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under the black flag
Jan. 6th, 2004 11:01 amI've been reading Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly. I got this book quite some time ago, but have only read bits of it; Cordingly knows a great deal about pirates, but rather less about how to write a cohesive book. The information and anecdotes are fascinating on their own, but since they aren't organized into some kind of chronology or thesis, it's hard to read the whole thing straight through.
I've been particularly entertained by the adventures of John Rackam, "a bold and somewhat reckless character whose colorful clothes had earned him the nickname of Calico Jack."
There is no record of Calico Jack using torture or murder, and he seems to have gone out of his way to treat his victims with restraint. When he had finished looting a Madeira ship, he returned the vessel to her master and arranged for Hosea Tisdale, a Jamaican tavern keeper, to be given a passage home.
Among his crew were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women disguised as men.
It was around this time that Mary Read joined his crew. She too was dressed as a man[...]. Anne Bonny found herself strongly attracted to the new member of the pirate crew, and in a quiet moment when they were alone she revealed herself as a woman. Mary Read, "knowing what she would be at, and being sensible of her own capacity in that way, was forced to come to a right understanding with her, and so to the great disappointment of Anne Bonny, she let her know that she was a woman also." To avoid any further misunderstandings, Calico Jack was let into the secret.
The two women were said to be "very profligate, cursing and swearing much, and very ready and willing to do any thing on board". Indeed, they seem to have been by far the most fearsome and cunning pirates on the crew. When they were boarded by the authorities,
The only resistance came from Mary Read and Anne Bonny. They were armed with pistols and cutlasses and shouted and swore at everyone in sight, but they failed to rally their shipmates, who tamely surrendered.
When brought to trial, the two revealed that they were pregnant, saving themselves from the gallows.
[EDIT: Further discussion here.]
I've been particularly entertained by the adventures of John Rackam, "a bold and somewhat reckless character whose colorful clothes had earned him the nickname of Calico Jack."
There is no record of Calico Jack using torture or murder, and he seems to have gone out of his way to treat his victims with restraint. When he had finished looting a Madeira ship, he returned the vessel to her master and arranged for Hosea Tisdale, a Jamaican tavern keeper, to be given a passage home.
Among his crew were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women disguised as men.
It was around this time that Mary Read joined his crew. She too was dressed as a man[...]. Anne Bonny found herself strongly attracted to the new member of the pirate crew, and in a quiet moment when they were alone she revealed herself as a woman. Mary Read, "knowing what she would be at, and being sensible of her own capacity in that way, was forced to come to a right understanding with her, and so to the great disappointment of Anne Bonny, she let her know that she was a woman also." To avoid any further misunderstandings, Calico Jack was let into the secret.
The two women were said to be "very profligate, cursing and swearing much, and very ready and willing to do any thing on board". Indeed, they seem to have been by far the most fearsome and cunning pirates on the crew. When they were boarded by the authorities,
The only resistance came from Mary Read and Anne Bonny. They were armed with pistols and cutlasses and shouted and swore at everyone in sight, but they failed to rally their shipmates, who tamely surrendered.
When brought to trial, the two revealed that they were pregnant, saving themselves from the gallows.
[EDIT: Further discussion here.]
