Jeremy Clarke Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 7 May 2015

But because of health & safety we weren’t allowed to run

Thinkstock Photos 
issue 09 May 2015

The old fishing town faced the sea psychically as well as architecturally. Dressed as pirates, my grandson and I walked down through the steep and narrow streets to the quayside, where we found other pirates. It was still early and there weren’t yet the solid crowds of pirates we were hoping to see. The overcast morning was the last day of the pirate festival, and this fishing town, with a long tradition of privateering, buccaneering, smuggling, piracy and rugby, was slow getting to its feet after two days and nights of carousing. The ticket hut in front of the replica Golden Hind was open for business, however, and there were hungover pirates to welcome us aboard. So we paid the nice lady and descended the wooden gangplank.

The pirates greeted us gruffly but warmly. They wore real leather thigh boots with the tops turned down, and real frock-coats embroidered with gold thread, and flouncy shirts, and pirate pistols, and real pirate beards.

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