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Slave ship spurs talks

MOSI's chief wants to make it part of an exhibit on pirates.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published November 9, 2006

TAMPA - The museum chief who wants to bring a pirate exhibit to town using artifacts from a former slave ship met this week with NAACP leaders, who say they will continue to monitor the proposal.

Wit Ostrenko met Tuesday with NAACP Hillsborough County Branch executive committee members. He hopes to bring to the Museum of Science and Industry the Whydah, a slave ship that sank in 1717, days after it was overtaken by pirates led by Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy.

Sponsored by National Geographic, the six-month exhibit would coincide with Disney's summer release of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film. Ostrenko met with a group of black residents in October to discuss the Whydah, but many left wanting more answers. Ostrenko did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

"It was a slave ship. It wasn't a pirate ship," said Carolyn Lighty, one of two NAACP liaisons appointed to discuss the matter with Ostrenko.

"When the presentation was made to us, there were no artifacts from slavery," said Jetie B. Wilds, a community activist and WTMP radio host. "I'd be in favor of a real story about slavery. I think that story ought to be told. But you can't tell it partially, and you can't tell it in such a way that the only thing it's doing is embellishing a story about piracy."

The ship carried slaves from West Africa to exchange them in the Caribbean for English goods and gold. Its primary role for the two years it sailed was as a slave ship, Lighty said, and pirates had control for less than a week before it sank.

Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 9, 2006, 00:50:19]