Speaker 1: The slightest trace of gold and red flickered in the trees,
Speaker 1: marking the end of summer and the impending close of
Speaker 1: another year. Richard Worley and eight other men loaded a
Speaker 1: handful of meager provisions of biscuits, water, and dried tongue
Speaker 1: onto the small open boat. They had six aging muskets
Speaker 1: and whatever ammunition they could find between them. What they
Speaker 1: lacked in food and weapons that day, though in late
Speaker 1: September of seventeen seventeen, the would be pirates made up
Speaker 1: for in spirit. Inspired by Blackbeard's raid on ships to
Speaker 1: the south a year earlier, the men set sail one
Speaker 1: fifty miles to the Delaware River. If the legendary pirate
Speaker 1: found the hunting grounds they're good enough, well, then so
Speaker 1: would they. Lofty aspirations aside, they were well aware their
Speaker 1: meager ship never stood a chance at plundering ships on
Speaker 1: the high seas. Instead, they hugged the coastline, searching for
Speaker 1: more suitable prey. When they reached the Delaware River without
Speaker 1: a single raid, Warley suggested hunting upriver. Seventy five miles later,
Speaker 1: near Newcastle, they happened upon a shell light sail boat
Speaker 1: belonging to George Grant. After taking what they wanted, the
Speaker 1: pirates set Grant and his boat free. The men might
Speaker 1: have felt proud of their first act of piracy, although technically,
Speaker 1: since the theft occurred on a river instead of the
Speaker 1: high seas, most considered the raid more simple robbery. The
Speaker 1: crew headed down river to hunt again, capturing a sloop.
Speaker 1: Warley kept the ship along with half the crew, and
Speaker 1: gave the rest his small boat in exchange. He upgraded
Speaker 1: ships once more on the next raid. Now with a
Speaker 1: worthy vessel, the pirates headed out to see Meanwhile, Grant
Speaker 1: had raised the alarm. New York's governor sent out the
Speaker 1: h MS Phoenix to search for the crew's original small
Speaker 1: boat along the coastline, leaving Worley to slip out to
Speaker 1: sea and head south. By late October, the crew of
Speaker 1: nine had grown to twenty five. They had a ship
Speaker 1: with six guns aboard and ashened a black flag with
Speaker 1: a white death's head. With Worly as captain, the men
Speaker 1: signed an oath agreeing to stand by the crew and
Speaker 1: take no quarter. The pirates looked forward to a bright
Speaker 1: and successful run, but they had no idea. Two forces
Speaker 1: were working against them in nearby Charleston, South Carolina Governor
Speaker 1: Robert Johnson, heard that another pirate, captain Moody, had anchored
Speaker 1: just south of Charleston Bar. The news worried him. Blackbeard
Speaker 1: Vane and Steve Bonnet had disrupted the port's trade, and
Speaker 1: Johnson remained adamant it would never happen again. Knowing the
Speaker 1: pirate had a formidable fleet and plenty of firepower, Johnson
Speaker 1: assembled an even larger and more powerful fleet, intent on
Speaker 1: capturing Moody. Unaware of the Governor's plans or Moody's whereabouts,
Speaker 1: Warley and his crew set off to South Carolina's coast.
Speaker 1: Nearly out of fresh water and provisions, they waited for
Speaker 1: a passing ship. Moody caught wind of Johnson's plan and
Speaker 1: headed out to sea, leaving the governor's men to find
Speaker 1: only one pirate in the area. They mistook Worley for
Speaker 1: Moody and ventured close enough to entice the pirates to
Speaker 1: give chase. Worley took the baits and raised the flag.
Speaker 1: When he drew close enough to engage, the governor's men
Speaker 1: hoisted their flag and unleashed a barrage of fire into
Speaker 1: Worly ship. Although the gunfire killed some of the pirates aboard,
Speaker 1: Worley survived and stood trial. He died by hanging at
Speaker 1: White Point Garden, where Blackbeards protege Steve Barnett had met
Speaker 1: his own end just a few months earlier. Warley had
Speaker 1: dreamed of the pirate life, and that's exactly what he got.
Speaker 1: I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates, three booters, buccaneers, rovers, privateers,
Speaker 1: whatever you called them. Sometimes the lines between government sanctioned
Speaker 1: and unsanctioned piracy were a bit blurry. The acts and
Speaker 1: the names caused plenty of headaches for governments and the
Speaker 1: lead goal system, where sentencing depended on clear cut definitions
Speaker 1: of legal versus illegal piracy. In short, piracy was complicated.
Speaker 1: Now letters of mark could be forged, a few privateers
Speaker 1: rated ships with revoked letters. Those on the receiving end
Speaker 1: of sanctioned raids saw little to no difference between pirates
Speaker 1: and privateers. Savvy lawyers probably found no shortage of loopholes
Speaker 1: in the wording, forcing the prosecution to include a wide
Speaker 1: array of terms when charging anyone with piracy. Author Captain Johnson,
Speaker 1: who some scholars believed to be Daniel Dafoe pointed out
Speaker 1: numerous instances of what courts of law considered to be
Speaker 1: a pirate, sparing you the verbose wording and pages of
Speaker 1: explanation that made my head hurt. Let's just say that
Speaker 1: attacking the Majesty's ships or rating a fellow countryman's vessel
Speaker 1: are two basic examples of piracy. Also, anyone who aided
Speaker 1: a pirate, purchased plunder goods from one, or concealed a
Speaker 1: pirate risk being tried as an accomplice, complicating matters. Further,
Speaker 1: colonies found the profitability and the protection gained from piracy
Speaker 1: made reigning in the act difficult. Small colonies made a
Speaker 1: good location for pirate operations. Small settlements also made them
Speaker 1: vulnerable to attack. History tells us that England and other
Speaker 1: European countries were often at war, Reducing available military might
Speaker 1: and funding pirates on the side of the colonists often
Speaker 1: proved a safer choice. Now, if you'll pardon the pun,
Speaker 1: the Treaty of You treked in seventeen thirteen, uh turned
Speaker 1: the tide, so to speak. With an agreement in place,
Speaker 1: Britain had the resources to fight piracy. In seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 1: the British Navy had a host of warships, sloops and
Speaker 1: a few thousand men in the Caribbean, and each of
Speaker 1: the ships housed a minimum of fifty guns, making even
Speaker 1: the smallest vessel as powerful as the most formidable pirate ship,
Speaker 1: Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. Still, curtailing the problem would take
Speaker 1: more than a single approach. Pirate ships far outnumbered the
Speaker 1: British Navy. Aside from sending extra naval ships to hunt pirates,
Speaker 1: Britain introduced a few legislations. Governments often pardons to those
Speaker 1: willing to give up piracy, as we've discussed before, and
Speaker 1: while not effective on its own, they hoped that pardons
Speaker 1: might weaken pirate cruise. We learned that the Flying Gang,
Speaker 1: consisting of approximately three hundred pirates, gladly accepted the pardon
Speaker 1: well initially. While that sounds significant, the pardons only helped
Speaker 1: reduce attacks near the Bahamas, and of course, pirates risked
Speaker 1: execution and governors hired informants and offered rewards to private
Speaker 1: ships that captured pirate vessels. King George made a reward
Speaker 1: structure for the capture of pirates based on hierarchy. Commanders
Speaker 1: fetched two hundred pounds. Principal officers earned the pirate hunter
Speaker 1: forty pounds, while others brought in twenty to thirty, depending
Speaker 1: on their rank. In seventeen twenty one, authorities required crews
Speaker 1: armed aboard merchant ships to fight attacks from pirates. Failure
Speaker 1: to resist piracy resulted in the loss of wages and
Speaker 1: a six month jail sentence gone to where the days
Speaker 1: when pirates had to be returned to England for trial
Speaker 1: before the High Court, as stated in an Act of
Speaker 1: Parliament originally put in place in fifteen thirty six. Instead,
Speaker 1: a new act allowed local vice admirals to put pirates
Speaker 1: on trial. The Act also granted executions as long as
Speaker 1: they occurred on or nearby the sea. Trials rarely lasted
Speaker 1: more than a couple of days and almost always favored
Speaker 1: the court. Some pirates died awaiting execution, though, while others
Speaker 1: were sent to the gallows to hang immediately after sentencing. Typically,
Speaker 1: those bodies would remain on the gallows for three days
Speaker 1: the tides came and went washing over the corpses. In England,
Speaker 1: hanging several pirates simultaneously was not uncommon. Between seventeen sixteen
Speaker 1: and seventeen twenty six, four hundred pirates met their fate
Speaker 1: at the gallows. Forty one of Steve Bonnet's crew hanged
Speaker 1: in seventeen eighteen, and in seventeen twenty two, over fifty
Speaker 1: of Bartholomew Robert's crew are hanged in a group execution. Often,
Speaker 1: the bodies of the most notorious pirates were tarred and
Speaker 1: placed in a cage two rots in full public view.
Speaker 1: The tar kept the body intact longer from the elements
Speaker 1: and the seagulls, although I imagine it might also have
Speaker 1: been a solid anti piracy campaign. Captain Kidd's body remained
Speaker 1: on display for two years in England. In seventeen twenty one,
Speaker 1: Calico Jack's corpse was displayed in the cage for all
Speaker 1: to see upon entering the harbor. A year later, Charles
Speaker 1: Vane's body followed suit. Local authorities prominently displayed both pirates
Speaker 1: on what is appropriately called dead Man's k in Port Royal.
Speaker 1: But the Crown and the colonies had one more weapon
Speaker 1: against piracy, the pirates themselves. The War of Spanish Secession,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as Queen Ann's War, lasted from seventeen o
Speaker 1: one until the Treaty of You tracked in seventeen thirteen.
Speaker 1: British privateers roam the Caribbean during the war, making an
Speaker 1: immense wealth for themselves. With nearly an unlimited supply of
Speaker 1: ships to hunt, A good share of the crew spent
Speaker 1: their fortunes as fast as they earned them. Too. Those
Speaker 1: who operated out of places like Port Royal found themselves
Speaker 1: abruptly unemployed with the treaty declared. For many, returning to
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy wasn't an option. Even if the low
Speaker 1: pay and abuse didn't deter them. The available job opportunities
Speaker 1: had dried up. The long end drawn out war left
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy bankrupt. Merchant ships became the only alternative, well,
Speaker 1: the only legal one, that is. But life and work
Speaker 1: aboard these vessels offered very little grueling work, poor living conditions,
Speaker 1: and a pittance of pay did little to entice anyone. Still,
Speaker 1: for the hungry and unemployed, something was better than nothing.
Speaker 1: With an abundance of applicants, captains and shipowners cut the
Speaker 1: already low wages in half, encouraging the rest to seek
Speaker 1: employment elsewhere. Sailors chose another more lucrative option that offered
Speaker 1: better pay, better living conditions, and humane treatment. Piracy for
Speaker 1: those sailors, Continuing to raid French and Spanish vessels became
Speaker 1: the most reasonable and justifiable path. The Spanish continued to
Speaker 1: attack English ships, claiming that they were smugglers if they
Speaker 1: found a single Spanish coin on board, an easy task
Speaker 1: since that was the main currency of the Caribbean. The
Speaker 1: Spanish killed or jailed any English captain or crew members
Speaker 1: who dared to resist, and of course they would seize
Speaker 1: their ship and the cargo. For British privateers, piracy provided
Speaker 1: them with a living. For the colonies, the pirates served
Speaker 1: as payback for Spanish harassment. Pirates posed little threat, especially
Speaker 1: since most English pirates refrained from attacking British ships. Piracy
Speaker 1: became the perfect solution for a man named Benjamin hornegal
Speaker 1: Before the treaty, he had been one of England's most
Speaker 1: dedicated privateers. In seventeen, the crown no longer needed his services,
Speaker 1: and he found himself among the plethora of unemployed sailors.
Speaker 1: In early summer, Hornegald and other sailors drank and commiserated
Speaker 1: about their impending poverty and the constant harassment from the Spanish.
Speaker 1: The more he thought about their predicament, the more he
Speaker 1: felt confident his idea could work. They would retaliate against
Speaker 1: the Spanish and earn a healthy living. Later that summer,
Speaker 1: Hornegald managed to secure a crew and a ship. He'd
Speaker 1: also plotted a course for the perfect hunting location. The
Speaker 1: band of pirates left port and headed four fifty miles
Speaker 1: north to a spot between Cuba and Hispaniola. Earlier we
Speaker 1: learned that Hornegald found New Providence burned out and deserted,
Speaker 1: and that his crew set to work rebuilding the port.
Speaker 1: Nasa provided the perfect setup for small time piracy. At first,
Speaker 1: the pirates hunted from periaguas, essentially large canoes that were
Speaker 1: big enough to carry approximately thirty men and some cargo.
Speaker 1: The canoes bank of oars made them fast to the halls,
Speaker 1: allowed them to sail across shoals and areas too dangerous
Speaker 1: for larger, deeper vessels. Hornegal divided the crew among the
Speaker 1: three boats he captained one, assigning John West and John
Speaker 1: Cockram to lead the other two. For six months, they
Speaker 1: prayed on small Spanish ships. Not once did they attack
Speaker 1: an English vessel. Hornegald insisted that this made them privateers,
Speaker 1: not pirates. Of course, we can call this a matter
Speaker 1: of self deception, deflection, or even an outright lie. England, France,
Speaker 1: and Spain were at peace, and Hornegald had no authority
Speaker 1: or letter of mark. The crew sold their plunder on
Speaker 1: Harbor Island, just sort of Nassau. Hornegald and Cockrhum worked
Speaker 1: closely with Richard Thompson, a wealthy landowner and merchant. There,
Speaker 1: the three created one of the most profitable black market
Speaker 1: and smuggling businesses in the golden Age of piracy. The
Speaker 1: bond between the three grew close enough that Cockrum married
Speaker 1: one of Thompson's daughters. It didn't take long for the
Speaker 1: Spanish to notice Hornegold's raids, and rumors of an attack
Speaker 1: against the pirates began to spread West and a few
Speaker 1: others decided to quit piracy after that and left Nassau.
Speaker 1: Cockrum and Hornegold remained. The attack never materialized, and the
Speaker 1: band of pirates returned to hunting Spanish ships, this time
Speaker 1: on a sloop borrowed from retired seaman Jonathan Darvill, and
Speaker 1: at this point scholars believe Edward Teach joined the crew.
Speaker 1: A larger ship meant larger bounties. When the crew returned
Speaker 1: to port. They paid Darville four times the ship's worth.
Speaker 1: Raids in late seventeen fourteen brought the crew sizeable bounties,
Speaker 1: making Hornigold one of the most respected pirates in the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: He had been penniless, but now he had reinvented himself
Speaker 1: and he was about to do it again. Unfortunately, those
Speaker 1: raids drew unwanted attention. Bahamas Governor Thomas Walker vowed to
Speaker 1: rid the island of pirates. Nearby, in Bermuda, Governor Henry
Speaker 1: Pouline offered to annex the Bahamas to eliminate the pirates.
Speaker 1: Den Despite opposition against them, Hornegold and Black Bear continued
Speaker 1: to plunder. Neither the Dutch nor English worried much about
Speaker 1: the pair, believing the pirates prayed solely on the French
Speaker 1: and the Spanish. But that changed in the fall of
Speaker 1: seventeen fifteen when the crew raided the mary An English
Speaker 1: sloop with six cannons and large enough for one and
Speaker 1: forty men. When the crew sailed into New Providence instead
Speaker 1: of Harbor Island, Hornegald promised the pirates and others who
Speaker 1: worked in the trade his protection. Now calling themselves the
Speaker 1: Flying Gang, the pirates nearly outnumbered law abiding citizens. Before long,
Speaker 1: Hornegal had captured a Spanish sloop and christened it the Benjamin.
Speaker 1: In a surprise move, he promoted new pirates Sam Bellamy
Speaker 1: as the captain of another ship instead of Teach. Now,
Speaker 1: as we've learned earlier, Bellamy later formed a coup and
Speaker 1: went his own way. Hornegald continued to grow his fleet,
Speaker 1: and in seventeen sixteen he and the crew voted to
Speaker 1: give a thirty ton sloop to Blackbeard. Teach continued to
Speaker 1: sail with Hornegal on many more profitable raids through late
Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen. But all good things must come to an end. Right.
Speaker 1: With increasing pressure from England, Hornegald accepted a pardon in
Speaker 1: early seventeen eighteen. Although no longer a pirate, Hornegal never
Speaker 1: gave up hunting. He had been at sea when the
Speaker 1: governor of Jamaica sent ships to find him and deliver
Speaker 1: the King's offer. Hornegold returned to NASA and joined former
Speaker 1: crewmate Walker in welcoming a man named Woods Rogers. Though
Speaker 1: many accepted a pardon, piracy itself remained a serious problem. Worse,
Speaker 1: England pulled naval support, leaving Rogers and the colony vulnerable
Speaker 1: to the Spanish and pirates like Charles Vane, who had
Speaker 1: threatened to attack. Rogers had only one choice left asked
Speaker 1: the former pirates for help. Hornegald and Cockrum stepped up,
Speaker 1: offering their services as pirate hunters. Rogers gave them a
Speaker 1: sloop and the two sailed out in search of Charles Vane.
Speaker 1: They found him one d twenty miles north of Nassau
Speaker 1: on Green Turtle k Vaine and his men had taken
Speaker 1: four merchant ships and their crew to the island to plunder.
Speaker 1: After anchoring off shore, Horn of Goold and Cockram assessed
Speaker 1: the situation. Vain and his men far outnumbered them. They
Speaker 1: could turn back or wait for Vain to split from
Speaker 1: his crew on a hunt. So they waited for three
Speaker 1: long weeks. Just as Vain headed out, Captain Nichols would
Speaker 1: all aboard the Wolf arrived. The former pirates had also
Speaker 1: taken the King's pardon Wood all in. Vain talked while
Speaker 1: the crew's unloaded supplies and ammunition from the Wolf, Horn
Speaker 1: of Goold and Cockroam. New Vein had spies and sympathizers
Speaker 1: and NASA, but Wood All's allegiance might have surprised them,
Speaker 1: but Charles Vane did not seem pleased with the news
Speaker 1: that would all brought. In a fit of anger, he
Speaker 1: marooned the merchant ship's crew and headed out to see
Speaker 1: after the pirates left. Horn of Goold and Cockram arrived
Speaker 1: to give the hostages supplies. Late that night, Hornegald set
Speaker 1: out alone to hunt down the pirates. Five days later,
Speaker 1: he and his crew captured the Wolf. Back in Nassa,
Speaker 1: Rogers grew nervous, fearing that Hornegold had returned to piracy.
Speaker 1: Three weeks later, Hornegal returned with the Wolf, including its
Speaker 1: captain and crew, which removed all doubt about his integrity.
Speaker 1: The hunter has continued their quest, capturing more pirates along
Speaker 1: the way. Rogers became so pleased that he wrote England
Speaker 1: to sing Hornegal's praises. Vain, however, continued to remain elusive.
Speaker 1: Woods Rogers barely had enough men to guard his prisoners,
Speaker 1: and his men fell victim to disease. All this stood
Speaker 1: between Nassau and Vain Or the Spanish was a dilapidated
Speaker 1: and poorly manned fort, a thirty gun sloop and three
Speaker 1: trusted pirate hunters Josiah Burgess, Cockrum and Hornegal. In December
Speaker 1: of seventeen eighteen, nine of ten recently captured pirates were
Speaker 1: found guilty of piracy after signing the pardon, while the
Speaker 1: court sentenced the nine to hang. The tenth prisoner had
Speaker 1: been forced into piracy and was acquitted. Over twelve thousand people,
Speaker 1: mostly pirates or former pirates, gathered at the shoreline gallows
Speaker 1: to watch as the condemned men walked by. Men who
Speaker 1: had signed the part and cheered while they're still pirate
Speaker 1: counterparts gave the one armed guards a wary eye. A
Speaker 1: few of the condemned smiled back at the crowd, unrepentant
Speaker 1: and defiant. As they stood before the crowd with a
Speaker 1: noose around their necks. Rogers pardoned one of the men, then,
Speaker 1: with the crowd looking up, he signaled to the executioner.
Speaker 1: Eight men dropped their corpses, swaying against a background of
Speaker 1: clear blue water. The pirates life in Paradise had come
Speaker 1: to an end. Those eight hangings symbolized a change. Pirates
Speaker 1: no longer ruled NASA. Rogers had regained control despite the
Speaker 1: lack of sufficient support or funding from England. After that,
Speaker 1: pirates became less of a problem. Over two thousand of
Speaker 1: them roamed the season seventeen one. Just three years later
Speaker 1: that number dropped by half, and by seventeen twenty six
Speaker 1: only two hundred pirates remained. The hangings on that December
Speaker 1: morning became infamous among historians. Some speculate that Roger's choice
Speaker 1: and manner of execution had been the pivotal moment in
Speaker 1: the Golden Age. And yet we can't talk about the
Speaker 1: end of the Golden Age of piracy without discussing Benjamin Hornegald.
Speaker 1: Without his help, Woods, Rogers could not have taken control
Speaker 1: of NASA. Was he a pirate, yes, despite his insistence otherwise.
Speaker 1: But as Rogers found out, Hornegald was a man of
Speaker 1: his word, and in his own way, matched his own
Speaker 1: devotion to king and country. There were different accounts as
Speaker 1: to what happened to Hornegal, whichever is accurate, we know
Speaker 1: that in the spring of seventeen nineteen, Benjamin Hornegal left
Speaker 1: NASA and sailed into the sunset, never to be seen again.
Speaker 1: Some say that he came to Rogers aid once more.
Speaker 1: In the War of the Quadruple Alliance against the Spanish.
Speaker 1: In this telling, the Spanish captured him and tossed him
Speaker 1: into a Cuban prison, where he later died. Another telling
Speaker 1: is that Rogers sent him on a trading voyage to Mexico.
Speaker 1: Hornigold's ship struck a reef, deserting him and a handful
Speaker 1: of survivors on an isolated island. The men went to
Speaker 1: work constructing a canoe, just as they had in the
Speaker 1: early days of New Providence. Everyone escaped except Hornegald, who
Speaker 1: died there on the island. And in yet another version,
Speaker 1: none of Hornigold's crew survived the shipwreck, drowning instead at sea.
Speaker 1: If this retelling is accurates, I can't help but wonder
Speaker 1: if his brethren believed that Hornegald ended up in Davy
Speaker 1: Jones Locker, that mythical place at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: sea where all drowned sailors go. However he met his end,
Speaker 1: he certainly left behind a legacy. Those who knew him
Speaker 1: said he was a devout patriot, a highly skilled captain,
Speaker 1: and showed more kindness to his prisoners than the men
Speaker 1: who served under him. Yes, he was a pirate, but
Speaker 1: despite that, Benjamin Hornegald, the mentor of Blackbeard and the
Speaker 1: leader of the Nassau pirate community, and the Flying Gang
Speaker 1: did more to bring about the own fall of piracy
Speaker 1: than anyone else. Pirate execution seems like one of the
Speaker 1: plot points we can always count on in the Hollywood
Speaker 1: films about them, and as we've seen today, history backs
Speaker 1: that up. So thanks for um hanging around for this
Speaker 1: thrilling chapter in our exploration of that world. But of
Speaker 1: course we're not done just yet. My crewmates Alie Steed
Speaker 1: has one more tail from the gallows to share. Stick
Speaker 1: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.
Speaker 1: In the spring of seventy six, William Fly found work
Speaker 1: as a boast in a board a ship called the Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: The captain, a man named Green, set course from Jamaica
Speaker 1: to Guinea in West Africa. Somewhere along the way, Fly
Speaker 1: got to thinking maybe he should be the captain and
Speaker 1: convinced several of his shipmates to join him in mutiny. First,
Speaker 1: they need to murder both the captain and the first mate.
Speaker 1: Afterward they'd turned from a sailor's life to one of piracy.
Speaker 1: On seventy six, Flying his conspirators carried out their planet
Speaker 1: around one am, Fly burst into the captain's cabin and
Speaker 1: told Green that he had two choices to die right
Speaker 1: there or join them on deck. Fly preferred the ladder
Speaker 1: to save him the trouble of cleaning blood off the
Speaker 1: floor and walls of the cabin that would soon be his.
Speaker 1: A few buckets of water and a scraper would do
Speaker 1: the job quicker. On deck, the captain promised not to
Speaker 1: impede any of their plans. They could lock him in
Speaker 1: chains if they wanted anything, just spare his life. Fly
Speaker 1: had Green hauled on deck while the captain continued to
Speaker 1: beg Fly sliced him with his cutlass. Still alive, Green
Speaker 1: clung to the main sheet, the line that connected to
Speaker 1: the boom to stop himself from being tossed overboard. Another
Speaker 1: conspirator grabbed an axe and cleaved off the captain's hand. Then,
Speaker 1: flying the other's tossed Green overboard and watch until the
Speaker 1: sea swallowed him. Then they repeated the process with the
Speaker 1: first mate. Fly renamed the ship the Fameous Revenge. His
Speaker 1: first act as captain was to have every man who
Speaker 1: sympathized with the previous captain and first mate put into chains,
Speaker 1: and then he threw a party. On June third, the
Speaker 1: newly minted pirates arrived off the coast of Cape Hatteras
Speaker 1: in North Carolina. The crew spotted a sloop, the John
Speaker 1: and Hannah, anchored nearby and pulled close. The captain Falker
Speaker 1: wrongly assumed that Fly needed help navigating around a tricky sandbar.
Speaker 1: He and a few of his crew rode a small
Speaker 1: boat out to the Fameous Revenge to offer their assistance.
Speaker 1: Fly greeted his guests and showed them into his cabin.
Speaker 1: Then he informed Falker that he'd cut right to the chase.
Speaker 1: He and his crew were gentlemen of fortune, a fancy
Speaker 1: way of saying pirates, and he informed the good captain
Speaker 1: that he intended to relieve him of his ship. However,
Speaker 1: high winds prevented the pirates from bringing the larger ship
Speaker 1: alongside the Fameus Revenge, which sent Fly into a fit
Speaker 1: of rage. He stripped and brutally whipped Captain Fulker and
Speaker 1: took him and a handful of his crew prisoners. Then, sheerly,
Speaker 1: out of spite, he sank the John and Hannah. Later,
Speaker 1: the crew captured two additional ships, neither of which contained
Speaker 1: anything of value. But Fly put Falker and some of
Speaker 1: the other prisoners aboard one of the ships and let
Speaker 1: it go, although he kept a sailor named Atkinson. Fly
Speaker 1: ordered the sailor to pilot the ship to Martha's Vineyard,
Speaker 1: which Atkinson intentionally sailed past. When he discovered the disobedience,
Speaker 1: Fly tried to kill Atkinson. Fortunately for the young prisoner,
Speaker 1: the crew liked him and intervened. At this point, the
Speaker 1: crew began to plot against their captain. They'd had enough
Speaker 1: of Fly's temper, abuse and lack of maritime experience getting
Speaker 1: them into trouble. A few suggest that they throw Fly
Speaker 1: overboard and made Atkinson the new captain. Meanwhile, they continued
Speaker 1: up the coast to Nova Scotia. Shortly after capturing a
Speaker 1: small fishing schooner, Fly spotted a larger ship and ordered
Speaker 1: much of his crew to give chase, leaving him with
Speaker 1: three of his crewmates and a handful of prisoners aboard
Speaker 1: the famous revenge Atkinson seized his moment and gathered the
Speaker 1: other prisoners and overtook the small crew and Fly. With
Speaker 1: the pirates secured, the crew headed towards Boston. Fly berated
Speaker 1: them and shouted that he wished for demons to fly
Speaker 1: away with the ship. He cursed everyone, including the heavens above.
Speaker 1: Atkinson steered the ship into Boston Harbor on June twenty nine,
Speaker 1: seventy six. After trials on July fourth and fifth, the
Speaker 1: judge and committee found Flying his men guilty of piracy.
Speaker 1: They also found them guilty of murdering Captain Green and
Speaker 1: his first mate. Fly put the blame squarely on his men,
Speaker 1: and on Sunday, Reverend Cotton Mather preached to the pirates
Speaker 1: in front of the crowd, and Fly refused to repent
Speaker 1: the murders were justified. Fly insisted Green and his first
Speaker 1: mate had treated the crew abominably and deserved their fate.
Speaker 1: Once loaded into the cart headed to the gallows, Fly
Speaker 1: smiled and paid comp elaments to people in the crowd.
Speaker 1: At the gallows, he ridiculed the executioner for a sloppy job.
Speaker 1: He retied the knot on his own news, telling everyone
Speaker 1: the executioner didn't know his own trade. Finally, he addressed
Speaker 1: the crowd, saying that captains who failed to treat their
Speaker 1: crews better risked mutiny. Unimpressed and potentially seeing the irony
Speaker 1: in Fly's grand statement, the crowd watched him hang and
Speaker 1: then returned to their homes. Flies corpse was hung in
Speaker 1: irons to serve as a warning to other would be pirates.
Speaker 1: The warning was largely unnecessary, though, by the time Autumn
Speaker 1: said in a couple of months later, the golden age
Speaker 1: of piracy had come to an end. Pirates was executive
Speaker 1: produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and
Speaker 1: Alexandra Steid. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo,
Speaker 1: with research by Alexandra Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance
Speaker 1: was provided by Josh Thayne, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt fred Rick. To learn more about this and other
Speaker 1: shows from Grimm and Mild and I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild dot com MHM