SEVEN Poole pirates rowed 250 miles under the blazing sun in a Cornish gig for charity, and apologised for the town’s most infamous son along the way.

They completed their 15-day long journey at the quay on Sunday and celebrated with beer and sea shanties at the Jolly Sailor pub.

Landlord John Lambert organised the adventure and the crew was made up of pub regulars.

They started at Lands End and during the journey stopped off in four ports to present scrolls of apology for the Poole pirate Harry Paye.

Dartmouth, Plymouth, Portland and Swanage were raided in 1045 by Spanish ships seeking revenge on him for his exploits.

The modern day pirates looked the part, wearing rings, beards and ruffled shirts, and sporting brown faces cracked with sunburn.

“There was an awful lot of male bonding, rubbing sun cream on each other,” said John, aged 47, before adding: “And an awful lot of drinking in the evenings.”

The crew’s hardest day was the eight-hour, 30-mile row from Lyme Regis to Portland.

In Dorset they stopped in Lyme Regis, Portland, Weymouth, Lulworth Cove and Swanage – and managed third place in a race at Swanage regatta.

John said: “We were so well received by the pubs and rowing clubs everywhere.”

Rhett Barton, 45, from Oakdale, said personal highlights included hitting a maximum speed of 10.8 knots.

The other crew members were Mike Fearn, Kevin McCormack, Greg Neville, John Vine and Mark Ponchaud.

The £14,000 raised went to Macmillan Cancer Support, Wessex Heartbeat, RNLI, Headway Dorset, and the Royal Marine Charitable Trust Fund.