On the Hook at Cape Lookout

by Marty Fancy

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On the Hook at Cape Lookout

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Marty Fancy

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Photograph

Description

The Meka II anchored overnight at Cape Lookout bight. The photo was taken from our boat as we passed by to also anchor for the night.

MEKA II has an overall length of 54' and is a 2/3 - scale replica of an 17th Century, two masted pirate brigantine armed with 8 cannons. Her homeport is Beaufort, North Carolina where locals and tourists take pride in her ongoing efforts to preserve maritime heritage.
This vessel is under the command of Capt. Horatio Sinbad. And, yes, that is his legal name, courtesy of a court declaration some 28 years ago.
The salt in his blood spurred him to build rafts with his brothers as a child. But that was not enough. He built his first small wooden sailboat at 11. At 16, he ran away from home to become a crew member aboard ships plying Caribbean waters.
Back home in Detroit, Mich., at 19, he built Meka, a 22-foot boat. Then he set out to sea. The small ship was no match for a hurricane, however, and sank 100 miles east of Norfolk on Sept. 22, 1960, leaving young Sinbad and crew floating in a life raft.
Did he think he'd survive? ''No,'' Sinbad says. They floated for more than nine hours before they were rescued by an Irish freighter, the Rathlin Head. Still, he wasn't deterred, saying he had only ''fleeting'' second thoughts of his desire to be on the seas.
At 22, he set about building the Meka II in his backyard. It took 10,000 man-hours to finish and was launched in 1967. He's called it home since.
Meka II's first cruises were on the Great Lakes. Then, in 1970, it took to the high seas through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Today, Meka II participates in reenactments of historical events and other tall ship activities along the East Coast as well as in the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
Sinbad is a privateer. Sinbad first sought his privateers commission during his participating in OpSail '76, the tall ships event held in conjunction with the nation's bicentennial, in which his vessel represented North Carolina. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed his commission and Sinbad got his orders. To this day he remains North Carolina's sole commissioned privateer.

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March 1st, 2024

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