The Real Pirates of the Caribbean

1. Ending His Career at the End of a Rope

Not long after falling in with Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet accepted a royal pardon and a royal commission to go privateering against Spanish shipping. However, he decided to return to piracy in July of 1718. Hapless as ever, he thought that adopting the alias “Captain Thomas” and changing the name of his ship to Royal James would suffice to mask his identity. It did not.

A few weeks later, a British naval expedition came across Bonnet at anchor in the Cape Fear River estuary, and after a fight, captured him and his crew. Bonnet managed to escape, but was recaptured after a few weeks on the lam, and taken to Charleston. There, he was tried and convicted on two counts of piracy, sentenced to death by hanging, and executed on December 10^th, 1718.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

James Grant Wilson, John Fiske – Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography

Botting, Douglas – The Pirates (1978)

Cordingly, David – Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (1996)

Eskify – 10 Greatest French Pirates From History

History Hit – Black Bart, the Most Successful Pirate of Them All

Johnson, Captain Charles – A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (1724)

Kelsey, Harry – Sir Francis Drake, the Queen’s Pirate (1998)

Lane, Kris E. – Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750 (1998)

Pirate Encyclopedia – Michel de Grammont

Pirates and Privateers – The History of Maritime Piracy: Flail of the Spaniards