Posted by Dave Thewlis on July 24, 2008 at 01:19:51 user dthewlis.
We meet the Swallows in SA as the Walkers, of course. But, not long after they meet the Amazons they are the Swallows - I think Captain Nancy is the first to refer to them that way. This is right and proper; long custom has crew members of a vessel refer to themselves and be referred to collectively by the name of the vessel.
With the Amazons however it isn't clear whether they were Amazon Pirates before they were given Amazon and it was named after them, or whether the vessel was named Amazon first. Peggy's comment in "The Parley" doesn't really help:
"'Her name is Ruth, but Uncle Jim said that Amazons were ruthless, and as our ship is the Amazon, and we are Amazon pirates from the Amazon River, we had to change her name..."
So referring to them as Amazons can be either a ship-name collective, or a reference to their pre-existing identity, and when they call themselves Amazons it can be an intentional reference to both.
I'm speculating that they became the "Amazon Pirates" when they still had the rowing boat, and that Amazon was named after them, rather than the other way around. In support, the Skull and Crossbones painted over the Beckfoot boathouse seems to have been a good bit more old and weathered than it would have been if it were only a year and a bit more since it was painted.
Peggy again: "Uncle Jim gave us the ship last year. We only had a rowing boat before that."