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TOPSAIL VOICE
By Connie Pletl
SURF CITY – Legend has it that in olden days pirates would lurk in the waters behind Topsail Island waiting to ambush passing merchant ships.
The pirates are back!
The pirates of today can be found chasing down and warring with the Belle of Topsail, an 1800s replica riverboat that provides cruises for passengers in the Intercoastal Waterway.
On Thursday, March 17, Captain David Luther and his wife, Admiral Sharon, took out the Belle for this year’s inaugural pirate cruise with a boat full of guests.
It was a warm and sunny that late afternoon and the sun sparkled on the water as the Belle made her way from Surf City south toward Topsail Beach.
The Belle had barely passed the Soundside Park when Capt. David announced that a pirate ship had been spotted and was gaining on the Belle!
Yelling threats and brandishing weapons, the pirates boarded the Belle when their captain brought his ship up next to the boat.
But this pirate invasion wasn’t typical, the pirates had a goal in mind.
“Ashley! Where’s Ashley?” bellowed one of the pirates before finding the woman he was looking for.
Ashley Shaffer, who was on spring break from Fairmont College in West Virginia visiting her boyfriend, was one of the passengers on the boat.
The pirates grabbed her and pulled her roughly to the side of the upper deck.
It was then that she realized that her boyfriend, Brandon Hipp, a US Marine originally from Appleton, WI but stationed at Camp Lejeune, was one of the pirates.
In pirate garb and on bended knee, Hipp asked Shaffer to marry him.
She said yes.
Later, the couple explained how the event had taken place.
After boarding the boat, Hipp told Shaffer that he needed to use the bathroom but when he left her on the top deck of the Belle he ran down the dock and got on the pirate ship instead.
“After I had been gone a while I used my cell phone to text her to say I was still at the bathroom,” said Hipp.
Hipp’s friend Travis Mather, a fellow Marine originally from Orlando, FL but also stationed at Camp Lejeune, was also aboard the Belle and videoed the whole event.
Capt. David said Hipp had contacted him about three weeks before the cruise and told him that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend on the boat.
Not one to let an opportunity pass, Capt. David arranged for the proposal to be memorable.
“It’s something that they will be telling their grandchildren about,” said Capt. David.
After the proposal, the Belle continued down the waterway and was harried by the pirates several more times.
The passengers on the Belle said they enjoyed the cruise and the pirates.
Adam Johnson, from Arizona, and his girlfriend Becka Bullard, from Oklahoma, were in the area visiting family when they decided to take a cruise on the Belle.
“It’s really nice, we love it,” said Bullard.
Johnson added that he thought the cruise would be fun for kids.
Another couple, David Buckhout, from Rochester, NY, and Caroline Cota, from Ohio, had just gotten engaged earlier in the week and said they had a great time on the cruise.
“It’s nice to see everything by boat,” said Cota.
Capt. David said much went into creating the pirate cruise.
For three years, the pirate re-enactor group Devil Men of Cape Fear, led by Capt. De’vil (William Hall), had been after him to do a pirate re-enactment.
“Last year I finally decided to give it a try,” said Capt. David.
The original pirate ship was a small chad boat, the takeover was scripted and the pirate troupe insisted on being authentic.
“We had a blast! It was off the wall fun,” said Capt. David.
The first pirate cruise had only booked at about 60-percent but the word quickly spread about the event.
“All the other shows were completely sold out,” said Captain David.
Looking to improve the experience, Capt. David said that when Hall told him that he knew of a skipjack boat for sale that could be turned into a pirate galleon, he jumped at the chance.
“It was an oyster boat up at the Chesapeake Bay,” said Capt. David.
Work began on it over the winter and by spring it had been reconstructed into a masted pirate’s galleon complete with cannons.
For this year’s season, Capt. David said there will be four pirate cruises a day – a more benign cruise for smaller kids; two wide open cruises complete with hands-on water cannon fights with the pirates and a trip to an island to find treasure; and an adult cruise with lot of ruckus.
“We have a lot of excitement and a lot of fun planned,” said Capt. David.
“There will also be a dinner cruise but I can’t guarantee that it will be pirate free,” he added.
For more information about The Belle of Topsail and pirate cruises, go to belleoftopsail.com
Photography by Joseph Mahoney/ J. Archer Photography
Belle of Topsail reports hauntings
Haunted riverboat cruises set sail throughout October
October 14, 2009 11:07 AM
The Belle of Topsail has quickly made a name for itself as the cruise ship that takes people out for lunch and dinner cruises along Topsail’s Intracoastal Waterway. After just two years of being docked in Surf City, many people are saying it’s haunted. That’s because it is!
Captain David Luther, and his wife Sharon, have decided to turn the traditional ship into a haunted Halloween boat for the rest of October. Several hundred ghosts, goblins, and various other monsters currently adorn virtually every inch of the ship that is now available for haunted cruises.
Sharon has displayed a collection of Halloween decorations that is so extensive and so state of the art, that just walking through the different levels of the boat activates all sorts of electronic witches and dead pirates that scream at you as you pass.
“I’ve had to use a lot of batteries. Turning in them on is easy. The problem is turning them off. They seem to want to stay on. Basically, we set it up in one day, because David is really fast. If I had my choice I’d keep adding on,” said Sharon, of the already heavily decorated boat.
Captain David Luther went on to describe what will be included and what can be expected with each Halloween-themed cruise.
“The Trick-or-Treat cruise is really for the kids. The 4 to 5 p.m. daylight cruise is $15 for adults and $10 for the kids [under 12 years of age, free for kids under 2 years of age]. It is a little haunted for the young kids. The other night, we had a bunch of kids that came on crying, but they got over it in about five minutes and we had a beautiful cruise and they had fun playing with everything,” said Luther.
The Belle will return from the one-hour trick-or-treat cruise and stay docked for thirty minutes before departing with the next group of cruisers.
“We’re calling it the Haunted Captain’s Sunset Party because we’ll start coming back in the last thirty minutes before dark, and we’ll turn everything on for the last thirty minutes so you’ll get the full effect of it.
And then we’re doing something brand new: we’re going to start doing the Haunted Riverboat Ride at 8 p.m. And we’re going to go down to the Surf City Canals… We’re going to do all that Thursday through Sunday,” said Captain Luther.
The night of October 30 is when Luther says they will have “the big one.” The entire dock will be turned into a haunted dock party for the adults.
“Last time we did it, we had almost 300 people. It was huge! The whole dock, all of us, are going to decorate our boats,” said Captain Luther. “All the slips will be full with big boats, and we’ll have the Tommy Black Band here on board and we’ll clear out a dance floor for everyone.”
The cover charge for the Haunted Dock is $5, with ages 21 and up allowed onto the Belle of Topsail. For reservations, more information on these events, or booking any private cruises, call the Captain at (910) 328-1621.
For Reservations and Information
Phone: (910) 328-1621
FAX: (910) 328-3323