Jose Gasparilla

  This vessel named for Jose Gaspar a gentleman Lieutenant of the Royal Spanish Navy, who achieved great fame as a pirate headquartered on Florida's Gulf Coast.<br>       As leader of a mutinous uprising, Lt. Gaspar seized command of the Spanish war-sloop FloridaBlanca in 1783. Known as "Gasparilla", he captured and destroyed thirty-six or more ships in twelve years of piracy; a career ended with an attack upon a U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchantman. He was drowned when he leaped into the sea to avoid capture.<br>       Gasparilla's spirit lives on as Ye Mystic Krewe boards the Jose Gasparilla each February to beseige the city's defenses with shot and shell a tradition since May, 1904.<br>       Successful in battle, Ye Mystic Krewe parades triumphantly through the streets of Tampa. Holding the city in a week-long festival of merrymaking, the joyous pirates pledge allegiance to a newly-crowned King Gasparilla and his Queen.<br>       By mandate of the Pirate King - Ye Mystic Krewe boards the ship "Jose Gasparilla" the second Saturday in February departing to return February next.