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Pirate House Legend Revisited « Russell Guerin
http://www.russguerin.com/history/pirates/pirate-house-legend-revisit..
least they had not been turned on, and Mr.	Lister	cautioned	me	not to enter. I could see that he had been
using this area for	storage, as there were objects hanging on the walls. He was concerned that I
might trip over something in the dim light. I have since learned that he had ponies	and	these could have
been bridles, and such. I was told this narrow enclosure was	the	remnant	of	the	once	fabled	tunnel	leading
to the Gulf. Mr. Lister explained	that this passageway had long since been closed off. It was obvious that it
now	ended trot far past the front of the house, probably just under the front porch. Whether it ever
actually extended to the waterfront we will never knowfor sure. Although the house sat on a small hill, it did not seem possible that a tunnel could have ever been dug to the water’s edge. I have to conclude the tunnel was only fable, but it was very clear that the dark room underneath the main house had once been used for more than storage.
Mr. Kaiser
The other response came in a call from a Mrs. Isabel Kaiser from Delaware to ask if I were the writer of the story on the website. When I answered that I am, she put Mr. Kaiser on the phone, and he happily recounted memories given to him by his mother, who had lived in the house as a child, before the 1930’s.
His mother’s maiden name had been Griffith. Her great grandfather by the same name had been a banker in Vicksburg, and had bought the Pirate House in the early part of the 1900’s. Her grandfather sold it during the Great Depression, for $3,000.
Her memories may have been from many years ago, and were imparted to her son over time, but it must be contemplated that they were recollections not just from a tour, but from what must have been many hours of playing under the house, searching out its secrets, examining all the “nooks and crannies,” wearing the handcuffs on the ends of chains, putting them on playmates as they pretended to be pirates. I think these would have been clear memories, indelible and preserved for the retelling to her son.
What she remembered included the “tunnel,” which was said to have had bricked walls and ceiling. Water was present on the floor. One fascinating bit of information is what she recalled about the ceiling: it was arched!
Her recollections also included cells in the ground floor under the house; they were made of both wood and steel. Chains found inside were fitted with handcuffs at the ends.
Two areas
As a result of the new input, I was caused to dig through my previous files, testing some of what I thought
I	knew at the time of last writing. The search was fruitful. I think I now have a better understanding of some factors, including the physical layout of the house.
Initially, I had been under the impression that much of what had been told about cells was understood to describe the so-called “tunnel,” whereas it really applied to structures under the house. I remain a believer in the one-time presence of a below-ground dungeon (the tunnel), but now am able to separate out information that pertained to the cells. In simple form, there were, I now know, two distinct places of slave incarceration: one in a sub-cellar under the house, and the other underground. The latter led an unknown distance toward the beach but was closed during the ownership of Mr. Lister.
There seems to be a “crossing” of some old memories, that is, confusion of locations if not of description. One case in point has to do with the spikes with rings at the ends. From my interview with Mr. Nicaise, I understood that they were found in the “tunnel.” In the submission by Mr. Cuevas, it is clear that he remembers such spikes “.. .driven into the thick cypress walls approximately 2 or 3 feet apart.” This is from his description of the windowless room in the sub-basement under the house, reached by a narrow stairway from the center of the house.
This serves to refine my understanding of the layout under the house. From old photos it appears that the basement would not have been high enough to accommodate a six-foot person unless it was in fact a “sub-basement.” In addition, one photo taken after Hurricane Camille actually shows something of a recess where the house would have been. (This is very similar to what can be seen even now, where the Cowan house used to be.
It is not deep enough to be a full cellar, but must have allowed some space under what otherwise appeared to have a first floor even with the ground.)
Putting various pieces of information together, the cells under the house were clearly places of incarceration. They contained chains with handcuffs at the end and spike in the timbers high up the walls. Cuevas remembers the walls as cypress, almost black from age. Mr. Kaiser says that his mother remembered that the cells were wooden and steel. (My old notes remind me that Millie Usher, long-term president of the Clermont Harbor Civic Association, has the same memory of the chains and handcuffs. She too played with them with her friends when they were children.)
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