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Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion Nov/Dec 2012 - Key West, FL
Chapter 8th: Saturday Afternoon - Going with the pirate crew of
the Sarah to the Rum Barrel; Chatting with Captain Henry Belanger; Dining at the Rum Barrel; Some insight into "Handsome" Devlin; Meeting a drunk on the way back to the dock (like that is a 
Photo: Mission
True Optimism Seen On the Way: The Sign Reads 'Let It Snow"
shocker); The one and only reciprocal photo from this event; Of the music in the fort; Checking out the Mallory Dock Sunset Celebration and some beautiful sunset photos.
Back on land, I sidled up to Stynky and said, "You know what we're close to?"
"No"
"The Rum Barrel restaurant."
Now, those of you who read last year's Journal will immediately recognize this as Stynky's breakfast nook of choice. We went there for corn and crab chowder every morning during last year's event. It's good, it's filling and it's affordable (for Key West.) He was immediately sold.
He said, "I've missed escaping there for breakfast each morning, but the food in the fort is so good this year that I haven't had to do that."
The other four pirates were sold on the idea, so we stopped off at Devlin's car to drop off all our weapons and headed out.
Photo: Kevin Collins
Banker Ponies - They Don't Seem to Reciprocate My Interest
On the way, I asked Captain Belanger how it was that the crew let him steer the boat. He told me that back home, he was actually a professional ship's captain with a license to captain 100 ton ships. He operated in North Carolina, ferrying people back and forth from the coast to an island called Cape Lookout. He talked lovingly about this island and I discovered that he and his family had land there.
One of the stories he told was that when hurricane Irene had hit the North Carolina coast, it had wiped
out every house in the area where his family
Photo: Jaded Jetty
Captain Belanger
had their place except their house and the house on either side of them. Talk about luck!
He also revealed that they had a rare group of wild horses in Shackleford Banks called Banker Ponies which he assured me were only 10 hands high. I put this information in here, mainly because I think the term "10 hands high" sounds cool. Plus it gives me an excuse to put a picture of horses in the Journal. (Not that I need one.)
Captain Belanger had a great history in back of his pirate name. Several generations ago, a wealthy family by the name of Belanger owned much of Cape Lookout. They had a single daughter who started see a man named Henry. The Belanger family didn’t like Henry but he ignored them and courted the girl (whom we'll call Alice, because I don’t remember her name). Eventually they married and had a large family. They inherited all the land and presumably lived happily ever after. Captain Belanger explained that he had taken his name from those two people, in part because Henry’s great grandson had been best man at both of his weddings.
Photo: Some Tourist
At the Rum Barrel, most of us ordered corn and crab chowder because Stynky and I had been yammering on about it so. I say 'most', because Zatara did not. She ordered a salad for which Stynky ragged on her mercilessly. Stynky told her she at least had to try it or she couldn't be in the club. He looked to me for verification of this fact and I just gave him a stunned mullet look. (I was off my game - all that time at sea really takes it out of you.)
After lunch or whatever a 3 o'clock feeding is called, Stynky asked me if she could be in the club, she having taken a dainty spoonful or two of soup. I continued to give him a stunned mullet look and he gave up on me as a hopeless loss.
 Photo: Mission The Saturday Crew of the Sarah Toasts You Lesser Mortals |
 Photo: MissionStynky Badgers Zatara While Eating Conch Fritters |
Speaking of the Rum Barrel, I thought it would be a good time to share these photos of Wasabi visiting the Rum Barrel. (OK, no one promised you they would all be good jokes.)
 Photo: Don Dunbar Wasabi and the Rum Barrel |
 Photo: Don DunbarBloody Barbara Visiting Wasabi Visiting the Rum Barrel and Begging For a Sip |
Photo: Mission's Camera
On the way back we garnered a lot of attention and were asked to pose for the only photo that qualified as a reciprocal photo. So here it is, for your edification.
For those who aren't aware and were too lazy to follow the link that I conveniently placed for your use in the introduction to this page, let me briefly explain what a reciprocal photo is.
Well, actually, there's not much to explain, really. People see pirates wandering around some place and they often want to their photos taken with them. As a joke at Pirates in Paradise 2009, I told a couple they had to pay me by being in a photo with my camera.
So there you have it reciprocal photos explained. Isn't your life much brighter and fuller now?
I have mentioned Handsome Devlin (aka. Colin Gordon) several times in these Journals and I thought it would be a good time to tell you a little about him. He's a member of the Bloody Historical crew, having joined this year. He told me he'd been involved with Ren-Faires since he was a kid, but he really got into pirates in 2006. He's 
Photo: Mission
an actor by trade, which is how he came to pirates. He got involved in stunt performing where he hooked up with a group of pirates to get some fight training. "Next thing you know, it's a pirates' life for me!"
I asked him what he enjoyed most about playing pirate. "Probably the fact that no one questions your actions. We can walk around fully armed, play with people's children, talk to men's girlfriends (in front of them), take their belongings… and it's all in good fun! I would be arrested if I did this stuff in my 'normal' life. Oh, and educating the public..."
Acting seems like one of those interesting professions, so I asked Devlin about that. He became an actor when he hired on as an extra in a big budget film during college. "It turned out to be a crappy movie, but at the time I thought it was amazing. I even framed my first paycheck from it."
Since then, he says he's been in dramas, comedies, musicals, children's entertainment stunt shows and Shakespeare. He's been in several M. Night Shyamalan films. He told me the best part of acting was "the immediate satisfaction of a crowd's reaction. The high you get when they are with you." His dream is to someday play Hamlet because he tried out for it and was told he wasn't quite good enough yet. "So now it's personal for me."
 Photo: Stopped Motion Photography |
 Photo: Diane Mueller |
 Photo: Devlin |
Photo: Stolen
While walking along Front Street, we were accosted by a young man who said he was a fellow pirate and he needed some doubloons for drink or something similarly stupid. (I don't know how he figured he was a pirate; he was not in garb. He was in a bright green shirt and non-matching shorts as I recall.
Although I took no photos of this guy, I can tell you that he had almost as much class and fashion sense as Al Cervik. The kid said we were all brothers together and we should help a brother out and so on and so forth.
Finally he said, and this is the reason I even mention him here, "Parley, mother-f--kers, parley!" This made Stynky laugh like a hyena. He kept repeating that phrase to us long after we had left the screwy kid behind.
The one good thing that did come out of this was that his comments about drinking made me realize I had left my mug back in the Rum Barrel. So I turned around and trotted on back to retrieve it. I would lose my head if it weren't attached. (I know this because my mother explained it to me at several points during my youth.)
Now, while I'm off retrieving my mug (which was sitting right on the table where I'd left it), let me tell you about the music at the fort. This was a great year for music. We always had music with the addition this year of the Bawdy Buccaneers and the Brigands as well as several folks - new and old, people were playing all sorts of instruments throughout the weekend. Music was an important part of the life of a pirate, so this was a terrific part of the program to expand.
 Photo: Don Dunbar Barnacle Beau and Brandy |
 Photo: Rachel Siegel Blackheart Charlie |
 Photo: Jaded Jetty Squeeze Box |
 Photo: MissionThe Bawdy Buccaneers |
 Photo: Mission Greg Hudson |
 Photo: Don Dunbar Jenny Wurts |
 Photo: MissionThe Brigands |
Although I had found my mug, I had lost the group. So I decided to go over and check out Mallory Square docks and see the sunset people. When I first came to the island back in 1992, it was one of the key things I wanted to see. The History of the Sunset Celebration website tells us that " The way that the sunset ceremony got started is that all the 'freaks' as drug users were called in the sixties, used to go down every evening high on LSD to watch Atlantis arising mythically out of the cloud formations at sunset." That's not the way I heard it, but they do have a website and, as I said, I believe everything I read on the 'net.
 Photo: Mission Artist Selling at Mallory Dock Sunset |
 Photo: Mission A Crowd Gathers to Watch a Key West 'High' Wire Act |
 Photo: MissionA Balloon Animal Guy |
When I first saw it back in 1992, the dock was a bit of a shabby looking place and there were all sorts of disorganized-looking street performers lining the edge of the dock and any other space they could capture, using ropes and chains to mark their territory so that other street performers didn't encroach upon them. Since then, the dock has been massively overhauled with the addition of concrete and fancy paving blocks and a whole new wooden boardwalk section. (This is the section where Danger! Charters operated from.) The street performers now have to apply for space after which they are placed in a lottery for the class of space they wish to occupy. It all seems so clean and neat. They probably have to attend half a dozen safety meetings, too.
While I didn't stay for the actual sunset, I can share some sunset photos that Don Dunbar took from the fort wall. To be quite honest, the photos from the fort wall are better because they're not cluttered with displaced street performers trying to grab your attention away from what you allegedly came to watch.
 Photo: Don Dunbar |
 Photo: Don Dunbar |