How
it all began
By
Pirate Hans Versteege, N
It
has been said that history is unforgiving, and in order to become a part of
history, unforgivable deeds should be accomplished.
The latter depends of course on one’s point of view.
It was then that on a blustery evening in March of the year 1961, ten men
secretly met in the Barb Inn on the outskirts of Seattle.
They were men of the sea, salty and impoverished.
Their leader was a man called Ivan, a graying skipper with indomitable
spirit. A common bond brought these
men together: revolt against the tributes they had to render to the powers to
the north and towards the south. During
that evening the plot was born to declare independence of the powers and to form
their own squadron. The next year
their little band grew, but the Seattle and Tacoma squadrons considered them
pirates...a name which the little band proudly adopted.
Pretty soon they were known as the Poverty Bay Pirates all through the
Northwest. A long struggle for
official recognition developed.
In
May of 1963, the Seattle Squadron fleet sailed into Quartermaster Harbor and lay
at anchor. Their crews were
celebrating until the wee hours of the morning.
This had not gone unnoticed to the lookout of the pirates.
The pirates fleet was hastily assembled in Poverty Bay.
Cannons were mounted on the foredeck of each vessel.
Even the sailing vessels received armament.
At the crack of dawn the motley fleet sailed for Quartermaster Harbor,
and the historic battle of Quartermaster Harbor was on.
The pirates caught the Seattle squadron by surprise and asleep.
Their ships entered the anchorage and gave each squadron vessel a
broadside. The pirates flotilla
commander, Tony, had ordered to fire only black powder in order not to damage
the squadron’s boats. The Seattle
crews were thus roughly awakened and by trying to pile out of their bunks with a
start, many were incapacitated with a splitting headache caused by contact with
the overhead deck timbers. The
Seattle squadron surrendered and each member was fined five dollars to fill the
coffers of the pirates.
Thus
the pirate band had grown to a force to be reckoned with.
Grudgingly their status quo was acknowledged.
A charter was sent from the East to calm things down.
However, the Seattle squadron was still rankled by their defeat at
Quartermaster Harbor. On the day of
the feast to celebrate the pirate’s independence, they posted a lookout on the
Duwamish River. The whole day they
watched the pirate Ken working on his boat.
His boat was a classic pirate ship, a 27 foot displacement hull, a former
rumrunner.
In
the late afternoon, Pirate Ken, called it a day and left to pick up his wench to
go to the feast. Promptly, the
Seattle squadron moved a crane into position and hoisted Ken’s boat on a
flatbed trailer which had wheeled up. Electricity and telephone crews appeared out of nowhere, and
the long trek to the outskirts of Seattle started with the crews removing the
overhead wires. They arrived late
that evening at the celebration. They
parked the boat in the parking lot unnoticed, and later that night donated it to
the Pirates as a “Training Aid”. While
the pirates were caught short, the Seattle squadron piled it up and stole the
ship’s bell from the celebration. Even
the Pirate’s chest was stolen!
In
succeeding months, the Pirates struck back with devastating force.
Promptly the Seattle Squadron Charter was stolen by the Pirates.
While negotiations were underway for an exchange of bell for charter,
Commander Ivan hitched a ride to the Vancouver (Canada) Change of Watch.
He was careful to select the man to hitch the ride with.
It was the Seattle culprit who had stolen the pirate’s chest.
Knowing that the chest was in the trunk of the car, Ivan cunningly
suggested a stop at a way station on their way to the border.
While the culprit was secluded in the way station, Ivan opened the trunk
and put a bottle of booze in the pirate’s chest.
At the border, the culprit did not declare anything, but Ivan suggested
to the custom inspector to take a look in the trunk of the vehicle.
When the bottle was found, they clapped the culprit in jail and Ivan went
on to the Vancouver party alone. On
his way back the next day, he reluctantly explained the whole matter to the
customs and got the culprit released from jail
The Seattle squadron had enough. They
promptly returned the bell and chest, and ceased to be a power to be contended
with.
However,
to the South a new, squadron, Willamette, appeared on the scene.
To prevent a takeover, the Pirates promptly appropriated the Charter
within an hour after presentation by the Eastern potentates.
A
relative calm period now developed for the Pirates.
Their strength and knowledge of the northwest waters were well known and
respected. For five years in a row they disagreed with the Government
charts. They displayed their
knowledge by contributing thousands of corrections.
But during this time, discipline among the pirates stayed firm.
One pirate, named George, in his zeal to acquire a bottle of spirits in a
competition, went so far as to bribe the scribe and change the rules to his
favor. His reward was the bottle of
booze, however it was set upside down in an ice bucket filled with reinforced
concrete.
In
later years, the commander of the Seattle squadron wanted to cement
relationships with the Pirates. He
was so charming the Pirates decided to return to him the stolen paraphernalia of
his past commander’s office. The
paraphernalia were baked into a huge cake and thus delivered to his home.
Not knowing what it was all about, he donated the whole shebang to the
Boy Scouts, his being on a diet. He
is still muttering to himself while doing the rounds trying to locate the
Scouts.
In
this period of relative calm, the Pirates decided to a limited disarmament.
With the surplus on hand, they promised the newly formed Eugene Power
Squadron all the help in their battles and provided them with a cannon at their
charter party. In the meantime the
Pirates teach classes, but that won’t be remembered.
*
* * * *
Poverty
Bay Power Squadron obtained its’ charter in 1963.
The name “Poverty Bay” was selected quite appropriately.
The actual bay was named by a surveyor who had difficulty collecting his
money from the local residents - most of them blew what little money they had on
booze and women in Seattle.
The
design of the Poverty Bay burgee resulted from a contest originated by Ken Lloyd
who gave a bottle of Scotch to the winner.
The contest was quite formal as the designs were submitted on the
cocktail napkins of the Barb Inn. The
contest lasted exactly ten minutes during one of the meetings.
*
* * *
For
history on the United States Power Squadron click on
History.