Last week we were invited to visit Bristol to see what attractions they had on offer for families and when I was asked what attraction I most wanted to visit from a list of suggestions, a trip on The Matthew plus a pantomime to entertain the children jumped off the page.
In 1497 John Cabot and his crew set sail aboard The Matthew from Bristol to find a new trade route to Asia. Instead however he arrived on the coast of Newfoundland and therefore was the original discoverer of North America, not Christopher Columbus as most people believe.
To celebrate the quincentenary of this momentous trip, a replica Matthew – a Caravel (a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese) was built between 1994 and 1996. The full-size replica is 78 ft (24 m) in length overall with a beam of 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m) with a draft of 7 ft (2.1 m) and 2,360 sq ft (219 m2) of sail.
In 1997 the new Matthew followed the same course as John Cabot in 1497 and sailed across to Newfoundland. It carried the same number of crew members as the original and took the same amount of time to complete the crossing.
Today The Matthew is based in Bristol Harbour and is open to the public as well as undertaking short cruises around the harbour. In the summer the Matthew sometimes travels further afield, exploring the wild seas around the British Isles and Northern Europe – creating a spectacle wherever she ventures but once a week during the summer holiday’s they play host to Captain Barnacles Pirate Panto.
The one-man pirate pantomime show features comedy, music, puppets and mayhem with plenty of audience participation, silliness and banter and my first role was to paint a moustache and beard onto Captain Barnacles face – he then kindly reciprocated!
The show was a typical pirates tale and Captain Barnacles, a good pirate, took us on an adventure around the seven seas with his puppet friends. He had both the kids and adults eating out the palm of his hand and held the audience single-handedly with his pirate jokes, spells of overacting and puppet hilarity.
As the Pantomime was happening, the crew were sailing us around Bristol’s historic harbour which is a lovely way to see the sights too, including the Brunel SS Great Britain.
Thank you for having us The Matthew, we loved our adventure on board but keep an eye out for that crocodile!!
What a very very cool pirate ship. Z is properly into pirates right now. Every empty box gets turned into a ship!
Ah wow, this looks a great day out
What a wonderful adventure, I bet the kids were in their element enjoying that pantomime and giving you a chance to admire the views around the harbour too. I love hearing of the history and all the reenactment sounded spot on. Definitely and experience to recommend. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
We’re visiting Bristol this weekend – we should pop over and see this! My boys love pirates, looks like you had such fun!
I can see why the young kids love this – “Oo-arghh!!”
My three would really love this, we are off to see Treasure Island at the Theatre in the winter.
What a brilliant event. My son has a bit of a thing about pirates at the moment. There’s always great things going on in Bristol.
Fab to have a pirate panto aboard a ship – what fun!
That looks do much fun.
Harry especially would love this
Great pics – looks like fabulous fun!
We love visiting Bristol! Will add The Matthew to the list of places to see next time we’re there.
What fabulous fun. I remember having a wonderful time in Bristol when I was younger. ot was a favorite holiday destination
Cute idea. I love that the boat was sailing at the time.
This sounds so much fun and a great idea. What better way to see a pirate show than on a sailing ship!
ahh how much fun! We have a tall ship in Glasgow, I really should visit there x
This sounds fabulous, Bristol has so much history it seems x
That looks like a fantastic day out- and great that it was so interactive. We really do need to make more of an effort to explore Bristol!
The Mathew sounds perfect for pirate mad boys like mine! I will make sure we visit if we find ourselves in Bristol!
That looks like so much fun – I love things like this, but alas am too far from Bristol. This would make a great day out though! Stephen :o)
Fantastic photos, looks like a lovely day out. I must make the effort to take Luke before he gets much older!
Oh wow this sounds amazing and what a different way to watch panto! x
A panto on a boat sounds so interesting and totally different from anything else, looks like lots of fun!