#gasparilla #Pirateinvasion #Tampa

In 1900 a railroad brochure featured an image of a man,
A man so infamous the mere mention of his name elicits thoughts pillaging, plundering, and drunken debauchery.
And now , every year, since 1904, hundreds of thousands of people have descended on Tampa to celebrate his life
But who was Jose Gaspar, and was he real?



Jose Gaspar’s story starts in Spain in the mid 1700’s were he was a member of the spanish royal navy, how he got to be in the navy is up for debate as some say he was a nobleman who had achieved a high ranking and others that say he was just a bad ass kid, who when given the choice of joining the navy or going to prison… chose the navy

In every version of his legend, Gaspar eventually breaks bad ,sets sail on his ship the Floriblanca and lands on the southwest coast of Spanish Florida in what is now Charlotte County.

Here in 1783 he established his base, Gasparilla Island and a neighboring island called Captiva where he allegedly held his captives… hence the name captiva… though it is a very bastardized pronunciation of the spanish word Cautivo

He continued to be the most fierce pirate on Florida’s westcoast until the 1820’s when in a botched attempt to pilledge a british merchant ship in charlotte harbour was foiled by the U.S. Navy.
Here is where Gaspar’s life on the sea comes to an end...because Jose, instead of surrendering wrapped an anchor around his waist and leapt into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico

but was he real?