Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“My wife believes that double parking means one on top of another.”

Dave Barry



Here is a short biography of a rich man who became a pirate just to get away from his nagging wife followed by the history lesson.

                      Stede Bonnet

                            The Gentlemen Pirate



This is a story of a well heeled Englishman of culture that became a pirate because of a woman. Stede Bonnet was born on Barbados in 1688 the son of a wealthy plantation owner. I do not know what his farm products were but in those days Barbados was famous for sugar and rum. Stede inherited the estate after his father’s death in 1694. In 1709 he married a woman of means named Mary Allamby also of Barbados. After several years of Mary’s bitching and in spite of having three children and also in spite of he not having but the most rudimentary sailing skills, in 1717 Stede decided to take up piracy. Stede bought a 30 ton sloop, named it The Revenge, probably because of his bad experience with his wife and outfitted it with 10 guns and hired a pirate crew of 30 and gave them a salary. This was unheard of in the pirating arena, most other pirates allowed their crewmen to share in whatever booty was captured. Stede headed for the American east coast and is successful in capturing and looting several ships but then he ran across a Spanish man-of-war and a sharp battle ensued and Stede and company are forced to withdraw after suffering several killed and many severely wounded including Stede. Stede ordered his ship to Nassau in the Bahamas, a well known refuge for pirates. It was there that he met two pirates named John Hornigold and Edward Teach, also known as “Blackbeard”. Stede was not getting any better so he turned over command of his ship to Blackbeard and out they went to the American coast looking for prey with Stede as a guest of Blackbeard. As many of y’all have heard the name of Blackbeard’s flagship was Queen Anne’s Revenge. Blackbeard probably named his ship that as a slap at the king of England at the time. Stede had a meeting with the Governor of North Carolina who offered him a pardon if he would go “privateering” against Spanish shipping that was coming back from Mexico and Central America laden to the scuppers with gold captured from the Aztecs, Maya and Inca and give the Governor half of everything he captured. By now Stede has healed well enough to take command of his own ship and he and Blackbeard parted company. Stede wanted to go pirating again but he also did not want to lose his pardon from the North Carolina so he decided to use the alias of “Captain Thomas” and renamed his ship The Royal James and went pirating again. The good Governor offered Blackbeard a similar deal whereby Blackbeard could use Okacroke inlet and Bath, North Carolina in particular as a secure home base but in return he must give the governor half of his booty. Stede’s ship was leaking badly and needed careening. This meant the ship was leaned over to one side and the seams on the bottom were re-packed to stop the leaks. To do this they needed shallow and calm water. Stede chose the shallow and calm estuary of the Cape Fear River North Carolina. In the mean time the Governor of South Carolina had got fed up with Stede and Blackbeard attacking nearly every ship departing Charleston, South Carolina harbor and sent a hired militia led by Colonel Robert Rhett to put a stop to it. Rhett caught Stede in the Cape Fear estuary while still careening. There was a battle for several hours but the pirates were surrounded by a force of superior numbers and ships and were forced to surrender. Stede and company were brought to Charleston and put on trial along with another pirate named Richard Worley and his crew. Somehow Stede escaped but not before promising the South Carolina Governor that he would cut off his arm and legs to prevent him from ever pirating again. The Governor did not buy it and sent a search party out looking for Stede. Stede had hired two slaves that had access to a boat to take him and his sailing master to safety. The four were cornered on Sullivan’s Island (the home of my favorite watering hole, Poe’s Tavern) and the two slaves were killed and Stede and his sailing master were brought back to Charleston to be tried before Judge Nicholas Trott. The Trott family was famous in South Carolina history and was mentioned in my essay on the history of Daniel Island. Anyway, Judge Trott gave no quarter and sentenced Stede and his crew plus Richard Worley and his crew to death by hanging. The whole crowd was indeed hanged at “White’s Point” which is today the southernmost point of the Charleston, South Carolina peninsula, better known as “The Battery”. The whole bunch was “buried” on the southern shore of James Island “at low tide”. We know what this means. They were left for the crabs and sharks to devour. By the way, after Blackbeard made his deal with the Governor of North Carolina, the Governor of Virginia knew that every ship entering or leaving the Chesapeake Bay was at risk so he sent a militia hunting for Blackbeard. They cornered Blackbeard on Okacroke Island, North Carolina and after a savage hand-to-hand fight Blackbeard was eventually killed and beheaded. Thus essentially ended the pirating in the Carolinas but it still flourished elsewhere as long as Spanish ship were hauling all that gold back to Spain via the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Straits, the Bahamas and the American east coast.



This Date in History February 9

1942    In the late 1930’s the grandest ocean liner on the planet was built in France and named the Normandie. The ship had a revolutionary hull shape that made it very speedy and was able to cross the Atlantic in four days and was the first ship of that size to be able to do this. After the United States entered WWII in December of 1941, it became apparent that the American commercial fleet had enough ships to carry cargo but virtually no passenger vessels. In those times the luxury liners were English, Scottish or Dutch. England donated the liner Queen Mary to shuttle American troops worldwide. The French liner Normandie was seized while it was in port in New York and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. The ship fitters pulled the ship into dry dock and began transforming this ship from a luxury liner to a troop carrier. On this date a welder accidentally set fire to a large pile of life preservers and the fire spread quickly. The fire crews poured water into the ship at an enormous rate and finally the great ship capsized and burned into a lump of unusable steel. The ship was towed to a New Jersey and cut up for scrap. There was a rumor that President Roosevelt told the trade unions on American docks that a strike would not be tolerated for the duration of the war. Some of the more militant Union organizers ordered the Normandie destroyed as a sign that the trade unions would not be told what they could or could not do. But that is just a rumor.



1909    On this date the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was organized by Carl Fisher. Fisher and his investors hurried to finish the track because a major event was planned for August, 6 months later. The track was indeed finished but the racing surface was sub-par and it cost the lives of several racers. Fisher knew that he would have to put down another surface and chose bricks as being the most durable compound out there. From that day on Indianapolis was known as “The Brickyard” and as the saying goes, the rest is history. By the way, the Indianapolis 500 race is the most watched single day sporting event on the planet.



1960    On this date Adolph Coors is kidnapped while driving to work from his Morrison, Colorado home. Adolph was the grandson of the founder of Coors Brewery and was the chairman of the Golden, Colorado brewery. Almost immediately the police began looking for a man named Joe Corbett. Corbett was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oregon and was headed for medical school. Then one night in 1951 he got drunk and got into a fight with an Air Force Sergeant, produced a pistol and shot and killed him. He does several years in San Quentin for that indiscretion. He was transferred to a minimum security prison where he escaped. Eight days after the abduction, a car was found on fire in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The forensic specialist took dirt samples from the car and matched them to the Morrison, Colorado area. Not only that, the fire did not destroy the engine numbers and the FBI was able to trace them to Corbett. Corbett’s yellow Mercury was seen near the abduction point for several days before the abduction. Not only that, a ransom note was found that was traced to Corbett’s typewriter. Seven months after the abduction, Adolph’s clothes were found in a dump near Sedalia, Colorado and his corpse was found nearby. The FBI put wanted posters out nationwide and in Canada for Corbett. They got “hits” on Corbett in Toronto and all the way across Canada to Vancouver where he was arrested. Even though Corbett did not testify at his trial he was indeed convicted and went to prison in 1961. He was released in 1978, for reason known only to the Board of Corrections.



1864    Earlier Elizabeth Bacon met a dashing young cavalry officer named Captain George A. Custer at a dance in Monroe, Michigan. Custer was smitten and began a campaign for the hand of Elizabeth. Her father was not happy with his daughter marrying a soldier, but when Custer was promoted to Brevet (temporary) Brigadier General for his fearlessness Elizabeth’s father conceded and Elizabeth and George were married on this date in Monroe, Michigan. After the Civil War Custer’s rank was reduced to and he was assigned duty out on the Great Plains attempting to subdue the Indians. We all know what happened at Little Big Horn in 1878. To this day, that massacre is acknowledged to be the fault of the recklessness of Custer, but Elizabeth defended her husband’s honor to her death.



Born today:

1773    President William Henry Harrison. He said “The Government that is the strongest is the one that is the most free”. He also made his hour and a half inauguration speech in sub-freezing weather with no coat on. He died of pneumonia 30 days later.



1865    Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Irish actress. She said “It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Mrs. Campbell must have known my third ex-wife.



1821    Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said “Realists do not fear the results of their study.”



1921    Irish writer Brendan Behan. He said “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman would not make it worse.”



1945    US actress Mia Farrow. She said “I can match bottoms with anyone in Hollywood.” I don’t know about that, Mia, it looks kind of lean to me.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow