Pirates Officially Welcomed To Witch City In Salem Ceremony

SALEM, MA — While the pirates have been back lurking around the Witch City for more than four months, they will get their official welcome to town on Wednesday.

The Chamber of Commerce and the city are hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Real Pirates Salem, the historical pirate museum on Derby Street that chronicles the shipwrecked Whydah as discovered by famed underwater explorer Barry Clifford.

The public is invited to the ceremony at the main entrance at Charlotte Forten Park at 11 a.m.

Mayor Kim Driscoll and Museum Director Bill Golden will provide remarks from 11 to 11:15, followed by the ribbon cutting and refreshments with tours of Real Pirates Salem from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Real Pirates Salem Museum tells the story of "Black Sam" Bellamy, the "Witch of Wellfleet" Maria Hallett, and includes genuine artifacts retrieved from the Whydah that sunk off the coast of the outer Cape three centuries ago.

"People said of pirates: 'They were robbers. They were thieves. They were bad people,'" Golden told Patch in April. "One of the questions we ask is: 'Who really were the good guys and who
were the bad guys?'

"That's the story we want to tell. And we want to talk about pirates. Because pirates are fun."

There is a Discovery Lab where visitors can learn all about the history and preservation process of the artifacts as well as interactive activities, including learning how to tie traditional knots, raise the pirate flag and the chance to touch the actual coins and other treasures of the sea.

"The real treasure isn't the gold and silver," Golden said. "The real treasure is the truth."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)