Stede Bonnet, The Gentleman Pirate
—Chrissie
Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/bqn1/hwts125
This topic was prompted by a binge-watch of the HBO series Our Flag Means Death, to which I was inspired by a video put together by @Captain_Andorable on Instagram, the link is at the bottom of the essay.
The modern image of pirates is reflective of a very specific time and place: the Caribbean in the late Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries. This was the era of that most infamous of pirates, Edward “Blackbeard” Teach. Most pirates came from the lower classes of society, with little education or prospects and hoped to use pirating as a means to gain some wealth. The notorious exception to this was Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate.
Stede Bonnet was born in 1688, heir to a sugar plantation which he inherited at the age of six upon his father’s death. In keeping with his expected position in society, he was well-educated and held a position in the local militia as a Major. He wed Mary Allamby in 1709; this was likely a financially or politically advantageous choice, rather than for love. They had four children over the next eight years. All in all, he seemed the exemplary colonial plantation owner, until he walked away from it in 1717.
In the spring of that year, he commissioned a shipbuilder to produce his pirating vessel, the Revenge. He hired a crew of seventy, whom he paid regular wages instead of the usual share of the spoils. Having no experience in sailing, he relied on his upper-decks crew to conduct the day-to-day activities and to advise him when his direct involvement was needed. Why he took up piracy is not known. He did make legal arrangements for his wife to control the family property and business but does not seem to have left any documents explaining why he took to the sea. There are a few possibilities, assuming he had reasons beyond simply wanting to be a pirate: He may have been running from debt (it appears he took out a substantial loan the previous year) or from a difficult political stance (he may have been a Jacobite, a supporter of James Stuart in opposition to King George I). It may also have been personal: he did not get along well with his wife, a source says he had a “discomfort in the married state,” and their eldest son had died recently, so that may have played a part in his desire to remove himself from home.
He began his piracy along the Atlantic coast of the North American colonies, attacking four ships in Chesapeake Bay, then moving north and attacking two more near the island of Manhattan, then, returning south, two more in the waters off the Carolinas. He then headed to the Bahamas, intent on visiting the notorious pirate den of Nassau, but was attacked by a Spanish man-of-war on the way. Many of his crew died and most of those left were injured, including Bonnet. On arriving in Nassau, Bonnet arranged for repairs and hired people to replace those killed while he convalesced. While there, he met Blackbeard and the two made arrangements to sail together for a time, with Blackbeard in charge of both crews. They sailed along the Atlantic coast, plundering at least eleven ships along the way to and from Delaware Bay. He was described by the captain of one of these ships as wandering on the deck in his nightshirt and appearing to have no authority over his men.
The two ships separated for a time when they returned to the Caribbean in December 1717. When they met again in March, the Revenge had just recently failed spectacularly in its attempts to take a ship, so most of Bonnet’s crew went over the Blackbeard. Bonnet functionally lost control of his ship at this point, becoming Teach’s “guest” on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. It seems that Bonnet had become disillusioned with piracy by this point (though this would change) and decided to seek a pardon for his crimes under the Act of Grace recently issued by King George I, which required that those pardoned stop acting as pirates. Blackbeard was also interested in the pardon, though he seems to have had no intention of holding to the oath. The two men hid their ships on Topsail Island, with Teach going so far as to purposefully run the Queen Anne’s Revenge aground. They both may have intended to take up “legal piracy” as privateers for the English government under a Letter of Marque, which would allow them to harass the ships under the flag of any of England’s enemies. They got their pardon from the governor of North Carolina in the Spring of 1718. Blackbeard went back to Topsail Island while Bonnet worked to get permission to travel to St. Thomas for the Letter of Marque. With this allowance, he returned to Topsail only to find that Blackbeard had taken almost all of the supplies from the Revenge and set off on another of his ships, marooning the crew on a sandbar. Bonnet collected his crew and returned to the Revenge, which was still sailable even though it had almost no provisions.
He seems to have still intended to shift to privateering, but hurricane season, a lack of supplies, and the desire to avenge himself against Teach all stood in the way. The best way he could maintain himself and his crew was pirating. In a half-hearted attempt to not risk his pardon, he changed the ship’s name to Royal James and took on the alias Captain Thomas for himself. He took a more traditional route this time, promising the crew not a salary but a share of the loot and capturing vessels and holding their crews for ransom or to use or sell as slaves. The Royal James anchored in North Carolina at the Cape Fear River estuary in August 1718 to wait out the hurricane season and its captain was recognized for who he was. Colonel William Rhett was sent against him, leading to the Battle of Cape Fear River, which ended with Bonnet and his men captured after the tide had stranded them. Bonnet had ordered the crew to blow their powder magazine when he saw he was about to be captured, but they refused. The crew was taken to Charles Town for trial, most of them were held in the prison, but Bonnet’s social position allowed him to be held under house arrest in the home of the town marshal. He escaped for a short time, but was soon recaptured and was now held under guard in the jail.
He was tried and convicted in mid-November 1718 and sentenced to death by hanging. He wrote to the governor requesting clemency, at one point offering to have his legs and arms cut off to assure that he could not return to piracy. This, and other extreme and odd statements prompted his execution to be delayed on the question of his sanity, but this mattered little in the end. He was hanged on 10 December 1718 after just two years as a pirate and at the age of thirty.
Captain Andorable’s music video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgcMpGTg0CZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Our Flag Means Death: https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:series:GYf3LzwJV98JifQEAAAAO