Topics Related to Pirates
When we last visited Stede Bonnet, he was in a bad way, injured and relegated to the role of passenger after having ceded control of his shi
On July 25, 1718,* Woodes Rogers arrived in the Bahamas as the islands’ first appointed Royal Governor. Piracy grew rampant in the untamed colony, and Rogers’ official mission was to stamp it out. He first tried diplomacy, armed with another round of pardons for pirates willing to peacefully surrender their criminal ways.
In March 1718, the HMS Phoenix arrived in New Providence carrying the King’s Pardon, and among the first to sign was none other than Blackbeard’s former commander Benjamin Hornigold. Hornigold arrived on the scene as a privateer before the island of New Providence became a pirate haven and attempted to continue his legitimacy as such by claiming to only attack French and Spanish ships, well after official privateering rights were revoked.
In late September 1717, Stede Bonnet met Blackbeard.
The most prominent symbol for piracy in popular culture is a black flag decorated with the infamous skull and crossbones. This flag has been used within the mythos of pirates, both real and fictional, for over 300 years. With the expansive mythology surrounding piracy, and particularly Blackbeard, it is worthwhile to look deeper into this iconic flag and its connections to the infamous pirate.
As the pirates of the Golden Age became more fierce and defiant, European countries were at a loss for how to deal with what was becoming a plague on commerce.
By 1690, buccaneers had effectively disappeared from the Caribbean, but a new breed of pirate with larger crews, larger targets, and permission for their violence, began to venture out of the Caribbean to the coasts of Af
As the Age of Exploration brought more European powers to the New World, things started to get heated.
In the spring of 1717, Blackbeard had set up camp on the island of New Providence and was operating as a pirate in the Caribbean.