WEBVTT - Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:05.240 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio, and Grim 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:22.160 and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion, advised, genius or insanity. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.599 Those were Edward teaches two working theories as to why 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.479 the quaint sixty ton sloop known as the Revenge was 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.920 currently anchored in a small pirate harbor off the coast 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:38.320 of the Bahamas. Mere days after the Revenge's arrival, the 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.320 docks were already a buzz with rumors and speculation about 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.440 the ship, primarily because of the state in which it 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:50.240 had sailed into port, or more accurately washed into port. 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:55.280 The vessels still bore the scars of its most recent misadventure. 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:59.880 Red stains and splintered wood marred the Revenge's deck only 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.560 hastily wiped away by what little remained of their crew. 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.360 If Edward Teach was being honest, he was surprised the 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.920 Revenge was still afloat at all. There was almost no 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:15.560 scenario in which a glorified dinghy like the Revenge, really 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.959 any pirate ship at all, should have survived a run 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.920 in with a goliath like that of a Spanish warship 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.679 at the time seventeen seventeen. A typical government sanctioned man 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.320 of war could have easily held well over one hundred guns. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:37.040 The Revenge had ten, though after the devastating defeat against 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.160 the Spanish warship, the Revenge's eccentric captain made sure to 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.240 outfit their artillery with an additional two guns, you know, 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.880 to make up for losing half the crew and nearly 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.760 his own life. Which brought Edward Teach back to his 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.880 original question and the reason he found himself knocking on 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:01.200 the door to the Revenge's captain's quarters. Was it genius 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.040 or insanity that had led this captain to steer his 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:10.720 crew to almost certain death? The answer, of course, was 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.840 the one theory Teach had not thought to consider in 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.880 the first place, stupidity. It was past the captain's doors 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.919 and into his private residence that Teach found himself standing 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.799 face to face with the fanciful night shirts and vast 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:33.040 collection of books adorning the cabin of one Steed Bonnet, or, 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.640 as he would one day come to be known, the 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:41.280 Gentleman Pirate. Today, the name Steed Bonnet is often relegated 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.200 to a footnote amongst the larger legends associated with the 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:50.400 quote Golden Age of piracy until a recent television series 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.400 on HBO Max. He was almost entirely forgotten by all 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.800 but the most passionate students of eighteenth century history. His 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.560 import had really only ever been measured by the interactions 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.680 he had with more infamous pirates. But to Edward Teach 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:11.000 in that moment, Steve Bonnet was no such footnote. He 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.400 was an idiot, sure, but more than that, he was 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:19.800 a mystery, an opportunity. For so long, Teach had only 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.040 been a part of other men's crews, just waiting for 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.040 the day he could take on a ship and a 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.840 crew of his own, And now suddenly here he stood 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:35.080 next to the incompetent oaf who was unknowingly handing Teach 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.000 his freedom and his future on a silver platter. Bonnet 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.119 had a ship, but he needed a crew, and frankly, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.080 he needed a captain to lead them while he healed 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.920 from his injuries. What happened once his wounds healed would 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.480 be an issue for a later date, when he was 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.400 sure he could handle. As he continued to stare at 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.360 the spectacle of a man before him, and for the 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.240 first time since stepping on board, Teach felt the lips 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:08.040 he hid under his considerable beard pull into a genuine smile. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:12.280 He held out his hand to the captain and introduced himself, 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.560 not by his given name, but by the name borne 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.880 out of years of infamy on the high seas, a 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:23.000 name that sent even the most fearsome of foes cowering 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:29.160 in their boots. He introduced himself as Blackbeard. The two 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.960 shook hands and made their deal. Blackbeard would take the 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:38.560 revenge temporarily while steed Bonnet healed. But unbeknownst to them, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.680 with that handshake also came the promise of their end, 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.039 for by the end of December the following year, both 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:52.040 pirates would be dead. But as Blackbeard stared at steed Bonnet, 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.200 clad in ruffles and what he was sure was a 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.440 posture held only by those raised sucking on silver spoons, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.960 the infamous pirate captain couldn't help but imagine a different 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.200 life for himself, one where he stood at the helm 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.599 of a mighty ship and the horizon was suddenly within reach. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:31.719 I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. Given that 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:36.640 the name itself is gilded, it's hard not to romanticize 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.080 the era we've come to recognize as the Golden Age 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.760 of piracy. Little more than a skull and crossbones is 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.320 needed before our subconscious starts humming shanties and conjuring pictures 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:53.080 of open oceans and overflowing treasure chests. But the reality, 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.560 as per usual, was not as carefree as a drunkenly 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.919 stumbling Jack Sparrow might have you believe. The life of 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.880 a pirate was not one chosen lightly. In fact, it 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.359 was rarely chosen at all. Most crew members found themselves 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:14.280 forced into this sort of life through dire financial straits. 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.520 It was also common for black men to use piracy 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.400 as a means to escape the Atlantic slave trade. That's 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.680 not to say that life at sea was free from 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.880 racial prejudice, but a life of poverty on a ship 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.400 as a freeman was still preferable to life as a 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.880 slave on the mainland. So while we often pair the 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:38.560 title pirate with the likes of Orlando Bloom, in reality 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:43.560 it was much less swashbuckling rogue saving swooning maidens, and 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.440 more desperate fugitives doing whatever they could to stay alive 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.800 and not behind bars or enslaved, which is perhaps why 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.039 the story of Steed Bonnet, the man who actively chose 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.760 to abandon his life of luxury to take up a 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:03.080 life of piracy continues to confound and fascinate us to 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.719 this day. But before anyone had ever heard of the 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.760 gentleman pirate, Steed was just a boy born into your 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.600 typical wealthy land owning family profiting off slave labor in 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:20.520 early eighteenth century Barbados. Due to his parents' early deaths. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.760 By the age of six, Bonnet had inherited his family's estate, 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.680 which boasted over four hundred acres of sugar crops, a 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.440 mill dedicated to the production of cane sugar, and over 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.600 ninety enslaved laborers, along with a litany of servants who 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:41.560 catered to Steed's every need. Given little other choice, Bonnet 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.160 was raised to follow the course his parent's life had 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.520 set out for him. And even though there is no 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.280 historical basis for it, I like to imagine a tiny 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.760 six year old Seed Bonnet sitting at his father's desk 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.600 in his newly inherited study, his stubby legs still too 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.200 short to reach the floor, swinging idle beneath the table 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.520 while he stares at Ledger after Leger, trying to make 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:08.200 sense of his late father sugar enterprise, only to remember 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.640 that he can't read more likely, the business affairs of 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.520 the Bonnet estate were taken over by Steed's next of 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.160 kin until he came of age, but that by no 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.280 means changes the fact that Steed was born and raised 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.840 to believe that the Barbadian sugar trade would be his future. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.080 At twenty one, he married a young woman whose family 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.600 also came from the Barbadian social elite, but apart from 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.960 that and the four children they had together, the couple 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.720 would have little else in common. Then again, Bonnet held 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.280 little in common with most of the members of the 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.480 high society life he had been born into. He may 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.080 have technically been made a major in the Barbadian militia 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.480 due mostly to his status as a slaveholder and landowner, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.040 but his interests quickly became skewed towards the enemies of 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.320 the militia that he was set to defend against. The 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.560 Careers of pirates at this time were far from private, 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:06.480 and Bonnet, the bookish scholar that he was, made sure 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.120 to keep himself exceptionally up to date on any and 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:14.200 all things pirate. He was a militia man, after all, 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.840 and in some reports, even a justice of the peace. 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.520 He had to be aware of the villains washing up 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:26.080 on their shores, at least until he became one himself. Now, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.600 there are many conflicting theories as to why Bonnet began 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.760 his pirate exploits. Some say the impetus for his escape 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.920 from high society stemmed from his poor relationship with his wife, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.640 But I do think it's important to note that there 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.880 is little information on the exact nature of Bonnet's relationship 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.880 with his wife, and the reports we do have are questionable. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.520 Some sources call his wife quote nagging, while others, like 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.959 Charles Johnson in his seventeen twenty four publication A General 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.400 History of Pirates, merely cited quote some discomforts he found 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.480 in a married state. Other scholars suggest Bonnet may have 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.240 been suffering from some form of mental illness. However, this 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.560 leads us into the murky waters of posthumous diagnoses, which 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:20.960 remains largely unhelpful when contextualizing Bonnet's story on a larger scale. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.320 The truth is we will never know the real reason 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.720 Bonnet chose to abandon the comforts of his affluent life. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:32.320 It's easy to point fingers at nagging wives or mental 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.640 illness to come to conclusions, but ultimately those reasons are 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.600 built off assumptions and biases that lack anything close to 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:45.120 actual supported evidence. All this to say, Steed could have 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.840 succumbed to the pressures associated with any and all of 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.320 the aforementioned stressors in his life, but he could have 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:57.479 just as likely been having the world's most extreme midlife crisis. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.079 And while Bonnet may have made up his mind to 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.680 leave his old life behind, that by no means meant 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.440 that he had any sort of idea what he was 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.400 actually doing. All Bonnet really knew was that in order 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.959 to become a pirate, he needed two things, a ship 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:20.120 and a crew. The former was acquired simply enough. Bonnet's 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.320 pockets were deep enough to encourage the builders to turn 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.160 the blind eye to the eccentric aristocrat who demanded a 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.520 library be built into the captain's quarters of his ship. 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.840 Finding a crew was a harder sell. A pirate crew 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.480 was typically bought in the same way a pirate ship 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.640 would be on the high seas, through theft or mutiny. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:45.440 But since Bonnet had decided to forego traditional pirate code 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.680 and build himself a ship of his own, getting a 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.640 crew to work under him, a land lubber with exactly 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.920 zero experience out on open ocean was a recipe for disaster. 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.000 But far be it from Bonnet to let something out 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.920 as inconsequential as inexperienced keep him from following through on 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:11.079 a truly terrible idea. His solution a fair wage. Seeing 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.080 as he was perpetually one small misstep away from having 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.600 his crew replace him with a captain who was far 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.400 more capable, Bonnet made the one move he suspected would 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.760 keep them in his favor. On a normal pirate ship, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.680 crew members were paid a percentage of the plunder they received, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:34.679 but Bonnet, aware of his already unorthodox method of acquiring 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.240 his ship, doubled down to match the needs of his crew. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.000 With a steady income, they would be less likely to 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:47.959 replace him with someone better. And so, in spring seventeen seventeen, 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:53.120 with his shiny new boat, begrudgingly acceptant crew, and an 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.680 over abundance of unearned confidence, Steed Bonnet set sail from 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.440 Barbados on the vessel he had named for probably no 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.280 other reason other than that he thought it sounded cool. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.440 The revenge now, whether it was due to his cruise 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.040 knowledge of the trade or the universe taking pity on him, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.640 Bonnet's initial venture into piracy went surprisingly well. The Revenge 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:23.480 successfully overtook upwards of eight ships of varying sizes, stripping 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.439 each of their valuables before they swiftly moved on to 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.600 their next target. He only stopped if he wanted to 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.560 set fire to a ship he plundered, a practice that 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:36.200 he suspiciously only acted upon when the ship was native 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.720 to Barbados. Some historians theorized that Bonnet may not have 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.920 wanted news of his criminal activities reaching home, but soon 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.080 enough no amount of arson could keep tales of the 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.600 Revenge's exploits at bay. Despite his string of early successes, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.640 Bonnet's lucky streak officially came to an end in September 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.040 seventeen seventeen, when he and his crew came face to 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:06.199 face with a Spanish man of war. After a skirmish 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.640 that left the Revenge with half its crew and more 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.280 or less half a captain, the remaining men made the 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.680 decision to head towards the known pirate harbor Nasa off 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.720 the coast of the Bahamas. Cut to Edward Teach, the 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:27.000 infamous Blackbeard, staring with a mixture of disdain and awe 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.760 at the battered ship and equally battered captain. Perhaps the 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.960 most peculiar pirate he'd ever met, Steed Bonnet. Steed was 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:42.440 everything a pirate shouldn't have been, wealthy, educated, well mannered. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.200 There was no reason for him to have ended up 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.680 in a pirate harbor, both him and his ship riddled 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.480 with the scars of battle. But once Blackbeard was able 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:57.000 to look past the lavish dressing gown and entirely impractical 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:02.200 library at sea, Blackbeard saw Bonnet as the opportunity that 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.640 he was. After Bonnet's debacle with the Spanish Navy, it 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.240 was no secret that Bonnet's crew was unimpressed by their 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.680 lackluster excuse of a captain, and now that the former 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.040 aristocrat could barely leave his bed because of his injuries, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.040 it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.360 the Revenge needed a real captain. If Steed didn't appoint one, 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.120 his crew might take matters into their own hands and 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.960 make that decision for him. Luckily for Bonnet, Blackbeard was 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.560 more than happy to step into the role. After setting 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.200 sail from Nassau with its new captain at the helm, 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.080 the Revenge steadily made its way up the coast leaving 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:47.480 a trail of destruction cast carelessly behind them. Any vessel 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.320 unlucky enough to be caught in their path was subject 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.800 to the typical looting and plundering of any pirate raid. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.280 Jewels were stolen, coins were pocketed, and casks of Madeira wine, rum, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.920 and ammunition were plucked like they sat on grocery store 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.320 shelves instead of in the halls of merchant ships. But Blackbeard, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:12.280 always the overachiever, didn't stop there after he'd taken his fill. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.120 He would order his crew to dump any and all 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.720 extra cargo that they weren't planning on taking with them, 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:24.440 just because he could. And while tales of Blackbeard's villainous 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.160 exploits echoed off the walls of almost every tavern up 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.440 and down the Atlantic coast, whispers of a peculiar gentleman 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.720 draped in finery aboard the revenge were swiftly making the 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.560 round as well. In the months since his near brush 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.120 with death with the Spanish Bonnet, had recovered from the 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.840 majority of his injuries, only to find himself in the 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.840 peculiar position of being a guest in his own home. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.640 Though guests may have been too generous a term, he 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.800 may have owned the ship and paid the crew, but 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.120 he even sleeping in the captain's quarters didn't change the 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.520 fact that the Revenge was becoming more of a prison 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.680 than his lesh estate in Barbados had ever been. At 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.439 the time, seating his role as captain to Blackbeard had 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:18.720 seemed like the only logical choice, But as Bonnet grew stronger, 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.639 he also became acutely aware that his crew had little, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.800 if any remaining loyalty to him, not that this was 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.359 at all surprising. During one instance, when Bonnet was momentarily 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.200 given back control of the Revenge, the ill equipped gentleman 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:40.119 pirate threatened an oncoming merchant vessel that he and his 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.959 crew would quote do them mischief unless they came aboard 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.120 and shared a meal with them, not exactly the type 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.520 of behavior that instills fear and loyalty in pirate ranks. 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.280 When the crew all but begged Blackbeard to stay on 0:17:55.440 --> 0:18:00.159 as captain, Bonnet felt the carefully crafted pirate fantasy he 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.479 had built for himself slipping through his fingers. Trapped aboard 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.760 a ship he'd bought to escape his former life, the 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:13.159 disgruntled former aristocrat fell into a deep depression, confiding in 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:17.200 one of his few remaining loyal crew members, his new found, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.680 though predictably familiar, desire to now leave behind his life 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:28.120 of piracy for a quieter existence abroad, maybe Spain or Portugal, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.080 his real only prerequisite being the country's protection against being 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:40.720 extradited for piracy crimes. Strangely enough, the answer to Bonnet's 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.119 prayers would come from the British Crown itself, in the 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:49.520 form of a decree called a Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates, or, 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.320 as it was better known, the Act of Grace. Across 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.040 the Atlantic, the repercussions of the quote Golden Age of 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.720 piracy were finally beginning to affect life life in England. 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.800 King George the First was facing pressure from merchants and 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.399 shareholders to enact some sort of measure to quell the 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:13.400 exponentially growing crime rate on the high Seas. Their livelihoods 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.600 were quite literally being dumped in the ocean. His solution, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:22.119 which on the surface appears slightly counterintuitive, was to offer 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.080 a pardon to any and all pirates who surrendered themselves 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.960 to the Crown before the fifth of January that year. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.159 It gave pirates like Bonnet the opportunity to turn themselves 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:38.200 in with next to no consequences save their promise never 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.280 to practice piracy against the Crown ever again. Now, if 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.639 that offer sounds a little too good to be true, 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.679 you wouldn't be the only one to think so. The 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.760 language of the proclamation made it clear that the Crown 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.600 only offered quote promise of a pardon, which, if pop 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.560 culture rhetoric has taught us anything about pirates, it's that 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.520 a promise to or or from one is about as 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.439 binding as a scrap of masking tape, or, you know, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.640 a marriage contract with Steed Bonnet. Needless to say, there 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.919 was a fair amount of skepticism in the pirate community 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:17.080 towards the King's pardon, leading some historians to theorize that Blackbeard, 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:21.240 with his general distrust of authority and recently acquired small 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.879 fleet of pirate vessels, sent Bonnet to the town of 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.800 Bath to acquire a pardon for himself as a test 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.480 before he attempted to procure one of his own. For 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.359 Bonnet's part, it didn't take much to convince him to 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:38.040 seek the pardon for himself, especially since one could argue 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:43.119 running away from his problems was historically Steed's favorite pastime. 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.040 It probably took even less convincing for Bonnet to leave 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.520 his ship and his crew in the care of Blackbeard. 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.600 As he set sail on a small dinghy inland to 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.800 settle his affairs. Maybe he even waved back to his 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.920 crew as they grew into small dots on the horizon, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.640 as he felt the weight he'd been holding on to 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:05.960 as a pseudo captain turned guest turned prisoner, lifting with 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:10.680 every inch he floated closer to land. But Steed's old 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.119 crew aboard The Revenge wouldn't have seen the small hand 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.200 waving toward them in the distance. No, just a Steed 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.440 Bonnet stepped on land toward what he was sure would 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.520 be a brighter future. His old hired crew was just 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:30.960 realizing that Blackbeard and Blackbeard's own pre Revenge crew had 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:37.720 just turned their weapons against them. Now, if there was 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.160 an official rule book on how to be a pirate, 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.280 I imagine the first rule would be printed in all 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:48.199 caps across the front page, bolded, highlighted, and double underlined, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.720 never trust a pirate. Unfortunately, for Bonnet, such a book 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.400 was not held in his fully stocked library aboard The Revenge, 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:02.040 and Blackbeard wasted no time taking advantage of bonnet ignorance 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.439 to strip the Revenge of any and all things of 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:12.280 value to their horror. This unfortunately included Bonnet's original crew, who, 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.560 thanks to the very captain they had so very recently 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.360 switched their allegiance to, were left marooned on an island 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.680 near Topsail Inlet, off the coast of North Carolina. Because, 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:27.040 of course, Blackbeard was the type of petty not only 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.080 to strip the Revenge clean of everything save a few 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.080 barrels of food, but to take his crew just to 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.720 maroon them on an island so that Bonnet couldn't have them. 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.520 When Blackbeard initially took command of the Revenge, he had 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:43.600 managed to assemble one hundred and fifty men after the 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.960 Spanish navy had all but decimated Bonnet's already modest crew 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:52.360 of seventy five. But as rumor of the Revenge's exploits spread, 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.399 soon even the men they were robbing were begging to 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:59.359 join their company. In one instance, upon crossing paths with 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.359 the Revenge, a merchant ship willingly surrendered and pledged their 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:07.080 loyalty to Blackbeard rather than suffer the consequences of their 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:10.800 most likely imminent demise. As time went on, what had 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:14.200 started as a mere one hundred and fifty aboard one 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.720 lone damaged ship, mounted to upwards of four hundred men, 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:23.000 spread across several vessels. And while this may have sounded 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:26.359 like a good thing, Bonnets and by extent, the Revenge's 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:30.720 dead weight was becoming more apparent by the day, especially 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:34.960 since any raid Blackbeard undertook had to be split amongst 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.879 all of his crew, and plunder shared four hundred ways 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:42.520 didn't come with the same sense of satisfaction or the 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:45.879 amount of money it would with a smaller group, And 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:50.760 since Blackbeard was essentially cleaning house after Steed, it was 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:55.680 clear that Steed's men had to go. Meanwhile, in Bath, 0:23:55.880 --> 0:24:00.080 Bonnet had successfully expunged his record of all criminal pirate activity, 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:02.760 and he was more than ready to set sail aboard 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:06.400 his ship onto the next chapter of his life. Unfortunately 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:08.800 for him, this was also the point in which he 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.920 finally noticed the metaphorical knife that had been sticking out 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:15.440 of his back ever since he'd landed on the mainland 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:20.240 when he stepped aboard the Revenge after just three days away. Remember, 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:22.679 he was always planning on coming back to his ship. 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:25.399 He just wanted to clear his pirate record. He was 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:28.640 planning on taking the ship that he owned too, wherever 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:31.879 he would live next. But he now realized he owned 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:35.280 a ghost ship. It was little more than a hollowed 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:39.879 out husk of driftwood, run aground and completely abandoned in 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:44.440 his absence. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but even Bonnet, 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:47.159 a man so fond of literature that he built a 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:50.280 library at sea, was in no mood to appreciate it. 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:53.760 Once upon a time he had named his ship the Revenge, 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:58.200 but taking stock of his empty sloop and completely missing crew, 0:24:58.600 --> 0:25:02.480 quickly changed it from name to a purpose. And when 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:06.240 he eventually found his few remaining men marooned and left 0:25:06.240 --> 0:25:10.080 to die on an uninhabited island, for once, the skeptical 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:15.040 crew and their inept gentleman pirate were in agreement. Blackbeard 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:19.240 was going to pay. Unfortunately, I have to spoil the 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:22.000 ending to this particular part of the story and tell 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:26.280 you Blackbeard did not pay, at least not by Bonnet's hands. 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:30.360 As great the tale of the Revenge's Revenge would have been, 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:33.840 apart from a handful of near misses, the two enemy 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:38.439 captains would never cross paths again in their lifetime. Bonnett, however, 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:41.560 didn't know this yet, and quickly made it his life's 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.480 mission to make Blackbeard suffer for his treachery for turning 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:50.520 the Revenge into a Blackbeard franchise and then completely abandoning it. 0:25:51.280 --> 0:25:54.960 The first amongst a series of hiccups in Steve Bonnet's 0:25:55.000 --> 0:25:59.560 plans proved to be the most problematic one. Technically, he 0:25:59.720 --> 0:26:03.520 was no longer a pirate, at least he wasn't supposed 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:06.600 to be according to the terms of his pardon. The 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:10.119 ink had barely dried on Bonnet's pardon before he was 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:15.280 already about to break the only term of his agreement. Granted, 0:26:15.280 --> 0:26:18.639 he was given little other choice. Blackbeard had left the 0:26:18.680 --> 0:26:22.080 Revenge with nothing but a few casks of food, and 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:25.920 after failing to secure a privateering commission from the governor 0:26:25.960 --> 0:26:29.440 following his pardon, Bonnet forged a head the only way 0:26:29.480 --> 0:26:34.480 he knew how. This time, Bonnet began conducting his pirate 0:26:34.520 --> 0:26:38.679 business under the name Captain Thomas and sailing a ship 0:26:38.720 --> 0:26:42.200 that looked remarkably similar to the Revenge, but was instead 0:26:42.280 --> 0:26:46.880 named the Royal James. And to ensure that bonnet activities 0:26:46.960 --> 0:26:50.159 were relatively above board, he made sure that all of 0:26:50.200 --> 0:26:54.320 his run ins with merchant vessels were classified as trades, 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:57.320 even if he stole everything but the shirts off their 0:26:57.359 --> 0:27:01.199 backs in exchange for maybe a small parcel of rice or, 0:27:01.320 --> 0:27:05.639