The League of Gentlemen Adventurers

We mentioned the official LGA Curios Cabinet in our last podcast when Gentleman Jesse presented us with the plaque of St Brendan’s Boat, so I thought I’d present some pictures of both for our listeners. The plaque represents the possible discovery of America by St Brendan in his leather canoe some 1000 years before Columbus.

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A gift to our dear Gentleman Jesse as he travels off to Dublin in search of Adventure. Please feel free to consult this before deciding whether or not to abandon your plans:

As promised on our Slapdashery podcast, Jesse and I have come up with a graph for the possible outcomes of slapdashing. We hope you find it helpful in deciding what in your day to day life could use less planning.

In the days of yore, it seems like you couldn’t be defined as a true gentleman adventurer without killing somebody – and preferably several somebodies.  In 1899 (which firmly qualifies as yore), The New York Times published an article entitled, “The Gentleman Adventurer in Letters,” which discussed fictional characters inspired by the LGA.  The article explained:

In all ages the gentleman adventurer has played a most important part, and even such sacred wars as the Crusades would not have come to much without his aid.  The Spanish Armada was largely manned by the representatives of this type of humanity, and the flag of Sir Francis Drake could not have flown as a gonfalon of terror in the West Indies without him.

Fortunately for us, the original rules and bylaws of the LGA which defined a gentleman adventurer were lost long, long ago, meaning that we can pretty much make up whatever definition we want.

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Quam Bene Vivas Refert, Non Quam Diu

We say this at the end of every meeting of The League of Gentlemen Adventurers, so I thought I might explain why we say it, and how we came by it.  This latin phrase is our official League motto & toast.  We, the San Diego Chapter, learned the toast from Cap’n John, the gentleman who inducted us into the League in the late 1990s.  Cap’n John said that he learned it from the gent who inducted him when he was a young man; Cap’n John (who had a penchant for making extravagant claims) asserted on numerous occasions that the League and its motto went back many hundreds of years.

The latin “Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu” translates as, “It is how well you live that matters, not how long,” a sentiment that lies at the heart of the mission of our League.  We encourge gentlemen and gentlelady adventurers everywhere to raise a glass, speak the motto, and take it to heart.  It is truly a sentiment to live by.