Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia, where it's
Speaker 1: pirate season. We're continuing to explore the lives and motivations
Speaker 1: of some of the most notorious freebooters throughout history. I'm
Speaker 1: Maria tru Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. You will hear
Speaker 1: the first name of today's topic pronounced a couple of
Speaker 1: different ways. You may hear it Stayed or Steed. We've
Speaker 1: said both actually on the show before. We're going to
Speaker 1: go with Steed for today. But if one of us
Speaker 1: says it the other way, or we flipped back and
Speaker 1: forth just now, we're just honoring the possibilities with that.
Speaker 1: But Steed Bonnet was a wealthy plantation owner, a family man,
Speaker 1: a former major in the Barbados Militia. Bonnet, though, was
Speaker 1: also a gentleman who was struck with quote a humor
Speaker 1: of going pirate ng You really hear humor and hiating
Speaker 1: so much together. But Steve is an interesting kind of guy.
Speaker 1: He was born in sixt to Edward and Sarah Bonnet,
Speaker 1: who were a wealthy couple that owned an estate of
Speaker 1: over four hundred acres southeast of Bridgetown. Bridgetown today is
Speaker 1: the capital of the island of Barbados, but then this
Speaker 1: was part of a colony of the British Empire, so
Speaker 1: a little bit different than today. Though the family were
Speaker 1: originally from England, Steve was born into the second or
Speaker 1: possibly third generation of Bonnets of Barbados. His parents died young, though,
Speaker 1: and Steve inherited the family's four hundred acre sugar plantation.
Speaker 1: He married Mary Alamby in seventeen o nine and lived
Speaker 1: on the estate with their three sons, Olumby, Edward, and Steed,
Speaker 1: and their daughter Mary. The record of Bonnet's life really
Speaker 1: begins with his military service, though although the details do
Speaker 1: get a little bit fuzzy, we do know that he
Speaker 1: held the rank of major in the Barbados Militia, and
Speaker 1: in fact Major became a nickname that's stuck with him
Speaker 1: throughout his life. Though his time with the militia coincided
Speaker 1: with the War of Spanish Succession, there is no record
Speaker 1: that he actually took part in combat. It is though
Speaker 1: highly likely that he was involved in suppressing armed uprisings
Speaker 1: by enslaved persons who were fighting for their freedom at
Speaker 1: the time. This was an important function of the militia.
Speaker 1: Any such uprisings would also have been something of a
Speaker 1: personal matter to Bonnet as well, as he relied on
Speaker 1: enslaved labor to keep his sugar plantation successful. That successful
Speaker 1: business owner decided to reinvent himself as a pirate. He
Speaker 1: was not really your typical pirate, if there really is
Speaker 1: such a thing as a typical pirate. He wasn't the
Speaker 1: only pirate to do so. That he chose piracy over
Speaker 1: his aristocratic lifestyle. Many pirates, such as unemployed sailors or laborers,
Speaker 1: chose the lifestyle because they didn't have many options. That
Speaker 1: raises the question why did Bonnet leave his home and
Speaker 1: take to the seas. A lot of historians suggests that
Speaker 1: while he was wealthy and led a respectable life, he
Speaker 1: was kind of just looking for something bigger and more adventurous,
Speaker 1: and all of these stories that he was hearing about
Speaker 1: pirates were very appealing. There's a book called A General
Speaker 1: History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pirates,
Speaker 1: and it's an almost encyclopedic account of piracy, as well
Speaker 1: as biographies of many of the pirates during in particular
Speaker 1: the rise of the Golden Age of piracy. It was
Speaker 1: published in sevento, which was after Bonnet's death, but it
Speaker 1: included stories of details about everyone from Blackbeard and Bonnie, Bartholowy,
Speaker 1: black Bart, Roberts and Steve Bonnet. So this two volume
Speaker 1: set quickly became a hit and became the go to
Speaker 1: source for the stories of a lot of well known
Speaker 1: pirates of the time. And the details may be embellished
Speaker 1: in fact most historians agree that are, but it is
Speaker 1: generally believed to be at least based in factual information
Speaker 1: largely garnered from such sources as trial records and personal letters,
Speaker 1: and it turned the pirates of this era into exotic
Speaker 1: and colorful characters. Their stories became myth. The author's name,
Speaker 1: Captain Charles Johnson, is widely considered to have been a pseudonym,
Speaker 1: and there is a great speculation that it may have
Speaker 1: actually been Daniel Defoe who authored that work. Defoe, as
Speaker 1: you probably know, was a British novelist, but he did
Speaker 1: a lot of other things in his lifetime. He worked
Speaker 1: as a journalist, as a political pamphleteer, and even a spy.
Speaker 1: Many of us know his name because he wrote Robinson Crusoe,
Speaker 1: and these books really are responsible for shaping our perception
Speaker 1: of pirates, including some fact such as black beards, flaming beard,
Speaker 1: and some myth like wooden legs and parrots. Robert Louis
Speaker 1: Stevenson's Treasure Island, as well as J. M. Barry's character
Speaker 1: Captain Hook and Peter Pam borrow from these very stories.
Speaker 1: Bonnett was living in the golden age of piracy, and
Speaker 1: becoming a pirate could have definitely seemed an adventurous new
Speaker 1: beginning if that's what he was looking for. Some suggest
Speaker 1: that maybe he was having a midlife crisis. Few sources
Speaker 1: report that one of the Bonnet children passed away and
Speaker 1: he took up piracy as he grieved. One more theory
Speaker 1: this point is recorded in a general History of the Pirates,
Speaker 1: is that Bonnet turned to piracy because of quote discomforts
Speaker 1: he found in a married state, something made him unhappy
Speaker 1: enough to make a big life change. That's what we
Speaker 1: do know. Many experts, though, actually believe it was probably
Speaker 1: a combination of the personal pressures of his family life
Speaker 1: along with his politics. The theory here is that he
Speaker 1: may have been a Jacobite in support of James Stewart
Speaker 1: as King of England rather than George. The first historian
Speaker 1: and author of the Republic of Pirates, Colin Woodard, writes
Speaker 1: that quote, most pirates at the time thought of themselves
Speaker 1: as in revolt against King George. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break now for a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 1: and when we're back we'll get into how someone like
Speaker 1: Bonnet could meet someone like black Beard. Welcome back to Criminalia.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how Steve had a whole lot of
Speaker 1: enthusiasm but absolutely no idea what he was doing. The
Speaker 1: way that pirate crews typically worked was that crew members
Speaker 1: moved up the ranks. Typically they'd start as part of
Speaker 1: the crew and then move on to stealing their first ship,
Speaker 1: or maybe rise to captain a ship in a larger
Speaker 1: pirate fleet. The infamous pirate Blackbeard, for instance, worked his
Speaker 1: way up from deckhand to captain of his own forty
Speaker 1: gun warship known as Queen Anne's Revenge. But instead of
Speaker 1: stealing his first ship, Steeve bought one. He named it
Speaker 1: the Revenge, and outfitted it to hold at least a
Speaker 1: dozen cannons. He hired a crew of seventy or eighty men,
Speaker 1: whom he paid out of his own pocket, and this
Speaker 1: too was not at all typical. The captain and crew
Speaker 1: would normally be paid wages from what they stole. The
Speaker 1: Revenge also carried a library of books, mainly in the
Speaker 1: captain's stateroom, which is not something we've uncovered on any
Speaker 1: other pirate ships so far this season. It's like a
Speaker 1: wave riding cruise ship. Bonnet had absolutely no idea what
Speaker 1: he was doing. During the beginning of his life of piracy.
Speaker 1: He and his crew, who he completely relied upon, again
Speaker 1: because he was green as could be, spent much of
Speaker 1: their time running up the Jolly Roger and looting ships
Speaker 1: along the Virginia coast. He did have a few pirty successes,
Speaker 1: pillaging rum and sugar and kidnapping enslaved individuals from ships
Speaker 1: along the seaboard from New York to South Carolina. At
Speaker 1: this time, these were, of course, all part of the
Speaker 1: British colonies. Bonnet was a very inexperienced pirate, and when
Speaker 1: he attacked what he thought was a merchant's vessel off
Speaker 1: the coast of Florida, he quickly realized he had made
Speaker 1: a considerable mistake. He had actually attacked a Spanish man warship,
Speaker 1: a ship that was definitely not interested in trading. The
Speaker 1: battle ravaged the crew of the Revenge, and as many
Speaker 1: as half the crew were killed or injured. Bonnet and
Speaker 1: his ship, both also injured, limped back to Caribbean waters.
Speaker 1: It's about this time that Bonnet met Edward Teach or Thatch,
Speaker 1: also known of course as black Beard, and while there
Speaker 1: don't seem to be really many solid and reliable details
Speaker 1: about their meeting, we do know that it happened in
Speaker 1: the late September of seventeen seventeen on the island of
Speaker 1: New Providence in the Bahamas. It is here, while he
Speaker 1: was injured, that Bonnet may have given temporary command of
Speaker 1: the Revenge to Blackbeard. Some suggest that black Beard, who
Speaker 1: was both an observant and opportunistic man, took the ship
Speaker 1: upon noticing that the crew of the Revenge didn't seem
Speaker 1: to have much respect for their captain. The crew, writes
Speaker 1: historian Lindley Butler, complained about their leaders quote personality weaknesses
Speaker 1: and poor seamanship, not good not good, personality weaknesses, stings.
Speaker 1: It was also a better ship than the one that
Speaker 1: black Beard had at the time, and it has also
Speaker 1: been suggested the men traded for it. There is a
Speaker 1: whole long list of possibilities as to what exactly happened,
Speaker 1: but ultimately Blackbeard took control of the revenge. However it
Speaker 1: went down, Bonnet was no longer a pirate captain. He
Speaker 1: had no ship. Again, we have multiple versions of this story,
Speaker 1: and at this point Bonnet either became what we're going
Speaker 1: to air quote colleague guest on Blackbeard's ship, or he
Speaker 1: became a passenger on what had been his own ship.
Speaker 1: He spent his time in his stateroom on whichever ship,
Speaker 1: reading and not participating in much piracy really at all.
Speaker 1: Black Beard, with the Revenge now part of his fleet,
Speaker 1: sailed north to terrorize the coastline along the Chesapeake Bay area.
Speaker 1: Black Beard and Bonnet together must have been quite appair
Speaker 1: to see. Bonnet, of course, was accustomed to silk stockings
Speaker 1: and powdered wigs, very fancy man, and he continued to
Speaker 1: dress that way as a pirate. In addition to his
Speaker 1: fancy coats and his leather shoes, black Beard, in comparison,
Speaker 1: was known for wearing a feathered tricorn hat, draping himself
Speaker 1: with swords and pistols, and frightening enemies by igniting bits
Speaker 1: of hemp or small candles that were tucked into his beard.
Speaker 1: While it's been written that Bonnet saw himself as black
Speaker 1: Beard's right hand ma'am, it's more likely that black Beard
Speaker 1: just saw Bonnet as a sucker. There is a reference
Speaker 1: in a general History of the Pirates that suggests Bonnet
Speaker 1: may have had at least once second thoughts about his
Speaker 1: new pirates life, saying that quote, he would gladly leave
Speaker 1: off that way of living, being fully tired of it,
Speaker 1: but he should be ashamed to see the face of
Speaker 1: any Englishman again. Therefore, if he could get to Spain
Speaker 1: or Portugal, where he might be undiscovered, he would spend
Speaker 1: the remainder of his days in either of those countries.
Speaker 1: The volume of pirate activity was becoming exasperating to authorities
Speaker 1: and to locals as well. Black Beard was known to
Speaker 1: anchor near the Carolina's and that was not just for
Speaker 1: a vacation. With a fleet of four ships, including the
Speaker 1: Revenge Bonnet still along for the ride, plus several hundred men,
Speaker 1: black Beard sailed into the harbor at Charlestown in the
Speaker 1: province of South South Carolina, which is of course now Charleston,
Speaker 1: and in what many historians considered to be his boldest
Speaker 1: act in his pirrating career, Blackbeard set up a blockade
Speaker 1: of the port and took several ships and their passengers
Speaker 1: hostage for six days. Basically, no one could get in
Speaker 1: or out of the harbor. Everyone was turned loose when
Speaker 1: his demands for medicine were met. It's theorized among those
Speaker 1: who have studied his life that black Beard might have
Speaker 1: been trying to treat syphilis among his crew, and that's
Speaker 1: what he was there for in terms of medicine, but
Speaker 1: there is actually no solid answer as to what medications
Speaker 1: he may or may not have wanted. It was after
Speaker 1: this brazen act that authorities were determined to stamp out
Speaker 1: piracy once and for all. The relationship between these two
Speaker 1: pirates was reportedly complicated, which I'm sure we can all imagine,
Speaker 1: and the two parted ways in the summer of seventeen.
Speaker 1: The end came when Bonnet, tricked by Blackbeard, lost not
Speaker 1: only his crew and command of his ship, but then
Speaker 1: everything he had on the revenge. As there always seems
Speaker 1: to be, there are two versions of what happened um
Speaker 1: and it's the same in this case. Between Bonnet and
Speaker 1: black Beard. The first version is actually pretty straightforward, and
Speaker 1: it goes like this, While Blackbeard and his fleet were
Speaker 1: docked in North Carolina, Bonnet went ashore, and when he
Speaker 1: returned to his ship, it had been looted and marooned
Speaker 1: the end of version one. The second version has a
Speaker 1: little bit more detail and goes like this. Black Beard,
Speaker 1: in an effort to get Bonnet away from the crew
Speaker 1: and the fleet, lied saying he was going to take
Speaker 1: what the King of England was offering to stop piracy,
Speaker 1: a no questions asked royal pardon. Bonnet decided to follow suit.
Speaker 1: But when Bonnett returned from receiving his pardon from the
Speaker 1: governor of the province of North Carolina, a man named
Speaker 1: Charles Eden, he found he'd been double crossed. Blackbeard may
Speaker 1: or may not have been given amnesty, but he had
Speaker 1: definitely louded the revenge. There were somewhere between five to
Speaker 1: maybe twenty five crew who remained, and Blackbeard was nowhere
Speaker 1: to be found. Bonnet, now seeking revenge, returned to piracy.
Speaker 1: Despite his royal pardon. He began to go by the
Speaker 1: name of Captain Thomas, using that and other aliases to
Speaker 1: conceal his real identity from the authorities who had just
Speaker 1: pardoned him. Steve Bonnet isn't doing it Captain Thomas's. We
Speaker 1: also read that he may have used the name Captain Edwards,
Speaker 1: but those records are a bit unclear as to win.
Speaker 1: So really, his efforts to conceal his movements worked, at
Speaker 1: least as far as the historical record is concerned. He
Speaker 1: also re christened the Revenge to the Royal James, assembled
Speaker 1: a crew of forty men and sailed off in pursuit
Speaker 1: of black Beard, rumored to be anchored off the coast
Speaker 1: of Ogracoke Inlet. As it turns out, he set out
Speaker 1: on a two month trip that would not end as
Speaker 1: he expected. Always fun to do a little foreshadowing. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for Bonnet, black Beard did have a headstart, and he
Speaker 1: did have greater skill. Bonnets skills, though, had improved since
Speaker 1: he had first taken to the seas, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: nearly up to the task as Blackbeard was. He had
Speaker 1: also learned from black Beard and other pirates he had
Speaker 1: encountered just what was most often expected from being a
Speaker 1: pirate captain. So the once gentle captain who paid his
Speaker 1: crew a salary out of his own pocket, took to
Speaker 1: abusing his crew, killing prisoners, and threatening civilians. We're gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: When we're back, we will talk about who Colonel William
Speaker 1: Rhett was and how he met Steve Bonnet. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Criminalia. Let's talk about how just short lived Steve's
Speaker 1: life of piracy actually was. Late summer of seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 1: while he was captaining the Royal James is considered really
Speaker 1: the peak of its career. He captured several vessels as
Speaker 1: he trawled the Atlantic seaboard. In July, for instance, Bonnet,
Speaker 1: as Captain Thomas and his crew captured a merchant sloop
Speaker 1: called the Fortune off the coast of Delaware Bay. Just
Speaker 1: two days later, they seized the sloop Francis. Bonnet was
Speaker 1: beginning to gather a small fleet by pretending he was
Speaker 1: a legitimate merchant hoping to trade, and then seizing the
Speaker 1: merchant ships that he had duped. About two weeks after
Speaker 1: they sailed out of the Delaware Bay area, Bonnet and
Speaker 1: his crew reached the mouth of the Cape Fear River
Speaker 1: in the province of North Carolina. Bonnet needed to perform
Speaker 1: routine repairs on the Royal James, which was taking on
Speaker 1: water from recent skirmishes. They sailed into a small waterway
Speaker 1: and remained there for about a month or so, intending
Speaker 1: to wait out the hurricane season before moving along. Bonnet
Speaker 1: captured and broke up the first ship it said that
Speaker 1: entered the area and used it as replacement parts for
Speaker 1: his sloop. It's reported that he also forced the crew
Speaker 1: of the captured Chip to most of the hard work.
Speaker 1: As all of this was happening, the governor of the
Speaker 1: province of South Carolina was organizing a force in an
Speaker 1: effort to capture pirates along his coastline. That force was
Speaker 1: commanded by Colonel William Rhett, who was a British plantation
Speaker 1: owner and a pirate hunter, and his force consisted of
Speaker 1: two sloops, the Henry and the Sea Nymph. Each of
Speaker 1: those carried eight guns. It's believed that Rhett knew that
Speaker 1: pirates were gathering around Cape Fear because people told him so.
Speaker 1: There actually wasn't a lot of detective work that he
Speaker 1: needed to do. Among the informants was Bonnet's own ignacious
Speaker 1: pell Hell was probably very likely bonnets quartermaster, which would
Speaker 1: have given him the most authority on board, second to
Speaker 1: the captain. He was Bonnet's right hand man, bonnets sailing master.
Speaker 1: The ship's navigator, David Harriet, was also implicated. Based on
Speaker 1: Pell and Harriet's good intelligence, Rhett found the Royal James
Speaker 1: just where he expected. After about five to six hours
Speaker 1: of fighting, Bonnet and his crew were captured on September eighteen.
Speaker 1: Bonnet threatened to blow up himself and the ship before
Speaker 1: he would ever surrender, but Rhet's men managed to overwhelm
Speaker 1: him and take the ship. But it wasn't only Bonnet
Speaker 1: who Rhet was looking for. Rhett had information he'd also
Speaker 1: find Blackbeard as well as the notorious pirate captain Charles Vane,
Speaker 1: a name you've surely heard us mentioned many times this season.
Speaker 1: Bone It was not the only pirate said to be
Speaker 1: lurking there, but Bonnet was the one captured by red
Speaker 1: Land transported in chains into Charlestown. It said that he
Speaker 1: hoped he would be given a lenient sentence and that
Speaker 1: he would never be executed the pirate way by hanging,
Speaker 1: because he was a former gentleman. But Bonnet's hopes were dashed.
Speaker 1: There were no proper ales or prisons in the province
Speaker 1: of South Carolina, and there wouldn't be until the early
Speaker 1: seventeen seventies. However, because he was, at least before his
Speaker 1: acts of piracy, an affluent, educated man who was a
Speaker 1: former officer in the militia, Bonnet was allowed to be
Speaker 1: imprisoned in the home of the local marshal. That came
Speaker 1: with a certain but small amount of free reign and
Speaker 1: a gentleman's agreement that he would not escape. Bonnet was
Speaker 1: held during the month between his capture and his trial.
Speaker 1: Pell and Harriet testified against their captain and crew in
Speaker 1: exchange for clemency, and they were held for three weeks
Speaker 1: while waiting to be questioned. They too were also held
Speaker 1: in the marshall's house. That sounds tense. Despite that gentleman's agreement,
Speaker 1: Bonnet escaped. He may have bribed those guarding him to
Speaker 1: look the other way, but the escape probably happened with
Speaker 1: the aid of locals, in particular a local merchant named
Speaker 1: Richard Tuckerman. Bonnet and Harriet were also able to flee.
Speaker 1: But what about Pell. Hell was in protective custody because
Speaker 1: he was to provide the prosecution with valuable evidence during
Speaker 1: that upcoming trial. Rhett was relentless, though, and tracked Bonnet
Speaker 1: to nearby Sullivan's Island, where he captured him again. The
Speaker 1: trials took place over the course of three weeks until
Speaker 1: November twelve. Trials plural because there was not just one.
Speaker 1: There were actually several small trials held for Bonnet and
Speaker 1: his crew, basically charging them with a variety of different
Speaker 1: things and trying each of them separately. Ultimately, thirty six
Speaker 1: prisoners were found guilty of piracy. Most of the crew
Speaker 1: were charged with primarily two crimes, one the capture of
Speaker 1: the sloop Francis and to the capture of the sloop Fortune.
Speaker 1: Sailors who had been aboard those vessels could and did
Speaker 1: testify against Bonnet and his crew. There were an additional
Speaker 1: two charges, the theft of goods out of the captured sloops,
Speaker 1: the Francis and the Fortune, but according to court records,
Speaker 1: just a handful of the crew were found guilty of
Speaker 1: those charges. There were no defense attorneys in the courtroom,
Speaker 1: and there was no legal counsel for the crewmen. Bonnet
Speaker 1: and educated man acted as his own defense, but with
Speaker 1: little success and may not seem like a fair and
Speaker 1: just trial, but it was what you could expect in
Speaker 1: the Anglo American justice system in the early eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: Bonnet had his own trial, and after the jury found
Speaker 1: him guilty, he was given what sources referred to as
Speaker 1: a quote stern lecture by the judge. During the trial,
Speaker 1: Judge Trot alluded to Bonnet's quote liberal education, and during
Speaker 1: sentencing referred to the fact that he was quote generally
Speaker 1: esteemed a man of letters. Not much as known or
Speaker 1: recorded about if or where or when Bonnet received his educationation,
Speaker 1: but many sources referred to him as quote bookish, and
Speaker 1: of course he did have that impressive library in his
Speaker 1: stateroom when it was sentenced to execution by hanging, and
Speaker 1: on November twelve, Judge Trott handed down the same sentence
Speaker 1: he had delivered to the pirate grew we quote that
Speaker 1: you that said state Bonnet shall go from hence to
Speaker 1: the place where once you came, and from thence to
Speaker 1: the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by
Speaker 1: the neck till you are dead. Bonnet's fortune gained through
Speaker 1: piracy was added into the state treasury. Between sentencing and
Speaker 1: when his day of execution would be carried out, Bonnet
Speaker 1: wrote letters pleading his case as a gentleman to local
Speaker 1: authorities everything he claimed was really Blackbeard's faults. To the governor,
Speaker 1: he made a plea that is hard to imagine or stomach.
Speaker 1: He asked instead to have his arms and legs cut
Speaker 1: off to ensure that he would never sail again, rather
Speaker 1: than be hanged, but his request for clemency went unanswered.
Speaker 1: At the end of the trials, just four men were
Speaker 1: found not guilty. Bonnet and roughly thirty members of his
Speaker 1: crew were to be given a pirates execution, and Bonnet
Speaker 1: himself was hanged on December tenth, seventeen eighteen, at the
Speaker 1: gallows near Whitewood Garden in downtown Charlestown. Ignatious pal, who
Speaker 1: turned King's evidence and was a witness for the prosecution,
Speaker 1: was never indicted and he was never tried for anything.
Speaker 1: David Harriet, who had escaped the Marshall's house with Bonnet,
Speaker 1: was indicted, but he was killed on Olivan's Island before
Speaker 1: the trial concluded. According to witnesses and noted by Charles
Speaker 1: Johnson's last possibly Daniel Dafoe quote, all his resolution failed him,
Speaker 1: and his fears and agonies so wrought upon him that
Speaker 1: he was scarce sensible when he came to the place
Speaker 1: of execution. His piteous behavior under sentence very much affected
Speaker 1: the people of province, particularly the women, and great application
Speaker 1: was made to the governor for saving his life. But
Speaker 1: in vain. Bonnet's body was buried below the low tide
Speaker 1: mark in a muddy marsh, as were the rest of
Speaker 1: his crew, done so no trace of the men would remain. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe it's not the end you'd expect for an eighteenth
Speaker 1: century gentleman plantation owner. It maybe exactly what you may
Speaker 1: imagine for a bunch of pirates. Although his pirate career
Speaker 1: was short, Steve Bonnet was part of a gang of
Speaker 1: unaffiliated pirates who plundered the Caribbean. These are the pirates
Speaker 1: quote responsible for the images we have of pirates today.
Speaker 1: According to historian Colin Woodard, Bonnet never did find black
Speaker 1: Beard to enact whatever revenge plan he had in mind.
Speaker 1: But not only our Bonnet and Blackbeard's legends intertwined. They
Speaker 1: have some parallels. They both had short lived careers in piracy,
Speaker 1: and both were captured and executed at the end of
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen. Black Beard was killed fighting British soldiers near
Speaker 1: Okracoke is Land off the coast of the province of
Speaker 1: North Carolina on November eighteen in a notoriously gruesome story
Speaker 1: that includes his beheading, and of course, Bonnet was executed
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks later on December tenth that
Speaker 1: same year, Irate Captain Bartholomew Roberts, who was a contemporary
Speaker 1: of black Beard and Bonnet, once declared, and we quote,
Speaker 1: a merry life and a short one shall be my motto. Bonnett,
Speaker 1: who may have been living out his dream, was thirty
Speaker 1: years old when he was executed. What a peppy place
Speaker 1: to land marine, you know. And now I don't even
Speaker 1: feel like inviting you into the groggery. I just want
Speaker 1: to come into the groggery because it's delicious today. So
Speaker 1: which a servant. So, in thinking about Mr Bonnet, one
Speaker 1: of the things I was thinking about was his gentleman history.
Speaker 1: And so I came up with a drink called the
Speaker 1: powdered Wig. I was hoping you were going to go
Speaker 1: with something about his fashion. Yes, of course I didn't.
Speaker 1: This drink also has its own roots in history. Um
Speaker 1: it's a flip. Do you know what that is? I
Speaker 1: actually may have heard of it, but I couldn't tell
Speaker 1: you what it is. You're about to. A flip is
Speaker 1: a class of drinks. That term was first used in
Speaker 1: the late seventeenth century. And a flip has no cream,
Speaker 1: so it's not a nog. But the idea is that
Speaker 1: you emulsify the ingredients, just sometimes called flipping or frothing
Speaker 1: them to the point that they've become very creamy. Originally,
Speaker 1: a flip was a mix of beer and rum and sugar,
Speaker 1: and it was served hot. You would actually stick a
Speaker 1: red hot iron into the mug where it was mixed together,
Speaker 1: so it would heat up and kind of froth. That's
Speaker 1: not how we do that anymore. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: you could, but please don't. Our version is easier, it's
Speaker 1: rather luxurious, and it reflects kind of how flips are
Speaker 1: made today because now they involve the use of a
Speaker 1: raw egg. I don't like eggs. I still I'm working
Speaker 1: with you on it. I'll get there, Maria, you're missing
Speaker 1: out now. Obviously we should give the warning, the caveat
Speaker 1: that eating uncooked or raw things always comes with a
Speaker 1: bit of risk. I'm a big fan of the egg drink,
Speaker 1: so baby, this one okay. So here's what's a flip.
Speaker 1: It's so easy to make and it is velvety, so
Speaker 1: um it Also, you know hearkens back to bonnets style
Speaker 1: because I'm sure he had some velvet garments in there.
Speaker 1: And it starts with two ounces of vanilla coniac, which
Speaker 1: is brain bending, and then an ounce of so bull
Speaker 1: syrup and then an egg, the whole egg. This is
Speaker 1: in a whites only situation, so you don't have to
Speaker 1: separate your egg into white and yolk. I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: made a face. I mean I should you did, girl,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what I'm listening. I'm with you. I'm
Speaker 1: back your judgment. Truck up out of this parking lot
Speaker 1: because it's delicious. I won't give it a try. Then
Speaker 1: you put this in your shaker and you just shake
Speaker 1: it like the Dickens. You don't have to put ice
Speaker 1: in it. It's usually served a little room temperature. Ice
Speaker 1: can mess up with how the egg emulsifies. Sometimes if
Speaker 1: it's too cold, like you won't get it quite right.
Speaker 1: You pour it into I like a slightly chilled glass,
Speaker 1: with a chilled chilled glass. I put it in a
Speaker 1: coupe and then you sprinkle something like nutmeg or pumpkin
Speaker 1: pie spice on top. You might have you the little
Speaker 1: nutmeg on top, you might. I imagine that the texture
Speaker 1: is amazing. And if you handed it to me and
Speaker 1: you didn't tell me what was in it, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: this is fantastic. That is correct because it doesn't taste egg.
Speaker 1: Eat that vanilla brandy. It very much tastes like a
Speaker 1: dessert beverage. It does taste very fancy and luxurious. I
Speaker 1: bet Steed bonnet with love one. He's making him in
Speaker 1: his stateroom, like I am. Literally, I'm so in love
Speaker 1: with it. I don't even know how to deal with myself.
Speaker 1: For the non alcoholic version, you will just sub out
Speaker 1: a low sugar apple juice for the vanilla brandy, and
Speaker 1: then instead of simple syrup, use of vanilla syrup, or
Speaker 1: if you don't have a vanilla syrup, use your simple
Speaker 1: syrup and then just like a dash of vanilla extract.
Speaker 1: Oh man, it's so good. I don't even I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: I'm waxing rhapsodic above this beverage because I love it
Speaker 1: that much. Um So that is the powdered wig. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be drinking a lot of these this autumn
Speaker 1: and winter. I can tell you that feels like a
Speaker 1: good automny winter beverage, even before you sprinkle them a
Speaker 1: meg on it. Well, the nice thing is that it
Speaker 1: feels fancy. But it is the easiest thing on earth
Speaker 1: to throw together. And you can find flips in a
Speaker 1: with a law lot of other spirits as the primary component,
Speaker 1: like a regular coneyak. You'll find those a lot of
Speaker 1: the time. I'm kind of obsessed with vanilla coniak right now.
Speaker 1: Some will will have rum instead, like you can mess
Speaker 1: around with what that includes, but I'm not coniac. It's
Speaker 1: got a nice, full and deep flavor profile, very warm
Speaker 1: for this season. So that's the powdered wig. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy it if you give it a world. Don't
Speaker 1: be like Marianne fear the egg. It's delicious egg. I
Speaker 1: don't fear the egg. I just don't like eggs. But
Speaker 1: it's not like this is a scrambled egg we're putting
Speaker 1: in things to it might be fine, right, No, it's delicious.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Um. I hope if you are trepidacious about
Speaker 1: eggs that you you know, give it a word. You
Speaker 1: never know your favorite thing could be out there and
Speaker 1: you don't even know it yet because you haven't tried
Speaker 1: it yet. So I'm always a big fan of trying things.
Speaker 1: You don't like it, hand it to a friend, but always,
Speaker 1: you know, experience all the world has to offer. Much
Speaker 1: like steep On it tried to do and then messed
Speaker 1: it up. Thank you for hanging out with us today
Speaker 1: while we talk about pirates on Criminalia. We will be
Speaker 1: right back here next week with another pirate and another
Speaker 1: cocktail and hopefully a lot more fun. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.