Pirates Ready to Invade Boothbay Harbor for Windjammer Day’s 50th Annual Celebration

Pirates  Ready to Invade Boothbay Harbor for Windjammer Day’s 50th Annual Celebration
Editor: David Mills



Boothbay Harbor, ME — (April 16, 2012) - The Boothbay Harbor 50th Annual Windjammer Day’s organizing committee is getting ready for an invasion of the pirates.  Join the Pirates of The Dark Rose on June 26th and 27th for a wide schedule of events.  This event is a part of the 50th Annual Windjammer days scheduled to take place June 24th - 27th with the schooners in Linekin Bay on the 26th and in the harbor on 27th.

A motley gang of pillaging pirates roams the Eastern Seaboard from Down East to Key West, but this band of sailing thieves and marauders strike not terror but delight in the hearts of all those they encounter. The Pirates of the Dark Rose, based in Rockport, Maine, are professional pirates for hire.

The two dozen pirates, and a few pirate birds as well, sail on the 55-foot gaff top-sail yawl, the S/V Must Roos, complete with thundering cannon on the top deck and carronades on the lower deck. Tomm Tomlinson, aka “Tom Crudbeard,” who, along with and his wife, master falconer Barbara Tomlinson, aka, “Bloodthirsty Barbara,” operates the company, says the group “truly is a gang of murderous cutthroats.”

“We specialize in attacks, amphibious assaults,” Tomlinson says. “Ultimately we’re for kids, and we don’t forget that, but we’re all about these attacks. It’s OK for the kids to be a little scared.”

There are four kinds of pirates, Tomlinson says: Walkaround, those in full regalia who visit with the crowds; Musical, the pirates who perform sea shanties; Cutlery, those who fight with blades; and Boom-Boom, “we love the smell of gunpowder in the morning.”

At the 50th annual Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, the Pirates of the Dark Rose will give weapons demonstrations , cannon lessons, Maine pirate history talks, plank walking, and will offer other hands-on activities. They’ll stage an attack on the quintessential harbor town of Boothbay Harbor, and Bloodthirsty Barbara will duel with one of the pirate birds, an African raven, who talks and steals doubloons. And, avast mateys, the band of pirates also will make “surreptitious ‘visits’” to the featured windjammers in the harbor.

The re-enactors will sail in on the Tomlinson’s 55 foot topsail yawl called the Must Roos. It has been refit to serve as a ship from the days of piracy, ending in the 1720s. Each year the crew is comprised of about 24 members.

As for the real pirates in Maine, pirates did visit during the Golden age of Piracy, which according to most historians, lasted from the mid 17th century to the mid 18th century. The Colonial Pemaquid settlement near Fort William Henry was raided and plundered in 1632 by the pirate Dixie Bull who apparently left with 500 pounds worth of valuables.

For more information about the Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Day’s festival and the full schedule of pirate events, visit the Chamber's website at www. boothbayharbor.com or find us on Facebook.

Windjammer Days 2012 sponsors include Pinnacle Vodka, Downeast Energy, The First Federal Savings Bank, KeyBank, N.A., O'Donnell, Lee, McCowan & Phillips, LLC, Bath Savings Institution, The First, N.A, J. Experience Maritime Maine, Edward Knight, Pepsi Bottling Company, Marshall Tents & Events, Cabbage Island Clambakes, Hannaford, Blake Builders, Pottle Realty Group, Steve & Ann Demeranville, Margaret Jones Perritt, Lyn & George Doran, Dale & Richard McCoy, George McAvoy, Brooke Hubner, Boothbay Region Land Trust, Maine Department of Marine Resources, Boothbay Region Y-Arts Chorus, Boothbay Playhouse, Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club, Boothbay Country Club, Hodgdon Island Inn, Harbor Children’s Center, U.S Coast Guard, Boothbay Region Historical Society, Flagship Motor Inn, WHOM 94.9 and the Boothbay Register.