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The Word "Pirate" conjures romantic images of tall-masted sailing ships, peg legs, parrots and broadside ship battles. It’s fun to think of swashbucklers stealing from one oppressive monarchy or another. At one time, pirates were even sanctioned by the U.S. government to raid foreign ships. More recently, Hollywood’s Errol Flynn and Johnny Depp added charm to the mythology. The passage of time and the power of childhood imagination have left us with an enchanting idea of piracy.

In Memoriam (Click to View)

“Qualifying a walk-up [client] is as simple as using Google,” says George Allen of Southern Boating magazine. A quick search of the name “Kirby Archer” turns up a wanted page on the Independence County’s Sheriff’s website. While not everyone has a wireless laptop easily available on a boat, who doesn’t own a cell phone? Call someone, anyone, near a computer. This could be a spouse, friend, or the marina dockmaster’s office.

“Always file a float plan, and stick to it,” says Capt. Bouncer Smith. “No matter where you are going, have a check-in time, and follow with a phone call. There is no excuse, like, ‘It costs too much money.’ If you say you should be in Bimini by 6:00, call and let someone know you arrived. If there is a problem, the faster the Coast Guard is alerted, the better chance they have of finding you before something goes wrong.”

“Go through your charter’s bags before they get on board,” advises Capt. Matty Tambor of the Owl’s Nest. “Let them know that guns and drugs aren’t tolerated. A zerotolerance policy [should be] in effect.” Charters are a private enterprise. Therefore, according to Miami-area attorney Brian Jacobson, there is nothing wrong with searching bags or even patting down a customer before letting them board your boat. This is the same principal as security guards checking out fans before sporting events or bouncers frisking club goers. It’s also not a bad idea to invest in a metal detector.

Beware of cash and a one-way trip! “Back in the early ’80s, it was common to be approached by guys with a briefcase full of cash looking to go to the islands. You knew it was for something illegal, and a lot of guys ended up getting hijacked that way,” recalls Capt. Dan Kipnis, tournament director and past charter captain. Use your gut instinct. If a walk-up client seems too good to be true, they are. Since pirates come in all shapes and sizes these days and work with various methods, it’s up to all crews to put in a little extra effort to protect themselves. Have a contingency plan for any incidents, and practice it from time to time. If you carry a firearm on your vessel, be sure that only the captain and crew know of its location and how to operate the weapon. Otherwise, a gun is of no more use to you than a sash weight, and can actually be used against you. Don’t be afraid to qualify your charter and search them. It’s your boat and your livelihood on the line.

By Bill Kearney

In 1995 Capt. Larry Withall and mate Jason “Tiny” Walcott were both young, up-and-coming charter boat operators in Fort Lauderdale. They were approached by a yacht broker to take a South American client and his male and female friends to the Bahamas for the weekend.

The client placed a $2,000 cash deposit, which might have raised eyebrows, but Larry and Tiny trusted the arrangement, in part, because of the yacht broker’s involvement. They would later find out that the broker was in on the crime.

When the client showed up, it was with another male passenger instead of the couple. Nonetheless, the Rapscallion set sail at 5 p.m. on Friday, November 18. It was an uneventful trip until nightfall, when the boat neared Bimini. About a mile from port, one of the men asked for an aspirin. When Tiny went downstairs to the salon, he noticed the other man sitting with a towel on his lap. In an instant the man drew a MAC-11 submachine gun from underneath the towel and put it to Tiny’s head. Tiny was handcuffed behind the back and his legs were shackled. The man then headed to the bridge with the gun.

The two men directed Larry to take the boat to Little Inagua, a Bahamian island 300 miles from Bimini. From there, the plan was to steal the vessel and sail it to Colombia for unknown purposes. Through quick thinking and knowledge of Bahamian waters, Larry convinced the hijackers that they would run out of gas, and talked them into taking a route that would keep the vessel closer to land.

When Larry saw what looked like a silencer attached to the gun, he asked for proof that Tiny was still alive. The proof never came, and Larry assumed the worst. He then talked the gunman into letting him drive from the tower. When the hijacker on the bridge was distracted while reading the depth machine, Larry leapt from the tower. He splashed down unnoticed and ended up swimming to the north side of Cat Cay. With no one steering, the boat soon ran aground on Gun Cay.

Tiny was still in the salon. The gunman was furious and struck Tiny on the back of the head several times with the gun. He then uncuffed him and commanded him at gunpoint to pilot the boat south. As they motored through the shallows, Tiny knew he didn’t want to reach open water. He ran the boat aground a second time. The boat keeled over on a small reef. One propeller was in the air and the engine for the second prop was dead. “He went ballistic,” says Tiny of the lead pirate. The man cuffed him and attacked him with the butt of the gun repeatedly.

Tiny was uncuffed and directed at gunpoint to crawl into the engine room to fix the motor. “I saw some bolt cutters. The other guy was up on deck. I thought about using them as a weapon, but I chickened out due to confined space in the engine room,” says Tiny.
After an attempt to repair the engine, Tiny and the gunman returned to the bridge. The engine was still dead. No matter what happened, the men needed to get rid of Tiny. “When I tried to get the gun, it was because I would rather be dead than in the position of total helplessness I was in. I was alive but dead. It seemed inevitable what was going to happen. ‘I’m dead,’ I thought. ‘I’m just going to take one last shot.’” When the gunman was distracted with the GPS, Tiny tackled him. The first round went off near his head and missed. As Tiny and the gunman struggled, three more rounds went off. Tiny was struck in the head with an elbow and then with the gun. The second man seemed to talk the gunman out of shooting Tiny. The two criminals then handcuffed Tiny to the ladder and took off on the life raft.

Tiny was cuffed in a position where he feared he would drown if the boat keeled fully over. He panicked and actually bent the ladder rung on the tuna tower in his efforts to pull free. After calming down, he managed to pull a spreader off an outrigger and used it to strip the teeth off the cheap, non-government handcuffs. It had been a seven-hour ordeal.

The hijackers washed up on Cat Cay where they were held by the Cat Cay property manager, whom Larry had tipped off. They were later arrested by Bahamian authorities. Tiny was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. The case was handled by Bahamian law enforcement and not aggressively pursued by the U.S. government.

Piracy is still a hangable offense in the Bahamas. After the suspects had been in jail for a year awaiting trial, an unknown Bahamian citizen paid the $185,000 bail. The two suspects jumped bail and disappeared. They were never heard from again.

“I hold Larry responsible for me being alive,” said Tiny. “He thought quickly and threw a wrench in their plans.” Tiny is now a professional private boat captain and fisherman. Capt. Larry Withall died six years after the incident.