Seafaring Sunday: The Gentleman's Fate

December 10, 1718: Despite a written plea to the colonial Governor which read in part:

I have presumed, on the Confidence of your eminent Goodness, to throw my self, after this manner, at your Feet, to implore you’ll graciously be pleased to look upon me with tender Bowels of Pity and Compassion; and believe me to be the most miserable Man this Day breathing: That the Tears proceeding from my most sorrowful Soul may soften your Heart, and encline you to consider my dismal State …

The so called gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet was hanged near the docks in Charleston, South Carolina.

Header: contemporary engraving of Bonnet's hanging; note the nosegay, carried as a sign of repentance

Seafaring Sunday: Freedom For A Moment

October 24, 1718: Accused of piracy on the high seas, Captain Stede Bonnet manages to escape from a watch house south of Charleston, South Carolina. He is at large for slightly longer than a day before being caught. Returned to his prison, he is tried, found guilty and hanged.

Header: Colonel Rhett and Pirate Stede Bonnet by Howard Pyle 1901

The Pirates Own Book: "Life, Atrocities And Bloody Death"

Everyone is at least vaguely familiar with the storied life of Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. He's a legendary pirate that, as I understand it, is set to figure prominently in not one but two Hollywood movies next year. They don't put you in movies if you're not a household name. Not anymore, anyway. Frankly I'd prefer to see a remake of The Buccaneer rather than Blackbeard the evil sorcerer but that's just the way I swing.

Despite Blackbeard's familiarity, it does not surprise me at all to find that our old friend Charles Ellms has given us the most lurid side of the story possible. Ah, Mr. Ellms, you never cease to amaze me. So here is a brief overview of The Pirates' Own Book's life of Blackbeard (or Black Beard as Ellms would have it). Since you know the general story, I'll just hit the high points. If you want to digest this or any other chapter of Ellms' Victorian classic, it's free on the web right here.

"Edward Teach was a native of Bristol," Ellms says, and he made his way to Jamaica in his youth where he joined a privateer during "the French war." Teach served under Benjamin Hornigold until 1717, when the Captain gives the soon-to-be Blackbeard a sloop of his own.

The narrative gets a little confusing at this point. Ellms has Teach taking the king's pardon in one paragraph and then off a-pirating aboard Queen Anne's Revenge in the next. What follows is basically a list of prizes, which are indeed impressive, until Teach meets Stede Bonnet:

...and these two men co-operated for some time; but Teach finding him unacquainted with naval affairs, gave the command of Bonnet's ship to Richards, one of his own crew, and entertained Bonnet on board his own vessel.

The use of the word "entertained" is particularly amusing given that Bonnet was basically Teach's prisoner until such time as Teach got all the use he could out of Bonnet's ship.

Having parted company with the perpetually pathetic Bonnet, Teach turns to terrorizing Charleston. He takes prisoners, burns ships within sight of the town and essentially blockades the port:

Meanwhile, there were eight sail in the harbor, none of which durst set to sea for fear of falling into the hands of Teach.

Teach's recently taken prisoners begin to fall ill aboard his ship and he sends two of his men along with a healthy prisoner, Mr. Marks, to negotiate for medications. The deal is done and once the sailors return Teach pillages the ships in the harbor, sets his prisoner's free and heads out to sea.

At this point Ellms has Teach treacherously running Queen Anne's Revenge aground in order to avoid having to share out his prizes with his entire crew. He strands some of his men on a "sandy island" to die of thirst and starvation and takes the rest to North Carolina where he surrenders to the Governor. He manages to keep his prize goods and he and his men are set to live by land in style. It is also worth noting that Ellms tells us it is Stede Bonnet who comes to the rescue of the seventeen unfortunates stranded by Blackbeard.

Ellms now details the sordid deal between the Governor of North Carolina and Teach whereby the pirate will raid foreign shipping, claim the ships were unmanned when he came upon them, have them libelled by the Governor and then share the spoils evenly with him. It does appear that something like this scheme went on in fact, but most probably not to the incredible extant that Ellms would have us believe. At this point, Ellms is painting Teach and the Governor with the same brush.

Of course, as always with Charles, the blue paint comes out too:

Before he entered upon his new adventures, [Teach] married a young woman of about sixteen years old... It was reported that this was only his fourteenth wife... and though this woman was young and amiable, he behaved towards her in a manner so brutal that it was shocking to all decency and propriety...

Well of course he did. By now, though, the "limits of human insolence and depravity" are catching up with our anti-hero. The people of North Carolina appeal to the Governor of Virginia for help and he enlists the assistance of the noble Lieutenant Maynard, "an experienced and resolute officer."

The initial meeting of Teach's ship with Maynard's seems cordial enough with tankards hoisted in greeting. As we know, though, things got ugly quickly. Teach boards Maynard's vessel, thinking that the Lieutenant's men have been killed by his pirate ship's broadsides. In fact the Royal Navy sailors are only hiding and they surprise Teach's boys:

The most desperate and bloody conflict ensued: - Maynard with twelve men and Black Beard with fourteen. The sea was dyed with blood all around the vessel, and uncommon bravery was displayed upon both sides. Though the pirate was wounded by the first shot from Maynard, though he had received twenty cuts, and as many shots, he fought with desperate valor; but at length, when in the act of cocking his pistol, fell down dead.

Teach's head is cut off and hung from the bowsprit of Maynard's ship. His men are taken to Virginia where they are tried and hanged with the notable exception of First Lieutenant Israel Hands. He receives, inexplicably, "his Majesty's pardon" just as he is about to be executed.

The usually stories - Teach's fondness for attaching lit fuses to his hat in battle, his random shooting of a crewman under a table, the sulfur lit below decks with hatches closed to see who can stand the horror the longest - follow with Ellms leaving nothing out. It's all there. And it is, of course, a great story.

Still, I wonder how much of it was really true...

Pathetic Pirates: The Gentleman Pirate

When I think of pathetic pirates - and as we've seen there have been plenty - today's is the one who comes to mind first. He didn't necessarily start the trend but he sure did it up big. Stede Bonnet, the gentleman pirate. As you'll see, gentleman and pirate just don't mix no matter what those romance authors would have you believe.

Bonnet was an officer in the King's Army. By 1717 he was retired and settled down on his spacious Barbados plantation, a wealthy society man with all the outward signs of a perfect life. The story goes that all was not joyous in paradise, though. Evidently Stede was a henpecked husband who some say was driven crazy by the constant nagging of his wife. Others say he was just plane crazy. What ever the reason, Bonnet purchased a sloop of ten guns, hired 70 men and snuck out of his house one evening never to return. His ship sailed from Barbados in 1717 under a black flag.

Bonnet was completely incapable as a seaman and constantly seasick once his ship got out into the Caribbean. Despite this, he managed to take prizes and sell the goods in and around Long Island, Virginia and the Carolinas. At some point in early 1718 Bonnet's ship Revenge met up with Edward Teach's Queen Anne's Revenge and the Captain's agreed to work the Carolina coast together. Blackbeard, probably seeing that Bonnet was no sailor, put one of his own men in charge of Revenge and made Stede a virtual prisoner aboard Queen Anne's Revenge. Prizes were taken by the truckload but Stede never saw a cent out of them. Eventually Teach, either bored or fed up, put Bonnet back on his own ship and sailed away.

Bonnet's men were tired of him too and most deserted when Revenge put in to Charleston. Stede decided to take the pardon for pirates being offered by the King of England at the time but he wasn't done with the sea. He had it in for Edward Teach now. The Governor Johnson of Carolina suggested Bonnet make his way to St. Thomas Island where privateer commissions were being handed out against Spain. Bonnet agreed, rounded up more likely crewmen, and changed not only his ship's name to Royal James but his name to Captain Thomas. He was back at sea in short order. Instead of seeking a commission, though, Bonnet went in search of Blackbeard.

Royal James took six or seven prizes in the fall of 1718 but she never ran into Queen Anne's Revenge. In late October, Bonnet took his ship up the Cape Fear River and anchored there for repairs. The people of Charleston, on hearing that a pirate was on their shores, went into a panic. They had only recently been held virtual hostages by Teach and they weren't going through that again! On November 4th the Governor sent William Rhett to Cape Fear with two armed British sloops, Henry and Sea Nymph.

Characteristically for Bonnet, the engagement went worse than badly. The tide was heading out as Rhett entered the river and all three sloops foundered on sandbars. Henry and Royal James fired broadsides but Henry regained the water first. Royal James was overcome and her people taken to Charleston as prisoners.

A few days later Bonnet and his first lieutenant managed to escape but they were quickly recaptured. When the judge asked Bonnet at his trial why he had turned pirate, Bonnet refused to answer. The judge sentenced he and 30 of his men to hang. He died clutching a nosegay as a sign of repentance. Stede Bonnet, gentleman pirate - pathetic to the very end.