White Rose

White Rose is a crew on the Cerulean Ocean. It was founded on April 12, 2004.

History
The crew was originally formed by Blondjne on 12 April 2004 as a spin-off from the Scabby Sea Rats (a crew in The Jolly Company). White Rose was led by Blimb starting in May 2004 after Blondjne's retirement from the game. In December 2004, the White Rose left the flag and decided to remain independent for a while. In September 2005, Lj took over as the captain.

The White Rose makes its home in the and, after gaining control over, also in the. The crew operates a number of stalls in various archipelagos.

A crew is born
White Rose (WR) was founded by Blondjne. The original crew was disbanded shortly after it was formed, and its members joined the Scabby Sea Rats (SSR) under captain Leonara. An issue arose in the crew after a couple of weeks, and not everyone was in agreement on its resolution. Blondjne once again formed White Rose on April 12, 2004 within the same flag as SSR. That flag was The Jolly Company (TJC). Shortly after reforming WR, real life issues caused Blondjne to be absent from the game. In order to allow the crew to continue to function while she was gone, all the officers were promoted to senior officers. These pirates were: Blimb, Kierra, Kybosh, and Mobynick.

A new captain in charge
It soon became apparent that Blondjne would not be able to return to the crew. At Bifnot's request, one of the Ocean Masters appointed Blimb as Captain of the crew in Mid-April. Blimb helped the crew to grow and thrive. Bigcheese was the next senior officer to be promoted, followed by Jendra. On April 29, 2004, the crew participated in the first-ever Midnight blockade. Blondjne returned and helped with the battle navigation; the blockade was successful, and TJC colonized the island of. WR ran the iron monger Khan Openers and the shipyard Churchull, both of which were run very successfully under WR leadership. (Note: Both shops were dusted in December 2005 after Avalon took over Emperor and decided to re-size the island to medium (thread with pictures on the Avalon forum). In late summer 2004, Kierra left YPP and in November 2004, Kybosh moved on to other things. Betialai was added as a senior officer in the late fall of 2004 after the departure of Kierra and Kybosh.

WR takes over TJC monarchy
TJC was well respected in the Midnight Ocean as one of its strongest and oldest flags. It was formed on November 1, 2003 just 5 days after the birth of the Midnight Ocean. The original monarch was Maxpower. At the time WR was founded, Bifnot was the king of the flag. When Bifnot felt he had reached all of his goals in the game - ultimate on all puzzles and even a monkey named Alberich - he decided to allow someone else to take over control of the flag. Nominations and elections were held on the forums, and a new king was elected. Bigcheese assumed the monarchy on September 26, 2004. Under his leadership, the flag set itself the goal of winning a second island.

The race for Tinga
Soon afterwards, of doom announced an ocean-wide event: a War Brig race across Midnight. The race required a visit to a specific island in each arch in Midnight, with the island given in the form of a clue. The team visiting the correct islands in the shortest time would be awarded. The TJC war brig, with Bigcheese at the helm, won the race on November 13, 2004, and TJC became the owner of a second island.

Double blockade
Having achieved the goal of owning a second island by winning a thrilling race, TJC faced a number of new challenges: the island had no supplies or defenses, and they were now the focus of tremendous attention throughout Midnight because they owned two islands. Almost instantaneously, Robertdonald and Cheweyshoe announced concurrent blockades on Emperor and Tinga - the first double-blockade ever! Within eight days, TJC stocked supplies, organized the defenses, and rallied support. White Rose took a prominent role in coordinating and leading the blockades, with Blimb handling jobbing, Shipwrecksal managing stocking of the ships and Bigcheese directing blockade management. On November 21, 2004, TJC rose to the challenge and decisively won both blockades: Emperor, at 6 - 1, and Tinga at 6 - 0.

Points of consideration
WR held many leadership roles within TJC, and the demands of the flag grew rapidly. Eventually, Blimb and the SO's were spending most of their game time in arranging alliances, dealing with politics, and holding meetings, rather than in pirating and having fun. A number of officers were finding that the joy of the game was being lost, and there were many discussions about each pirate's goals for the game. This issue came to a head in December of 2004, when Bigcheese stepped down as monarch and elections were set for the new monarch. A flag meeting was called, as well as a WR meeting prior to the flag meeting. At that meeting, Blimb and Bigcheese announced it was time for them to leave the flag so that they could return to having fun in the game without the politics. They were willing to either venture out on their own, or join with the crew outside of the flag. Every member of WR decided to leave TJC. It was a sad day, but, at the same time, there was great hopes of a renewal for the crew, and a return to the aspects of the Midnight Ocean that made it so much fun when we all began.

New homes
In leaving TJC, we gave up ownership of our island and our home, Emperor, as well as the shops. We took up residence at various islands in the Emerald Archipelago, with Spring as the primary residence. The Inebriated Oceanid - the crew's fund and map ship - was moved to Spring. Stalls replaced the shops. White Rose also needed a new forum. We previously had a section on TJC's forums but now needed one of our own. Betialai set up our new forums. All of the crew members felt a new vitality and excitement from the change, and we all were energised with hopes for the future.

Changes within the crew
Around the time when WR left TJC, Jendra started spending less time playing YPP. Then shortly after that, Mobynick had to leave the game due to some real life issues. Lj was promoted to SO January, 12 2005, followed by Silverwings on February, 20 2005, and Angara on February 26, 2005.

The race across Midnight
Always looking for fun things to do, the crew decided to participate in an ocean wide event being thrown by Shuranthae. It was his famous Race Across Midnight. The race was held during the week of January 14-24, 2005. White Rose put together several fine teams of pirates to compete in the race and took second place barely two minutes behind the winner. The prize won was a painted renamed cutter. WR was allowed to choose the name of the cutter and the color scheme. A name that signified speed was chosen - White Lightning. Shortly after the race, some of our mates in another crew followed the same path WR had chosen: they left behind flag life and became an independent crew. The crew name they chose was Black Lightning. In honor of the move the crew made, WR had the cutter renamed to Black Lightning and gave her to the crew as a gift.

White Rose has a birthday
On April 12, 2005, White Rose turned one - an unusual age among the crews on Midnight. In celebration, the crew held a series of ocean-wide birthday events to celebrate the WR Anniversary:  a crew logo design contest, multiple tournaments, and grand frigate pillage. Prizes for the event were donated by the crew, the ocean masters and from the crew fund. Cognatus won the swordfighting tournament. Prizes for the swordfighting tournament included gold male boots, a cleaver, a cutter, a male outfit in our crew colors (maroon/grey) and 90,000 PoE. Shuranthae won the Drinking tournament; prizes for the drinking tournament included gold female boots, a cleaver, a female outfit in our crew colors (maroon/grey) and 100,000 PoE. The winner of the crew logo contest was Buckanyr, with his entry of a Frigate under full sail on a field of puzzle pieces (and a White Rose on its foresail). For his design, he won the war brig Dear Bass, fully stocked and equipped with a complete set of interarch charts. A pillage was held on a grand frigate loaned to us by Bryson (former captain of Black Lightning). We had 80-90 people on board at times.

White Rose party in Pennsylvania
On June 4, 2005, Bigcheese and Queencheese hosted a White Rose Crew party - in real life! We had 14 members of the crew altogether at Bigcheese's house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Blimb and Tinky surprised everyone with T-shirts with the White Rose Logo on them, and Bigcheese had a cake made with the logo as well. The photo gallery of the crew forums has a section with photos from this party. In addition, Gillz put together a multimedia production that included many pictures from the event, not to mention cannonfire.

Home sweet home
With the addition of houses and furniture in the August 10, 2005 release, White Rose needed a crew home to have meetings, hang out and throw parties. Blimb's manor was purchased on Spring Island and furnished with crew funds. It is compete with a recreation basement with all the parlor tables (Drinking, spades, hearts, Brawl) and a tournament board. A grand opening party was thrown on September 11, 2005.

New captain and new senior officers
After successfully leading the crew for almost a year and a half, Blimb turned over captaincy of the crew to Lj on September 29, 2005. Blimb continues on as an active senior officer and counsellor of the crew. Generic was promoted to senior officer on October 7, 2005 and Moradeth was made SO on December, 2 2005. On February 25, 2006, Josegringo was promoted to senior officer.

Why and who?
When White Rose left TJC, it was to allow all of us to return to the fun and joy of the game. White Rose wanted to enjoy the game without politics, but also recognized that flag membership can also bring benefits such as camaraderie with other crews and a larger base for organizing pillages. After several months of enjoying independence, we thought the time was right to start to look for like-minded crews to join in creating a flag. One of the first crews we approached was Black Lightning: old friends and hearties with whom the White Rose often pillaged. Black Lightning had also left behind a flag to pursue a life of politics-free piracy. We looked at other crews and independent flags, but after a careful consideration, White Rose and Black Lightning established a new flag on October 26th 2005. The name "The Free Musketeers" was chosen for this flag.

A flag falls apart
On March 3rd, 2006, the flag Free Musketeers was dissolved. The crews headed their own ways to pursue different goals.

A new direction
On March 18th, 2006, the White Rose joined the flag Moonlighting. And on April 22, 2006, the White Rose was the attacking crew at the opening blockade of Vernal Equinox which Moonlighting won against 3 contenders (full details about Vernal I). Since the colonization, LJ is governor of Vernal Equinox and is overseeing the development of the island.

During September 2006, Blimb decided to take a break from responsibilities and continue on as fleet officer. But around the same time (September 18th) the crew Leadership was strengthen when Drilly joined the ranks as senior officer. Early October the same year, Silverwings also felt that she needed to cut back on her game time and resigned as senior officer to go back to fleet officer.

The economy
White Rose has been blessed with many superb entrepreneurs in the crew. Unlike many crews that require PoE from commanding officers, White Rose finances have always been supplied from voluntary donations and a great network of crew stalls. Bigcheese spearheaded initial ventures into the markets, with assistance from Jendra, Mobynick and Blimb. White Rose had an ironmonger stall on every island in Emerald, and a distillery on almost every island. These ventures enable the crew to be self-sufficient. We can schedule events for the enjoyment and entertainment of all of us, without making heavy financial demands on our individual members. In the summer of 2005, when the demands of commodity moves became too great, White Rose made the decision to scale back on the crew-run stalls and allow more individual pirates to experience that aspect of the game themselves. October 15, 2005 Bryson gave White Rose its first full shop - Driftwood Dinghies, a shipyard on Zeta. Several of the crew also purchased Sofa's Up a furnisher located on Zeta. Today, both of these shops are sold, but two other shops have been bought by crewmembers; Insult to Injury (IM originally owned by Blimb) and Proof Positive. They are both located on Namath and owned by LJ.

The crew fleet
White Rose has many great vessels in its fleet that deserve some mention. The Inebriated Oceanid was a sloop of Blondjne. It has always been the crew fund ship and serves at the map ship as well. Blimb is now the deed holder of this historic vessel. The Grande Rosetta was the first ship purchased with crew funds. It is a war frigate. Its christening in August of 2004 was heralded with tournaments, a trivia contest and large pillage. The White Rose is WR's grand frigate. The largest ship in the game, it was the second vessel purchased with crew funds. The ship was christening on November, 12, 2005. Whitesquaw generously allowed her sloop to be renamed to allow the grand frig to have that name. The Dragon is a spectacular war brig donated to the crew by Michael; it has a striking black and purple color scheme. The Blonde Burracuda is the war brig first used by Blondjne for White Rose pillages. Many oldtimers in the crew remember pillages aboard her with fondness. The Black Rose is a war brig renamed for the crew and painted in crew colors, and is noteworthy for its dazzling black banners and bedding.

History of the name
It is thought that Blondjne named the crew after five German students who, back in 1942, published something known as Leaflets of The White Rose. Here is the story:

A group of German students during World War II shared the same ideals and interests in medicine, music, art, theology and philosophy. They soon recognized their shared disgust for Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich and the Gestapo. Together they spread their anti-nazist beliefs through printed leaflets and writings on the walls of buildings. (Original source)

Prominent Officers of White Rose, Past and Present

 * Angara - Senior officer, former king of Blood and Roses. This Senior Officer from Sweden first joined White Rose as a greenie in late September 2004 and hasn't left yet. He has memmed the whole Midnight, including live, dead, and training routes, and is among the top navigators of the Ocean. He is always willing to assist with charting or help where needed. Angara often works behind the scenes to keep things moving and on track.  He was the first King of Blood and Roses, and recently passed his title to Christiella.


 * Betialai - Former senior officer. Once a member of The Jolly Company in another crew, Betialai came back to the flag in the summer of 2004, starting a new career from scratch, as pirate. He brought a great deal of experience in crew/flag leadership, and was quickly asked to take on more responsibility and accept the role of senior officer. Betialai loves a good pillage and often organizes events for the crew to participate in. Betialai is also hosting their crew forum.


 * Bigcheese - Senior officer and former king of TJC. Bigcheese lives in Indiana. Bigcheese came to White Rose from another crew after enjoying the successful pillages run by Blondjne. He excelled at battle navigation, politics, mentoring, crew and business management. He is most remembered for his wonderful talks. Everyone loved to talk to Bigcheese and he was always ready and willing to listen. Bigcheese was a mentor to many. While he took a break from Y!PP he has recently returned to the game to continue his long standing tradition at excellent pillaging.


 * Blimb - Former captain and senior officer. Blimb lives in Pennsylvania. As Captain of White Rose for 17 months, Blimb provided the perfect example of great leadership. It's rather ironic that the second Captain of White Rose has a female pirate, but is a man in real life just like Blondjne. One of Blimb's many talents is as arbitrator and he is an outstanding puzzler.


 * Blondjne - Founder of White Rose. Blondjne was a female pirate in the game, although a man in real life. He is from Germany, and in the early days of the crew, pillages where often run in German. Blondjne was known for his great skill in battle navigation.


 * Carnation - Senior officer. Carnation lives in Tennessee, USA. Together with Josegringo, she is the driving force behind the profitable gem-runs.


 * Drilly - Former senior officer. Drilly is notorious for his awesome skills as battle navigator against both brigands and other players and is often requested to blockade nav. Before joining the ranks in White Rose, he was a prince of Avalon. He lives in the Netherlands.


 * Generic - Former senior officer. Originally recruited by Salus in December 2004 while he was browsing a tailor's rack, Generic had never been on a ship or heard of a crew, until he was brought into White Rose. He quickly worked through the OiT program and made officer, but his progress went on hold when he was deployed in the Navy and could not log on for nearly 3 months. Now out of the Navy and living in Florida, this turban-wearing Senior Officer excels at all piracy, dabbles in business and battlenav, and enjoys doing whatever he can to make someone laugh.


 * Gillz - Senior officer. Gillz lives in Indiana. She came to the White Rose from another crew and is responsible for introducing a large percentage of pirates to puzzle pirates and the White Rose. Gillz is known for her outgoing personality. After the real life White Rose party, Gillz put together a great video highlighting the excitement of the weekend and the crew.


 * Jendra - Former senior officer. Jendra is from Florida. She was an incredible puzzler and great at business management. Other games now occupy Jendra's time, but she stops in to visit in game every so often.


 * Josegringo - Senior officer, nicknamed Gem-Finder. Together with Carnation, fine-tuned the strategy of gem-runs and known to be using his sloop Precious Stoneside for the purpose routinely.


 * Kierra - Former senior officer. Kierra was one of the original officers of White Rose and founding Senior Officer. We have Kierra's Hake in the crew thanks to her.


 * Kybosh - Former senior officer and surgeon. Kybosh was from Great Britain. He was known for his humor.


 * Lj - Captain. Lj is from Pennsylvania. She joined White Rose as a greenie and quickly became hooked on the game. She has always worked tirelessly in any activities that will strengthen the crew, and has taken a lead role in mentoring, OiT training, pillaging, and commerce.  She is always ready to lend a hand.  Lj assumed captaincy of White Rose in September 2005, and has provided steady leadership in the outstanding tradition of her predecessor Blimb.


 * Michael - Former fleet officer. Michael is from Florida. He was a royal in TJC and served in various capacities during his pirate career. He was Captain of SSR for a period of time as well as being an officer in White Rose. Michael was a generous pirate and was always quick to provide training and instruction to new mates. Michael worked hard to provide training materials for our OiT's. Michael and his wife Judyqt had their subscription lapse in October of 2005. They still visit us from time to time in the forums and as green accounts. Michael left the crew with many great vessels - most notably Dragon.


 * Mobynick - Former senior officer. Mobynick is from Great Britain. He was a master recruiter and instructor. He always kept the chat lively and humorous while on pillages. The guns were loaded lickity split when he was around! Moby contributed extensively to our training manuals for our OiT's.


 * Moradeth - Senior officer. Moradeth is from Oregon.  He is one of the Midnight Oceans top gunners and won the Cold Steel gunning competition on November 5, 2005.  He often assists with pillages and helps with recruiting new members into White Rose.


 * Salus - Senior officer. Salus is from New York. She was a master recruiter and brought many fine pirates to the crew. She might be the only pirate ye would ever meet that didn't want PoE.


 * Silverwings - Former senior officer. Silverwings is from New York. She joined White Rose from another crew that had become less active over time. Her level-headedness, dedication to the crew, and knowledge of the game lead to her being asked to take on the role of Senior Officer. Silverwings in an outstanding teacher and mentor to OiT's and often serves as the resident psychologist of the crew. Nowdays she has cut back on her online time and enjoys the game as a Fleet Officer.