none of that actually clicked for us like that. In fact, it was Liz, Christian’s wife that made it all apparent to us when she came by to drop off their daughter, Kayla. I was up on the truck and Liz says, “Cool, a pirate bar!”

Everything just made sense after that. Of course — a Pirate Ship! It was easy after that. We need “_____”, and we would rummage through the yard until we found something suitable, then we made it work. Sean continued on the bar, making the most beautiful masterpiece, from a bunch of rubbish.

Sean made a great captain – “Batten down the hatches, mateys! Hoist the anchors! Something to do with a mizzen li…” Okay, maybe none of that was said. But he knew what he wanted, and let it be known to us that he had a definitive plan. When he needed something, we got it. If we did not have it, or we could not find one, we made it from things that we had laying around.

Once the bar was made up, it was time to accessorize. And what better way to accessorize… than with CANNONS!!

That is right! Four 203mm cannons flank this beast! And what would one shoot out of an 8″ cannon? Well tunes of course! Inside of all four cannons, resides a 3-way speaker at the ready to blast our adversaries right out of the water!

…and they are even outfitted with a fog line, for that truly ominous piratey feel! What respectable pirate ship would set sail without its own cloud of fog surrounding it! Not this one! We have that under control.

It was time to start thinking about entertainment. Not just for the eye stimulation, but what were people to do, while on a pirate ship?

Drink rum, of course! But, is there anything else one could choose to do? Certainly there is! We have started the building of the Wench’s Deck, an area above the truck cab for the ladies to congregate (at two, maybe three at a time… but, that makes for a great V.I.P. experience.) This wench’s deck is a platform that will span the full eight foot width of the bed, and make its way forward, all the way to the front bumper.

In order to do that, I needed to start on some bracing. I found two sticks of angle iron, and welded them to our new CUCV-turned-pirate bumper.

Laugh if you must, but I can assure you that these posts will not fail. We still have quite a lot of fabricating to do up here, but we are off to a good start.

Believe it, or not, these here goalposts, were the most crucial part of this build, at least concerning the Wench’s Deck. That is because everything after this is just connect the dots, and if this part was not done properly, then the whole upper deck would fail to work out. Of course, these were made too long, and they will need to be cut down to size, but we will be getting this done later, so that Sean can come back through and build onto my frame, making something out of nothing. Or, as my cousin Dustin used to tell me – “Turning horse shit into ice cream… that is what we do!”

“Laying the Keel” or: The Story of What to do When You Have an Extra Chevy 1 Ton Pickup Truck Laying Around, and You Get Bored One Day

Now that you know what the pirate ship is, perhaps I can tell you a little tale about how the pirate ship came to be.

As I mentioned earlier, there are three ship builders in this saga. Chris has allowed us to use his vessel, to make a many a wench wet when she boards it. (Get your mind out the gutter!) Sean has made it possible for such a lass to hoist herself up, and easily board this vessel. (What is wrong with you?!) And I have made two areas for such a woman to be – one area (the wench’s deck) for them to shake their booty, and another area (the poop deck) for them to rest up on. (Okay, that one is funny – poop deck.)

So far, we have constructed most of the wooden bar, and we are now able to focus more on the extras. Up topside, on the bow [up front, on top of the cab and over the hood] – we have the wench’s deck. Then back aft, on the stern [on the rear end of the truck, on top of the flatbed] – there is the poop deck… Okay, I hear you snickering again.

Before we go on any further, let me explain to you what a poop deck is. According to Merriam-Webster, the poop deck is: the flat surface on the raised structure at the rear of a ship. The poop deck is generally the portion of the ship over the captain’s quarters (which was usually the most aft portion of the ship). Seeing as this is a pickup truck (and not an actual ship), and as there is no captain’s cabin, per se, we will have to settle for the poop deck being the area most aft of the pirate ship. Plus, seeing as this poop deck is mainly extra seating for those that are in need of rest (or pooped), they may very well be on the poop deck. Just do not mistake this for the head, as that is where one would actually relieve themselves.

Here is a picture of your typical masted wooden sailing ship, one that would be a common sight during the golden age of piracy. Take note of the area in the back of the ship (the stern). The area above the captain’s cabin, with the banister around it? That is the poop deck. I will be welding the framework for that, and Sean will be facing it with wood, making it to look presentable for the world behind us to see.

I got this picture from a site simply called: Pirates of the Caribbean (http://pirates.hegewisch.net/pirates.html) There is a lot of information on pirate ships and all things pirate there, so feel free to check it out.

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Now that you have had your pirate history lesson, and you are now more aware of the nomenclatures of a real pirate ship…

Back to the Pirate Ship!! And by that, I mean, let us return to the 1969 Chevy C30, known as “The Pirate Ship“. [We really need to work on that name. As fun as it is to work on a pirate ship, it really should be called by a proper name. It is like naming your canine, “dog”. Yes, that is what it is, and it does describe it perfectly, but… Com’ on! It is a pirate ship! It should have a good piratey name. In due time, I suppose. In due time, but I digress… back with the story!]

This Chevy started life as a simple 1 ton flatbed pickup truck.

I am sure that it got plenty of use, and I guess it was happy enough just being a work truck… but who wants to settle for happy enough? And who wouldn’t want to be a pirate?!

Drink and the Devil Have Done for the Rest

What do you do with a 1969 Chevrolet C30 (1 ton) flatbed pickup truck, 1.5 acres and 30 years of random collecting? Well, if you have any sense, you build a rolling bar!

“I’ve got an idea!” exclaimed Chris, as we were at his dad’s house, taking stock of the last 30 plus years of junk sitting in the back yard. “Let’s build a bar on the back of the flatbed!”

The gears in our collective heads began spinning, and we each knew we had a job to do: Chris was to supply us with rum, electricity and all things Chevy. Sean, he is the engineer, he was also in charge of the woodworking and carpentry. Jon, I know a little about welding, so it was up to me to ensure the metal got taken care of. Those that wanted to supply us with any, and all, things related to the bar were (and still are) always welcome to do so.

It all started out as an innocent, rolling tiki bar. But, soon it began to take new shape, and it had quickly established itself as something much more… sinister. It has been called by many names – the Patina Cantina, the Buccaneer’s Bowtie, the General’s Curse, the Devil’s Dually…

This is the story of what is known simply, as – “The Pirate Ship”.