Sons of the Buccaneers, The

This is a long-standing maritime music group that performed at and around the Hyde Street Pier/San Francisco Maritime National History Museum.  The group came together when Skip Henderson, who had been running the sea shanty sing with his group, Starboard Watch, at Quinn’s Lighthouse in Oakland, California, elected to sail out on the ocean in 1994.  Rather than letting the music stop altogether, several of the musicians who had been participating in the ongoing event decided to formalize their act and became the Sons of the Buccaneers.  While Henderson returned  to the mainland and restarted Starboard Watch in 1997, Sons of the Buccaneers continued to perform as a separate group at various West Coast venues.

In 1993-94 the owner of a cab company across the street from a rehearsal space owned by Mordecai BenHershel funded the recording of their CD, Illigitamae Non Carborundum.

In 1997 BenHershel went off to Hawaii for personal pursuits, which halted the “SOBs” until he returned in 2003.  They began performing together again at the Whale’s Tail Restaurant in Oxnard, California. (The business closed in 2015.)  They are back performing at Quint’s Lighthouse

The pandemic halted much of the world’s music in 2019