Pirate man
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on September 18, 2017 11:22 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Robert Patterson dons his pirate outfit to give programs in local schools and do re-enactments all over eastern North Carolina.
When Robert Patterson puts on his pirate garb for a re-enactment, history comes alive for him. And sometimes, the dead seem to come alive, too.
That happened when he was doing a re-enactment one year in Beaufort, sitting at his campsite in the early morning hours.
"It was about 4:30 a.m., and here come walking down the street a transparent figure of a pirate, walking toward the water," Patterson said. "I'm watching him go by. It was like I wasn't even there to him. Then he disappeared."
The 55-year-old Patterson wasn't always a pirate re-enactor. He started out doing Revolutionary War re-enactments.
"In 1971, I took vacation to Williamsburg, Va., and fell in love with the colonial period," he said. "I enjoyed doing Revolutionary War re-enactments.
"But I got tired of doing just that little piece of history from 1775 to 1782."
When "Pirates of the Caribbean" came out, Patterson fell in love with that time period.
Originally from Washington Township, N.J., Patterson moved to Goldsboro and found out it was a pirate haven, especially around the beaches.
"I went to my first Beaufort Pirate Invasion a few years ago," he said. "And I've really been working hard on my pirate persona ever since."
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Josiah Cuttler, aka Patterson, is a gunner's mate to Bartholmew Roberts. He was born in March 1665 in Clifden, Ireland, the son of a fisherman.
"When I was 10, I went to sea as a cabin boy on a merchant ship," Patterson said. "At 16, I joined the army of His Majesty King William III to avoid being pressed into the service of the Royal Navy. The Nine Years War was my first battle in 1683 to 1684."
In 1719, he became a master gunner on the Royal Rover and now has his sights set on becoming captain of his own ship.
As Josiah Cuttler, Patterson feels like he's 10 feet tall when he dons his pirate outfit for a re-enactment.
"I definitely go back into that mentality," he said. "I have so much enjoyment doing this."
Patterson said the thing that intrigues him most about pirates is that they lived in a simpler time. He said things were a lot easier to understand back then compared to life today.
He also feels like pirates were a misunderstood lot.
"That time period, pirates were forces into that because if you were born in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, whatever your father did for a living, that's what you did," Patterson said. "Pirates, on the other hand, bucked the system. When they were at sea, that ship was their little haven.
"Pirates were an integrated society with white, black, Native American, Asian and even women. If you weren't born in upper class, you'd never get any higher in society. But if you were a pirate out to sea, you could be whoever you wanted to be. And you were free."
Two of the more famous women pirates were Mary Read and Anne Bonny.
"They were viscous fighters," Patterson said. "They were part of Jack Rackham's crew. They fought better than men."
Patterson said Mary Read died in prison and Anne Bonny just disappeared in the history books.
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Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean" has been a big inspiration for Patterson.
"His flamboyance is very correct for pirates of the golden age of piracy," he said. "They were very flamboyant, very rock star-ish."
Patterson mirrors that look when he's decked out in his pirate outfit.
He wears what he calls small clothes, without a jacket. On this outfit, he has his good luck charms, like a mermaid and a chicken's foot and rabbit's foot.
He carries Spanish silver and doubloons in a little leather pouch hanging from his outfit. And he has a separate pouch for flint.
"Pirates were religious, so I have my religious icons from that period," Patterson said.
A pirate had to have money when on land. So Patterson also carries pieces of eight, along with English coins.
"You've heard of pieces of eight; it wasn't called that back then," he said. "It was called the Spanish reale or Spanish mill dollar. The reason they called it pieces of eight was because the pirates would cut the Spanish mill dollar into eight pieces, reales, to use for change."
Patterson said a lot of pirates wore eyepatches, but not because they were missing an eye or anything like that.
"Coming in from the outside on a bright sunny day, you can't see well," he said. "So they covered one eye with a patch and when they would go down in the boat, they could see."
High boots were the thing for pirates. Patterson said the type of boots pirates wore goes all the way back to the Renaissance. Pirates wore them to protect their legs.
"Pirates wore boots only on land," he said. "Onboard ship, they'd be barefoot."
Pirates also carried an assortment of weapons.
They would use a boarding ax to swing at the enemy to make a really nasty wound. A boarding pistol was pretty much a sawed off shotgun.
Hand grenades and stink pots were handy for throwing down on a ship to clear the deck of enemy troops, Patterson said. He said stink pots also brought the enemy up from below deck.
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Patterson is a parishioner at St. Mary's Church, where all the children call him the pirate guy, even when he's not in his pirate costume.
He goes into the classroom at local schools to present pirate programs.
And when the newest "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie came out earlier this year, Patterson was at the first showing, dressed as a pirate.
He also does parties and other events.
"Pirate re-enactors are one of the biggest growing subcultures in America," Patterson said. "People are interested in pirates. People really take to pirates."
To contact Patterson, email him at [email protected].