Castle May Reveal Truth About Pirates

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands —  The Cayman Islands plans to restore historic Pedro Castle, a project that may help sort fact from fiction about the landmark’s infamous past.

Island legend has the castle playing host to some of the renowned pirates of the Spanish Main, including Captain Henry Morgan and Blackbeard.

But the legend of Morgan the Pirate using Pedro Castle as a hide-out during his days of plundering treasure ships off the Central American coast may miss the mark by about 100 years, government archivist Philip Pedley said.

He said Morgan operated in the 1670s while Pedro Castle appears to have been built in the late 1700s.

“Whether there is any connection with Captain Morgan and the castle remains to be seen,” he said.

The same holds true for the infamous pirate Blackbeard, whose real name was Edward Teach. He is believed to have operated in Cayman waters in the late 1600s.

Historical accounts say Blackbeard used the islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman as staging areas for his pirate raids. Those islands are about 60 miles east of the main island of Grand Cayman.

The limestone caves on Cayman Brac are among the rumored hiding places of Blackbeard’s treasure, which has never been found.

Pedro Castle will join other historic sites in the Caribbean recently preserved and turned into major cultural and tourist attractions, including Port Royal in Jamaica and Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.

“All over the Caribbean there is a resurgence of interest in historical sites,” said Kirkland Nixon, chairman of the Cayman Historic Sites Committee.

Pedro Castle was recently purchased by the Cayman government after a public outcry to preserve historic sites in the British territory. It had fallen into disrepair and was in danger of being torn down.

The government-backed restoration will include a complete archeological survey and an attempt to determine the site’s true history, Nixon said.

The government has advertised for a restoration company to handle the project, which may include the use of metal detectors to search for previous foundations.

Pedley said at least one of the intriguing legends about Pedro Castle site may have a historical basis.

That story has Spanish pirate Pedro Gomez hiding out on the site, long before the castle was built. Numerous oral accounts and a few written ones have placed a structure built by his pirates on the land where the castle now stands.

Whether or not Pedro Castle was used by pirates, it is believed to be the oldest building in the Cayman Islands.

According to the book “Notes on the History of the Cayman Islands,” published in 1910 in Jamaica and written by former Cayman Commissioner George Hirst, a man named William Eden built the castle in 1780 using slave labor.

The book said the castle was originally called “The Stone House at Pedro” and was later named “St. James Castle.”

“His version of Pedro is our best guess at this point,” Pedley said.

While there is no evidence of any Indian culture on the site of Pedro Castle or elsewhere in the Cayman Islands, the possibility of prehistoric Indian settlements is also being examined, he said.

The restoration project will seek to answer a number of other questions as well, including whether there was ever a Spanish fort or other building on the site.

And, some say, they may even find Blackbeard’s treasure buried under Pedro Castle.