St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum is a fun and educational place to go

Maggie FitzRoy -

Some pirates were women, including one who lived much of her life pretending to be a man.

Captain Kidd was one of the few pirates who buried his treasure. Thousands of people came to his execution hoping, in vain, he'd reveal his locations.

There are only two Jolly Roger pirate flags still in existence in the world; one is in Helsinki, Finland and the other at the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum.

As I studied the large Jolly Roger on exhibit in the St. Augustine museum one recent day, I could easily imagine it flying atop a mast on a pirate ship somewhere on the high seas, its skull and crossbones scaring every unfortunate soul who encountered it. The display explained that all pirates flew Jolly Rogers during the Golden Age of Piracy in the 1600s and 1700s. The skull and crossbones symbol was also used on tombstones and poison bottles, so they succeeded in striking terror.

The museum on the St. Augustine bay front, across from the historic Castillo de San Marcos fort, is filled with so many original pirate artifacts and pirate stories that you find yourself an expert by the time you leave.

"We use real artifacts as props in dioramas," Executive Director Cindy Stavely said as she showed me around. "We are taking an immersive and emotional setting and filling it with authenticity."

Museum owner Pat Croce, former president of the Philadelphia 76ers and an author, reality TV judge, sports commentator and motivational speaker, brought many of the museum's exhibits from the Pirate Soul museum he had owned in Key West. He created an expanded museum in St. Augustine because the city, founded in 1565, has a documented and colorful pirate history.

Croce has been passionate about pirates since he was a young boy, and has been collecting pirate artifacts for 30 years, Stavely said. "He is a most knowledgeable pirate expert."

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