Good
morning,
Happy
Birthday Jennifer!
Quote
of the day:
“We
will walk hand in hand, we will go to wonderful places. I live to
hear the sound of your voice.”
A
poem written by Pharaoh Tutankhamen to his half-sister/wife
Ankhesenamun about 1380BC. They had two daughters but both were
stillborn. Tut died at the age of 19 and Ankhesenamun disappeared
from Egyptian history at the age of 26 fate unknown.
Her
is an interesting take on the present glut of Presidential hopefuls.
A friend said that she believed that Donald was hired by the
Democrats to enter the race as a Republican, gain a following and
then jump to a 3rd
party splitting the Republican vote and guaranteeing a victory for
Hillary. Hmmmmm. By the way, I see her name spelled both Hilary and
Hillary...normally I would be seeking the correct spelling but in
this case I don't give a shit.
Yesterday
I wrote about the Tate-LaBianca murders under the auspices of Charles
Manson. The leader of the pack that actually did the murders was
Charles “Tex” Watson. After the murders in 1969 Tex ran back
home to Texas and tried to hide behind his family's money but he was
caught and eventually was extradited back to California. He was
tried and convicted of 7 murders and sentenced to death but the
Supreme Court went crazy as hell and outlawed the death penalty. Tex
ended up with life for the seven murders to be served concurrently.
Last week for the 16th
time he met with a parole board. Four members of the murdered
people's families showed up at the hearing and requested that parole
be denied. Parole was indeed denied with a notation by the chairman
of the parole board stating that Tex showed no remorse for those he
murdered but the only remorse was that he was still in prison. Too
bad Tex, too freaking bad. Hey Tex, I'll bet your roomie and the
rest of your “partners” will be glad to see you back in the joint
with them. By the way, he cannot apply for parole for 5 years. He
just turned 69 years old.
There
are those in Greenville, SC related to the man below except they
spell his name with two “Tees”. Keep me in mind.
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 cane
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. He 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 was 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. Teach was 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. Many of
you 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 be a privateer
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 had 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 off he went. 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-sealed. 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 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 Poe's Tavern of
one of my favorite watering holes) and the two slaves were killed.
Stede and his sailing master were brought back to Charleston to be
tried before Judge Nicholas Trott. The Trott family is famous in
South Carolina history. 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 easternmost 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 the western side of Okacroke Island, North Carolina. After a
savage hand-to-hand fight Blackbeard was eventually killed and
beheaded. This 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.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
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