The Captain Kidd Pirate Ship Experience – interactive living history

Captain Kidd
  • Help us to recreate and sail eco-friendly pirate ships in London and around the world
  • Celebrate and learn about our maritime history, ethnic heritage and traditional skills
  • Multiple educational, social and other benefits for businesses, individuals and visitors to London alike

Most of us know and love the stories of traditional pirates. Plundering the high seas, walking the plank, buried treasure….

One of the most famous pirates of all was Captain Kidd. He sailed and raided worldwide before his appointment with the hangman’s noose. And he really did bury his treasure, which people still search for today. But with this initiative, we’re offering treasure of a different kind….

 

 

Sail and learn traditional skills on a historic square-rigged sailing ship


We’re a registered UK charity whose aim is to build three working replicas of Captain Kidd’s original pirate ship, the Adventure Galley. One, the new Adventure Galley, will regularly sail around the world retracing Kidd’s piratical voyages. Carrying passengers and cargo, it will be crewed by professionals and sea cadets, plus ordinary people looking to learn traditional sailors’ skills, arts and crafts on the voyage of a lifetime.

The other two (yet to be named) will sail daily along the River Thames from Greenwich in London – again, open to all who wanted to discover the true traditional maritime experience for themselves.

It’s fully interactive living history, where all onboard can act as traditional sailors, setting the sails, helping with the running of the ship and learning new skills.

 

Revealing the real buried pirate treasure


Recreating and sailing the pirate ships of old will be a lot of fun. But there’s much, much more to what we’re doing than that:

  • Re-discovering the lost arts of traditional shipbuilding, sailing, seamanship and associated arts and crafts, such as rigging, rope work, knots and splices. 
  • Helping young people, such as apprentices who will help build the ships, and Sea Cadets who will help sail them.
  • Making Greenwich and the Pool of London a maritime centre once again as the ships are built and then sailed down the Thames and overseas, carrying people and cargo in an eco-friendly way.
  • Celebrating our incredible SHARED heritage and reducing community isolation – the age of piracy was also when multi-culturalism can be said to have truly started. More on this is under Piracy’s Relevance Today
  • These ships will be sailing for 40+ years – so opportunities galore for sailing trips, open days, skills days, corporate events and more

All aboard!


Whoever you are, we have so much to offer you. Just follow the links below:

Individuals & Groups – anyone interested in history, our maritime heritage or traditional sailing.

Businessesany organisation considering sponsorship and/or corporate team-building days, or interested in eco-friendly cargo transportation.

Schools & Charities – a great opportunity for practical and historical learning experiences.

Next steps

More about Captain Kidd and piracy’s relevance today is in our Pirate Primer

Find out about our three pirate vessels in Our Ships

Take a look at how you could learn ropework, rigging and other shipbuilding-related skills

Discover what you could do aboard ship in Maritime Skills

…Or just Join our Mailing List

 

Get involved


If you’re interested in supporting us, we want to hear from you. In return for sponsorship or donations, we’ll be providing you with plenty in return – including opportunities to join our maiden voyages. For details, see Make a Donation and Buccaneers’ Club

We would also love to hear from anyone interested in large-scale sponsorship – again, we can offer a great deal in return, from maiden voyage places through to team-building events, galley races on the Thames, marketing opportunities and more. For information, see our Businesses page

Even if you just want to be updated with our progress, we would love to hear from you. Please join our mailing list by contacting us now