People have been in search of 17th century Scottish pirate William Kidd's hidden treasure fer hundreds of years with no success until now. In May 2015, a 50kg (110 pound) silver bar be brought a shore of the island of Sainte Marie, from what be though to be the wreck of the Adventure Galley. The U.S. explorer Barry Clifford believes there be many more bars still in the wreck. which he has been working on since 1999. Mr Clifford be best know fer discovering Pirate Captain Black Sam Bellamy's Whydah Gally off Cape Cod. 

William Kidd was a privateer executed fer piracy in 1701 after a voyage to the Indian Ocean. He was tried for plundering a Armenian ship, the Quedagh Merchant, flying French colors. 

Later a technical team from the UN's cultural division investigated the find, to discover that the silver bar was in fact 95% lead. Many parts identified as the Adventure Galley were also found to be broken part of the old Sainte-Marie port constructions. So much fer the myth that pirates buried treasure, when we all know that real pirate spend n' drank their treasure as fast as they got it, just like regular folks do with their paychecks now a days.

You probably heard about Disney doing another Pirate of the Caribbean movie, the fifth one in the series be called Dead Men Tell No Tales. There will be a new team of directors, Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who last did Kon-Tiki Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom are all signed up as well. 

The East Indian Mouse Company be shootin' the movie in Australia because they got a $20 million tax incentive. This meant that all the America extras already casted to play in the film had their visa's denied. Filming in Gold Coast begin on Feb 17, 2015. Johnny Depp hurt his hand which delayed shooting fer 4 week in March, which be costing the film to go over budget by $70 million. There arrrr rumor that his injury had when in a alcohol induced anger. He also got in trouble fer smuggling his two dogs into the country illegally as well. Olde Johnny spend $320K to fly his dogs out of Australia on a private jet. 

The official description of the story be as follows: Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar, escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea... including him. Captain Jack's only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.

A 15 year old replica of the 1897 Scottish Barley named the The Rainbow Gypsy is being reconfigured to become the Black Pearl. As you can see that it will get a new bowsprit, reconfigured decks, cabins and 31 more cannons. The owner Kit Woodward spend 10 years building the 74 foot tall ship. The budget for this film is around $250 million.

The move is set to release in 3D on July 7, 2017, so we be having' a 2 year wait.

Why in the heavens would Tiger Lee travel to the far side of the world to India? Since the begin of Pirate Fashions, we have tried to make n' buy as much pirate clothing, accessories and weapons from the New World, with 30% of it come right from inside the store itself. So more than half of arrrr products come from overseas either directly from manufactures or from USA distributors that import from overseas. I have always paid my workers only a bid more than min. wages, but if I wish to keep them in the long term, I will need to paid a better wage. 

For the past 2 year, I have been trying to find sewing factories in the USA to produce some of the clothing we currently make, but found none that would work. I decided to explore the possible dealing directly with Indian clothing factories, to have them make items that I am already getting from overseas, but with a high quality and in my own designs. Higher quality but at a lower price, how can that be done? By eliminating the middle man distributors. The main issue is high quantity are required, which means big initial orders and carry inventory for a longer period of time. This is how the larger companies such as Museum Replica does it. 

It will take 4 or 5 year to move half of our production to India. Half of our productions will still be from the USA. I like to be up front with my customers. I had to travel over to India n'personally visit n' talk to the owners of many different factory to feel comfortable with this option. I found that like anywhere else there are both good and bad business, which is very hard to tell by visiting a website. I have found that Indian company can do a great job copying something. So when they have been giving poorly designed garment, they will do a excellent job of reproducing it, which results in a cheap garment, because the distributor wanted a cheaper price. Since I am going to eliminate the middle man, I can ask for the highest quality garment and it will still be cheaper that what I normally have to paid for a poorly designed garment. It will take about 6 months before we will have any new pirate garb in stock from this trip. 

You can follow a day to day travelog of this long and interesting trip on this Tiger Lee's Facebook page starting on April 21. We do all this to get you the best pirate garb in the world, new or old. 

After much thought about how to help new landlubber join the brotherhood, we have developed two guilds to help out.  One be for the men to become pirates.  The other one be fer the ladies be become a lady pirate or wench.  The include photos of different categories of pirates, as well as a 12 step process about the best order to develop a complete outfit from head to toe.

After 3 year in arrrr fine store, we be in need of cleaning up the store to make space fer all the new projects we arrrrr going to begin working on.  So after I spent an entire article last month telling you we don't do sale, we arrrr going to have are very first sale, but none of our regular stock will be in the sale.  

We are cleaning up arrrr shop of the damaged articles, photography equipment from the old store, prototypes samples, old photo props, non-pirate costumes, misc stuff that gathers.  We are taking all these items and selling them on the sidewalk next to the store on Saturday, June 20, 2015 from 10am to 2pm.  If you love deals, this is the one time we are doing this.  If you have any stuff you wish to sell, you may bring that stuff to sell at this Dock Clean Up Sale as well.

Check here on June 18, as we might have a few item available fer on-line sale, before the Dock sale on the 20th, so those that be too far away to visit, might get a few deals.

Every other month the Krewe of Pirate Fashions goes out on a field trip to do something fun or else they might mutiny. Tiger figured that it was time fer arrrr once a year bath, arrrrgh! We had a fun filled day on the crystal clear waters of Weeki Wachee Springs.  We rented some canoes, bought along arrrr paddle boards and mermaid tails. We saw some manatees and even got to touch some of them.

After a very busy Gasparilla season, Tiger Lee had to give his krewe of the Pirate Fashions, a day off or face a mutiny.  We actually do a company field trip every other month, so life be good as a pirate.  We decided to go to Disney's Magic Kingdom, sometimes called "East Indian Mouse Company" or the "Holy Rodent Empire" bent on world domination.  

As you can see we arrrr dispelling the myth that you can't go to Disney as a pirate.  Ye just need to keep to the code and follow the rule (they NOT be guidelines): 

1) You can not dress up as a Disney Character, unless you are under the age of 10. Your pirate outfit can not be too sexy, reveling, torn or smelly. You have to wear some kind of foot gear.  No weapons can be brought into the parks.

2) You can not pose for pictures or sign autographs.  This is a good thing, as you don't really want to be stopped every 10 feet for a photo.  You just need to tell people who ask for a photo, that you are not an Disney Employee and can't pose for photography or you will asked to leave.  They can take a causal photo of you talking or something, but they can not be in the photo.

Ye be asking, why in the seven seas would ye want to dress like a Pirate at Disney?  It be hot, uncomfortable, and bulky to carry n' wear all my pirate or wench garb.  It will get in the way of the rides.  Those be some of the complains my crew members made.

 The simple answer be that ye will have a ship load more FUN!  In the 30 years of attending a Disney park as a regular landlubber, I never experienced a magic moment.  They day my krewe went, we had 6 magic moment in one voyage. Cast Members arrrrr trained n' encouraged to create Magic Moment everyday.  Here be some of arrrrr magic moments: letting us going on the fast pass immediately instead of having to wait 30 or 45 minutes, giving us a extra carrot cake, picking us on the interactive shows, taking a photo of us eating dinner and packing the photo in a nice frame fer dinner, getting to take unique photos with the characters.

Why would ye get more magic moment as a pirate?  My guess be that cast members see thousands of landlubbers everyday.  We always drew more attention from disney cast members than we did with most landlubbers who ignored anything that is not a Disney Themed Character.  I even had the handler fer Gaston want to meet with the Chinese Pirate from the South China Seas. Another ride operator actual recognized us, as he had been a customer at arrrr fine store in Tampa.  We gave a few business cards to people who asked about our fine pirate n' wench garb we be wearing, most of them to Disney Cast Members. You probably won't attract as much attention if your outfit is a Halloween costume.  We had a group of 7 of us, and my Chinese Pirate look is very unique.  You do have to be interesting and try not to outwardly attract attention.

What be the of pirating without weapons or rum? We ye can't going into any of the parks with weapons, but that doesn't mean you can't go into the Pirate's Bazaar Gift Shop n' buy a plastic cutlass n' a metal flintlock pistol n' stick it into yar sash.  Best to go there before you go on the ride, so ye won't be unarmed.

We found many a barrel around the park, but none be filled with rum.  O' why is the rum always gone? No matter how hard we looked, we couldn't find any. We even went into the Tortuga Tavern n' asked fer rum, n' all we got be a pirate coin fer our troubles.  The place you can get some rum, is at the Epcot Center, but none be had at the Magic Kingdom.

So what can you do at Disney as a pirate?  Well the most important treasure be to go on the Pirate's of the Caribbean Ride which opened up in 1967, but will be closing down fer renovations the fall 2015.

I would suggest you skip the Pirate's League, unless ye be a kid or like yar face painted.

If ye be in the area n' have a few minutes to spare, Jack Sparrow's Pirate Tutorial be somewhat entertaining.  They have different shows at different times.

There also be a Pirates Adventure - Treasures of the Seven Seas, which consists of 5 different map that must search through the park to find clues to the treasure.  Unfortunately the machine that allows us to proceed with the quest be cursed (broken fer the time we be there).  The maps do look pretty cool however, arrrrgh!

Well there always be looting . . . I mean shopping.  We randomly picked the least likely shop to find anything pirate, Ye Olde Christmass Shoppe.  A good pirate can discover treasure almost anywhere. Pirate Christmas Ornaments.

They also be having a shipload of pirate trading pins, an idea they stoled (borrowed) from the Olympics. 

Food always be good after a day of plundering.  One of my favorites fer the seafaring types be the Columbia Harbor House.

Pirates alway be lured by mermaids, so go visit The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure as well as Ariel's Grotto meet n' greet fer a personal photo.  Ariel's handlers get upset if ye pull out cutlass during the pictures, but they get over it, arrrrrgh!

Remember if ye don't be following the code, ye might end up in the stocks.

If ye play by the East India Mouse Company's rules, ye'll end up with a quite memorable voyage, but with many fewer doubloons in yar pouch.  Hopefully these tips will result in more treasures in yar next visit n' remember that you can get fine pirate n' wench garb at Pirate Fashions.

Christie Post of The Now Tampa Bay come to visit Pirate Fashions to get a tips on how to dress like a pirate, so we did one of our fabulous lady pirate make overs.  She brought over fashion blogger, Audrey Adair-Keene, who we transformed into a Lady Pirate.  They also show cased two other stores of no worthy mention to a true pirate loving soul, arrrrrrgh!

Tiger Lee transforms News Anchor Women Gayle Buyardo into a Saucy Lady Pirate named Gail Wind Gil.  Watch the Channel 8 New 2 minute piece about outfitting fer Gasparilla.   Gayle later came back n' bought a completely different outfit, yarrrrrr!

It be the start of a new year n' the world largest pirate event.  So we have extended Tampa's largest pirate store from arrrrr traditional Fri to Sun hours.  We have expanded arrrrr parking lot, but it best to come down the back alley way to enter the shop.