Pirates Steal the Show in Pan

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

With Pan, the prequel to Peter Pan, showing up on movie screens now much attention is on Peter, the eternal boy child who “won’t grow up.” At the same time, though, the spotlight is shining on pirates…especially the most famous of them all, Captain Hook.

This got SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel thinking about what it must have been like in those swashbuckling days of adventure on the high seas.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries pirates were the scourge of sailing ships across the Atlantic from Europe and Africa to the Caribbean.

At any moment a ship flying the black, skull and crossbones Jolly Roger flag might appear, ready to capture a vessel and plunder its bounty.

With names and appearances that could strike fear in opponents, some pirates, like England’s Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, traversed the seas for king and country, bringing the spoils of battle back to their homelands…and were knighted for their exploits.

Other pirates, like the notorious Blackbeard, flew under their own flags and kept their treasures for themselves.

There were even women pirates – Anne Bonny and Mary Read – who went against the conventions of the day, disguised themselves as men and joined a pirate crew in 1718.

As Spain, Portugal, England and France all were fighting for dominance of the Atlantic trade routes and the lands of the New World, it was an ongoing battle with cannons, muskets, swords and daggers at the ready.

Some pirate ships even made their way around the tip of South America and up the Pacific to California’s Monterey Presidio in 1818.

The lure of adventure and untold riches was strong. But, much of the pirate treasure ended up in Davy Jones locker, sunk to the bottom of the ocean as ships fell victim to cannon fire, rough seas, hurricanes, and more.

Now, beneath the surface of the water, who knows what spoils hidden in the deep are waiting to be found?

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti are channeling our inner-pirate now and searching for treasures with a genuine pirate map

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

SurfWriter Girls

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