As anyone paying even a sliver of attention surely knows, the 2010 Fell’s Point Privateer Day weekend was kicked off with a Friday night induction ceremony of the first annual Devil’s Dozen winners – initiates into the fledgling fraternal pirate organization of The Order of Leviathan. The Order is the brainchild of legendary pirate Talderoy, who wished to create a society of accomplished pirates. The Order’s ranks will be added to each year via the Devil’s Dozen election, a process by which peers from within the pirate community may choose pirates of note from amongst their own. Actually, the process is a little more complex than that, but it’s close enough for the purpose of enjoying the induction festivities.
The ceremony was held at Slainte Irish Pub in Fell’s Point, a reasonably sized venue, but still only just-this-side of big enough to accommodate the hordes of pirates in attendance. Pirates from around the country swarmed the bar, most dressed in the best of pirate finery. Surely the Devil’s Dozen Ceremony was the primary draw, but that the whole event was sponsored by Pusser’s Rum certainly didn’t hurt either (and a big hand for Pusser’s – very few pirate events are sponsored by a *true* rum!) The evening’s Master of Ceremonies was José Menendez, who did a fine job keeping the affair entertaining. First introducing Talderoy to present the concept of the Order of Leviathan to the attendees, he then introduced the twelve inductees themselves. The night’s honorees indeed lived up to the concept of “accomplished” pirates, including Cascabel (legendary black powder guru), Stynky (proprietor of The Pyracy Pub), Jeff MacKay (look up – there’s an even chance you’re wearing one of his fine hats right now), Michael MacLeod (of No Quarter Given) and many others of equal note and/or notoriety. Each in turn was invited up, presented with their own custom Order of Leviathan Ring (courtesy of Skinny Dog Designs and Talderoy), as well as a “warning shot” ceramic rum cup, complete with their name emblazoned on the side (courtesy of Quicksilver’s Pirate Pots). Prior to taking their seats again, each new member of the Order was asked to speak the name of their own nominee for the night’s wildcard event – the selection of a 13th member of the Devil’s Dozen, who could be chosen by the inductees from any pirate present.
Once all twelve members had been duly recognized, it was time to narrow down the 13th nominees. While longtime pirate reenactor/performer (and member of the original 24 nominees) Braze held a clear majority of the nominations, the process set in place also required a tossing of the dice, so as to level the playing field. It was a well-intended concept, but soon led to a surprise upset as a lucky roll saw underdog Jewels (of the Lucky 13) win the 13th spot. This left the clear favorite of the initial dozen with little choice but to step aside and hope for better luck next year. Or so it would have been, save that the Dozen then voted unanimously, on the spot, to induct Braze as their peer anyway, thus making the founding year’s Devil’s Dozen chime in at an even 14.
While I fully understand the Devil’s Dozen wishing to see their desire for Braze’s induction honored, this last minute shift in procedure did strike some of us in the audience as rather arbitrary. After all, is the Order of Leviathan to be an organization whose membership is selected by the pirate community at large by set rules, or will the process shift with the whims of the Order? I think it a valid question, but in all fairness not one of the voting members had been in the Order for more than ten minutes at this point. Combine this with the fact that the Order itself is too new to have any established precedents or bylaws, and it’s easy enough to view this as simply a well intended if somewhat awkward effort to fine-tune the induction process midstream. Hopefully the process will be more refined by the time the 2011 Ceremony is upon us.
Braze, as the final inductee for the night, was presented with a ring (quietly contributed by another Order of Leviathan member) and a “warning shot” from Quicksilver (who had rather fortuitously made mugs for all 24 original nominees.) Inductions completed, the next order of business was for each of the “Dozen” to take turns at dice to determine who would win one of two highly enviable custom-made cutlasses, one contributed by Sword&Stone, and the other from Baltimore Knife and Sword. While surely engaging for the participants, it was here that the audience began to turn a bit less towards the ceremony, and a bit more towards the party at the bar. I don’t think it was that the audience wasn’t interested, but rather that – short of a jumbo-tron – watching folks roll dice from afar is a tad difficult to follow. But chock it up to the resiliency of a great party, the easy-going nature of pirates, or the magic of abundant supplies of Pusser’s Rum, no one seemed to mind making their own fun while the Dozen duked it out.
Once the two swords had been won by their *very* happy new owners, the final event of the night was the presentation of the Pirates Magazine 2010 Pirate of the Year Award. The honor of presenting the award fell (rather suddenly and unexpectedly) to me. Sadly, by this point of the evening things were running behind and this final presentation was little more than an aside before the cake cutting. As such, Pirate of the Year Tony Swatton didn’t receive the stage time or the recognition he deserved. The audience was left with no real grasp of the criteria associated with being selected as Pirate of the Year, or of the many fine works Swatton has done that make him such a worthy recipient (but I imagine this will be duly remedied in an upcoming issue of Pirates Magazine.)
The event was capped off by the cake cutting – a rather impromptu affair as by this point the many pirates in attendance had begun to exercise their restless nature. The cake itself was a splendid thing – a treasure chest overflowing with weapons and doubloons, all made from some sort of candy material that proved surprisingly resistant to cutting (even against the sword of Talderoy, who lent me his blade for just this purpose.)
All told, this first Devil’s Dozen Ceremony was a distinct success. There were a few hiccups in the presentation itself that may have made it difficult for the audience to engage in the ceremony as fully as they otherwise might have, but this was counterbalanced by the overall fun of the event, which is really the key feature at most any pirate gathering. It’s my understanding that, even as I write this, names are already being considered for the 24 nominations for the 2011 Devil’s Dozen, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this second year develops, as well as how the Order of Leviathan grows into itself over this coming year!
So, is this anything like Miss America where the winners will visit orphanages and talk to school children about the importance of a healthy diet?
Yes, orphanages are fine places to recruit powder monkeys, and school children should know that limes, hard tack, salt beef and rum are the four basic food groups!
Aye ..Capt. Bogg & Salty already taught that lesson in thar ‘Pieces of eight’ Video..
A Big Congratulations to All the winners and Nominees to this grand gathering of elite scabrous dogs! All damn well deserved in ye own right ~
May perhaps they will have the Pirate of the Year Stand and deliver on Top of the Bar next year..That should keep every ones attention ~
Congrats ta all the members of the Devil Dozen 13 (I mean 14); was a great event. I really had a lot o’ fun.
Hope fer next year, maybe considerated a bigger open place for all those who want ta support their captains n’stand next ta them for the whole ceremony; instead of being sent ta another room.
Kept the good work!
Sounds like a hell of a good time, and I’m sorry I missed it. Slainte really is too cramped to hold a bash like that, though.
I hope one day to be one of those accomplished pirates you spoke of until then i will watch as the Order of the leviathan set the standards for future accomplished pirates.
Having landed at FellsPoint on Fri.me wishes me had known of this event as nothing was said of it.Me thinks it was a bit hush,hush,until the Swashbuckler Soriee.The Soriee was indeed a fun time.Those who didn’t make this one missed a great time.PrivateerDays was full of fun as well.The Pub-crawl could have been better,so as to get all pirates together.All in all a Great Event.The JadeScorpion will land at this event next year for more Pirate Fun,Rum and a bit of Debauchery as well. Au Revoir,mates and wenches, The Marquis LaVasque
I just hope 2011’s festivities will bring back the controversial, yet crowd-pleasing, swimsuit competition segment.
Sounds like this was quite the grand affair! I’m sorry I couldn’t make it. I seriously need to work on getting out to more national pirate events in future.
So I have to ask: who won the swords?
I WON I WON!!! (and aye, I am still gloating…..:)
Am proud to be the owner of the sword crafted by Tony Swatton- Pirate of the Year- and swordmaker to the stars!!!
Thanks to all involved for makin’ this event such a memorable experience- It were more fun than a barrel of rum!..oh wait, there WAS a barrel of rum! so, it were more fun than hand to hand combat!
and I LOVE the pic with Bilge where he is being frightened by my new sword best of all
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you Capt Black won the other one
Congrats, Willoughby! Can you direct me to where I might find pictures of these fine blades? I’ve been burning with curiosity since the contest was announced.