Pirates in a museum? Aye, matey

By Karen West

Special to The Seattle Times

KEY WEST, Fla. — The year is 1690. The place Port Royal, Jamaica, reputed to be the world's most wicked city. And you, ye scurvy dogs, if ye dare, are about to pull open a heavy wooden door and enter this den of pirates and prostitutes.

There are 6,000 rogues of all manner living in Port Royal. And if you're wondering why one in four buildings is a tavern or brothel, just look at the size of the harbor. It can hold 500 ships at anchor. Their captains have commandeered goods from around the world, available for a price.

You'll learn all this and so much more about the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1720) if ye enter that dark wooden door at Pat Croce's Pirate Soul Museum in Key West.

Pirate hunting

Where

Pirate Soul Museum, 524 Front St., Key West, Fla. 305-292-1113 or www.piratesoul.com

Pirates of Nassau, at King and George streets, downtown Nassau, the Bahamas. 242-356-3759 or www.pirates-of-nassau.com

More information

There are sources of pirate information to ignite every mind and imagination. Here are some suggestions:

"Pirate" by Richard Platt, one of the DK Eyewitness book series, offers a quick and visual overview of the history of piracy and all its aspects, from foods eaten at sea to pirates in literature and film. 2004, DK Publishing.

Two books by respected British pirate historian David Cordingly are especially good at sorting fact and fiction: "Under the Black Flag," 1995, Harcourt Brace and Co., and "Women Sailors and Sailors' Women," 2001, Random House Trade Paperbacks.

"The Pirates Own Book, Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers," was first published in 1837. Dover Publications' 1993 edition is an unabridged republication of the Marine Research Society's 1924 edition.

Just for fun

• Sept. 19 has been declared International Talk Like A Pirate Day for no other reason than it's fun to do so. Go to www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html.

• Key West hosts an annual festival to celebrate piracy and the end of hurricane season. This year's dates are Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Go to www.piratesinparadise.com for more information.

• To follow the progress of salvage work at the Queen Anne's Revenge wreck site go to www.qaronline.org

Passionate about pirates since seeing "Captain Blood," the 1935 film that made Errol Flynn a swashbuckling star, and wealthy thanks to becoming a successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Croce opened the $10 million museum last year partly to house his personal collection of nearly 500 piratical artifacts.

Avast, me hearties! There is booty here to make any would-be pirate envious, including a real dead man's chest, said to be the only surviving pirate chest in the world. It belonged to American-born pirate Thomas Tew, who made a fortune by attacking an Indian mogul's ship in the Red Sea.

There's a Jolly Roger on display, too, about 6 feet square. It's the pirate flag that struck fear into the hearts of merchant sailors who spotted it on the horizon. This Jolly Roger is considered one of only two in existence. And what about that blunderbuss? Blackbeard himself is said to have fired that musket.

Aye, Blackbeard. Now there's a fearsome name. What would Jack Sparrow do if they met face to face? Sparrow, ye know, is coming back on Thursday when the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opens nationwide.

Blackbeard is coming back, too, in a manner of speaking. There are archaeologists who say so. That French slave ship he captured off Martinique in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge, has been found sitting in 20 feet of water near Beaufort Inlet, N.C. Some of the artifacts are on loan to Croce's museum.

Blackbeard was beheaded in battle, ye know. But you can look over those artifacts while his animatronic head tells how the Golden Age of Piracy ended. It's a Hollywood kind of trick, but that pirate wouldn't mind. He used all manner of tricks during his three-year reign of terror.

If you want to know how he was killed, have a swig of his favorite drink, Kill Devil rum laced with gun powder, before opening the next door because for three minutes you'll sit in the dark below decks while rats scurry about, a ghost whispers in your ear and the ship shakes from a violent battle.

Nautical facts

What is a pirate? A pirate is a seaborne thief. Historically, pirate attacks date to the seventh century B.C. when Greek pirates were attacking Phoenician merchant ships. Today we tend to think of a period in the late 1600s and early 1700s known as the Golden Age of Piracy when legendary figures like Edward Teach (Blackbeard), William Kidd, Henry Avery and Jack Rackam were active. Romanticized versions of their lives and deeds have been fueled by portrayals in literature and film.

Did pirates really keep parrots? Not likely, according to the Pirate Soul Museum. Yes, for pets and for souvenirs, according to the Pirates of Nassau Museum.

Did they wear gold earrings? Opinions vary. Pirates of Nassau maintains that a gold earring was a Robert Louis Stevenson affectation for his classic book, "Treasure Island." Other sources say pirates did pierce their ears because they believed pressure on the earlobe lessened seasickness.

Were there women pirates? Yes. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were probably the two most famous female pirates in the Caribbean, but Ching Shih was the terror of the China Sea in the early 1800s with 1,800 ships and a crew of 80,000 pirates at her command.

Are there pirates today? Yes. Both the robbing, murdering kind and the pretend kind. There is a whole subculture of people who keep the Golden Age of Piracy alive through re-enactments and festivals.

Where are the real pirates? There are hundreds of pirate attacks on commercial and pleasure craft every year with sometimes murderous results. The Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau recently said that in the first three months of 2006, there were 61 pirate attacks in which 63 crew members were taken hostage. Somali and Nigerian waters are considered especially dangerous although in May pirates also struck in the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Blackbeard's head was slung like a trophy below the bowsprit on the sloop that led the expedition to kill him. But wait 'til ye salty dogs see what the King's men did to Calico Jack Rackham after the hanging. They tarred his body and hung it in an iron cage for all to see when sailing into Port Royal.

Aarrr! Ye can learn a lot of history from these high-tech, interactive exhibits at the Pirate Soul Museum. But if you lust for more knowledge piratical, board your vessels and sail on out to the Bahamas and tour the seven-year-old Pirates of Nassau museum.

Nassau had the greatest concentration of pirates ever gathered in the New World during the Golden Age. The harbor was perfect for a pirates' nest: too shallow for the British man-of-war ships to enter, but close to the shipping lanes where all the plundered treasures and trade goods were passing by in the name of commerce.

Today, cruise ships fill Nassau's harbor, and the pirate museum — a short walk from the docks — recreates the early 18th century for the thousands of tourists who arrive each week.

Noted British pirate historian David Cordingly once called Pirates of Nassau "the best pirate attraction in the world," a phrase repeated in every promotional brochure. We don't know if he's been to Key West lately, but we agree that anyone captured by pirate legend should visit this more modest museum in Nassau because of the harbor's historic lore and because the two museums complement each other.

One of the most dramatic displays in Nassau is a replication of Blackbeard's capture of the sloop Margaret at dawn on Dec. 5, 1717. The thunder of cannon and torn sails blowing in the wind simulate the chaos. During the actual incident, the sloop's master was detained for eight hours aboard the fearsome pirate's ship, and one of his crew, a cooper, was forced to join the pirates.

A much quieter display, though desolate and desperate in mood, is a three-dimensional re-creation of Howard Pyle's 19th-century painting of a pirate marooned on a desert island. He has been abandoned to await his fate — probably for violating the pirates' Code of Conduct by stealing from a shipmate.

Karen West, former deputy Scene editor for The Seattle Times, lives in Winthrop.

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