History Of Captain Kidds

Fellow Pirates; It was said, more than once, “the Seafair Pirates is the most difficult club to get into, but it is the easiest to get kicked out of.” I trust that this is still true.

During my undergraduate days of college I was in a fraternity. Believe me there is no comparison between the Pirates & a fraternity. Being a Pirate was being a member of a brotherhood.

The government might be able to take away my property and bill collectors my$. But one thing that can never, never be taken away is my memories of ten years of being an active pirate, and sharing so many good and fun times with my brother pirates. One cannot convey to a non-pirate what it is like to be a pirate. You have to have been there.- Dick Albertson

As president of the Ale and Quail Society in 1971 I had the honor to be elected as Captain Kidd also. I believe this was the first time any pirate had held the two highest offices in the organization concurrently. The landing that year was made from the sailing ship Adventuress in downtown Seattle... Mayor Wes Uhlman was there to surrender the city and all that civic stuff. As I led the yelling crew down the gang plank I was suddenly accosted by 2 women in scullery maid attire who shoved 2 very wet rag mops Into my face knocking my new hat off and as I tried to grab it my sword almost went into the drink. As I stumbled off the gang plank dripping, wet hat in hand, and yelling surrender the city. The Mayor unafraid smiled and said "Sure why not?” The press was kind and let me get adjusted before taking the pictures.

Everyone thought it was planned, so being a good pirate..... I faked it and took the credit. It was an exceedingly small reward for being humbled in the presence of so many PIERS.

The year of 73-74 was a good year. Ivan Casey was my Davy Jones, we split the crew once, I took the big crew to Spokane Expo and Casey had a group for a local shot. This was a year we all ate well (Thanks to Curly) the Maribeau, Pilgrims Pantry, many others. Don Merryfield held reveille on big speakers in the hall, he was Master at Arms. Many other gags were pulled, too many to mention. The troops were howlin’ to go to the COYOTE convention but we thought Seafair Inc. would spoil the fun. - Black Bart

Don made swords for many of the Pirates spent many hours behind the wheel of Moby Duck. went to New Orleans with the Gang went to Gracie Hansen’s in Oregon on the famous Train Trips

Ask any of the older Pirates about the tricks at the Hungerford Hotel, (he had a pass key!)

I remember when he painted a mannequin and hand-cuffed it to Pat Rothous’s bed for the duration of Seafair.

He had a special wake-all for the Troops during Seafair. Dad didn’t just act the part of Pirate, he lived it

During Seafair 1977, my crew discovered tequila—which wound up being the beverage of choice that summer for most of the Pirates, a few of whom (Curly Haviland comes to mind) haven't touched the stuff since.

As Davy, Sandifer, was responsible for one of the most outrageous pranks in the annals of Seafair Pirate history.

It was the fourth night of Seafair, we wrapped up a busy day of pirating and returned to the Hungerford about 10 p.m. The Duck parked at the Spring Street entrance and Sandifer, myself and about 10 of the guys noisily entered the lobby on the way to the Magnolia Room lounge.

The lobby seemed unusually quiet. To my shock, there was a nun in traditional black and-white habit sitting with her back to us on a couch in the middle of the room. I gave the guys the high sign to cool their natural end-of-the-day enthusiasm.

Without warning and to my absolute horror, Sandifer let out a blood-curdling scream, ran across the lobby, plopped down on the couch, and pulled the nun to his chest, kissing her on the cheek and neck and pawing at her thigh. With the rest of the crew, I stood there—our mouths agape—in stunned silence envisioning the headlines, the assault charges, the lawsuit and the end of the Pirates. Not to mention eternal damnation.

Then both Sandifer and the nun began laughing uncontrollably. The nun stood up, turned toward us, pulled the outfit over her head, and there was my girlfriend, Susan, decked out in a bright red, white and blue Wonder Woman costume. She and John had pulled off a routine that was absolutely convincing. I didn't know whether to love 'em or kill 'em.

"Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, they'd last forever and a day. " Has it really been 20 years since all those good things happened?

Seafair '78 had so many people doing so many nice things that I will always applaud them for there efforts and support, they made it possible to have one memorable Seafair, even the weather was kind that year, and what a year it was, Tall Ships, our last year at the Hungerford Hotel, Moby Bus, and the inadvertent sinking of the Official Barge on Race Day.

Henry Winkler, better know as The Fonz was Grand Marshal for the Torchlight Parade that year and both of us were invited by Don Jones to view the race from the Official Barge. Now Don should have known that having two trouble makers on the same vessel would spell disaster but there we were early Sunday morning boarding this very large yacht that was tied to a pier in very shallow water along with guests, lots of guests, (I think Mr. Jones had sent invitations to 750,000 of his closest friends and they all showed up) at any rate while my wife and I were mingling with the others we both noticed that the stern of our Official Barge seemed to be considerably lower in the water than it had be when we boarded. To late came the call to "Abandon Ship " we were resting on the bottom. It seems a crew member had opened a porthole to get some ventilation through the hull and once all those people got onboard the inevitable happened, the lake joined the party through that open port and just like that the party was over.

As we walked back toward shore, Don asked, what have you done now? I just pointed to The Fonz shrugged my shoulders and kept walking. - Dick Munsell


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