PORT ROYAL BUCCANEERS
PORT ROYAL BUCCANEERS is a group of performers who specialize in the Golden Age of Piracy period. We do a complete black powder show, complete with several dozen guns (pistols, rifles, blunderbuss, flintlock and percussion) and cannons; as well as swordplay; songs and drama. We promote interest in and education about the Golden Age of Piracy through entertainment and are available for performances at shows, parties, Pirate Festivals and Renaissance Faires. We carry insurance for all events where we perform. We emphasize black powder safety and education, in a fun and informative show.
PORT ROYAL BUCCANEERS members are dedicated to researching, re-creating, and celebrating the unique lifestyle, history, and romance of the Pirates and Privateers in the Caribbean area circa 1600-1800. We share our enthusiasm by actively participating in maritime events, Renaissance-style faires, pirate festivals, and other public venues by portraying characters that might have lived in Port Royal, Jamaica or along the Spanish Main. We are committed to making the club fun, organized, and self-supporting.
ORIGINS
Piracy arose out of, and mirrored on a smaller scale, the conflicts over trade and colonization among the rival European powers of the time, including the empires of Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and France. Most of these pirates were of English, Dutch and French origin.
Some historians mark the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy at around 1650, when the end of the European wars of religion allowed European countries to resume the development of their colonial empires. This involved considerable seaborne trade, and a general economic improvement: there was money to be made—or stolen—and much of it traveled by ship.
French buccaneers had established themselves on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, but lived at first mostly as hunters rather than robbers; their transition to full-time piracy was gradual and motivated in part by Spanish efforts to wipe out both the buccaneers and the prey animals on which they depended. The buccaneers’ migration from Hispaniola’s mainland to the more defensible offshore island of Tortuga (Haiti) limited their resources and accelerated their piratical raids.
The growth of buccaneering on Tortuga was augmented by the English capture of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The early English governors of Jamaica freely granted letters of marque to Tortuga buccaneers and to their own countrymen, while the growth of Port Royal provided these raiders with a far more profitable and enjoyable place to sell their booty. In the 1660s, the new French governor of Tortuga, Bertrand d’Ogeron, similarly provided privateering commissions both to his own colonists and to English cutthroats from Port Royal. These conditions brought Caribbean buccaneering to its zenith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Piracy
OVERVIEW OF UP COMING EVENTS
Aug.26th-28th Fishermen’s Village Pirate Fest Punta Gorda, FL (POTTC) http://www.fishermensvillagepiratefest.com/
September 9-11 Treasure Coast Pirate Fest Stuart, FL (POTTC) http://www.treasurecoastpiratefest.com/
October 7-9 Fort Myers Pirate Fest Ft Myers, FL (POTTC & SIK) http://www.fortmyersbeachpiratefest.com/
October 7-9 Tybee Island, GA http://www.tybeepiratefest.com/
October 20-23 Key Largo Pirates Fest http://www.keylargopiratesfest.com/
October 28-30 4th Annual Saint Augustine Pirate Gathering http://www.pirategathering.com/
November 10-20 Cayman Islands Pirate Fest http://piratesweekfestival.com/involved.html
Nov 12-13 & 19-20 Camelot Days Hollywood, FL http://camelotdays.com/
Nov 25-Dec 4 Pirates in Paradise Key West, FL http://www.piratesinparadise.com/
January 14 -22, 2012 MARF & February 11 – March 11, 2012 FLARF http://www.ren-fest.com/