Old Pirate's on Pedestal Again, Thanks to Boosters

The old pirate came close to walking the plank more than once.

There were the pair of port city fires 28 years ago that burned close enough to send a shiver through its timbers.

There was the hitch of landlubber duty that ended abruptly when operators of a tourist boat dock decided to unceremoniously deep-six it.

And finally there was the moment it was marooned at Los Angeles Harbor when the tides of change buffeted the Sea.

Thanks to community support, the Pirate of San Pedro finally has a permanent home. And thanks to new steel supports, it is standing stronger than ever.

The pirate is a whimsical 21 1/2-foot fiberglass statue that sports an eye patch, a hook for a left hand, a seafarer's hat and a swashbuckler's boots and coat.

It is reminiscent of other roadside advertising figures that sprouted across the country in the 1960s, except it is holding a sword rather than the automobile muffler, tire or Paul Bunyan ax that was common to most of those statues.

Two weeks ago, the pirate ended its 40-year odyssey when a work crew installed it on a 10-foot concrete base next to the San Pedro High School athletic field.

The project, commissioned by the school's San Pedro Pirate Booster Club and executed by a San Pedro High graduate, caught students by surprise. But it has rekindled memories of a generation that grew up seeing the pirate, first in Long Beach, and then in San Pedro.

Locals recall that the statue long stood outside Hudson's Costume Rental shop in Long Beach. The pirate was called "Paganthroat" in the 1970s. But it looked more dandified than dangerous as it stood in its fiberglass lace shirt and its plumed hat on a platform attached to a building above Pacific Avenue.

The pirate was spared in 1974, when arson fires reportedly traced to teenagers caused more than $1.5 million damage to the building.

After that it was moved to San Pedro's Ports O' Call, where it stood sentry on the dock next to the Buccaneer Queen, a three-masted dinner cruise ship.

"Ports O' Call didn't like the image and made the Buccaneer Queen get rid of him," said Yvette Williams, who with her husband, Dick, traded some nautical-themed items to the boat owner for the pirate.

They eventually placed it in front of their ocean-themed shop called the Sea.

The Sea, its shelves bulging with shells and its walls lined with fishermen's nets and whale bones, was stocked with nautical items and folk art.