Seafair Pirates 2013 Rusty Harper, Lance English

Captain Kidd Rusty Harper, Seafair Pirate.

When Seafair, Seatle’s summer celebration rolls around you are apt to see men dressed in Johnny Depp-wear roaring around Seattle in a boat-shaped truck, hooting, hollering, and brandishing scabbards. One July day in 2013 our radio show was boarded by Seafair Pirates. Rusty Harper, Captain Kidd - leader of the group, and Lance ‘Clapeye’ English stopped by to share the history and lore, including their establishment in 1949, the time they showed up at a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue photo shoot in The Cayman Islands, how they were founded in 1949 by young members of the Washington State Press Club who called themselves the Ale & Quail Society, why there were no female Seafair Pirates; and the stories of the Pirates checkered past.