Sunday Favorites: A Pirate Tale

Before any settlers lived in the area, (most white settlers came to the Manatee County area after the Armed Occupation Act of 1842), the Manatee River served as a pirate camp and possibly a place for buried treasure.

The area on the north side of the Manatee River that now serves as the landing for the I-75 Bridge was once known as Rocky Bluff. According to descriptions in interviews conducted by the Manatee County Historical Society, Rocky Bluff resembled its name; it was a raised, stony area unique from the rest of the shoreline. The bluff protruded into the river, concealing a small deep-water bay, just big enough to dock a ship, from anyone coming upriver.

In a 1963 interview with MCHS, pioneer resident Asa Pillsbury said pirates once used Rocky Bluff as a hideout.

During the Thomas Jefferson and James Madison administrations (1803-1811), the U.S. government commissioned the construction of 117 gunboats, 50-75 feet long. The gunboats were captained by merchantmen, sail powered and designed with a shallow hull so they could navigate rivers and bays along the coast. They were built specifically for coastal defense and were inconspicuous except for three large, distinctive guns with swivels they carried on deck, according to the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

One day a scene that could be right out of a movie occurred along the Manatee River. A pirate ship was chased up the river by one of these government gunboats. The heavy ship ran aground near Shaw’s Point, (present-day Desoto Landing). With the gunboat closing in, the pirates had no choice but to lighten their load by dumping the heavy cannons. They were then able to continue up the river to Rocky Bluff.

At the site, the pirates docked their ship in the small bay. On any other day the ship would have appeared to vanish upriver to anyone trailing behind but because the gunboat was in such close pursuit, they were able to see the pirates dock the ship and escape into the woods. When the gunboat caught up, it destroyed the ship. For years, residents could see the wooden frame sticking out of the river at low tide, according to Pillsbury.

Pillsbury said divers recovered one cannon off the coast of Shaw’s Pont buried deep in the sand, but the other one could still be out there at the bottom of the river. He described it as a nice, brass cannon reasoning that it was probably stolen from a merchant ship.

The pirates could have been either Jose Gaspar or Jean Lafitte, both were known to have sailed the Gulf of Mexico and frequented hideouts, or pirate camps, along the coast, Pillsbury said.

As for the remnants of the ship, Bradenton resident Major A.J. Adams dove on the ship and recovered some of the woodwork for use in the castle he built in present-day eastern Bradenton which he named Villa Zanza.

The pirates that escaped in the woods eventually returned for what many residents believe was buried treasure. Many residents remember a distinctive rock on the bluff with the carving of a small ship. Once in the middle of the night, residents around the Rocky Bluff area awoke to the sound of an explosion. Those brave enough to investigate saw what looked like a pirate ship sailing west on the Manatee River. The next morning, the rock with the carving was gone, leaving a hole the size of large pot. Could that have been the site of buried treasure?

So the next time you spend big bucks for a Pirates of the Caribbean experience at Disney World, just remember that those fantastical tales of adventure at sea occurred closer to home than you imagined.