Finding the HMS Oxford

Captain Henry Morgan

This week's guest blog post is by Pat Croce, owner of The Rum Barrel and founder of the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum.

Four years ago today, I was in Haiti pursuing an elusive dream that we now hope is within our reach.

This week, Bob Cembrola and I spoke once again about our mutual interest in finding and salvaging the remains of Captain Henry Morgan's flagship, the 34-gun HMS Oxford, off of Haitian waters.

(Bob is not only a good friend of mine and a dynamite marine archaeologist, he's also the curator and an adjunct professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.)

It's been more than seven years since we began our pursuit to recover Morgan's Oxford and we continue to believe that we're getting closer--despite kidnappings, civil wars, devastating earthquakes, government-imposed moratoriums, and palace coups.

Read the rest on Pat Croce's blog!

Featured Artist: Lance Taylor & the Accidentals

Lance Taylor performs

Key West performer Lance Taylor has been writing his signature version of Americana, blues, and folk music for more than 15 years.

Between 1998 and 2003, Lance traveled all over the country, recording his own songs in basements, hotel rooms, living rooms, and home studios along the way. The first volume of Loose Change, the album that resulted, was born of a spontaneous undertaking, Lance says, that took place without much preparation--or knowledge, for that matter.

Loose Change, a collection of home, field and studio recordings, was the first album Lance put together all on his own. He calls it his "baby" and says that listening to it takes him back to that time when "you can capture magic, when you're just trying to find your way around some new and different world."

Lance continues to work on Loose Change volumes in Key West along with three other albums, Next To Me, Time Takes Time, and Inspired.

Lance Taylor & the Accidentals perform on the Rum Barrel Quarterdeck this month on June 3, 4, 11, 18, 25, and 30. See our events calendar for more and future performances.

To contact Lance for bookings, email him at wlancetaylor@gmail.com.