Monday, Go get em.

That long wand on a vacuum cleaner infomercial?

I should have remembered

that little item. You are correct--but alas, you get just a teeny star. You colored outside the lines. The big star is still out there.

Re: Monday, Go get em.

The back end of our thanksgiving main course fixed to a bamboo wand.

Re: Monday, Go get em.

Maybe I could pirate an answer from someone else.

Answer Monday

Dan gets the star for the forehead today.

�Spider catchers� were (at first) small wooden whale boats with eight or ten rowers and likely a small cannon mounted in front that took larger merchant vessels during our war of independence. When the war started there were no Continental vessels. With Britain being a sea power their supply lines were long and untouchable. Civilians decided that there was a profit to be had�but with risk. With eight rowers they looked as spiders and they caught the lumbering deep draft commercial ships. These nasty little boats were maneuverable, stealthy, and relatively fast. They attacked from the front or rear (where there were few heavy defensive weapons) and targeted the waterline point blank. The privateer crews were motivated�profit or hanging was the alternative at the hands of the Brits. The number on board could number thirty and sometimes (as �patriots�) attacked in concert with similar vessels (as in a wolf pack fashion). Small flotillas took many large vessels and confiscated weapons, cargos, crew, and then �moved up� in size, held for ransom, or sold the prize elsewhere in the world. As the conflict went on the prizes were traded up until there were some pretty big, expensive, high firepower ships in privateer hands. In effect they were government approved and condoned pirates but were called privateers. Each privateer captain or owner paid up to $10,000 in Congressional and state fees for their �commission� to provide "legitimacy" in case or capture by the enemy. Shares of the booty were strictly defined and scrupulously adhered to. Collectively it was no small effort. According to a reference �Pirates and Patriots�, C.Kieth Wilber, privateers took sixteen warships, and two thousand nine hundred and eighty merchant ships, and brought in some estimated 50 million dollars to those in the operation. Position and family had no standing with command with these rugged entrepreneurs. Merit and experience was what counted. Still, afterwards, many a coastal family ignored thier path to wealth and got their �Blueblood� origin by virtue of some relative being a privateer.

Today in Indonesia the spider catchers are Zodiac boats armed to the teeth with eight to ten ninja/mercenary types and heavy trigger fingers. In much of the world ship�s crew are unrecorded and of no known nationality. A boat �abandoned� on the high seas is fair game to whoever �finds� it. A little paint to change the ship�s name, a new flag, plus there are no non-privateer witnesses to prove other. With a range of 150 miles to a secure port, and the internet providing the location of all ships at sea, shipping lanes are now running convoys as a protective strategy. It�s a big problem.

Re: Monday, Go get em.

The Lee Valley holiday catalog offers two types of spider catchers.

JKJ