Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion, advised,
Speaker 1: genius or insanity. Those were Edward teaches two working theories
Speaker 1: as to why the quaint sixty ton sloop known as
Speaker 1: the Revenge was currently anchored in a small pirate harbor
Speaker 1: off the coast of the Bahamas. Mere days after the
Speaker 1: Revenger's arrival, the docks were already a buzz with rumors
Speaker 1: and speculation about the ship, primarily because of the state
Speaker 1: in which it had sailed into port, or more accurately
Speaker 1: washed into port. The vessel still bore the scars of
Speaker 1: its most recent misadventure. Red stains and splintered wood marred
Speaker 1: the Revenge's deck, only hastily wiped away by what little
Speaker 1: remained of their crew. If Edward Teach was being honest,
Speaker 1: he was surprised the Revenge was still afloat at all.
Speaker 1: There was almost no scenario in which a glorified dinghy
Speaker 1: like the Revenge, really any pirate ship at all, should
Speaker 1: have survived a run in with a goliath like that
Speaker 1: of a Spanish warship at the time seventeen seventeen, a
Speaker 1: typical government sanctioned man of war could have easily held
Speaker 1: well over a hundred guns. The Revenge had ten, though
Speaker 1: after the devastating defeat against the Spanish warship, the Revenge's
Speaker 1: eccentric captain made sure to outfit their artillery with an
Speaker 1: additional two guns, you know, to make up for losing
Speaker 1: half the crew and nearly his own life. Which brought
Speaker 1: Edward Teach back to his original question and the reason
Speaker 1: he found himself knocking on the door to the Revenge's
Speaker 1: captain's quarters. Was it genius or insanity that had led
Speaker 1: this captain to steer his crew to almost certain death?
Speaker 1: The answer, of course, was the one theory Teach had
Speaker 1: not thought to consider in the first place, stupidity. It
Speaker 1: was past the captain's doors and into his private residence
Speaker 1: that Teach found himself standing face to face with the
Speaker 1: fanciful night shirts and vast collection of books adorning the
Speaker 1: cabin of one Steed Bonnet, or, as he would one
Speaker 1: day come to be known, the Gentleman Pirate. Today, the
Speaker 1: name Steed Bonnet is often relegated to a footnote amongst
Speaker 1: the larger legends associated with the quote Golden Age of Piracy,
Speaker 1: until a recent television series on HBO Max, he was
Speaker 1: almost entirely forgotten by all but the most passionate students
Speaker 1: of eighteenth century history. His import had really only ever
Speaker 1: been measured by the interactions he had with more infamous pirates.
Speaker 1: But to Edward Teach in that moment, Steve Bonnet was
Speaker 1: no such footnote. He was an idiot, sure, but more
Speaker 1: than that, he was a mystery, an opportunity. For so long,
Speaker 1: Teach had only been a part of other men's crews,
Speaker 1: just waiting for the day he could take on a
Speaker 1: ship and a crew of his own, And now suddenly
Speaker 1: here he stood next to the incompetent Oath who was
Speaker 1: unknowingly handing Teach his freedom and his future on a
Speaker 1: silver platter. Bonnet had a ship, but he needed a crew,
Speaker 1: and frankly, he needed a captain to lead them while
Speaker 1: he healed from his injuries. What happened once his wounds
Speaker 1: healed would be an issue for a later date, when
Speaker 1: he was sure he could handle. As he continued to
Speaker 1: stare at the spectacle of a man before him, and
Speaker 1: for the first time since stepping on board, Teach felt
Speaker 1: the lips he hid under his considerable Beard pull into
Speaker 1: a genuine smile, he held out his hand to the
Speaker 1: captain and introduced himself, not by his given name, but
Speaker 1: by the name borne out of years of infamy on
Speaker 1: the high seas, a name that sent even the most
Speaker 1: fearsome of foes cowering in their boots. He introduced himself
Speaker 1: as Blackbeard. The two shook hands and made their deal.
Speaker 1: Blackbeard would take the revenge temporarily while steed Bonnet healed.
Speaker 1: But unbeknown to them, with that handshake also came the
Speaker 1: promise of their end, for by the end of December
Speaker 1: the following year, both pirates would be dead. But as
Speaker 1: Blackbeard stared at steed Bonnet, clad in ruffles and what
Speaker 1: he was sure was a posture held only by those
Speaker 1: raised sucking on silver spoons, the infamous pirate captain couldn't
Speaker 1: help but imagine a different life for himself, one where
Speaker 1: he stood at the helm of a mighty ship and
Speaker 1: the horizon was suddenly within reach. I'm Dani Schwartz, and
Speaker 1: this is noble blood. Given that the name itself is gilded,
Speaker 1: it's hard not to romanticize the arrow we've come to
Speaker 1: recognize as the Golden age of piracy. Little more than
Speaker 1: a skull and crossbones is needed before our subconscious starts
Speaker 1: humming shanties and conjuring pictures of open oceans and overflowing
Speaker 1: treasure chests. But the reality, as per usual, was not
Speaker 1: as carefree as a drunkenly stumbling Jack Sparrow might have
Speaker 1: you believe. Evening the life of a pirate was not
Speaker 1: one chosen lightly. In fact, it was rarely chosen at all.
Speaker 1: Most crew members found themselves forced into this sort of
Speaker 1: life through dire financial straits. It was also common for
Speaker 1: black men to use piracy as a means to escape
Speaker 1: the Atlantic slave trade. That's not to say that life
Speaker 1: at sea was free from racial prejudice, but a life
Speaker 1: of poverty on a ship as a freeman was still
Speaker 1: preferable to life as a slave on the mainland. So
Speaker 1: while we often pair the title pirate with the likes
Speaker 1: of Orlando Bloom, in reality it was much less swashbuckling
Speaker 1: rogue saving swooning maidens, and more desperate fugitives doing whatever
Speaker 1: they could to stay alive and not behind bars or enslaved,
Speaker 1: which is perhaps why the story of Steed Bonnet, the
Speaker 1: man who actively chose to abandon his life of luxury
Speaker 1: to take up a life of piracy continues to confound
Speaker 1: and fascinate us to this day. But before anyone had
Speaker 1: ever heard of the gentleman pirate, Steed was just a
Speaker 1: boy born into your typical wealthy landowning family profiting off
Speaker 1: slave labor in early eighteenth century Barbados. Due to his
Speaker 1: parents early deaths. By the age of six, Bonnet had
Speaker 1: inherited his family's estate, which boasted over four hundred acres
Speaker 1: of sugar crops, a mill dedicated to the production of
Speaker 1: cane sugar, and over ninety enslaved laborers, along with a
Speaker 1: litany of servants who catered to Steed's every need. Given
Speaker 1: little other choice, Bonnet was raised to follow the course
Speaker 1: his parents life had set out for him. And even
Speaker 1: though there is no historical basis for it, I like
Speaker 1: to imagine a tiny six year old Seed Bonnet sitting
Speaker 1: at his father's desk in his newly inherited study, his
Speaker 1: stubby legs still too short to reach the floor, swinging
Speaker 1: I'd leave beneath the table while he stares at Ledger
Speaker 1: after Ledger, trying to make sense of his late father's
Speaker 1: sugar enterprise, only to remember that he can't read. More likely,
Speaker 1: the business affairs of the Bonnet estate were taken over
Speaker 1: by Steed's next of kin until he came of age,
Speaker 1: but that by no means changes the fact that Steed
Speaker 1: was born and raised to believe that the Barbadian sugar
Speaker 1: trade would be his future. At twenty one, he married
Speaker 1: a young woman whose family also came from the Barbadian
Speaker 1: social elite. But apart from that and the four children
Speaker 1: they had together, the couple would have little else in common.
Speaker 1: Then again, Bonnet held little in common with most of
Speaker 1: the members of the high society life he had been
Speaker 1: born into. He may have technically been made a major
Speaker 1: in the Barbadian militia due mostly to his status as
Speaker 1: a slaveholder and landowner, but his interests quickly became skewed
Speaker 1: towards the enemies of the militia that he was set
Speaker 1: to defend against the careers of pirates. At this time,
Speaker 1: we're far from private, and Bonnet, the bookish scholar that
Speaker 1: he was, made sure to keep himself exceptionally up to
Speaker 1: date on any and all things pirate. He was a
Speaker 1: militiaman after all, and in some reports even a justice
Speaker 1: of the peace. He had to be aware of the
Speaker 1: villains washing up on their shores, at least until he
Speaker 1: became one himself. Now, there are many conflicting theories as
Speaker 1: to why Bonnet began his pirate exploits. Some say the
Speaker 1: impetus for his escape from high society stemmed from his
Speaker 1: poor relationship with his wife, But I do think it's
Speaker 1: important to note that there is little information on the
Speaker 1: exact nature of Bonnet's relationship with his wife, and the
Speaker 1: reports we do have are questionable. Some sources call his
Speaker 1: wife quote nagging, while others, like Charles Johnson in his
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty four publication A General History of Pirates, merely
Speaker 1: cited quote some discomforts he found in a married state.
Speaker 1: Other scholars suggest Bonnet may have been suffering from some
Speaker 1: form of mental illness. However, this leads us into the
Speaker 1: murky waters of posthumous diagnoses, which remains largely unhelpful when
Speaker 1: contextualizing bonnet story on a larger scale. The truth is
Speaker 1: we will never know the real reason Bonnet chose to
Speaker 1: abandon the comforts of his affluent life. It's easy to
Speaker 1: point fingers at nagging wives or mental illness to come
Speaker 1: to conclusions, but Ultimately, those reasons are built off assumptions
Speaker 1: and biases that lack anything close to actual supported evidence.
Speaker 1: All this to say Steed could have succumbed to the
Speaker 1: pressures associated with any and all of the aforementioned stressors
Speaker 1: in his life, but he could have just as likely
Speaker 1: been having the world's most extreme midlife crisis. And while
Speaker 1: Bonnet may have made up his mind to leave his
Speaker 1: old life behind, that by no means meant that he
Speaker 1: had any sort of idea what he was actually doing.
Speaker 1: All Bonnet really knew was that in order to become
Speaker 1: a pirate he needed two things, a ship and a crew.
Speaker 1: The former was acquired simply enough. Bonnets pockets were deep
Speaker 1: enough to encourage the builders to turn to blind eye
Speaker 1: to the eccentric aristocrat who demanded a library be built
Speaker 1: into the captain's quarters of his ship. Finding a crew
Speaker 1: was a harder sell. A pirate crew was typically bought
Speaker 1: in the same way a pirate ship would be on
Speaker 1: the high seas, through theft or mutiny. But since Bonnett
Speaker 1: had decided to forego traditional pirate code and build himself
Speaker 1: a ship of his own, getting a crew to work
Speaker 1: under him, a land lover with exactly zero experience out
Speaker 1: on open ocean was a recipe for disaster. But far
Speaker 1: be it from Bonnet to let something as inconsequential as
Speaker 1: inexperience keep him from following through on a truly terrible idea.
Speaker 1: His solution a fair wage. Seeing as he was perpetually
Speaker 1: one small misstep away from having his crew replace him
Speaker 1: with a captain who was far more capable, Bonnet made
Speaker 1: the one move he suspected would keep them in his favor.
Speaker 1: On a normal pirate ship, crew members were paid a
Speaker 1: percentage of the plunder they received, but Bonnet, aware of
Speaker 1: his already unorthodox method of acquiring his ship, doubled down
Speaker 1: to match the needs of his crew. With a steady income,
Speaker 1: they would be less likely to replace him with someone better.
Speaker 1: And so, in spring seventeen seventeen, with his shiny new boat,
Speaker 1: begrudgingly acceptant crew, and an overabundance of unearned confidence, Steve
Speaker 1: Bonnet set sail from Barbados on the vessel he had
Speaker 1: named for probably no other reason other than that he
Speaker 1: thought it sounded cool. The revenge now, whether it was
Speaker 1: due to his cruise knowledge of the trade or the
Speaker 1: universe taking pity on him, bonnet initial venture into piracy
Speaker 1: went surprisingly well. The Revenge successfully overtook upwards of eight
Speaker 1: ships of varying sizes, stripping each of their valuables before
Speaker 1: they've swiftly moved on to their next target. He only
Speaker 1: stopped if you wanted to set fire to a ship
Speaker 1: he plundered, a practice that he suspiciously only acted upon
Speaker 1: when the ship was native to Barbados. Some historians theorized
Speaker 1: that Bonnet may not have wanted news of his criminal
Speaker 1: activities reaching home, but soon enough no amount of arson
Speaker 1: could keep tales of the Revenge's exploits at bay. Despite
Speaker 1: his string of early successes, Bonnet's lucky streak officially came
Speaker 1: to an end in September seventeen seventeen, when he and
Speaker 1: his crew came face to face with a Spanish man
Speaker 1: of war. After a skirmish that left the Revenge with
Speaker 1: half its crew and more or less half a captain,
Speaker 1: the remaining men made the decision to head towards the
Speaker 1: known pirate harbor Nasa off the coast of the Bahamas.
Speaker 1: Cut to Edward Teach, the infamous Blackbeard, staring with a
Speaker 1: mixture of disdain and awe at the battered ship and
Speaker 1: equally battered captain. Perhaps the most peculiar pirate he'd ever met,
Speaker 1: Steed Bonnet. Steed was everything a pirate shouldn't have been, wealthy, educated,
Speaker 1: well mannered. There was no reason for him to have
Speaker 1: ended up in a pirate harbor. Both him and his
Speaker 1: ship riddled with the scars of battle. But once Blackbeard
Speaker 1: was able to look past the lavish dressing gown and
Speaker 1: entirely impractical library at sea, Blackbeard saw Bonnet as the
Speaker 1: opportunity that he was. After bonnets debacle with the Spanish Navy,
Speaker 1: it was no secret that Bonnet's crew was unimpressed by
Speaker 1: their lackluster excuse of a captain, and now that the
Speaker 1: former aristocrat could barely leave his bed because of his injuries,
Speaker 1: it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that
Speaker 1: the Revenge needed a real captain. If Steve didn't appoint one,
Speaker 1: his crew might take matters into their own hands and
Speaker 1: make that decision for him. Luckily for Bonnet, Blackbeard was
Speaker 1: more than happy to step into the role. After setting
Speaker 1: sail from Nassau with its new captain at the helm,
Speaker 1: the Revenge steadily made its way up the coast, leaving
Speaker 1: a trail of destruction cast carelessly behind them. Any vessel
Speaker 1: unlucky enough to be caught in their path was subject
Speaker 1: to the typical looting and plundering of any pirate raid.
Speaker 1: Jewels were stolen, coins were pocketed, and casks of Madeira wine,
Speaker 1: rum and ammune Shian were plucked like they sat on
Speaker 1: grocery store shelves instead of in the halls of merchant ships.
Speaker 1: But Blackbeard, always the overachiever, didn't stop there after he'd
Speaker 1: taken his fill. He would order his crew to dump
Speaker 1: any and all extra cargo that they weren't planning on
Speaker 1: taking with them, just because he could. And while tales
Speaker 1: of Blackbeard's villainous exploits echoed off the walls of almost
Speaker 1: every tavern up and down the Atlantic coast, whispers of
Speaker 1: a peculiar gentleman draped in finery aboard the revenge were
Speaker 1: swiftly making the rounds as well. In the months since
Speaker 1: his near brush with death with the Spanish Bonnet, had
Speaker 1: recovered from the majority of his injuries, only to find
Speaker 1: himself in the peculiar position of being a guest in
Speaker 1: his own home. Though guests may have been too generous
Speaker 1: a term, he may have owned the ship and paid
Speaker 1: the crew, but he been sleeping in the captain's quarters.
Speaker 1: Didn't change the fact that the Revenge was becoming more
Speaker 1: of a prison than his luscious state in Barbados had
Speaker 1: ever been. At the time, seating his role as captain
Speaker 1: to Blackbeard had seemed like the only logical choice, But
Speaker 1: as Bonnet grew stronger, he also became acutely aware that
Speaker 1: his crew had little, if any remaining loyalty to him,
Speaker 1: not that this was at all surprising. During one instance,
Speaker 1: when Bonnet was momentarily given back control of the Revenge,
Speaker 1: the ill equipped gentleman pirate threatened an oncoming merchant vessel
Speaker 1: that he and his crew would quote do them mischief
Speaker 1: unless they came aboard and shared a meal with them,
Speaker 1: not exactly the type of behavior that instills fear and
Speaker 1: loyalty in pirate ranks. When the crew all but begged
Speaker 1: Blackbeard to stay on as captain, Bonnet felt the carefully
Speaker 1: crafted pirate fantasy he had built for himself slipping through
Speaker 1: his fingers. Trapped aboard a ship he'd bought to escape
Speaker 1: his former life, the disgruntled former aristocrat fell into a
Speaker 1: deep depression, confiding in one of his few remaining loyal
Speaker 1: crew members, his newfound, though predictably familiar, desire to now
Speaker 1: leave behind his life of piracy for a quieter existence abroad,
Speaker 1: maybe Spain or Portugal, his real only prerequisite being the
Speaker 1: country's protection against being extradited for piracy crimes. Strangely enough,
Speaker 1: the answer to bonnet prayers would come from the British
Speaker 1: Crown itself, in the form of a decree called a
Speaker 1: Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates, or, as it was better known,
Speaker 1: the Act of Grace. Across the Atlantic, the repercussions of
Speaker 1: the quote Golden Age of piracy were finally beginning to effect.
Speaker 1: In England, King George the First was facing pressure from
Speaker 1: merchants and shareholders to enact some sort of measure to
Speaker 1: quell the exponentially growing crime rate on the high Seas.
Speaker 1: Their livelihoods were quite literally being dumped in the ocean.
Speaker 1: His solution, which on the surface appears slightly counterintuitive, was
Speaker 1: to offer a pardon to any and all pirates who
Speaker 1: surrendered themselves to the Crown before the fifth of January
Speaker 1: that year. It gave pirates like Bonnet the opportunity to
Speaker 1: turn themselves in with next to no consequences save their
Speaker 1: promise never to practice piracy against the Crown ever again. Now,
Speaker 1: if that offer sounds a little too good to be true,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be the only one to think so. The
Speaker 1: language of the proclamation made it clear that the Crown
Speaker 1: only offered quote promise of a pardon, which, if pop
Speaker 1: culture rhetoric has taught us anything about pirates, it's that
Speaker 1: a promise to or from one is about as binding
Speaker 1: as a scrap of masking tape, or, you know, a
Speaker 1: marriage contract with Steed Bonnet. Needless to say, there was
Speaker 1: a fair amount of skepticism in the pirate community towards
Speaker 1: the King's pardon, leading some historians to theorize that Blackbeard,
Speaker 1: with his general distrust of authority and recently acquired small
Speaker 1: fleet of pirate vessels, sent Bonnet to the town of
Speaker 1: Bath to acquire a pardon for himself as a test
Speaker 1: before he attempted to procure one of his own. For
Speaker 1: Bonnet's part, it didn't take much to convince him to
Speaker 1: seek the pardon for himself, especially since one could argue
Speaker 1: running away from his problems was historically Steed's favorite pastime.
Speaker 1: It probably took even less convincing for Bonnet to leave
Speaker 1: his ship and his crew in the care of Blackbeard.
Speaker 1: As he set sail on a small dinghy inland to
Speaker 1: settle his affairs. Maybe he even waved back to his
Speaker 1: crew as they grew into small dots on the horizon,
Speaker 1: as he felt the weight he'd been holding onto as
Speaker 1: a pseudo captain turned guests turned prisoner, lifting with every
Speaker 1: inch he floated closer to land. But Steed's old crew
Speaker 1: aboard The Revenge wouldn't have seen the small hand waving
Speaker 1: toward them in the distance. No, just a Steed Bonnet
Speaker 1: stepped on land toward what he was sure would be
Speaker 1: a brighter future. His old hired crew was just realizing
Speaker 1: that black Beard and black Beard's own pre Revenge crew
Speaker 1: had just turned their weapons against them. Now, if there
Speaker 1: was an official rule book on how to be a pirate,
Speaker 1: I imagine the first rule would be printed in all
Speaker 1: caps across the front page, bolded, highlighted, and double underlined,
Speaker 1: never trust a pirate. Unfortunately, for Bonnet, such a book
Speaker 1: was not held in his fully stocked library aboard The Revenge,
Speaker 1: and black Beard wasted no time taking advantage of bonnet
Speaker 1: ignorance to strip the Revenge of any and all things
Speaker 1: of value to their horror. This unfortunately included Bonnet's original crew, who,
Speaker 1: thanks to the very captain they had so very recently
Speaker 1: switched their allegiance too, were left marooned on an island
Speaker 1: near Topsail Inlet, off the coast of North Carolina. Because,
Speaker 1: of course, Blackbeard was the type of petty not only
Speaker 1: to strip the Revenge clean of everything save a few
Speaker 1: barrels of food, but to take his crew just to
Speaker 1: maroon them on an island so that Bonnet couldn't have them.
Speaker 1: When Blackbeard initially took command of the Revenge, he had
Speaker 1: managed to assemble a hundred and fifty men after the
Speaker 1: Spanish navy had all but decimated bonnets already modest crew
Speaker 1: of seventy five. But as rumor of the Revenge's exploit spread,
Speaker 1: soon even the men they were robbing we're begging to
Speaker 1: join their company. In one instance, upon crossing paths with
Speaker 1: the Revenge, a merchant ship willingly surrendered and pledged their
Speaker 1: loyalty to Blackbeard rather than suffer the consequences of their
Speaker 1: most likely imminent demise. As time went on, what had
Speaker 1: started as a mere hundred fifty aboard one lone damaged
Speaker 1: ship mounted to upwards a four hundred men spread across
Speaker 1: several vessels. And while this may have sounded like a
Speaker 1: good thing, Bonnets and by extent, the Revenge is dead
Speaker 1: weight was becoming more apparent by the day, especially since
Speaker 1: any raid Blackbeard undertook had to be split amongst all
Speaker 1: of his crew, and plunder shared four hundred ways didn't
Speaker 1: come with the same sense of satisfaction or the amount
Speaker 1: of money it would with a smaller group, And since
Speaker 1: Blackbeard was essentially cleaning house after Steed, it was clear
Speaker 1: that steedsmen had to go. Meanwhile, in Bath, Bonnet had
Speaker 1: successfully expunged his record of all criminal pirate activity, and
Speaker 1: he was more than ready to set sail aboard his
Speaker 1: ship onto the next chapter of his life. Unfortunately for him,
Speaker 1: this was also the point in which he finally noticed
Speaker 1: the metaphorical knife that had been sticking out of his
Speaker 1: back ever since he'd landed on the mainland when he
Speaker 1: stepped aboard the Revenge after just three days away. Remember,
Speaker 1: he was always planning on coming back to his ship.
Speaker 1: He just wanted to clear his pirate record. He was
Speaker 1: planning on taking the ship that he owned to wherever
Speaker 1: he would live next. But he now realized he owned
Speaker 1: a ghost ship. It was little more than a hollowed
Speaker 1: out husk of driftwood, run aground and completely abandoned in
Speaker 1: his absence. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but even Bonnet,
Speaker 1: a man so fond of literature that he built a
Speaker 1: library at sea, was in no mood to appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Once upon a time he had named his ship the Revenge,
Speaker 1: but taking stock of his empty sloop and completely missing crew,
Speaker 1: quickly changed it from name to a purpose. And when
Speaker 1: he eventually found his few remaining men marooned and left
Speaker 1: to die on an uninhabited island, for once, the skeptical
Speaker 1: crew and their inept gentleman pirate were in agreement. Blackbeard
Speaker 1: was going to pay. Unfortunately, I have to spoil the
Speaker 1: ending to this particular part of the story and tell
Speaker 1: you Blackbeard did not pay, at least not by Bonnet's hands.
Speaker 1: As great the tale of the revengees Revenge would have been,
Speaker 1: apart from a handful of near missus, the two enemy
Speaker 1: captains would never cross paths again in their lifetime. Bonnet, however,
Speaker 1: didn't know this yet, and quickly made it his life's
Speaker 1: mission to make Blackbeard suffer for his treachery for turning
Speaker 1: the Revenge into a black Beard franchise and then completely
Speaker 1: abandoning it. The first amongst a series of hiccups in
Speaker 1: Steve Bonnet's plans proved to be the most problematic one. Technically,
Speaker 1: he was no longer a pirate, at least he wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to be according to the terms of his pardon.
Speaker 1: The ink had barely dried on Bonnet's pardon before he
Speaker 1: was already about to break the only term of his agreement. Granted,
Speaker 1: he was given little other choice. Blackbeard had left the
Speaker 1: Revenge with nothing but a few casks of food, and
Speaker 1: after failing to secure a privateering commission from the governor
Speaker 1: following his pardon, Bonnet forged ahead the only way he
Speaker 1: knew how. This time, Bonnet began conducting his pirate business
Speaker 1: under the name Captain Thomas and sailing a ship that
Speaker 1: looked remarkably similar to the Revenge, but was instead named
Speaker 1: the Royal James. And to ensure that bonnet activities were
Speaker 1: relatively above board, he made sure that all of his
Speaker 1: run ins with merchant vessels were classified as trades, even
Speaker 1: if he stole everything but the shirts off their backs
Speaker 1: in exchange for maybe a small parcel of rice or,
Speaker 1: in one case, an old anchor cable. Originally, the Royal
Speaker 1: James only quote traded out of necessity, but by July
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen, the gentleman pirate and his crew had once
Speaker 1: again fully abandoned all charades of diplomacy in favor of
Speaker 1: embracing the pirate life. In the summer of seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 1: the Royal James was on an extended, glorified shopping spree,
Speaker 1: boarding merchant vessels and taking their fill before going off
Speaker 1: to find their next victims. During this time, Bonnet managed
Speaker 1: to add two more sloops and a handful of new
Speaker 1: crew members to a small but mighty fleet. Soon after
Speaker 1: acquiring the new ships, the Francis and the Fortune, Bonnet
Speaker 1: and his men sailed their way into the Cape Fear
Speaker 1: River Estuary off the coast of North Carolina, only to
Speaker 1: find that they had a much more practical problem on
Speaker 1: their hands. The Royal James had a leak as the
Speaker 1: ship began to take on more and more water, and
Speaker 1: the Atlantic hurricane season was closing in. Bonnet and his
Speaker 1: crew had no choice but to make landfall to fix
Speaker 1: their flagship vessel and wait out the bad weather. By
Speaker 1: late August, word of Bonnet's extended stay in the Cape
Speaker 1: Fear River had reached Charlestown, and the Governor of South
Speaker 1: Carolina was less than pleased. Even though Bonnet's location was
Speaker 1: technically in North Carolina, outside the governor's jurisdiction, Governor Johnson
Speaker 1: was not prepared to let someone with Steve Bonnet's lengthy
Speaker 1: criminal history and ties to arguably one of the most
Speaker 1: nefarious pirates of their time, lounge about on a beach nearby,
Speaker 1: and so on September six, seventeen eighteen, Colonel William Rhett
Speaker 1: found himself sailing into the Cape Fear River mouth with
Speaker 1: two government ships and one hundred and thirty militiamen on
Speaker 1: a commission from Governor Johnson to carry out the capture
Speaker 1: and arrest of Steed Bonnet and the crew of the
Speaker 1: Royal James. Meanwhile, from further up the waterway, Steed Bonnet
Speaker 1: held his spyglass to his eye and squinted at the
Speaker 1: blurry shapes he saw bobbing in the distance. Now, he
Speaker 1: may not have been the most experienced pirate, but Bonnet
Speaker 1: was at least sure that the masses he saw were
Speaker 1: ships merchant vessels, if he was not mistaken, and it
Speaker 1: was under that assumption that Bonnet sent three canoes full
Speaker 1: of his crew to go off and capture the mysterious
Speaker 1: merchant ships in the river mouth. However, as his men
Speaker 1: drifted closer, the sight of the British Naval flag quickly
Speaker 1: enlightened bonnet crew as to the reality of their situation.
Speaker 1: The men hastily scrambled to turn around and sail back
Speaker 1: to warn their captain about the imminent attack. But when
Speaker 1: they returned, they realized that the Royal Navy's ships behind
Speaker 1: them weren't moving at all. In fact, act, it seemed
Speaker 1: as though one of the vessels was stalled in the
Speaker 1: opening of the estuary. Aboard the British naval ship, the Henry,
Speaker 1: poor Colonel Rhett was having a rough day. With Bonnet
Speaker 1: in his sights. The Henry sped towards its target, only
Speaker 1: to be abruptly jarred to a halt as its hull
Speaker 1: scraped the bottom of the Cape Fear River. Without any
Speaker 1: way to free itself from its sandy prison, the Henry
Speaker 1: transformed from dangerous adversary to only slightly intimidating art installation.
Speaker 1: As the tide continued to drop lower and lower, and
Speaker 1: so with the British Navy stuck in the entrance to
Speaker 1: the harbor and Bonnet and his men unable to flee
Speaker 1: due to rhet blocking their only escape route, all parties
Speaker 1: were forced to angrily brood in their respective corners until
Speaker 1: the moon inevitably turned the tides in one of their favors.
Speaker 1: By the time the Henry finally managed to get itself
Speaker 1: back on the water, the sun had long since disappeared
Speaker 1: below the horizon, and even Bonnet was not so foolish
Speaker 1: as to attempt to navigate the rocky estuary in the dark. Together.
Speaker 1: He and the crew of the Royal James decided to
Speaker 1: wait until morning before taking any action, but as the
Speaker 1: moon rose, bonnet patients waned. Before long, even the crew
Speaker 1: had taken note of his erratic behavior. By the late
Speaker 1: hours of the night, the once timid aristocrat had all
Speaker 1: but vanished, eclipsed by the shadow of a man being
Speaker 1: forced to watch the last of his freedom wash away
Speaker 1: with the tide. The wounds of Blackbeard's betrayal still stung
Speaker 1: fresh in his memory, and as he and the crew
Speaker 1: of the Royal James waited for the sun to rise,
Speaker 1: Bonnet couldn't help but see treachery etched into the faces
Speaker 1: around him. With nothing else to do, Bonnet set about
Speaker 1: preparing his men for battle, assembling the forty or so
Speaker 1: men that he'd scattered amongst his three vessels, and bringing
Speaker 1: them together aboard the Royal James to defend their flagship
Speaker 1: and its captain. Predictably, some of the men were less
Speaker 1: than enthusiastic when asked to put their life on the line,
Speaker 1: to which Bonnet simply responded, quote if anyone refused to fight,
Speaker 1: he would blow their brains out. It was also at
Speaker 1: this point that, with no one left to yell at,
Speaker 1: Bonnett returned to his captain's quarters to write a letter
Speaker 1: to the Governor of South Carolina, because when in doubt,
Speaker 1: always asked to speak to the manager. In his letter,
Speaker 1: he condemned the governor for his actions against him and
Speaker 1: his crew, and he ended the message explaining that should
Speaker 1: Rhett follow through on his attack come daybreak, he would
Speaker 1: not hesitate to quote, burn and destroy all ships and
Speaker 1: vessels going in or coming out of South Carolina, but
Speaker 1: as the sun rose over the Atlantic, any words uttered
Speaker 1: by on it, written or otherwise were swiftly forgotten. The
Speaker 1: Royal James was the first to make a move, launching
Speaker 1: full speed ahead towards the Henry, hoping Rhet would take
Speaker 1: the bait and chase them out of the harbor and
Speaker 1: into the open ocean, where they would make their escape. However,
Speaker 1: in order to complete this maneuver, the Royal James was
Speaker 1: forced to avoid the Henry in the relatively narrow river
Speaker 1: mouth by binging close to the shore, which predictably was
Speaker 1: when everything once again devolved into chaos. Rhett, realizing what
Speaker 1: Bonnet was attempting to do, used the advantage of having
Speaker 1: two vessels to try to flank the Royal James on
Speaker 1: either side, only for Rhett to feel the familiar, dreaded
Speaker 1: scrape of sand below, dragging the Henry to a halt. Two.
Speaker 1: Colonel Rhett's horror, the other ships sent with him the
Speaker 1: Sea Nymph had run aground as well, meaning instead of
Speaker 1: corralling it on either side, they had given him a
Speaker 1: runway in which to sail off to freedom, except, of course,
Speaker 1: they hadn't, because, just as Bonnet gleefully came to the
Speaker 1: same conclusion and barreled forward to greet his victory upon
Speaker 1: the open ocean. The Royal James two came to a
Speaker 1: screeching halt as its hull found the warm embrace of
Speaker 1: the Cape Fear River floor, and suddenly, for the second
Speaker 1: time in twenty four hours, Rhett and Bonnet were stuck
Speaker 1: twiddling their thumbs and staring at each other while they
Speaker 1: waited for the tide to release them from their oddly
Speaker 1: specific purgatories. However, this time, the Royal James had managed
Speaker 1: to beat itself in such a way that they were
Speaker 1: within shooting distance of the Henry, which led the crews
Speaker 1: of both vessels to fire recklessly at each other as
Speaker 1: they waited out their stalemate. Bullets and taunt were exchanged
Speaker 1: an equal measure over the following six hours, until at
Speaker 1: last fate chose the Henry to be the winner, when
Speaker 1: Rhett carefully maneuvered his ship so that the Royal James
Speaker 1: was effectively staring down the barrels of their cannons. Bonnet
Speaker 1: finally waved the white flag and surrendered himself to be
Speaker 1: taken into custody at Charlestown, but of course, Steed being Steed,
Speaker 1: he was not planning on staying there for long. For
Speaker 1: all the trouble it had taken to apprehend Steed Bonnet
Speaker 1: and bring him into custody, their welcome upon arriving in
Speaker 1: Charlestown was surprisingly underwhelming. For one, Charlestown had yet to
Speaker 1: build a suitable prison to hold the more than thirty
Speaker 1: pirates Governor Johnson now had in his custody. Improvising, the
Speaker 1: Governor had Bonnet crew put in a spare, one story
Speaker 1: building in town until they could organize their trials. However, Bonnet,
Speaker 1: whether it was due to his I've never slept in
Speaker 1: any less than silk attitude or because they didn't want
Speaker 1: him plotting something nefarious with his men, was intentionally isolated
Speaker 1: and put into the care of South Carolina's Provost, Marshal
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Partridge, who imprisoned him in his own home, which
Speaker 1: meant that while Bonnets thirty men were detained in some
Speaker 1: decrepit shack with barely a chamber pot split between them,
Speaker 1: Bonnet suffered silently in the private guest quarters of a
Speaker 1: prominent South Carolina government official. Imagine, but Steve didn't have
Speaker 1: to suffer alone. For long. Soon the prosecution had managed
Speaker 1: to turn two of bonnet crew into key witnesses in
Speaker 1: exchange for clemency. As such, they were then separated from
Speaker 1: the rest of the crew and consequently sent to partridge
Speaker 1: is Home to await trial. At least Bonnet's boatswin Ignacious
Speaker 1: Pell was the other man set to testify for the prosecution.
Speaker 1: A man named David Harriet arrived at part Ridges home
Speaker 1: but quickly began conspiring with Bonnet. Like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: Bonnet was never planning on staying imprisoned for long, and
Speaker 1: so three weeks after his initial arrest, Bonnet and Harriet
Speaker 1: slipped out past the heavily bribed guards surrounding the Partridge
Speaker 1: estate and escaped into the night. Some historians report that
Speaker 1: the two men dressed in women's clothing as disguises, which
Speaker 1: I'm inclined to believe is true, if only because bonnets
Speaker 1: previous lifestyle choices leaned towards the more theatrical. But regardless,
Speaker 1: Harriet and Bonnet managed to make it to the small
Speaker 1: canoe that they'd arranged for, and they sailed quietly out
Speaker 1: of Charlestown Harbor. Now, if Governor Johnson had thought he
Speaker 1: was angry at the idea of Steed Bonnet lounging beachside
Speaker 1: on the shores of Cape Fear River. That was nothing
Speaker 1: compared to what he felt upon getting word that Bonnet
Speaker 1: had escaped custody, and after a week spent sending search
Speaker 1: party after search party out to no avail, the Governor's
Speaker 1: fuse was burning dangerously short. Desperate to begin Bonnets trial,
Speaker 1: the Governor put out a reward for seven hundred pounds
Speaker 1: for bonnets capture, and once again Colonel Rhett was sent
Speaker 1: out to scavenge the land for any and all traces
Speaker 1: of the dread gentleman pirate. Ultimately, in typical Steed fashion,
Speaker 1: his demise came from his own hand, or rather his pen.
Speaker 1: While it's true that Bonnet had successfully escaped without a trace,
Speaker 1: that didn't mean he'd managed to get very far. The
Speaker 1: canoe that he and Harriet had disappeared into the night
Speaker 1: with had only taken them to the edge of the
Speaker 1: Charlestown Harbor, to a place called Sullivan's Island. They're the
Speaker 1: man who supplied them. The canoe was meant to have
Speaker 1: secured them a sloop to actually escape on, Only that
Speaker 1: ship never came and after a week without word, Bonnet
Speaker 1: was tired of waiting and decided to take matters into
Speaker 1: his own hands. He confronted his adversary the only way
Speaker 1: he knew how, with a strongly worded letter. After dotting
Speaker 1: his eyes and crossing his tees with what I imagined
Speaker 1: to be slightly more aggression than was probably called for,
Speaker 1: Bonnet sent off his letter of complaint about the contract
Speaker 1: for his slut, but it would never reach the ship seller. Instead,
Speaker 1: the note would fall into the hands of Colonel Rhett, and,
Speaker 1: following an altercation that left Harriet and two others dead,
Speaker 1: Bonnet ultimately handed himself in for the final time, with
Speaker 1: little other choice but to face the court that would
Speaker 1: ultimately decide his fate. Given his proclivity for reading, it
Speaker 1: stands to reason that in another life, Bonnet could have
Speaker 1: abandoned his family's sugar plantation for law school instead of piracy.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't this life, and Steve Bonnet in the
Speaker 1: courtroom was his own worst enemy. The one witness the
Speaker 1: prosecution still had the Royal James's boat swayed. Ignacious Pell
Speaker 1: tried to protect Bonnet as best he could. When asked
Speaker 1: if Bonnet was their Commander in chief, pell answered, much
Speaker 1: to the annoyance of the prosecution, he went by that name,
Speaker 1: but the Quartermaster had more power than he. The entirety
Speaker 1: of Bonnet's trial proceedings are available for free online, so
Speaker 1: I won't go into too much detail, but I will
Speaker 1: say it's both impressive and kind of funny that the
Speaker 1: judge's tone of increasing exasperation comes through so clearly, even
Speaker 1: three years after the fact. At one point, an incident
Speaker 1: of the Royal James steeling upwards of twenty barrels of
Speaker 1: molasses was brought into evidence, leading the judge to ask
Speaker 1: the question on everyone's mind, what need had you of
Speaker 1: so much molasses, to which Bonnet replied cryptically quote, I
Speaker 1: did not carry it away, and it was contrary to
Speaker 1: my inclination. I like to imagine the judge had been
Speaker 1: wearing glasses all day just so that at that moment
Speaker 1: he could have taken them off and pinched the bridge
Speaker 1: of his nose between his fingers, trying to hold it together.
Speaker 1: When he repeated back to him, you gave orders for
Speaker 1: it to be done, and yet it was contrary to
Speaker 1: your inclinations or other highlights, like Bonnet claiming innocence about
Speaker 1: a rate of another sloop due to him having been
Speaker 1: asleep at the time, but ultimately it was a futile effort.
Speaker 1: On November tenth, seventeen eighteen, the jury found Steed Bonnet guilty,
Speaker 1: and two days later the judge sentenced him to death.
Speaker 1: On December tenth, Steve Bonnet found himself putting one foot
Speaker 1: in front of the other as he stepped up the
Speaker 1: gallows at the White Point Garden in Charlestown. When he
Speaker 1: looked out at the crowd assembled to witness his final moments,
Speaker 1: he had no choice but to finally face the consequences
Speaker 1: of the life he had chosen for himself. I consider
Speaker 1: that I speak to a person, the judge had said
Speaker 1: to him on the day of his sentencing, whose offenses
Speaker 1: have proceeded not so much from his not knowing as
Speaker 1: his slating and neglecting his duty. There was no more
Speaker 1: running for Steed, no more starting over. No amount of
Speaker 1: money or charming naivete could save him. Now, as the
Speaker 1: noose tightened around his neck, Steed Bonnet, the gentleman pirate,
Speaker 1: cast his eyes on the horizon, just as he had
Speaker 1: a year and a half earlier, sailing aboard the freshly
Speaker 1: christened Revenge awaiting fate. That was the sad end to
Speaker 1: the unintentionally funny life of Steed Bonnet. But stick around
Speaker 1: after a brief sponsor break to hear what happened to
Speaker 1: black Beard after he and Bonnet parted ways. Given how
Speaker 1: much of a household name black Beard is compared to
Speaker 1: Steve Bonnet, it may surprise you to learn that his
Speaker 1: pirating career was roughly the same length as our gentleman pirates.
Speaker 1: After leaving the Revengeance crew to die on an island
Speaker 1: near Topsail Inlet, Blackbeard went to the one place Bonnet
Speaker 1: least expected, bath North Carolina. Yes, teach also went to
Speaker 1: get himself a pardon from the governor. Only he went
Speaker 1: one step further, befriending the governor and gaining a privateering
Speaker 1: commission so that he could continue to pillage and plunder,
Speaker 1: but under the protection of the law. The governor of Virginia, though,
Speaker 1: was not a fan of Blackbeard, and after the well
Speaker 1: publicized antics he and Bonnet had pulled, he was it
Speaker 1: to see Blackbeard brought to justice. The Governor of Virginia
Speaker 1: sent a man named Lieutenant Reynard Off with two slopes
Speaker 1: to Okracoke Island, where they had received word that Blackbeard
Speaker 1: and his men were hiding out with many of teachers men,
Speaker 1: including his second in command, Israel, hands on business inland.
Speaker 1: Blackbeard found himself at a disadvantage when the fight with
Speaker 1: Maynard began. After massive carnage sustained on both sides from
Speaker 1: cannon and gunfire, the fight was ultimately one by Maynard.
Speaker 1: His secret strategy had been sending the majority of his
Speaker 1: men below deck just before they were boarded by Blackbeard's men.
Speaker 1: The ensuing surprise attack cost Edward Teach his life, and
Speaker 1: on November twenty second, seventeen eighteen, Blackbeard was killed by
Speaker 1: five bullet wounds and around twenty cuts laid across his body.
Speaker 1: Maynard would then famously decapitate him and hang his head
Speaker 1: from the front of his ship, only for it later
Speaker 1: to be put on a stake at the entrance to
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Bay as a warning for other pirates who sailed by.
Speaker 1: It's somehow oddly fitting that a man whose life and
Speaker 1: death have been aggrandized to such mythological proportions should sit
Speaker 1: side by side in history with someone as ostensibly unremarkable
Speaker 1: as Steed Bonnet. In the end, both men only engaged
Speaker 1: in piracy for around two years, a blink of an
Speaker 1: eye in the course of the three centuries that we've
Speaker 1: spent talking about them since. Despite having polar opposite personalities
Speaker 1: on paper, there are legends that Blackbeard would light slow
Speaker 1: burning fuses and then carefully placed them in his beard
Speaker 1: to make it look as though he existed in a
Speaker 1: halo of thick black smoke. And if that doesn't scream
Speaker 1: Steed Bonnet theatrical tendencies, then I don't know what does.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's all just legend, but maybe there's a
Speaker 1: rea in their stories have been inextricably tied together over
Speaker 1: the centuries. Maybe those two men who sailed out for
Speaker 1: adventure or freedom or money were more similar than history
Speaker 1: gives them credit for. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wartz. Additional writing
Speaker 1: and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward,
Speaker 1: Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by
Speaker 1: rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: H