Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Morrow.
Adam, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Sure thing! Regarding my career as a pirate historian, people often inquire about this and I often state that being born in the early 90s, I was the perfect age to grow up with the line of pirate Legos while wearing out Muppets Treasure Island on VHS, haha. But there’s always been new installments of pirates into media intermittedly through the years to keep the interest afloat. Eventually, my family relocated from Michigan where I’d grown up along the shores of Lake Michigan, and down to the Charleston area. In time I grew to latch back onto the topic after the replica tall ship El Galeon Andalucia visited Charleston back when the dock allowing tall ships was still intact.
Trips to St. Augustine, Florida, as well as up to Beaufort, North Carolina, got me more involved with the topic of pirate history as I assembled my pirate reenactment kit while also working at Arcadia Publishing/History Press. I’d initially justified the purchases of such things saying I’d do a YouTube channel about pirate history, but I quickly found I much more preferred written form content to making video content and my Facebook page, “Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow” blew up quickly, much faster than YouTube, and I now operate the largest pirate-specific history page on that platform. During this period I was also making reproductions of historical maps and documents relevant to piracy on period-appropriate laid paper and attending festivals as a vendor. I was also using such endeavors to get out to, often obscure, historical sites relevant to the pirate topic and era.
Throughout all of this I was also working on a book. Well, two books simultaneously. That wasn’t the intent at first though, it was a collection of notes for myself that grew into a sizeable document. I was recording not only the historical facts of places, but the folklore as well, what people ‘believed’ was true, compiling every single pirate-relevant ghost story and buried treasure myth, through deep research into old papers, as well as word of mouth and enquiring with locals on my trips. At first, it was again supposed to be for my own sanity, all the info compiled in one place because, well, it was everywhere. Folklore is stored across books, word of mouth, old newspapers, and even places like real estate and golfing resort sites. Again, this was meant to be stories repeated that people knew of or had heard, no matter how shady the source. My goal was to record the stories as they were known, but then also follow-up with historical context surrounding it, and the potential validity of the claim. I ended up writing about so many odd situations and obscure locations that otherwise never would have gotten the time of day in any other scenario, haha. But as it grew to a larger document, and away from just Charleston, away from South Carolina, and beyond the Carolinas, I realized it was becoming a book, “Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Southeast Coast: A Historical Assessment on Pirate Folklore,” covering the states of Florida up to Virginia, with each state receiving their own chapter.
However, while researching I inevitably came across much more beyond the southeast coast, and rather than saving the source for a rainy day, I simultaneously wrote its follow-up, “Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Northeast Coast,” which covers Maryland up to Maine.
As the books neared completion in 2023 and 2024 respectively, I’d also taken up actual reenactment and setting up educational displays and interacting with the public on the topic of pirate history at festivals, renfaires, and at historic sites, as well as doing lectures at maritime museums and retirement homes. Since then, I’ve built quite the web of historical contacts from museum owners and docents, fellow pirate historians across the globe, and I like to believe I’ve made an impact on many impressionable young minds. But honestly, the topic of “pirates” is thankfully pretty appealing to all ages, from children to those who’ve spent decades as history teachers and archeologists.
Within the last year I’ve been on Discovery Channel on the series Expedition Unknown hanging off the side of the Adventure at historic Charles Towne Landing, released my third (Charleston centric) pirate book “Arabian Gold: Charleston’s Red Sea Pirates of 1692” and appeared on Fox News to promote it and speak of my career as a historian, hosted the “Charleston Under the Black Flag” pirate history event at the Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon downtown (the event happens again May 2026!), and I now operate my own pirate reenactment crew – The Crew of the Bachelor’s Delight,” named after and portraying the history of the pirate Captain George Raynor and his men who arrived to Charleston in 1692 overloaded with plundered Arabian gold from across the world (the premise of my most recent book). With the crew we go out and do all sorts of events.
So that’s my story about going from a kid playing with pirate Legos along the shores of Lake Michigan, to being a Charleston-area pirate historian, author, reenactor, artist, actor. Trying my best to be a “professional pirate!”
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say a fairly smooth road, each year my portfolio has done nothing but grow. Of course, financially there’s the reality of the “starving artist,” I’m thrilled with how well I’ve done with my books since their releases, but also education/history is a hard sell. Thankfully the topic is pirates, and I’m able to market it well visually and aesthetically along the way. There’s also been a little trial and error of figuring out where to go physically. Many vendors you speak to at festivals often have what’s called a “circuit” or pattern they’ve fallen into of events they return to regularly and which ones didn’t work out for them. They had to figure out all of that through trial and error, and I had to as well to learn what list of events were good fits for me and what I bring to the table.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Well, I’ve been a lifelong artist and have worked through many mediums. I love doing photography and videography, miniature-painting and diorama work, leather-working, costume and prop-making, document and graphic design, woodworking, sewing, collages, decorating, and I love hosting events. … and then I got into doing pirate stuff. So I was pretty well-prepared for the creation of kit pieces, building encampment canopies, doing photos and videos, and being my own cover artist and formatting my own books. If I’m being honest, I learned much of this from various nerdy hobbies, having ran D&D games since 2003. That did much to prep me with typing and document design experience.
I would say I’m definitely most well-known for being “that pirate guy,” by this point, but I do other projects as well on the side. I also enjoy making video content of hiking in a Lord of the Rings style ranger kit, I do haunted history ghost tours during Octobers, and I’m also a tabletop games design and developer, with my two main projects right now being my horror-themed Van Helsing style miniatures game Grim Harvest, and my own pirate-themed fantasy miniatures game titled Keelhauled.
What matters most to you? Why?
Tough question. Certainly not money otherwise I wouldn’t be trying to make it as an educator, haha. That being said, I really do appreciate all of the locations interested in having me come out to their sites and bringing pirate history out as events. I… think I just care about making the most of what time I have here. I have a hard time relaxing, turning my brain off and just “watching a movie” – that’s time that’s not being spent furthering one of many ongoing projects. I want to cram in having done as much as possible, as professionally as possible, and reaching as many people as possible with what I do. With all the effort I put into it, I really want it to be out there for people to enjoy. I want to do more events, I want to grow my reenactment crew, I want to get more of my research published, I want my tabletop games to get good quality launches… and by the time some of those things are done I’ll probably have more on my plate to take their places.
As for why? I guess I don’t know why I’m so driven to do all of this. It’s certainly rewarding feeling to be known as someone. I always dreamed of being a vocalist in a band (I sing as well), but so far being a fairly well-known pirate is also good. I think it’s just nice to feel appreciated. Again after pumping so much effort into all I do, it’s rewarding to see it reach the people that want it, and I guess that drives me to want to do more. In the end, I believe that through what I do I’ve potentially skewed some towards education and history, or at the very least provided an interesting encounter and photo-opportunity they likely won’t forget.
I do believe that history… doesn’t have to be boring. Much of it is exciting, or at the very least interesting. For me, pirate history made me appreciate Charleston more, and not only here, but everywhere along our coastline. Just knowing what exciting things happened can really make an impact on the way things are perceived. People look out into the Charleston harbor daily, but they don’t see Blackbeard’s flotilla blockading it and threatening to level the port city with cannon-fire, Charles Vane, Captain Yeates, and Captain Worley plundering ships in it, the hanging of nearly fifty pirates as a spectacle in 1718, or the arrival of a mysterious ship claiming to be the Loyal Jamaica – filled to the brim with Arabian gold in 1692. These examples are just Charleston – there’s a whole eastern coast here from top to the bottom lined with pirate history, pirate ghost stories, and alleged tales of buried treasure. It’s the furthest thing from boring, and I aim to show people that history can be exciting and you can have fun exploring it.
Pricing:
- Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Southeast Coast : $25 on Amazon
- Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Northeast Coast : $25 on Amazon
- Arabian Gold: Charleston’s Red Sea Pirates of 1692: $15 on Amazon
Contact Info:
- Website: https://captainmarrowauthor.wixsite.com/captainmarrowauthor
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shipwreckedwithcaptainmarrow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shipwreckedwithcaptainmarrow2.0
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/captain-marrow-99aab2351/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShipwreckedwithCaptainMarrow
