A non-pirate non-fiction story for your enjoyment

My Adversarial Relationship with my Christmas tree.

By Laura Nelson

            My first two Christmas trees were my parent’s cast-offs. The first one was a saggy, tired thing that had been in the family since I was a girl. I have only vague memories of our previous trees. I was actually quite fond of my saggy Christmas tree and it served me well for about 9 years.

            Then my parents bought themselves a smaller tree and offered their “old one” to me. This one was sturdier and prettier, so I accepted it.

            I took my old one out and set it in its box in front of my apartment complex’s dumpster. The next time I looked it was gone. I hope it served someone else as faithfully as it did me.

            The second of my parent’s cast-off trees was 6 feet tall stayed with me for 15 years. That is, until Christmas Eve of 2011.

            That year I had finished all of my Christmas preparations and had sat down at my computer to enjoy a pleasant evening sending a few last Christmas messages before calling it a night.

            While I’m typing away I hear a crack and then a soft whooshing sound behind me. Puzzled, I turn around in my chair to find my Christmas tree keeled over in the middle of the living room floor. The cracking noise had been the sound of the stand breaking, as I discovered when I bent over to try and stand it back up again. It would never stand on its own again.

            Luckily for me it was early enough in the evening that K-Mart hadn’t closed yet, and I was able to pick up a bulky, clunky-looking tree stand that would have to do.    

             Unfortunately, this new tree stand was designed for real trees, not artificial ones. It was deeper than the one that came with the tree, since it was designed to hold water. In order to make it work, I had to remove the bottom row of branches and try to re-distribute all of the decorations on the tree.

            The people who saw the tree post-accident thought it was pretty. (Sigh of relief.) And while I was grateful I had managed to make it work out, I wished they could have seen it without the accident, because it was much prettier in its original configuration. And so I made it through that Christmas with my jury-rigged tree.

            After the holiday rush, I bought a new tree on sale. It was a pretty medium-green color with cute little fake pinecones on the branches. I was hooked.

            I made a decision that year that after many years of squeezing a 6 foot tree into my small apartment that I only wanted a 5 foot tree. The salesman also assured me that he would make doubly sure that the tree I got actually had pine cones on it, because sometimes the manufacturer left them off.

            A week later when I went to buy the tree I was waited on by a different salesman. He wasn’t as nice, but he assured me that the tree would have the pinecones on it, just like it said on the box.

            The holiday season was past, so I carried my new tree home and placed it in the back of the closet for next year.

            My old tree was disassembled bit by bit and taken down to the garbage can in lots. I hated to waste it like that, but I could not in good conscience put out a broken tree even if it was free.

            So we come to 2012. I take the new tree out of the closet. Problem #1 raises its head immediately. Instead of the 5 foot tree I thought I had gotten, the box says 6.5 feet.  So this tree is even bigger and will take up even more room!

            Unfortunately, it has been a year since I bought it, so I figure there’s no way I am going to be allowed to exchange it. I console myself at the thought of the store giving me the larger, more expensive tree and probably selling the smaller tree I wanted to someone who thought they were getting my 6.5 foot tree.

            So I unbox the tree and Problem #2 promptly raises its head. There are no pinecones on this tree. Nor are there any in the bottom of the box that I can put on it, as the second salesman so glibly assured me when I bought it. I am not happy.

            But the tree is still pretty even without the pinecones, so I struggle for an hour to assemble the tree stand so that I can put my new tree up.

            Yes, I said an hour. My previous two trees (and the one I bought separately after the accident), had been simple to assemble. Those were all put together in just a few minutes. Not this one! We fought for an hour before that stand finally consented to be assembled. The rest of the tree was fairly simple to assemble.

            And now we come to the adventure of stringing up the lights. I began getting out my Christmas lights to discover that nearly all of my light strings had begun to feel their age and were no longer functioning. So I went out and bought a few strings of new LED lights.

            Except that LED lights work on a different principle then the traditional lights do, meaning that my flasher plug has now been rendered useless.

            I have always enjoyed having some of my lights flashing and some of them not. For me, a tree with lights that just sit there is boring. So not being able to have any flashing lights on my tree is not acceptable.

            Unfortunately for me, I soon discover that there is no such thing as buying a string of LED lights with an optional flasher plug. You have to spend the big bucks on a “light show” package.

            Eventually I find a selection of these at my local K-Mart. K-Mart is a handy store to have within walking distance of my house.

            So I take my new “light show” home, and take it out of the box. I string it on the tree. Everything is fine and good at this point. Then I try to choose which lighting effect I want.

            There are eight choices. But it is not so simple as click, click, click from one to the next so you can see the shows and decide which one you want.

            The selector is too flat, so it is difficult to get a good grip on it. Once you do get a grip on it, it is so stiff and tight that it takes a major act of strength to move it from one option to the next.

            So by the time you’ve been to all eight options, your fingers hurt, your hand is sore, and you are practically in tears. But you hold yourself together in order to move back two selections to the one you’ve decided on. In the process you have to pass back over a selection that doesn’t appear to work.

            At least with the second string I knew which selection I wanted and I was able to avoid further strain on my hands and move the selector directly to the option I want. I finish the tree off by stringing it with the remaining solid strings of LED lights, and end up with a pretty nice balance of lights.

            And so we come to 2013, and it is time once again to get the Christmas decorations out.

            I start by placing my never-disassembled tree stand where I want the tree. (I didn’t dare take the thing apart after the fight I had with it last year.) Theoretically, the tree should just pop in the stand, I can tighten the bolts, and it will all be ready to go.

            And that is pretty much what happens. The center pole slides right into place with a plop. And the branches, which are on hinges on the center pole and fold up for storage, promptly unfold, right on top of my head.

            So here I am sitting on the living room floor, trying to tighten the bolts on the tree stand, being attacked by unfolding branches which I have to reach around to get at the bolts. All of this while trying to keep my head up under the weight of the branches.

            Luckily for me I learned the rule of righty-tighty many years ago while working for the cable company and talking people through connecting cables to the converter box. Meaning I can get the bolts tightened even though I can’t really see them.

            In the process, the unfolding branches also knock some things off of the coffee table. So the tree has to be moved around so it is not interfering with everything else in the room.

            The tree gets assembled, it is time to put the lights on, and then some ornaments and garland.

            But all of that is another story. I have had enough adventures with the tree for one day.

           

           

    
                  

               

The Unknown Survivor

Part One

 

By Laura Nelson

 

To those who study pirate history, there were only two survivors of the wreck of the Whydah Galley commanded by Sam Bellamy in April of 1717: Thomas Davis, a Welsh carpenter, and John Julian, a Miskito Indian pilot. But for those who are fans of Cape Cod folklore concerning the Whydah, there exists the possibility that there was a third survivor, who's name remained unknown even upon his death.

The most famous reference to him is made by Henry David Thoreau, who writes:

“In the year 1717, a noted pirate named Bellamy was led on to the bar at Wellfleet by the captain of a snow which he had taken, to whom he had offered his vessel again if he would pilot him into Provincetown Harbor. Tradition says that the latter threw over a burning tar-barrel in the night, which drifted ashore, and the pirates followed it. A storm coming on, their whole fleet was wrecked, and more than a hundred dead bodies lay along the shore. Six who escaped shipwreck were executed.'

“At times to this day,” (1793), says the historian of Wellfleet, “there are King William and Queen Mary's coppers picked up, and pieces of silver called cob-money. The violence of the seas moves the sands on the outer bar, so that at times the iron caboose of the ship [that is, Bellamy's] at low ebbs has been seen.' ”

“Another tells us that, 'For many years after this shipwreck, a man of a very singular and frightful aspect used every spring and autumn to be seen traveling on the Cape, who was supposed to have been one of Bellamy's crew. The presumption is that he went to some place where money had been secreted by the pirates, to get such a supply as his exigencies required. When he died, many pieces of gold were found in a girdle which he constantly wore.' ”¹

April 26, 1717, started out like any other day for the pirates. In the morning, they captured the Mary Anne, “a pink with more than 7,000 gallons of Madeira wine on board... and the Fisher – a small sloop with a cargo of deer hides and tobacco, captured that afternoon,”²

 

In the evening a storm began to roll in, heralded by a dense fog.³ “According to eyewitness accounts, gusts topped 70 miles [113 kilometers] an hour and the seas rose to 30 feet [9 meters].⁴ The accident was best expressed by Thomas Davis in his deposition before trial:

The Ship being at an Anchor, they cut their Cables and ran a shoar, in a quarter of an hour after the Ship struck, the Main-Mast was carried by the board, and in the Morning She was beat to pieces. About Sixteen Prisoners drown'd, Crumpstey Mast of the Pink being one, and One hundred and forty-four in all.⁵

“Although the beach was just 500 feet away, the bitter ocean temperatures were cold enough to kill the strongest swimmer within minutes. Other crew members were crushed by the weight of falling rigging, cannon, and cargo as the ship, her treasure, and the remaining men on board plunged to the ocean floor, swallowed up by the shifting sands of the cape.”⁶

When local residents arrived on the shore the next morning “more than a hundred mutilated corpses lay at the wrack line with the ship's timbers.”⁷

So it is entirely conceivable that someone else could have survived the wreck and remained undiscovered.

To be continued…

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clifford, Barry and Kenneth J Kinkor, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. National Geographic, 2007.

Thoreau, Henry David, Cape Cod, Parnassus Prints, Inc., Orleans, Massachusetts, 1984

“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H Baer (2:289-319). Pickering and Chatto, 2007.

 

ENDNOTES

1Thoreau, Henry David, Cape Cod, Parnassus Prints, Inc., Orleans, Massachusetts, 1984, pp 186-187

2Clifford, Barry and Kenneth J Kinkor, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. National Geographic, 2007, p 130

3Clifford, Barry and Kenneth J Kinkor, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. National Geographic, 2007. In Real Pirates, Barry Clifford describes the storm: “An Arctic gale from Canada was colliding with a warm front moving northward from the Caribbean. Their confluence produced one of the worst storms ever to strike Cape Cod. (p 130) “Technically known as an occluded front, the warm and moist tropical air is driven for miles upward where it cools and falls at a very high speed, producing high winds, heavy rain, and severe lightning.” (p 262)

4Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah,” in National Geographic Magazine (May 1999).

5“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H Baer (2:289-319). Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 318

6Clifford, Barry and Kenneth J Kinkor, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. National Geographic, 2007, p 131

7Donovan Webster, “Pirates of the Whydah,” in National Geographic Magazine (May 1999).

 

 

John Brown - The Pirate with the Ordinary Name

                

Part Two

On Friday evening, November 15^th, 1717, the six pirates were led to their execution. While still in jail the pirates were ministered to by Cotton Mather, of Salem with trial fame. Rev. Mather ended up ministering to many pirates, among them William Fly.

                Unfortunately, he waited to record the conversations he had with them on their way to the gallows after their execution, so his words and theirs must be taken in the light of Rev. Mather’s memory, rather than as conversations recorded as they happened.

CM: Brown, In what State, in what Frame, does thy Death, now within a few Minutes of thee, find thee.

JB: Very Bad! Very Bad!

CM: You see your self then a most miserable Sinner.

JB: Oh! Most Miserable!

CM: You have had an Heart Wonderfully hardened.

JB: Ay, and it grows harder. I don’t know what is the matter with me. I can’t but wonder at my self?

CM: There is no Help to be had, any where, but in the admirable SAVIOUR, whom I am now to point you to. Behold an Admirable SAVIOUR so calling on you, Look to me and be Saved. O Wonder call! Salvation to be had for a Look!

JB: Ay, But I can’t Look!

CM: Ah poor, sad, lost Creature, Look for help to Look! But mind; What I say unto you. Set your Heart unto these Things, They are your Life! You are to Look unto your SAVIOUR, in all his Offices, for all His Benefits, you would hope to be received by a SAVIOUR, who Receiveth Sinners.

                First, you must consider your SAVIOUR, as a Priest; and you must say to Him, O my SAVIOUR, I Rely upon thy Blood, that I may be cleansed from all my Sin!  Is this the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, Syr.

CM: You must Consider you SAVIOUR then also as your Prophet; and you must say unto Him; O my SAVIOUR, Teach me thy Ways; and let not a Deceived Heart be my Ruine at the last! Is this also the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, syr.

CM: You must now Consider your SAVIOUR as your King; and you must say unto Him; O my SAVIOUR; Enter into my Heart, Set up thy Throne there; Let thy Law be written there. Subdue all the Enmity of my Carnal Mind against GOD. Cause me to Love Him! Is this the Language of your Soul?

JB: Yes, syr.

CM: Oh! I wish it may be so. I take notice, you have your Prayer-Book with you Forms of Prayer, may be of use to those who need the Assistance. You have had such put into your Hands; and you have also had the Bible bestow’d on you, with Leafs folded unto Psalms; proper for you to turn unto Prayers. But after all, A Soul touched with a sense of your Condition, and fired with the Sight of what all are and what you want, and what our SAVIOUR is willing to do for you, will cause you to Pray, beyond what any Forms in the World can do. I am jealous, that what you read sometimes, is rather for an Amusement, than from any real and Lively Sentiment raised in you; For some of the Prayers you Read, are not pertinent unto your Condition. Friend, Make that Prayer, O Lord, I beseech thee deliver my Soul! Make that Prayer, O Lord, Gather not my Soul with Sinners!  Make that Prayer, God be merciful to me a Sinner! These are Great Prayers, though Short ones Great Prayers, when they proceed from an Heart broken before the Lord.

JB: Oh! God be merciful to me a Sinner!

CM: A Sinner. Alas, But, I pray, What more Special Sins,  Ly now as a more heavy Burden on you?

JB: Special Sins! Why, I have been guilty of all the Sins in the World! I know not where to begin. I may begin with Gaming! No, Whoring, That Led on to Gaming; and Gaming Led on to Drinking; and Drinking to Lying, and Swearing, and Cursing, & all that is bad; and so to Thieving; an so to This!

CM: Your ought no to Dy Warning of all People, against these paths of the Destroyer.

                I will say to you, but this one thing more. GOD has distinguished you from your Drowned Brethren by giving you a Space to Repent, which was denied unto them. I am Sorry you have made no Better use of it. It may be, the Space has been given, because GOD may have some of His Chosen among the Six Children of Death. God forbid, that the Space must be of no use to you, but only to aggravate you Condemnation, when you appear before Him.

                When they reached the gallows, the Minister of the City made a Prayer. The prayer concluded with a supplication “For our Sea-faring People; That they may more generally Turn and Live unto GOD; That they may not fall into the hand of Pirates; That such as are fallen into their Hands, may not fall into their Wayes.” ¹

                Once they were on the scaffold, Thomas Baker and Peter Cornelius Hoof looked “distinguishingly pentitent.”²

                But John began to behave “at such a rate,”³ that the audience was shocked. He began to use the language he had become accustomed to using while living among the pirates and sailors, and then began to read prayers, described as being “not very pertinently chosen.” ⁴

                Then he made a speech, which made everybody tremble, he advised sailors “to beware of all wicked Living, such as his own had been; especially to beware of falling into the hands of the Pirates: But if they did, and were forced to join with them, then, to have a care whom they Kept; and whom they let go and what Countries they come into.”⁵  

                Then the six pirates were hanged.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007.

 

 

ENDNOTES

 1 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

2 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007 Vol. 4, p 143.

3 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

4 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

5 Mather, Cotton, “Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead,” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer. Pickering and Chatto, 2007, Vol. 4, p 143.

           

 

 

 

                               

              

 

 

 

               

 

 

               

 

 

 

               

John Brown - The Pirate with the Ordinary Name

Part One

 

By Laura Nelson

 

When you read the transcripts of their interrogations before their trial for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts on October 18, 1717, it is amazing how much John Brown had to say in his deposition before trial than any of the other pirates did.¹ There is no explanation of why his deposition is so much longer than the others. Unfortunately the questions he and the others were asked are not recorded. But he definitely comes across as a talkative pirate.

John starts out his interrogation by saying that “he was born in the Island of Jamaica, is 25 years old, and Unmarried. About a year ago he belonged to a Ship Commanded by Capt. Kingston, which in her Voyage with Logwood to Holland was taken to the Leeward of the Havanas by two Piratical Sloops, one Commanded by Hornygold and the other by a Frenchman called Labous, each having 70 Men on Board. The Pirates kept the Ship about 8 or 10 Days and then having taken out of her what they thought proper delivered her back to some of the Men, who belonged to her.”²

Special note: The John Brown who sailed on the Whydah Galley and was hanged for piracy should not be confused with the John Brown whose brigantine was captured by the London-born pirate William Moody in 1718 while she was at anchor in the Bay of Caroline.³

Continuing with John’s narrative, “Labous kept the Examinate on board his Sloop about 4 months, the English Sloop under Hornygolds command keeping company with them all that time.'

“Off Cape Corante they took two Spanish Briganteens without any resistance laden with Cocoa from Maraca. The Spaniards not coming up to the Pirates demand about ransom were put a-shore and their Briganteens burn'd. They sailed next to the Isle of Pines, where meeting with 3 or 4 English Sloops empty, they made use of them in cleaning their own, and gave them back.'

“From thence they Sailed to Hispaniola in the latter end of May, where they tarryed about 3 months. The Examinate then left Labous and went on board the Sloop Commanded formerly by Hornygold, at that time by one Bellamy, who upon a difference arising amongst the English Pirates because Hornygold refused to take and plunder English Vessels, was chosen by a great Majority their Captain & Hornygold departed with 26 hands in a prize Sloop, Bellamy having then on Board about 90 Men, most of them English.”⁴

“Bellamy and Labous sailed to the Virgin Islands, and took several small Fishing Boats and off St. Croix a French Ship laden with Flower and Fish from Canada, and having taken out some of the Flower gave back the Ship.' being brought back was severely whipped

According to Simon Van Vorst in his testimony before the same trial, “They cleaned at St. Croix, where 3 of their Men Ran away, and one of them being brought back was severely whipped.”⁵

“Plying to the Windward the Morning they made Saba they spy'd 2 Ships, which they chased and came up with, one was Commanded by Capt. Richards, the other by Capt. Tosor both bound to the Bay. Having plundered the Ships and taken out some Young Men they dismissed the rest & likewise Tosor's Ship, and made a Man of War of Richards's, which they put under the Command of Bellamy, and appointed Paul Williams Captain of their Sloop.”

The ship that they made a Man of War of would have been the Sultana, according to research by Barry Clifford and Ken Kinkor.⁶

Simon Van Vorst says of this time that “he saw many of Williams's, Tosor's, and Richards's Men Cry & express their Grief upon their being compelled to go with Bellamy.”⁷

John goes on to say that, “Next Day they took a Bristol Ship, Commanded by James Williams from Ireland laden with Provisions, and having taken out what Provisions they wanted and 2 or 3 of the Crew, let her go. They parted with their French consort at the Island of Blanco and stood away with their Ship and Sloop to the Windward passage, where in the latter end of February last they met with Capt. Lawrence Prince in a Ship of 300 Ton called the Whido with 18 guns mounted, and 50 Men bound from Jamaica to London laden with Sugar, Indigo, Jesuits Bark and some Silver and Gold, and having given chase 3 Days took him without any other resistance then his firing two chase Guns at their Sloop, & came to an Anchor at Long Island. Bellamy's crew and Williams's consisted of 120 Men.'

 

 

“They gave the Ship taken from Capt. Richards to Capt. Prince, and loaded her with as much of the best and finest goods as She could carry, and gave Capt. Prince above Twenty Pounds in Silver and Gold to bear his charges. They took 8 or 10 Men belonging to Capt. Prince, the Boatswain and two more were forced, the rest being volunteers.'

“Off Pettiguavis they took an English Ship hired by the French laden with Sugar and Indigo, and having taken out what they had occasion for, and some of the Men, dismist[sic] her.'

“Then they stood away for the Capes of Virginia, being 130 Men in company, and having lost sight of their Sloop the Day before they made the Land, they cruised ten Days according to agreement between Bellamy and Williams, on which time they seized 3 Ships and one Snow, two of them from Scotland, one from Bristol, and the fourth a Scotch Ship from Barbadoes with a little Rum and Sugar on Board, so leaky that the Men refused to proceed farther. The Pirates sunk her.'

“Having lost the Sloop they kept the Snow, which was taken from one Montgomery, being about 100 Ton and manned her with 18 hands, which with her own Crew made up the number of 18 Men; the other 2 Ships were discharged being first plundered. They made the best of their way for Cape Cod intending to clean their S hip at Green Island (having one Lambeth & an Indian born at Cape Cod for Pilots) and on Friday the 26^th of April last to the Eastward of Cape Cod took a Pink laden with Wine from Madeira, last from Boston, bound to New York. They sent seven Men on Board called out on the Watch Bill,⁸ of whom the Examinate was one.”

John then spoke briefly about the pirates in general, saying that “there were about 50 Men forced, over whom the Pirates kept a watchful eye, and no Man was suffered to write a word, but what was Nailed up to the Mast. The names of the forced Men were put in the Watch Bill and fared as others, they might have had what Money they wanted from the Quarter Master, who kept a Book for that purpose, but this Examinate took only Cloaths[sic].'

“It was the common report in their Ship, that they had about 20000 Pounds in Gold and Silver.” According to fellow pirate Peter Cornelius Hoof, in his testimony before trial, “The Money taken in the Whido, which was reported to Amount to 20000 30000 Pounds, was counted over in the Cabin, and put up in bags, Fifty Pounds to every Man's share, there being 180 Men on Board.”⁹

John concluded his narrative by commenting that “Peter Hoof was once whip'd[sic] for attempting to Run-away, and the he and every one of the other Prisoners were forced to Join the Pirates.”

During the trial on October 2^nd, 1717, Thomas FitzGyrald, late Mate of the Pink Mary Anne of Dublin, Ireland, testified that “on Friday 26^th Day of the said month (April), between the Hours of Four & Six of the Clock in the morning, they discovered two Sail a-Stern, viz. A large Ship and a Snow between Nantucket Shoals & St. Georges Banks, which came up with the Pink in the Morning, with the Kings Ensign and Pendant flying; the large Ship was found to be the Whido, whereof Samuel Bellamy a Pirate was Commander, Who ordered the Pink to strike her Colors, and then hoisted out their Boat, and sent the Seven Prisoners now at the Bar, on board the said Pink, all Armed with Musquets, Pistols, and Cutlashes.”¹⁰

Captain Crumpstey was ordered to go on board the Whydah along with 5 of his hands and show Bellamy his papers. The seven pirates (the original group included Thomas South, who was acquitted at trial,) remained on board the Mary Anne. After a while several more members of the crew of the Whydah came on board looking for wine, but had to be content with only a small quantity and some of the clothes of the Mary Anne's crewmembers.

 

The pirates took command of the Mary Anne, and after receiving orders from Bellamy proceeded to follow the Whydah, steering North-West by North. They continued on until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. At that point all of the ships laid too because the weather was turning thick and foggy. They came under the Whydah's stern and told Bellamy that they had discovered land. Bellamy ordered them to steer North. As night came on the ships put out lights on their sterns.

Bellamy ordered the Mary Anne to “make more haste: Whereupon John Brown Swore, That he would carry Sail till she carryed her Masts away.”¹¹

This entire time the pirates drank generous amounts of wine and took turns manning the helm. One of the witnesses, James Dunavan, who was a crewman aboard the Mary Anne, testified that atone point during the evening John threatened “to shoot the ship's cook because he failed to steer the correct course.”

“A few drinks later, Brown became even more surly, declaring that he would shoot him like a dog to make sure that he would not live to tell his story.”

Unfortunately the Mary Anne proved leaky, “so all hands were forced to Pump hard, and therefore they Damn'd the Vessel and wished they had never seen her.”¹²

The weather continued to deteriorate. Around 10 o'clock that night the lightning and rain was so heavy that they were unable to see the shore until they were among the breakers. Before they could trim the head-sail the Mary Anne ran ashore. This was between 10 and 11 o'clock. They landed to the south of Cape Cod. According to Alexander Mackconachy, a crewman on the Mary Anne, it was at this point “That Thomas Baker cut down the Fore-mast & Mizen-mast of the pink when she run on shoar.”¹³

At this point, one of the pirates, not named, cried out: “For God's sake let us go down into the Hould & Die together.”¹⁴ The entire company spent the night in the hold.

Thomas FitzGyrald went on to say that “in their distress, the prisoners ask'd the Deponent to Read to them the Common-Prayer Book, which he did about an Hour.”¹⁵

In the morning they discovered that the shore side of the Mary Anne was dry, and so they walked out onto an island. They hung around there until about 10 o'clock, eating sweetmeats and some other goodies they had found in one of the crewmen's chests and drank more wine.

It was at about this time that two men, John Cole and William Smith arrived at the island in a canoe and rowed the men over to the mainland. Thomas FitzGyrald says that it was fellow crewmember Alexander Mackconachy who exposed the pirates for who they were. They eventually were caught while stopping over in a tavern in Eastham.

Mr. FitzGyrald also related that “while they were on the Island, Brown and others would have him call himself Captain of the Pink, and give out that the Pirates on Board were his Men.”¹⁶ He also related that the pirates were very eager to be on their way to Rhode Island, which at that time was a known pirate haunt.

During his testimony at the trial, John Brett, Mariner, said that while he was held prisoner for 18 days on the Isle of Pines, in June of 1716, “John Brown was as active on Board the Pirate Sloop as the rest of the Company.”¹⁷

Another witness, Moses Norman, said that “he knows Thomas [sic] Brown, and saw him in company with the Pirates belonging to Capt. Bellamy & Monsieur Labous when the Deponent was taken with Capt. Brett in the Month of June, 1716. That he was carryed to the Isle of Pines, and kept Prisoner Seventeen or Eighteen days, during all which time the said Thomas Brown was very active on board of Capt. Labous.”¹⁸

Later on that afternoon the pirates were allowed to speak in their own defense. In what apparently is a typo by the printer of the transcripts, it says that “Thomas Brown pretended himself also to be a forced Man, but produced no Evidence to make it appear to the Court.”¹⁹

After giving their defense, the pirates were sent out of the room while the court voted on their guilt or innocence. When they returned, John “pleaded the benefit of Clergy, which was denyed him, being contrary to law.”²⁰

Then the court pronounced them guilty of the crimes of piracy, robbery, and felon, and, sentenced them to death by hanging. They were scheduled to be hanged on November 15^th, at Charlestown Ferry “within flux and reflux of the sea.”²¹

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Clifford, Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington, D.C.

Clifford, Barry, with Paul Perry, Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World's First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her. Cliff Street Books, 1999.

Cordingly, David, Under the Black Flag, The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, Random House Trade Paperback Edition, New York, 2006.

“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007.

 

ENDNOTES

 

1Executed along with John were: John Shuan, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter Cornelius Hoof, and Simon Van Vorst.

2“ The Trials of Eight Persons Indited[sic] for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 317

3Cordingly, David, Under the Black Flag, the Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, Random House Trade Paperback Edition, New York, 2006, p 167

4Clifford, Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington, D.C. At this time, Hornigold's crew included a man named Edward Teach, who would soon become the legendary Blackbeard.

5“ The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 319

6Clifford, Barry, and Kenneth J Kinkor with Sharon Simpson, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from slave ship to pirate ship, National Geographic, Washington, D.C., p 58

7“ The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 319

8Duty roster

9“ The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 319

10“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 303

11“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 303

12“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304

13“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305

14“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304

15“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304

16“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 304

17“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305

18“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 305

19“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 306

20“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 308

21“The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy” in British Piracy in the Golden Age, edited by Joel H. Baer (2:289-319.) Pickering and Chatto, 2007, p 308