Blackbeard. Jack Sparrow. Captain Hook. We’ve seen the ships, peg legs, skulls and crossbones. They cross the turbulent high seas on the big screen, in books and in our imaginations. But who were pirates, really?
This Saturday, Union Station opens the doors to its “Real Pirates” exhibit. Local actors and actresses bring to life more than 200 artifacts unearthed from the Whydah , a slave ship hijacked by pirates that sunk during a violent storm in 1717. It’s the first real pirate ship to be found off the coast of the U.S.
In the second portion of Friday's Up to Date, Steve Kraske talks with Mark Lach, senior vice president of Arts and Exhibitions International about the exhibit and some of the misconceptions we have about pirates.
SEE MORE: "Real Pirates" opens on Saturday, June 22 and runs through January 5, 2014 at Union Station. Tickets range from $10 to 20.
As senior vice president of Arts and Exhibitions International (AEI), Mark Lach is responsible for all design elements for Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. Other renowned exhibitions in Lach's portfolio include: Lach joined AEI in 2004 as the next step in a storied career designing some of the world's most famous and popular traveling museum exhibitions including "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition, and Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes.
