Round the World and Home Again, That’s the Sailor’s Way!

The Renaissance Faire is a peculiar event that sprouted from a high school history project in Southern California during the early 1960’s. It has grown into a sub-culture that spans across the United States, Canada and Europe. Some events are solid historically based events, others are hysterical spectacles of flesh and fantasy, clinging to a thread of Renaissance history…

17th-century - Unknown Artist - Thomas Cavendish, Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins

All too often what we see at a Renaissance Faire is not strictly accurate. That's alright...it's supposed to be a fun event with a core historically based nucleus. But what do you get when you combine 18th century pirates with Queen Elizabeth's Court? Either it's a jamboree on the coast of a Caribbean island with a travelling group of actors portraying the days of Queen Bess some 100 years past...or, you have a ship full of Golden Age pirates slipping through the Time Tunnel. It makes no sense...but that is Faire.

So in the spirit of fun, and the want of educating those who sport the three cornered hat, I would like to exhibit the 16th-century sailor. I really shouldn't cast stones...I've been caught a few times wearing a tricorne, on a beach in Nassau, in front of a travelling group of performers, portraying Good Queen Bess and her Court for money, in the year of Our Lord, 1720...that is to say, yes, I've shown up at 16th-century Faires wearing 18th-century clothes. Shame on me!

The 16th-Century Sailor, or How an Elizabethan Seaman Should Appear in Publick...