 |
| Castillo de San Marcos -- oldest fortress in the U.S. |
In 2015, St. Augustine, Florida, did something that no other
town in North America has ever done.
They celebrated their 450th birthday. But surviving as America’s oldest city hasn’t
been easy. St. Augustine has been sacked
and burned to the ground. Three times! It has been fought over in so many wars that
the Spanish, French, British, Confederate, and pirate flags you see flying
around town are not just for decoration – they actually represent countries and
criminals that at one time or another controlled it.
But what can you expect from a town that was started for one
purpose: to fight pirates.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about St. Augustine is that
after surviving centuries of hurricanes and bloody warfare, this little
settlement, originally located in the middle of nowhere on the edge of swamps
filled with mosquitoes, rattlesnakes and alligators, has grown today into one of
the most lovely and beautiful cities in the new world.
 |
| A plaza off of St. George Street |
It is a place of incredible charm with
cobblestone pedestrian streets lined with quiet plazas and outdoor cafes shaded
by palm trees. There is a European feel,
which is highlighted by something very rare in North America – a great stone
citadel that sits squarely in the center of the town. There are cute little shops and art galleries. Spanish moss hangs from the trees, while a
full-size Spanish galleon brimming with canons floats in the harbor. And of course, there are dozens and dozens of
100 and 200-year-old buildings that have been repurposed into museums, antique
stores, pubs with live music, and candlelit restaurants. But don’t forget, this is St. Augustine. Which means even the oldest buildings can
only date back to 1702. That’s that last
time pirates sacked the city and burned it to the ground.
Pirates & Privateers and Privations
In 1565, Spain had a problem. Cortez had opened up Mexico and huge treasure
ships filled with gold and silver were bound for Europe. However to get to the gulf stream to carry
them across the Atlantic, the treasure fleets had to sail up the treacherous
coast of Florida, and as the maps at the time said, “here there be
pirates.” Full blown pirates (outright
criminals) and privateers (essentially pirates who had a letter stating they were
fighting for one of Spain’s enemies, like England or France) would wait and
capture the slow moving treasure ships, or run them up on reefs and salvage the
wreckage.
 |
| The drawbridge to Castillo de San Marcos |
When the French went so far as to build a fort in Florida,
Spain had to act. In 1565, they sent an
expedition of 800 men and women under Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles to protect and
settle the Florida coast. The French were soon dispatched and with the coast
secure, the Spanish laid out the first European grid-style town in the
continental United States, a real city with streets and plazas and impressive
government buildings – and no food.
Florida was then a hot, humid, bug and snake-infested swamp, filled with
disease with little ground to grow crops.
The early years here were incredibly difficult. And then there were the pirates. Nine wood forts were built, and destroyed by
pirates. The infamous Sir Francis Drake burned the town in 1586, 34 years
before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Finally, in 1672, Spain had enough and construction started
on the Castillo de San Marcos – the oldest and best preserved stone fort in the
continental United States. Today, the
huge diamond-shaped fortress is a National Monument.
 |
| Gun firing demonstration |
You can walk the ramparts along the top of
the towering, 28-foot-tall walls, defend the drawbridge, climb out on the bastions
for a view of the harbor, and watch cannons being fired by re-enactors in
Spanish uniforms. The fort was built of coquina, a soft local stone made of compressed
shells. When the British attacked in
1702, the soft stone absorbed the cannonballs without crumbling, and the fort
held out for 50 days.
Of course, the
frustrated British had to settle for capturing the town, which they burned to
the ground before sailing off. But the
fort survived that battle and another brutal British bombardment in 1740 and
was never captured.
So there’s not a lot of genuine artifacts, but you can see
Blackbeard’s blunderbuss, one of the three remaining “Jolly Roger” pirate
flags, the world’s oldest wanted poster, and Captain Thomas Tew’s original
treasure chest – the only known authentic pirate chest in existence.
The museum does a fun job of detailing the
lives of the most outrageous of the scallywags, and kids can fire a cannon, see
a Disney-produced special effects show on Blackbeard’s last battle, and stare
at the actual sword used by Captain Jack Sparrow in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. The sword spins in a special case with
dramatic lighting as if it were a priceless relic, and maybe it is.
 |
| Back streets of St. Augustine |
Most interesting are the exhibits of real treasure including
pieces of gold, gold bars, pearls and silver, recovered from pirate shipwrecks,
including Blackbeard’s own flagship, the “Queen Anne’s Revenge.”
 |
| St. George Street is home to two pirate shops and pirate walking tours. |
The museum is just one of a half dozen pirate
adventures. This is deep pirate country,
and if you doubt it, there are not one, but two stores where you can be
completely outfitted in your own pirate costume, from tri-corner hats to boots,
swords and pistols. Up to a dozen fully outfitted
pirates stroll around town posing for pictures, and there are pirate shows, a
pirate sailing tour of the harbor on the Black Raven, and pirate, ghost and
graveyard walking tours.
All of which seems quite natural. St. George Street, the cobblestone, car-free
main street of town, looks like the setting of every pirate movie, with
colonial buildings, pubs with wood signs, swaying palm trees, balconies and
rustic old lanterns. Yes, it’s a bit
touristy, but much of it is authentic, and it’s certainly beautiful at night
with the lanterns glowing and candles flickering in many of the windows.
Every March, there’s a re-creation of pirate
Captain Robert Searle’s 1668 attach on St. Augustine. Reenactors of pirates and Spanish soldiers
fight in the plaza, then all the people of the town and the soldiers flee up
St. George Street while the pirates sack the city. It’s no wonder there’s two pirate stores in
town.
 |
| St. George Street |
A short walk from the pirate museum, you can see how normal
people lived at the Colonial Quarter of St. Augustine. This ‘living history’ museum is fun for kids,
where they can see a ship being built, watch a blacksmith at work and learn how
to fire a musket. No matter where you
wander in St. Augustine, you’ll hear a lot of muskets and cannons being fired. There are four attractions that regularly
fire off some type of black powder device. At least at the blacksmith, kids will learn
where the expression “strike while the iron is hot” came from (you can only
bend iron with a hammer when it is red hot).
St. Augustine is also the North American port of El Galeon,
a replica of a typical Spanish galleon. The 170-foot-long, 495-ton El Galeon
sails from New York to Puerto Rico, telling the stories of these heavily armed
cargo ships that were like full cities under sail, but it is frequently in dock
in its main port, St. Augustine The El
Galeon is similar to the San Pelayo, which flagship that first carried Menendez
to Florida in 1565. That ship carried 77
crew, 18 gunners, 317 soldiers, and 26 families, as well as provisions,
including cattle.
 |
| El Galeon |
Among the crew were several African American sailors. Spain allowed slavery, but it had nothing to
do with race, so blacks and whites could be free or slaves, and if slaves, they
could earn their freedom.
The first free black community in the United States was at
Fort Mose, just a few miles north of St. Augustine. At the state park museum, you can learn how
many African American slaves under British rule in Georgia to the north escaped
to Florida, where under Spanish laws they could be free. By 1738, a community of 100 former slaves
were living here, under the leadership of African-born Captain Francisco
Menendez. When a British force tried to capture St. Augustine in 1740, Menendez
and the black militia along with 300 Spanish soldiers launched a surprise
pre-dawn attack that left 68 British dead.
The English retreated to Georgia and Menendez was a hero….to the Spanish. To the British? Well, of course, they considered him a pirate!
IF YOU GO: www.floridashistoriccoast.com/
Walking and Drinking in St. Augustine
 |
| Prince of Wales |
This is a five-star town for walking and drinking beer, filled with some great bars, live music, a wonderful brewpub and seafood restaurants in two century old buildings. It's more subdued than Key West, but has a similar number of bars in the historic district, which is where you want to stay. There are dozen B&Bs in the area, and a variety of chain motels along Hwy. 1, about 15 minute walk away.
The A1A Ale Works is a good place to start..modern building, but second story views of the bay and five nice craft beers (the Porpoise Point IPA has a grapefruit taste that goes with the view).
The town excels in British pubs, of which there are three. I really liked the Prince of Wales, which is off the noise of St. George Street on a secluded lane, with Spanish Moss above, a wonderful porch, live folk music, and small but traditional interior with British menu.
 |
| Barley Republic |
For dinner, hard to beat the atmosphere of O.C, White's Seafood & Spirits, which is in a building that dates back to 1790, has a pirate as their logo, and a just gorgeous outdoor courtyard by the bay.
But you can't overstate how many bars there are, many with live music on the rooftop, others with balconies overlooking the streets, all easy walking distance in the historic district.
