Uncovering the Truth of Pirates

For the final essay within this class, I decided that I will be researching the capture of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. More specifically, I will be examining how the rest of their crew's lack of cooperation in fighting against their captors and quickly surrendering that lead to their capture.  Over the course of my research, I found many different things to support this theory, including evidence to support the fact that Calico Jack surrendered after the opposing side fired only one shot. I also many different pieces of evidence to argue that the rest of the crew was drunk the night that Johnathan Barnet captured them. It's also believed that when during the final fight to avoid their capture Mary Read shot below deck, killing a man and calling out "If there's a man among ye, ye'll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!". However, no one below deck was either sobber enough or willing enough to go against the captain's order to surrender. 

Today the site of Queen Anne's Revenge is part of the National Register of Historic Places, being added nearly two decades ago in 2004. In total, hundreds of thousands of items believed to have come from the Queen Anne's Revenge have been found within the area, which is still being explored  until this day! Edward Teach (or Thatch depending on the source), or as you may know him, Blackbeard was one of the most well known and notorious pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy. He sailed in the West Indies, and along the Eastern Coast of what would become America from 1716 until his death in 1718.  Blackbeard While not a lot is known about Blackbeard's upbringing, many believe that he was born in Bristol, England around 1680. It is also widely accepted that before he took to piracy, he was part of either a merchant ship or a member of a Privateering vessel.  One of Blackbeard's most famous ships, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was originally a French slave ship

The punishments aboard these ships could vary from ship to ship, or Capitan to Capitan.  Bartholomew's crew tended towards either marooning the crewmember or having the accused pay a fine in money or jewels. In the occasion of an inter-party thief, being left to die some harsh or even death itself.  While many people believe that pirates were completely lawless individuals who ruled the seas of the Caribbean and beyond doing anything that they please by any means necessary, however, that isn't entirely true.  Many pirates lived by the same code of conduct. These codes of conduct were followed by the pirates and acted as their laws. These rules were met with strict punishments if the rules were broken. These punishments could include anything from flogging to death. Sadly, while you might be thinking about Captians forcing a pirate to walk the plank, but unfortunately, that is not an actual form of punishment widely used by pirates during these times.  One fantastic