International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Thursday 19 September 2019

According to that present day fount of knowledge, Wikipedia, International Talk Like A Pirate Day was created by two men from the state of Oregon, USA, in 1995. Little could these two men, John Baur, who goes by the nom de pirate of Ol' Chumbucket, and Mark Summers, who answers to Cap'n Slappy, have known how appropriate their creation was for the seaside suburb of New Brighton where those nautical rascals, the Natural Magic Pirates, have been spreading musical mayhem and Jack Tar jollity for many, many years.

Long before this global day was created in celebration of pirate patois, the leaders of the Natural Magic Pirates, Captain Long John Knickers (Kerry McCammon) and his trusty offsider, Nudger (Mary McCammon), have been "ooohhhing" and "aaarrring" since 1981 and they have sailed the high seas to capture the hearts of children and big children in England, Wales and Japan as well as splicing their mainbrace all over Aotearoa.

The Natural Magic Pirates have entertained generations of children and their parents throughout their long and illustrious life on the ocean waves and many salty seadogs have been press-ganged, albeit in the nicest possible way, into their rollicking, rambunctious pirate crew over the years. The annual New Brighton Christmas Parade wouldn't be the same each year without a jolly band of pirates sailing down Marine Parade in the good ship, Jolly Roger, playing sea shanties with the same gusto as they would use chasing down a doubloon-laden Spanish galleon.

There are also times when Captain Long John Knickers and Nudger have to leave their crew in charge of the Jolly Roger and push off in a longboat for the shore so they can go and entertain their spellbound audiences with their fascinating and engaging puppet shows. Dead men might tell no tales, but Knickers and Nudger have tales aplenty and it's "shiver me timbers" when the scary crocodile appears, but "blow me down", the laughter is reinstated when the cheeky parrot comes to the rescue.

With a tip of their tricorne hats and a flash of their cutlasses, the Natural Magic Pirates will be acknowledging International Talk Like A Pirate Day with a musical celebration of all things pirate at the New Brighton Market on Saturday 21 September followed by a further performance at the New Brighton Children's Playground not far from New Brighton Library. Pirates aren't silly. They know that the best way to keelhaul landlubbers' attention is to fire a shot across their bows on a weekend.

Get piratical at the library

If you can't sail along to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day with Natural Magic Pirates, you can find their original tunes and tales in the library:

• Pirate Ukelele Songs
• Go For the Gold!
• Pirates for Fun: Pirate Songs and the story of Jellybean and the Silly Witch
• Migit and the Dragon: a Moon Mouse Myth

But if you want to get serious about Talk Like a Pirate Day you'd better get studying. You can learn how to speak pirate with Mango Languages.

And if you are visiting one our libraries, on Talk Like a Pirate Day (or any time), don't forget to issue your items on the self-issue kiosks using the Pirate language button. Oooohhh, arrrrr, shipmates!