Speaker 1: Edward became a British captain in the Royal Navy at
Speaker 1: just twenty one. Of course, it could be said that
Speaker 1: great things had always been expected of him. After all,
Speaker 1: his father, James, had served as Secretary of State to
Speaker 1: King William the Third. At the time of edwards birth
Speaker 1: in sixty four, the family wealth afforded him a Westminster education,
Speaker 1: a school for well placed Britain's. At sixteen, he joined
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy aboard the h M S Shrewsbury, but
Speaker 1: his education put him at odds with his fellow shipmates,
Speaker 1: who had received only an elementary school education. He quickly
Speaker 1: rose through the ranks and switched ships, eventually serving on
Speaker 1: board the HMS Britannia during the capture of Barcelona in
Speaker 1: seventeen oh five. The following year he captained his first ship.
Speaker 1: In April of seventeen oh eight, he took command of
Speaker 1: the station in the West Indies. Needless to say, he
Speaker 1: was a busy young man. In seventeen twenty one he
Speaker 1: was elected as a member of part Lament, but returned
Speaker 1: to naval service five years later. Edward continued to advance,
Speaker 1: becoming an admiral in seventeen forty five. Not long afterward,
Speaker 1: he set his sights on improving the Royal Navy's operations
Speaker 1: and protocol, and then returned to Parliament. He died in
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty seven, at the age of seventy three. There's
Speaker 1: a monument in Westminster Abbey erected in his memory. His
Speaker 1: distinguished service as a naval officer spanned forty six years.
Speaker 1: But it's not his exemplary service, or the battles, or
Speaker 1: even the changes in Parliament that he's most famous for. No.
Speaker 1: Edward Vernon's legacy is grog. That's right, the mixture of
Speaker 1: rum and water, originally given to British soldiers, oddly enough
Speaker 1: to keep them from getting drunk. You see, when Vernon
Speaker 1: served in the West Indies, he saw the effects of
Speaker 1: an all you can drink buffet of rum on board ships.
Speaker 1: In his observations, nothing parted a sailor from his morals
Speaker 1: or his duty faster than rum, and he knew just
Speaker 1: to stop it. He issued an order on August one
Speaker 1: set declaring that all men would receive their daily allotment
Speaker 1: of a half pint of rum divided into two parts,
Speaker 1: rather than all at once. A quart of water was
Speaker 1: also added to each half pint. Men lined up in
Speaker 1: the morning and again in the afternoon to receive their
Speaker 1: rations handed out and drank in the presence of a
Speaker 1: lieutenant on duty. And if you're thinking that the drink
Speaker 1: had to taste awful, you'd be right. But Vernon had
Speaker 1: a solution for that too. The men could use their
Speaker 1: salt and bread savings to buy sugar and lines to
Speaker 1: make the drink more palatable. The water down drink still
Speaker 1: amounted to about five cocktails a day, but at least
Speaker 1: the amount of water, the division, and the taste all
Speaker 1: seemed to prevent a good portion of drunken Mayhem. Due
Speaker 1: to his habit of wearing a heavy water resistant jacket
Speaker 1: made of a cloth known as grogram. The men had
Speaker 1: long called Vernon Old Grogram or Old Grog for short,
Speaker 1: a nick name thankfully they never used in his presence,
Speaker 1: and since he'd come up with the foul drink himself,
Speaker 1: the men named it after him, shortening it to just
Speaker 1: grog yoho ho made. In this episode, we're talking about rum.
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates, Pirates, sailors and privateers.
Speaker 1: They all had one thing in common in the sevent alcohol,
Speaker 1: and every country had its drink. The Dutch had gin,
Speaker 1: while the French provided wine. Those serving in the British
Speaker 1: Navy were entitled to one gallon of beer each day
Speaker 1: until they either ran out or the beer went rancid.
Speaker 1: When the beer was gone, a pint of wine or
Speaker 1: a half pint of either brandy or rum was provided,
Speaker 1: depending on where they sailed. That's a lot of liquor,
Speaker 1: and some of you might be singing a pirate's life
Speaker 1: for me right about now, or maybe you're wondering why
Speaker 1: they served so much alcohol. Well, sailors needed to drink,
Speaker 1: and the stored water not only tasted bad, but it
Speaker 1: also developed algae pretty quickly, especially in tropical climates. Higher
Speaker 1: proof spirits stored in oak barrels fared better, often retaining
Speaker 1: or improving their flavor. Food onboard ships consisted mainly of
Speaker 1: porridge and salted meats, so the alcohol at least gave
Speaker 1: the men something to look forward to at meal time.
Speaker 1: They drank to alleviate boredom, to ease tensions, or otherwise
Speaker 1: endure their time scrubbing the poop deck. Doctors aboard ships
Speaker 1: used alcohol as medicine too. Both internally and externally. It
Speaker 1: cleaned wounds and enabled men to endure surgery a little easier.
Speaker 1: Disease was a major concern aboard a ship, and scurvy,
Speaker 1: a condition that occurs without the adequate amount of vitamin C,
Speaker 1: was always rampant. Left untreated, it leads to anemia and
Speaker 1: gum disease, among other things. Death eventually follows, usually from
Speaker 1: a sudden hemorrhage near the heart or the brain. Men
Speaker 1: feared scurvy more than just about anything else at sea,
Speaker 1: and rightly so. Captains assumed that fifty of their crew
Speaker 1: would die from the disease during any major voyage. While
Speaker 1: vitamin C is found in an array of fruits and vegetables,
Speaker 1: it was the lime added to the grog that helped
Speaker 1: prevent scurvy. From then on, British ships required half an
Speaker 1: ounce of lemon or lime to be added to the
Speaker 1: men's grog per day, hence the reason English sailors were
Speaker 1: often called limes. Made from the leftovers of processing sugar,
Speaker 1: rum had a sweet taste, its stored better in casks
Speaker 1: than most, and it had a higher potency than beer
Speaker 1: or wine. Sugar growers cleverly marketed rum and the British
Speaker 1: made at the standard aboard their ships, and for the record,
Speaker 1: pirates and sailors rarely swelled rum from a bottle. Glass
Speaker 1: was expensive, and alcohol was shipped mostly in casks. Oh
Speaker 1: and about that legendary drink. Higher didn't have the ration
Speaker 1: grog that British sailors had, and they liked their rum
Speaker 1: made into a punch, adding lines, sugar and often a
Speaker 1: dash of nutmeg, but no water. Either way, drunkenness presented
Speaker 1: a few problems. Traversing lines was a job difficult sober,
Speaker 1: much less when three sheets to the wind. As pirates
Speaker 1: like to say, drunken sailors got into more fights, were
Speaker 1: killed or robbed more easily, and even mistakenly recruited onto
Speaker 1: other ships. And since drunk pirates were easier to capture,
Speaker 1: it put them closer to that dreaded penalty for their profession,
Speaker 1: death by hanging. But the threat of death didn't seem
Speaker 1: to matter to some though. In seventeen nineteen, pirate captain
Speaker 1: Howell Davis took Captain Snell Grave and some of his
Speaker 1: men hostage after ransacking his ship. His crew found the
Speaker 1: liquor and then drank themselves into a stupor. A fire
Speaker 1: broke out when one of the men went below deck
Speaker 1: with an open flame around the highly flammable rum. The
Speaker 1: fire then jumped from barrel to barrel, making its way
Speaker 1: to thirty thou pounds of gunpowder. The men, all drunk
Speaker 1: is could be, accepted their fate and made a final toast,
Speaker 1: but thankfully Captain snell Grave and some of his other
Speaker 1: men had remained sober and put out the fire, avoiding
Speaker 1: a disaster. It's no wonder that we tend to think
Speaker 1: of pirates as insatiable drunkards. Captain Henry Morgan is undoubtedly
Speaker 1: the poster child for rum, yet stories surrounding him are
Speaker 1: not driven by one specific type of liquor. No, the
Speaker 1: pirate most associated with rum was Edward Teach, otherwise known
Speaker 1: as Blackbeard. Although he could drink massive quantities, he never
Speaker 1: passed out. Legend has it that he often mixed rum
Speaker 1: with gunpowder, lighting the substance before drinking it, which makes
Speaker 1: sense since, as we've learned, black Beard had mastered the
Speaker 1: art of projecting a fierce image. So there you have it.
Speaker 1: While pirates and sailors both enjoyed rum or just about
Speaker 1: any other alcohol, really, we tend to see pirates and
Speaker 1: rum as well practice the inseparable. Some pirates owed their
Speaker 1: rise and downfall to rum. Raising cattle was the main
Speaker 1: way of earning a living in Pembrokeshire, Wales in two
Speaker 1: We don't know much about John roberts early years during
Speaker 1: that time, but we do know that by seventeen eighteen
Speaker 1: he'd become third mates aboard the Princess, a British slave
Speaker 1: trading ship. He had also taken on the first name
Speaker 1: of Bartholomew, although most just called him Bart. On a
Speaker 1: June morning in seventeen nineteen, he toiled away at his
Speaker 1: daily chores aboard the Princess, anchored off the Ghana coast.
Speaker 1: On shore, mud huts and a crumbling stone fort stood
Speaker 1: against a tropical blue sky. Canoes filled with their human
Speaker 1: cargo road towards the ship. At noon, two ships entered
Speaker 1: the harbor, black flags flying in the wind for Roberts
Speaker 1: and the others. The color meant one thing pirates. The
Speaker 1: Princess and the other slave ships were non match, and
Speaker 1: the captain immediately surrendered. Welsh pirate Howell Davis sent his
Speaker 1: men aboard to raid the Princess. They took all the liquor, food, gold,
Speaker 1: and clothing, and then they took thirty four crew members.
Speaker 1: Some went willingly. Roberts did not the manner they'd been boarded,
Speaker 1: the way the pirates ransacked the ship, and the apparent
Speaker 1: drunken anarchy among the men. All of it disgusted Roberts. However,
Speaker 1: he changed his mind about piracy after seeing the crew's treatment.
Speaker 1: While his captain had treated him and the others not
Speaker 1: much better than slaves, Davis treated his men practically as
Speaker 1: equals and divided all treasure fairly among them. He also
Speaker 1: learned that pirate life wasn't anarchy. Life aboard the ship
Speaker 1: seemed organized and even democratic, and so Roberts grew to
Speaker 1: like Davis. An impressive man with an impressive ship. On
Speaker 1: board were thirty two cannons, twenty seven swivel guns, and
Speaker 1: a large crew, making them a solid match for any
Speaker 1: ship that crossed their path. That didn't mean safety, however,
Speaker 1: six weeks later, Davis and several of his top crew
Speaker 1: members were gunned down during an attempt to raid a
Speaker 1: Portuguese settlement. In fact, only two men made it back alive.
Speaker 1: The pirates found themselves without leadership to solve the problem,
Speaker 1: They made punch and drank. One of the men suggested
Speaker 1: they select the best navigator, the man with the most courage.
Speaker 1: Then he offered a name, Bart Roberts. The crew filled
Speaker 1: the remaining leadership roles and resolved to avenge Davis's death.
Speaker 1: Roberts organized thirty men and stormed the main fort. They
Speaker 1: plundered a few houses, torched two ships in the harbor,
Speaker 1: and then sailed away toward Brazil in search of additional wealth.
Speaker 1: They arrived at the Bay of All Saints to find
Speaker 1: forty two Portuguese ships along with two men of wars,
Speaker 1: each with seventy guns. A direct attack would be suicide,
Speaker 1: but fleeing would also be difficult. Instead, Roberts sailed the
Speaker 1: Royal Rover into harbor as though they were part of
Speaker 1: the convoy. His men dressed in French colors and sailed
Speaker 1: to the smallest boat, threatening attack. If anyone resisted or
Speaker 1: sent up a distress signal, the smaller ship surrendered. Roberts
Speaker 1: then greeted their captain kindly, well as kindly as possible
Speaker 1: under the circumstances, and asked which of the ships in
Speaker 1: the harbor contained the most treasure. If the captain cooperated.
Speaker 1: Roberts promised to allow him and his crew to sail
Speaker 1: off unharmed, lie or resist, and they'd face sudden death.
Speaker 1: The Portuguese captain pointed toward the Sagrada Familia, a ship
Speaker 1: with just forty guns and a hundred and fifty men
Speaker 1: on board. It wasn't long before Roberts quickly hatched a plan.
Speaker 1: The kidnapped captain would hail the larger ship and request
Speaker 1: a meeting. When the captain of the Sagrata boarded, his
Speaker 1: men would take him hostage. However, the men aboard the
Speaker 1: Sagrata weren't easily fooled and prepared to defend themselves. For
Speaker 1: Roberts and his crew, both choices to run away or
Speaker 1: keep going wouldn't let them the aime results, so they
Speaker 1: chose to advance. Sharpshooters aboard the Royal Rover picked off
Speaker 1: the Portuguese men on the main decks. The Pirates pulled
Speaker 1: alongside the Sagrata Familia and boarded, brandishing swords and tossing
Speaker 1: primitive hand grenades. In the end, Roberts only lost two
Speaker 1: men in the battle. Of course, all that noise drew
Speaker 1: plenty of attention, the Portuguese sailors set off cannons to
Speaker 1: alert the Man of Wars. There wouldn't be time to
Speaker 1: unload the Sagratta familiars treasure, so Roberts decided to steal
Speaker 1: the entire ship instead. It all came down to speed.
Speaker 1: The Sagratta Familia and the Royal Rover were faster than
Speaker 1: the Man of Wars and the pirates. They sailed safely
Speaker 1: out of harbor. When they had traveled quite a distance,
Speaker 1: they found a place to go ashore. They had just
Speaker 1: plundered more treasure than any of them could spend in
Speaker 1: a lifetime, and that's when at all fell apart. Although
Speaker 1: he had led them into a wildly successful raid, a
Speaker 1: majority of the crew mutinied to moating Roberts. He regained
Speaker 1: command by mid seventeen twenty, though, forming one of the
Speaker 1: most successful crews in the Atlantic, raiding more ships than
Speaker 1: anyone else. Roberts also had a flair for the dramatic.
Speaker 1: In one instance, he sailed into the harbor town south
Speaker 1: of Newfoundland in a ship they had captured and renamed
Speaker 1: the Good Fortune. It had to be a site to
Speaker 1: a large sloop flying the black flag the sound of
Speaker 1: beating drums and men firing guns. It was late June
Speaker 1: of seventeen twenty. Over twenty ships and approximately one fifty
Speaker 1: small fishing boats sat in the bay at the site
Speaker 1: of the good fortune. Every ship in the harbor surrendered
Speaker 1: without a single shot. Over time, Roberts acquired more men
Speaker 1: and more ships. He had so many men that establishing
Speaker 1: new rules became necessary to prevent another mutiny. He wrote
Speaker 1: that every crewman had a vote in the affairs of
Speaker 1: the moment and was entitled to equal shares in strong
Speaker 1: alcohol at the time it was seized. The men could
Speaker 1: use it at their pleasure. Of course, he also required
Speaker 1: the men to keep their guns clean. There were to
Speaker 1: be no irish crewmen, no gambling, physical violence, and absolutely
Speaker 1: no women on board. Deserters would either be marooned or
Speaker 1: put the death. Musicians on board were to be given
Speaker 1: the sabbath off, and by eight pm each night lights
Speaker 1: were to be put out. Those wishing to continue drinking
Speaker 1: had to do so on the main deck. It was
Speaker 1: a final attempt to curtail the amount of drunken revelry
Speaker 1: his crew had grown fond of. Far too often, the
Speaker 1: crew was unfit for duty, and they were frequently too
Speaker 1: drunk to participate in raids. Drinking had begun to unravel
Speaker 1: his crew, although they had a series of successful raids
Speaker 1: in the West Indies. In seventeen twenty, they captured so
Speaker 1: much rum that the men declared it a crime against
Speaker 1: providence if they weren't continually drunk. In May, they returned
Speaker 1: to the western shores of Africa. Seve role British warships
Speaker 1: were at ports, including the HMS Swallow, commanded by Captain
Speaker 1: Chaloner Ogle. While anchored off shore, Roberts tried to rein
Speaker 1: in his rum swigging crew. Although they were constantly inebriated,
Speaker 1: They managed to plunder a four hundred and ten foot
Speaker 1: English slave ship that August. The Onslow carried twenty six guns,
Speaker 1: fifty crewmen, and six hundred slaves. Robert kept the ship,
Speaker 1: equipping it with forty additional cannons and renamed it the
Speaker 1: Royal Fortune. Now at the helm of the largest ship
Speaker 1: any pirate captain had ever sailed, The crew patrol the
Speaker 1: African coast throughout January of seventeen twenty two. However, they
Speaker 1: had company Captain Ogle and the Swallow, so Roberts charted
Speaker 1: a course for Brazilian waters, hoping to cash in one
Speaker 1: more time before retiring. They anchored near Cape Lopez on
Speaker 1: February five of seventeen twenty two, and that's when Ogle
Speaker 1: and his crew finally caught up with them. The pirate
Speaker 1: captain had three ships, seventy two guns and two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty three men. Ogle had just as many men,
Speaker 1: but they were all aboard one ship with only fifty guns.
Speaker 1: But Roberts and his men mistook the Swallow for a
Speaker 1: merchant vessel carrying sugar and allowed it to get a
Speaker 1: bit too close. You would think they'd be happy they
Speaker 1: had all the rum they could drink, but they wanted punch,
Speaker 1: and that meant that they needed sugar. Roberts sent the
Speaker 1: Royal Ranger to give chase, which divided his fleet, and
Speaker 1: that was a mistake that Ogle didn't miss. He slowed,
Speaker 1: allowing the pirate ship to follow, and once the Royal
Speaker 1: Fortune was out of ear shot, he allowed the Royal
Speaker 1: Ranger to draw closer. The pirates raised their black flag
Speaker 1: and fired a warning shot, believing they had another easy victory.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine their faces when the Swallow swung
Speaker 1: around opened the lower gun ports and delivered a barrage
Speaker 1: of cannon fire. The damage to the Royal Ranger was devastating,
Speaker 1: killing all but one men. Needless to say, the surviving
Speaker 1: crew surrendered. A few days later, Ago returned to bay
Speaker 1: and overtook Roberts and his crew, all because they were
Speaker 1: too drunk to fight. While only three aboard the pirate
Speaker 1: ship would die, one of them would be Roberts. Before
Speaker 1: his remaining men were arrested, and through a haze of rum,
Speaker 1: no less roberts men managed to follow his last wish,
Speaker 1: they tossed his body overboard into the sea. Over his career,
Speaker 1: Roberts had become an empire. Before his death, he had
Speaker 1: led his crew on over four d raids, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty darn prolific. But even with the best ships, heavy artillery,
Speaker 1: and a small army of men, he was taken down
Speaker 1: rather easily by a single ship with far less speed, firepower,
Speaker 1: and crew. And historians today can only blame the rum
Speaker 1: while they blame the pirates who drank all the rum.
Speaker 1: But you get what I mean. Here's how it happened.
Speaker 1: On February ninth, Ogle found the Royal Fortune right where
Speaker 1: he'd last seen it. They had seized another ship and
Speaker 1: were in the process of rating its liquor supply. Ogle
Speaker 1: waited until the following morning, when most of the men
Speaker 1: would be drunk or suffering hangovers, and his plan worked.
Speaker 1: In fact, the men were so drunk they didn't even
Speaker 1: see the HMS Swallow approach until the ship was almost
Speaker 1: upon them. Even then, they were in such a stupor
Speaker 1: they mistook it for another trading vessel or even the
Speaker 1: Royal Ranger come back. Finally, Roberts came out onto the
Speaker 1: main deck to see what was going on. He took
Speaker 1: the bold strategy of heading straight towards the Swallow, intent
Speaker 1: on exchanging sideblows before heading out for open water. The
Speaker 1: two ships exchanged cannon fire, and the Royal Fortune took
Speaker 1: on some damage. The Swallow remained barely untouched. Roberts then
Speaker 1: steered his ship toward open water, but as crewmen were
Speaker 1: simply too intoxicated, some had passed out on the deck,
Speaker 1: while others could barely walk, let alone sail. And it
Speaker 1: was all that erratic behavior that allowed Ogle to swing
Speaker 1: his ship a hound and catch up. The Swallow. Delivered
Speaker 1: several more shots at the Royal Fortune, destroying the mast,
Speaker 1: and while Robert's crew, well those who hadn't passed out
Speaker 1: at least, tottered around on the deck, the pirate captain
Speaker 1: lowered the flag and surrendered. Soon after Ogle's men boarded
Speaker 1: and secured the crew with barely a skirmish. Historians remain
Speaker 1: on the fence if the name black Bart had to
Speaker 1: do with his black hair and darker complexion or his reputation.
Speaker 1: Either way, he didn't earn the moniker until after his death.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting nickname for a pirate who was a
Speaker 1: complete teetotaler. In fact, t was his preferred drink, and
Speaker 1: it was his lack of drinking that had caused his
Speaker 1: crew to distrust him and mutiny the first time. Little
Speaker 1: did he know then, but his crew had already planned
Speaker 1: to abandon him after the raid at Cape Lopez, all
Speaker 1: because they didn't trust a sober captain. Rum, the pirate
Speaker 1: drink of choice, had been black Bart's downfall. In the
Speaker 1: words of Robert Louis Steven's Treasure Island, drink and the
Speaker 1: devil had done the rest Yo ho ho and a
Speaker 1: bottle of rum. All throughout seafaring history, alcohol had served
Speaker 1: a purpose and presented a problem. Even military ships around
Speaker 1: the world still carried alcohol on board, long after keeping
Speaker 1: clean drinking water had become possible. For the Royal Navy,
Speaker 1: the centuries old tradition of issuing grog ended on July
Speaker 1: of nine. On that day, sailors around the world took
Speaker 1: one last swig before dumping the barrels over the rail.
Speaker 1: Some of those sailors even took to wearing black armbands,
Speaker 1: while others had a mock funeral as they tossed the barrels,
Speaker 1: marking the day as black top Day. And I like
Speaker 1: to imagine that as they did, some of them even saying,
Speaker 1: and we heaved them over and out of sight with
Speaker 1: a yo, heave ho and a fair you well, pirates
Speaker 1: and rum it's appairing almost as classic as chocolates and
Speaker 1: peanut butter, just with a bit more wobbling. I guess,
Speaker 1: I certainly hope you found our journey through that territory
Speaker 1: today to be as satisfying as a delicious drink. But
Speaker 1: don't hoist the anchor just yet. We have more sailing
Speaker 1: to do. In fact, after this brief sponsor break, my
Speaker 1: grim and mild teammates Alie Steed will come aboard to
Speaker 1: share one more rum soaktail. Where there's a will, there's
Speaker 1: a way. If the demand for something is high and
Speaker 1: the rewards even higher, some will go to great lengths
Speaker 1: to get it, especially rum. On January eighteenth, Amendment of
Speaker 1: the United States Constitution banning the manufacturing, transportation, and sale
Speaker 1: of intoxicating liquors was ratified, and so began the Ahibition era.
Speaker 1: But of course the law never stopped the bootleggers. It
Speaker 1: was hard to enforce, and ingenious methods of smuggling quickly emerged, stills,
Speaker 1: fast cars, and speakeasies. We've all heard those stories before,
Speaker 1: but let's talk for a minute about the bootleggers of
Speaker 1: the sea. The rum runners. During the Prohibition, ships cruised
Speaker 1: the coastline between the Caribbean and Canada, parking themselves just
Speaker 1: off shore. If the coast guard approached, they moved into
Speaker 1: international waters and out of jurisdiction. Known as rum row,
Speaker 1: the ships existed along every state and coastline on the
Speaker 1: Atlantic and Pacific. Smaller, faster boats often accompanied the rum
Speaker 1: laden vessels. Their job was much like the fast cars,
Speaker 1: out racing law enforcement to deliver the rum to port.
Speaker 1: Like legendary pirates. One rum Runner stood out Captain Jack
Speaker 1: Jack Randall, that is, and his schooner I'm Alone. Jack
Speaker 1: had always wanted to be a pirate. As a twelve
Speaker 1: year old in eighteen ninety nine, Jack and his friends
Speaker 1: pretended to be swashbuckling sailors. They rated his parents jam
Speaker 1: and cookie covers, and the rum cabinet drunk. He set
Speaker 1: out to find a ship. Of course, a few miles
Speaker 1: down the road, sickness and clarifying sobriety hit, and he
Speaker 1: returned home to face the consequences. His father understood his
Speaker 1: son's love of the sea and took him on fishing
Speaker 1: trips off Canada's Labrador coast. As an adult, Jack worked
Speaker 1: on trade ships and then military vessels, fighting in the
Speaker 1: Boer War, World War One, and World War Two. He
Speaker 1: never outgrew the love of the sea, but it was
Speaker 1: also what Jack did between the First and Second World
Speaker 1: Wars that showed us he still loved pirates too. It
Speaker 1: was spring of nineteen twenty two when the idea came
Speaker 1: to him rum running. Jack was good, really good at
Speaker 1: being captain. He commanded several ships, becoming legendary among his peers.
Speaker 1: In ninety eight, a group of Montreal business men made
Speaker 1: him an even more enticing proposition, and Jack took command
Speaker 1: of the I'm Alone, a single deck, two massed schooner
Speaker 1: with twin hundred horsepower diesel engines. The ship's capacity was key.
Speaker 1: It could carry two thousand, eight hundred cases of liquor
Speaker 1: worth upwards of a hundred thousand dollars in a single run,
Speaker 1: and those are ninety six prices. And like in the
Speaker 1: golden age of piracy, Captain Jack and the i'm Alone
Speaker 1: had a price on their heads. The US government was
Speaker 1: determined to stop rum runners, but little did anyone know
Speaker 1: that in nineteen twenty nine, the Captain and the ship
Speaker 1: would spark an international incident. It started in the winter
Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty eight as Jack sailed the West Indies,
Speaker 1: then made a stop and believez to pick up five
Speaker 1: hundred cases of William Pennry, three hundred cases of Johnny
Speaker 1: Walker black Label, a hundred and ten massive jugs of
Speaker 1: Bacardi rome, and two hundred cases of champagne, among other
Speaker 1: assorted beverages. Months later, in March of nine, the Walcott,
Speaker 1: a Coastguard cutter, stumbled across the I'm alone, just off
Speaker 1: the Louisiana coast, designed and built to catch rum runners.
Speaker 1: They eventually caught up and the commander requested a search.
Speaker 1: Jack declined to acquiesce to the captain's demands. However, he
Speaker 1: also did something unusual. He invited the captain aboard. It
Speaker 1: was a pirate move akin to black Bart's meetings with
Speaker 1: other ship captains before they were plundered, and the Coastguard
Speaker 1: commander he accepted. The two men chatted cordially for some time,
Speaker 1: all the while Jack insisted the Coastguard had no jurisdiction
Speaker 1: as he was fourteen miles offshore in international waters. The
Speaker 1: commander insisted that the I'm alone sat just ten miles offshore,
Speaker 1: and the US had jurisdiction up to twelve miles. For
Speaker 1: two days there was a standoff. Another Coastguard ship, the Dexter,
Speaker 1: arrived and reiterated that they must be allowed to come
Speaker 1: aboard and inspect his ship, or else they'd sink it. Again.
Speaker 1: Jack declined he'd done what he set out to do.
Speaker 1: Keep them distracted. You see, they had allowed him to
Speaker 1: run under full sale for those two days. They were
Speaker 1: now two hundred miles off the US coast. When the
Speaker 1: I'm Alone sank bow first, the Coastguard picked up everyone
Speaker 1: who was on board, though one crewman died during the sinking.
Speaker 1: The Coastguard returned to Port with Jack and the rest
Speaker 1: of the crew, and they were riding high on the
Speaker 1: accolades they expected for capturing this notorious rum runner. Instead,
Speaker 1: Canada stepped in and declared that the Coast Guard had
Speaker 1: committed an act of piracy. The French and the British
Speaker 1: also condemned it, and Washington dropped the charges. Jack retired
Speaker 1: from run running A wealthy man. He went on to
Speaker 1: serve the Royal Navy and became one of their most
Speaker 1: indispensable officers during World War Two. Lieutenant Commander Jack Randall
Speaker 1: died on February nineteenth of nineteen forty four. He was
Speaker 1: buried with full naval honors. His childhood friends might say
Speaker 1: that he had a sailor's heart and officers courage and
Speaker 1: the soul of a pirate. Pirates was executive produced by
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and Alexander Steid.
Speaker 1: Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Muto, with
Speaker 1: research by Alexandra Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was
Speaker 1: provided by Josh Than, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: To learn more about this and other shows from Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild and I Heart Radio, visit Grim and Mild
Speaker 1: dot com