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The Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Khalid Elhassan January 7, 2020 32 min

1. Ending His Career at the End of a Rope

stede bonnet death — The ending of Stede’s Bonnet’s piratical career and life. Way of the Pirates

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

Republic of Pirates – Stede Bonnet Biography

Smithsonian Magazine, July 31^st, 2007 – The Gentleman Pirate

South Carolina Encyclopedia – Bonnet, Stede

Way of the Pirates – Bartholomew Roberts

Way of the Pirates – Benjamin Hornigold

Wikipedia – Calico Jack

Wikipedia – Daniel Montbars

Wikipedia – Henry Every

Woodard, Collin – The Republic of Pirates (2007)

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.