We have very little crew here to set sail, so to give you lot an incentive to contribute to this website, I have been bidding on ebay and won a signed Blood Captain. So competition time, I will send out the copy of Blood Captain to someone (at random) who joins our crew by sending in an article, which I publish on this website, with their character name and email address.

I am willing to put up to seven entries into the tankard, per crew member, one for the different sections of the website:

• News / Stories
• Your Ideas
• Lookalikes
• Dirty Dolphin
• Book Reviews
• Favourite Characters (including why)
• Prof reading the site and finding real errors.

Closing date is the 30th November so you should get the book by Christmas, where ever in the world you are. I will email you if you are the winner asking for your name and address.

If you are under sixteen please get a parents or guardians permission before sending anything in to any website, especially pictures.

I have found a wonderful site that has what surnames mean (http://www.rootsweb.com/~illogan/jobs.htm). These might help for character surnames.

• Apprentice - person bound to a skilled worker to learn the trade
• Archiator - physician
• Barber - barber; local dentist
• Bladesmith - swordmaker or knife maker
• Boardwright - carpenter
• Boatswain - ship's officer in charge of rigging and sails
• Bummer - army deserter
• Cafender - carpenter
• Cartographer - map maker
• Caulker - person who fills up cracks in ships to make them watertight using tar or oakum-hemp fiber from old ropes
• Cooper - one who makes or repairs vessels formed of staves and hoops, such as casks, barrels, tubs, etc.
• Coxwain - ship or boat helmsman
• Joiner/Joyner - skilled carpenter
• Kedger - fisherman
• Lagger - sailor
• Leech - physician
• Manciple - steward
• Peregrinator - itinerant wanderer
• Piller - thief; robber
• Pilot - person who steers ships
• Prentis - apprentice
• Puggard - thief
• Purser - ship's officer in charge of provisions and accounts
• Roper - maker of rope or nets
• Runner - smuggler
• Sawbones - physician
• Sawyer - carpenter who saws
• Ship Husband - repairer of ships while they were in harbour
• Wakeman - night watchman
• Waterman - boatman for hire

I have just got a reply about the map.
Platial has just taken over frappr, but we don't yet have control of the frappr database or hardware. We are trying to get in there as quickly as possible so we can solve the problems being reported.

It is very unlikely that the map members have really been lost. Real lost data is a serious issue and even though we have not yet gotten access to the frappr back end, I am sure that they have the usual safeguards in place and that we will soon be able to recover your members.

Thanks for your patience.

Apologies to those who have put a pin in the frappr map. It seems to have got upset and thrown all the pins out. I don't even seem to keep mine in. I am working on it.

As I am the Ships Mouse here are some mouse facts. A baby mouse is called a pinky, the female is a doe and the male is a buck.

I passed on some photos taken at the show in Windsor and got a reply.
Belated thanks for these. And also for my tankard which I shall be using at future events! Hope all's well with you. Trust the tide! Justin Somper

I asked a friend who is a tester her views, as I know she will tell me straight, what she does not like. I hope you agree that I have fixed the problems listed below. Any others you spot please email me via the squeak page.

"here's tester speaking Launched in IE, first page fits nicely full screen
When there is space assigned for left hand menu, title gif Vampirates looks out of centre somehow.
Just a thought but it may help if you reduce width of the menu - you only need it as wide as the longest text"

Here is a piece of information to keep everyone going. Scurvy is a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the diet. Signs of scurvy include tiredness, muscle weakness, joint and muscle aches, a rash on the legs, and bleeding gums. In the past, scurvy was common among sailors and other people deprived of fresh fruits and vegetables for long periods of time.

The quote below is from Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper.
"What's that smell?"
"Extract of Limes," Bart said, smiling.
"Trying to ward off scurvy?" she said, with a grin.

Welcome to the Vampirate fans from , Warwick and Finleyvile. Also a thank you to those from the Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Romania, Sweden, Tonga, United Kingdom and of course the United States (Commercial, Educational and at home) who have visited us in the past. It is lovely to now see pins in the map and people starting to use the site, thank you folks.

I have just found on Facebook some Vampirate groups. I have just added them to the Justin Somper page under 'Vampirate Discussion Forums' with the one on the Nocturn. Does anyone know of any more?

Sorry the person from Finleyvile USA, I seem to have lost you off the map. Please add yourself again. Sorry.

4 to 5pm Wednesday, 10th October 2007 at Waterstone's In Norwich, Castle Street.
Children's fantasy author Justin Somper will be in Norwich Waterstones signing books and meeting his fans after school in the children's department.

I have not been happy with the main header logo for a while. White on black, on a white background looked very amateur and pasted. I have now come up with a new one. I hope you guys like it.

Welcome to the Vampirate fans from Ireland, Birmingham and Finleyvile. Also a thank you to those from the Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Romania, Sweden, Tonga, United Kingdom and of course the US who have visited us in the past. It is lovely to now see pins in the map and people starting to use the site, thank you folks.

If you would like to see pictures of the Windsor Festival, the photographer Maureen McLean has very kindly emailed me a link to her website. I hope you enjoy them.

Come and stick a pin in the 'Where Are You' page. Then you will see where everyone comes from, at the same time.

I love dressing up, and I really did enjoy doing the lookalike pages. My husband got me to dress us as Ma Kettle again today to he could do a page for our family website, called "How Nuts Is Your Mum."

Welcome to the Vampirate fans from Denmark and Romania, and a thank you to those from the United Kingdom, US, Luxembourg, Germany, Australia, Canada, Tonga, Japan and Sweden who have visited us in the past. We must be starting to be visible to everyone now.