A quick note: my name is Mike Romero, and I'm a Historic Interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg. The postings I make on this site are my own personal opinions and research, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Colonial Williamsburg. With that said, enjoy the read!
Greetings, everyone!
Allow me a brief introduction: my name is Mike Romero, an Orientation Interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Since the start of this year, I have slowly been issued bits of clothing (petticoat breeches, checked shirt, double-breasted waistcoat, etc) to present the image of an eighteenth century sailor to our guests. I hope to eventually portray a named character along these lines, but it will take some time to get there. In the meantime, I am trying to research the history, traditions, clothing, skills, ANYTHING having to do with sailors of the period to more fully develop my persona and interpretations. I'm not often able to grab research time on the clock due to guest service needs, I usually snatch time during breaks or days off, so I may not update fairly regularly. I'm also fairly new to the Blogger system, so please bear with me if the page goes through a number of design changes in the near future.
At any rate, on to my inaugural post!
A few weeks back, I was visiting the British Tars blog and discovered the memoirs of James Wyatt, a British Privateersman during the mid-1740's. (His memoirs are available as a free download from Google Books.) Despite being over 200 years old, Wyatt's memoirs read like something out of Forester or O'Brian, and were great fun to read. Through various vicissitudes of fortune, Wyatt begins as a trumpeter on the privateer vessel Revenge, is captured by the Spanish, escapes with several other men, driven by contrary winds onto the Barbary Coast, is captured and enslaved by Moors, eventually ordered released by the King of the Gum Coast, travels three hundred miles across the desert to Senegal and Gambia, and eventually makes his way back to England.
What fascinates me most about Wyatt's story is the sheer number of occupations he has during his life. At various points in the story, Wyatt is:
-A farm laborer.
-Apprentice dyer/woolcomber.
-Servant to various warrant officers of a British man-of-war.
-Musician to a travelling puppet show, learning the drum and trumpet.
-Trumpeter aboard the privateer Revenge.
-Drum instructor while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Carpenter and gardener while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Dyer and hat dresser while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Operator/demonstrator of an 'Electrical Machine' upon his return to England, soon to travel to Jamaica to pursue this career further.
-Apprentice dyer/woolcomber.
-Servant to various warrant officers of a British man-of-war.
-Musician to a travelling puppet show, learning the drum and trumpet.
-Trumpeter aboard the privateer Revenge.
-Drum instructor while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Carpenter and gardener while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Dyer and hat dresser while captive on the Canary Islands.
-Operator/demonstrator of an 'Electrical Machine' upon his return to England, soon to travel to Jamaica to pursue this career further.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I can use this at work! In my position, I'm assigned to work the door of a different historic site at CW every day: you might find me at the entrance to the Capitol, the wigmaker, printing office, tailor, Governor's Palace, etc, orienting the guests to what's happening inside and generally being helpful. This year, the upper management has been wanting to show more life on the streets by having my fellow OI's and I do various activities at our sites, related to the site itself whenever possible. Earlier this summer, I began demonstrating dead reckoning skills with a chart and improvised chip log, before being generously gifted a sextant and moving on to the basics of celestial navigation. One or two of the sites have specifically mandated activities, like washing and combing wigs. The point is, using Wyatt as an example, it could well be feasible for a sailor between commissions/cruises to be performing these or other odd jobs in town to keep in coin. I can continue to show the sailor specific clothing and still give guests a more tangible interaction with the various sites in town.
As an OI, I'm not assigned a specific persona, nor expected to be purely 'in character;' first and foremost, I'm there to help the guests. Naturally, we get quite a few people who want to believe everyone is a person right out of history, and want to play along: "So who are you?" I give them my usual line about being Michael, a sailor in the service of Virginia. "But why is a sailor working at the wigmaker/printer/coffeehouse?" Basically, because I have to. :) Whether I'm doing some form of nautical activity or one put out by the trade itself, Wyatt's story gives me a means of remaining a sailor while doing these things while turning our guests on to a true 'Hornblower' type story. I've already shared Wyatt's information with several interested guests who are thrilled that they can get such a unique 18th century story so easily.
Moving on, I wonder if my supervisor will let me have an Electrical Machine...
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