The Tale of Queen Ruby, the Ladies in Raiding and the Key to the Sea

Capitian's Log- The Tale of Queen Ruby, the Ladies in Raiding and the Key to the Sea

We maintain a continuing written narrative so you can follow developments in our participatory pirate drama. This page contains links to all the chapters and related events in the order of the story, which may differ slightly from the time when material is release to the public through various media.

The goal of this interactive, participator community pirate drams is to bring fun and a sense of possibility to the effort to improve public transit by increasing ridership on our bus to the beach, which links the CARTA system and Mt. Pleasant with the Isle of Palms. It's just more fun with Pirates. Learn about the Bus to the Beach (Beach Reach Shuttle) which runs weekends and holidays from Memorial weekend to Labor day. 

You are invited to join the drama. You can sign up for the June 17 Pirates Muster. By your participation, you help shape the drama which we set down in writing as it evolves. We can help you build a pirate outfit. We all make this together. By participating and sharing what we're doing, we enrich the story for everyone. 

Chapter One- The Voyage Begins

Queen Ruby and the Ladies in Raiding liberate themselves, maroon Pirate Anderson's cutthroats, commence the famous cruise of the Jeweled Princess and then discover themselves 300 years into their future in 2023. Read the first chapter. 

Chapter two- Crystal Goes A Roving

Chrystal, dark haired and beutiful teenaged member of the crew leaves the safety of the Jeweled Princess to sample teenage life in the 21st. century and becomes a Pirate Influencer on the Internet. It's all fun and games up in Summerville, but she's attracting hostile attention. Read Chapter two. 

Chapter three- A Welcome Home Party for Queen Ruby

Queen Ruby leaves the SC coast on a secret mission which takes her to Silicon Valley and the high tech underground. The Ladies in Raiding try to hid out in Charleston until her return. They plan a pirate party to build up cover noise so they attract less attention in a Charleston full of pretend pirates. Read chapter three

May 24- Pirate Party at Container Bar

Details on your first chance to join the story. Sword fights, costume contests, button making, half price run drinks to those with pirate coins and a Pirate Poetry Contest. Read about the Pirate Party at Container Bar

May 27- Opening of the Ocean

Join us as Queen Ruby opens the Ocean on the Isle of Palms, celebrating the start of summer bus service and commencing the revels by the sea on Memorial Weekend. Read about the Opening of the Ocean. 

May 27- Queen Ruby to Sail through Rain to Open the Ocean. 

Pirate Queen Ruby Cancel? "We’ve sailed a pirate ship through a hurricane three hundred years into the future. A little water will never stop the Ladies in Raiding.” Read the Press Release

Queen Ruby Inducts an Honorary Pirate Queen

Chapter 4- Queen Ruby Does the Reading, Isaac Newton and the Pirates

These ladies don't just dress smart. They are smart. There's a pirate's college afloat and they're bringing Enlightenment era philosophy and science to the challenges of the 21st. Century Find out if they like Kirk or Picard. Read Chapter 4 about the brain trust afloat on the Jeweled  Princess. 

June 3- Queen Ruby and the Ladies in Raiding March in the Pride Parade

Queen Ruby and her Ladies in Raiding will be out in full force for the Charleston Pride Parade. Join them as they march in support of better public transit, equality and social justice. We have props and loaner gear to complete you look if you want to jlin her pirate band. Those identifying as men are welcome to march at members of the King's Guard or Anderson's vile band of cutthroat pirates. After the parade, look for Pop up Piracy around downtown Charleston. Sign up to march as a Pirate or other character n the parade. 

June 10- Party Like A Pirate with A Pink Floyd Popup Potluck at Hampton Park for Piccolo Spoleto Finale

We'll Pitch our red Pirate Popup in Hampton Park to party at the Piccolo. Pink Floyd Finale, June 10 at 5:30 pm. You are invited to participate in their piratical party. Prepare your pirate outfit, apparatus, provisions, and paraphernalia. Primp your person from plume to pantaloons. We possess partage pirate pieces and plastic epees to apportion to your person. We propose to push up our Popup by 5:00 pm. Queen Ruby plans to preside over a pirate potluck at approximately 6 pm. Predict Dancing before the performer’s prosceniums. Pack a folding chair. We’ll possess pottage to pour over rice or provender. Import what you can for the supper and a piratical potluck repast. Provide your personal plate. Details and signup on Eventbrite.

June-Pirate Pop Ups

Keep your eyes open as our Pirate Drama starts to pop up in locations around the lowcountry with little bits of drama which advance the story towards a conclusion we don't really know yet since it depends on what happens with our new recruits and in real life. Our story evolves based on how the public reacts, evens in our own lives and evens in the community and world around us. 

June 17- Join Up, Queen Ruby Calls a Muster of the Ladies in Raiding

Queen Ruby is forced to augment her forces by recruiting women from the modern world to augment the numbers of the Ladies in Raiding, the crew of the Jeweled Princess. Surrounded by modern hazards, she needs the help of women from this modern age to help her ladies survive. She's called a muster of the entire crew and all the new recruits for Saturday, June 17 on the Isle of Palms. Facebook event listing.  To became one of the participants in our drama contact the Queen by email. 

Guided Rides for Veterans, Disabled, New Transit Riders and Young People

We're planning guided rides for people who haven't been on the bus before. We know the first transit ride is a big step for a lot of people. Follow this effort on our Guided Rides Page. 

More Information-

If you need to reach the organizers, contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com

A Welcome Home Pirate Party for Queen Ruby

 A Welcome Home Pirate Party for Queen Ruby

Copyright 2023 by William J. Hamilton, III

Chapter 3

Previous Chapter- Chrystal Goes a Roving

Two weeks ago, Queen Ruby of the Pirates left Charleston to reach the West Coast where she hoped to make contact with the High-Tech underground near San Francisco. For a capable, intelligent woman from the year 1623, the cross-country Amtrak train trip (Ruby lacks the ID needed to fly commercial) has been a wonder. She’s seen technical progress everywhere, but more human suffering and waste than she can accept. Clearly this is a society which doesn’t know how to steer a sustainable course towards human happiness for everyone. She saw this in her time three centuries ago, but given the wealth and power available now, seeing these same problems causing billions to suffer flabbergasts her. 

In California, Ruby fits right in. In the High-Tech underground of former Twitter, Apple and Google employees who are now scraping by on the edge of the internet economy.  She’s a woman without an IP address or email. She shuns high tech devices for the fear they’ll make her detectable to her enemies. 

The tech people love Ruby. She’s cool and different. Ruby says the most amazing things. She’s a quick learner and very strong on what they call “human factors.” Working together, sneaking into the massive complexes of the high-tech companies at night with forged credentials. They’ve subjected the Key to the Sea to all sorts of tests. It’s a remarkable piece of metal for sure, with a weird structure and odd elements in the alloy they can’t identify, but they can’t tell what it does (Ruby won’t tell them) or how to control it. They do understand that Ruby must be from somewhere utterly different from here and the most perceptive know she isn’t from now. Ruby may know how to time travel. 

On Government Radar

If Dred Pirate Anderson and the King’s Guard weren’t problems enough, the Department of Homeland Security is looking for something too. They know there was a massive energy busts off the SC coast a few weeks ago (detected by satellites as a possible nuclear detonation) and some small ships were in the area immediately following that event, clearly appearing on satellite images. However, these ships have zero electronic signatures and they’ve lost track of them. There have been some women turned aside from secured facilities in Charleston due to lack of ID and guards report they sounded and acted “weird.”

Maybe all of this is nothing, or maybe it’s a terrorist threat. Homeland security is busy, so they’ll get back to these reports later.

The ladies in Raiding are getting nervous in Ruby’s long absence. Crystal is still somewhere in Summerville, making noise on the internet but keeping her actual location secret. 

The Ladies in Raiding have have set up a welcome home party for Ruby. They’ve set it up so they can recruit some pretend pirates with contests and games in hopes of flooding Charleston with pretend pirates to throw Pirate Anderson’s Band and the King’s Guard off their trail. The party will be held from Wednesday, May 24 from 7 pm to 10:30 at Container Bar in Downtown Charleston. These lonely ladies from the past will need friends in the present to survive their visit to the future.  They’ve collected costume items and fake swords to turn their new friends into pretend pirates on the spot. 

Meanwhile young Crystal and her new teenage pirate friends from Rollins School of the arts didn’t show when third Thursday was rained out in Summerville last week. Crystal is thinking of taking the bus down to Charleston for the party with her new friends. Hopefully meeting Mom in a context where an actual flogging will be impossible. Mom is “Emerald” on the Jeweled Princess, the ships master at arms and she has punishment devices in her locker modern people would struggle to imagine. 

Far away, Queen Ruby is returning to Charleston by Private Jet, loaned to her by a High Tech Friend who may, or may not own it. He’s smitten with the powerful pirate lady. She’s encouraging his kind attention, but has been evasive. Ruby’s flying at night to reduce the chance she’ll be detected. She’s trying to get back to her Ladies in Raiding to plan her next move. In the Holy City, Pirate Anderson gets word of the Party and may show up. 

Will Crystal make it to the party with her new pretend Teenage Pirate friends. How will Emerald, her Mom react to her two week, unauthorized absence and new internet fame. How does being a teenaged pirate influencer fit into everyone’s plan. Things could get pretty intense when your mom owns a Cat-o-nine tails and thumb screws. 

Ruby is sending coded messages to the Ladies in Raiding at Container Bar. Can they decode them? Will she make it to the welcome home party in time?

What Happens Next

Will the Ladies in Raiding recruit the help they need to hide out in the Holy City or will Dred Pirate Anderson, the King’s Guard or even Homeland Security show up?

Will the Pirate Poetry offered in the contest be any good?

There once was a pirate named Ruby

Who took the bus to the beach for her booty

She lay on the sand

Getting warm and well-tanned

Enjoying rum drinks which were sweet and fruity. 

Come to Container Bar on Wednesday, May 24 to see what happens next. 

Sat. May 27, Queen Ruby Opens the Ocean for Bus to the Beach Season 3

 

Queen Ruby of the Pirates and her Ladies in Raiding invite Everyone to the Opening of the Ocean on Sat. May 27 at the Isle of Palms Isle of Palms, Mt. Pleasant, SC, USA- To Celebrate the beginning of the Lowcountry's third season of regular public transit bus service to the beach, Queen Ruby of the Pirates and her Ladies in Raiding invite you to participate in the Opening of the Ocean to mark this year's return of Transit to the Atlantic on Saturday, May 27th. in Mount Pleasant and on the front beach, Isle of Palms.  The celebration will begin when the second CARTA Beach Reach Shuttle bus of the day departs from the Market Center Drive Bus Stop at 10:15 am (on the roundabout near Lowes) and continue to the beach bus stop adjacent to IOP County Park. The procession of Pirates, Kings Guard and other fantastical personalities will begin  upon the arrival of the bis at 10:30 and pause at the Flag Poles on Palm Boulevard for prayers and good wishes for a safe and happy summer at the beach and a recognition of our Veterans for Memorial weekend. From there, with a joyous noise, the Lady Pirates, crew of the Jeweled Princess, will proceed with all the celebrants to the beach itself. There Queen Ruby will cast the great Iron Key to the Sea into the waves for Neptune's safekeeping to Open the Ocean.  Queen Ruby and her lady pirates will distribute golden pirate coins throughout the day which allow their holders to wn prizes, get discounts and enter the pirate drama which will unfold throughout the summer.  The remainder of the day will be devoted to the revels by the sea provided by local merchants, taverns and places of entertainment punctuated by occasional eruptions or Pirate Drama. The celebration ends with the departure of the last CARTA Beach Reach Shuttle. Events planned for the weekend include special activates for veterans at the VWF post on the island  which veterans across the region can now reach on CARTA transit. This event continues a summer long interactive Pirate Drama sponsored by Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit. Queen Ruby and her Ladies in Raiding have magically been transported three centuries into the future where they continue their struggle for justice and work to return to their own time. The lady pirates struggle against the evil cutthroats of Anderson's pirate ban and flummox the hapless King's Guard who can decide if they want to imprison the Ladies in Raiding or pitch woo to them. Chapters of the story will be released informed by the evolving interactions of the public as more people join and interact with the on the street drama. You can follow the online portion of the drama by going to the Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit Web page at www.bfltransit.com.  The detailed schedule for the Opening of the Ocean is as follows: Wed. May 24, 7 to 10:30 pm, Kickoff Party Kickoff Pirate party at Container Bar with sword fights, costume, contest, button making and pirate poetry at Container Bar on Mt. Pleasant Street in Downtown Charleston (on the #20 bus line) Saturday, May 27 - Opening of the Ocean 9:15 am - Beach Reach Shuttle (Free) begins running from the CARTA Bus Stop on Market Center Drive on the round-a-bout near Lowes to the Isle of Palms. Use the Transit App or Google Transit to track the bus and plan your trip from anywhere on the CARTA bus system. 10:15 am - Beach Reach Shuttle begins 2nd. Run of the day to the beach. Some of the Pirate Ladies in Raiding will be on board distributing pirate treasure you can redeem for prizes and discounts. 10:30 am - Procession from the bus stop begins upon arrival of the bus, and proceeds to the Flag Poles on Palm Boulevard prayers and good thoughts for a safe and happy summer season. Veterans will be recognized for Memorial Weekend. 10:40 am—Opening of the Ocean Our Happy Assembly will process to the Surf where Queen Ruby of the Pirates, in the company of her friends will cast the great Key to the Sea into the Surf to Open the Ocean and mark the return of Transit to the Atlantic. 11:OO am - Revels by the Sea begin, check with participating businesses for events throughout the holiday weekend.  Join Queen Ruby and the Ladies in Raiding for bits of drama and fun on the Island during the day. Dress your pirate part and release the energy of your pirate heart! 5:30 pm– Last Shuttle Run returns to the Mainland For more information contact William J. Hamilton, III, Executive Director of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299

Queen Ruby’s Pirate Party Wed. May 24

Queen Ruby Handing out Pirate Booty

Queen Ruby’s Pirate PartyWed. May 24, 

  7 to 10:30 pm

Container Bar
2130 Mt Pleasant St, Charleston, SC 29403
On #20, Upper King Bus Route (Fare free)

Reserve your space on board now (Free, Eventbright). 

Container Bar will offer a half price discount or a single run drink to any person presenting one of Queen Ruby's pirate coins at the time they make the order. 

Most recent chapter in our evolving pirate drama. A Welcome Home Party for Queen Ruby. Come to the party prepared. 

Queen Ruby and her crew have magically arrived from year 1623. She’s evading  Pirate Anderson’s Cutthroat band who wants to rob her and the ladies in raiding of their ship and the magical key to the sea. Ruby is holding this party to start a Lowcountry pirate fashion trend in hopes of increasing her chances of keeping under the radar by filling Charleston with play Pirates, among whom she and her ladies can hide. 

Ruby's pirates have survived their first encounter with Anderson in this modern world, but life in the 21st century is becoming complicated. They're riding the bus because you can't rent or buy a car even with a handful of gold doubloons without an ID. A birthdate in the 1600s is bout to raise some questions down at the  DMV Ruby and the other lady pirates don't want to answer. 

Read the full, detailed back story. 

Pirate Party Games

Ruby has devised some party games to help build the Pirate fashion trend int he Lowcountry which will help her and her ladies hide. They may also identify people with sympathies and skills which might be useful in the future. 

Swordfight– Procure a partner. Show your daring do in our swordfight competition. Each team will be presented two foam Nerf swords and have two minutes to fight. Teams will be provided points based on costume (30%), hat (10%), choreography (30%) and drama (30%). 

Pirate Costume– Dress up and let your inner pirate out. 

Pirate Poetry- Present a short piratical poem. Must rhyme, 14 lines maximum. Must contain the words bus, booty and beach. 

Make buttons– Produce a pirate pin to publicly portend  your propensity to push preconceptions of an ordinary summer overboard

Image, left- Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit marching to the sea at IOP from Mt. Pleasant in July 2015 to protest lack of public transit bus service to the beaches in Charleston, 98 degrees, The march took the same route the bus does now. 

For More Information- To become involved contact William Hamilton at 843-870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com. Contributions to support the effort can be made through act blue. 

 

 

 

Crystal Goes A Roving - Pirate War in Summerville?

Read the full story of Queen Ruby and her Ladies in Raiding- Cruise of the Jeweled Princess 

Learn more about 2023's bus to the beach and our Interactive Pirate Drama to be enacted across the Lowcountry. 

The Jeweled Princess is hidden at anchor in a remote creek near Cape Romaine, N. of Charleston. Queen Ruby has taken off of a secret mission. The ladies in raiding have secured supplies and water, but have carefully avoided drawing attention.

Crystal, the beautiful raven haired teenage daughter of the crew's Master at Arms, Emerald, has disappeared. Also missing are Crystal's personal arms and small purse of gold coins.

Emerald orders a search for her daughter and discovers in historic Charleston lady pirates are just assumed to be working in the tourism industry. A single gold coin purchases CARTA gold bus passes for the entire crew. They camp among the city's homeless population at night, sharing their largess with the hungry and unhoused. Emrald does not understand why a community with so much wealth has so many people sleeping under abandoned houses and in wooded lots. Some of the ladies take up event work for meetings and conventions to develop contacts. The event planners are amazed at the realism of their accents and clothing. “Best pirate actors I've ever seen,” reads one online review. Emerald soon finds Anderson and the Kings Guard. She has the Ladies in Raiding follow them.

Crystal has found her way inland to Summertime, taking the #41 bus from Shem Creek where she landed in a borrowed boat with an amazing, but noisy motor she found near McClellenville. Having rowed hundreds of miles in her time, this outboard motor is the first of many wonders. The antique dealer in Mt. Pleasant was happy to give her hundreds of dollars for just one of her antique coins. Downtown she takes in the sights and meets a theater student from Rollins School of the Arts who has been working on a pirate theater project. Together they take the #3 Express Bus to Summertime where she proceeds to discover the wonders of teenage life in the 21^st Century.

Crystal does some Instagram posts with her friends, picks up a smart phone and begins to explore Dorchester County. She couch surfs among the Rollins students and even manages to spend most of a day at Rollins, amazing the theater teacher with her mastery of stage weapon choreography. She slipped out of the school when the administration started asking to speak to her parents. Dad doesn't have a cell phone back in 1723 and Emerald doesn't have one now.

That night Crystal was enjoying some pizza and a crisp, cool salad of fresh vegetables with her new Summertime friends. In Crystal's time, fresh vegetables wilted or rotted rapidly in the heat. On board a long voyage everything was dried, boiled or cooked. Crystal is a big fan of refrigeration. Ice cream too.

But not everything is wonderful, Crystal learns that some of her friends, who struggle with poverty in Summerville have never seen the Atlantic Ocean, only 20 miles away. She promises them, they'll see the sea this summer. She considers taking someone's boat and heading down the Ashley River but figures riding the bus would be less risky. She's also getting nervous about her reunion with the Ladies in Raiding who must be searing for her now. 

As the students and erstwhile pirate girl discussed the joys of putting on over on the Rollins administrators, one of the boys examines Crystal's short cutlass. It's heavy, meant to break bones and sharp. He slices his finger on the blade. “This is real,” he says, gesturing towards the foam swords they're planning to use in the upcoming theatrics.

“Of course it's real,” Says Crystal, “I would have no chance against Anderson's pirates or the guard with one of your made in China's.”

One of the other boys says she not really a pirate, but has some sort of mental health problem.

Crystal's hand swings down to her delicate boot and fingers reach a knife. In an instant she brings it up, around and whips it forward so that it pierces the eye of a character in a poster that looks too much like Pirate Anderson for her liking. It passes two inches in front of the boy's nose.

If you see a man who looks like that, warn me and run.

Downtown Pirate Anderson has been renting out his ship for events, giving tours and discovers tourism pays pretty well. However, he wants his former ship and the precious key to the sea back. Anderson has made contact with the local criminal underground.

He soon gets word of a pirate girl with a growing social media following in Summerville. He's never seen Crystal, but recognizes the style of her dress. She has to be one of the ladies in raiding and would make a valuable hostage. Unable to navigate the problems of getting and driving a car, he too gets some CARTA Bus passes and rides the #10 Rivers Ave. Bus and Tri County Link bus all the way to Summerville, where again, everyone just assumes they're working in the tourism industry and don't bathe enough. Anderson can't understand why it takes two hours to get to Summertime on a bus which can clearly be driven 60 miles an hour.

The King's guard has been shadowing Anderson and hiding in modern clothes they've received at the Sunday Community Potluck on Hampstead Square. They also head to Summerville. Lacking a chest of gold, the redcoats beg for the fare in uniform first. Tourists love the selfies.

It is May 18, 2023. Crystal is getting ready to have some fun at Third Thursday in Summerville with her new friends. They're all dressed as pirates. Crystal is trending online. She's setting the fashion.

Her mother, Emerald, has also followed Anderson and the Guard to Summerville, the ladies as usual eliciting information from the hapless guards.

Some people have noticed there certainly seem to be a lot of pirates riding the bus system these days, but the authorities have no idea what is about to happen. Two warring bands of pirates and a detachment of royal guards are about to meet a group of teenagers among the craft booths and food trucks in flowertown. One of those teenagers is ready, but out of her time. The others are out of their depth and Queen Ruby and her magical key are far away.

It is later afternoon when Crystal and her friends arrive at Hutchinson Square. Anderson, the Guard and the Ladies in Raiding will arrive soon.

Be on Hutchinson Square in Summerville on Thursday, May 18 to see what happens next.

Support and Contact Us

• You can support our continuing efforts for better transit by making a contribution online on Act Blue
• You can reach us by emailing executive director William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or by calling 843-870-5299.

Bus to the Beach in the Lowcountry 2022

2022 Second Season of Service to the Sea at IOP

Boarding Shuttle at Mt. Pleasant Town Centre

This page is now out of date, Please check our Bus to the beach 2023 page for current information on our special Pirate promotion.

After a brief experimental operation in Aug. 2020, and seven years of transit advocacy by Best Friends including the 2015 March to the Sea, regular public transit bus service reached the beach in the Lowcountry on Memorial Weekend 2022. Now it returns for its second year. 

Official CARTA page on Beach Reach Shuttle. 

This year the Beach Shuttle has a direct and immediate connection to the #40 Mount Pleasant Bus. You can reach the shuttle on the #40 or just park next to the stop in Mt. Pleasant for free. The shuttle is also free. This year's stop at the beach is right next to the County Park where you can find bathrooms, showers and changing rooms.

The CARTA Board voted to run the shuttle again this year at their January 2022 meeting. 

We'll be presenting IOP City Council with their copy of the Key to the Sea on March 22 at 6 pm. 

Here is information on last years bus 2021 to beach effort.

Boarding the Shuttle on IOP

The 2021 Reach the Beach shuttle effort was moderately successful. Ridership was heavily impacted by COVID and a lot of bad weather. Ridership was building towards the end of summer with a strong Labor Day weekend finish. It was absolutely better than fighting traffic and parking on IOP. The company on the bus was pleasant. The views from the bus crossing the Dangerfield bridge are spectacular. You avoid the anger and aggression which is so prominent on the road there.  We found that brining a chair, small umbrella and small cooler got it done. So did Chole, our intensely controversial campaign to get people to pack light and enjoy the beach. Be like Chole really drove the monster truck to the beach people nuts.

On Saturday's, the transfer from the #40 Mt. Pleasant bus route, which runs from downtown Charleston at Mary Street where it connects with the rest of the CARTA system was reliable and generally immediate. On Sundays the two routes had different schedules and waits of half an hour, coming and going took place. Parking at Mt. Pleasant Town Centre was always available. A mid year change to a bus stop at IOP County Park where benches, shade and bathrooms could be found was a huge improvement. 

1. 

   The Key to the Sea

   Bus the the Beach 2021 Our main page June 2021 with updates during the season
   
2. Be Like Chole Video We thought this was just fun, big car people did not
3. Bus to the Beach Gaining Traction Report on the operating service, June 2021
4. May 2021 Making the 2022 bus fare free.  Quick action helps make the IOP bus fare free. Within two hours fare free operation was fully funded
5. July Summerville to the Sea Bus Trip Plans for a guided trip to the beach from Summerville
6. Open the Ocean for Kids Our effort to get kids to the beach. It struggled due to pandemic problems and logistical issues. We did get the summer program from Pink House to the fountain downtown. The basic problem is that the buses run on weekends and the summer programs for kids operate on weekdays. 

Why Transit Service to the Beach Matters

Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit campaigned for seven years to get public transit in Charleston returned to our beaches. We continue to believe that it is the moral obligation of a wealthy community like ours which depends on low wage service labor in it's tourism and medical sectors to make recreation at our beaches available to everyone without their having to own an automobile. We also believe reducing automobile traffic to the beach improves everyone's beach experience and promotes a more sustainable human presence on our planet. Doubling transit ridership to the beach this summer is one of our five major transit goals for 2022. 

Support us and Contact Us

• You can support our continuing efforts for better transit by making a contribution online on Act Blue
• You can reach us by emailing executive director William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or by calling 843-870-5299.

Queen Ruby of the Pirates and her Ladies in Raiding, the Cruise of the Jeweled Princess

Flag of Queen Ruby of the Pirates

© 2023 by William J. Hamilton, III

Ride the Bus, Join the Drama

This summer Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit invites you not merely to take the bus to the beach, but to use transit to access a summer island filled with adventure, drama, swordplay and romance. 

This is the first written chapter  in our pirate drama. We maintain a complete chronology with links to all the chapters and events 

When you encounter Queen Ruby of the Pirates or one of her Ladies in Raiding, you may be given a golden pirate coin which will allow you to win discounts, earn prizes or even participate in the dramatic contest between Queen Ruby, his majesty's royal militia, the fiendish Pirate Anderson or the venal operatives of the British West India company. 

Here's our story up to now. Join the next chapter on Memorial weekend when we open the ocean at 10:30 am on the front beach of the Isle of Palms and join the drama which will bring  excitement as well as better transit to the Lowcountry up to its conclusion of Labor Day Weekend.

After you have read the backstory below, read the latest chapter, the conclusion of which will unfold in Summerville on May 18. Read Crystal Goes A Roving, Pirate War in Summerville?

A Hard Life Come to a Dead End

Ruby was the beloved daughter of a famous Admiral of His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Middle age found her married to a rum ruined former ship’s captain and now tavern owner in the impoverished town of Port St. Phillip. Trapped in circumstance, peril and adventure yet awaited the handsome woman who believed her life was to be spent tending bar, scrubbing run sodden tavern floors and sloping pigs.

Peril from the Sea, Anderson's Pirates Raid Port Phillip

Peril came in the form of Anderson’s pirate band, who raided the town and carried off everything of any worth. St. Phillip was poor on a good day. The King’s taxes and the ruinous terms of trade with the monopoly of the British West India Company made life expensive and hard. With rations low and a pirate crew on the verge of munity, Anderson came to take everything Ruby and her neighbors had. The King and his fleet were, as usual, far away guarding the profits of the West India company.

Ruby’s husband was a sot, but when the door of his tavern was breached by the thirsty pirates he rose on his feet to defend his wife, whom he still loved, the only true treasure he possessed. The Captain's final battle was brave and short. He ended in a pool of his own blood on the dank, beer soaked floor. Ruby, unready, was taken prisoner as were the other ladies of the town. It took five strong men to drag Ruby to their ship.

On board Ruby and her sisters contemplated the horrors that awaited them in one form of slavery or another. They were hardship toughened women from age 12 to 80, subject to the various uses men might devise for them unless they freed themselves.

Ruby knew the uses of rum on sailors and proposed a party, a welcome surprise to  the pirates. The revels began, but the pirates quickly fell into a drunken sleep while attempting to prove to the smiling women which of them might hold the most rum.

When they awoke with headaches the following morning, they were startled to find irons on their feet, shackled to chains run around the beams of the ship. Above them they could hear the sound of feet on the deck, hear the rasp of rigging running through the blocks and the high pitched voice of Ruby, directing the trimming of the main course. What had been their ship was under way. They were now prisoners locked in irons. Ruby and the women were in command of what was now the ladies’ ship.

Ruby had heard many stories of the sea, none more legendary and improbable than the tale of the key to the sea. Said to have been forged by Vikings, the large iron key to the sea was alleged to give the Captain who held it command over wind and wave. It was said the key was the power which allowed the Vikings to find Greenland and the new world. The key could put the wind behind your sails and turn it against your opponent. It could calm the storm for your vessel’s crossing but raise the gale against a ship in pursuit.

In the hands of the righteous, the key was the most powerful magic on the sea. However, in the possession of a murderous thief and kidnapper like Anderson it had been of no use, a relic that had cost him much and had yielded him nothing.

When Ruby and the ladies battered down the door to the captain’s cabin they found the key among his many treasures. Ruby knew what it had to be. She passed over the precious gems, gold and silver in the treasure chest to grasp its handle. She told the other women; “with this we shall be powerful and free.”

A Decision is Made, A Voyage Begins

At dawn Ruby donned Andersons worn pirate costume and fitted his oversized bicorn hat to her smaller head. She directed the women to work the anchor up with the windlass, lowered the sails and let the ship fall down into the wind. As what would be known as the Jeweled Princess of the Seas began to make headway and the rudder began to cut, Sapphire, who had taken up the work of the helmslady asked Ruby if they should return to the ruins of Port Phillip.

Ruby reached into the pirate jacket’s oversized pocket and touched the key to the sea with her fingers, feeling the waves tremble beneath the ship at her touch. She looked at the women before her rapidly become an effective crew. Ruby considered what their lives back in the power of others might be. More hardship, burials sure to be forgotten and the certain return of other pirates. They could expect forced, unfair dealings with the rapacious agents of the West India Company or the occasional press gangs of the erstwhile Royall Navy taking the men. That course did not promise freedom or happiness for them or the many others who suffered.

Ruby looked at Sapphire (all the ladies had taken to naming themselves after precious gems) whose hands rested on the huge wooden wheel of the ship. Assisting her was beautiful, raven haired Crystal, a young girl with her entire life ahead.

Ruby turned her face into the wind, feeling the air. The sea breeze opening with the morning’s warming heat brought the worn plume of Ruby’s hat up and into the sun. It was a fair wind for travels North to a convenient island where Anderson and his pirates could be marooned. Beyond that could be found the wealthy parts of the Caribbean, a sea of arrogant captains, greedy company agents, slavers and more pirates than a women should have to contend with.

Not the ordinary workplace of a lady for sure, but work which needed doing.

Ruby looked at Sapphire and Crystal, and beyond them to the blue sea and islands out to the horizon.

“I think not,” famously said Queen Ruby, adjusting her hat. “Easy over three points to starboard.” She touched the key in her pocket and the ocean beneath the keel yielded to the ship, the wind backed to her desired direction and the Jeweled Princess began its first voyage.

300 Years Later in Carolina

Pirate Queen Ruby and her Ladies in Raiding have been sailing for years. Crystal is now a young women and can hold down the poop deck in a storm with the confidence of any man. However, as Ruby possesses the key, no storm every overthrows the Jeweled Princess.

For the struggling people of these colonies, Ruby’s ship and its crew are a welcome sight. They bring help when needed. The women defend against pirates and recover some of the wealth the West India Company takes from these people tossed by hurricanes and often starved by poor, island soils. 

On the hot, still days after a hurricane, when everything is in ruins, it is the Jeweled Princess that often shows up first with assistance. If the crates of crackers heaved into the lighters bear the mark of the West India company, no one seems to mind.

Except of course, for the West India company, who profits for King and investors by buying everything the islands produce at prices of it’s choosing and selling everything needed there at a premium, standing on its royal grant of monopoly. The King gets his share of all. The Royal Navy’s first job it to be sure of that.  The sugar cane grown gets sold to the company for a pittance and the run later purchased costs dear. It does not profit the West India company to see it’s run and crackers donated to the poor for free, even after a Hurricane.

During one storm, when Ruby used the key of the sea to end a mighty Hurricane. The massive energy of the storm was concentrated and there was an exposion. She and her ladies find themselves in a strange world, 400 years in their future. A world of wonders, but also troubles. They have kept their distance up to now, attempting to observe this world of marvels from a safe distance, but their casks have run dry. 

Ruby and her ladies have been forced to land at the Isle of Palms after scouting the Lowcountry to obtain that most precious treasure, water, to fill the casks of the Jeweled Princess. They will distribute some largess, get help hauling the water out to their ship and be quickly off over the waves leaving the pirates, royal navy and company agents in their wake, who have somehow also reached the future with her. 

The casks are full. The Jeweled Princess is ready to make sail, but Crystal, now the flower of young womanhood, cannot be found. Ruby must remain ashore with the other ladies in raiding to search for her sister. As the island fills with summer visitors, the Ladies in Raiding are not unnoticed. Reports have reached the King guards. The West  India Company has offered rewards: 20 pounds for a lady in raiding, 100 for Ruby and a thousand for the Key to the sea.

Crystal is rumored to be in Summerville, reveling in the opportunities this new century presents to an experienced 16th Century Pirate Maiden. Our next chapter unfolds in Summerville on May 18. Read Crystal Goes A Roving, Pirate War in Summerville?

Ride the Bus, Join the Story

The Royal Navy, as always, is far away protecting the king’s profits, but Anderson and his pirates are close. They escaped their lonely island years ago and stole a new ship. They are bearing down on Ruby, the Isle of Palms and the King’s small guard, a friend to none of them. It is the beginning of summer. While visitors revel and sport traveling from the mainland on the free bus service, Ruby and her ladies must act to save all.

On May 27, 2023, starting at 10:30 am on the Isle of Palms, take the free CARTA Beach Shuttle from the mainland and join the story.  

More Information

For more information, see our main page on the 2023 bus to the beach or contact William Hamilton at (843) 870-5299 or wjhamilton29464@gmail.com