This is the bow of the pirate ship Jose Gasparilla that invades our city each year carrying hundreds of blood-thirsty, swashbuckling pirates of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. The ship spends most of its year quietly docked in the channel on Bayshore Boulevard across from Tampa General Hospital and the Tampa Convention Center. But it will silently diappear come winter and reappear in February to carry its invading Krewe as they take over the city of Tampa and parade through the streets. If you read my post at Tampa Florida Photo about the Bead Barn, I mentioned that each year this citywide invasion draws hundreds of thousands of spectators and probably millions of beads are thrown and collected around everyone’s neck. It's a fun celebration that we look forward to each year.
3 comments:
That is one spectacular statue on that ship. That hair is so striking! A real goddess of the seas.
If all pirates looked like this sculpture, they'd have taken over the world easily...do any of the pirates soon to invade Tampa look like this, Frank? Tell us the truth, now! ;-)
Several pirate wannabes and hanger-ons try their very best to replicate the look of the ship's carved mascot. The tall-tale is told that she was once human but gave up her earthly life to hang out aboard ship and grace its bow forever. (Not really..in pirate dreams only.)
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