Muffler Man - Pirate
Ocean City, New Jersey
Arm position: Standard, hook hand
Accessories: Pirate scabbard, eye patch, wooden leg, hook hand, gold hoop earrings
Note: Watch for the nearby crashed Nam chopper, piloted by a skeleton, and the King Kong head at the entrance of Congo Falls.
Swashbuckler and Galleon
Just off the boardwalk at this popular Jersey beach town, behind Congo Falls and next to a Spanish galleon, stands a Muffler Man pirate. He is a hazard on a pirate-themed miniature golf course.
We were encouraged to believe a former Bunyan had been repurposed into a peg-legged scoundrel. But a similar configuration -- rare though it be, me lads -- had been reported elsewhere.
The Piratization of a Muffler Man was an original International Fiberglass factory option, with accessories such as an eye patch, earring, and sword available as accessories In the mid-1960s. We don't see the hand hook or peg leg listed as available options that early, so those might have been later accessories, or local modifications to make this murderous mini-golf brigand truly unique. The current owner recalls that the pirate was acquired in the late 1960s at an auction in Pennsylvania after Playtown Park shut down.
Viewed in another context, this muffler man represents one's triumph over handicaps -- and the golf course is wheelchair accessible.
Eerily, a doppelganger pirate muffler man also lords over the other Ocean City, in Maryland.