Lore - Legends 8: Pirate Legends

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Few occupations created more legendary tales than piracy. From adventure to treasure, everything seems dripping in blood and lore. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Cassandra de Alba. ———————— This episode of Lore was sponsored by: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE, and get on your way to being your best self. Liquid I.V.: The #1 Powdered Hydration Brand in America is now available in Sugar-Free. Get 20% off when you go to LiquidIV.com, and use code LORE at checkout. KiwiCo: Redefine learning with play—explore hands-on projects that build creative confidence and problem-solving skills with KiwiCo! Get 50% off your first month, plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line at kiwico.com/LORE. ———————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com ©2023 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by KiwiCo. While all of you know me as Erin the podcaster, I'm also Erin the parent, and one of the things my wife and I really focused on with our kids early on was finding new ways to have fun while learning, which is why we've been a fan of KiwiCo for years. One of the crates we recently received was for Bottle Rocket. Designed for young scientists, KiwiBottle Rocket allows your kids to build and launch their very own rockets while discovering the principles of physics and engineering. Explore hands-on projects that build creative confidence and problem-solving skills with

KiwiCo. Get 50% off your first month, plus free shipping on any crate line at KiwiCo.com. Slash Lore Welcome to Lore Legends, a subset of lore episodes that explore the strange tales we whisper in the dark, even if they can't always be proven by the history books. So if you're ready, let's begin. There's nothing like the open sea, the sound of goals overhead squawking as they hunt for their next meal, the sound of waves lapping against the sides of the ship, the promise of adventure just beyond the horizon.

It's no wonder swashbucklers like blackbeard and grace omalley call the ocean home for so many years. Beneath that glistening surface of saltwater, though, and under millions of grains of sand, our secrets. Some of them just wait to be uncovered. Others should not be searched for at all. There's a reason buried treasure has remained buried for so long, and not just because the X has worn off the map.

It's because those who buried it weren't able to recover it and didn't want anyone else to find it either. Pirates may be romanticized today as daring sea fairers in pursuit of riches and freedom, but they were not exactly loved during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many were hardened criminals, murderers, thieves, and scoundrels alike, and if they weren't chased out of one location, they were arrested and hanged for their crimes in another.

In death, these pirates left behind quite a lot. Their legacies were built on stories of their exploits exchanged over mugs of ale, and whispers of the gold they had stashed on distant shores. But while the exploits and treasures might have made for a good story fodder, it also led to some serious consequences for the men and women involved. Today, we set sail to explore some classic and creepy tales of pirates who chased luxury in liberation

only to catch heartache instead. And sometimes, the hangman's noose. I'm Aaron Mankee, and this is Lore Legends. Not everyone is called to their profession. For every apprentice who spends hours studying and honing their particular skill, there's a John Quilch. Quilch was born in England in 1666. He grew up to become a lieutenant on the Charles, an 80-ton ship outfitted with all the weapons a privateer would need

to take on an enemy of the crown. Captain by one, Daniel Plowman, the Charles, along with Quelch and a full crew, sailed out of marble head Massachusetts, a seaport north of Boston and, incidentally, just down the road from where I'm recording this. They'd been given instructions to take down any French and Spanish ships along their way, all the way up to Canada. But Captain Plowman wasn't feeling too well. Not long into the trip, he took to his cabin sick bed and siloed himself away from the

rest of the crew. Left to their own devices, the men decided that there was only one course of action for them, and it wasn't a get-well soon card. They mutinied instead. To keep the captain from leaving his cabin, one of the crewmen jammed a Marlin spike into the doorframe. A Marlin spike was a tool used to separate strands of rope, and it made a pretty good doorstop, too. Some say Plowman was tossed overboard dead or alive, while others believe that he died inside his cabin. The details aren't too important, though.

All that matters is that John Quelch quickly shed his role of seconding command and began a new life as Captain of the Charles. With a new captain came new orders. No longer would they sail to Canada. Quelch had them turn the ship around. They were going south to Brazil, in fact, with a new target in mind.

Gold. The Brazilian gold rush had begun in the 1690s, and other ships had already begun harvesting all that they could find. Between August of 1703 and February of 1704, the Charles and her men relieved nine Portuguese ships of their plunder. Gold coins, furs, sugar, and other treasures filled the ship's hold, and there was probably no shortage of bloodshed over it either. Pirates weren't exactly known to be friendly to the vessels they were looting.

There was just one problem. England and Portugal had just signed a treaty aligning their governments against the French. Although the treaty had been signed before the Charles had set sail, it's unclear if news of it would have reached Massachusetts by that time. To let others know his ship was no longer a privateering vessel, Quelch designed a new flag. It depicted a white, humanoid figure holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear in the other.

At the end of that spear was a heart, with drops of blood coming down from it, all set against a black background. He called it the old Roger, though it's believed that this is merely just a myth used to bolster his legend. After less than a year at sea, Quilch and his crew made the decision to head back to Massachusetts and divide up their fortune. They'd assumed that they'd gotten away with the perfect crime, with the people funding them back home none the wiser. They didn't know how wrong they were.

The ship's backers quickly discovered damning evidence tying the Charles to the pirated Portuguese ships, including Portuguese coins of gold and silver, along with bundles of sugar that had been labeled in the Portuguese language. It was clear that Quelch and his men had targeted allied vessels as opposed to Spanish or French. Quelch had instructed his men to tell the authorities that the treasure was taken from a shipwreck that they'd stumbled upon, and to get rid of anything that might link them to the Portuguese, he even tore out pages of a crew member's diary that mentioned what they had done. But these were pirates. They weren't known for playing things cool, or keeping a low profile. They not only started spending their

loot all over Marblehead, but they also bragged to the townsfolk about their adventures. Within a week of returning home, Quelch was arrested, and his crew wasn't far behind. By June of 1704, he and his men would stand trial for piracy in the British Admiralty Courts and become the first people to do so outside of England. This trial though was different from others. Unlike most regular criminal trials in colonial Massachusetts, those of the Admiralty Court variety did not include a jury, even though some locals believed that they were less fair that way. Quelch built his defense on ignorance of the treaty between England and Portugal at the time of his piracy, but ignorance did not equate innocence, certainly not a Samuel Suel, who

was not only one of the judges presiding over Quelch's case, but had also made a name for himself when he presided over another trial just a decade earlier that you have probably heard of, the Salem Witch Trials. Following their guilty verdict, Quelch and five of his compatriots were marched through the streets of Boston before they were hanged for their crimes on June 30th of 1704. Some of his crew expressed remorse when asked for their last words. Quelch though, did not.

As one of his men spoke to the crowd, he shouted over the man, saying, they should also take care how they brought money into New England to be hanged for it. Nobody knows what happened to Quilch's body after he was hanged. It's possible that he was buried in an unmarked grave in what is now Cops Hill burying ground in Boston. And some believe that a stash of his gold is actually hidden on Star Island in New Hampshire's Isle of Shoals, where some of his men fled after the warrants was issued for their arrest.

They didn't last long there, by the way. They were quickly tracked down and arrested, but the Isle of Shoals may hold more treasure than we know. It's been rumored that Blackbeard's loot was buried there as well. Although, despite a number of gold seekers having combed its shores over the years, no gold has ever been found. Massachusetts wasn't just known for its pirates, it was also home to their treasure. North of Boston is the coastal city of Lynn, also known as Lynn-Lynn the city of Sin.

And while many versions of this story claim to take place in 1658, the events that I'm about to talk about likely date back 20 years earlier to 1638, the year a strong earthquake rocked New England. The Quake hits on June 1st of that year. The ground shook for 4 minutes from New Hampshire to Connecticut, and its strength was estimated at 6.5 to 7 on the modern Richter scale. It was such an event for New Englanders that they started using June 1st, 1638 as a reference for other dates. For example, instead of saying a specific year like 1636, they would say two

years before the Great Earthquake. According to the lore, sometime before the earthquake struck, a ship appeared off the coast of Lynn. This small vessel had been painted black, and it wasn't flying a flag. Lynn residents knew exactly what the ship had on board, too. Pirates. As they watched it coming toward them, four men departed in a smaller boat, which they rode up a river to the woods, along with a chest. The following day, the town's folk went looking for the pirates,

but found a note on the door of the local ironworks instead. Whoever had written it had scrolled out a list of items that they needed, such as handcuffs and hatchets, which they wanted left somewhere in the Lynn Woods in a clandestine location. In exchange for their cooperation, the letter said the townspeak would receive some silver. Not ones to pass up easy money the locals did as the pirates asked and left their supplies in a secret place in the woods. The pirates then used those supplies to set up camp by building living quarters and other necessities.

The area is known today as Pirates Glen. But the interlopers soon learned that their paradise would not last forever. The authorities eventually discovered their hideouts and arrested three of the four men. They were sent back to England to be tried for their crimes. The fourth pirate, though, a man named Thomas Ville, escaped into what is now the Lin Woods reservation and took the treasure with him. He allegedly sought shelter in a cave with his ill-gotten loot and even excavated it further to make it a comfortable place to live.

Veal stayed in the woods, only venturing into town to buy supplies and other necessary goods. He also worked as a shoemaker, but called the cave his home for as long as he lived in Lin. That is until the earthquake struck. The tremors caused the floor below him to open up, swallowing him whole as the cave, well, caved in. He was trapped for good in what is now known as Dungeon Rock. A few hundred years later, a spiritualist from Charlton, named Hyram Marble, bought the

land where Dungeon Rock sits, and for one very lucrative reason, too, he wanted to find the treasure. But how did he know that it was there? Well, someone had told him. The ghost of Thomas Ville himself. Marble would hold seances and transcribe Ville's instructions through automatic writing, which not only informed him of where to dig, but also helped him prove that spiritualism was not a scam.

Well, Marble blasted and shoveled his way through the cave for years, excavating close to 200 feet of tunnel. He even built a house next to its entrance to make things easier for himself. But he never found the treasure, and neither did his son Edwin, who continued to search for it until his own death in 1880. But it wasn't all for nothing. Marble wanted to use the treasure money to buy more land so that he could gift it to Lynn to make a public forest. After Edwin died, the town bought the land anyway, and the Lynn Woods were born.

Unsurprisingly, the legend of Oceanborn Mary begins at sea. Her parents, James and Elizabeth Wilson, were Scottish Irish immigrants on a shipbound for the American colonies in July of 1720, and Elizabeth was pregnant, so pregnant that she gave birth on board. But on that very day, which might have been July 28 according to the legend, the ship was attacked by pirates. Some tellings claim Elizabeth actually went into labor due to the shock of the pirate attack, and as soon as the baby was born, it did what babies usually do. It cried out.

The pirate captain heard the cry and stopped his men in order to meet the parents and their newborn. He took one look at the child, a girl, and told the ship's crew that he would let everyone go if the baby was named after Mary, one of his relatives. It's been suggested that Mary was either the pirate captain's wife or his late mother.

Elizabeth agreed right away and and the pirates left, but not before the captain did one more thing. He gave the girl a long piece of green silk, to be sewn into a dress for her eventual wedding day. Some say it was a beautiful length of Chinese brocade that had been presented to her. Interestingly enough, according to Oceanborn Mary historian Jeremy Dontramont of the US Lighthouse Society, the ship that they were traveling on was likely the Essex, which had in fact been attacked by pirates on July 28th of 1720. And if that's true, that would make the compassion at pirate captain Bartholomew Roberts, also known as Black Bart, a pirate who was known to have captured over 400 ships during

his lifetime, more than any other pirate at the time, even more than Blackbeard or Captain Kid. He was also known to occasionally bestow gifts on the passengers of the ships that he plundered. Well, after they reached land, Mary's family settled in London-Dairy New Hampshire. Then it's believed that early settlers there held a yearly holiday in her honor to give thanks for their survival, although no contemporary proof of this holiday currently exists. As for Mary, she grew up into a beautiful young woman, with piercing blue eyes and a long fiery mane of red hair. Apparently, she was fond of telling children, and I quote,

"'Indeed, I was born neither on this side or that side of the water, nor anywhere else sun gods green earth. In 1742, she married a man named James Wallace, and she did wear a dress made of the green silk that had been given to her by that pirate captain all those years before. She and her husband had five children together, and after his death, she spent the remainder of her life in Hennecker, New Hampshire, living with one of her sons. She passed away in 1814 and was buried in the town cemetery. All in all, she led a fairly normal life, aside from what had occurred when she had taken

her first breaths. So what makes her a lore legend? Well, it's not how she lived that had people asking questions. It's what happened after she died. In 1917, just over 100 years after her death, a man named Louis Gussie Roy bought a Georgian style house in Hennecker belonging to one of Mary's other sons. And he wasted no time in capitalizing on his purchase by promoting it as the ocean-born Mary House. As you would expect, he charged guests for tours, and on those tours, he would weave ghostly tails

of how Mary's spirit would haunt her old rocking chair. Except Mary never lived in that house. Most of Roy's stories about her were invented to sell tickets. As for the rocking chair, he positioned it over a loose floor board that ran across the room. And as he told customers about the home's history and Mary's ghost, he would press down on the board and cause the chair to rock. But that

hasn't stopped people from claiming that they've seen her with their own eyes. According to Don Tramont, many visitors to the Ocean-born Mary House and Henneker have seen her ghost arriving at the house in a phantom coach drawn by four horses, her fiery red hair streaming in the wind. So why is she returning to the house? While some say she comes back to locate an unnamed item that she's left in a nearby well alongside the building, and that she arrives in her coach every Halloween, others have said that they've seen her walking down the staircase or standing next to a window, her long red locks on full display.

One apocryphal story suggests that Mary lived in Hennecker with none other than the pirate captain who had given her the silk. Black Bart, the legend states that the pirate had retired to the small town and welcomed Mary as his housekeeper. Even Roy, added to the rumor with the claim that the ocean-born Mary House had been built

by Captain Roberts himself, and that the fireplace's hearthstone might be hiding both his treasure and his corpse. But none of this can be true, as Black Bart was killed off the coast of Africa in 1722, two years after Mary was born. Still, the truth hasn't discouraged ghost hunters and treasure seekers from visiting Hennecker, searching for proof of the supernatural or the pirate's gold. Gussie Roy died in 1965, but the fraudulent legacy that he built continues on to this day. The story of the ocean-born Mary House doesn't end with Roy's death. In fact, it has one more claim to fame.

Around 1949, a young couple who had heard the tales of the hauntings decided to stop in and visit the home. Roy was only too happy to show them around. While the couple chatted with him, the woman fell into a trance. Nothing her husband or Roy could do would shake her out of it. She could not communicate with them, nor could she be communicated with. Her husband was concerned, but Roy explained that this often happened to Claire of Voient when they visited his house.

Well, according to one report, the man replied, Claire of Voient, she's no Claire of Voient, she's my wife. He literally did not know the meaning of the word. The woman meanwhile shook as though she'd been hit between the shoulders. According to her, her consciousness left her body and floated up to the second floor of the house, where she was able to look down on her husband and Roy below, a true out-of-body experience. This was the first time that she had ever had a psychic incident.

She later told her son-in-law about the event, stating that for the first time in her life she no longer feared death. She knew that body and soul were two separate entities existing together. Oh, and that couple who just happened to stop by the ocean-born Maryhouse? None other than Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famous paranormal investigators behind the parent family haunting of 1974, as well as Annabelle the Doll. The Warrens would go on to become the most famous ghost hunters in history, and they credited Roy and his invented ghosts with the beginning of their storied careers.

Everyone loves a good pirate tale. Between their pension for bloodshed and hunger for gold, they offer a sort of blank canvas that storytellers love to paint upon. And just like so much in the world of folklore, all it takes is a small nugget of truth to really make these legends come to life. But we haven't finished digging up treasures just yet. In fact, we've saved another gem to share with you. And if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you all about it. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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That's 20% off anything you order when you use the promo code lore at liquidiv.com. And finally, this episode was made possible by KiwiCo. KiwiCo is reinventing the future of play through hands-on projects designed to be fun and engaging and to spark a lifelong passion for learning. How? Well, every month KiwiCo delivers crates

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Rock isn't the only place near Lin-Nastatuseits that conceals potential pirate treasure. As the story goes, rumors started swirling around in the late 1600s about a treasure chest that had been buried at point of pines in nearby revere, at the mouth of the Saga's river. And depending on who you believe, that treasure was buried by the same pirates who'd made pirates glen their home. These rumors are often believed to have originated at the anchor Tavern, which was once known as the Blue Anchor. Located halfway between Boston and Salem, the Tavern was quite popular with travelers and

became a hotbed of gossip. A group of men had overheard some discussion about the treasure and decided to go hunting for themselves. They engaged a local penicook man named David Kunkshemusha to help. He was known for skill with divining rods made of witch hazel, which would prove useful in tracking down a chest full of lost gold. One quiet night, the party set off from the anchor tavern, the light of the moon, and David's divining rods leading the way, along with a few pints of liquid courage lining their bellies most likely. Soon enough, the three men stopped as David's hazel rods pointed toward what they've been looking for, the burial sites of the lost pirate treasure.

According to Nuel, it was allegedly located beneath a large flat stone. David, not wanting to take chances, created a magic protective circle around the site, using which hazel bark, a toad, and the foot of an owl, the tongue from a snake, rosemary, and dragonroot. And with it, he gave the party only two rules. First, as long as the men didn't step outside the circle, they would be protected. However, should they set one toe beyond its borders, they would place their lives at risk from the evil spirits that would be unleashed once they broke ground. And secondly, no one was to utter a word as they dug, or their efforts would be fruitless. And so the men got to work, shoveling and digging their way toward fortune.

It wasn't long before their tools clanged against what they'd been looking for. The stone said to conceal the treasure chest. However, just as they laid their eyes on it, a fierce gust of wind blew in, kicking up sand and debris all around, and breaking the protective seal of their circle. Naturally, the men were afraid. Clearly, whatever was watching over this loot didn't want them digging it up, but once the wind died down, David redrew the circle and the men got back to work. They began trying to pry up the stone with a lever, and just as they were making progress, a horse's kneey called out from the distance,

loud enough that it could have come from right behind them. Their arms trembled and they dropped the stone, but it wasn't enough to keep them from pressing forward. With a new charmed circle drawn around them, they picked up the lever and continued to heave the blockage out of their way. Then came another gust of wind, pelting them with more sand and saltwater. And then they heard it, the sound of a horse approaching. It was massive with a long flowing mane and a nasty temperament, and on its back wrote

a large imposing man. He had long, stringy hair that sat lifeless on his shoulders, and when he smiled at them, his tight lips revealed a mouth that had shed every last one of its teeth. He said, by my blood, what do ye hear? Ye are well set to work, filtering my gold hard earned upon the sea, by dagger, and by fire. As he belted his foreboding words, his horse reared up over David, its hooves poised above his head like the sword of Damakley's waiting to come down. David muttered only a few words, but they were enough. He'd broken the spell, and the stone fell back over the chest, which sank deeper into

the earth. The rider, having protected his treasure from the three treasure hunters, galloped off into the night, and the men fled from the site, never to search for pirate gold again. Some say the treasure is still right where they left it, too, waiting to be dug up. If, of course, you can get past the pirate, who's protecting it. This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Harry Marks and research by Cassandra Dayalba. Lore is much more than just a podcast there is a book series available in bookstores

and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more lore in your life. Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com. And you can follow this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Just search for lorepodcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.