WATCH: Scarborough's pirate ship the Hispaniola
and live on Freeview channel 276
Named The Hispaniola, after the pirate ship in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, it would later spend 50 years taking passengers to Treasure Island – a small piece of land on Scarborough Mere – where gold doubloons were hidden.
Visitors would probe the sand with sticks to uncover their share of the ‘treasure’, whilst sharing friendly banter with the ship crew – who masqueraded as pirates.
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Hide AdFast forward to 2014, and the Hispaniola has not sailed on the Mere for over twenty years. However, following restoration and repairs it now travels along the South Bay, taking a short route from the harbour and back.
The trip is affordable, at £3 a ride (for adults and children), and the ship’s pirate heritage is commemorated with a recorded ‘pirate’ introduction at the start of the trip, and a peg-legged figure who advertises the attraction on the harbourside.