For over a hundred years, the city of Tampa has celebrated the legend of José Gaspar with its annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival.  A pirate ship leads a flotilla of thousands of boats into the city, firing canons and throwing beads.  The pirates come ashore, steal the key to the city from the mayor, then embark on a raucous parade down Bayshore Boulevard.  It might seem strange that a city would memorialize a notoriously vicious pirate for over a century, but there’s a good story behind it. The tale of Jose Gaspar begins in 1783, after leading a mutiny aboard a Spanish Navy vessel.  He turns to piracy, haunting Florida’s west coast on his ship Floriblanca.

According to legend, his conquests survive in the names of islands in southwest Florida.  Captiva was once the place he held women captive.  He gave Useppa, a Spanish princess, her own island, but she still refused his advances, so he killed her there.  His treasure was supposedly hidden on Gasparilla Island. After 40 years of plunder, Gaspar was ready to retire. As he divided his loot with his crew on Gasparilla Island, a lookout spotted a British merchant ship.  Since pirates will be pirates, they set out to capture the ship.  As they approached, the ship lowered the Union Jack and raised an American flag, revealing itself to be none other than the USS Enterprise!  Gaspar and his crew had met their match.   As the Floriblanca went down, Jose Gaspar tied himself to the anchor chains and leapt overboard, crying, “Gaspar dies at his own hands, not his enemy’s!”No one has ever found evidence of José Gaspar’s existence.  His name first appears in 1904 in advertising brochures for Henry B. Plant’s railroad running along southwest Florida, leading travelers from his luxurious hotel in Tampa to another he built, the Boca Grande Hotel, conveniently located on Gasparilla Island.  The elaborate tale included the claim that Gaspar’s treasure was buried on the island and has never been found.   University of Tampa, once Henry Plant’s Tampa Bay Hotel:  via

So why do we celebrate José Gaspar; scoundrel, thief, kidnapper, murderer– whether he was real or not?  It’s not about him, no matter what they say in the brochures. It’s a celebration of Tampa, a thriving seaport with a colorful history, and the fascinating pirate story told here for generations.  And a reason to drink rum!This year we’re mixing up some Gasparilla Grog:  spiced black rum with a good amount of citrus, because we don’t want scurvy while we’re pirates for a day.  Yo-Ho-Yo-Ho!