International Talk Like a Pirate Day

To coincide with the major exhibition Pirates, the National Maritime Museum, London will be celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day on the weekend of Friday 19 September 2025. This will include talks, character actors, and a 2-for-1 discount on tickets Friday to Sunday for the Pirates exhibition. Visitors who dress up like a pirate will also be in with the chance of winning a chest of maritime treasures! Plus, Benugo are offering Pirates ticket holders a £1 hot drink at the National Maritime Museum café with the purchase of one of their delicious pirate themed cakes.

The weekend will be full of nautical mischief and pirate-themed fun, including a surprise visit from a real-life seafaring character actor on Saturday. Set a course for Greenwich and we'll see you in September!

In 1995, the American pirate enthusiasts and authors John Baur and Mark Summers of Albany, Oregon inaugurated ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’, to be marked each year on 19 September. In popular culture, pirates typically talk with a strong West Country accent as if they only came from Cornwall or Devon. Of course, pirates were from all over the place. However the West Country pirate voice can be traced back to Disney’s Treasure Island in 1950. This was the studio’s first live action production with the Dorset-born actor Robert Newton (1905–56) cast as Long John Silver, a role he repeated twice for cinema and television. Popular pirate words include 

• Jolly Roger: a pirate flag.
• Heave To: to bring the ship to a stop.
• Maroon: abandon a victim on a deserted island
• Hearties: friends.
• Old Salt: an experienced seaman.
• Aye: yes and Aye, Aye: order understood.
• Black Jack: a leather drinking tankard. 
• Ahoy: a call to get Attention

Find out more at the Pirates exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, London 

Talk like a Pirate 2-4-1 tickets - BOOK NOW

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