Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers
sunk in a fierce storm near Wellfleet, Massachusettts. The old deep-sea man drowned, but according to legend his ghost haunted the Whydah which, in 1984, entertained divers attempting recovery of the ship. Accident after accident was attributed to the ghost of Bellamy.
Real Pirates of the Carribean were well known, in addition to what Disney tells us - and who can visit Disney without going through that place of delightful entertainment that spoofs history! "Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!" Yes, there were Pirates of the Carribean in real life.
The English buccaneer, Henry Morgan, made his headquarters on the island of Tortuga off the northern coast of what we now know as Haiti. He prided himself as sailing in the wake of that famous English privateer, Sir Francis Drake, who held government sailing papers, but enjoyed a bit of lucrative piracy as a side dish.
In 1996 divers located a sunken wreck in shallow water off the coast of Beaufort, North Carolina. It was, apparently, the Oueen Anne's Revenge, the water vessel of Edward Teach, notoriously known as Blackbeard, who wrecked havoc along the Atlantic coast of North America, especially between 1716 and 1718. The gripping Tale of Blackbeard is online for your enjoyment presented by Blackbeard's own city - Beaufort, North Carolina.
Not only cities are interested in pirates, but also schools. There are many great pirate teaching units on the Internet for all grade levels.
Nor do countries want to be left out of piracy! The Mystery of Oak Island in Nova Scotia, is fascinating. Is there buried pirate treasure here worth more than the entire world could imagine? And if there is treasure, WHO buried it? Why were such unearthly measures used to conceal it?
The adventures, secrecy, tales and profiles of these men and women were as varied as their dissimilar flags. And there were others...scions of colonial aristocrats from Rhode Island signed onto the tall ships. Others from Barbados joined the dandified Stede Bonnet. They came from the farms of Pennsylvania like Rachel Wall and from Massachusetts like Charles Gibbs. From the poverty and filth laden streets of London they came, in the footsteps of Edward Low. They were wild, drink-loving, adventurous, often evil pipe-dreamers with a love of the seafaring life and of the taste of wealth that only piracy could provide. "Yo, Ho, Ho, and a bottle of rum..."
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