Driftwood ship on New Brighton Beach near Wallasey, England, for Talk Like a Pirate Day

Arrr! Shiver me timbers! And so on!. Talk like a pirate—or walk the plank

Blimey! Feast your eyes on the battered pirate ship that seems to have washed up on the shore here at New Brighton Beach, in Wallasey, England. The ship, built of driftwood by artist Frank Lund, is nicknamed the Black Pearl. It puts us in mind of the so-called Golden Age of Piracy, in the 17th and 18th centuries, which has long captured our imaginations, and inspired books and movies about swashbucklers on the high seas.