Shiver Me Timbers!

Ahoy mateys! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day

Wanna hear me woo in pirate?

Harrrrrr-rooooooo!!!!

Well mateys, what d'ya think o' that? Harr!

Pirates has a colorful history right here along our spit of coast. Here be a bit a readin' fur yur pleasure and edification:

Newport was a major center of pirate activity during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. So many pirates used Newport as their base of operations that the London Board of Trade made an official complaint to the English government. The most famous pirate who made Newport his base was Thomas Tew. Tew was very popular with the locals; after one of his pirating voyages, it was reported that almost the whole town came out to greet him.

In the 1720s, colonial leaders, acting under pressure from the British government, arrested many pirates. Many were hanged in Newport and were buried on Goat Island. (Shiver me timbers! We go walkin by there!)

-and-

Thomas Tew (?-1695), also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th century English privateer-turned-pirate. Although he embarked on only two major piratical voyages, and met a bloody death on the latter journey, Tew pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Many other famous pirates, including Henry Every and William Kidd, would follow in Tew’s path. Captain Charles Johnson said "Tew, in Point of Gallantry, was inferior to none."

Here be Thomas Tew, spinning yarns about his pirate days:

Here be pictures from mom's magic box of a Pirate Parade right here in me home port of Newport! Sees if ye recognizes any of these fine pirates....

We knows fur a fact that those last two pirates be experts at digging holes fur hiding treasure! Off ye be now, go talk like a Pirate, harrr!!!!

Star of the Seven Seas and Black Jack a-roo