‘Shiver Me Timbers?’ Maine’s first pirateInteresting Research Related to Maritime Maine
By Charles H. Lagerbom | Mar 11, 2021
Photo by: Charles H. Lagerbom The view down Penobscot Bay at Castine shows where the Plymouth Company’s trading post was located. The French Fort Pentagoet was later built on the same location, behind today’s Our Lady of Hope Church. The circular stone memorial is for Fort Pentagoet.
When I heard about the first pirate known to have cruised Maine waters, images came to mind of Hollywood’s Jack Sparrow or one of the blood-thirsty characters from a Robert Louis Stevens novel or the iconic illustrations of N.C. Wyeth. But the actual story of Maine’s first pirate Dixey Bull does not easily fit into this kind of popular mythology.