In October I took a OLLI-USF course called: "The Making of a Museum Exhibit: Treasure Seekers: Conquistadors, Pirates n' Shipwrecks". At the Tampa Bay History Center, the class got a behind the scenes glimpse into the creation, construction and promotion of the museums newest $11 million expansion schedule to open in mid-Feburary 2018.

The center's leadership walk us through the basics of exhibit design, artifact acquisition, display and hosted a private tour of the new gallery in the middle of construction of the 8500 foot expansion will feature Conquistadors, Pirates and Shipwrecks as well as the new Touchton Map Library..  

It will be a wonderful place fer those interested in pirates, sea navigation and local history. It will feature a 17th century bronze ship's bell, a 17th century bronze astrolabe, and a 18th century 6 pounder cannon recovered from a Barbary coast pirate ship shipwrecked in the Mediterranean.  The pirate sloop is being built by the team from Creative Arts, who we worked with on their History Channel Museum Men TV series two year back.

There be one pirate that struck fear into all men and women throughout the Caribbean and the colonies in the early 18th Century above all others, the infamous Blackbeard! 

Also known as Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, Blackbeard is easily the most notorious pirate when we look through history n' media. He is very recognizable because of his moniker n' his reputation as a hellish, savage man. One may not suspect it, but the persona of Blackbeard may have been driven more by playing a part than Teach being a savage brute himself.

Someone like Blackbeard would be expected to maintain discipline through the use of brute force, but Teach was actually a very shrewd, calculating leader. He would dress from head to toe in black clothing, and use fire and smoke effects on himself with the express purpose of intimidation. And yet, he commanded his own crews and ships with the respect, n' permission of his crews.

Fer pirates across history, the idea of actually fightin' a bloody battle is actually unappealing fer multiple reasons. Ye would not want to damage any potential plunder, n' ye would certainly not wish to put yarself at risk! Believe it or not, most pirates were likely normal people who also had no desire to kill someone unless they had to.

Most pirates would want a ship to surrender rather than fight. So nowadays we see Blackbeard as a master the art of intimidation n' theatricality. He used his talents and strategy to strike fear into people's hearts to get what he want, as a distinct preference to torture or violence. 

There be no actual accounts of him murdering a prisoner or captive, so violence fer the sake of violence would have been rather out o' character we predict. In a business of calculatin' n' clever businessmen, we suspect he was one o' the most famous.

When ye be lookin' at Blackbeard just remember, he's a hell of an actor!

Feast yar eyes on the Pirate Fashions Blunderbuss! The ideal weapon for clearing a deck o' enemy sailors, sometimes it be called a Musketoon. This basically be a short, carbine-like musket with a flared barrel. While we discuss the blunderbuss we can bust a few myths!

Because o' its flared barrel-end it is assumed that its primary purpose was that it was a shotgun style weapon, in reality the flared barrel allows the shooter to easily load a weapon with shot. While at sea or on horseback it made loading the weapon much easier because ye could dump your ammo into the barrel without worrying about precision. They were shortened muskets essentially so that also helped with loading. They were indeed great compact weapons for close quarters, but their shotgun status should be regarded with some skepticism. If the barrel's flare had an effect on the shotgun's spread we would see more flared barrels today.

We also have a false perception that "anything" could be loaded into a blunderbuss, but the barrel would not last long firing silverware or debris- ye would destroy it internally. With most blackpowder weapons ye could actually load multiple rounds o' shot into the muzzle (two was recommended if ye were to do so.) Ye could fire multiple metal balls with a musket, pistol or blunderbuss. Ye could also load buckshot (numerous small balls) into a weapon n' use it in a shotgun capacity, similar to how a ship's guns could fire Grapeshot.

Arrr Armory has Firing Blunderbusses from most of the Colonial powers in the Spanish Main, n' we also have non-firing replicas- less expensive, but purely for prop usage. Browse Arrr Selection, we've for English, French, Dutch n' Spanish! http://bit.ly/2raJ4vK

If a Pirate's Success was measured by the sheer number o' ships captured then Bartholomew Roberts be the most Successful Pirate in the Golden Age of Piracy! Posthumously he would be known as "Black Bart," n' while bein' an incredibly accomplished rogue, he is also known for his strict pirate code n' a lack of alcohol. Roberts preferred tea o'er rum! While this may have made him seem like a bit of a dandy, his crew would be unlikely to judge him, for they profited greatly from their Cap'n!

On Bart Roberts' ship a pirate was not allowed to gamble, party below decks after 8:00 in the evenin', or allowed to neglect the maintenance of their blackpowder or melee weaponry. Seducing or kidnapping a woman or a boy, n' bringing them aboard the ship was punishable by death. These be examples o' the policies that he enacted aboard his ships. With his achievements he was allowed to have strict policies.

O'er the course o' his three year career in piracy, Roberts was able to take 400-500 ships. Before he became a pirate, Roberts was a crewman aboard a slaver ship known as the Princess. When pirates captured the ship off the coast of Africa in 1719 he was pressed (forcibly recruited) into the crew as a navigator. He was quite reluctant, but when pirates see an asset, they do not take no for an answer.

Half a year into his pirate career, Roberts was chosen to be the Captain of his kidnappers. He began a pirating spree from Africa to Brazil, the Caribbean n' up the coasts to Canada. Off the coast of Brazil, Roberts was able to covertly capture a Portuguese treasure ship (the wealthiest in its fleet) n' extract it from a guarded fleet o' 42 ships with a two war ship escort. It took weeks of studying n' planning but the haul was estimated to set most men up for life. O'er three years Roberts was estimated to have made the equivalent of 100,000,000+ British Pounds in plunder.

His career was cut short by pirate hunters however. He died fightin' n' became a pirate legend! 

Though Anne Bonny n' Mary Read were likely far from being the only female Buccaneers they certainly be the most famous! They be a dynamic duo that make for quite a piratical tale!

Before Anne met Calico Jack she was married to a poor sailor named James Bonny, business had brought them from England to Nassau where she freely mingled with other pirates n' sailors. She had a reputation for bein' a fiery, confrontational Irish girl. When she got into her affair with Jack Rackham she quickly left her husband fer a life at sea.

As a crewman aboard his ship she had allegedly tried to strike up another affair with a sailor, who in this case turned out to be Mary Read! Read had been disguised as a man to allow her the liberty to pirate freely without dealing with the pressures of bein' a woman in an Age not known for fair treatment of women. The two became close n' it wasn't until Jack became murderously jealous of this "man" that Read's identity was revealed to the crew.

Read (still disguised as a man) had actually fought in one of the several wars that were waged in the early 18th Century between Britain n' Spain, after-which she married an allied Dutch soldier n' made a life in Holland, following his death she sailed to the Caribbean n' became a pirate.

The women sailed the Caribbean with Rackham for about a year before they were captured by English Pirate Hunters and sentenced to hang. Bonny n' Read were able to "plead the belly," meaning they were pregnant, which temporarily exempted them from the noose. Jack was not so lucky, n' met his fate in Kingston. Read unfortunately died in childbirth, n' Bonny may have been executed though there likely would have been a record of it.

There be theories that Anne Bonny returned to her husband in Nassau, her family home in England or perhaps she resumed a life of piracy. The world may never know the rest o' her story! http://bit.ly/2lRL7nb

Most of the time when we be recallin' famous pirates throughout history we remember them based on a theatrical reputation. Morgan was cunning, Blackbeard was fearsome n' Vane was cruel. Calico Jack Rackham be a different story!

Rackham is memorable because of his fashionable Calico coat, n' the company he kept with Anne Bonny n' Mary Read. But he is still regarded as one of the famous pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy.

Much o' his life is considered a mystery until 1718 when history documents him as an officer aboard Charles Vane's ship. Vane himself had a warlike n' brutal reputation, often torturing French dignitaries n' merchants fer pleasure. To his crew he was likely just a cunning bully.

At some point during their time together thew crew held a vote to attack a French Man o' War off the coast of New York, for which an overwhelming majority, including Rackham voted yes- attack the ship. They were sure it would be loaded with wealth n' plunder, as well as be a new ship for a pirate squadron they were developing.Vane n' just 15 pirates voted against retreating from the ship, n' he loudly touted that the Captain always has final say.

Not long after the crew, lead by Rackham voted Vane out of Captaincy for being a coward and let him leave with his followers, a ship n' a respectable amount o' supplies.

Most of his adventures could be regarded as shenanigans past this point. Famously he captured a loaded British merchant ship off the coast of Jamaica, but he n' his crew lost the treasure when they evaded bounty hunters.

Jack was more famous for his affair with Anne Bonny. She fled a house wife life to sea with him, n' she took well to piracy alongside her friend Mary Reid. At one point Rackham even challenged Reid to a duel on account of her connection to Bonnie, he then discovered she was in fact a woman!

When the crew was captured, Bonnie and Reid escaped the noose because they were pregnant. Jack himself was not so lucky! http://bit.ly/2lRL7nb

Across history n' the world o'er there have been many who be dubbed "Pirates!" Sometimes ye will have regional varieties that be immediately identifiable by an age old nickname, such as the Barbary Corsairs. Fer Caribbean Pirates ye would likely hear the term Buccaneer. It's certainly popular enough that arrr own Tampa Bucs use it fer their sports team!

Buccaneers have incredibly humble origins, they did not start out as cut throats n' rogues. In the early 17th Century Hispaniola was home to many French hunters who had no land of thar own, who made their living huntin' n' barbecuing wild boar n' other creatures. Thar Smoke Huts were referred to as boucanes, where they cooked all of the meat they harvested from the local wild life usin' Native Caribbean techniques. Effectively they cooked the predecessor to Jerked Meat, as well as Jerky!

Off the coast of these wild islands the "Boucaniers" would see Spanish Treasure ships returning to Europe with New World Riches, as well as the raiders n' early Caribbean pirates that would prey on their cargo. The hunters sold their meats to the pirates n' it didn't take them too long for many o' them to teach the pirates to cook Buccaneer style, n' for the Hunters to learn how to be Pirates!

Usin' thar small sailin' vessels meant to deftly navigate Caribbean islands they learned to creep aboard Spanish merchant ships n' became natural enemies of the Empire. O'ertime the Anglicized word Buccaneer became synonymous with Pirate or Privateer regardless o' nation.

Fer much o' the 17th Century Hispaniola became a large point o' contention between these Buccaneers n' the Spanish. One o' the most popular pirate havens, Tortuga was on a small isle off the northwest coast of Haiti, it was a popular hangout for French Buccaneers!

To be dubbed the "King of Pirates" is no small feat! To achieve that ye would have had to operate in multiple oceans, execute the ultimate raid, develop a notorious n' legendary reputation, as well as live to retire with all of yar earnin's! Ye would also need to set off the World's first International Man-Hunt. So that's exactly what Henry Every did.

Though actively pirate fer only a brief period o' two years in the mid 1690s, Every was able to garner the public's eye, n' is believed to have influenced more n' more people to take up a life of piracy.

Originally he was an English sailor aboard a Slave Ship, but he and the other members o' his crew rose up against the Captain at the time n' renamed their ship, the Fancy. Rather than sailing fer the New World, the Fancy raided the West African Coast n' sailed fer the Indian Ocean, assembling a small squadron of ships along the way.

The goal for Every's fleet was to tackle the 25 Ship Treasure Fleet of the Grand Mughal on its way to Mecca via the Arabian Sea. It was believed to be the richest fleet in the world, surpassing many Spanish Treasure Fleets in the Caribbean as well as numerous targets taken around this same time frame around the world.

Both fleets focused on evading and separating each other, the result was a grand chase with numerous small naval battles over the course o' several weeks. Numerous pirates n' Indian sailors died during the raids.

At the end of the raid Every's fleet rendezvoused in French Madagascar and divided the plunder. Even the ordinary sailors each made roughly $125,000 USD, with an additional hoard of gemstones n' loot.

The raid destroyed diplomatic ties between India n' England, n' Every snuck off to the Caribbean evading the English Crown. The Crown set a bounty n' offered amnesty to any o' his crew for his capture.

By 1696, Every disappeared from all records n' any stories regarding his retirement years be taken with a grain o' salt.   

The settlement o' Tortuga has been featured prominently in Pirate Fiction o'er time, it's time to learn a little about this humble island! While Port Royal n' Nassau were much more prominent pirate ports, we shouldn't forget that Tortuga also has its own Pirate History.

Tortuga Island (Turtle Island) was a small island off the coast of Modern Haiti, orHispanola as it was dubbed in the Colonial Era. Allegedly, when Christopher Colombus sailed into the Caribbean in 1492, he saw the Island n' named it for its Turtle shell shape.

It picked up a small colony of Spanish settlers, but it was lightly populated until French n' English colonists arrived around 1625. The new settlers meant to make a life inHispanola but hadn't thought about the Spanish Military's presence. The Spanish occupied the Island, building a fort after they drove off the colonists. Whenever the military drove off one group of colonists another would appear somewhere else onHispanola, causing Garrisons to shuffle around n' leave unoccupied fortsfer opportunists!

The French saw this n' stole the fort to gain a foothold in the area in 1630, they also shared it with English n' Dutch colonists. The island went through 10 tumultuous years of revolting slaves, Spanish invasions, n' more before "The Brethren of the Coast" made themselves an official organization. It was ashort lived group that the Spanish stamped out, but pirates began to call the island home. It was the Fourth and Final time Spain occupied the Island before England n' France reclaimed the territory in 1655. France removed the English citizens and maintained a hold until 1676 when the island was abandoned.

Throughout the 17thCentury pirates would spring up from Tortuga however. Henry Morgan drew a sizable contingent of French Pirates from Tortuga in 1670 for a campaign in Cuba. France let their pirates run amok, so Tortuga was an excellent place to stash treasure in the formerly Spanish Fortifications.

Some pirates have a reputation for malevolence and savagery, but none have warranted the reputation more than the legendary scallywag known as Francois l'Olonnais, the Scourge of the Spanish! Much of Arrr Information about l'Olonnais (Pronounced Low-Low-Nay) is gathered from Alexander Exquemlin's Accounts n' can be taken with a hefty grain of salt, yet there is such detail!

For much of his life, l'Olonnais was an indentured servant when he arrived in the Caribbean sometime in the 1650's. Indentured Servants were one step above slaves in the New World, being bound to harsh working conditions by a binding contract. People in Europe could be kidnapped and sold into Indentured Servitude. The major difference would be that there was a theoretical end to the contract with a reward upon conclusion. It was banned by the United Nations alongside Slavery in 1948.

l'Olonais completed his contract by 1660 n' promptly made way to Haiti where he became a Buccaneer. A few years into his career he and his mates shipwrecked off the coast of Campeche, Mexico where they were massacred by the Spanish Army. l'Olonnais only survived by hiding among the dead. With the help of Spanish slaves he escaped to Tortuga, only to return later with a thirst for vengeance.

He and his crew promptly took settlements hostage, to which the Spanish responded with military force. l'Ollonais beheaded all but one of the men sentagainst him, whom he told to spread a message, "I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever."

In 1666, he sailed toMaracaibo, Venezuela with a crew of 440 Pirates to sack the city with great success. To gather information about hidden valuables, l'Olonais flayed his victims, burned them alive, or squeezed them to death by strapping them tightly to a mast.

After several years of increasingly larger feats of piracy, l'Olonais wrecked his ship on an expedition to Honduras, only to allegedly be devoured by cannibalistic natives! http://bit.ly/2lRL7nb