At the dock during the Oyster Festival, and fairly tall in her own right, she was overshadowed by a much larger and more curvaceously gilded rival (the Kalmar Nyckel). Those willing to take the time, however, would have found that the sly vamp in black watching from the side had an interesting and unfinished story to tell.

"She" in this case was Privateer Royaliste. Flying the pirate colors, Royaliste had come with her crew to Oyster Bay on a long and circuitous route from San Francisco via the Great Lakes. Originally built in Nova Scotia in 1971 and transported to California five years ago, Royaliste was a private educational and historic re-enactment vessel staffed by volunteers. Following on the popularity of recent Disney movies, the tall ship has been prominently featured in a recent A&E History Channel documentary, True Caribbean Pirates which was filmed in December 2005 and released in July of this year.

In their ports of call, Captain Gary Bergman, his wife Kathy, and their crew teach about privateers and the role of pirates in early America. They offer, for example, that founding father Benjamin Franklin served the Continental Congress as, "Minister Plenipotentiary," a role that allowed him to issue Letters of Marque. Letters of Marque, the term marque referring to the line of a frontier or national boundary, authorized private individuals to make captures on behalf of America. Franklin's "privateers" were considered outright pirates by the British and were treated as such, having no status as officially captured prisoners of war. An article by Claire Britton-Warren on Royaliste's website implies that this effectively made Benjamin Franklin either a patriot acting to leverage his position in the negotiation of prisoner swaps...or head pirate.

On display aboard the ship were firearms and swords as well as actual used cannon balls from the period. In Oyster Bay members of the Royaliste's crew were in costume conducting mock sword fights and giving youngsters an active participatory taste of the swashbuckling era.

From the Great Lakes ports of Cleveland and Chicago, Royaliste had made her way to Buffalo, passed through the locks, and had come down the Erie Barge Canal to the Hudson River at Albany. There was a side trip up to Lake Champlain to visit school children and participate in a commemoration of the Battle of Plattsburg in September. The Battle of Plattsburg was a 2 1/2 hour naval engagement on September 11, 1814 that helped turn the tide against the British during the War of 1812. Chronicled in Theodore Roosevelt's Naval History of the War of 1812, this battle ultimately resulted in a treaty signed later that December and official end of the war in 1815.

Bergman said that he recommends the trip down the Erie Canal as New York State is currently waiving all fees and the scenery and people are great. He doesn't recommend doing it in a tall ship, however, as they had to step the masts six times, (laying them down on the deck and reinstalling them) to get under low obstructions and this required a crane.

Captain Bergman indicated that the crew had a lot of fun walking off the boat into rural towns and taverns in the heartland of New York State. People would ask incredulously, "You say you're off a Pirate Ship? The Pirate Ship is where?"

Leaving Oyster Bay, Royaliste is headed down the coast to Norfolk and then to a November conference in Charleston. Loosely voyaging, captain and an ever-rotating crew are planning to winter somewhere "south" down along the Intercoastal Waterway. In 2007 there will be an American Sail Training Association tall ship challenge from Charleston to Nova Scotia which may again bring Royaliste up our way. Other than that it is likely you may hear of them simply sailing, as pirates, out in the Caribbean.