Everything is better with Stede Bonnet on it!
The Gentleman Pirate, “Stede Bonnet”
Have you watched “Our Flag Means Death” ?
It is a show created by David Jenkins (whom I know nothing about) and stars:
Rhys Darby as an incompetent gentleman pirate named Stede Bonnet and Taika Waititi as Blackbeard, and it is hilarious.
And guess what? Hannah found out It’s all true! Haha!
There really was this crazy rich dude named Stede Bonnet who had a midlife crisis and was bored by family life and so he became a half assed pirate with a crew he paid to go on pirate adventures with him. I don’t want to spoil much of the story because you really should watch this show, but he really did link up with Blackbeard, whose real name was Edward Teach. Blackbeard, who had probably distinguished himself in the War of the Spanish Succession, had become a privateer and a pirate. Around 1717 , after pirating a bunch of flour and wine he stumbled upon the “The Gentleman Pirate” -this is from the wikipedias:
Edward Teach (Blackbeard)
In September, Teach and Hornigold encountered Stede Bonnet, a landowner and military officer from a wealthy family who had turned to piracy earlier that year. Bonnet's crew of about 70 were reportedly dissatisfied with his command, so with Bonnet's permission, Teach took control of his ship, Revenge. The pirates' flotilla now consisted of three ships: Teach on Revenge, Teach's old sloop, and Hornigold's Ranger. By October, another vessel had been captured and added to the small fleet.[14] The sloops Robert of Philadelphia and Good Intent of Dublin were stopped on 22 October 1717 and their cargo holds emptied.
The Pirate Haven-New Providence
Anyway, we are only about 3 episodes in and so I’m not going to read too far into the history, but apparently at some later point both Teach and Bonnet and other pirates who had been operating out of the island of New Providence were granted a king’s pardon, but neither could quit their swashbuckling, pirating ways for long -and both went back to the swashbuckling life and I kinda bet that it ends with them both being beheaded eventually. And all the fun was gone too! (a little Curious George quote for you there!)
Really, go watch the show, it is hilarious and true!!
Sorry to just stand and point this week, but I can’t find my funny “History of Pirates” book that I have somewhere with awesome old illustrations. I’ll link some fun wikipedia articles about Bonnet and Blackbeard here.
Also a link to one of Mick Lynch’s swashbuckling songs, “Beckoning Tides”!
And one more thing…We did it!!! We finished The Xenophile!!! If it’s not at your door right now, it is in the mail already and will be at your door within a few days!!
Yay us!!! I’m very proud of the dada duende coffee klatch and wow, we must be super cool because of the quality of visual/literary, and musical artists we attract!
Thanks to our subscribers for the love and support :)