Aaargh! Ahoy, Matey!

There are pirates in town. Did you hear? Yup. Real pirates. Honest! Just ask A. She'll tell you. We met 2 of them on Friday. This one here, he was a tailor. He told us a lot about the Whydah and how many pirates were on it: 150 on a ship that was 150 long and 50 feet wide. Spacious? Hardly! A kept asking if he was a real pirate. He kept shifting the question back to her, asking her what she thought. She just looked at him. 

We saw so many artifacts from the ship. Sword handles, muskets, the bell of the ship-in its entirety, ship name and all, but the cannons were the kids' favorites. We even figured out how much they weighed based on numbers that were stamped on the top of the cannon. This one that C is standing by was just over 1500 pounds. Amazing! They even had the cannon balls by them to show the actual size. 

 There was lots for the kids to do through the exhibit. We had a family guide to fill out while we went from gallery to gallery. The kids each got a pirate patch at the end for filling it in. They also got to make rope! This volunteer talked about how rope was made for their ships. Here A and C got to do it on a much smaller scale. But, sure enough, they had a piece of rope, tightly wound, to take with them afterwards!

  They also tried tying knots, with not much success, but at least they tried!

Their favorite parts to see were the ship and the pirate booty (treasure). The ship was neat because you got to "go" on it. That's where we met the surgeon. He was an important part to the ship because he helped people with their infections. AKA: he cut off their limbs. Super! He got a share and a half of the treasure which he was quite proud of. 

Here was the actual treasure. You could touch the real coins here in the circles. They were not cut very neatly. No perfect circle edges there! And then there, with C, is the only known pirate treasure ever discovered. It was kind of surreal to see it there. It was inside a glass box, no doubt temperature-regulated and such to preserve it.

I'm really happy that we went to this exhibit. I'm not usually one for paying for something extra when we have a family pass to a place like the Science Museum. But it was for a discounted member price, so we took advantage! Well worth it, too! I'm not sure when we would ever have a chance to see things like this again. The kids enjoyed it too. They were really into it for a whole hour, which says something for 2 five year olds! Aaargh, Matey! Watch your treasures!