My apology to you, wwh, for reading your sentence too hastily. So, Maynard put the head on his own bowsprit. That's clear now, I see. Sorry for lackadaisical reading.
Geoff: Does skol really come from skull, or are you pulling our legs?
An interesting note on pirates: They used to vote before carrying out missions, such as they were. If I pirate had been disobedient, they'd even vote whether or not to leave him on an island. There were famous female pirates, too, but I've forgotten all their names. If you go googling about, you can find various designs of skull and crossbones, some of which were truly bloody-curdling. I can just imagine how innocents felt when seeing those ghastly flags (or whatever they're properly called) come over the horizon..... Shiver me timbers!
WW
