Pirate Theme Party

This is the next installment to the pirate party idea blog: Captain Wellington and the Parrot Pirates. Enjoy and come back for more on this adventure.

As Guy turned around, he could swear he was hearing the parrot talk, but could he really believe what he was seeing? Maybe one of his shipmates was playing a prank on him and it was time to put a stop to it. He made his way back to the top of the cave only to see that the bird did not move. It hadn’t even flinched. He got just inches from it, and it squawked again, “Guy found the treasure.” He was stunned. How is it that an animal could talk? He had never heard of such a thing. Additionally, how did this parrot know his name? “Hey there buddy, how do you know my name?” The parrot looked away, then back up at Guy and said “Petey has been watchin Guy.” “Petey wants to be a pirate …. Squawk!” Guy considered this for a moment and looked back at Petey. “OK Petey, I’ll let you become a pirate, but you have to promise one thing. You can’t tell anyone else about the treasure!” Petey responded, “Your secrets safe with me Guy. Petey is a pirate! Petey is a pirate!”

Check back at the pirate party idea blog for more about Guy and his special parrot, Petey!

Do you want to be a Buccaneer for your next pirate theme party? Ever wonder where the term Buccaneer came from? Buccaneers were originally French settlers on the Caribbean islands. They traveled the islands and poached all kinds of meat, including pigs, chickens and cattle. The roasted the meat over wood planks, a process that was called Barbioca. The learned this method from the locals on the island, and the English pronounced the word Buccaneer. Thus, these people were Buccaneers, or those that barbioca. Barbioca is strangely similar to the modern term, barbecue, and in fact, the word barbecue comes directly from the term barbioca. The next time you’re grilling some meet at your pirate theme party, you can officially consider yourself a Buccaneer. When the Buccaneers were driven from the island by the Spaniards, they turned to piracy. They became quite a notorious bunch, and were a constant thorn in the Spaniards side. They raided island after island, looting and taking what they needed. They never let go of the cooking methods they learned from the locals. When the Spaniards referred to them as Buccaneers, they meant the men that barbecue! So quite literally, the men who pirated were also the men who always barbecued!

When you plan a pirate theme party, you will need several tools. You will need the proper costume, decorations, food, music, pirate party invitations, and lighting. That is a simple enough order for anyone to fill, and is nothing compared to the tools that the pirates used in order to navigate. If a pirate wanted to accept a pirate party invitation, he would have to navigate a course to the proper location. Luckily for pirates, the art of ocean navigation had come a long way from their ancient pirate descendants. In the early sixteenth century, the British government offered financial reward for people to come up with ideas for new types of navigation equipment. Two items in particular made safe and accurate ocean navigation possible. First, there was the sextant. A sextant is a too of measurement, and is used to gauge the ships latitude, or the ships position in relation to the equator. The second invention was the chronometer. The marine chronometer addressed the pirates primary concern; determining his longitude The combination of these two inventions, plus the addition of more accurate nautical charts made ship navigation easy and accurate. No longer would pirates have to guess their position or use rudimentary tools. The history of piracy would be changed forever.

Ahh, good ole King Neptune! I still remember the day when I became a shellback back in April of 1989. The Shellback Initiation Ceremony makes for a great pirate theme party idea. The tradition has lasted for centuries, and takes place onboard all U.S. Navy ships that cross the equator. Shellbacks are sailors who have previously been tested by the trials during a Shellback Initiation Ceremony. The other sailors, also known as slimy pollywogs, must endure a days worth of torture and humiliation. The pirate theme party includes the usual cast of characters, including scallywags like King Neptune and his trusted trident, Davey Jones, and the Pollywog Queen. During the ceremony, the ship even flies the famed Jolly Rogers skull and crossbones flag! Arrgggg. The Shellbacks all dress up as pirates and carry with them their famed “shellayle,” which is a piece of cut up fire hose used to discipline any slimy pollywog that has gotten out of line. The best part about the ceremony is that there is no concept of rank. Just like the pirates of old, the ship is run on a pure democracy. It doesn’t matter if you are brand new to the fleet or a salty dog of the seas, if you have never crossed the equator, you must undergo the rigor and horror of Shellback Initiation! The slimy pollywogs must pass through a gauntlet of shellbacks and make it out alive at the other end. For the entire day, the only way they can get around is on their hands and knees. Their clothes mark them as pollywogs and display whatever shellback owns the poor soul. The obstacle course is grueling, and includes tunnels of trash, a pool of dirty water, and even a stockade for the worst offenders. If properly navigated, the slimy pollywog is magically transformed into a trusted shellback, and becomes a member of the famed Sons of Neptune! This might be a bit rash for a run of the mill pirate theme party, but for those salty sailors out there, it is the law of the seven seas!

You can not consider a pirate theme party without considering ole Davey Jones. Davey Jones’s name has been thrown about for centuries, but has recently come up on the scene again with the success of the Disney trilogy, “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The character of Davey Jones has been around a lot longer than that, having been mentioned in several books from the 1700’s, including Herman Melville’s famed “Moby Dick.” The actual man never existed, and it is believed that the term Davey Jones was a reference to a boogie man of the sea. Davey Jones was supposed to be the devil of the sea, and sailors claimed to have seen him in all sorts of forms and shapes. This history would not be to far fetched. During that time, sailors were often at sea for long periods of time in tropical weather. They had notoriously bad diets that consisted of grains and meat that had been dried and salted. In these types of conditions, the human will respond adversely and that could quite possibly lead to hallucinations. The spirit of Davey Jones continues to live on at another pirate theme party. The United States Navy celebrates a ceremony called “shellback initiation” whenever their ships pass over the equator. The initiation is quite fun and covers many facets that I will write about later, but one of the main characters of the ceremony is none other than Davey Jones himself. The specter of Davey Jones at your pirate theme party seems quite spooky, but you could make it work. The second film from the Pirates of the Caribbean film featured Davey Jones as a hideously looking pirate. I am sure that it would be difficult to replicate this costume, but you may be able to find something a little less authentic, but perhaps a lot cheaper.

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.

Still contemplating a pirate party idea? Well consider again what life was like for the characters that lived during that time. Believe it or not, ships at sea could become absolutely infested with rats! This would seem unlikely because rats normally congregate in urban centers. The ship offered rats the easy pickings of grain, and allowed them the space to breed and multiply. Today we consider rats to be nuisance, or at worse, unsanitary, but during the Golden Age of Piracy, they were the very embodiment of death! Yikes! Just a few hundred years earlier, rats were the cause of the worst plague ever to have swept the earth. They carried fleas that were infected with the bubonic plague and they created a pandemic of absolutely enormous proportions. Over one third to one half of the entire population of Eurasia succumbed to disease. There were so many dead that they piled up in the street because the cemeteries had become filled. Not a pretty picture, but that was the reality of the day. Because of this, there was a real fear of rats and the diseases they could carry. So for your next pirate party idea, try including some fake mice to make the scene, and don’t forget their place in pirate history!

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!

Back again Mateys! Trying to come up with a unique pirate party idea? What about a woman pirate. During the Golden Age of piracy, only two women were ever known to serve the flag of the Jolly Roger. One of those women was the notorious Ann Bonny. Bonny was the illegitimate daughter of her lawyer father, and the family maid. This caused quite a scandal back in the 1700’s, so the father, daughter, and maid all fled to South Carolina to start a new life. Apparently, Ann was not your typical southern belle. She was completely out of control, and caroused and shot weapons as well as any boy. She fell in love with a sailor and soon left for the Caribbean. Once there, she and her husband had a falling out, and Ann left with a well known pirate, Calico Jack. They sailed around pirating and looting as they saw fit. They were eventually captured by the British, but not before a fierce fight. It is said that while the majority of Calico Jacks crew remained below decks while the fighting ensued, Ann Bonny was on the top deck, giving out all she had to the British Navy. They were taken to Jamaica to be tried and executed, but Bonny escaped the hangman’s noose by claiming that she was pregnant. Looks like she was able to escape one last time! So the next time you need a pirate party idea, look no further than the character and escapades of Ann Bonny.

“Such a day, rum all out. Our company somewhat sober. A damned confusion amongst us! Rogues a plotting. Great talk of separation so I looked sharp for a prize. Such a day found one with a great deal of liquor on board, so kept the company hot, damned hot. Then all things went well again.” An entry from Black Beard’s personal diary found on his ship, the Adventure. Looking to host a great pirate birthday party idea and need some inspiration? Look no further than the most notorious pirate of them all (non-fictional character that is). Black Beard! Black Beard was such an imposing figure that he stands in stark contrast with America’s other favorite pirate, Jack Sparrow. Black Beard was an enormous figure, and many were reputed to have surrendered immediately once they saw his terrifying face. He wore a beard that hid much of his face, and it was said that he weaved gun powder into his hair and then lit it just before a battle! Perhaps you don’t have a beard long enough to weave in gun powder, and the people at www.pirate-theme-party.com certainly don’t recommend this pirate birthday party idea (especially if you decide to light your hair on fire)! Either way, you have to admit that Black Beard must have looked truly fearsome. I certainly would not want to face with someone whose face was on fire! Some have speculated that Black Beard did this to make sure he always had a smoldering wick to set off his cannons, while others claim that it was simply a psychological ploy. If the flaming head were not enough, Black Beard also wore two swords; one on each side, but these cutlasses were not enough for Black Beard. Like a modern day commando, Black Beard also wore a number of holsters where he kept numerous of pistols. Play swords and pistols are cheap and easy to find. Perhaps a fake beard will also make a great pirate party idea. When you don your gear, don’t forget the menace who had made these props so famous!