Loss of ‘our favorite pirate’ – Capt. Horatio Sinbad – begins to sink in

BEAUFORT, N.C. – Everyone who ever spent some time in the company of Beaufort’s revered pirate-in-residence – Capt. Horatio Sinbad – is struggling to cope with the loss we are all feeling since his passing on April 1, 2025.

He was a delightful, charming man who clung to childhood dreams and was bold enough to carve out a lifestyle that reflected his credo: “To rule the waves you wave the rules.” As in wave good-bye to rules. It’s the same as waiving them.

You see, the general rule is: “Rules and regulations do not apply to pirates.” They are roguish characters who shun conformity.

As a young boy growing up in Michigan, Ross Andrew Morphew was enchanted, enthralled and obsessed with story books and movies about pirates. Ross said he always wanted to be a pirate when he grew up…and now he “arrrgh” one,” as his friends liked to quip.

 Ross was an impressionable youngster when Disney’s action film “Treasure Island” hit the big screen in 1950, featuring Long John Silver. Mesmerized by the idea of sailing the seven seas, the young lad memorized the line: “Steady as she goes, an’ stand t’yer guns.”

Sinbad said he wished he had been born 250 years earlier to have experienced firsthand the “Golden Age of Piracy.”

Sinbad once told a television news crew that his dear mother would often say: “The boy turned 12 and never went beyond that.” Bless that momma’s heart.

Ross Morphew was a semester shy of high school graduation when he left home and made his way to Saint Lucia, an island in the Caribbean, wrote Josh Shaffer of The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

The lad earned the respect of his fellow seamen. They gave him the nickname “Sinbad.”

With fair skin and long, blond hair, Ross Morphew bore little resemblance to the legendary Sinbad the Sailor (of Arabian descent) or to actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who played the leading role in the 1947 film “Sinbad the Sailor.”

Sinbad told Shaffer: “I was a passionate admirer of Horatio Nelson, the British naval commander, and I loved the tales of Capt. Horatio Hornblower, so eventually I added ‘Horatio’ as a first name.”

 

Sinbad returned home to complete high school. He got a job, got married and began building his very own sloop, a 22-foot vessel, which he named Meka, a word from the Hopi nation of native Americans that means “stout and loyal companion.”

On a sailing journey from Michigan to Florida in 1960, Meka sank in a terrible storm in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Norfolk, Va. Sinbad, wife and crew were rescued by an Irish freighter. Sinbad concluded that he needed a bigger boat.

 

Back in Michigan, Sinbad went to work as a draftsman for General Motors (GM) and began building the Meka II in the backyard of his rented house in Dearborn Heights, a suburb of Detroit.

 

The Meka II was designed as a 2/3-scale replica of a 17th century pirate brigantine, armed with 8 cannons.

 

She has an overall length of 54 feet with mahogany timbers and beamed oak decking…as well as an ample assortment of fabricated metal GM parts. Sinbad said it took several years and 10,000 man-hours to finish the boatbuilding project.

 

Several times, Sinbad said he “exhausted his savings and ran afoul of city inspectors and their construction deadlines.” It was network television news when the crane arrived to lift the boat and carry her to the Detroit River in 1967.

 

 

During the summers from 1967-70, Capt. Horatio Sinbad piloted his new, self-built 54-foot pirate ship, the Meka II, around the Great Lakes in preparation for sailing the seven seas.

In 1970, “he broke free from fresh water,” via the St. Lawrence Seaway, to sail into the oceans blue and live out his dream to be a modern-day pirate.

By chance, Sinbad arrived in Beaufort one day in 1973. He was married at the time and had four children who ranged in ages from about 2 to 12.

He found work as a skilled woodworker and carpenter. He never left, making Beaufort his home port. The Meka II is moored in Town Creek at Gallants Channel in Beaufort.

One of the first journalists to “discover” Sinbad in Beaufort was Phil Bowie, who penned a feature article that ran in Our State magazine in 1976.

For the Sinbad family, Bowie wrote, “adventure is not just something to be imagined or simply tasted on occasion. It’s something to be lived.”

Janet Hartman of SAIL Magazine commented: “Sinbad plays the pirate role to the hilt with a dash of farce. With his uniform, beard, ponytailed hair and gold-rimmed teeth, it is difficult to picture him doing anything else.”

As a tribute to his “authenticity,” Sinbad was selected in 1976 to represent North Carolina at the Bicentennial Tall Ships event in New York City. It was here that Sinbad’s dramatics caught the eye of an aide to President Gerald Ford.

A deal was struck for a public ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., at which time the president would sign a modern-day “Letter of Marque and Reprisal,” commissioning Sinbad as an official “privateer.”

One news account revealed: “Sinbad and his crew arrived in Washington in 1976 in full regalia, even bearing their weapons, for the signing.” Security didn’t get the memo. The pirate ensemble was detained and restrained.

The Virginian-Pilot, based in Norfolk, Va., reported that Secretary of the Navy J. William Middendorf II “dissuaded” President Ford from “putting his name to any document to permit the Meka II…‘to attack, subdue, seize and take all ships and other vessels, goods, wares and merchandise belonging to, or suspected of belonging to, the Crown of Great Britain.’”

Good grief.

For years, appeals from Sinbad’s camp went unheeded. President Ronald Reagan finally signed the document in 1981, with the wording changed to “mock attack.”

As a result, Sinbad became North Carolina’s “only commissioned privateer.”

In 2002, Sinbad surprised the sailing world – winning an international tall ships race with a crew of junior sailors-in-training aboard the Meka II.

Sinbad’s prize was the right to host the 2006 Pepsi Americas’ Sail race in Beaufort. Realizing the potential tourism revenues, the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce honored Sinbad as its “Citizen of the Year” in 2005.

In 2012, when Beaufort was vying to win an online contest sponsored by BudgetTravel.com, to select the “Coolest Small Town in America,” Sinbad helped carry the mail to enlist supporters.

With Beaufort enjoying a comfortable lead over Hammondsport, N.Y., in the final hours of voting, the BudgetTravel website crashed from volume overload.

The company declared the contest outcome “a tie,” but the travel editors and writers fell in love with Sinbad, who they dubbed as Beaufort’s “friendly pirate mascot,” spreading “Southern charm with a dash of salty seaside spirit.”

While Sinbad’s death on April 1 sent shock waves throughout Carteret County, his passing needs to ignite our latent talents as swashbuckling buccaneers. “Aye, so be it!”

Stay salty, mates.