Site Visit: The St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum

The St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum

The topic of pirates tend to be a side branch in history. Historians and history buffs tend to prioritize political, military, religious, or social aspects of life, and crime tends to take a weird fifth place. Pirates have been around for hundreds of years, not so long after maritime trade and before navies to police them. However, when most people in the western world think of pirates, they tend to think of what is referred to as the "golden age of piracy" lasting from the 1500s to early 19th century, centering on the Caribbean. Pirates lodge in the popular consciousness as being romantic figures rather than feared and cruel strong arm maritime robbers and murderers.

"Fire" a cannon; a hit with
rambunctious kids

Naturally, this divergent phenomenon is bound to emerge in any serious consideration of pirates, so when an opportunity to visit the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum in St. Augustine, FL, emerged, this was one of the things that prompted a site visit. The divergence of romantic figures or objects of fear are a matter of interpretation.

The museum is along the main thoroughfare along the seaboard of the town of St. Augustine within sight of the Castillo de San Marcos, the fort built to protect the city from attack, pirate or legitimate military.

The museum had moved from Key West in 2010 when the museum owner, Pat Croce, decided that St. Augustine was a better fit, since the town had been attacked by pirates more than a few times and he felt the power of place.

The museum delivers on many fronts. There is a lot of pirate stuff there, and not just random items from the 17th and 18th century in display cases.

Pistol and sword of Thomas Tew

Let's be honest by remembering that there is a popular appeal to pirates, especially to children, so it is geared for them in mind, but it has enough real artifacts and honest portrayals of real pirates and their scary and bloody past. It is an immersive experience with mood lighting, interactive screen displays, and set dressing. Visitors can place a "portfire" to "cannon" and hear it boom, or try their hand at simple knots. There is also a special effect movie created by Disney "Imagineers" (there was a school group in there at the time so I have not further details about what that is).

Guestbook or condemning
your life to the pirate code?

For the historians who want to know more about pirates, there are artifacts with provenance, research, foot notes, historic quotes, and depictions. Famous pirates are addressed, as well as lesser known small time pirates. However, the pirates who had been to St. Augustine were highlighted for their role in shaping the town's history. In other words, there was a direct attempt to interpret pirate presence in St. Augustine and make it meaningful to the visitor.

On a few flat panel text and pictures boards are comments and ideas about why pirates hold appeal to people or how they have become more benign. One panel compared the tyrannical rule of the sea captain over his crew to the democratic "equal share in the spoils" system pirates enjoyed, and how pirates could "remove" the captain if the crew felt that he needed to be "replaced". Signing pirate articles held them to a code of behavior that they agreed to obey, compared to the will of a regular captain. Of course, signing the articles meant death if caught by civil authorities or death by the crew if breached. Apparently some of the spoils went to benefiting fellow pirate brethren in case of sickness or injury.

A no joke real pirate chest from Thomas Tew. It comes with
a separate locked area for extra valuable things.

There is a intended path of visitation that is part of the museum floor plan. However, if you are caught behind a school group with a costumed pirate interpreter, it does tend to create traffic bottlenecks. So visitor beware on that front.

Of course there was treasure. It's the Pirate and Treasure Museum. It included two chests from known pirates, Capt. Tew and Capt. Kidd. The treasure came from private archaeological finds and included artifacts from all sorts of different cultures around the world.

"Capt. Jack Sparrow's" sword
with retractable point for
cinematic"stabbing"

Finally, the museum ends with media depiction of pirates in the social consciousness. It mentions Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island as being a part of making pirates both popular and sympathetic while depicting their cruelty. The Errol Flynn film Captain Blood was also mentioned (along with his screen used jacket) with "Pirates of Penzance", "Peter Pan", and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride and movies.

While the golden age of piracy is over and those of that era are enjoying a latent and unexpected reversal of fortune for their high sea crimes, at the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum, their history, fact, and fiction are discussed and examined in detail at this one-of-a-kind place. See their website for ticket prices and further details. Of all the tourist trap places to see in St. Augustine, the Pirate museum is not a tourist trap, in my opinion, but a worthwhile interpretive experience worthy of being something a visitor should not miss.