The study of history use to be long hours browsing ancient texts. While that is not a wholly un-enjoyable pastime, the modern study of history allows us to try and recreate the worlds in which we have an interest. This is sometimes referred to as "Living History" and can be enjoyed in places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia where people portray life in the colonial setting.
For those of us who tend to be a bit more of a black sheep, thar be pyrates... The research and creation of a historically, more or less, accurate character is also a lot of fun. What is described here is my attempt at such a creation. I am not one of those who is obsessed with exact accuracy, but I do like to try stay as close to historical accuracy as funds will allow while at the same time having fun. Pyrates lend themselves to this philosophy quite handily as they had access to various types of fashions due to the nature of the business and the variety of nationalities sailing the West Indies at the time. You can therefore create a fairly eclectic wardrobe and still maintain a plausible accuracy. When we include all the native peoples encountered, we have a great variety of cultures to draw inspiration from.. What follows is the record of my acquisitions, from hat to boots, guns to swords, rum to, well, more rum...
Starting from the ground up, I acquired a pair of boots from CA Boots in El Paso, Texas. While you might think this is pretty far from any body of water where you might find a pyrate, CA Boots created the footwear for the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End.
A custom made pair of boots runs around $400 which was a bit outside my budget, however all was not lost as they have boots starting at around $100 and working their way up. Keep in mind, CA Boots is an actual boot maker, these are not stage props, but actual boots which you could ware on a daily basis.
CA Boots
2100 Wyoming
El Paso, TX 79903
915-544-1855.
http://caboots.zoovy.com/category/mp/
HTTP://www.middlesexvillagetrading.com