Pirates once operated across many seas in centuries past, and have since dominated our bookshelves and TV screens and have captured the imaginations of many, so Greenwich is set to open an exhibition all about them.
Pirates, Greenwich Maritime Museum’s newest exhibition, will open later this year on March 29 and will explore the long history of pirates and how they still influence us today.
Greenwich Maritime Museum’s newest exhibition will explore the long history of pirates and how they still influence us today. (Image: National Maritime Museum, London)
The new exhibition aims to deconstruct some of the myths surrounding pirates as swashbuckling scoundrels who sailed to sandy beaches of the Caribbean, shedding light on how they actually lived.
It will feature the true stories of pirates like Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, William Kidd, Anne Bonny and Mary Read and will explore piracy across the globe from the South China Sea to North Africa.
Alongside the realities of being a pirate, the exhibition will also bring together a fictional collection of how pirates were depicted through TV and film, with 200 objects including loans from the National Archives, V&A and BFI.
The exhibition will also explore how popular culture has perceived pirates, delving into characters like Captain Hook, Long John Silver and Jack Sparrow to name a few, exploring how popular tropes are shared among many pirate characters.
One of the exhibition’s highlights will include original illustrations from comedy animation Captain Pugwash created by John Ryan.
Fans of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series will also find a collection of costumes worn by Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Alongside these the exhibition will also feature Vivienne Westwood’s collection from the 1981 ‘Pirate’ collection.
Aside from the fictional depictions of pirates, visitors will also learn about the real lives of pirates, including what is considered the ‘golden age’ of Pirates between the 1680s to the 1720s.
A section of the exhibition named ‘Global Pirates’ will highlight objects like a hanging captured from a junk in the fleet of the Chinese pirate Shap Ng-tsai, thought be a shrine dedicated to T’ien Hou.
‘Pirates’ will run from March 29 until January 4, 2026, with tickets priced from £15 for adults, £7.50 for children and £11.25 for students.
