Pirates pack the park, but festival falls short of record

Officials call festival a success, hope to stage another next year

(Rob Ostermaier, Daily Press )
September 21, 2013|By Ryan Murphy, rmurphy@dailypress.com

It was all hands on when the Mariners' Museum tried to rally enough rogues to break the Guinness World Record for the largest pirate gathering. Unfortunately, the heave-ho wasn't hard enough as the final count fell far short of the current record.

The final tally was 6,759, less than half of what was needed to wrestle the honor from Hastings, England, which holds the record of 14,231 rogues.

Museum officials estimate that Pirates Pack the Park drew between 14,000 and 15,000 attendees, but more than half showed up without pirate garb, which sunk the museum's shot at the record.

"The festival was a tremendous success," said Elliot Gruber, the president of the Mariners' Museum. "We only wish all our attendees had dressed as pirates, and we would have had the world record. Based on this success, and the incredible community support we enjoyed, we hope to host a festival like this again next year."

The final tally was comprised only of those captains, scallywags, privateers and stowaways present between 2:15 and 2:25 p.m. who were wearing enough pirate attire. Participants had to have a striped or white pirate shirt, pirate pants, pirate headgear, such as a hat or bandanna, and an accessory such as an eye patch to be counted among the record-seeking brigands.

Any pirates who left the park before the window or who weren't in costume were not included in the total, which means there may have been enough pirates at the event throughout the day to shatter the record, but not enough during that 10-minute window to constitute "the world's largest pirate gathering."

Still, thousands turned out Saturday at the Mariners' Museum decked out in full pirate garb to get a piece of the record-breaking action. Sabers leapt from scabbards and the grog flowed free.

The day's entertainment (aside from the thousands-strong crowd of wannabe pirates) included pirate bands, historical re-enactors and players impersonating Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films.

Bonnie Klein of Newport News attended the event in Halloween leftovers with her husband Jeff and their children, 5-year-old Ben and 3-year-old Evie.

"We all had pirate costumes, so we figured 'why not?' " Bonnie said. She had hoped the crowd would reach record-breaking proportions so the family would have something to brag about.

"We'd love to make history, so we could tell our grandkids 'hey, that's us in the Guinness Book of World Records,' " she said. Even without the record, good weather and free entertainment made it an event not to miss for the Kleins.

Nancy Newman, the museum's director of special events, said the event was conceived as a way to increase the museum's visibility. When the brigands gathered en-masse on Saturday, Newman was amazed at the response.

"I'm thrilled when I look out and see the sheer number of people," she said, surrounded by all manner of buccaneers.

Philip Robertson is the Guinness World Records adjudicator who was on hand to oversee the attempt. Robertson said he attends many mass-participation events as a Guinness adjudicator, which can prove difficult to manage.

"It looks simple on paper. '14,000 pirates? No problem. Everyone just walk in, we'll group them into lines of 100 and we'll count them.' That can never work," Robertson said.

Though they missed the magic number, Robertson said the organizers had put on an enjoyable, memorable event.

"Success or failure, everyone took part properly and had a tremendous amount of fun," Robertson said. "The costumes were superb, the pirate re-enactors were a lot of fun to watch. ... The organizers did a great job."

Murphy can be reached at 757-247-4760.

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