Pirate Theme Party

Stories about pirates are almost always centered on male figures and characters. The role of women in these stories usually concerns a damsel in distress. We have done our research here, and found a few stories that do not fit that mold. Women pirates were few and far between, but those few characters would make a lasting impression on the history of piracy. For your daughter’s pirate birthday party, why not consider lettering her dress up as Emmy Tot, The Scottish born pirate was actually born into aristocracy. The town where she grew up in now has a figure of her in the center of the city. She is shown to be standing and holding a sword that covered in blood! In the other hand is a severed human head! Apparently people thought she was pretty tough.

When she was a young woman, she happened to attend a party where she met the captain of the Amsterdam, Jan Van der Goot. Van der Goot was absolutely smitten with Emmy, and was determined to have her. Emmy had no interest in the captain, but unfortunately, she was to be his one way or another. While she slept at home, four men broke into her house and kidnapped her. They spirited her off to the Amsterdam where she awaited her fate. Not what I would call the ideal pirate birthday party. Van der Goot showed up in her cabin completely drunk. He passed out on the bed and was soon deeply asleep. Emmy seized the moment. She grabbed a dagger and stuck it in his heart.

She had killed her captor, but was not quite finished. She cut off his head with a sword and took both the head and the sword up to the crew. There she demanded that they turn the ship back. The crew was stunned by her audacity, and did what they were told. The Earl of Eglinton was astonished by Emmy’s bravery and decided to make a tribute to her by including her picture on his coat of arms. The picture was of Emmy holding a sword and a severed head, and it remains like that to this day. For more pirate birthday party ideas, check our ebook out. There you will find a host of information regarding your pirate birthday party including props, costumes and recipes.

A pirate is never complete without a proper sword, and swords make for a great pirate birthday party idea. Pirates used several types of swords and knives, but they were perhaps best known for carrying the cutlass. These swords were about three feet long and weighed about three pounds. They were preferred because they were short and broad, and this made for better hand to hand combat performance in the close quarters of a ship. The broadsword was not used as much as the cutlass. It was much longer and much deadlier. Sailors did not like them because they were not as effective as a cutlass in melee combat. This type of weapon was used to give Blackbeard his death blow, decapitating his head entirely. The smallsword was a light weight short sword. It really was not used in pirate fights, but worn by gentlemen of the day. The only time it was used in actual fighting was during dueling. It was easily breakable and not favored by pirates. The dagger was a good backup weapon for a pirate. Short and easily concealed, it made for the perfect weapon in a quick strike. The rapier was a Spanish sword and it was not built for pirate fighting. It could really only be used for thrusting, but that Spaniards were determined to use it anyway. Using any of these swords make for a great pirate birthday party idea.

Why not dig into a little history to get your next pirate birthday party idea.Long before there were any pirates, there were the Phoenicians. These were people who lived on a series of islands that spread out over an area that was thousands of miles long. They were the first known peoples to put into practice the art of ocean navigation. They used ingeniously designed vessels and were able to travel great distances. The most remarkable aspect about this civilization was that it existed about four thousand years ago! It is remarkable that a group of people so ancient could negotiate such a large swath of the Pacific Ocean! The technology used at that time was nothing like what we have available to us today. I am sure that any Phoenician would love to be able to use a sextant, mariners compass or a navigational chart. Today we use gyroscopic compasses, modern radar, the global positioning system, and loran. Loran, or Long Range Navigation, was developed around the period of World War II, and uses radio pulses between two separate stations to determine the position of any given ship. Make sure you have all the tools you need for your next pirate birthday party by checking out our ebook!

Navigation charts have long been one of the most important tools for any pirate sea captain. Imagine if Captain Jack Sparrow wanted to attend your pirate birthday party, but could not figure out how to get there. What would happen if he did not know how to read a navigation chart and ended up driving his ship into a sand bar? Then, not only would he not be able to make your pirate birthday party, he would have to abandoned his gold laden ship! Things would be different if he had the proper sea navigation charts because he would be able to see where the sand bars were. Sand bars tend to move location, so sea navigation charts have to be constantly kept up to date. The nautical charts also outline the coastal regions, and include ocean depths. They might also include topographical features and list different man made and natural location identifiers. These are critically important for any sea navigator because natural and man made landmarks are very hard to come by. The next time you plan your pirate theme party, be sure to give your fellow pirates an up to date nautical sea chart!

Here is a little more scientific facts concerning ocean currents while you contemplate a pirate birthday party idea. Ocean currents exist in every ocean in the world, and play a huge role in determining the climate of any given area. Currents are not just local phenomenon, in fact, there are five giant current systems, known as gyres, that circle all the major oceans of the world. If you live next to a cold current the climate in your area will be colder than the mean average. The opposite is true for warm currents. The biology that these currents support is also largely based on whether a current is warm or cold. When people think of the tropics, or barrier reefs, they think of large schools of colorful and exotic fish, and all kinds of coral and plant life. The water is crystal clear and light blue (a great place for a pirate birthday party idea). While it is true that there is a lot of life around the reefs, if you venture further out and away from land, the ocean becomes a virtual desert of water! The clear water is a sign that there is not a lot of natural life in the warm water. In colder areas, the water is a dark blue or green. That is a sign of huge amounts of upwelling and plankton, which serve as the bottom tray of the food chain. In these areas, the sea is full of life! There is a host of biological species including plankton, bioluminescence, jelly fish, sea otters, whales, sharks, bat rays, tuna, mackerel, anchovy, squid, octopus, sea lions, salmon, dolphin, kelp, sea stars and the like. The most abundant species (other than plankton) is what is known as a brittle star. These are remarkable creatures and glow if disturbed. Tune in again to pirate birthday party idea to learn how currents were discovered. You’ll be surprised to know who discovered them!

You’ll probably want to schedule your pirate birthday party during good weather. Today, with the advent of the internet and satellite television, you can get your local weather and forecasts that are usually good for a week. I wonder if Black Beard would be jealous. The primary concern for any captain of a ship is firstly fire. Fire is the sailor’s worst enemy because there is no place to escape. The second biggest concern for the captain is the weather. As long as there have been ships and navigators, sailors have studied the skies to hopefully escape the hazards of a storm. In the Golden Age of piracy, most pirates operated in the tropics. In the tropics, weather can suddenly overwhelm and overtake a vessel. Sudden thunderstorms, squalls, lightening and water spouts were all dangers to the pirates. Pirates tried especially hard to steer away from islands during the night. Why, you might ask? Because during the day, the land of the island heats up quickly & becomes much hotter than the ocean water. At night, all that heat is released and travels upward. The combination of rising air, plus the high humidity work to create huge areas of instability in the atmosphere. This results in cumulonimbus clouds, which are the type of clouds that the worst possible weather comes from. So when you plan your next pirate birthday party, check the horizon to see if you’ll be the victim of an unwanted guest

Normally, you will host your pirate theme party at your home, regardless of its location, but wouldn’t it be nice to host a pirate theme party at an authentic pirate port of call? Pirates worked for no government and usually banded together at “friendly” locations. During the Golden Age of Piracy, those ports were usually located in the Caribbean. Today they constitute some major tourist havens, but some are politically unstable. Cuba forever changed its identity as a tourist location when Fidel Castro led a revolution and installed a communist government. Gone were the mafia run casinos and brothels. Haiti was a prime location for pirates during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but today it is so unstable that it is dangerous to simply exist. The United States had to pull out its embassy because American lives were in serious jeopardy. Pirate ports of call have existed virtually since the invention of long sailing ships. During the reign of the Roman Empire, many Cilician pirates roamed the waters. They operated right under the nose of the mightiest empire the world had ever seen. Cilician pirates had strongholds on the coasts of Liguria and Illyria because the Roman Empire did not patrol those waters. Now that would be a great location for a pirate theme party. By the time the Cilician pirates came on the scene, Rome’s navy was not as powerful as it once had been. They only patrolled the waters of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. In fact, the Romans regularly contracted out their shipping needs, giving a new meaning to the term “outsourcing.” During that time, ships were not outfitted like the classical pirate ships. Cannons had not been invented yet, and neither had guns, but they enjoyed success none the less. Who knows what riches they got their hands on!!!

Looking to dress as an interesting character during your pirate birthday party? This fellow is worthy of your consideration. Samuel Bellamy, also known as Black Sam, was an unusual pirate captain. Black Sam was raised without a mother. She had died during his birth and Black Sam took to piracy at a young age. He began his career as a treasure hunter and not a pirate. He was married in Cape Cod, and then traveled to Florida to search for the treasures of the ocean. Before long he hooked up with Black Beard to do a little pirating. Unlike Black Beard, Black Sam was unusually gracious to his victims. He always made sure to take care of them. He did not kill them, and made sure that they were well cared for before stealing their vessels. That is where his nickname of “Prince of Pirates” came about. His crew was enamored with him and they called themselves the “Robin Hood Band.” Their biggest claim to fame was a raid on the Whydah Gally. The Whydah Gally was returning with loot from a massive shipment of slaves when Black Sam caught it. Unfortunately for him, his ship got caught in a storm off of Wellfleet Massachusetts. All but a handful of the crew perished, including the Prince of Pirates. Perhaps it was a fitting fate considering what the loot had paid for! So for your next pirate birthday party, consider old Black Sam when deciding on your character.

Every good pirate party deserves a pirate party invitation. You need to look no further than the pirates themselves to help you with this problem. When a person decided to become or was chosen to be a pirate, they would fill out a contract of agreement. Many of the contract included guarantees of plunder and loot. They also outlined the pirates political rights within the crew. Many pirates had the authority to vote for whatever captain they saw fit. It was an attractive offer considering that the only other option for many was to be pressed into service by the British fleet. To be pressed into service means that the sailors were literally taken without their consent. They were forcibly made to serve on ships in atrocious conditions, so if the opportunity arose to escape that fate, many decided to do so. It made business sense. With pirates, life was much riskier, but the rewards promised to be much greater. In addition to this, there was no guarantee that a pirate would have a longer life with the British fleet. For sailors who had been pressed into service, many of them never saw their homeland again. So when you want to send out a pirate party invitation, why not write it up like a real pirate contract?

Racking your brain as you try to come up with a pirate birthday party idea? In this segment, I’ll continue to examine what life was like for the average pirate. Pirates were prone to all kinds of disease and danger. Fresh food was almost non-existent during the Golden Age of piracy because no suitable methods had been developed to chill storage spaces. A lack of vitamin C will eventually lead to scurvy and the loss of teeth. That must have been difficult for the average pirate considering that much of their diet consisted of dried and salted meat. That doesn’t sound very appealing to me. If the pirates were lucky enough to find a well stocked port, they might be able to catch up on their fruit and vegetable intake, but most of them chose to consume liquor instead. The liquor wasn’t just a good pirate birthday party idea. It just so happens that the area the pirates frequented was also the largest sugar producing land in the world. Much of the sugar was used to make rum. Sugar was cheap, and rum was easy to make. Perhaps it gave them a false sense of bravery …… something they’d need when taking on the British fleet!