I be Tiger Lee, here be a tale of my visit to the old world. I boarded the Brixham Pirate Festival in its 5th year. Not sure what to expect, I arrived at the old seaport village, with about 40,000 visitors. Maybe 10% dressed in that they call “fancy” outfits, what we call cheap Halloween costumes. About 60 pirates were dressed in authentic pirate kits. Most of them re-enactors be very knowledgeable about pirate history and what they be wearing. There be a surprising number of them that actually be carrying n using black powder firearms, as you must have a hard to come by firearm’s license. Black powder is classified as an explosive, so special requirements are required fer storage. They also have firearms converted to fire regular 9mm pistol blanks to avoid the black.

They had two stages of entertainment, one fer kids n another one for adults. They had a mixture of regular musicians playing some pirate like music, plus a number of dedicated pirate bands, some were quite good, just like in the New World. They only had one vendor sell some leather items. My guess be that the hundreds of shop keepers around the harbor didn’t want competing vendors around.

At 5:30pm they had a skirmish at the Golden Hind, a replica of the ship that Sir Frances Drake used to circumnavigate around the world. There are two of the ships, one in London, which be the more authentic one. The ship here is more of a floating museum, except that half of the time during low tide, it sits on the mud bank. I be told that 30 or 40 years ago the Golden Hind in London wanted to dock at St Augustine, but the city told them NO. After 300 years they are still holding a grudge against Sir Frances Drake fer burning down the city, even though they hold a re-enactment called Drakes Raid every year for the past 20 years.

The skirmish (we call an re-enactment) starts out with the authorities check the papers of the English merchant, to discover they be French pirates, so the garrison opens fire to the pirates on board. They have a large wall gun, muskets, blunderbuss, and pistols blasting away at each other. Then the port side troops attack and board the ship. There be a melee aboard an actual wooden tall ship. Cutlasses be clashing all around the ship, with the outnumbered pirates killed or taken prisoners. It was truly wonderful to watch gunfire and sword fighting on a tall ship with pirates and British soldiers in a historic seaport harbor. So much better than most pirate re-enactments that happen in an open field, nowhere near water or ships around. Even pirate event that have tall ships, they normally just have ship to ship cannon firing, but never a boarding action. View Melee Video

This Brixham Pirate Festival once held the World records fer most pirates at one location in 2009, but Hasting currently holds the title with 14,231. This event always happens during the 3 day Bankers Holiday weekend. There be no formal pub crawl event, but the area is filled with a tons of great little pubs and restaurant, just like it must have been during the great Age of Sail two hundred years ago. The pirates here didn’t seem to drink as much as the pirates in the new world. The local shops sold plastic swords n cheap pirate hats to the tourists; there wasn’t much a serious pirate could find to plunder.

Blimey, I did come across an interesting place call Smugglers and Pirates Experience, a large red building that consist of 4 pirate businesses in one place. All the graphics and building be modern n very professional looking. The first be an olde tyme pirate studio, similar to my old business, but the costumes used to dress up be of the fancy pirate outfits shot against a photographic background.

The next business is a 50-minute multimedia experience that cost 7 pounds. It consist of a series of room and tunnels that are set up with a series of screen with project talking characters that tell a story of one certain smuggler, which this area had much real history with. At the end it talks a bit about pirates. I think the pirates be recently added as a marketing pull. It seems that smuggling doesn’t get the respect that pirates get. There be a pirate gift shop of mostly plastic pirate stuff. I was hopping to find a good book on smuggling, but didn’t fine one. The last be a pirate themed restaurant called the Smugglers Retreat. Very targeted to the common tourist and kid market, but not very exciting fer a seasoned pirate re-enactor.

So how does pirating in the New World differ from that in the Old World? In the UK, pirates have been growing; there are currently about 2 dozen events. There is almost no middle class of pirates here, just tourist dressing up in cheap Halloween costumes and serious re-enaactors. It might have to do with the fact that there don’t seem to be vendors for people who want better stuff to buy from. In the New World there is a growing group of pirates that want to wear something better than a quote-unquote “fancy” costume, but is not wanting to spend the time n’ effort of learning to make yar own authentic garb. I think the growth of this middle ground is important fer the overall growth of the pirate market.

The event didn’t have as much to do as pirate festival in the states side, but there be no cost. For the common tourist and even the experienced pirate this be an event worth travelling fer. Overall I be pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy it, yarrrr!

We pirates alway be looking fer adventure, so what could be better than taking to the sky on a light sport aircraft what takes off n' lands right on the water.  It would be grand to spot the next treasure ship from the air.  This might not be as grand as a steampunk airship, but it be smaller n' faster.  So visit my good mate, Charlie Floyd at Duckwing Triking. It fly's out of Duendin, FL.  He be one of only 4 instructors of this type of ampibious trike. The weather was good, with a little breeze, the water warm, and the views of air, land n water to golden during sunset.

Avast lubbers, if ye had not been to Pirate Fashions store in Tampa fer a while, it has been update to double the amount of plunder that can be stored in the hull.  We had to do this to take care of the Gasparilla rush this year. Since opening last year, we have increase arrrr inventory by double in most departments.  So take a the Store Tour of the world's largest physical and on-line pirate store arrrrgh! We also knocked the building down next door, so we have 3 time more parking as well.

Tally Ho, we finally have this gorgeous coat finished. I have been working on this coat fer the past 6 months on the request of some Gasparilla Krewe, Tallship Crew N War of 1812 re-enactors N even Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. What's fun of being a pirate, if there isn't a bad guy to harass.  We used a very hard to find book: Dressed to Kill, to craft this pattern.

his be the coat of arrrrr fine enemy, the British Royal Navy.  Many other European and American Navy N Privateer uniforms we similar in design during the Late Pirate Period of the Napoleonic Wars.

• Made of a Navy cotton and lined with cotton/linen fabric (much cooler that a wool coat)
• High quality gold braid used to trim in a simplified Captains design
• Two real front pockets
This be a Pirate Fashions design, that will take 4 to 6 week to make.

When yar mates be needing something warm on a cold night, here be the St Bernard fer Pirates.  This be 5th in arrrr line of specialized drink products. Pirate Fashions design, not available anywhere else.
• Made of high quality black leather with beveled edges
• This Baldric has a buckle in the front, to make it adjustable to anyone from about 5'5 to 6'5 .
• Comes with one wood shot cup with a skull and cross bone burned into it.
• Come with a one liter (64 oz) oak barrel (you need to soak it in water fer one day, so the wood will swell before using, else yar rum will leak).
• Come with a cork bung at top (which needs to be removed) so the rum will flow through the spigot at the side (replace the cork bung after pouring).
• Connected with Chicago screws, so you an switch it around for left handed draw.
• Be the life the party with this one.

April 6 be the next meeting of the Dueling Society at Ducky's next door (1719 W. Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL 33606) at 6:30pm.  Come in Pirate Garb, have dinner n' drink.  Get 15% off yar tab if ye show them a receipt from Pirate Fashions.  We be demonstrating the classic French duel with black powder dueling pistols.

Fer more info visit: http://www.meetup.com/duelingsociety/events/171612692/

Pirate Fashions is be in its 6th year of operation.  When we started this website there be no shell phones looking at it, but now that a third of the traffic be on those magical devices, we have completed sunk the old website (GoLive) to dave jones locker.  This new responsive website (Shopify) automatically changes how it display based on the size of the viewing window.  

We will be adding lot of new features with time.  As with any major switch over there be bug n' mistakes, please sent us e-mail to notify us of any we have missed.

After a long, hard Gasparilla of making a ship load of garb, I granted one of my head sailmakers to a cruise ta the Bahamas aboard one of the East Indian Mouse Companie's ships, called the Disney Dream. Many of the cruise ships travelling to the Caribbeans have a pirate day aboard. Here be Rouge Violace (Karen Shuey) report:

Me mate of 34 years heard that not only do they allow pirates on board but they be having a special party for them. 'Tis true Cap'n, 'tis true!! The party be called "Pirates in the Caribbean", with music, dancing n' fire works. The krewe be in their finest pirate garb n' there be even a sword fight or two.

Many guests be in their pirate garb along with the wee ones. But it be these wee cabin boys and girls that outshined their elders. Disney helped by handing out bandanas. We saw many wearing that which they had made but none sewed as fine as ye seamstresses, Cap'n. There be many too, Cap'n, that be seeing ye Halloween dressmaker. 'Twas confusing to me as not only could she not sew as well as ye girls but she be using fibers ,such as polyester and plastic, from an unknown world to me.

As this being the party we not be missing, me mate and I put on our best. Aye Cap'n we be looking good. Wherever we went on the ship there be someone wanting our picture. I became known as the Purple Pirate and me mate as the handsome one. Many be wanting his coat. Ye Disney Dream crew said to me we be the finest pirates ever being seen on their ship. When me said I had made these fine clothes and that I sew for the finest Cap'n in the Tampa Bay, they wanted to know about ye fine clothing, leather and hats. Ye may be hearing from some of them soon.

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This be arrrr 39th issue of the Pirate Fashions Newsletter for Feb 2013. In transfer the old website to the new one, we had issues transferring the newsletter. So we be reposing the feature article into this blog instead of losing all the past newsletters.

Jose Gaspar, known by his nickname Gasparilla (1756 – 1821), be a Spanish pirate, the "last of the Buccaneers," who is claimed to have raided the west coast of Florida during the late 18th n' early 19th centuries. Though he be a popular figure in Florida folklore, no evidence of his existence appears in writing before the early 20th century. His legend is celebrated every year in Tampa with the Gasparilla Invasion n' Pirate Parade Festival.

The first Gasparilla parade was held in May 1904, after Tampa Tribune society editor Miss Louise Frances Dodge and Tampa's director of customs George Hardee combined the legend of the dashing pirate and elements of a New Orleans Mardi Gras to give Tampa's relatively sedate May Day celebration a new theme. The festival was carried over into the evening with Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla's First Coronation Ball held at H.B. Plant's Tampa Bay Hotel where King Edward and Queen Mary Lee were crowned. The first "invasion" was via horseback, with the first sea-based invasion coming in 1911.

As the festival grew, a US Navy ship would be attacked by small boats throwing Cuban bread and black bean soup. The Navy would respond with fire hoses but would succumb to the Ybor City Navy, and then surrender to the Alcalde of Ybor City. The sailors would be treated to an evening on the town. This was discontinued after the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, the invasion itself continues as "Capt. Jose Gaspar" and his crew of "Pirates" "attack" Tampa, surrounded by hundreds of other boaters as they sail the Gasparilla Ship through Tampa Bay, land near downtown and "take over the city."

Historically, Gasparilla was held on the second Monday of February. It was a holiday in Tampa, with schools and many businesses closed. In 1988, the main parade was moved to a Saturday in early February to allow more local communities to take part in the celebration. Since 2005, the event has been held on the last Saturday of January.

The Gasparilla Parade has grown to become the 3rd largest parade in the US, the largest being Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, followed by the Rose Bowl Parade. Annual attendance at the Gasparilla Parade currently runs about 400,000 people but has attracted 1 million attendees in some years. Attendance of Gasparilla is probably equal to the combined total of all 150+ pirate events through out the entire world each year.

In the 1970, the krewes of Gasparilla Pirate Fest begin throwing bead, which is a Mardi Gras tradition. Collecting beads is the main draw of Gasparilla, much more fun than just watching floats drive down the road. Most groups have a special krewe bead with their logo on it, which is very prized to collect.

There are 60 plus different krewe that particapates in the parade each year, about 25 of them are pirate krewes. Each of these krewes range from 50 to 200 members. Last year the YMKG decided not to allow any more new pirate krewe to join the parade. This year the Hard Rock Cafe will be sponsoring the 101st Gasparilla event again. Servicing these Gasparilla krewes is the main reason Pirate Fashions moved to Tampa.

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This be arrrr 38th issue of the Pirate Fashions Newsletter for Jan 2013. In transfer the old website to the new one, we had issues transferring the newsletter. So we be reposing the feature article into this blog instead of losing all the past newsletters.

In September, I be contacted by a prop house in need of a cutlass n' baldric. We ended up providing 4 of arrrrr Stage Combat Caribbean Guard Hangers and a dozen Custom Leather Baldrics. These items ended up being used in the up coming Spong Bob 2 Movie, which is a life action and animation film that includes one pirate, played by Antiono Banderas (The Mask of Zorro, Puss in Boots). They were filming in Savannah, Georgia in October of 2013. They were also filming on Tybee Island the week before the Pirate Festival, that I be vending at. I wanted to meet up with the prop house, but ran out of time.

Here be the story about arrrr involvement. The prop house first wanted soft leather fer the bladrics, even though I told them that is would not hold the cutlass well. I send off the 2 cutlasses in stock and had two more made. Once they got the baldric n' put the sword in, they figured I be right, so they order a set of stiffer leather one (I used a special water buffalo hide that be softer than cow hide but stronger).

The two new swords were different than the two old swords. So the prop house send the old swords back and had us made two more new ones exactly like the other two. The prop house told me that they would use the soft baldric in some of the scene and the hard baldric on others. Well they lost the first set of baldrics and had me make them another set. On the first day of filming, they needed to change something on the baldric, so they sent them back to us over night, we had to make a new set of them and send it out the next day, so they could go back to filming.

So that be arrr tail of what its like to work fer a feature film on the prop side of things. Things be stressful on movie project but rewarding to see arrr work in movies. SpongeBob SquarePants 2 is set for release on February 13, 2015. Here be the Offical Trailer fer the SpongeBob 2 Movie.

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This be arrrr 37th issue of the Pirate Fashions Newsletter for Dec 2013. In transfer the old website to the new one, we had issues transferring the newsletter. So we be reposing the feature article into this blog instead of losing all the past newsletters.