Jose Gasparilla
An 18th Century West Indiaman
This vessel named for Jose Gaspar a gentleman Lieutenant of the Royal Spanish Navy, who achieved great fame as a pirate headquartered on Florida's Gulf Coast.
As leader of a mutinous uprising, Lt. Gaspar seized command of the Spanish war-sloop Florida Blanca in 1783. Known as "Gasparilla", he captured and destroyed thirty-six or more ships in twelve years of piracy; a career ended with an attack upon a U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchantman. He was drowned when he leaped into the sea to avoid capture.
Gasparilla's spirit lives on as Ye Mystic Krewe boards the Jose Gasparilla each February to beseige the city's defenses with shot and shell, a tradition since May 1904.
Successful in battle, Ye Mystic Krewe parades triumphantly through the streets of Tampa. Holding the city in a week-long festival of merrymaking, the joyous pirates pledge allegiance to a newly-crowned King Gasparilla and his Queen.
By mandate of the Pirate King - Ye Mystic Krewe boards the ship "Jose Gasparilla" the second Saturday in February departing to return February next.
Marker is on Bayshore Boulevard south of Hyde Park Place, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
