The Legend of
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By Deborah Frethem
If you have been in Tampa in mid-January, you most likely witnessed a huge party. In fact, it would have been difficult for you to avoid it. The Gasparilla Festival is like a Mardi Gras celebration but with boats and pirates. Is it a festive commemoration of Tampa's pirate heritage? A remembrance of historical events? An excuse to gather beads and drink? Perhaps the truth is a little bit of all three. The word "Gasparilla" means "little Gaspar." According to legend, Jose Gaspar was very short of stature. However, he was a gifted navigator, a fine swordsman and a man of intelligence and ambition. Born in Spain in 1766, he worked his way into high position in the court of King Charles III. But as often happens in political situations, other members of the court became jealous of his success and plotted against him. The plotters convinced the king that Jose was guilty of treason. As a result, while Jose was out at sea, his mother, wife and infant son were murdered and his home burned to the ground. Orders were given for his immediate arrest upon his return to Spain. However, one of Jose's friends got word to him, and he never returned to his homeland. Understandably embittered, he vowed to "henceforth be an enemy of Spain." Notice that he did not say he would become a pirate, just an enemy of Spain. However, he soon found the fat merchant ships of Great Britain and the United States irresistible, and he began to prey on any ship he could find along the coastlines of Florida. Some even claim that Captiva Island, near Fort Myers, is the place where Gaspar held female captives until they could be ransomed by their families. |
When it was clear that the American forces would win the battle, Gaspar vowed he would not be taken alive to face the hangman's noose. Of course, male captives were given only the choice of a life of piracy or death.
Today, Tampa's Gasparilla Festival celebrates a battle between Gaspar and American forces that supposedly occurred in Tampa Bay in 1821. There is a huge "invasion" during which large numbers of boats enter the harbor and disgorge their pirate crews. These marauders then "kidnap" the mayor and hold him until he turns overthe key to the city. What follows is two days of revelry, including parades where beads are thrown to excited -- and often inebriated -- onlookers. But according to the legend, Gaspar was not victorious in his last battle. An American pirate-hunting vessel, the USS Enterprise, disguised itself as a British merchant ship and took Gaspar by surprise. When it was clear that the American forces would win the battle, Gaspar vowed he would not be taken alive to face the hangman's noose. So he wound the anchor chain about himself and threw himself and the anchor into the sea, crying, "Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy's!" And to this day, it is said that you should not stand alone on them deck of a ship in Tampa Bay. For if no one is with you and no one is watching, the ghost of Jose Gaspar will rise up from the depths, still wrapped in the anchor chain. His hair is filled with seaweed, his eyes are gone and his pale face drips with water -- and he'll grab you and drag you down! |