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I didn't see you there. Something big is going on here. From hunting ghost to bigfoot, air normal, UFOs, true crime and more. We won't just be spoutin' articles. I was researching for your entertainment, beginning of a new world. The best clock you'll ever fuckin' eat true story. It's basically like one day you walk outside and you see that the ants are playing with matches. This is the Black Apple. See you on the other side. Our matey, it's time to hit the high seas and get some grog in our bellies as we roll, roll like a tumble around the deck. We'll raise the jack and unfurl the sails to get going on our pirate adventure. Because this week we'll be covering Steed Bonnet, the gentleman pirate. This week we're all in the studio for episode 47 and joining me back from her international foray is Betsa Bay. Hello. Comefie is all get out is Selena. Hi. And peering out creepily from behind his desk is Gil. Hello. Alrighty. Now let's get sailing. Who are you? I am Joey. No. Or, as they call them, Major Steed Bonnet. Oh shit. Oh, Major Steed Joey. Turn into a new character. Steed Bonnet was born on July 29, 1688 in Barbados. A Caribbean hub first settled by South American tribes more than 600 years before Spanish settlers came to the island. The islands had the right climate for growing sugar, which led to the island thriving as well as becoming a major trade hub for all ships heading to the other islands as well as into the new colonies. Steed was born to his parents Edward and Sarah Bonnet and christened at Christ Church Parish. The Bonnets were rich plantation owners and part of the original aristocracy of Barbados. Thomas Bonnet, Steed's great grandfather, was among the first settlers of Barbados that were not from South American tribes. Steed's great grandfather prospered during the sugar revolution, clearing large portions of the Barbaden jungle to establish a 400 acre plantation. Edward Bonnet, who is Steed's father, passed down the sugar plantation upon his father's death and managed the estate until he passed away in 1694. Steed Bonnet was only six years old at that time. And right after that, his mother Sarah died, leaving Steed as a young orphan, with a huge plantation to manage. While he was maturing, he was raised by Janet Wetzton, who was a widow of former Deputy Secretary of Barbados John Wetzton. Once he reached adulthood, which was 18 at this time, he took over full responsibility for the plantation, which 18 is normal for this time too. No difference. He was basically 30. He was basically 30. During this time, slaves were a huge import and export of Barbados. Also cultivating sugar was hard work and the land is of the time were fricking lazy and didn't know the value of hard days work so they used slaves to do the work for them. Also, racists. A lot of these slaves, honestly, came mostly from Africa, but English people and Spanish people were into huge transportation of slaves across there. They were basically one of the first stops to getting into the new colonies for slavery. They prospered that time. Which is shitty. Very shitty. But I've learned so far is his childhood is almost identical to Elon Musk's childhood. Yeah, I would say so. He's pretty much born into money. Yeah, he's born into money and he's just like, oh no, I'm so young and I have all my father's wealth which was born on the back of slavery and racism. Oh, no. Oh, darn it. Yes. So I'm going to make a fancy car. Yeah, he pretty much made a fancy car. Not well, I mean, we'll see later, he might have his fancy car. I think William Schottner just booze. Well, due to being outnumbered by slaves, the white landowners formed a militia to be able to respond to any rebellions they would have. So Steve was in that militia because he was one of the huge landowners and he was given the title of Major as we'll see later on he loved that title. So he just continued with it. But 21 years old, Bonnet married Mary Alombie who was a 16 year old daughter of William Alombie. 16 years old for women at that time was kind of like adulthood. So they were basically 16. 16. Good luck. Yeah, it was normal at that time. She was basically a spinster with that. She was basically a spinster. Yeah, she was like either getting married or gone. Yeah. Yeah. So those girls were married by the age of 12. That's true. Yeah. In the colonies, especially that was huge. But I think in England, they kind of tried to keep it a little later because they were more elite. Yeah, 14. 14 was a little later. Yeah, I'd say it was about right. William Alombie who was the father of Mary Alombie who he married was another wealthy plantation owner and member of the Barbadian aristocracy, which Barbadian is a really hard word to say, but I'm going to be saying it a lot. With Wife and Toe, Bonnet moved to Bridgetown, which was also in Barbados, one of the bigger cities in Barbados, which became the seat of assembly for a few years. Steed and Mary had four children over the span of 1712 to 1717. So four children. During this time, Steed was appointed and sworn in as the justice of the peace. So he was getting pretty recognized. You know, it was like a decent sized landowner. So he was getting recognized for things that he's in quotations doing, which is not really doing much. That was in 1716. Even though Steed was being appointed with accolades and high positions in Barbados, Steed and Mary were not looked on as high elite. The reason they weren't is because they were from Barbados and they weren't from England. So they couldn't get into it. They couldn't get into the elite. I don't know if that reminds you of another story that we talked about before, maybe like seven weeks ago with that one guy who could never get into the elite and he faked his own death. Oh, yeah. That old guy. Yeah. I can't actually remember his name, but he was incredible. That's what he wanted though. He did. He didn't want to remember his name. He didn't want to remember his name. Yeah. And then he faked his own death, found what was found beating his wife and then they all kind of laughed at him. Then he wrote a book and everything turned out horrible because he died right after that. But he just kept failing upwards. He failed upwards and that kind of worked out for him kind of. Well, they lived and died like the English leap but could not break into that society. So they were too tan. They were. Yeah, probably. So at this time, Steve and Mary's relationship was straining. So they couldn't get there. They both wanted to be there from the pressures at his work and quotations to their status and also the loss. They just lost a child. And then they got to the Alombie who was their fourth child. Alombie died at an early age and they were not able to keep the strain from affecting their marriage. We also check the closet already. God damn Mary. So we couldn't. You also can't say that he didn't have emotional baggage from both his parents dying when he was young and becoming an orphan basically. So that was how to do things. Yeah, I have to do things. Oh my God. That was like 80% of kids back in the day. Yeah. This is just one of the things they think kind of led to what he's about to do. It's kind of they're talking about everything that's going on with him. I think that's true. I think the most amazing thing about that time period was like you might die at an older age than your parents somehow. Yeah. You died at 20. Your parents died at 12. How did that happen? It's true. Yeah. Just something random would happen and maybe just hit the town or like a hurricane could hit because it's I mean, obviously they're going to get hit by hurricanes all the time in that area. So after seven years of marriage, steed's 28, bonnet started having a hankering for the seas. But again, like we're just talking about it's not actually clear what led him to do this. You know, would let him to go on this path. But he was an avid reader and he loved books about the seas. So he read narratives like a voyage to the South Sea, which were popular at the time and around the world. So it may have gotten him kind in that mood to like, I got that sea call and I need to go. I need to live ran into some young and up and coming captain named Captain Butler who told him what was beyond the ice wall. Yeah, he saw that. Yeah, he read that at that time. I believe that was the same time period because time doesn't matter. It's true. The flatter time isn't real. That's true, especially since they proved it was not correct. But anyways, also do want to run. I don't believe in a flatter. I don't know if you're confused from that episode, but I did not agree with it. I was just being very sarcastic and dry. Sure. Uncox gum in the background. You did your part, Joey. If I jump in a swimming pool, I'm going to stay bone dry because that's my humor. But no one's been outside Earth. We don't know exactly if it's flat or brown or trying. Many people have been outside of Earth. And satellites too. But us, personally, continuing on. Out of the four of us, we have never been to space. Continuing on to the people that sailed around the Earth. Brown. Also, during this time, pirate tales were in the newspapers and people which shared drunken tales of the sea and wanderlust pirating would punch. Oh my god. Hold on. So sorry to stop you. That's a may, that's a may might be on to something. We all know sailors are drunk. And you get wobbly when you get drunk. The Earth might be flat, but everybody sailing it might be too drunk to see it. I mean, seriously. Yes. And we all know pilots are drunk. Uh, yes. You've seen a flight map? Hail no. I'm just saying if you personally haven't been out there and seen it for yourself, then you don't know. It's also why I don't believe in giraffe. Never fucking seen one. They're not real or sharks. I've seen sharks. But then I think they're like broccoli. Like they are human modified. So giraffes are GMOs hold on genetically modified organisms. One more time. You believe in giraffes. But you know, she believes in broccoli and giraffes. She thinks that giraffes were also modified and created like broccoli was because broccoli is not originally created broccoli. And this is why we need to fund PBS. Okay. Because I mean, have you ever called in the one of those lines? We it is funding PBS. Getting back to the sea worthy tales. And the same. On December 17, 16, steed bought his first slupe. What's a slupe? Slupe is a small warship with two to three sail mass that can hold about 20ish guns. Also hold about a hundred men as well as give them all the comforts they would need. A captain's quarters. A steed would love a full library which he loved. I just need help. Yeah. Well, you can be definitely held on these boats by other pirates because they all lived right next to each other. A lot of them actually slept on the ship. They slept on the top of the ship. Oh, it was like I hope they slept on the ship. They slept on the top of the ship. So funny enough, it was called caulking, I think, where basically they would lay on the top of the ship, but because the caulking in the middle of like the boards, the beams, they would have marks from the caulking because they slept like that down their back, which is kind of funny thing if they fell asleep on the top of the ship. Yeah. So it feels me that sleeping like, you know, below deck would fucking suck. Oh, yeah, you probably get sick so bad. Yeah, I can do it. Fuck. Yeah. I mean, a lot of them like got drunk and would just be drunk. What does that make it worse? Like getting drunk and then see stick. I feel you get leveled because you're like, you're being drunk. They're just like already falling, falling over and they kind of get, that's called getting your sea legs. And then they just start like, they're able to move because it's already moving. So they're fine. Yeah. It's like the, it's like what the opposite, you know, yeah, you gotta catch the right pitch. Treat your body like a metronome. Yeah. I guess that's how they were always drunk. That's true. Yeah. The ship that he bought was actually before he even named it, it was already called the revenge. So. Oh my god. This guy said dumb. Yeah. And this is what he why really he wanted it because he loved the name. So I just want to make a point like he has no reason to get revenge right now. There's no whole thing about revenge. So he did make a point and sent the author made a point in the book saying like he really wanted it because he loved the name. So I don't know if he wanted revenge against the loss of his parents so early or against the high English society, which makes more sense against the elite. God damn you natural death. I'll get you. Yeah. Yeah. You take my family at a reasonable age. I said they've had a successful life and slaving people. Yeah. It was so weird. So he bought it for about 1500 at the time, which right now it's about 400 K. Okay. So I would say it's like a good deal. Like he got a good deal. So he also didn't tell Mary his wife about any of this. Of course. Why would he? He just went up and bought this boat. A tradition continued to this day when husbands buy boats without telling their wife. So after he bought this boat, not telling his wife, it was time to collect the crew. The steed in his gold trim tat fitted woolen overcoat completely in utterly fashionable wig and leather pointed toeshoes with gold buckles, prints down to the docks and into the taverns looking for well-worn men to serve him. It's guys so extra. You seem to have big muscles. He looked at every people looked at him like, who are you? Like why are you coming down here? So if you think about other pirates, none of them dress like this. They dress because they knew they're going to get wet. So none of them are wearing a fitted overcoat. You're wearing gold trim stuff. Yeah. He just, he made no sense. You could tell he had nothing. He'd never been around pirates. He just heard things. Oh my god. It's like so I'm embarrassing now. Like, by your pay. It's like when rich kids go to like buy drugs from like school and they just gave totally fucking dupe. I hope that's what happens to them. Well, he didn't. But he ended up hiring 126 men. A lot of people for the boat. And which was only supposed to hold a bow to 100. Someone needs to polish my shoes. Yeah. Another person needs to polish the buckles on the shoes. Well, another person needs to attach one shoe to my right foot and one to my left foot. Another person helps sew my socks. I seem to be getting holes. Another person. Yeah. I mean, he needed everything done for him. So he bought six cannons to as well to fit onto the boat. Which is about 12 to 20 cannons. So he purchased a good bit for the amount of crew that he was kind of holding. Could you just, sorry, but like, what did you just do? Like go down, you're like, I'm just going to buy some tamales, a few tortillas, a guava on sale and a, but a half a dozen cannons. Like what do you do? Like what, could you just go buy cannons? Yeah. You will. Yeah. Back in the day. Yeah. You might be able to, but think about this though. Like cannons are, are like candy. So at this point, so cannons were, people were privateers, could just go buy a boat. Like you can just go buy a boat and during these times you had the English, the Spanish, the French, all in wars. So governments were hiring people that are rich, that could buy a boat, that could go fight one of the other and just be like, hey, that wasn't us. That was a private boat that hits you. But really, they hired the boat to do it. So it's kind of like we do now with, yeah, we're hiring Northrop Grumman. We're hiring private contractors. We're the formerly known as, fuck what was it? Blackwater. Yeah, the same. The Prince is dumbass. Yeah. It's the same style of warfare they're trying to do. And it makes it easier because they don't have to pay people continuously either. They just go, here's your commission. Good luck. They're basically like the Uber of War. Yeah, pretty much. So most of the crew people were already holdovers from the original owner of the ship. So he, it was a little easier to get them because they're like, oh, we already know this ship. We were on it before. And instead of working jobs that held them in a single place, they're like, sweet, we get to go back on the ship, go back on the ship and go back to the sea. So at this time, the War of the Spanis succession had ended, which left a lot of trained soldiers and sailors unemployed as well. So again, much easier. So we had this pick of the litter. Steed spent most of the year of 1717, Gideon and the fairs in order. He drew up a power of attorney appointing his wife, Mary, and two of his closest friends to Handel's business affairs. So she's like, oh, I guess this is okay, but he's more like, I'm about to leave. Yeah. You know, she's fine with it because she thinks like, maybe this is kind of a will if you die, you know, he kind of like weirded it, needled it in there that like he's like basically about to leave. So now it's time for Steed on it. Hit the open water. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Okay. So this is starting to really fit into the character from Outlander. Steed, like it sounds just like it because his name is Steven Bonnet and it's based off of the character Steve S T E D E. Oh, this is Steve. Steve S E. What the who? What is the name is Steve? What is the stupid name? Yeah, it's a it's a name that it's probably I think it's like a earlier than his great grandfather was one of their families. I've never heard that name before in my life. It you never hear it now. Yeah, but that character like that guy. That character is based off of Steed on it. Okay. Yeah, because like you're talking about this dude and it just like I keep picturing that guy from Outlander. Yeah, but and I do too when I was actually reading it I picture that guy. He's not as ruthless. He's not that kind of bad character. But he's personality like he's so dumb. Yeah, he's we'll see later. He's kind of kind of dumb in some spots. Which by the way I highly recommend everyone watch his outlanders. Really good. This episode is brought to you by outlander wet wipes. You know when you need him. So Steve left the island or barbedos in the dead of the night. Seven PM like two two a.m. One or two a.m. because he was just leaving. So he didn't tell anybody so he's cruel. So at this time his so every ship just like airplanes nowadays every ship had to have a basically be cleared to leave the dock right. You're basically saying hey I'm leaving the dock. I'm headed to St. Thomas. I'm headed to the new colonies. Yeah, basically you charter yourself going that. So everyone knows where everyone's going. If you get if like you don't make it there they can kind of figure out oh this person was robbed robbed or died or something like that. This kind of like the little checks and balances they had. Especially the British because they literally own the seas almost at this time. Yep, so he basically just left. He didn't tell anybody. He didn't clear it with anybody. He didn't get any commission. Yeah, he didn't get any commission to leave because he didn't know or he just didn't want to because he wanted to be a law breaker and literally broke the law the first second he could. He broke the law as he was leaving because it's you go you have to pay fines if you do that or you have to get you get arrested. So as soon as he went out he was a pirate. I feel like he would get a boner J walking though. Like honestly something about this character. He's like. Oh, I'm not going to sign out. Slowly, just like slowly. He's like, but that was quite rare. He's just leaving. I picked him this bread. He's just he's just leaving. He's so crazy. You'll he'll be back. But what if he doesn't what if he gets lost. We don't even have to in the log. We don't know. It'll be fine. Samuel. I like. Pretty much. Steve bonnets just in the background is flicking him off like. He's like, Captain, they can't see you. It is pitch black outside. They know. You know, yeah. And his crew is just fine with it. You know, they're already most of them already like Seaman and and and sailors. So they're ready to go. So as he's leaving, he left his wife and children never telling them and they would never see them again. No right to them. This is a goal about him going throughout midlife. Yeah. He had him. He's this this Corvette and there's ships called Corvettes, dude, but this is his Corvette and he's gone. But he just never comes back. Yeah. He went out. He he was like a deadbeat dad and went out and got milk and cigarettes or a ship. He's only 28. He's 28 this point. So he's like not even well, I guess that might be midlife. Or that. So going into kind of like inner ship politics and pirate politics, right? So unlike many other ships and what sailors sailors took a share of the bounty they received. So basically they get hired. The captain says you get to take 2% of the bounty that we received, right? So Steve, because he was rare, he actually owned the ship. He was rich. Unlike most other people that went to the seas, they didn't have that. They had people who owned the had shares in the boat already that took shares out. He owned the ship full out. He made the deal with the sailors that he was going to pay them a living wage. Oh, what's that? So before so he just gave them money at the beginning of it, which never happens on sale on on pirate ships or on most ships. No, because that's down because they can just leave. They can just leave. He didn't again showing his like naivety and people because people wouldn't sail with him otherwise because he had no knowledge of the sea. He had never been there before and no, and no captain who was who could sail, you know? So as soon, well, he, I don't know if you're offered health care though, that's kind of one thing that we we never know. I mean, there's a guy with a knife. Yeah, I mean, I think he heard some doc. I think he heard a doctor or two to keep on the ship. So Steve who had never sailed before it, no, had any knowledge of sailing outside for five hours outside of what he read, sailed their revenge to the shores of Virginia. So a lot of this is going to take place on the shores of Virginia, shores of North Carolina, South Carolina, which at the time was called new Carolina or the Carolina's because the column, this is before the Revolutionary War. So the British still owned all the colonies. Yeah. So that's the time period we're looking at the current. So in Virginia, part of it, he was in Virginia Beach. He was in the little shoals off the Chesapeake Bay, which piracy was huge in this time in that area, which is funny because that's was just the next part of it. He just went around Virginia Beach. Steve was very, he had a very successful first cruise, weirdly enough. He took his first ship, but basically taking what I'm talking about that is he went on board. They stopped him. They rarely fired a shot. So when on board took all their goods and just left. Yeah, because he was he was raiding a nun ship. Yeah. Well, they took the they took the ships and would just take the on board and leave the people there. Most of the time they leave the people there because they didn't have a crew enough to take the ship for the most part until later on once they get more. So his first ship was called the Anne, commanded by Captain Montgomery. The turbot from Bridgetown was a second ship, but it was also from Barbados. So the guy knew who this guy was taking the ship. He was like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, it's some rich dude from Barbados and he stabs you with his sword, you know, as he's walking away. He also took the yeah, right? He also took the endeavor, which was the third ship, commanded by Captain Scott. And the last ship that they took on this little quick voyage was the young. I mean, the ship's names are just people name them randomly, I guess. He left most of the boats where they were, you know, where they were plundering. And then he took the ship from his hometown, the turbot to North Carolina and set it on fire. Because he basically didn't want anybody to know from Bridgeport that he was pirating because he literally left. And so he didn't want news like that captain to come back and say, hey, like this is I saw Steve, he's freaking out there. He's like pirating and taking all these ships. And then he would also get chased by a navy. So he's trying to cover his tracks. He's covering his tracks. So Steve, he created an alias for himself because again, he's trying to cover his tracks. Tell me it was Steve. He just called himself Captain Edwards, which is just a basic name for most people. I will be thinking of Twilight from now on. I know. Yeah. That was like the first thing I came to. Well, you might get on the side of Captain Edwards or the other pirate that's going to come into this. I think we'll separate some type of numbers. Yeah. During his capture, the ships, Steve would take prisoners. He kind of did in a smart way, which is good, I guess. So he would interrogate the prisoners, like ask questions like, is the town rich? Yeah, yeah. He'd ask, is the town rich that you came from? How many guns do they have? Is it fortified? How many lookouts? Are there rivers or creeks that come near it? Do you have a 401k? Yeah. Have you invested in an IBM? Well, pretty much. Which, like, he's finding out all the details behind these places so that once he gets his crew out together and gets a plan together, he can go in and start taking these places, or barricading them. So he's actually in that way, he played it really smart. Okay. And a lot of pirates at this time were kind of just taking ships and weren't as much going into blockading. Like he's doing his research. He's doing his research. And that's not exactly sea worthy, but that's military. And you can see that when he was doing his, his militia that they probably, he probably learned from there. Probably reading books too, that kind of help. So after his first successful set of boat taking, which I call it, but plundering and pillaging is really what they're doing, he decided to sail up the coast to New York. So he captured a few small ships around the West Indies, or bound for the West Indies. And after repervisioning at Gardner's Island, which was a famous pirate town. How we got was tiny trowels and we got these hose and some bag of miracle grill. God damn it. Why did we stop in Gardner's Island? Right. Yeah. And so he decided it was time for bigger ports. Steve decided it's time to go to Charles town, which is Charles Ton, after it was renamed after the Revolutionary War. I was going to say if he went to go to go to go. He will get there because one of the spoiler alert. One of our friends that's coming along was a big partner in Okra Kokers. Okra Kokers. He's a great friend. He's a great cocker. He's a great cocker. He's a great cocker. That's true. Okra Kokers. So even though Steve had not been at sea for more than a year, he was already wanted by the British naval authorities. So within four to five months, they were already looking for him. In a letter penned by Captain Bartholomew, who was British admiralty, he said, is also or has been lately over on the coast a pirate swoop from Barbados. Pinned by one major bonnet. Again, they knew his name, even though he was using Captain Edwards, who has an estate in that island and a slupe in his own. This advice I had by letter from Vence that in April last 1717, he ran away out of the Carlisle Bay, which he's a great rimer. In the night, had had aboard 126 men, six guns and arms and ammunition enough. So yeah, they literally knew who it was. They knew his ship. They knew how many people he had on board, even though he didn't say I'm leaving. They figured it out super quick. Bro, you literally bought this from us. Yeah. And it was the guy who had the ship was just like, obviously, was like, this is easy to tell who this guy is. So why did they care though? Well because he's taking ships that were bound from, he was basically doing a legal security. Well, that's the reason they had the logs. They had the logs of you leaving in clearances. So that's how they knew if a ship reached here, but didn't reach there, they would find out and know, okay, this guy got pirated. They stole his stuff or he'd be marooned on an island rescued and he'd say, hey, this guy pirated all of our stuff, pillaged all of our stuff and left me on this island. This is who it is. I met him because you meet the captain when you get on the ship. Captains meet, they talk. He's like, hey, you could either leave alive. You could come join us. And sometimes they would recruit sailors on those ships that they're pirating and pillaging onto their ship. So then they'd know they'd start telling tales about it when they go to towns. And it would show them, hey, these people are here. So you'd have just people telling tales about all these people taking ships, all these people going there. So it's very easy for work to spread at this time. Especially, yeah, they didn't have telephones, but people were moving constantly in between colonies and between parts of the world. So pretty much within three or four months of traveling, you could find out so much that's going on. Because go to the bars, taverns, that's where rumors spread. So they had every bit of information. The only thing they didn't have was the ship's name. So they didn't, and they also didn't know how to spell bonnets names. They put two T's instead of one, which is just B-O-N-N-E-T, not B-O-N-N-E-T-T. Did they perfectly spell steed? Yes, really weird. They couldn't get bonnet. Yeah. They just steed. I don't know if I trust this person in the books. I don't know either. And maybe that was his cover. When he signed the commission, he put the steed on it with two T's and that could have been his cover. His last name, it's Gennephalactic. That's easy. But Adam, how do I spell that? 2W's? What do I do? Well, it was time for Major Steed bonnet to make his mark in Charlestown. He pulled into the harbor just outside of Charlestown and boarded a brigantine coming from Boston. So a brigantine ship is a ship that has two masks and also a set of ores. So it made it easier to maneuver. So if you had ores, you can also row it if the wind wasn't where you wanted to go. The captain of the brigantine surrendered without the crew of their revenge firing a single shot. But there was nothing of value on board. So oh, we have is the ship in the beanie babies. Yeah, but he was just like, that's fine. I'll just, there's nothing here. So basically to stop the crew from going to Charlestown and saying there's a pirate ship out in the harbor. He held, steed held the captain in the crew there. Because he didn't want people telling the harbored people in the harbor and they're leaving that there's a pirate ship out there and then just no one leaves. So after a ship, another ship came into sight and was again captured without a fight. Because a lot of these people are like, oh, Charlestown harbors need decently safe. I'm leaving. I don't have to fire. I don't have to have weapons at this point. So this was a slupe again. Another slupe like a small, small, small, small, small, small, captain by Joseph Palmer. This time they hit the mark on the ship. The slupe was full of valuables. So they ransacked the ship and took sugar, rum, and slaves. So while they were, while they were sailing down the coast, they originally, they eventually set the slaves free on the coast of North Carolina. I was like, we don't need you guys to go. Be free and they're just like, okay, dude, literally there's nowhere to go. And they're just going to get captured. They're just going to get captured and put in the slavery anyways, but they're like here. We can't feed you. We don't want to feed you. We don't want to pay you. He's such a dick. Yeah. Just like they did to the turbid ship earlier, they burned it and then they carine their ship. So what they did, carining basically is you run your ship onto land so that you can start repairing it, repairing the hull, doing anything, and they used a lot of this stuff from the ships that they capture to fix their own ship. So it's kind of like they take boards, they take masks if they needed to, sales repair it, just anything that they could that they needed to. So after that, they let the prisoners go on the brighantine and then sail the way, because they had already done what they needed to do. So even though Steve was going by his alias, he was still recognized by Joseph Palmer, who was also from Barbados. And as soon as he let the captains go, they went straight to the magistrate in Charlestown. And for a second time, unless then a year, Steve's bonnet's name was being passed around by the British admiralty. Or as I like to call them the bropo. Nice. British admiralty police. Oh shit. Yeah. After the first initial successes of ransacking and pillaging a few ships, Steve was feeling invincible and also very lucky, cooking. But they weren't sure what the next step was. Because of the different way that Steve paid his crew, being that he gave them guaranteed money instead of a share of the bounty, which they also got to. So they didn't just get a guaranteed pay. They got share of the bounty. The setup on the way the ship ran was different. This pirate ship and most pirate ships were run as a democracy. So basically everyone got to vote, which is a cool thing to see as like, at that time, because most of the places you go, you were just pretty much an indentured servant to the company. And obviously slavery was big at that point. But if you had a job, you were an indentured servant. You were getting paid. And that was it. And they could leave you if you wanted to. They wouldn't. There's no thing about it. But pirate ships at this time are run as democracies. Yeah. So that's a, I guess, a historical fun fact. So like actual true anarchism, not like the, I guess, the bastardized term for anarchy, but actual true anarchism like pirate ships worked on actual like actual true anarchistic values where people are complete horizontal, say across the board. They also constantly had shifting captains. Captains could get voted out, voted in on a regular basis. Like almost every fucking thing was run horizontally on a ship. And even like bounties on the ship, it was like, okay, you know, like 30% of the total bounty goes back to the ship, goes back to the crew, goes back to what we all agreed on in terms of like, this is how much run we buy, how much how many bullets, how many, you know, canons, you know, there's this much for that. Then everybody else gets equal parts, even like the captain gets the exact same cut that like the lowest person on the ship gets. And like also racially and gender wise too, they were equal as fuck, at least as for the time period, like raising insane equal as they could be. Yeah. Like I mean, well, we had the example, I'm fucking, it's killing me that I'm forgetting your name, but on the people who fake their own death, that woman just like showed up in town. She's like, all right, motherfuckers were forming a crew and I was like, yeah, dude, she's a badass. We're getting on board. Like that wasn't exactly rare. Nope. Like a woman could just pop and be like, yo, bitches, get on. And everybody's like, all right, let's go. There was a few women captains compared to, I mean, like there was no women businessmen at that time for the most part because they weren't allowed to. And at that time, there was women captains aboard pirate ships, which is very interesting. And they were leading men just as well as having women on board as well. So it was very interesting to see that at that time period where that was like non-existent. Yeah. Historically, there was less men who wrote the history of women leading ship. Then there was actually was women at the time leading ship. Like for sure. That was common. Yeah. A lot of times, it had to be very like super special at that point to be like, oh, this person like the person who paid during death, and then her friend that she joined with the other captain, woman captain, they were very just like they had special, they actually wrote their own histories too, which is kind of the thing. You? So under a unanimous vote on the ship, obviously, like we just talked about, they could kick off a captain. Yeah. So that was one of the things that he wanted to write into it. It wasn't, it didn't have to be a majority. And this one, it was unanimous vote. So everybody had to agree to kick off that. Even the captain. Well, he didn't get the vote. No. So they're sitting here right now. They have no idea. It couldn't agree on the next place they wanted to go to. So the crew was eventually like, well, there's a bunch of boats that, and gold and sunken ships down in Florida. So in the Spanish-owned area of Florida, which is the most of Florida right now, they just went down and like, cool, let's just go down there. We'll see what we can find. So during that time, many Spanish ships were suncares, so there was full of gold, silver goods, and a lot of things because of the hurricanes and storms. A lot of people didn't want to go down there because they could be pretty much destroyed. Super quick. Yeah, by Florida man. By Florida man, yeah. Google Florida man in your birthday, and you'll think us later if you haven't done it already. So they're in Spanish Florida at this time, and they spot a big merchant ship. So they're like, hey, this could have just pictured Walmart floating. It was USS Walmart actually. Whoa, what is it? SS Walmart, I guess. The SS Bama. SS Walmart. So they're like, this one has a lot of goods, and Steve, who was like, man, we pretty much are killing it already. We can go knock any ship out we want. So he ran up his pirate flag, instead of waiting to get closer to make it easier to take. So at this time, the strategy behind that was you would go close, everyone had a flag to show their, your country, or if you were a merchant ship, you'd have a merchant flag for your company. So at this time, pirates smartly would not run up their flag. They would get real close. And then as soon as they got close enough to where they could start shooting, they'd run up the pirate flag, because they would already be close enough to where the other ship couldn't run away. The other ship might be like, oh, they're just a British ship kind of patrolling or something like that. But Steve was like, oh, it's fine. We got this. It's just a merchant ship. They don't have any guns. Can you imagine if like the naked lady mud flap had been invented at that time? It just like literally just flags of like the naked lady mud flap like go up and over the key. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, no. So as they got closer, they noticed that this was not a merchant ship, but a Spanish warship called the Man of War. Man of War. So the Man of War is a huge and much bigger ship and way more heavily armed than the slupe that Steve was commanding. Yeah. It's a Man of War. You know, it's in the name. So these are mostly used as the Spanish fleet ships and they would protect some of the fleet. So the Man of War maneuvered into fire on the broadside, meaning they both line up side by side and they start shooting, but it was the closest and moved into broadside to shoot first. So they shot first. And then before that they could, before the revenge could get a shot, they turned on the stern and they shot into the stern. So the revenge and much smaller ship couldn't do anything. So Steve was actually knocked out by the first volley during the ship. So the crewmen came in, took him into the ship, put him in the his little quartermaster. They got a folly off, but they were like, oh, well, this sucks. We're pretty much screwed. We can't take this ship. So they basically, they got out of there, you know, that with the smaller ship, yeah, they had a smaller ship so they could easily outmaneuver and get out. So they got out as quick as they could. And at this time, it was really, really bad for them because they lost 30 to 40 people. Damn. Yeah. So 34, 40 people were killed. And with the first taste, it tasted defeat. The crew plotted a course to go to Nassau, a well-known sanctuary for pirates at the time. Nassau. Nassau. Nassau. Oh, yeah. It's in the Bahamas. We're going to space, move. Yes. Nassau is in the Bahamasau. Yeah. And ASS8E. Yep. Yes. So Nassau was home to the who's who's of pirates. To the who's? To the who's. Oh, shit. The who's who of pirates. A pirate who had not yet made a name for himself, but was on his way to becoming one of the most notorious pirates ever was about to make the acquaintance of Steve Bonnet. That's right. Everyone's favorite Okrakokean pirate? Blackbeard. Yeah. Yeah. You're drunk. Everyone knows him as Blackbeard, but he also had kind of two names. His real name was Edward Thatch, also in Okrakoke they call him Edward Teach. Edward Scruffyface. Yeah. Scruffyface, pretty much. He was a second on a ship already, so he wasn't a captain yet. He was second on a ship, captain by Benjamin Hornagold, who was also another famous pirate earlier than Blackbeard. Hornagold. Hornagold. Steeden Thatch met and discussed a partnership. Though there was no real documentation of how and why they decided they should meet and partner up, it seems that they both had a need, Grinder. Steed having not much experience running and leading a ship. He only had like the six months I think beforehand, and that's needing to upgrade a ship and also start his own fleet. So steed weirdly relinquished command of their revenge to Thatch. His own ship, you know, and he's like, here you go. Good luck. Oh, you're like really good at this. Yeah. I can already see that you're good. The only thing he wanted to keep in this was his quarters. So he basically kept the captain's quarters. I just got it the way I like it. But it wasn't the captain made him happy because at this time he was also suffering like, you know, injuries from being hit by the by some of the cannonballs that were coming. He didn't get like this. I kind of click sometimes. I really can't be out there on the field anymore. Yeah. He was a gentleman wealthy landowner. So he wasn't used to the, you know, the terribleness that was being almost see getting hit by cannonballs or in a war basically. So after suffering the huge physical toll, he said you can have my ship, but I keep my quarters. And so Blackbeard boarded the ship, started retrofitting it with more cannons to add more firepower as well as he hired more sailors. They lost 30 or 40, so you had to replace those and replace all the ammunition. Steve basically became a passenger on his own ship. So after bonnet recuperated in that saw and Thatch decided he was ready to go, they sailed up north again to the capes of Virginia, Virginia Beach area. So that's a beautiful place to get it because they go in Chesapeake Bay as well. You can go up and into the land and hit colonies along the, along the river and along the Bay. So much easier for pirates and get away quick. I played God of War. I know that works. I played God of War. You play civilization, all those things like that. Very similar. Yep. So around late September, they came upon their first ship. A call from the lookout came down to the men. Oh, sail on the horizon. So bonnet witnessed Blackbeard get into character. So this is bonnet being like, good luck, you know, and being like, oh, who is this? He really didn't know this guy that well. Yeah. So he'd never seen him become in quotations, a pirate and become character Blackbeard. Thatch lit uses that were tied in his beard. So it looked like smoke enveloped his head. It was crazy. Yeah, imagining this tall, seafaring and dangerous man, jump aboard your ship. You didn't even, I got a call out. You just said a keyword. He was like, what, like, six, six or something like that. He was a big ass mother fucker. Like he was huge even by today's standards. Big ass fucking Blackbeard had like these like fucking long ass fuses hidden up in his beard. So it's like literally just piles of fucking smoke coming out around his face and his eyes. And like this dude twice the height of everybody around us coming towards you with literal smoke surrounding his fucking face carrying like 27 fucking guns. Yep. Like he had a leg out being like, boom, like the fucking ship's moving every time he fucking steps. Just like just going on coming towards you. This dude's intimidating as fuck. He had a leather belt too, which was really cool. He had like a leather kind of holster I guess that carried like six guns. Yeah, and was so cool because like he just looked the part. You know, obviously bonnet did not look the part. I was like, get out of here with this shit. Like, could he think you imagine seeing him? That would be the most horrifying trip. If you saw this guy jump on your boat with smoke coming out of his face, these like standing next to fucking gentry. Yeah, standing next to this guy who's like more horny toy. You know, and so after they took the ship, it was called the Betty. After they'd taken what they wanted from it, Blackbeard's quartermaster, William Howard, drilled holes into the hole of the ship and sunk it to the bottom, which actually was like a Blackbeard thing. He would just sink ships. Because, uh, bitch. Yeah, it was just like whatever I'm done. And after such a quick and decisive victory, the crew in Blackbeard were both aesthetic and ready for more. They set sail for raids along the Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia, and New York. They captured at least 15 ships as they raided following the same approaches of the Betty. Unlike understeers leadership, where prisoners were only questioned to find information, Blackbeard was set on gaining notoriety. So Blackbeard would deny any requests made by prisoners, as well as sink their belongings to the bottom of the ocean or leave them anchored out in the middle of nowhere and just leave them there or maroon them, which was a big thing to basically take their ship, go burn it, leave them on an island. Give them, he'd give them like one or two days of provisions to be like, all right, well, if a ship picks you up, you're lucky. If you're not, sorry. At that time, there was a lot of ships that went around so that a lot of people didn't die being marooned. They would be picked up a week or two later. But that also helped carry the Blackbeard names and notoriety, which he wanted. He wanted people to know who he was. Indeed, on the other hand, was like, I don't think I wanted anybody to know my name. So he was more in it for the sea. You see, you know, he just wanted to be on the sea and escape his family. He just had no idea that fishing was an option. Yeah, yeah, he didn't think about it. So as winter started to come around, it was time to go south, obviously, and winter, you don't want to be in Philadelphia or New York. The revenge being led by Blackbeard sailed south to the Caribbean. Indeed, pretty much just sat on his hands watching all the Blackbeard was doing, and he enjoyed living that life for a little bit. Steed, being fully recovered from his wounds, was now ready to command his own ship again. Luckily, they came upon a bigger friendship called the La Concorde, coming from Nantes France on its way to Mothinique. There are only 60 miles from their destination, and on the horizon, they saw the dreaded sales of piracy. Their avenged shot two cannibals across the bow of the ship, and La Concorde offered no resistance in acquiesce. Blackbeard pressed ten of the crew into piracy. So basically, he took ten people and we're like, you're going to be pirates now. And they're like, well, do you have that or get left on an island? So whatever, maybe I'll get some money from this. So he was smart, though, because he picked the second cook. So he got a cook. Hell yeah. He picked three doctors. Nice. Two carpenter's, a calker, a navigator, and a gunsmith. So he picked a calker, a person who cocks the decks, a navigator, and a gunsmith. So basically like a bed builder for the, yeah, pretty much. So helps keep the ship together, too. So they also took a few of the crew because the members volunteered. So that also happened. Some of the crew were like, well, this seems like a cooler life. I've been waiting for this. Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay. So here's my resume. So here's my thoughts. This is, if you go here, this is my IMD profile. You can find me here. And yeah, here's my password for Twitter. So yeah, pretty much they did that. And then they left the remainder of the crew of the La Concorde on the nearest island with a barrel full of beans. So now they had two ships. So La Concorde was the bigger ship and better equipped. So they transferred a few more guns over to the La Concorde from the revenge. And so deemed blackbeards famous ship, the Queen Anne's revenge, which you almost always have. That's the cool one. Which still had revenge in the names. They're all good. That's pretty sick. But I do have a serious question though. This is very serious. Do French people even know how to cook beans? Or was that like a joke? I know. Joey doesn't. That's true, I don't. So backstory real quick. I took black beans that weren't cooked or even washed. And I put them on a skillet and tried to cook that. So well, that would have been a good salad actually. But yeah, it's very chewy. But I imagine that's kind of what these people got into their things. They didn't have any, they put them on skillets because they didn't really have anything else or like cooked them in their hands. I don't know what they did. But they just had a barrel full of beans. So that's all they do. Is these full bait? What do we do? So we use them as little pebbles when we aren't angry with each other. Yes, I'm extremely angry. But that did not want to hurt you, but I want you to feel it. Yes. So steed, amazingly enough, was put back in charge of his own ship. And so they had themselves. And they didn't want this position, you guys. I really didn't, I really appreciate the support. And I was fine just playing PlayStation. Well, he actually kind of did, which was very weird. So they basically had their first armada right now. So steed had their revenge, black beard had the newly minted Queens and revenge. So throughout the winter, bonnet and thats plundered and raided many ships taking goods and prisoners wherever they went. They had the royal navy on their trail, though. So many suspected they would go into the Spanish waters and hunt Spanish ships. But instead they played it smart. They stayed near the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas and dared the British Navy to come get them. They were smart. So they wanted to go after the big prizes now that they had their own armada. Well, two ships can be called an armada, I guess. I don't know. They kind of thought it was. Well, anyways, on March 17, 18, the Queens and revenge was ready to be refitted. So that made his way back to safe harbor and steed was left alone to go hunting. For what? It's had to go well. Ships. Ah. Yeah. So he's basically like, I think you're fine now. You've kind of lived through enough. You've seen me. But that's like, you've seen me do some stuff. So like, look, you saw how he tied that ship in the pier. You got this. You got this man. Yep. The revenge was sailing around the Bay of Honduras where they had met a much and much, much, much bigger ship called the Protestant Caesar. That fucking name is dope. Yeah, it's a good name. So steed seeing the spoils and unable to control his greed, he set pursuit of the ship. And unlike last time though, steed lost to the man of war. This time he had a little bit of experience because he watched that and he was like, I think I can get it. The revenge fired on the Protestant Caesar. After this, steed hailed the captain and said, if they fired another gun, they would give him no quarter. So captain William wire, who was the captain of the Protestant Caesar, answered back with a volley of cannon fire. Thus they locked into a three hour battle in the black of the night firing volleys back and forth. But like we always see, unfortunately for steed, the much bigger and heavier armed Protestant Caesar fought off their revenge. It's like a chew, wow, going up to like a fucking great day. Yep, pretty much. He just does this. I would say, I would say pulmurinian. Something about steed gives me pulmurinian vibes. Just because he's fancy. Yes, like a pulmurinian with a pumpador. Pulmurinians are fucking vicious though. Yeah, they're crazy as fuck. I hate them. That's why I say chew, wow, because they're just harmless little shaky, sparky, loud. All show, yeah, but no bite. Steed slunk off into the night with another defeat, almost a year removed from his prior defeat. So the crew decided it was time to head back to safe harbor to repair and regroup. So steed bonnet and revenge sailed for turneth. But luckily, they were not alone docking there. Good old black beard, the queen and revenge was also docked there for repairs. So at this point, steed had attacked a bigger and more well-equipped ship and had command of the revenge two times and lost two battles stupidly. Even though he was gaining a knowledge and learning lessons, the crew members did not feel safe having steed lead them anymore, which makes for a consensus. They held a vote and steed was again out his captain. This time, black beard positioned one of his guys named Richards to helm the revenge. Gourdick, get on board. Yep. So now, revenge has a new captain. Also, queen and revenge, they have two. So black beard pretty much ferned control of everything going on, so he's ready. So on April 5th, 1718, a ship approached the bay where their revenge and queen and their revenge were docked. The ship was thinking that one of the ships was the Protestant Caesar, which had fought off steed bonnet about a week earlier. They parked right near the two ships, but then they realized it was not the Protestant Caesar. Then they thought it was spanish ships and then they went, oh crap, it's pirate ships. So they tried to pull away really quickly. They didn't know because they didn't have their flags out. I was going to ask about that. So when two pirate ships are trying to trick each other and they're like, you're here. Oh, he does shaking. Yeah. How did they just take them? They just they fight. They still fight. They still fight. They're pirates. Pirates fight between themselves to get more like ships have come out of either. Like go go go. I mean, on the individual ships, maybe, but not between like they just want to get as much as they can. Yeah, yeah. And if they're plundering, they're like, I'm carrying shit. They probably are carrying ship from what they plundered. Yeah, yeah. So they just steal. Yeah, a pirate ship getting pirated. So this ship was called the adventure. It was a decent sized slupe again, a slupe. So they had a lot of stuff on there. So quickly Blackbeard fired a shot above the bow. Like he normally does. They stopped and they boarded the ship and was quickly taken. The ship's home was handed over to Israel Hands. Oh, yes. He was another one of Blackbeard's famous ones, famous friends he had. He's real keys. Yeah, not that serial killer. At this time, Steed was just left as a sightseer on the Princess and revenge watching as a ship he owned and started on being commanded by another pirate. So Blackbeard now has a sizeable force and he took on the title of Commodore. He had three main ships and a secondary captain aboard a ship watching and learning. Secondary captain being Steed. Blackbeard is ready to head back out and start taking ships again. So basically, Steed had told Blackbeard would happen with the pros and seasor. Obviously, the crew told him to. So Blackbeard's like, well, you know what? We're going to go get that ship. They started out searching for the pros and seasor to get some revenge or maybe just a little queen ants revenge on the ship that repelled Steed bonnet about two weeks earlier. They found the pros and seasor in the Bay of Honduras repairing from the battle with bonnet's revenge earlier. Instead of a long and lengthy revenge battle, the crew of the ship saw it wasn't armada of pirate ships and said, nope, we're out. And they sailed, they took little small boats and went ashore and they left the ship for the pirates. Because they saw three pirate ships coming up and some smaller, smaller ships were like, nah, the thing, I don't think we're going to deal with that. And they also knew Blackbeard also would say, if you fire another shot, we're going to kill you all. So kind of intimidation, you know, Blackbeard was smart in that. And so they basically went and plundered the ship and then burned it. One of the things about Blackbeard was that he hated ships coming from Boston or the New England area. What a weird ass. What a weird ass. It's... Well, there's a reason. Any ship from Boston belong to Boston is what he said. And Boston had hanged a bunch of pirates years before. So he knew that happened and was pissed. I'm a Cleveland Indians fan and I don't appreciate these socks coming out. They're the Cleveland Guardians now, by the way. So the crew in Captain were left unharmed at the island with rations to last for a few days. And now it was time to set sail for Grand Your Pastures. Now the Blackbeard was just starting his revenge tour. It was time to head for Charlestown. Again. And it's here. We will continue next week with part two of Steed Bonnet, the amateur part. Thank you so much for listening to the Black Cat Report in our episode on Steed Bonnet, R1. We'll be back next week with the second part of this episode. Please remember to like, review and follow wherever you get your podcasts. And also follow us on Instagram. That's where you'll find the most up-to-date information. See you next week for our looking on the high seas.