Around Tampa Bay, a pirate ship often stands as the area’s symbol, especially for the Jan. 29 Gasparilla Parade of Pirates. Some 300,000 people are expected to swarm Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa to beg the invading pirates for beads and doubloons in a daylong parade.
The ship will patrol the waterway during Saturday’s Children’s Gasparilla Parade. But for the big invasion on Jan. 29, the day starts with the appearance of a pirate ship named Jose Gasparilla. It was built in 1954 to serve as a fully rigged emblem for Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. They were the prominent men who founded the festival in 1904 to promote Tampa, and the krewe remains the parade’s lead organizers.
George Lackman, the late father of the current captain of the krewe, Peter Lackman, helped build the ship and served as its first captain. But starting in 1995, licensed harbor pilot John Timmel, 65, took the helm for the tricky job of steering a top-heavy ship through Hillsborough Bay while hundreds of private boats join in the Gasparilla flotilla “invasion.”
------------------
For More News and Videos
SUBSCRIBE and Turn Notifications On
[ Ссылка ]
Get a Digital Subscription to the Tampa Bay Times
[ Ссылка ]
Follow us:
Facebook ► [ Ссылка ]
Twitter ► [ Ссылка ]
Instagram ► [ Ссылка ]
#Gasparilla #GasparillaParade #TampaBay
