1
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,240
Speaker 1: Hello everyone. It is Saturday, and today's episode is going

2
00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:09,720
Speaker 1: back to It's an episode about a man who suddenly

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:14,080
Speaker 1: turned to piracy after a life of education and privilege.

4
00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,680
Speaker 1: It's Steve Bonnett, whose story intersects with black Beard, which

5
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,200
Speaker 1: makes him pretty interesting, and whose career as a pirate

6
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: was relatively short. The day this episode comes out is

7
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:27,800
Speaker 1: also the three hundred anniversary of his being put on

8
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:34,560
Speaker 1: trial for piracy. So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you missed

9
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: in History class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello,

10
00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,760
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm from and I'm Tracy V. Wilson,

11
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,559
Speaker 1: and today we're gonna talk about something that's come up

12
00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,040
Speaker 1: on the podcast before, which is piracy. But we're going

13
00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,120
Speaker 1: to talk about a pirate that doesn't always get a

14
00:00:55,120 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: lot of play in history and retellings. Uh. It's Steve

15
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,400
Speaker 1: Bonnet who was often referred to as the gentleman pirate. Right.

16
00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:05,399
Speaker 1: This is a pirate that that I have heard about

17
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:07,680
Speaker 1: because I grew up in North Carolina. And if you

18
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,240
Speaker 1: grow up in North Carolina, often you hear a lot

19
00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,520
Speaker 1: about pirates. Yeah, and he his career, you know, intersected

20
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:18,479
Speaker 1: with North Carolina many times, and so he has often

21
00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,160
Speaker 1: heard about there and in some of the nautical museums there.

22
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,200
Speaker 1: But it's like the further inland you get from North Carolina,

23
00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,160
Speaker 1: the less unless you hear about him. Uh. He had

24
00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:30,200
Speaker 1: a very short career in piracy, and it was really

25
00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: out of character for him. He was a retired military

26
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,520
Speaker 1: man even though he was quite young, and then he

27
00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:41,680
Speaker 1: sort of seemingly suddenly left his family to pursue this

28
00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:46,600
Speaker 1: life of piracy. And historians have theorized about what caused this.

29
00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,600
Speaker 1: Some say it could have actually been a midlife crisis

30
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,600
Speaker 1: of some sort. Uh, it could have been the result

31
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,400
Speaker 1: of financial issues. It could have been brought about by

32
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,360
Speaker 1: a mental break. Uh. And what's really interesting is it

33
00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,160
Speaker 1: his story is actually tied to Blackbeard, but Bonnet is

34
00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,280
Speaker 1: often left out of the accounts of it of blackbeards happenings,

35
00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,760
Speaker 1: or he's just sort of mentioned in passing. But he

36
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,280
Speaker 1: is really fascinating because he had this educated demeanor and

37
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,160
Speaker 1: he was very stylish, and it earned him this nickname

38
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:22,400
Speaker 1: the Gentleman Pirate. Bonnett was born in sixteen eighty in Barbados.

39
00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:26,200
Speaker 1: His great grandfather was one of Barbados's first English settlers,

40
00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,320
Speaker 1: and he was actually orphaned as a child. Even though

41
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:31,160
Speaker 1: he was born to a good family, he was not

42
00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,520
Speaker 1: without uh, you know, difficulty. But he inherited a four

43
00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:38,480
Speaker 1: d acre estate that was managed for him by a

44
00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:43,120
Speaker 1: guardian until he reached adulthood. He married Mary Alamby, who

45
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,680
Speaker 1: was also from a wealthy plantation family, in seventeen o nine,

46
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:48,880
Speaker 1: so that was when he was about twenty one, and

47
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,960
Speaker 1: he retired from military life to run a sugar plantation

48
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,240
Speaker 1: in Barbados. And he spent a little less than a

49
00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,200
Speaker 1: decade after leaving the military kind of making a go

50
00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,960
Speaker 1: at family life and you know, running the plantation. But

51
00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:08,000
Speaker 1: that was all he could handle, apparently. In a General

52
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,000
Speaker 1: History of the Pirates from their first rise and settlement

53
00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 1: of the Island of Providence to the present time, which

54
00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: was written by Captain Charles Johnson and sometimes attributed to

55
00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:22,920
Speaker 1: Daniel Dafoe and first published in sev it is written

56
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,639
Speaker 1: of Bonnet he had the least temptation of any man

57
00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 1: to follow such a course of life. From the condition

58
00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:33,120
Speaker 1: of his circumstances. It was very surprising to everyone to

59
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,000
Speaker 1: hear of the major's enterprise in the island where he

60
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,520
Speaker 1: lived and he and as he was generally esteemed and

61
00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,080
Speaker 1: honored before he broke out into open acts of piracy,

62
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:48,280
Speaker 1: for he was afterwards rather pitied than condemned. So at

63
00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:51,320
Speaker 1: the time, during the seventeen teens, it really was not

64
00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:55,360
Speaker 1: unheard of for people to turn to piracy in desperation

65
00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,280
Speaker 1: or in a bid to fight the establishment and the

66
00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,280
Speaker 1: growing gap between the rich and the poor, or But

67
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,760
Speaker 1: Bonnett was an educated man from a good family, so

68
00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,640
Speaker 1: it initially does seem kind of incongruous to think of

69
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,040
Speaker 1: him in those terms, But there are some clues about

70
00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 1: why he actually may have changed the course of his life.

71
00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:18,000
Speaker 1: Some historians have suggested that he was probably a supporter

72
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,080
Speaker 1: of James Stewart as King of England and felt a

73
00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,400
Speaker 1: sense of rebellion against the German born George the First,

74
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,040
Speaker 1: so Jacobite politics may have played a part in that

75
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,560
Speaker 1: decision in his decision to become a pirate. And it's

76
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,640
Speaker 1: also worth noting that Bonnet borrowed about seventeen hundred pounds,

77
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: which is the equivalent of roughly four hundred thousand dollars today,

78
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,279
Speaker 1: around seventeen seventeen, so it's possible that he was having

79
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,640
Speaker 1: financial troubles or that the plantation wasn't going well although

80
00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,039
Speaker 1: it's also possible he wanted the money to start his

81
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,800
Speaker 1: pirate enterprise. Nobody's going to loan your money to start

82
00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:54,760
Speaker 1: a pirate business. He didn't tell people that's what he

83
00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:58,760
Speaker 1: was doing. On a more sad note, his firstborn son

84
00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,159
Speaker 1: died as a baby, some believed to have catalyzed a

85
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: mental break. He was also said to have experienced some

86
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,719
Speaker 1: quote discomforts he found in a married state. So, in

87
00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 1: other words, some historians theorized that he was nagged so

88
00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:16,800
Speaker 1: much that he ran away to be a pirate. So

89
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:20,040
Speaker 1: his start in the world of piracy is really unusual.

90
00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,880
Speaker 1: He actually had his ship, which he called Revenge, built

91
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,400
Speaker 1: and outfitted with cannons at a local Barbados shipyard, and

92
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:33,280
Speaker 1: he started that around seventeen sixteen. Colin Woodard, who is

93
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:36,440
Speaker 1: the author of the book The Republic of Pirates, posits

94
00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,279
Speaker 1: that Bonnet likely told people the ship was intended for

95
00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,520
Speaker 1: a legitimate privateering plan. And I know to some people

96
00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,479
Speaker 1: privateering and piracy have sort of become a little bit interchangeable,

97
00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:50,800
Speaker 1: but there is a nuance of difference there. So just

98
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,560
Speaker 1: in case you do not know, the distinction is that

99
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,160
Speaker 1: privateers are acting on behalf of a governing nation, while

100
00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,520
Speaker 1: pirates don't really answer to anybody, but their methods are

101
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,040
Speaker 1: virtually identical in many cases, which has kind of fueled

102
00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:08,479
Speaker 1: the confusion of the interchangeability of those words. In any case,

103
00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:12,720
Speaker 1: instead of contracting with the government, Bonnet made a nighttime

104
00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,760
Speaker 1: departure on the ship Revenge in April of seventeen seventeen,

105
00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,360
Speaker 1: and under cover of night he had he headed toward

106
00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:23,320
Speaker 1: North America, calling himself Captain Edwards. And this is a

107
00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:27,400
Speaker 1: good time to mention that Bonnet had no knowledge about seafaring.

108
00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,760
Speaker 1: He was really sort of a land lover, uh, And

109
00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,760
Speaker 1: so it's unusual and bizarre. It just kind of feeds

110
00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:38,440
Speaker 1: that whole image of him as one of those like,

111
00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:41,279
Speaker 1: why why did you do this? You're making a really

112
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:43,760
Speaker 1: rash decision, even though he clearly had planned ahead to

113
00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:47,159
Speaker 1: some degree. Well. And it's also unusual and that most

114
00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:51,000
Speaker 1: pirates would start their career as in piracy by commandeering

115
00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:54,279
Speaker 1: another vessel. They would steal somebody else's ship, but he

116
00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,600
Speaker 1: went and built one, financed and paid for everything himself

117
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,560
Speaker 1: or maybe with this loan from before. Yeah, And he

118
00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,719
Speaker 1: first headed for the Virginia coast and he actually successfully

119
00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:12,400
Speaker 1: took several ships, but it's probably the seventy men on

120
00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:16,160
Speaker 1: his crew that really should get the credit for that

121
00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,000
Speaker 1: initial success, because some of them were pretty experienced pirates,

122
00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,480
Speaker 1: and it's unlikely that he really uh had much in

123
00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,040
Speaker 1: the way of leadership skills since he didn't know seafaring

124
00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:35,239
Speaker 1: and had never been pirating before. The revenge then headed

125
00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,400
Speaker 1: to New York and took a sloop that had been

126
00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 1: headed for the West Indies, and they landed a group

127
00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,400
Speaker 1: of men at Gardeners Island, which you may remember from

128
00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:47,280
Speaker 1: our Goody Garlic episode where they actually bought provisions instead

129
00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,080
Speaker 1: of stealing them. Yeah, so and again kind of fuels

130
00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,560
Speaker 1: that image of him as something of a gentleman that

131
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,040
Speaker 1: he's like, no, let's go buy things instead of, uh,

132
00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:01,080
Speaker 1: just plundering for what we need. But beginning in August

133
00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:03,560
Speaker 1: of that same year, so we're still in seventeen seventeen,

134
00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:07,000
Speaker 1: Captain Edwards and the Revengeance crew attacked a number of

135
00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:10,920
Speaker 1: vessels near the Charleston Harbor. But after their exploits, they

136
00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:13,560
Speaker 1: are culminated in setting fire to a sloop in a

137
00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:17,120
Speaker 1: North Carolina inlet, which he apparently did become a fan

138
00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,680
Speaker 1: of setting fire to ships after he had taken them,

139
00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:22,840
Speaker 1: Bonnet and his crew kind of couldn't decide what they

140
00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,520
Speaker 1: wanted to do for their next course of action, and

141
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:29,120
Speaker 1: they eventually made their way south to Honduras, which is

142
00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:34,280
Speaker 1: where black Beard enters the Tail. Because Bonnet wasn't really

143
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:38,720
Speaker 1: experienced in maritime affairs, he would usually yield to others,

144
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,120
Speaker 1: so when he fell into company with Edward Teach, also

145
00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,280
Speaker 1: known as black Beard, while he was in Honduras, the

146
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:50,280
Speaker 1: experienced and hardened Teach easily became the alpha male in

147
00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:55,160
Speaker 1: their relationship. Yeah, Bonnet's crew joined Blackbeards and Bonnet kind

148
00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,200
Speaker 1: of became a superfluous figure rather rapidly. Bonnet had been

149
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,520
Speaker 1: recovering from injuries at the time after a bad encounter

150
00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:04,800
Speaker 1: with a Spanish warship, and he also lost some of

151
00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:09,120
Speaker 1: his crew, and he apparently agreed to this situation thinking

152
00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,680
Speaker 1: it was a temporary setup, like, oh, you'll just handle

153
00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:15,040
Speaker 1: things while I'm not feeling well. Right, black Beard had

154
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,360
Speaker 1: something else in mine. He saw Bonnet's weakness and decided

155
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:22,000
Speaker 1: to seize command of the Revenge. Bonnet spent his time

156
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:25,599
Speaker 1: on black beard ship without anything to do, while Blackbeard's

157
00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:29,560
Speaker 1: first mate ran the Revenge and while the relationships seemed

158
00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:32,880
Speaker 1: to be friendly enough, Bonnet realized he was basically a captive,

159
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,800
Speaker 1: and he became, you know, kind of depressed and melancholy.

160
00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,960
Speaker 1: He openly told the crew that he was unhappy and

161
00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:43,200
Speaker 1: that he had tired of the pirate life and that

162
00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:45,000
Speaker 1: he would really like to start a new life in

163
00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,120
Speaker 1: Spain or Portugal because he would be quote ashamed to

164
00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:51,360
Speaker 1: see the face of any Englishman. Again. I just I

165
00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:55,160
Speaker 1: have to interject here that if I were being held

166
00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,360
Speaker 1: prisoner on black beard ship, I don't know that I

167
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,360
Speaker 1: would go around saying that I was fired at the

168
00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,720
Speaker 1: pirate life openly to people. Yeah, but accounts kind of

169
00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:06,600
Speaker 1: painted as though he was sort of endeared to the men,

170
00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:09,880
Speaker 1: and this didn't make them think any less of him,

171
00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:12,000
Speaker 1: like they almost sort of loved him more for it

172
00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,000
Speaker 1: in the various tellings of it. So whether that's true

173
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,160
Speaker 1: or not, I don't know, but I thought it was interesting. Uh.

174
00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:22,320
Speaker 1: And while these two were sailing quote together, but I

175
00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:24,240
Speaker 1: mean they were technically in the same place, but not

176
00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:27,439
Speaker 1: really partners. Uh. This is when black Beard actually took

177
00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,840
Speaker 1: the frigate La Concorde and then re christened it to

178
00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:35,240
Speaker 1: be Queen Anne's Revenge, which is his famous flagship. On

179
00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:39,199
Speaker 1: June tenth, seventeen eighteen, the Queen Ann's Revenge ran aground

180
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,200
Speaker 1: at Top Sale Inlet, which is now known as Beaufort Inlet.

181
00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,320
Speaker 1: And there's actually some debate over whether this was accidental

182
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,559
Speaker 1: or if Teach was trying to break up the four

183
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:54,200
Speaker 1: men under him. Uh, he kind of recognized that the

184
00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,000
Speaker 1: winds were changing for pirates and that maybe running in

185
00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,240
Speaker 1: a big pack was not smart. But again this is

186
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,280
Speaker 1: a matter of some historical debate. Uh. Teach was an

187
00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:07,600
Speaker 1: accomplished sailor, so it would be a little unusual for

188
00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:09,680
Speaker 1: him to be caught off guard and run aground. But

189
00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:12,840
Speaker 1: at the same time, anything's possible, So I just feel

190
00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:16,080
Speaker 1: like we should have that aside. So while the Queen

191
00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,719
Speaker 1: Han's Revenge is run aground, Bonnet went to Bath, North Carolina.

192
00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:23,320
Speaker 1: He wanted to take a pardon that had been offered

193
00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,600
Speaker 1: by the King. The King's Proclamation had come out on

194
00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:30,880
Speaker 1: September fifth, seventeen seventeen, and stated that pirates surrendering two

195
00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:36,080
Speaker 1: authorities quote, should have his most gracious pardon. But when

196
00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,840
Speaker 1: Bonnet returned to the ships, he found that Teach had

197
00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,080
Speaker 1: stripped the Revenge and abandoned more than two dozen crew

198
00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:45,600
Speaker 1: members on a small island. The stranded crew members had

199
00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:47,800
Speaker 1: believed they were doomed to die, so it's likely that

200
00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:51,720
Speaker 1: Bonnet's arrival was really quite welcome. So at this point,

201
00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:56,520
Speaker 1: having accepted the pardon, bonnets slate was clean, he invited

202
00:11:56,559 --> 00:11:59,920
Speaker 1: all the abandoned men to join him, refitted the Revenge,

203
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:03,000
Speaker 1: and renamed it the Royal James. His plan was to

204
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,319
Speaker 1: sail to St. Thomas and seek out a privateering commission,

205
00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:09,439
Speaker 1: but they never made it to St. Thomas. No, the

206
00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:11,600
Speaker 1: crew that he had invited to join him, we're all

207
00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:14,360
Speaker 1: on board with this privateering plan. But as they were

208
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,920
Speaker 1: preparing to set sail, a boat that had come up

209
00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,280
Speaker 1: against them, just meaning adjacent to them, that to sell

210
00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:24,520
Speaker 1: apples and cider to the men, actually informed them that

211
00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:27,080
Speaker 1: black Beard and a small crew of eighteen or twenty

212
00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,160
Speaker 1: men were at Okra Cooke Inlets. They were having a

213
00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 1: big party, which is famous in its own right. So

214
00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,080
Speaker 1: that's the black Beard side of the story. Uh. But

215
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,440
Speaker 1: Bonnet immediately acted upon this information and went in pursuit

216
00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:41,520
Speaker 1: of Teach because he was still kind of smarting from

217
00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,280
Speaker 1: the way things went down. After four days of looking

218
00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,480
Speaker 1: for Teach with no success, they instead headed not to St. Thomas,

219
00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:52,840
Speaker 1: but to Virginia. So it seems that his resolve to

220
00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:56,400
Speaker 1: go legit was not really that strong, no, And in

221
00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:00,160
Speaker 1: July oh seventeen eighteen, they actually took provisions, which they

222
00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,560
Speaker 1: were desperate for from another ship that they encountered, but

223
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,560
Speaker 1: they didn't want the actively recorded as piracy, so in

224
00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:09,760
Speaker 1: return they gave quote eight or ten casks of rice

225
00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,640
Speaker 1: and an old cable in lieu thereofs So they kind

226
00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:14,480
Speaker 1: of were like, we want to make this fair, even

227
00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,720
Speaker 1: though we kind of rated you, but we're not pirates.

228
00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:21,480
Speaker 1: We just need stuff. Next, the major, who was now

229
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,040
Speaker 1: going by the name Captain Thomas, and his crew encountered

230
00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:28,560
Speaker 1: a sloop off of Cape Henry and looted her for liquor.

231
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,280
Speaker 1: Bonnet sent eight men over to the sloop, theoretically to

232
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:34,560
Speaker 1: take care of the ship, but maybe to make some

233
00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:37,000
Speaker 1: kind of a deal, but they joined that crew and

234
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,560
Speaker 1: sailed away with them. And at this point, somewhere around

235
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:42,800
Speaker 1: this time, Bonnet just sort of threw all caution to

236
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,840
Speaker 1: the wind and went head first back into a life

237
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,040
Speaker 1: of piracy. He really abandoned that whole concept of privateering,

238
00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:51,880
Speaker 1: and the Royal James then made its way up and

239
00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:55,120
Speaker 1: down the Atlantic coast, taking him plundering vessel after vessel.

240
00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,840
Speaker 1: At the end of July seventeen eighteen, Bonnet had sailed

241
00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:09,079
Speaker 1: to the Cape Beer River, where he and his crew

242
00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:13,319
Speaker 1: found themselves stuck for repairs. The Royal James was terribly

243
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:16,959
Speaker 1: leaky and it needed to be fixed to remain seaworthy,

244
00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:19,440
Speaker 1: so it sat for nearly two months while the work

245
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:22,360
Speaker 1: was done, which is a long time for a boat

246
00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,360
Speaker 1: to just sit there, especially when it is a boat

247
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:28,600
Speaker 1: full of criminals. Uh So, when word reached the Council

248
00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,640
Speaker 1: of South Carolina that a pirate sloop was careen in

249
00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:35,280
Speaker 1: Cape Fear, Colonel William Rhett set out to find and

250
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:38,680
Speaker 1: capture Bonnet, and Rhett had under his command two ships,

251
00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:43,800
Speaker 1: the Henry and the Sea Nymph. On September eighteen, Rhet's

252
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:46,560
Speaker 1: two sloops ran aground while headed up the Cape Beer River.

253
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:50,600
Speaker 1: While they were getting back on float, Bonnet's pirates found them,

254
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:53,280
Speaker 1: and the crew manned three canoes to take the ships.

255
00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,440
Speaker 1: The pirates didn't know who they were attempting to take,

256
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,680
Speaker 1: but realized quickly and turned around to deliver a report

257
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:03,240
Speaker 1: to on it, and Bonnet was incensed by this. Uh

258
00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: that night he penned the letter to the Governor of

259
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,600
Speaker 1: Carolina that said, if those two sloops had been sent

260
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 1: against him by that governor, and if Bonnet got clear

261
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:13,720
Speaker 1: of those two sloops, he was going to burn and

262
00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:17,040
Speaker 1: destroy every single vessel coming and going out of South Carolina.

263
00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:19,720
Speaker 1: He's basically like, you better hope you win this, because

264
00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:21,640
Speaker 1: if you don't and I find out you were actually

265
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,040
Speaker 1: behind it, I'm basically going to ruin your life. The

266
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:30,360
Speaker 1: next day, September eighteen, a battle ensued that lasted four hours.

267
00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,120
Speaker 1: At one point, both Rhet's ships and bonnet ship were

268
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,120
Speaker 1: run aground in the shallow water as they tried to maneuver,

269
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,520
Speaker 1: and there was trash talking from the pirates to the

270
00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,600
Speaker 1: colonel's cruise. Both ships were horribly damaged. It was really

271
00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:45,720
Speaker 1: everything that you would expect to see in a Hollywood

272
00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:50,080
Speaker 1: blockbuster about pirates. But eventually Rhett's sloop was the first

273
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,400
Speaker 1: to float, and as his command was about to deliver

274
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,520
Speaker 1: the finishing blow to the pirate ship, Bonnet sent up

275
00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,480
Speaker 1: a flag of truce and his crew surrendered themselves as prisoners,

276
00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:02,680
Speaker 1: so all that trash talking got real quiet, and they

277
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,520
Speaker 1: all surrendered. The Henry lost ten men and had fourteen wounded,

278
00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:10,600
Speaker 1: and the Senimph lost two men and had four wounded.

279
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,760
Speaker 1: Two of those five died from their wounds not long after.

280
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,120
Speaker 1: Colonel Rhett then set sail from Cape Fear with his

281
00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,840
Speaker 1: captives on September and he arrived in what was called

282
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: Charlestown at the time but as Charleston now on October three.

283
00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:27,800
Speaker 1: And on October five, the Bonnet's crew was placed in

284
00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:30,440
Speaker 1: a watch house that was guarded by the militia because

285
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:34,320
Speaker 1: there wasn't an actual prison that could hold them. Bonnet

286
00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,760
Speaker 1: entered the custody of the Marshal at his house, and

287
00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:40,520
Speaker 1: two other crew members were eventually moved to the Marshall's

288
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:43,600
Speaker 1: house just a few days later. They were determined to

289
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:47,640
Speaker 1: be important in terms of evidence and testimony for the trial.

290
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,800
Speaker 1: On octobery, Bonnet and one of the other men, he

291
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:56,160
Speaker 1: was named Harriet, escaped. The third man, a Boson, refused

292
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,360
Speaker 1: to go with them. Rumors of incompetency and bribe in

293
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:04,200
Speaker 1: relation to the escape immediately started to circulate. The governor

294
00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:06,800
Speaker 1: offered a reward of seven hundred pounds to the person

295
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:10,080
Speaker 1: who captured the fugitives, and it turned out that Colonel

296
00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:13,480
Speaker 1: Rhett Uh, who was pursuing them in addition to other

297
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,080
Speaker 1: people after the reward, was the one that recaptured Bonnet,

298
00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,320
Speaker 1: and Harriet was actually killed during the pursuit. He was

299
00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:24,640
Speaker 1: shot on October. Trials of the crew began in Charlestown

300
00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:28,199
Speaker 1: before Judge Trot. All but four were found guilty and

301
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,840
Speaker 1: sentenced to death, and on Saturday, November eighth, seventeen eighteen,

302
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:35,600
Speaker 1: the guilty men were all executed at White Point, which

303
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,879
Speaker 1: is near Charleston. But on November ten, Steve Bonnets trial began.

304
00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,919
Speaker 1: It lasted two days and he was found guilty. He

305
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,720
Speaker 1: attempted to shift some of the blame to Blackbeard, but

306
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:49,640
Speaker 1: that was really futile. It was obvious that he had

307
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,960
Speaker 1: willingly participated in a lot of these activities. In the

308
00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:57,399
Speaker 1: Lord Chief Justice's speech pronouncing bonnets sentence, he said, while

309
00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,720
Speaker 1: talllying the major's many acts of pirus, not to mention

310
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,760
Speaker 1: the many acts of piracy you committed before, for which

311
00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,760
Speaker 1: if your pardon from man was never so authentic, yet

312
00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:11,919
Speaker 1: you must expect to answer for them before God. His

313
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,400
Speaker 1: speech goes on for many, many pages of the seventeen

314
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:19,959
Speaker 1: quote General History of Pirates, which you can read online

315
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:21,640
Speaker 1: because we will link to it in our show notes.

316
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:26,879
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. Also in the chief Justice is speech, there

317
00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:28,760
Speaker 1: is a lot of talk about not only was he

318
00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,640
Speaker 1: a pirate, but he was also a murderer, and it

319
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,200
Speaker 1: was a lot of the wrath of God is coming

320
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:36,359
Speaker 1: for you. He was so incensed that this man had

321
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:38,440
Speaker 1: been pardoned and then went back to this life and

322
00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,880
Speaker 1: did a lot of horrible things. He really was uh

323
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,399
Speaker 1: not short of breath when it came to condemnation in

324
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:48,520
Speaker 1: that speech. And Bonnet was executed by hanging on December

325
00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:52,000
Speaker 1: tenth of seventeen eighteen, and he was only thirty at

326
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,480
Speaker 1: that point, and he had spent less than two years

327
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:58,520
Speaker 1: living the life of a pirate. So after his what

328
00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:01,439
Speaker 1: may have been a mental break, he kind of burned

329
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,480
Speaker 1: it out. He just gunned it and then was no

330
00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:07,760
Speaker 1: more so he kind of did the live fast, die

331
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:11,560
Speaker 1: young thing in the sevres right in my imagination, I

332
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:13,760
Speaker 1: feel like he was going for Han solo and wound

333
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 1: up as too bias fume k Yeah, but still sort

334
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,720
Speaker 1: of oddly beloved, which is the interesting part. Of it

335
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,280
Speaker 1: kind of oddly beloved to bias fume K, that's true.

336
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,480
Speaker 1: It all makes sense. So yeah, that is the story

337
00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:31,240
Speaker 1: of Steve Bonnet, which is a brief but fascinating life

338
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:35,760
Speaker 1: as a pirate. Yeah, kind of from the almost a

339
00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:38,960
Speaker 1: pretender's perspective, since he kind of buys his way into

340
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,800
Speaker 1: that world. Right, I feel like it's the eighteenth century

341
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:46,480
Speaker 1: version of buying a shiny sports car and then going

342
00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,320
Speaker 1: on a cross country spree of crime. Yeah. And as

343
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:52,240
Speaker 1: I said at the top of the podcast, there are

344
00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:55,680
Speaker 1: historians who have likened it to his midlife crisis, but

345
00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,520
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, most midlife crises don't end quite so dramatically.

346
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 1: But now I wanted to talk about the history of

347
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,080
Speaker 1: midlife crises because that seems to me like a very

348
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 1: modern invention to bestow upon a pirate. I concur but

349
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,320
Speaker 1: we can put them on the list for future podcast. Yes,

350
00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,160
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us on this Saturday.

351
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,200
Speaker 1: If you have heard an email address or a Facebook

352
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:25,359
Speaker 1: you are l or something similar over the course of

353
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:28,120
Speaker 1: today's episode, since it is from the archive that might

354
00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,760
Speaker 1: be out of date now, you can email us at

355
00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,639
Speaker 1: History Podcast at how stuff works dot com and You

356
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: can find us all over social media at missed in History,

357
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,119
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,

358
00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,360
Speaker 1: Google podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else

359
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:50,160
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts. For more on this and thousands

360
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:57,679
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com