BELHAVEN — On Saturday, pirates from all over eastern North Carolina sieged Belhaven’s Town Hall, captured the mayor and then hosted area residents at their pirate encampments for the 2014 Pirates on the Pungo.

At high noon, the invading pirates led residents through downtown Belhaven for a pirate march to the Town Hall where Mayor Adam O’Neal was abducted, shackled and taken back to the pirate encampment at Wynne’s Gut Town Dock. Participants of the march donned pirate attire and accessories, joining the invading pirates for an array of activities at the encampment.

Mike Mealey, also known as the pirate Mad Dog, held a Scalawag School for children in which he taught young pirates-to-be how to sword fight and talk like pirates as well as how to dress and act like pirates.

“I actually started about four years ago in Beaufort,” Mealey said. “That’s where they had their big pirate fest down there every August. I started it with my son. It was something that father and son could do together and it just kind of grew. Now we are doing our own Scalawag School and we travel about. Seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, you can’t put a price tag on that. Who doesn’t love a pirate?”

At the encampment, residents not only saw pirates, but also had the opportunity to see mermaids and mermen. Caroline Nelson, also known as Mermaid Aquanette and Chris Chandler, also known as Merman Christomer, joined the pirates on land to display their way of life to children and festivalgoers.

“We got into it just because of our love of water,” Nelson said. “But now—we have worked with kids forever—it’s such a great way to keep imagination flowing in children. You keep that imagination flowing, you keep their brain thinking and that’s how we come up with new ideas for the future.”

Nelson and Chandler said they participate in festivals and events all over North Carolina and dress up to take pictures with children and to stimulate imaginations everywhere they go.

Captain Horatio Sinbad of the Meka II, who joined Captain Ben Bunn of the Ada Mae in firing on the town in a simulation of a pirate battle on the high seas, has been a pirate and a participant of about 150 events like Pirates on the Pungo over a span of 50 years. The Ada Mae is one of the remaining skipjacks built in Rose Bay in the early 1900s.

“This year, they (Belhaven) took a chance and actually invited pirates to Pirates on the Pungo,” Sinbad said. “We came here to show them what pirates can do. We (he and Bunn) are actually here to raid the place.”

Another pirate in attendance was Captain Nitrate of Beaufort, a pirate who specializes in black powder weapons. Nitrate had on display several different types of weaponry, predominant in the pirate era, including a blunderbuss, mortars, cannons, daggers and pistols. Nitrate said that his expertise in black powder weapons advocated his interest in pirate events.

“I started with black powder weapons when I was young,” Nitrate said. “As I got a little bit older, the pirate community became very popular, especially with the advent of Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean. So the pirate festivals started becoming very popular. So that’s why I started doing it. I found a little niche there to come out and play with the kids, have some fun and some great comradery with pirates from around the country. It is an absolute blast.”

A local pirate, Kim Williams, of Bath, had a small pen at the pirate encampment in which she let children pet, feed and interact with Scalawag and Eli, two of her eight Hurricane alpacas.