MARCH 27, 2012 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Joe Imholte, Science Museum of Minnesota with "Real Pirates"

Club 10 Business Report

President Doug Bruce brought the meeting to order at 12:29 p.m. on a windy spring Tuesday in downtown Saint Paul.  Jim Field led the assembled Rotarians in singing God Bless America, accompanied by Bob Jones on the piano.  Steve Nyhus provided today's invocation.  Kay Baker facilitated the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests.  Today's Greeters were Mindee Kastelic and Mick White.

President Doug announced that next week's Tuesday meeting (April 3) will be held at the Prom Center.  President Doug also offered congratulations to member Jason Bradshaw and his wife, Brea, on the birth of their daughter yesterday.  Rotarian birthdays for the month of March were celebrated. Jim Kosmo was asked to provide a membership campaign update.  Jim reminded members to follow up with the prospective members that were in attendance as guests the previous two weeks. Please get those applications in so the prospects can be converted to membership! Jim also reminded everyone that this is just the beginning of the membership campaign, not its culmination.

Bo Aylin spoke on behalf of the Feed My Starving Children project.  This year's packing dates are Friday, April 27th and Saturday, April 28th. Members can sign up for shifts at the Club 10 website.  The Club 10 goal this year is to pack 125,000 meals.  Mick White introduced new member Mindee Kastelic, Director of Member Services for the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.  Jim Kosmo took the microphone a second time to collect Happy Dollars.

Vicki Gee-Treft introduced today's speaker, Joe Imholte, Program Director for Special Exhibits and Exhibit Services at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Mr. Imholte is a graduate of Saint Paul's Hamline University.  The Museum's current featured exhibit through September 3, 2012, is entitled Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.  Mr. Imholte described the competitive process that the Museum goes through with other museums and art institutes to acquire the attractive exhibits that visitors have become accustomed to at the Science Museum.  He then offered an informative and engaging history of the slave/pirate ship Whydah.  As he noted, the true stories of "real" pirates are far different than the fantasized versions offered in Hollywood movies (e.g. Captain Jack Sparrow of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies).  Actual pirates were crooks, cruel and harsh, not to be glamorized.

The Whydah was one of the most technologically advanced ships of its day.  It was three-masted, which meant it could also be rowed, and could top speeds of 13 knots (about 15 miles per hour).  It carried 18 cannons.  The Whydah was owned by the Royal African Company and plied the Atlantic slave trade triangle.  Finished goods were transported from England to Africa; slaves from Africa to the Caribbean; and, raw materials back to England, thereby completing the "triangle."  "Whydah" was the name of the region in Africa from which many slaves were taken by this slave ship.  This region is the modern country of Benin.  Mr. Imholte described the operations of such a vessel.  He also described the squalid conditions under which slaves were transported, usually resulting in the death of approximately 15 percent of the slave cargo on each trip.  The audience was then introduced to Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy, the pirate who captured the Whydah and traded his vessel, the Sultana, to take the Whydah as plunder.  Mr. Imholte told the audience that under Captain Bellamy, the Whydah plundered 50 other vessels in the Atlantic.  The Whydah sank on April 26, 1717, after being caught in a vicious nor'easter and running aground off the coast of Cape Cod near present day Massachusetts.  Of 146 pirates on board, only two survived the shipwreck.

In 1984, salvage operator Barry Clifford began a one year search for the Whydah based on the historical record.  In the ensuing 270 years since its sinking, the coast had changed greatly.  There also are nearly 3,000 shipwrecks in the surrounding area.  Both of these factors added to the difficulty of the search.  Finally, the ship's bell was recovered, offering definitive evidence and authentication that the wreckage found by Mr. Clifford was indeed the pirate ship Whydah.  Mr. Imholte showed a graphic floor plan of the exhibit.  Exhibition visitors explore the true story of the Whydah galley and her crew through more than 200 fascinating artifacts in the world's first exhibition of authentic pirate treasure.  Actors in pirate character add to the interpretation of the exhibit.  Mr. Imholte stated that the exhibit is all-age appropriate.