You’ve just gotten into Savannah, GA and don’t know a soul. Being young, you go where the action is. The word on the street is that the best place is an inn down near the River. You grab what little money you have (hoping it’s enough for a couple of pints) and head out to the Pirate’s House Inn. The next thing you know, you’re waking up on a ship bound for China. You’ve been shanghaied!
Sounds pretty far fetched doesn’t it? Not in 1753’s Savannah. The Pirate’s House Inn was known as a rough spot. Sailors coming into port would stop in for a drink and a little showing off but, they were just having fun, blowing off a little steam. The ones you had to worry about were the pirates. Not the pirates like you see in Peter Pan or the movies now days. I mean real, blood thirsty pirates. It has been said that Captain Flint himself was a frequent visitor to the inn.
Numerous accounts have been found of men who had gotten drunk or had been drugged, passed out and then sold to unscrupulous ship’s captains who were looking for an easy way to get a crew. By the time the poor man would wake up, he would be too far from land to get away. It is said that there is a secret tunnel in the rum cellar of the Pirate’s House that connected to the river and that is how pirates would sneak unconscious men onto the ships.
The original house was built in 1734 as part of an experimental garden. It wasn’t too many years later that they discovered many of the plants they wanted to grow in Georgia failed to thrive in the heat. One of the houses was converted into an inn for sailors as Savannah was one of the main port cities in America at that time.
For many years, the building was used as a house museum. In 1948, The Savannah Gas Company bought the land and the buildings. It was turned into a restaurant and has been serving delicious meals since that time. The Pirate’s House is world renown for their entrees and tourists from all over the world make an effort to eat there when they are visiting Savannah. Much of the building has been modernized but you can still see the wooden pegs in the beams and admire the walls built with Savannah bricks.
If you have ever read Robert Lewis Stevenson’s story of Treasure Island, you might recall several mentions of Savannah. He states that Captain Flint “died in Savannah of rum“, many people think it was in the Pirate’s House that Captain Flint died. His supposed last words were to his first mate, asking for some more rum. Customers of the Pirate’s House have reported to have heard moaning and calling for a drink. Could that be the spirit of Captain Flint begging for more rum or just a poor tourist not used to Savannah’s summer heat and humidity?
Laurie Cory, 2004
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