A Conversation for Wirral Reimagined
Why?
minorvogonpoet Started conversation Aug 23, 2020
Why is the ship on the rocks? You'd have thought a pirate skipper would know better.
Why?
FWR Posted Aug 24, 2020
We used to sing a song in the school choir:
Old Mother Redcap
Wicked old witch.
Ill gotten gains
Once made her rich.
Host of a tavern on the Mersey Sands.
Blood of the mariners
Red on her hands.
Old Mother Redcap's was an Inn dating back to 1590s, allegedly run by Poll Jones, who always wore a red head covering, but probably due to her favourite pirate ship was named the Redcap.... Or maybe the 16 gun privateer was named after Poll, who knows?
Rumours of forgotten buried treasure still abound in the area.
Fascinating accounts of the way the building was fortified to protect the privateers' plunder.
(much better stories are probably available in Yorkshire.) 
Why?
Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor Posted Aug 24, 2020
Great story! Would make a great guide entry, too...
We don't have any pirates. 
We only have stories of river pirates - and characters like Mike Fink. You owe it to us to share!
Though in the mid-19th Century oil boom, there were floating 'houses of pleasure' on the Nighthoover and Allegheny rivers...
Why?
FWR Posted Aug 24, 2020
Didn't Orson Scott Card do a Mike Fink character?
Ill have to look him up!
Why?
Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor Posted Aug 24, 2020
He might have, dunno. But Mike Fink was a flatboat operator on the O-high-o.
Why?
FWR Posted Aug 24, 2020
Yup, Fink features in Alvin Maker saga. Blast from the past, my memory's seving me well today!
Hence, another Mr Shaw song in my head now about a knight swimming the Mersey with his charger by his side, turns out he got the name wrong but the correct family!
In thanks he founded ( the knight, not my old music teacher)the Birkenhead Priory and monks ferry, the original Ferry 'cross the Mersey!
more Wirral history from 1000 years ago!
Why?
FWR Posted Aug 24, 2020
At Dunham once there lived a knight,
Sir Hamo was his name,
And when outnumbered in a fight
He swam his way to fame.
Surrounded near to Runcorn
He faced the cruel tide,
And lived to swim the Mersey
With his charger by his side!
Why?
FWR Posted Aug 24, 2020
only 600 years out!
Hamo de Masci did indeed found the Priory, and it was running ferries from 1150, but the knight in question was came much later, William Massey, defeated at the Battle of Preston in 1715, swam the Mersey, allegedly in full armour with his war horse by his side, escaping to Wirral! Not bad for a 60 year old!
Why?
Paigetheoracle Posted Aug 26, 2020
The ship is on the rocks because the captain fancied a whisky of course, which landed him off course, of course
Why?
paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant Posted Aug 27, 2020
Maybe the ship was stranded when the tide went out?
Key: Complain about this post
Why?
- 1: minorvogonpoet (Aug 23, 2020)
- 2: FWR (Aug 23, 2020)
- 3: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 4: Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor (Aug 24, 2020)
- 5: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 6: Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor (Aug 24, 2020)
- 7: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 8: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 9: Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor (Aug 24, 2020)
- 10: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 11: FWR (Aug 24, 2020)
- 12: Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor (Aug 24, 2020)
- 13: Paigetheoracle (Aug 26, 2020)
- 14: paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant (Aug 27, 2020)
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