Blog post 10

I have learned a majority of things that include pirates through out this semester. Going from just knowing about flags to the punishments involved. Everything about pirates back then were dark and very intriguing. It helped me improve my knowledge of pirates immensely.

Blog post 9

Essentially over these past few weeks or so, I have been researching about the life of the marooned. Basically I wanted to learn more in dept about how the way marooning worked and if it did, how effective was it. If anyone is still confused, marooning is when a sailor is sent to a island of sandbank to pretty much die. Its usually used by many pirate captains as a form of punishment when ever a pirate broke the code. Overall I learned quite a lot about the way marooning works and how the mind of one works as well.

The great big blackbeard

When you speak of a pirate you can only think of one man and no not Jack sparrow. The man's name is Blackbeard, who was the most notorious pirate during the golden age of piracy. Not much information is known about the man himself, not even his true name was ever revealed. Some people have called him Edward Thatch or Teach, he went from being a privateer on the Queen Anne's War and turned to piracy after that. after capturing many ships he had found one to his liking, naming it the Queen Anne's Revenge. In truth many sailors who went out into sea would kill to join Blackbeard's crew, even so Blackbeard has one massive army under his control. From time to time he would maroon his own crewmates so they he could lighten the load of his ships in order to take more of the loot himself. Being on the Queen Anne's Revenge was a risk but also something a sailor would experience once. If I were able to be apart of his crew I would enjoy being his right hand man. That way I can be at the top with Blackbeard and be able to run the ship with him. Blackbeard's reign of terror soon came to and end when they encountered an armed contingent sent by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard. It was a desperate battle for Blackbeard because they were fighting aboard Maynard's sloop. In the end Blackbeard and a number of his fellow pirates which was about 300 during this point were killed.

Henry Morgan, Fiction or Fact?

Who was Henry Morgan and what was he all about? A man with truth or a man full of lies. Well to be truthful he wasn't really full of lies at all. In Under the Black Flag they talk about his life which was quite relevant to the truth, they talked about how there were not many features of his look that they were able to describe nor that there was any background knowledge of his life besides the fact that he had a family. In buccaneer and Pirates they talked a lot about his past life and everything he did when he was young. Which in fact is false because there weren't any available information involved with his past. All we really know was when he was on his death bed from what his doctor told to the reporters. Even so there were more truths than there were lies. Morgan was very notorious in hunting down ships and being able to take down ports without fail. His most successful attack as well as most talked about was the attack on panama. This attack was lead very skillfully by Morgan, he did not lose a single man during this fight and was able to come out victorious. Unluckily he was only able to walk away with a hand full of gold for his crew and for himself.

Female Pirate, ally or enemy?

I hit a trigger that had sent me back in time to the pirate era, but not just any pirate age. It was known as the Golden age of piracy, a notorious era where pirates ruled the sea. Not only that but I ended up running into some interesting pirates. Anne Bonny and Mary Read. At first I was confused by their name, because in my perspective they looked men but I was fairly certain they were female. I ran into them at the wrong time though.. I was under the deck when I met them, everyone else aboard the ship were up above. They didn't enjoy my interruption of their own private time and immediately attacked me. I tried to tell them that this was a mistake and that I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their identity. To be fair although they dressed like men, they were actually pretty feminine. Even if they had put on men clothing to try and cover up any part of being a women I could still tell it apart. In truth they were very aggressive as well as strong. During this time people didn't really agree with the fact that women went out into sea, and so they started dressing themselves up as men so that they could join these pirate crews.

Is it right? or wrong?

Is the way pirates kill each other the right or wrong way? Well in my own perspective I can say that the way pirates give punishment or torture is completely inhumane. Pirates found their type of punishment very entertaining, they tended to play games around their own crew mates or someone who was help hostage by them. One form of punishment or torture was tying to the mast where they would be tied to the mast for nine days and nights while being whipped constantly, as you can see this form of punishment or torture was common throughout many eras not just the age of piracy. Considering this, tying to the mast was one of the lesser forms of punishment that pirates had in mind. Other times pirates would just sell their own cremates or actually make them walk the plank, it was meant to be a myth of sorts but in this case some pirates actually did make their own cremates or any held hostages walk the plank. These forms of punishment were rare and hardly ever used though. With that we have the most cruel and most slow painful death that were given to pirates. It's name is the keelhauling where a rope was pass under the ship from side to side while the offender was tied onto it. They would swing back in fourth under the water where barnacles would slowly cut them apart. In no way is this considered the right kind of punishment or torture.

BREAKING NEWS!!! ATTACK ON PANAMA

To start this off, the city of panama was in control by president Don Juan Perez Guzman. Who actually in recent days has been trying to fortify his defenses. Panama was the principal treasure port on the Pacific coast of Central America. It also had a population of 6000 though most of them were black slaves. We have heard that Don said that he did have enough supplies of ammunition as well as weapons.
Apparently though it was not enough to combat against the men of Sir Henry Morgan. The men under Don Juan were recruits who were inexperienced compared to that of the hardened-battle buccaneers.

At 7:00 a.m. on January 28, 1961. Morgan gave the order to his men to march upon the city of panama. They were up against twelve hundred foot soldiers and four hundred horsemen. Morgan sent his men in four squadrons and they carried red and green banners. Morgan knew a frontal assault would be costly, so he order one of the squads to head around and capture one of the hillsides. Don thought that Morgan's men were retreating and ordered his to charge forward. Finding out that the men were unorganized and rabbled apart Morgan's men fired with deadly accuracy.

Don told himself that if the battle would be lost then he would burned down the city. In fact he stayed true to that comment. While Morgan's men were hacking their way into the city, Don had his men load up all the treasures they could carry and shot artillery onto the city burning it down.

Once everything had ceased Morgan quotes "Thus was consumed the famous and ancient city of Panama, the greatest mart for silver and gold in the world." His men searched the smoking city for the treasure but could not find it. The inhabitants were savagely tortured to reveal where they had hidden their money. Morgan walked away with about 250,000 pesos but in truth he walked away with very little to share with his men. They even thought he was holding out on them to keep all the money to himself. In the end it was a very frustrating thing to be able to have such a victory but walk away with so little. After that the buccaneers spilt apart and went their own separate ways. He was later arrested by the Queen of Spain but was treated with care and respect rather than a criminal.