Exhibit Coincides With New
Disney Movie and
New Book Available Here!
Stephen O’Neill always speaks
up when someone claims pirates roamed warm
Caribbean waters.
“It’s
true, but pirates were also in New England,
they were in the Carolinas, they were in
Madagascar off Africa. They were all over
the place," said O'Neill, guest curator at a
new exhibit called, “A Short Life and Merry:
Pirates of New England,” at the Heritage
Museums & Gardens in Sandwich.
The Cape Cod museum is
dredging up the truth about New England's
pirate roots this summer, as Johnny Depp's
pirate hook makes a third showing in
theaters in Disney's, "Pirates in the
Caribbean: At World's End."
The most recent evidence of pirates in New
England is the
Whydah, the pirate ship Barry
Clifford found off Cape Cod in 1984. Picking
up where many tried and failed, Clifford
spent years searching for the vessel, which
sank off Wellfleet on April 17, 1717 and
claimed the lives of Capt. "Black Sam" Bellamy
and 142 of his 144 men. They left Clifford
chasing big dreams of 20,000 pounds of gold
and silver, so much he keeps digging even
today.
But New England's pirate tales are also well
preserved in much earlier documents, newspapers
and pamphlets, said O’Neill, who is curator of
collections at Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth
and teaches a course on pirates at Suffolk
University in Boston.
Among the best known stories is William Fly's
brief pirate career, which ended on July 12,
1776 when he was hung at Nixes Mate off Boston
Harbor.
Glide the mouse
over the top of photos for captions.
The 27-year-old pirate had been turned in by
a group of men he tried to press into
piracy, less than two months after he gained
control of a ship by waking the captain in
the middle of the night and pushing him
overboard. Fly is said to have died cursing
at his executioners.
Heritage museum visitors can view the Rev.
Cotton Mather's stern sermon at Fly's
execution and sort through pirate tools as,
“Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Rum,” plays in
the background. Movie posters old and new,
from “Muppet Treasure Island,” to the 1953
"Peter Pan" line the walls.
But when it comes to Hollywood, curator
O'Neill said the best work may be Disney's
Caribbean movies.
"It's been done very well," O'Neill said.
"It’s had good scripts and there are
sections that show the writers, directors,
everyone did their research. They did look
at original sources. Of course, Johnny Depp
is a hugely popular star. But other pirate
movies of the previous 40 years or so,
they're usually just B movie fare."
The pirate exhibit, underwritten by Rockland
Trust, opened April 1 and runs through Oct.
31. It is shown in the Heritage art museum,
which sits at the rear of the 100-acre
Heritage property. The exhibit is accessible
by motorized tram or by walking a paved path
(A word of caution for walkers: This
property is big! Be careful not to confuse
the paved path with the dirt trails. New
England Shores set out alone and tried to
take a shortcut across a dirt trail and
wound up lost facing Rte. 6 traffic through
a barbed-wire fence).
Walk or ride, visitors will also enjoy
taking in the sweet smell of the museum's
famous Dexter rhododendrons, the 1800
windmill museum founder J.K. Lilly
personally acquired and the indoor carousel
that spins around guests of all ages.
The Heritage Museum & Gardens is open from
10 am - 5 pm daily until Oct. 31. Admission
is $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 6 -
16 and free for children age 5 and under.
