Pirates and BBQ? By Mark Moir

(A’hoy!! For those of you who know Mark Moir, you already know what a fascinating story teller he is and you know that he is a history buff (just watch Jeopardy with him sometime). When I first read this story, I thought it was disjointed but when I read it the second time, he had me! Read on and see if you don’t feel the same way. I hope we can get him to submit something monthly! Whaddaya say, Mark?)

Boca – Latin for ‘mouth’
Buckle – pertaining to the mouth
Boca Grande – Big Mouth
(Southwest Florida at Port Charlotte)
Boca Raton – Mouth of the Rat (oh, the irony!)
(South Florida prime real estate)

Through a papal writ from Rodrigo Borgia, then Pope Alexander VI, the New World was ceded to Spain with the exception of a small part of South America, now Brazil, which went to Portugal. Spain soon became the world power by exploiting the indigenous population, enslaving them to work in the gold and silver mines in Mexico, Central and South America. Tons of gold, silver and precious gems were taken and exported back to Spain on what became known as the Spanish treasure fleets. Galleons filled with riches sailed from the America’s to Spain.

Soon, Britain, France and Holland had ships on the high seas in search of these Spanish galleons. Privateers, pirates sanctioned by the governments of these countries, would seek out and confiscate the treasures on the galleons. A few Frenchmen, landing on the Caribbean Islands, soon ingratiated themselves with the local Caribe Indians. Adopting local custom and traditions, they learned to cook over open fires on wooden frames. Using sea salt and locally cultivated or collected spices, they learned to season meats by rubbing spices on them and cooking them over an open flame thus creating Bar-B-Q. Favorite meats used were feral cows and pigs left behind by the Spaniards in years past. Then there was the West Indian manatee. The sea cow. The sea cow was easy to hunt and kill and provided abundant meat. A huge market in manatee was soon to develop.

Frenchmen developed a trade with the Spanish treasure fleets by providing meat to the Spanish for the voyage back to Spain. The ships would stop in the Caribe ports where the French would load the ships with meat jerky. Meat jerky was made in much the same way as it is now: the meat was cut into thin strips and smoked over an

open flame. The seasoned and dried meat was ideal for a long ocean voyage as it needed no refrigeration. The Spaniards would pay these men in Spanish reales (pieces of eight). These Frenchmen became known as boucaniers or buccaneers, a term that was applied to pirates and privateers of the period, regardless of nationality.

After some time in this trade, some of these jerky makers decided that instead of selling meat and making a small profit, they could just take the whole ship, booty and all. So, by hook or by crook, the boucaniers became pirates. Boucanier was soon anglicized to Buccaneer. (From Wikipedia: The word buccaneer is derived from the French “boucanier”, which roughly translates as “someone who smokes meat” and which in turn comes from the Native American “bukan”. The Caribbean Arawak used this word to describe a sort of grill on which they smoked meat, preferably Manatee.)

from marauding buccaneers. Sir Francis Drake, English privateer, and John Davis, sacked the town in 1586 and 1665 respectively. In 1668, Jamaican buccaneer, Robert Searle, sacked it again. This prompted the building of Castillo de San Marco at St. Augustine and the smaller Ft. Matanzas which is10 miles south of St. Augustine at Matanzas inlet.

Now we have learned a little of the history of Florida, a little about word origins, cooking and the history of piracy. So the next time you fire up the grill and slather on the BBQ sauce, go ahead and hoist the Jolly Roger and put on an eye patch. Aarrrgh!!!