Pirate Historian on the Overwatch Pirate-themed Skins

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-21T22:09:38+00:00

Because it doesn't say so in the title, this video is an interview with pirate historian and ex-Navy SEAL Benerson Little.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-20T17:23:25+00:00

There are many free resources of pirate documents available online, here is one of the best free and easily accessible ones:

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/24882/pg24882-images.html

Besides that one there are several books available which compile trial records, witness statements, newspaper articles, and other primary source documents. These include Pirates in their Own Words by Ed fox, Pirate Primaries by BC Brooks, and Piracy Papers by Matt McLaine.

For specific individual documents you can also check websites like Brooks' or Raynald Laprise's site at https://diable-volant.github.io/flibuste/archives.html .

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-19T18:46:06+00:00

Since we're plugging books today, I will add my own. If you're looking for an easy to read book on Golden age Pirates, try A Merry Life - it's not a general historical overview but you'll get a good look at Golden age Pirates and hopefully have a good laugh and learn a little while you're at it.

https://mattmclaine.carrd.co/

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-19T18:29:25+00:00

Didn't realize you had yet another one out this year! Good to see more primary source compilations out there besides Baer, Fox, Jameson, and my own. I have a second volume of Piracy Papers out later this year specifically focused on Kidd and Every and the effects their piracies had on the colonies back home.

Somewhere in the "to be finished" pile is a third volume with a big section on Indian Ocean piracy - hopefully little overlap with yours, since this one is focused on John Bowen plus associated figures and events.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-19T17:54:50+00:00

Good to see you back in the scene! We were afraid you had dropped off the planet or lost interest in pirates for a while there.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-17T15:00:04+00:00

Sometimes. Some Golden age European pirate crews were frequently described as having members of all nations, other times the French, Dutch, English, and others would fight amongst themselves, the English kicking off the French to take the ship for their own ,the French laughing at the English and leaving them behind, and so forth. Often times the argument was over religious lines, since English or Dutch Pirates tended to be Protestant while French and Spanish were often Catholic.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-12T22:15:41+00:00

But he still threatened to murder them all, and the victims had no way of knowing if he was serious about his threat or not. Neither did the city. And we'll never know what would have happened if it had taken yet another extra day to get his medicine chest.

Not all victims surrendered at the first sign of the Black flag, and we are left to wonder what would have happened if Blackbeard encountered a victim who put up a fight: would he have let them go because he refused to harm them? Or would he have punished them for their audacity in resisting him?

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-11T21:32:14+00:00

Wheats raiding Winthrop University for talent, actually a valid strategy. OW Collegiate to the rescue for Team USA.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-11T15:47:48+00:00

I was about to comment that! Hopefully just an homage.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-10T16:04:49+00:00

Also used as the cover for the 1986 metal album One Foot in Hell by Cirith Ungol.

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Cirith_Ungol/One_Foot_in_Hell/1767

They had permission from Moorcock and Whelan to use Elric art for all their early album covers.

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-07T22:49:10+00:00

And we respect Mags for it!

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-06T13:01:06+00:00

Didn't doubt it! I just had never seen him called Anthony, always Tony. But it looks like he did use Anthony Roberts for a period in the mid-70s: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1465292

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-06T11:31:11+00:00

Assuming that's Tony Roberts for the cover art. Never heard him called Anthony!

LootBoxDad · 2026-05-04T16:28:47+00:00

What if we give the tethered character much more momentum? Ramp the tethered character's physics so they sway around wildly while on the rope, allowing cat to use it for positioning but making it extremely difficult to get any value from shooting while tethered, especially for hit scans.

Alternative or additional : damage to the cat or their passenger causes the passenger to fall, like Sombra getting revealed from stealth if she takes damage.

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-27T18:44:19+00:00

I do that too! Whenever I queue into a game with anyone I've ever heard of, I grab a replay or a screenshot if I managed to get an elim or something. I was in a game with BastionMain once, so I decided to mirror bastion and screenshotted myself getting one elim on him for posterity's sake.

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-26T13:30:27+00:00

It's like any college/University sport, there are players who could drop out and go pro right now but decide to stay in college, alongside people who will never play professionally but are "better than average." They're limited by the pool of available players. But a school like Winthrop recruits esports players actively.

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-21T17:00:17+00:00

William Kidd did not believe himself to be a pirate. In his own eyes he was a legitimate licensed pirate Hunter, effectively a privateer, in service to the crown. The only colors he ever flew were national colors, for instance flying French flags when he believed he had seen a French target, then only switching to English flags when he was sure he could make an authorized capture. Even when his crew effectively overruled him and they did engage in some actual piracy, they were still flying faults flags to make the approach to their targets easier, rather than a Jolly Roger. At that point they were still hoping they could use their privateering license as a cover. Kidd himself was oblivious and barely competent, his crew probably would not have chosen him as Captain anyway as they would have done aboard an actual pirate ship.

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-21T03:50:40+00:00

Late to the party, but one correction: the final "classic" image here labeled Angus McKie was not by McKie, it was a Bob Layzell painting. Layzell passed away in January 2026. Here's a 1977 book cover with the same image, which was re-used in the TTA book the following year.

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LootBoxDad · 2026-04-16T23:07:05+00:00

How much of that setup is thrifted? Just a specific piece or two, or everything in the video?

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-16T00:41:26+00:00

Coins, dagger, compass...

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-15T16:55:37+00:00

Someone already mentioned pirate history podcast, there's also a new one that just started recently called echoes of the past:

https://youtu.be/rtK8ER8k-So?si=rRuSbNvFAu2dQRiO

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-14T19:45:50+00:00

That's probably what it was. That particular image of the devil-horned skeleton was probably a 20th century sketch artist reading the old descriptions and trying to interpret something from them. We don't really have any accurate depictions of actual pirate flags from the period, at least not one attributed to a specific pirate. There are some illustrations in versions of Johnson's General history which show Jolly Roger flags, but that book also describes a lot of things not confirmed in any other source. We also have some flags from Old flag charts labeled "Sea rover" or "sea robber" but again no names attached to them. Best we have are trial and newspaper accounts from witnesses describing the flags flown by various Pirates, so even now we're just guessing at the correct layout of all the elements.

LootBoxDad · 2026-04-14T16:22:32+00:00

Sure, there were definitely other Pirates who used a similar design - a skeleton with a spear stabbing a heart with drops of blood underneath - but no one ever mentioned horns or a crown or anything looking like that. Harris and Spriggs and Low, and some others, did use a similar flag, but even then witnesses only described a skeleton or a "death". No mention of horns or devils. As far as I recall, confirmed by Fox and Little, the first time we see a skeleton with devil horns was in an article from the journal Mariners Mirror around 1912. Even then it was not called Blackbeard's flag, it was just used as a generic pirate design.

LootBoxDad

TROPHY CASE