Not all pirate treasure is to be found in the Caribbean. In fact, considerable finds may be much closer to home, as detailed in “The Legend of the Oxford Pirate,” a mystery for kids by Rob Racicot. 

What would a pirate be doing so far inland, you ask. Well, so did Racicot as he mused on the name of the Oxford High School sports teams, “The Pirates.” 

The answer may be found in “The Legend of the Oxford Pirate,” a middle school coming of age story for kids set in the author’s hometown.

The background is this: in Feb. 1717, during the inaptly named “Golden Age of Piracy,” notorious buccaneer Captain Sam Bellamy captured the English transport ship Whydah Gally near the Bahamas, along with her cargo of gold, silver, ivory and jewels. Safeguarded by 28 six-pound cannons on board, Bellamy commandeered the Whydah and began a run up along the eastern seaboard of the American colonies towards Maine.

Late in April, the Whydah was storm-driven onto a sandbar off Cape Cod, splintering apart and spilling her treasure into the sea where it lay undisturbed for 260 years. 

Racicot picks up the tale at this point and sets it down again in his hometown for an enthralling yarn.  The action takes place right in the Newton Avenue neighborhood where the former career Air Force officer grew up. It’s an imaginative retelling of what could have happened to the Whydah’s plunder amid scenes familiar to Oxford residents. 

Racicot recalled a friend once telling him that long ago, someone arrived in Oxford with a pocketful of gold doubloons. 

From a visit to a Cape Cod museum, Racicot knew that one man aboard the Whydah, ship’s carpenter Thomas Davis, was rescued by a Cape Cod local and landed in jail. However, he escaped death by hanging because he convinced the authorities that Bellamy forced him into piracy.

Could Davis have revisited the site of the wreck where beachcombers were finding bits of treasure washed up on shore, the story queries. Was he connected to the stranger who had arrived in Oxford years ago via the Bay Path?

The middle schoolers of the story grow up in a free-range kid wonderland that encompasses woods, Carbuncle Pond, a creepy swamp, an ancient farmhouse and an unusual friend in Vic, the caretaker of St. Roch’s Cemetery. 

The Oxford woods of the early 1970s, when Racicot was a youth, were not only an adventure land, but practically a subdivision of boy- built forts belonging to various neighborhood groups, with ownership setting the stage for summer-long rivalries.

“I opened the story with ‘fort wars’ in order to introduce the cast of characters, Racicot said

“This is a story for Oxford people and Oxford kids,” he said. He enjoys the idea that they will know the neighborhoods, the geography and be familiar with the local lore that forms the backbone of the story, all things that can encourage young readers. “Legend” joins two other books Racicot has published that take place in town – “The Haunting of the Oxford Library” and “The Legend of Carbuncle Pond.”

Set against Oxford scenery and boasting a plot with more twists than a clove hitch knot, “The Legend of the Oxford Pirate” is guaranteed fun for kids aged 8 and older to read alone or together with their parents. 

You can order the book off Amazon or meet the author at a book signing at the Oxford Lions Club Fall Festival, Main Street, Sept. 27. He will also be at the Oxford High School Craft Sale for a signing on Dec. 6.