Friday OYSTERS

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Quote of the day:

I saw a cartoon once that showed a cowboy with a smoking gun standing over an obviously dead person. The cowboy was saying “What is the circumference of the Earth?”...”What is the average rainfall in the Amazon River basin?”...then another cowboy walked up and says “No, No Slim, 'shoot first and ask questions later' is just a figure of speech”.

A friend told me that one of his ancestors was a pirate and asked me to do an essay on him. Here is what I found:

                                      Stede Bonnet

This is a story of a well heeled, cultured Englishman 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 constant carping and in spite of having three children, in 1717 Stede decided to take up piracy in spite of not having even basic rudimentary sailing skills. He 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 was successful in capturing and looting several ships but then he ran across a Spanish war ship and a sharp battle ensued. Stede and company were forced to withdraw after suffering several killed and many severely wounded including Stede. He 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 y'all may 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 and if he would go “privateering” against Spanish shipping that was coming 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 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-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 was fed up with Stede and Blackbeard attacking nearly every ship departing from or arriving in 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 chose 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 own arms and legs to prevent him from ever pirating again. The Governor did not buy it and sent out a search party 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 one of my favorite watering holes in Poe’s Tavern) 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 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”. It is estimated that between Bonnet and Worley there were 35 or 36 men that were hanged on that day. The whole bunch was “buried” on the southern shore of James Island. They really were not buried but thrown out on a mud flat 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. 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.

                 This Date in History  January 22

1980 On this date a bunch of United States college kids playing ice hockey in the Olympics knocked over the four time world champion Russian professional hockey team. It was known as the Miracle on Ice. I remember watching it to this day. With about 20 seconds to go the American announcer Al Michaels was about to pee his pants. The American team had a one goal lead and the Russians had the puck but it was stolen by the US team and they just skated around until the clock ran out. With about 3 seconds to go Al Michaels screams “Do you believe in miracles, YESSSSS!” What an exciting moment it was for us all.

Born today:

1788 German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. He said “Every man assumes that his field of vision is the limits of the world.” Art, this is not exactly true, some people live in even smaller cocoons that that. Now a-days the world is the distance between the eyes and an i-phone.

1892 US writer Edna St. Vincent Millay. She said “Life is not just one damned thing after another, it is the same damned thing over and over.” Boredom is a bitch, Edna.

         Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow