PICTURESQUE PIRATES
“I’d like to read all about him,” said Jack. “I’ll bet he had an
exciting life. I’ll never hear of Captain Kidd without thinking of
Prince Rupert by contrast.”
“You’ll find the whole story in this book,” said his father. “But
you’ll always find these old volumes dry reading in a way. They pass
over the most exciting events very casually, as if they were matters of
course, but you’ll be amused at the quaint language and naïve remarks.”
“Weren’t there any other old buccaneers who were as romantic and
gallant as Prince Rupert?” asked Fred.
“He was not strictly a buccaneer,” his uncle corrected him. “Nor was he
really a pirate. His deeds took place before the buccaneers were really
organized, and ostensibly he was more of a privateer than a pirate. In
a way he was in the same category as Drake and Hawkins, and the same is
true of another most romantic figure who ravaged the Caribbean and was
a thorn in the side of the Spaniards. Perhaps he should not be included
among stories of buccaneers, but he was such a picturesque figure that
a brief account of him may interest you boys.”
“Yes, do tell us about him,” cried Jack. “Even if he wasn’t really a
buccaneer.”
“He was also a member of the British nobility,” continued Mr. Bickford.
“The Earl of Cumberland, a graduate of Oxford with the degree of M.A.,
a wealthy peer, romantic, picturesque, a courtier, a noted gambler and
a man of tremendous personal strength and courage. In his youth he had
taken part in the attack on the Spanish Armada under Drake and had been
made a Knight of the Garter and was a great favorite with Queen
Elizabeth. In fact, through some favor, the queen had presented the
Earl with one of her gloves—a claret-colored, diamond-studded thing
which the dashing adventurer invariably wore tucked through the band of
his broad-brimmed plumed hat. It became his crest, his badge, and far
and wide, to friends and enemies alike, he became famed as ‘the man
with the glove in his hat.’
“Like Prince Rupert, Lord Cumberland found too few opportunities for
his love of adventure ashore and so turned to the sea and the Indies
for excitement. No doubt he found it in plenty, for he became a terror
to the Dons, took many prizes, accumulated vast wealth and seemed to
bear a charmed life. Again and again he returned to England to settle
down, but ever the life of the sea rover appealed too strongly to him,
and donning his hat with its jeweled glove, he would up and away to
some new daredevil adventure.
“Finally, in March, 1598, he set sail from Plymouth harbor with twenty
ships, all his own, for the greatest attack on the Dons in the
Caribbean that had ever been organized. His flagship bore the curious
name of The Scourge of Malice, and the Earl’s bold scheme was to attack
the supposedly impregnable port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Drake and
Hawkins had tried it, but had been driven off, and the reckless
devil-may-care ‘man with the glove in his hat’ saw, in a raid on Puerto
Rico a fine chance for adventure such as his heart craved.
“Having captured a few prizes in mid-ocean, the fleet arrived at
Dominica in May, and the Earl allowed his men shore liberty and a good
rest before continuing on his daredevil foray. Being totally unexpected
by the Dons, the Earl’s ship approached unseen at dead of night, and
six hundred men were silently landed about two miles to the east of
Morro Castle. Dividing his force into two parties and following the
road, Cumberland led his men close to the city walls and at break of
day rushed the sleepy sentries and the gates. Shouting and yelling,
brandishing cutlasses, firing pistols, the wild horde of Englishmen
appeared to the frightened, surprised Spaniards like fiends suddenly
sprung from the earth. Terrorized, they retreated to the inmost
fastnesses of the town before they rallied and, realizing the dreaded
British were upon them, turned to face their foes. But it was too late.
The English were in the streets, and although the Dons fought manfully
and many fell on both sides, the Earl’s men were victorious, and within
two hours the city was in their hands.
“And mightily well pleased was My Lord as, with his own men in charge
of the walls and grim old fortress, he strutted about the city
appraising the valuables, the rich merchandise, the ships in the
harbor, which were his to pick and choose from. Never before had San
Juan fallen to an enemy, and the Earl had every reason to be filled
with pride at his great deed. The city was rich and prosperous, the
Morro was one of the strongest fortifications in the New World, and the
‘man with the glove in his hat’ felt that he had mightily added to
England’s power by securing this stronghold as a fortified base from
which to harass the hated Dons. But he had counted without an enemy
that lurked unseen and unsuspected near at hand. He had subdued the
Dons, but there was another foe ready to attack him that no bravery, no
arms could subdue. The dreaded Yellow Fever crept stealthily among the
British, and ere Cumberland realized what had occurred his men were
dying by scores daily. Here was an enemy he could not fight, a foe
invisible and more deadly than the Spaniards, and in almost no time
Cumberland’s force was more than half destroyed. Filled with terror at
this dread death stalking among his men, realizing that to remain meant
destruction for all, the Earl hurriedly embarked the few remaining
Englishmen aboard his ships, and beaten, discouraged and disheartened,
sailed away from the town he had so gloriously won. He had not gone
empty-handed, however. The city had been thoroughly pillaged, much of
it had been burnt, the ships in the harbor had been destroyed and
Cumberland’s fortune had been increased tremendously. But he had had
enough of the corsair’s life. He settled down to pass the remaining
years of his life in peace; but we may feel sure that often, as he
glanced at the flopping, white-plumed hat with its little red glove, he
breathed a sigh of regret that his days of a sea rover were over; that
never again would he leap over a galleon’s side with cutlass in one
hand and pistol in the other, while men shouted for St. George and San
Iago and blood flowed and cannons roared and blade clashed on blade and
pistols flashed as Don and Briton battled.”
“Seems to me those old fellows were a lot more picturesque than the
real buccaneers,” said Fred. “Why don’t people write more stories about
them, Dad? I never read of Prince Rupert or the Earl of Cumberland in
any story; but books are full of Morgan and those fellows.”
“Probably because less is known about them,” replied his father. “And
partly, too, as they lived and fought before the West Indies and the
Spanish Main became as well known as in Morgan’s day. You must remember
that we hear very little of L’Ollonois, Brasiliano, Portugues, or the
earlier buccaneers. New England, you know, was not settled until 1638,
and most of the famous buccaneers were those whose deeds were committed
after the American colonies were trading extensively with the West
Indies. Morgan, you remember, sent to merchants of New England for help
in fitting out his fleet, and Davis and his fellows sailed for the
South Sea from the Chesapeake. To the inhabitants of New England and
Virginia the buccaneers seemed comparative neighbors, and hence the
tales of their careers came fresh and vividly to them, whereas it took
weeks or months for stories to reach England.
“But don’t imagine that it was only the older pirates who were
picturesque. Perhaps the most picturesque and fascinatingly wicked
pirate who ever lived—although he hadn’t a redeeming feature—was among
the last of the really famous corsairs of the Caribbean. If ever there
was a dime-novel, story-book pirate it was he—Blackbeard.”
“Hurrah! I was hoping you’d tell us about him!” cried Jack. “Was he
really as bad as the stories make out?”
“A great deal worse,” Mr. Bickford assured him. “No imagination could
invent anything to equal Blackbeard’s innate deviltry.
“He combined all the worst traits of every buccaneer and pirate who
ever lived. He was a double-dyed, out-and-out rascal; a ruffian, a thug
and a brutal, inhuman bully. The most despicable buccaneer who ever
raided a Spanish town or boarded a galleon would have despised him, for
he held no shred of honor or principle; he cheated his friends and his
own men and was a veritable monster in human form. Nevertheless, it
cannot be denied that he was courageous; that he never shirked danger;
that he never asked or expected his men to go where he would not lead,
and, moreover, he was a most striking and picturesque rascal.”
“I saw somewhere that he had a castle in St. Thomas,” said Fred, as Mr.
Bickford paused to refresh his memory with data from a book on the
table. “Did he live there, Uncle Henry?”
“Not as far as known,” replied Mr. Bickford. “It is true that there is
an ancient tower-like building above the town of Charlotte Amalia at
St. Thomas, and which is called ‘Blackbeard’s Castle,’ and that the
natives claim it was once the home of the noted pirate. But there is
also a similar edifice known as ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ on a neighboring
hilltop. It’s just about as probable that old Bluebeard lived in one as
that Blackbeard dwelt in the other. No doubt Blackbeard visited St.
Thomas, but there is not a bit of historical data to prove he ever
lived there. It’s a shame to destroy the island’s claim to association
with the notorious old pirate, but as a matter of record his so-called
castle was built by Charles Baggaert, a Dane, about 1660. To be sure,
that would not have prevented it from being used by Blackbeard, for he
lived at a much later date, but Blackbeard’s favorite haunts were the
Bahamas and the coasts of the Carolinas, and he would have had no
earthly reason for stopping ashore at St. Thomas. However, whatever the
truth of his ‘castle’ may be, the rest of Blackbeard’s life story is
well known and is substantiated by historical records.
“Blackbeard’s real name was Edward Teach and, like many another pirate
and sea rover, he was a native of Bristol, England. Had Teach been born
a few years earlier no doubt he would have become a famous buccaneer
and a dangerous rival of Morgan and his fellows, but Master Teach came
into the world after buccaneering as a profession had fallen into
disrepute. Hence it fell to his lot to become an ordinary seaman on
honest merchant ships, which was far from satisfactory to the ambitions
of young Teach. As a result, when his ship dropped anchor in Jamaica,
one day in 1716, Teach promptly deserted and, falling in with a number
of questionable characters, joined their company in a pirating venture.
“Evidently the embryo pirate believed thoroughly in the old adage that
‘what’s worth doing at all is worth doing well,’ and he threw himself
heart and soul into his chosen profession. Efficiency seemed to be his
middle name, to use a slang expression, and within two years from the
time he deserted the merchant service he had risen to the very highest
pinnacle as a pirate chieftain. In fact, I might go further and,
without exaggeration or question, say that within that short period
Teach had become the world’s greatest pirate, a pirate never equaled or
excelled for pure devilish bloodthirstiness and villainy, and, if the
facts were known, most of the lurid stories and the romances of piracy
have been founded on the deeds of Blackbeard. Even the popular
conception of much-maligned Kidd is based on Blackbeard, for he was the
culmination of piratical scoundrelism, the ideal pirate of
blood-and-thunder fiction, the most highly depraved cutthroat who ever
walked a ship’s decks.
“And he was a thorough believer in keeping up his reputation and well
knew the effect of appearances upon the public. Naturally a most
repulsive-looking man,—a huge, long-armed, broad-shouldered, brutal
creature,—he added to his ugliness by cultivating an enormous
coal-black beard and allowing his hair to grow until it covered his
shoulders like a mane. His beard he braided into innumerable little
pigtails, twisting in bits of bright-hued ribbons, and when attacking a
prize or boarding a ship he added to his wild and savage aspect by
tucking burning slow matches into the mass of black hair and beard that
framed his villainous, leering face.
“But his actual deeds would have been sufficient to inspire horror and
dread without the theatrical accessories of black whiskers and slow
matches. He was a past master in the art of devilish cruelty; he gave
no quarter; he took ships of any nation that happened to come his way,
and when prizes were scarce he varied the monotony of life by robbing
and murdering his own men and his fellow pirates. Had Teach drifted
into other and more peaceful walks of life he might have become a great
inventor, for he had an inordinate bump of curiosity and was forever
carrying out experiments which, while most interesting to him, were
most unpleasant to others. Once he marooned seventeen of his crew upon
a tiny barren islet, to learn, so he declared, how long human beings
could survive without food or water; but unfortunately for his
curiosity, and most opportunely for the marooned subjects of his test,
Major Stede Bonnet—of whom I have already told you—chanced to sail that
way and rescued the unfortunate seventeen from their desert isle.
“He possessed a weird and grewsome sense of humor too, and we may be
very sure that life was never dull or monotonous aboard his ship. On
one occasion, when for days no prize had been sighted and the pirate
craft rolled with slatting sails upon an oily sea under the blazing
tropic sun, Teach, hatless and shoeless, appeared on deck and announced
with a roar and an oath that he had devised a scheme for killing time
and amusing themselves. It was, indeed, a novel idea, and one quite in
keeping with Blackbeard’s character, for it was nothing less than, to
quote his words, ‘to make a little hell of our own and see who is best
fitted for our hereafter.’ It was useless for the men to protest, for
any artificial inferno that Teach could devise would, they knew, be
mild in comparison to that which they would bring upon themselves
should they refuse to follow out their captain’s wishes.
“Urging the fellows into the hold by no gentle means, Teach leaped in
with them, and then, setting fire to several pots of brimstone, pitch
and other inflammable things, the pirate chief drew the hatches shut.
There in the close, unventilated hold they sat upon the ballast,
choking, coughing, suffocating in the noxious fumes until,
half-roasted, nauseated, almost asphyxiated, the men could endure no
longer and, rushing to the hatch, threw it open and crawled on deck.
Not until all the others had gained the open air did Blackbeard emerge
triumphant, and throughout his life he was never tired of boasting of
his endurance, and took the greatest pride in recalling that his men
declared that, when he came forth, he had looked like a half-hanged
man.
“In fact, this remark by a thoughtless member of his crew set Teach to
thinking and, his curiosity being aroused, he suggested that another
and even more interesting test should be made to see who could come the
nearest to being hung without dying. But at this his men drew the line;
they had no desire to choke and kick while dangling with a noose about
their necks, even to satisfy their captain’s curiosity. In vain Teach
pointed out that sooner or later they’d be hung, most probably, and
that they might as well become accustomed to the sensation at once.
Without avail he argued that by so doing they might become so inured to
hanging that it would hold no terrors for them. One and all refused
point-blank, and Teach, realizing that to be suspended from his yardarm
alone would prove nothing and that his men might try his endurance a
bit too far, and also realizing that he could not string up his entire
crew by himself, reluctantly gave up the idea and, cursing the men
fluently as cowards, busied his mind thinking up other amusements.
“Such pleasantries were of almost daily occurrence, and his crew and
his friends thought themselves lucky indeed if they got off with
nothing more serious than his brimstone test. One night, for example,
he was entertaining two cronies, one his sailing master and the other
the pilot who had just brought the ship into port. All were in the best
of spirits, smoking, drinking, spinning yarns of the sea in the tiny,
stuffy cabin, when Blackbeard, without the least warning, suddenly
whipped out a brace of pistols, cocked them, crossed his hands, and
before his amazed guests knew what he was about, he blew out the candle
and fired his weapons in the direction of the astounded and terrified
men. The sailing master was shot through the knee—although, as you will
learn later, it was a most fortunate thing for him—and lamed for life,
and indignantly the pilot and sailing master demanded of Teach what he
meant by such behavior.
“Having cursed them fluently for several minutes, Blackbeard roared
with boisterous laughter, and replied good-naturedly that ‘if I didn’t
kill one of you now and then you’d forget who I was.’
“And yet, despite his brutality, his murderous ways, his utter
depravity, Teach apparently was a great favorite with the ladies. At
any rate, he was married fourteen times—although history fails to
mention divorces—his last wife being, according to those who knew, ‘a
beautiful young creature of sixteen.’ It certainly would be interesting
to know by what manner of courtship the villainous old wretch could win
the hearts of innocent young girls, but perchance in his love-making he
was as gentle and as ardent as he was brutal and devilish in his
piracy.
“For two years Teach ravaged the Caribbean and the coast of the
Atlantic states, sailing as far north as Massachusetts and the coast of
Maine, and making his headquarters either in the Bahamas or in the
waters of Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Indeed, there was more than
good reason to suspect that the governor of Carolina was hand and glove
with Teach, and that the pirate paid a goodly tribute to the executive
in return for freedom from molestation while in the Carolina waters.
“But at last Blackbeard’s activities became too great to be borne
longer by the long-suffering mariners and merchants of the colonies.
They rose and demanded his apprehension or destruction, and the
Governor of Virginia thereupon offered a reward of one hundred pounds
sterling ‘for one Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard, pirate,’
dead or alive, and forty pounds for each and every other pirate. One
hundred pounds in those days was a fortune, and Teach, reading a copy
of the proclamation, swelled with pride to think that his fame and
notoriety were such as to bring forth such an offer. But he had no fear
whatever of any one claiming it. His mere name was enough to drive
every one scurrying to safety, he had perfect confidence in his ability
to look out for himself, and he took the whole matter as a bit of a
joke.
“Indeed, he thought so lightly of it that he boldly sailed into Pamlico
Sound, came to anchor in a little cove at Ocracoke Inlet, and there
fell in with an old friend, a merchant skipper, with whom he spent the
night drinking and swapping yarns of old days before Teach had gone
a-pirating.”