Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime Piracy

Cindy Vallar, Editor & Reviewer
P.O. Box 425, Keller, TX  76244-0425

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Sure 'n' isn't it a pirate's love o' gold and silver that lures us to follow the likes of Henry Morgan, Black Sam Bellamy, and Blackbeard?  There be many tales of rich plundering through the ages, but none so legendary as the one where a fiercesome story drove the Spanish Treasure Fleet ashore in 1715. The hulls were ripped open and the treasure poured into the sea, which be why a far section of Florida's eastern coast be dubbed the Treasure Coast. 'Tis a wide stretch o' land, so I can only be sharin' it in pieces whenever I get to Florida, but if ye be wantin' to know more, here be some links to explore: Exploring the Treasure Coast, Urca de Lima Underwater Museum, and Forever Changed La Florida. If 'ts the treasure o' history ye be searchin' for, I recommend A Fateful Voyage.

 

 Treasure Coast, Florida

           
McLarty Treasure Museum
Sebastian Inlet State Park, Vero Beach

The museum be open seven days a week from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission be  $2 per pirate and pirates younger than six years be free.
If ye be wantin' more information call (772) 589-2147.

Afore enterin' the museum, ye should be after readin' the marker where the survivors and salvagers set up their camp. 'Tis where Henry Jennings set foot when he and his fellow pirates were after helpin' themselves to rescued gold. O' those aboard the Spanish ships, the survivors numbered around 1,500 men, women, and children. They built a temporary camp from cargo and pieces of ships that washed ashore, but there was little respite from the daily plague o' mosquitoes and sand flies. Little food survived the storm and wreckage, so the survivors had little to eat until members o' the Ais tribe provided them with food until rescuers arrived from Havana.

Among the display cases, ye will be findin' Native American pottery (above) and ship ballast (below).

There also be artifacts, diagrams, and dioramas to show where the treasure fleets sailed and the sinking of the 1715 Fleet.


    
            

 
And don't be forgettin' what we pirates came for in the first place -- Treasure!



           

For young pirates who be wantin' to stand on a ship's deck and view the Atlantic Ocean where the ships sank, don't forget to be walkin' the planks that lead out to the sea air.




                   

Copyright © 2017 Cindy Vallar
Photographs and images are also copyrighted. Don't be plunderin' without askin'.

Earlier Pirate Adventures

2012 Corpus Christi, Texas

2010 St. Augustine, Florida

2009 Newport News, Virginia Manteo, North Carolina

2007 Salem, Massachusetts Plymouth, Massachusetts Cape Cod, Massachusetts

2005 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina St. Augustine, Florida