"Discomfort in a Married State" What does this mean?

In Discord, I jokingly said I'd do the Webster's Dictionary trope to start a post.

But... was I joking?

Webster's Dictionary defines marriage as "an intimate or close union," or closely, marry as "to unite in close and usually permanent relation." Taking about marriage is not just about a literal spousal union, and it is not just about romance. You have aspects and ideas in your life that you are married to even though you don't put the word to it. "Marriage of flavors", "married to your job", "marry academic disciplines,"... I had a teacher who said "I'm not married to this idea" when writing something in scratch work as a possibility.

The title "Discomfort in a Married State" is pulled from a quote from the real Stede Bonnet at his trial, and it's repurposed in the show, used at the start of Fictional Stede's pirate journey rather than the end. To me, I do not feel like the adjective is used in the episode as actually being about a spousal union. Stede is not a good fit with Mary, no, and the episode opens with both Stede and Mary both being pushed into the marriage by their parents because of societal expectations and goes on to show that their marriage doesn't work. However, Mary's not alone in Stede's horror dream, and it doesn't just feature his failures in their marriage: the "married state" title drop slides directly to his father mocking Stede's aversion to violence (and weakness, in his, the father's, eyes) and Smoke Blackbeard and Alma serving as a callback to his naive pirate dreams becoming more starkly real when he was stabbed. Mary wasn't what Stede left; unfortunate as it is, as a man, he had other less extreme options to make an unhappy marriage more comfortable for him. The "marriage" Stede has is the life that his father and role at birth pushed him into, and initially, Stede planned to take Mary with him in leaving it. Stede pushed out into what he viewed as a more idealized lifestyle, even though he's finding out its not the final destination in his journey.

On Ed's side, his parallel is not his relationship with Izzy. In his first big conversation with Stede (the one in the library), he says plainly what his "discomfort" is:

Ed: You ever feel trapped, like you're just treading water, waiting to drown? Stede: Yes, I very much have felt that way. Ed: Blackbeard always wins, that's the thing. He can't fail. It's not even a challenge anymore. People just see the flag, and they freak out, Blackbeard!, and they basically just give up, they surrender. What's the point? I don't even need to be on the boat. I'm a ghost. There's no chaos, there's no drama, there's no fucking life! Stede: Look, I can't believe I'm saying this, but have you ever considered retirement?

Ed's "marriage" is with the Blackbeard persona and the pirate life. He's not happy, and he is also looking for a way out. He's idly mentioning death as an alternative (e.g., the "I haven't died yet, have I?" outburst with Izzy, and "I'm thinking about packing it all in". It can be a bit of a grind"" to Stede before Stede introduces Ed to retirement). He then pivots to the brief identity theft escape, then the China plan with Stede. There is a parallel of the marriage -> finding escape pipeline. Ed and Stede were both intrinsically bound to lives they do not want, and they had to take dramatic steps to leave them.

Izzy narratively differs from Mary in that Mary isn't an antagonist (bless you, DJenks). This is a storytelling medium without monologuing voice overs or Shakespearean soliloquies, and something needs to be in story to represent that conflict. Izzy is the representation of the external antagonistic force that adds fuel to Ed's internal conflict, analogous to the function that the Badmintons (instead of Mary) have for Stede. This is what we mean when we say Izzy is a plot device for Ed's (and to a lesser extent, Stede's) story: most of his scenes (all in S1?) revolve around keeping Ed in a life he doesn't want while also functionally servicing as a conventional reaction to Stede's brand of captaincy (characters like Lucius or Frenchie have their own independent quirks, so that's why they don't get this same comparison). Izzy is in story as the obstacle that keeps pulling Ed into that life, into that marriage with that persona. The story is not literally saying Ed is married to Izzy or that they were former lovers, but as the representation in story, Izzy is going to act like a jilted spouse. (And Ed's not into him and views him as a father figure, so... not a literal spousal marriage.)

In the end, the "married state" is not literally about Mary or Izzy. Stede would still be unhappy with a different wife or as a bachelor in the same stagnating lifestyle. Ed would still be unhappy with a different first mate but still living as Blackbeard. Ed reacting strongly in 2x7 when he thought there would be a conflict of a possible deal breaking choice of staying with Stede and leaving piracy show that it isn't just about the right person but making sure that the two perfect people who found each other are both in a position to live a life that makes them both happy outside of their relationship. This is also a romcom very pointedly leading toward a climatic wedding of Ed and Stede, and the message is not that Stede and Ed don't like being married at all: they need to work together to reach a "married state" that satisfies all facets of their lives. They're so close!

We're joined to one another. Intertwined. We wrote our names on each other in permanent ink.

They're working together on their relationship ("the inn" at the end of 2x8 isn't literally about the inn), and they're finding the path to go on that takes them both to a place to where they want to be.

Also, "Comfort in a Married State", calling it as an episode title after WBD collapses and OFMD gets a pick up 🥰

It really speaks to my self control that I'm ONLY asking you about three of these, so you should be very proud of me. (OR NOT, IF YOU WANT ME TO ASK YOU ABOUT MORE)

ANYWAY

I would love to know more about "omnia sol temperat" (I know we've talked about it, but I wanna hear again🥺), "NOOOOO!!!!!!", and "tell me how we met"

<3

i love you katherine so omnia sol temperat one of the things I probably haven't told you before is that Viago has to stop looking for Anton after a certain point because it hurts too much, and the version of Anton's life where this happens is Anton is a nurse during WWI, and he's (she's) so dedicated to her job that when she meets Viago she's like "don't know who you are don't have time to find out bye" and so Viago just has to be in love with her from afar and then she dies young in a bombing, so Viago is like "i can't deal with another lifetime that ends in me losing them, especially if i don't even have them in the first place" and that's why Viago stops looking for Anton until he stumbles on him in the 21st century by pure coincidence. Also NOOOO!!!! is my kidnap boys au: Ed ends up raiding a passenger vessel due to a certain first mate's navigational error, decides he doesn't want to take a total loss, and kidnaps Stede to ransom back to his rich family. Except Stede doesn't really mind cause it saves him from having to marry Mary, and really it's just kinda an adventure. Hijinks ensure. "tell me how we met" is this gay little ed/stede thing I want to write cause Stede has tried to tell the story of how they met multiple times and gets caught off and i thought it would be cute if ed was like "tell me the story of how we met i want to hear it from you" and it would just be really syrupy sweet

Part 3. Coping in a Married State or Why I Never Thought Mary Would Be Done Dirty

because tumblr hates ramblings with pictures, this is part 3.2

[3.1] <- prev

The camera cuts and we see said same woman, who is the one who tells them about the gift they bought for them for their "big day"

The woman points, the characters slowly turn to follow her hand and, lo and behold! Graves! For him and for her

"Oh!"

We eventually hear Mary's voice off camera. Again, she is the one quick in her step, reacting as expected. Stede is silent.

"Graves!" Mary says again.

Stede.exe takes his time but he eventually works and he says "wow" in a low, low voice.

The camera cuts again and we see the tombstones again, in all their splendour in the middle of the shot.

Before we go forward, and this is something we have already picked up on, the whole shot of the tombstones is playing on the last part of the priest's sermon: being together for eternity. That phrase, like a normal gift, should be something nice, right? something to look forward to; instead, it feels like a sentence. There's also the fact that the tombstones were a gift. it's as if the parents, a.k.a society, was saying: "This is it. Nowhere else to go to from here except the grave and we even bought that for you. You are welcome." Everything's been laid out for them.

Moreover, like I mentioned before, the graves are for both Stede and Mary. We have that shot that lets us read clearly their names. Their marriage is literally this thing that was dead as soon as it began because, in order for it to work, they will have to bury their hopes and dreams, the most precious part of their beings. Mary is dealing better with all of this because she is down-to-earth, quickly adapts, and has sort of accepted this will have to do. Stede, on the other hand, can barely move past his shock and you can see him already away, somewhere else as part of his copying mechanism.

Going back to editing and, to back up what I said before, we don’t have a series of cuts now to create a transition. After the last shot with the close up of the tombstones, the “camera” pans down:

This choice of editing indicates two things: 1) that this is a progression, the last shot led to the next one and 2) we are literally going down, underground. As if looking below their graves where the corpses normally lie. And we do see the corpses of the deceased. In their married state. 

In marrying, parts of both Stede and Mary had to die. The editing is visually showing that with a nice transition. Yet, no one truly died, so they've had to survive, each using very different comping mechanism that, in the end, thwart any chance of being honest and communicating with each other.

Click here for the final part of the final part because the post editor is homophobic and won't let me put anything in one post -> [3.3]

Pirates Were Not Nice- OFMD messes with our perception or real life.

DISCLAIMER: I love OFMD, but I also love learning and talking about real-life piracy, so there are a few things within this fandom space that bug me.

Ok so Anne Bonny is definitely going to be a fun, romantic and likeable lesbian in season 2 of OFMD...

BUT she was not irl, so was a pirate, so lets break it down a little bit.

Anne Bonny was a pirate and she killed for fun sometimes and she was not the fun personification of pirates we see in OFMD. Same with Blackbeard, same with irl Stede Bonnet.

It rubs me the wrong way when people start talking about these characters in real like situation, about "Oh, Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach were actually in love in real life!" "Anne Bonny and Mary Read were a lesbian power couple that plundered the seven seas together" [Anne Bonny was never a pirate captain (oddly common misconception), and both of them have lengthy list of male lovers].

We can love the show and also acknowledge that 16th century piracy was brutal and unjust, and OFMD is as far removed from what happened in real life as you can possibly be while still telling a story that vaguely resembles real-life pirates and adapts them to our modern-day world.

Ed and Stede as seen in the show can barely even be attributed to the real life Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet. They are in their entirety characters, who happen to have had some of the same experiences as their real-life counterparts.

Real life Stede Bonnet inherited owned a plantation before he abandoned his wife because he was bored and didn't like being married, and died at 30 years old after spending the majority of his already-short-lived piracy career (roughly two years) as what was effectively Blackbeard's prisoner.

Piracy was not glamorous, or fun, or happy.

Stede Bonnet was named one of the most cruel pirate captains of the Caribbean at times because of the way he treated his crew and treated his prisoners, and he was a bold pirate, yeah...

but he also sucked ass at being a pirate. He had no training as a sailor, and relied on his crew more than deemed acceptable of a real captain.

This doesn't mean he shied away from shameless murder, abandoning his crew members, etc., all things typical of a pirate captain and I see a few too many people acting as though these pirates were fun, cool people. Pirates had slaves, they killed for little reason very often, and the reason we hear about 'acceptance' for queer people, for people of colour, etc. aboard pirate ships is because pirates were desperate and took anyone they could. (Unless of course you were a woman, in which case many crews might have quickly murdered you, which might actually be a small mercy)

Piracy was dangerous; it was vile and it was cruel. The characters in OFMD are dramatized, and have far more humanity than any real pirate ever did.

So I was rereading "But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you" and I was wondering, in this au did Stede's dad die earlier than in the Leda-verse, and if so, was this before he ended up with Mary? Also, if Revenge opened earlier, did the crew all end up there eventually?

He does die earlier (for those of you playing the home game, this au posted over to AO3 today and is the one where Eddy meets Izzy before Faith dies). Stede does still marry Mary, but because of the earlier death, they don't get around to having kids (sorry Alma! sorry Charlie!).

All of the crew do wind up there and some of them ahead of schedule. Ethel and Pete arrive first this time, taking Frenchie with them, only months after they get to the city instead of years. They recommend Miss Buttons, naturally. Roach arrives next, spotted by Leda herself at a different show this time. Teal and Jim arrive only a few months early for them, years after the others, but settle in easily.

Lucius arrives last, starting almost to the day at the same time he does in the regular verse. The bar has been around for a decade, but never kept a bartender (it's a running joke that the position is cursed and Lucius says curtly that curses are for witches and he's clearly a warlock so fuck off).

So.

Stede’s mother was alive when he and Mary were married.

I’m not reaching, this is in the script, and Ros Gentle is credited as ‘Mother Bonnet’ in the credits of episode four.

A lot of people seem to have missed this detail, given just how many fics have Stede’s mother dying either during his childhood or having died in childbed - and it’s not hard to see why, given that she is nowhere to be found in any of our flashbacks to Stede’s childhood. Which- 

We get a pretty full picture of the dynamics of the Teach household when Ed was growing up. Violent, abusive, possibly drunken father, and a mother who loved Ed, seems to have treated him kindly, and who he loved enough to kill his own father to protect her (and possibly himself as well, as Ed is clearly terrified of his father, but we only see physical violence aimed at Ed’s still-unnamed mother) but whose legacy is distinctly mixed - she gave him his red silk, the one taste of finery and luxury and beauty he had in his life, but also told him that this as about as much of it as people like them could ever expect to get, that God had decided otherwise and they could not hope for more.

But in our estimations of the Bonnet family, Stede’s mother is conspicuous by her absence. We don’t admittedly, get that many flashbacks - that one to Stede’s father butchering animals in front of him and then telling him that all he’ll ever be is a spoilt little rich boy, which- I’ve talked before about the class implications that can be drawn from this in context, but either way it’s only a couple of scenes from which a mother’s absence is understandable. We get more flashbacks to Stede’s time at what I’d guess would be an all-boys boarding school, probably in England. But...it is still kind of notable that Stede’s mother’s influence on her son appears to be pretty much negligible. Her most notable contribution to the story is that she is the one who presents the matched set of gravestones as wedding-presents for Stede and Mary. Which- Wow. That is probably our best insight into what the point actually is, what the great end-goal of gentry life really is. The point is to die landed and wealthy, with a son to pass it on to. Stede will have done what is expected of him when he dies and passes this on to his son. Nothing he does between this wedding and that inevitable death is really supposed to matter except fathering the necessary son and probably a couple of spares.

That said, in the brief moment we get of her, she seems...not exactly unkind. Not particularly good at reading the mood, given that she’s offering congratulations on a marriage that both participants are clearly not thrilled about, and entirely misses Mary’s clear unhappiness with the choice of gift...but she doesn’t appear to be as actively cruel and disdainful as Stede’s father, which...is something, I guess? But we’re never given any indication that Stede is particularly close to her. They never exchange a single line of dialogue, he never flashes back to her specifically at all - she’s an incidental player in a flashback about his unhappy marriage, at most - and while the insult ‘mama’s boy’ might be expected to be hurled at a quiet, sensitive boy who likes to read and pick flowers, it’s one we never hear hurled at Stede by his adolescent tormentors.

And all the time, I was thinking...there’s something familiar about all of this. And that is when it hit me: Stede’s own relationship with his children. Like- It’s not a total absence, we get to see him playing pirates with them...after he’s been prodded into it by Mary. Otherwise, he seems almost entirely disengaged from family life. Like, Louis completely forgets who Stede even is within months of Stede going away to sea, and that...isn’t normal even for a child that young. I wonder if Stede’s relationship with his mother was similar - a parent who was...kind enough, when she remembered he existed, but so utterly uninvolved with his life that he couldn’t turn to her for comfort. Except that where Alma and Louis had Mary, who does seem engaged with her children’s lives - unusually so, in fact, for a woman of her class in this time period, where it would be entirely usual for an upper-class woman to leave the raising of her children to nursemaids and governesses - and is shown to be a loving and supportive mother, Stede had his father, who is...yeah.

I don’t really have a point to all of this, it’s just...interesting to consider all the ways in which Ed and Stede are, primarily, their mothers’ sons.

You know what's funny on this rewatch. You know. About time being broken. Stede's gravestone says he was born in 1688. So my guy is canonically! 29!

(Tbf this tracks with him having an arranged marriage before he did like. Anything else an adult man might do? He seems to have gone from school to under his father's thumb to married without any sort of stage in between. And his children's ages track too! If Alma is around 10 that means they had to be married late teens at the earliest?)

Ages arent real and neither is time in ofmd, the moon goes full 3 to 7 times a month under Stede's muppetfluence. So none of this matters. They're whatever age you feel in your heart. But it is very funny that Stede's so young. How old is everyone else. Are Jim and Oluwande and Lucius like early 20's? Makes more sense that Stede calls Lucius boy even though he's not Cabin Boy if he's that age

God, nonnie, this is so funny. Stede Bonnet was historically born in 1688, and honestly that makes it funnier, because there are so many anachronisms in the show, but someone on that production crew went onto Wikipedia when they were making that gravestone and was like, "Stede Bonnet, born 29th July 1688! Nailed it!" and did not stop to think maybe that too should be an anachronism and adjusted since Rhys Darby is 48, and we love them for it truly, because it is just so daft.

Also, the real Edward Teach was somewhere between 35-40 when he died in 1718, which means Ed is like 35, which is also objectively hilarious.

I agree fully with the father-wife pipeline and the ages of his kids too! It makes perfect sense. And, honestly, that makes it even funnier.

Funnier still is that Rhys is 48, Stede is 29 and Nathan Foad is also 29, so the guy that plays Lucius how old Stede is meant to be and I love that so much. I hope that in a later season it's revealed, ala Spanish Jackie in reverse, that Lucius is actually 48 (exactly 48, or 49 if Rhys is 49 by then) and has a wife and like two kids out there because he bearded a while and his wife who he's now just great friends with and didn't just abandon like Stede did Mary (Lucius's wife is also gay and has a cute little wife of her own) is played by Rhys's wife if she acts. I need it.

But yeah, I've decided OFMD exists within a pocket universe.

...cursed castlevania ofmd au- (made with bad English because it isn't my first language and my phone keeps changing the words while I'm writing)

Blackbeard is Dracula, and he is bored.

Stede is Lisa-

Instead of going there as a doctor, Stede is running away from home right after he is told about the engagement. (He spoke to Mary a bit, and seeing how unconfortable both of them are with it, he takes his clothes and books and dissapears the next night). Blackbeard has just moved the castle, bored with the place it was before, and it happens to be right next to Stede (who just see this castle and decides that yes, he'd go inside, why not). Btw, in his way to escape, Nigel dies by accident.

Blackbeard appears, thinking he'd just scare this human away like always- who woudn't be scared of the king of vampires, Blackbeard?

Except that Stede has no idea who he is. Which give Blackbeard a surprised pikachu face. He then introduces himself to Stede as Ed, and allows him to stay on his castle. Stede reads to Ed the stories from his books and from the huge library at the castle, Ed enjoys Stede's fancy stuff.

They adore each other and get married eventually. Izzy who also lives there hates it. The more time it goes the softer Ed becomes (and he doesn't turn Stede into a vampire, which also annoys Izzy, why can't Blackbeard just turn or kill this human already? Fucking Bonnet making his boss soft and weak)

Lucius is Alucard. Stede saw this young man who was sarcastic and could draw and write and said: I can't not adopt him (and Ed agreed because he agrees with everything his husband wants). The rest of the crew also gets kind of adopted by Stede and starts living on the castle, for Izzy's eternal suffering.

The other Badminton asshole is the church guy.

Stede was on a city (getting more books, Ed would be with him but he was out doing king vampire stuff, the rest of the crew was also traveling or were unavaiable at the moment, except by Karl, who was watching Stede from afar) when they see each other. He says that there is a rumour about how Baby Bonnet betrayed God by abandoning his family, killing Nigel and then marrying Blackbeard himself. Chauncey asks for information about the vampire, saying that it would prevent Stede from getting executed (it's a lie) but Stede refuses to tell anyway. Karl leaves to warn Buttons about what is happening, but when the crew who were closest to that city finally gets there it's too late.

Ed take a while to come back from the important vampire shenanigans and is devastated by the news.

He then yeets Lucius and the rest of the crew and gets emo and evil again. Izzy is loving it (yes Chauncey showing up were his fault, he's the one who told the rumours about Stede, Ed being away for vampire stuff and the others enjoying a vacation away from the castle was just luck and great timing) , etc etc eventually Ed is killed by the crew and he and Stede come back to life because of Death or wathever idk I don't remember how it happened I didn't watch the last seasons of castlevania.

hark, a fashion statement

Click here for CWs/Full Chapter List

OFMD Kinktober 2022 Prompt 3: Collars

It's Stede's turn to spice up the bedroom with Ed. Stede's heard about collars. Vaguely.

Part of Series Our Flag Means Stupid Bad Sex: For Kinktober 2022, my attempt to portray each kink prompt in the most unsexy manner possible. If anything in here manages to turn you on, you are a special snowflake and I salute you on your unique life path.

It's Stede's turn to spice up the bedroom. Honestly, after the blindfold debacle (and the subsequent week-long wait for the burns to subside) he is excited to show Ed how it's done when it comes to fashionable marital aids.

But for some reason Lucius isn't keen on helping Stede with this one, which is weird, since he is normally so very invested in Stede and Ed's relationship. Lucius holds up his hands, turns around, and runs for the kitchen. Perhaps he's hungry? Does Stede need to increase his crew's rations?

At that point Stede remembers that that can be someone else's job to worry about, like Izzy or something, because Stede's free of dickburns and ready to try collars. As soon as he'd encountered the concept in one of the erotic books he'd been reading (when not rudely interrupted by Izzy questioning him about stupid literary devices like personification or whatever), he'd gone straight to the market and bought only the best. Only the best for Ed.

If only to show Ed how it's done, because despite his long years at sea Ed is clearly confused about a lot of things with regards to the bedroom. And Stede has experienced being married, so he knows all about it. Absolutely, most definitely, there is nothing he can be taught after his experience with Mary.

So when Ed enters for what Stede calls their "nightly marital sensual journey" and what Ed calls a "fuckin' session," Stede can't help but smile confidently at what he has prepared for them.

"I'm going to put a fine thing on you, Ed," Stede says as sultrily as possible, which isn't very sultry, because Stede is a stupid fucking dork, but it 100% works on Ed, who is also a stupid fucking dork.

Ed blushes, "I like wearing your things. Got one of those nice suits for me?"

Stede shakes his head knowingly. "No... because under what I give you, you are going to be completely naked."

"Oh fuck," Ed says, which is Ed-speak for, 'oh my.' He rubs his hands together as Stede pulls out what looks like a giant bedsheet.

Stede holds it up, mouth open with the stupid fucking dorkiest smile imaginable, eyes wide. "Do you like it?"

"Uh..." What the fuck is it?

"What the fuck is it?"

Stede laughs, happy to educate Ed about sexual intimacy. "It's a collar, Ed." He sticks his hand through the hole.

"A... collar?"

"Yes! An Elizabethan collar!"

"Who the fuck is Elizabeth?"

"The queen! The virgin queen!"

"I thought England has a king."

"It does! Elizabeth died, like, ages ago! But her fashion lives on, see?" This conversation isn't exactly going where Stede wanted it to, but then again, that's how every conversation with Ed goes, and Stede knows what he signed up for when he married him. So before Ed can get any more distracted by dead queens named Elizabeth, Stede marches up and shoves the collar over Ed's head.

The collar is huge. So huge, it covers Ed's entire body like the world's whitest and most boring Mumu. In fact, Ed is pretty sure his mom owned this exact Mumu.

"So... how are you supposed to fuck in this? It covers my arms. And my dick. And my ass."

Stede's face falls.

"You know, I didn't actually think this far ahead. I'm not sure."

"Stede!" Ed tries to facepalm, but necessarily brings the entire collar with his hand, so it's more like a collar-palm.

Stede pouts. He's so good at pouting. Much better than Stede is at sex, but Ed knew what he signed up for when he married him. So he moves on instinct and lifts the damn collar over Stede's head, too. So they're both under there. That's sexy, right?

"This is sexy, right?" Ed asks.

"I don't know?" Stede looks entirely out of his depth.

"I mean, we could take our clothes off, and like... do it like this? Under the Mu-the collar?"

Stede smiles the smile Ed married him for.

"Yes! That's a great idea!"

Except it's hard to take off clothes when you're attached to someone else at the neck, and it's impossible to pull clothes over your head when there's a giant collar-slash-Mumu on top of them, and it's very impossible to do this while also trying to move towards the bed, maybe, when the other person is trying to make for the couch instead.

Which is how they end up on the floor, tangled in a collar and shirts and trousers and they're not even sure which ones belong to whom. And somewhere deep down under all those layers are the private parts they'd really love to engage with in some wholesome marital activity, but their arms are tangled and they can't reach.

"No wonder she was a fuckin' virgin." Ed pants.

Stede pouts again. "I'm sorry, Ed. I should have been more prepared. I just wanted you to have a good time."

Ed smiles and does the little wiggle with his body Stede married him for.

"Just being with you is a good time, darling," says Ed.

"I love it when you call me darling, babycakes," replies Stede.

And if they fall asleep there, losing blood in various extremities cut-off by errant trousers and shirt sleeves and leather, no one has to know, at least not until Izzy comes looking for them and finds them like that, at which point he decides to give himself another raise.

Because that's Izzy job or whatever.

we don’t know for sure if Stede’s father is still alive or not, but assuming he hasn’t kicked the bucket just yet, please consider a fic where he meets The Gentleman Pirate out on the open sea.

Post-canon, post-reconciliation, The Revenge raids a merchant ship and discovers Mr. Bonnet on board. They take him hostage, or rather invite him to stay on the ship as a guest and quickly realize that they probably would have been better off killing him. He constantly belittles Stede, both to his face and behind his back, calling him a fake pirate and demeaning him for leaving his old life behind and tarnishing the family reputation. The crew watch as Stede shrinks into a hollow shell of himself and loses all the confidence he has gained. Ed offers to help get rid of Mr. Bonnet, preferably in a way that’s very permanent, but Stede won’t let him. Even if he’s a dick, he’s still his father. And besides, Stede reasons, he wouldn’t be saying all those things if they weren’t at least a little bit true.

The issue is that Mr. Bonnet is also a racist, classist asshole and isn’t just cruel to Stede but the whole crew as well. The only one he even vaguely approves of is Izzy, because “if you’re going to be a pirate, Stede, you might as well be a proper one.” And maybe Ed was once Blackbeard but the version Mr. Bonnet meets is much too soft, and in his opinion, not white enough. Stede does eventually stand up for himself, and it is initially because he hears the crew complaining about his father’s treatment of them. Because while he can stand people insulting him, he will not abide anyone making his crew, his family, feel like they aren’t welcome on their own ship.

However, once he gets the ball moving, it just won’t stop and he soon ends up ranting about how he hates all the things his father says about him. How he hates that he’s spent so long hating himself because of his father’s words. How he hates that he managed to overcome that self hatred and make a life for himself, a life where he’s happy, just for his father to come back and ruin that peace. How he hates that a part of him wishes his father had died in the raid before Stede saw him. Stede pours his heart out to his father, with tears in his eyes and Ed and his crew by his side. He speaks his truth and at first, it seems like it might make a difference.

Except it doesn’t. Stede finishes his speech and Mr. Bonnet isn’t impressed. Instead, he just begins scolding him, getting angry at Stede for “giving him backlash” and after everything he’s done for him too. Ultimately, the only difference is that this time Stede refuses to listen to that crap.

He may not be willing to directly kill his father, but he has no qualms leaving him in a dinghy with a couple days’ worth of rations and a pair of oars. They’re on a trading route, a ship will probably come by and pick him up soon. And if one doesn’t, well, it won’t be easy, but the shore is still in rowing distance. He’s sure his father will be fine.

Although that doesn’t prevent him from crying into Ed’s chest the moment they’re alone. He’s unsure whether they’re tears of grief or relief or both, but they’re loud and messy and wet. It seems that cutting off a loved one is always difficult, even when you know they probably never loved you back.

Very excited because I just reached the part in my pirate history book about Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet (if you didn’t know, Our Flag Means Death is loosely based on real events). So here are some comparisons between truth and fiction that I’ve noticed so far:

True: The episode title “Discomfort in a Married State” is almost a verbatim quote from one of Stede’s friends who knew him before he became a pirate, alluding to the fact that he was gay.

Omitted: In addition to his married life woes, Stede also had well-documented mental health issues, including severe depression, which are mostly attributed to the death of his and Mary’s first child.

True: He did have a full library in his cabin.

True: He did walk around his ship in silk dressing gowns.

True: Stede did pay his crew a cash salary, rather than a share, which was extremely unusual. He knew that little about the business.

Omitted: A lot of fucked up slavery shit. Stede was from a family of plantation owners and was raised by and owned a whole bunch of slaves. Blackbeard also had a spotty history when he captured slave ships, sometimes absorbing them into his crew, sometimes setting them loose, and sometimes leaving them to be sold by merchants.

True: Stede did receive a life-threatening injury from the Spanish navy.

Changed: He wasn’t tricked into going aboard their ship, and the truth is actually way more insane/embarrassing. He was such a poor captain that he couldn’t tell the difference between a merchant ship and a fucking Spanish war ship. So he engaged a Spanish war ship in battle. Half his crew died, and he nearly did as well.

True: Stede and Blackbeard did first meet as Stede was recovering from his injury.

Changed: Instead of rescuing Stede, Blackbeard was granted command of Stede’s ship by his mentor and OG of the Republic of Pirates, Benjamin Hornigold. Stede kept his space in the captain’s cabin while he recovered.

True: Blackbeard was reportedly very kind to Stede, who he saw as mentally and physically delicate. He encouraged him to rest in his cabin while Blackbeard took care of the pirating stuff.

False: There’s no way Blackbeard was weary of his own legend by the time they met. Stede’s ship was actually his first independent command, out of the shadow of his mentor, Hornigold. The whole smoking head thing? He first did that on Stede’s ship. In fact, the legend of Blackbeard was first and primarily built on the deck of Stede’s ship. They got their start in pirating together.

Blackbeard

his (not short) biography, in relation to another post coming in a few minutes.

So, we don't know much about Blackbeard before he became a pirate. We don't even know what his last name was, but most people will know him as Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. There's also one source that claims it's "Edward Drummond", but that's pretty unlikely. Plus, Teach is probably not his real surname. So, his dad was Edward Teach, sr. and his mum was a lady named Elizabeth, and they had two kids, one of which was Ed. Elizabeth died, and his dad remarried and had 3 more kids. Ed sr. then moved his entire family to Jamaica where they owned a large plantation in a Spanish town that Ed inherited. Then, at some point between 1706 and 1713 he joined the Royal Navy and handed over the plantation to his step mum and half-siblings. He was a privateer during Queen Anne's War, and being that meant he was technically a pirate, but just legally. Ed and his crewmates would attack and loot enemy ships in the name of the British government, but once the war was over, there was no need for "legal pirates", so, instead of packing his shit up and giving up that lifestyle, he just continued, but was now pirating illegally. He learned all the piracy shit from Benjamin Hornigold, who was also a very famous privateer-to-pirate guy. Ed joined Hornigold's crew at around 1717 and he became a very capable pirate. He was so capable that he impressed Hornigold and became his second-in-command. Then about a year later, was gifted a ship, a crew, and the title of captain, and befriended our darling Stede "the Gentleman Pirate" Bonnet and they traveled together. He then parted with Stede and Ed and his crew captured a French slave ship, renamed it The Queen Anne's Revenge, and kept some of the crew: the ones that volunteered, a pilot, 3 surgeons, 2 carpenters, 2 sailors, and the cook on their team. Blackbeard dropped off the rest of the crew and the captured slaves on and island. BTW, the ship was really big. It could hold about 300 men and 40 cannons. they also gave the old ship to the French, who renamed it Bad Encounter and were pissed. When he turned to illegal piracy, he also did changed his appearance. He braided his beard with bright ribbons and put slow burning cords he had lit under his had to make it look like his head was made of smoke. He had a lot of guns and daggers hanging on his belt and chest, and people that saw him said he looked like the fucking devil. His flag also helped, because it was a horned skeleton piercing a bleeding heart. Also, there is proof that Ed was actually decent and did really try to avoid killing people, he just let the ones that didn't come onto his crew "go", as in "they started working on his plantation" or "were marooned". He was really into free healthcare, and had a lot of medical equipment, cures, treatments, and more on his ship, and he took care of his crew. He mostly attacked slave ships, the slaves who willingly joined his crew stayed, while the others were returned to the mainland. He was also an educated guy, since he came from a pretty rich family, and the murderous vibe was a word of mouth type of thing. He most likely started it. Basically he was a kinda decent, but kinda insane, guy. In 1718, he was pardoned. to show he was really into the whole "piracy bad gig" he married a rich girl named Mary Ormond, who was 14-16, but never had any kids with her. He allegedly had 14 wives/girlfriends, but no one knows for sure. Then, he decided piracy was the right thing for him and went back to it. In November 1718, the English got a tip that he was near North Carolina, where they attacked Ed with two ships, and he eventually died. That's what I gathered about Blackbeard, but if you have anything else, or if anything in here's wrong, please tell me!

The Real People of Black Sails!

Here’s a quick(I promise....I promise this is as short as I could make it without leaving out some really choice shit) rundown of all the real historical figures peppered throughout Black Sails! I think I caught them all but if you know of others please mention them and I’ll add them on! Under a readmore because this is....so long y’all.

Pirates & Maroons

Anne Bonny (possibly 1697 – unknown; possibly April 1782) Started life crossdressing at her dad’s behest to avoid his wife(who wasn’t Bonny’s mom), married a guy her dad didn’t like, moved to Nassau. There her husband became a spy for Rogers and Anne was like ‘Not cool bro’. She met Jack, they started fucking, and Anne discovered she was really good at stabbing things. Resumed dressing as a man and started trying to seduce Mary Read who was also dressed as a man. They did indeed fall victim to one of the classic queer blunders. Anyway, Anne’s like ‘it’s not gay I’m a chick!’ And Mary is like ‘really?? Then it’s a little gayer than you realize because I’m a chick too!’ They (probably) start banging. Rackham’s like ‘hang on! I’m the only dick in Anne’s life’ and Mary and Anne are like ‘you sure are’ and Mary shows him her boobs and then they have some sort of complicated and probably not totally consensual threeway. Then they get captured because, Jack is That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and Mary and Anne had to defend the ship against like, a whole other crew. Jack is hung(not a dick joke), but both Anne and Mary plead stays of execution due to pregnancy. Anne disappears but possibly is maybe referred to later. No one knows. Neat!

Edit: According to sources from this post there is a genealogical record that refers to Anne and it records her death as 1782. Very neat!

Israel Hands (c.1701-death unknown) Israel Hands was a real pirate and Blackbeard’s first mate. Not much else is known about where he came from or his life, other than that Blackbeard shot him in the knee at one point while supposedly aiming for another man. ‘Oops my bad this pistol is from like, the 18th century or something.’ While recuperating in Bath he was arrested after Teach’s death but took a pardon in exchange for ratting out the colonial officials who had been bribed by Teach. It’s unknown what happened to him after that although That Book About Pyrites says he died a beggar in London.

Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) Horny4gold was one of the most well known and influential pirates of the Golden Age. Most other pirates sailed under him or with him at one point, and he was one of the founders of the Pirate Republic of Nassau. He never attacked british ships during his time as captain so that he could be like ‘but brooooo I was acting in Britain’s Interests!!! Bro!!!!!’ But his co-pirates didn’t like that and eventually voted to replace him with Sam Bellamy. He accepted the king's pardon in 1718 and became a pirate hunter instead. Bummer. He was reportedly killed in a shipwreck.

Okay listen Horingold in any universe is a fucking JOKE I have to share this passage with y’all:

“Hornigold is recorded as having attacked a sloop off the coast of Honduras, but as one of the passengers of the captured vessel recounted, "they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard"” WHAT A JOKE.

Dr. Howell - (birth/death unknown) John Howell was a pirate surgeon forced into service by Hornigold sometime in early 1717. He sailed with various pirate crews until October before returning into the service of Governor Rogers.

Ned Low (1690–1724) N’EDWARD. Okay I’m serious again. Born in London, Lowe grew up a thief in a thief family before moving to Boston. His wife died in childbirth in 1719, so he decided ‘fuck it I’ll become a Pirate Captain’ and did just that. He was known for torturing the people on board the ships he captured before murdering them and burning the ship. Interestingly though, Lowe was known to have a huge amount of regret over abandoning his daughter when he turned pirate, and wouldn’t force married men into his service. He also reportedly would allow women to return to port safely. Because of his numerous captures and cruelties, he was one of the most well known pirates in his day. There are differing reports about Low’s death - some say his crew mutinied and marooned him and he was subsequently hung, others say his ship sunk in a storm, and some say he just straight up disappeared. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jack Rackham - (December 26, 1682 – November 18, 1720) Really a pirate, really named himself after a housecat pattern. (No, okay, he didn’t, it was because of his threads. But wouldn’t the cat thing fit too?) Sailed with Vane, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read. Was mostly known for being That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and being Anne and Mary’s captain. He was captured and sentenced to hang after the aforementioned Drunk Blunder in 1720.

Mary/Mark Read - (1685 – 28 April 1721) Much like Anne Bonny, Mary dressed as a boy for much of her youth so a parent could swindle someone out of money. From her teenage years on she continued dressing as a man to find work in the military and as a sailor. She did marry but her husband died young and so she decided to become a pirate. Like ya do. She accepted the king’s pardon in 1718, then mutinied on the privateer she was aboard, once again becoming a pirate. Because pirates are sexy. In 1720 she joined Jack Rackham’s crew and sailed with him and Bonny. Cue the whole ‘Hey you’re hot, also I’m a woman.’ ‘Oh, hey, same hat!’ with Anne. In November of 1720, Rackham’s ship was captured. Mary died of a fever in prison(likely due to her pregnancy) in 1721.

Edward Teach - (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718) He started piracy sailing under Hornigold, and built the fleet alongside him and Stede Bonnet until Hornigold retired. COOL fact about Blackbeard is he was a MASTER showman who liked to light slow burning fuses under his hat to scare his enemies, and he relied more heavily on creating an image his prizes feared than violence. He did a lot of cool shit including ransoming the entire town of Charles Town and annoying the shit out of Woodes Rogers before settling in Bath and later dying of like, a shit ton of wounds while battling Lieutenant Maynard. The battle on Roger’s ship is pretty much what happened minues the keelhauling. Afterwards he was beheaded, his head hung from the bow of Maynard’s ship, and his body was thrown in the bay in Bath, where it’s said his ghost still haunts! Funky!

Charles Vane - (1680 – 29 March 1721)  Really a pirate captain! Known for being Not A Nice Dude. Sailed with Henry Jennings, Edward England and Jackie Rackhammie. He led the pirates in resisting Rogers in Nassau, and yeah he really did light a ship on fire and 18th centuryeet it into Rogers’ line in order to escape. There’s a note that he returned to Nassau to get married but I couldn’t find any info on who he married so he’s gay now. That’s a rule I just made up. Anyway so at one point his ship got into a fight with another ship and Vane ordered a retreat and the crew was like ‘this is BOOshit’ and voted him out in favor of Jack Rackham. Ouch. Vane and some of the crew that supported him left aboard the Katherine(I believe) but then they got caught in a storm that said ‘fuck you specifically to Charles Vane,’ and he was marooned on an island. He survived! Just long enough for a British ship to stop at the island for him to attempt to board, get caught, and then hung. Deus ex piratica.

(Honorary mentions)

John Silver + Captain Flint (sort of but I’m not kidding!) Okay so of course there are a bunch of suspected origins of the characters of Captain Flint and Long John Silver, but the one I like the most is of two brothers - one of whom had a peg leg! - who captured an enormous Spanish treasure and buried it near Ocracoke island. Their names were John and Owen Lloyd. (And yes, John was the one-legged brother.) In 1750 a Spanish treasure fleet named the Flotas de Indias attempted to sail from Havana to Spain in late August, and three ships were wrecked during a hurricane. By a stroke of luck, the Lloyd brothers had been blown to the same inlet as the wrecked ships Guadalupe and Soledad , and managed to convince the Captain to hire them to transport the treasure to Norfolk. 

But of course because they thought the Spanish SUCKED they said ‘psyche’ and just fucked off with it while the Captain was fighting Bureaucratic red tape in North Carolina. Iconique. Owen Lloyd reportedly buried the treasure on Norman Island and  the pair became folk heroes in the area, particularly in St. Kitts.  (P.s., the Stevenson family ran a sugar production business on St. Kitts, and R.L. Stevenson’s great grandfather worked there as early as 1773 - just 25 years after the epic heist. COOL STORY BRO.)

Captain Throckmorton (Okay not really but I just love this guy’s name) Okay so this guy wasn’t really a pirate captain but he was a Steamboat captain in the 1830s and his name is just too ridiculous for someone to make up. Toot toot, motherfucker.

---------

Queen Nanny(Maroon Queen/Madi) (c. 1686 – c. 1755) The spiritual, cultural, and military leader of the Windward Maroons (who the Black Sails Maroons are based on.) She led them alongside her ‘brother’ Quao although the relationship between them isn’t known. Exact information about her origins are not known but best guess is that she was of royal lineage from present-day Ghana, born sometime in the 1680’s. She did have a husband named Adou(who may have been the same person as Quao? I’ve read conflicting stuff), but they had no children. Many of the guerilla warfare tactics we now think of as common practice were developed by Queen Nanny and the other Maroons in their fight against British incursions. (The trap that Flint lays, covering themselves with paint and leaves, and the pits the Maroons lay in the forest are tactics known to have been used by the Windward Maroons.)

Nanny was a fucking legend okay a LEGENDS ONLY legend. She was one of the most instrumental people in preserving African culture among freed slaves and Maroons, and in encouraging the resistance to slavery in the Bahamas and surrounding areas. She was one of three leaders of the First Maroon War (which the war in Black Sails is based on). She initially refused to sign the treaty offered to Cudjoe because she knew the British were losing and was like ‘Why????? Would I surrender???? In a war??? I’m winning?????’

Anyway Queen Nanny was a fucking badass please read every piece of literature you can find on her. (You should absolutely read her full bio because she was fucking badass.)

Cudjoe (not exactly, but Julius is very close) (c. 1690s – 1764) Likely a freeborn son of one of the original escaped slaves turned Maroons, Cudjoe is hailed as one of the greatest Maroon leaders(after Queen Nanny). Much like in Black Sails, these original Maroons were slaves who escaped or overran their masters, forming free communities in the Mountains of Jamaica. The treaty in Black Sails is based on the one Cudjoe negotiated with the British, wanting an ‘honorable peace’ with the enemy, rather than the continued war and better terms that Queen Nanny and Quao wanted. (sound familiarrrrrr?) I do want to note that by the end of his life he became completely disillusioned with the idea that the British should be reasoned with and basically started fights with every British superior he could.

The English, Spanish, and Scottish!

The Guthries So while there wasn’t ever a female head of the Guthrie clan in Nassau, the Guthries were a Scottish merchant clan who emigrated to Boston around 1652 due to religious and racial persecution. While most of the family stayed around Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, John Guthrie moved to Virginia and his brother James Guthrie moved to Bermuda sometime after 1683.

(James Guthrie of Suffolk County, Massachusetts was listed in the will of John Richardson, dated 7 May 1683, in which Richardson says, “I give and bequeath unto James Guthrie all I have in the world except twenty shillings to buy John Harris a ring and ten shillings to buy John Kyte a ring.” This was witnessed by John Raynsford and John Ramsey.) Fellas is it gay.

Anyway, between Virginia and Boston and James’ ties in the Bermuda islands, the family made a shit ton fencing pirated goods during the Golden Age of Piracy, particularly from the Pirate Republic of Nassau.

A John Guthrie(likely a son of James’) was also a Colonel who was part of the peace talks with Cudjoe and the Maroons. Neat!

James Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) Okay listen Oglethorpe was COOL AS FUCK. He is the founder of the colony of Georgia and is imo who Thomas Hamilton is probably based on. Oglethorpe was a HUGE humanitarian and even before he decided to form an entire colony around people not owning slaves. He advocated for better conditions for sailors, and prison reform. In 1732 he read a letter by a slave in Maryland named Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and on the spot decided slavery was terrible, divested himself of his stock in the African Trading Company, and resolved to include a law banning slavery in Georgia to the colony’s charter. Radical, man.

Speaking of Georgia, and specifically his plantation near Savannah, Oglethorpe actively spoke with the native Yamacraw who populated the land to ask permission and trade for the land he sought to build Georgia on. His plantation was meant to help debtors in London, released without any support, from falling back into debt and offering them a way forward to landownership through indentured servitude. I highly recommend anyone interested in early attempts at an equality based colonial system read up on the original charter of Georgia. (Of course there were still problems, but Oglethorpe was one of the most prominent proponents of a non hierarchical society - including limits to the acreage any person could own based on how helpful that land was to the people who worked it, and communal resources.) Oglethorpe was also a lifelong friend with Tomochichi, the chief of the Yamacraw, and worked very closely with him on colonial-indigenous relations.

Vincente de Raja (birth/death unknown) He was the real Governor and military Captain of Cuba from 1716-1717. He was a devoted pirate hunter and encouraged Spanish privateering against the pirates. Due to an attempt by Spain to increase tobacco profits at the expense of the farmers, there was a large revolt which resulted in many of the Cuban officials, including Raja, being replaced. 

William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) He was a merchant captain and plantation owner in Carolina who served in the colonial militia and hunted pirates. He captured Stede Bonnet and was probably just as much of an asshole as he is in the show.

Woodes Rogers - (c. 1679 – 15 July 1732) The Governor of Nassau who was largely responsible for ending piracy in the Bahamas. He really did offer a universal pardon, which a large number of the pirates took. Fun fact: before he was Governor, he rescued Alexander Selkirk, who is believed to be the guy Robinson Crusoe is based off of! Neat! He really did have a brother who really did die during his privateering exploits which also really did leave him ‘disfigured’. He got sued by his crew, went bankrupt, wrote a book, got famous for writing the book, and he really did have a wife named Sarah whom he divorced shortly after all this happened. He then became Governor of Nassau for the first time. This first term did end in him being imprisoned for debts incurred defending the island from Vane and Teach and the Spanish, but he was released, helped write that most famous A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, and became governor again in 1728. He died in 1732 of just plain exhaustion from dealing with the bureaucracy. Alexa play tiny violin.

In Game:

Stede Bonnet, often referred to as “The Gentleman Pirate” due in part to the fact that he was a moderately wealthy landowner prior to turning to piracy, owning a profitable sugar plantation in Barbados, was an early 18th century Barbadian pirate of English descent who sailed the Eastern Seaboard of the Thirteen Colonies with his crew.

He was a rather likeable associate of several well-known pirates based in the Caribbean, including Edward Kenway, Edward Thatch, Benjamin Hornigold, and Mary Read.

In 1715, Stede's schooner, the Revenge, was waylaid by a Royal Navy warship off the coast of Cape Bonavista, Cuba. The British suspected Stede of being involved in a nearby battle between a pirate warship and a passing vessel.

Despite denying this profusely, the British refused to accept his turn of events, intending to commandeer his vessel and marooning him. He was saved by the timely intervention of Edward Kenway, a pirate who had been involved in the engagement, and shortly beforehand assumed the identity of Duncan Walpole, an Assassin whom Edward had been forced to kill. Having saved Stede's life, the pirate offered to pilot Revenge to Havana, where both of them had business. On arriving in Havana, Stede and Edward headed into the city, eventually ending up in a tavern, where Edward was recognized by a privateer, who knew of Kenway being a pirate. The two engaged in a fight after Edward's attempt to silence him, drawing the attention of some nearby Spanish guards. Stede was mistaken for Kenway's accomplice and severely beaten by the guards, having his sugar confiscated in the process.

After Edward’s return, he agreed to retrieve Bonnet's cargo at the same time as his own effects, but could not fulfill on his promise. Fortunately however, Stede was still able to make a profit with his remaining inventory, and Kenway then confessed his real first name to Bonnet, which he excitedly called out to the pirate when he was meeting with a couple of Templars.

Near the end of 1717, Stede bid his wife and children farewell, sailing north from Barbados, never to see them again, apparently having grown tired of a life of comfort. He sailed to Nassau where he met Edward Thatch. Blackbeard mentored Stede for a time on board the Queen Anne's Revenge, where Bonnet reunited with his old friend Edward Kenway, while searching for medicines for Nassau in the old ship wrecks. There, he became a victim of Thatch's fear tactics, which frightened him speechless.

Later on, Thatch and his crew started a battle with a British Man O' War, and were eventually assisted by Kenway. After the battle, Thatch allowed Bonnet to leave his service, returning him the Revenge. Meeting Kenway for the final time, Bonnet bade Edward farewell, thanking him for their friendship, which he stated was "more precious than any treasure".

In Real Life:

Stede Bonnet, also known as the Gentleman Pirate was born in 1688 to Edward and Sarah Bonnet, who owned an estate of over 400 acres (1.6 km2) southeast of Bridgetown, which was given to Bonnet upon his father's death in 1694. He married Mary Allamby in Bridgetown on November 21st, 1709.They had three sons (Allamby, Edward, and Stede) and a daughter, Mary. Allamby died before 1715, while the other children survived to see their father abandon them for piracy.

During the spring of 1717, Stede Bonnet decided to become a pirate, despite having no knowledge of shipboard life; some theorize that this may have been his “midlife crisis” or he decided to leave after the death of one of his sons. Regardless, he commissioned a local shipyard to build him a small ship called the Revenge. This was unusual, as most pirates seized their ships by mutiny or boarding, or conversion of a privateer vessel to a pirate ship. Bonnet enlisted a crew of more than seventy men. He relied on his quartermaster and officer for their knowledge of sailing, and as a result, he was not highly respected by his crew. On the other hand, he did pay his crew a wage, rather than shares of plunder. Bonnet is alleged to have been one of the few pirates to make his prisoners walk the plank.

(Image source)

Bonnet met Captain Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach for the first time in 1717; Teach, better known as Blackbeard, played a large role in the remainder of Bonnet's life. Bonnet temporarily gave command of the Revenge to Blackbeard, as he had been injured in a ship battle on the way to Nassau, but remained aboard as a guest of the more experienced pirate captain. Blackbeard and Bonnet weighed anchor and sailed northward to Delaware Bay, where they plundered a total of eleven ships. It was with Bonnet’s ship that Blackbeard was able to capture the Concorde, which was shortly thereafter renamed The Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Bonnet did not exercise command again until the summer of 1718. Shortly after he resumed command, a bumboat's crew told him that Blackbeard was moored in Ocracoke Inlet. Bonnet set sail at once to hunt down his treacherous ex-confederate, but could not find him, and Bonnet never met Blackbeard again.

In September of 1718, Bonnet took part in the Battle of Cape Fear River.  During the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, the Royal Navy was constantly in campaign against pirates in the Caribbean and off North America. At this point in time, Bonnet had been sailing from the Delaware Bay to the Cape Fear River. He was commanding his sloop-of-war flagship Royal James and two other armed sloops, Francis and Fortune. Royal James was a former flagship of Blackbeard which was armed with eight cannons. The other two sloops were similarly armed. All together, there were about 46 pirates. Royal James needed to be careened and the hurricane season was soon to come so Bonnet chose the Cape Fear estuary as a reliable shelter against storms. For the next few weeks, Bonnet's crew repaired the Royal James with material salvaged from a captured shallop.

Reports of Bonnet's sloops in the Cape Fear River reached Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina in August. Johnson ordered Colonel William Rhett to command an operation to destroy the threat.

After a brief battle, the South Carolinians suffered twelve killed and eighteen wounded, while the pirates sustained twelve casualties and all the survivors were captured. Bonnet was taken to Charleston, arriving on October 3rd to await trial on charges of piracy.

(Image source)

Bonnet was separated from the majority of his crew and held for almost a month at the home of a Charleston provost marshal. With him was his boatswain (Ignatius Pell) and the sailing master (David Herriott), all of whom escaped with the help of two slaves and a Native American and possibly local merchant Richard Tookerman. Governor Robert Johnson immediately ordered a £700 bounty to be awarded to any man who could kill or capture the pirates. Herriott was shot and killed on Sullivan Island a few days later and Bonnet, the gentleman pirate, was soon recaptured after a skirmish on Sullivan's Island and hanged on December 10th, 1718 at the White Point Garden, Charles Town.

After his execution, Stede Bonnet has made several apperances in various pop culture products, including Tim Powers’ novel “On Stranger Tides” (the fictional John Chandagnac's quest to reclaim his inheritance and rescue an Englishwoman) and “Kate Bonnet: The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter,” by 19th century author Frank Stockton (a satirical novel relating the adventures of a fictional daughter of Bonnet named Kate). Bonnet also appears in the 2004 video game, “Sid Meier’s Pirates.”

Sources:

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/stede-bonnet/

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gentleman-pirate-159418520/

http://www.goldenageofpiracy.org/infamous-pirates/stede-bonnet.php

http://www.scnhc.org/story/stede-bonnet-gentleman-pirate

https://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Privateers-Rebel-Raiders-Carolina/dp/0807848638