Noble Blood - Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Before the HBO Max series, 'Our Flag Means Death,' Stede Bonnet was a footnote of history, an aristocrat who partnered with, and then was betrayed by, Blackbeard. But the full story of Stede Bonnet is a fascinating saga, equal parts comedy and tragedy. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and pre-order its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong,

dance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Genius or insanity. Those where Edward teaches two working theories as to why the quaint 60-ton sloop known as the Revenge was currently anchored in a small pirate harbor off the coast of the Bahamas. Mere days after the Revenge's arrival, the docks were already a buzz with rumors and speculation about the ship, primarily because of the state in which it had sailed into port, or more accurately, washed into port. The vessel still bore the scars of its most recent misadventure, red stains and

splintered wood marred the revenge's deck, only hastily wiped away by what little remained of their crew. If Edward Teach was being honest, he was surprised the revenge was still afloat at all. There was almost no scenario in which a glorified dingy like the revenge, really any pirate ship at all, should have survived a run-in with a Goliath like that of a Spanish warship. At the time, 1717, a typical government sanctioned man of war could have easily held well over a hundred guns. The revenge had ten. Though, after the devastating defeat against the Spanish warship, the revenge's eccentric captain made sure to outfit their artillery with an additional two guns,

you know, to make up for losing half the crew and nearly his own life. Which brought Edward Teach back to his original question, and the reason he found himself knocking on the door to the revenges captain's quarters, was it genius or insanity that had led this captain to steer his crew to almost certain death? The answer, of course, was the one theory Teach had not thought to consider in the first place. Stupidity. It was past the captain's doors and into his private residence that Teach found himself standing face to face with the fanciful nightchirts and vast collection of books adorning the cabin of one Steed Bonnet,

or, as he would one day come to be known, the Gentleman Pirate. Today, the name Steed Bonnet is often relegated to a footnote amongst the larger legends associated with the, quote, golden age of piracy. Until a recent television series on HBO Max, he was almost entirely forgotten by all but the most passionate students of 18th century history. His import had really only ever been measured by the interactions he had with more infamous pirates. But to Edward Teach in that moment, Steed Bonnet was no such footnote. He was an idiot, sure.

But more than that, he was a mystery, an opportunity. For so long, Teach had only been a part of other men's crews, just waiting for the day he could take on a ship and a crew of his own. And now, suddenly, here he stood. Next to the incompetent Oaf, who was unknowingly handing teach his freedom and his future on a silver platter. Bonnet had a ship, but he needed a crew, and frankly, he needed a captain to lead them while he healed from his injuries. What happened, once his wounds healed, would be an issue for a later date. One he was sure he could handle as he continued to stare at the spectacle of a man before him.

And for the first time since stepping on board, Teach felt the lips he hid under his considerable beard pull into a genuine smile. He held out his hand to the captain and introduced himself, not by his given name, but by the name born out of years of infamy on the high seas, a name that sent even the most fearsome of foes cowering in their boots. He introduced himself as Blackbeard. The two shook hands and made their deal. Blackbeard would take the revenge temporarily while Steed Bonnet healed.

But unbeknownst to them, with that handshake, also came the promise of their end. For by the end of December the following year, both pirates would be dead. But as Blackbeard stared at Steed Bonnet, clad in ruffles, and what he was sure was a posture held only by those raised sucking on silver spoons, the infamous pirate captain couldn't help but imagine a different life for himself, one where he stood at the helm of a mighty ship, and the horizon was suddenly within reach. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Given that the name itself is gilded, it's hard not to romanticize the era we've come to recognize as the golden age of piracy. Little more than a skull and crossbones is needed before our subconscious starts humming shanties

and conjuring pictures of open oceans and overflowing treasure chests. But the reality, as per usual, was not as carefree as, as a drunkenly stumbling Jack Sparrow might have you believing. The life of a pirate was not one chosen lightly. In fact, it was rarely chosen at all. Most crew members found themselves forced into this sort of life through dire financial straits. It was also common for black men to use piracy

as a means to escape the Atlantic slave trade. That's not to say that life at sea was free from racial prejudice, but a life of poverty on a ship as a free man was still preferable to life as a slave on the mainland. So while we often pair the title Pirate with the likes of Orlando Bloom, in reality it was much less swashbuckling rogue saving swooning maidens

and more desperate fugitives doing whatever they could to stay alive and not behind bars or enslaved. Which is perhaps why the story of Steed Bonnet, the man who actively chose to abandon his life of luxury to take up a life of piracy, continues to confound and fascinate us to this day. But before anyone had ever heard of the gentleman pirate, Steed was just a boy born into your typical, wealthy, land-owning family, profiting off slave labor in early 18th century Barbados.

Due to his parents' early deaths, by the age of six, Bonnet had inherited his family's estate, which boasted over 400 acres of sugar crops, a mill dedicated to the production of cane sugar, and over 90 enslaved laborers, along with a litany of servants who catered to steeds every need. Given little other choice, bonnet was raised to follow the course his parents' life had set out for him, and even though there is no historical basis for it, I like to imagine a tiny six-year-old seed bonnet sitting at his father's desk in his newly inherited study, his stubby legs, still too short to reach the floor, swinging idly beneath the table,

while he stares at ledger after ledger, trying to make sense of his late father's sugar enterprise, only to remember that he can't read. More likely, the business affairs of the bonnet estate were taken over by steeds next of kin until he came of age. But that by no means changes the fact that Steed was born and raised to believe that the Barbadian sugar trade would be his future. At 21, he married a young woman whose family also came from the Barbadian social elite. But apart from that and the four children they had together, the couple would have little else in common. Then again, Bonnet held little in common with most of the members of the high society life he had been born into. He may have technically been made a major in the Barbadian society.

militia, due mostly to his status as a slaveholder and landowner, but his interests quickly became skewed towards the enemies of the militia that he was set to defend against. The careers of pirates at this time were far from private, and Bonnet, the bookish scholar that he was, made sure to keep himself exceptionally up-to-date on any and all things pirate. He was a militia man, after all, and in some reports, even a justice of the peace. He had to be aware of the villains washing up on their shores, at least until he became one himself. Now, there are many conflicting theories as to why Bonnet began his pirate exploits. Some say the impetus for his escape from high society stemmed from his poor relationship with his wife.

But I do think it's important to note that there is little information on the exact nature of Bonnet's relationship with his wife. and the reports we do have are questionable. Some sources call his wife, quote, nagging, while others, like Charles Johnson, in his 1724 publication, a general history of pirates, merely cited, quote, some discomforts he found in a married state.

Other scholars suggest Bonnet may have been suffering from some form of mental illness. However, this leads us into the murky waters of posthumous diagnoses, which remains largely unhelpful when contextualizing Bonnet's story on a larger scale. The truth is, we will never know the real reason Bonnet chose to abandon the comforts of his affluent life. It's easy to point fingers at nagging wives or mental illness to come to conclusions, but ultimately those reasons are built off assumptions and biases that lack anything close to

actual supported evidence. All this to say, Steed could have succumb to the pressures associated with any and all of the aforementioned stressors in his life, but he could have just as likely been having the world's most extreme midlife crisis. And while Bonnet may have made up his mind to leave his old life behind, that by no means meant that he had any sort of idea what he was actually doing. All Bonnet really knew was that in order to become a pirate, he needed two things, a ship and a crew. The former was acquired simply enough.

Bonnet's pockets were deep enough to encourage the builders to turn a blind eye to the eccentric aristocrat who demanded a library be built into the captain's quarters of his ship. Finding a crew was a harder cell. A pirate crew was typically bought in the same way a pirate ship would be on the high seas, through theft or mutiny. But since Bonnet had decided to forego,

traditional pirate code and build himself a ship of his own, getting a crew to work under him, a landlubber with exactly zero experience out on open ocean, was a recipe for disaster. But far be it from Bonnet to let something as inconsequential as inexperience keep him from following through on a truly terrible idea. His solution? A fair wage. seeing as he was perpetually one small misstep away from having his crew replace him with a captain who was far more capable, Bonnet made the one move he suspected would keep them in his favor. On a normal pirate ship, crew members were paid a percentage of the plunder they received. But Bonnet, aware of his already unorthodox method of acquiring his ship,

doubled down to match the needs of his crew. With a steady income, they would be less likely to replace him with someone better. And so, in spring 1717 with his shiny new boat, begrudgingly acceptant crew, and an overabundance of unearned confidence, Steed Bonnet set sail from Barbados on the vessel he had named, for probably no other reason other than that he thought it sounded cool, the revenge. Now, whether it was due to his crew's knowledge of the trade or the universe taking pity on him,

Bonnet's initial venture into piracy went surprisingly well. The revenge successfully overtook upwards of eight ships of varying sizes, stripping each of their valuables before they swiftly moved on to their next target. He only stopped if he wanted to set fire to a ship he plundered, a practice that he suspiciously only acted upon when the ship was, native to Barbados. Some historians theorized that Bonnet may not have wanted news of his criminal activities reaching home, but soon enough no amount of arson could keep tales of the revenge's exploits at bay. Despite his string of early successes, Bonnet's lucky streak officially came to an end in

September 1717, when he and his crew came face to face with a Spanish man of war. After a skirmish that left the revenge with half its crew and more or less half a captain, the remaining men made the decision to head towards the known pirate harbor, NASA, off the coast of the Bahamas. Cut to Edward Teach, the infamous blackbeard, staring with a mixture of disdain and awe, at the battered ship and equally battered captain. Perhaps the most peculiar pirate he'd ever met, Steed Bonnet.

Steed was everything a pirate shouldn't have been. Wealthy, educated, well-mannered. There was no reason for him to have ended up in a pirate harbor, both him and his ship riddled with the scars of battle. But once Blackbeard was able to look past the lavish dressing gown and entirely impractical, library at sea, Blackbeard saw Bonnet as the opportunity that he was. After Bonnet's debacle with the Spanish Navy, it was no secret that Bonnet's crew was unimpressed by their lackluster excuse of a captain.

And now that the former aristocrat could barely leave his bed because of his injuries, it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that the revenge needed a real captain. If Steed didn't appoint one, his crew might take matters into their own hand and make that decision for him. Luckily for Bonnet, Blackbeard was more than happy to step into the role. After setting sail from Nassau with its new captain at the helm, the revenge steadily made its way up the coast, leaving a trail of destruction cast carelessly behind them. Any vessel unlucky enough to be caught in their path

was subject to the typical looting and plundering of any pirate raid. Jewels were stolen, coins were pocketed, and casks of Madeira wine, rum, and ammunition were plucked like they sat on grocery store shelves instead of in the halls of merchant ships. But Blackbeard, always the overachiever, didn't stop there. After he'd taken his fill, he would order his crew to dump any and all extra cargo that they weren't planning on taking with them, just because he could. And while tales of Blackbeard's villainous exploits echoed off the walls of almost every tavern up and down the Atlantic coast, whispers of a peculiar gentleman draped in finery aboard the revenge were swiftly making the rounds as well.

In the months since his near brush with death with the Spanish, Bonnet had recovered from the majority of his injuries, only to find himself in the peculiar position of being a guest in his own home, though guest may have been too generous a term. He may have owned the ship and paid the crew, but even sleeping in the captain's quarters didn't change the fact that the revenge was becoming more of a prison than his luscious state in Barbados had ever been. At the time, seating his role as captain to Blackbeard had seemed like the only logical choice. But as Bonnet grew stronger, he also became acutely aware that his crew had little,

if any, remaining loyalty to him. Not that this was at all surprising. During one instance when Bonnet was momentarily given back control of the revenge, the ill-equipped gentleman pirate threatened an oncoming merchant vessel that he and his crew would, quote, do them mischief unless they came aboard and shared a meal with them. Not exactly the type of behavior that instills fear and loyalty in pirate ranks. When the crew all but begged Blackbeard to stay on as captain, Bonnet felt the carefully crafted pirate fantasy he had built for himself slipping through his fingers. Trapped aboard a ship he'd bought to escape his former life, the disgruntled former aristocrat fell into a deep depression, confiding in one of his few remaining loyal crew members, his newfound, though predictably familiar,

desire to now leave behind his life of piracy for a quieter existence abroad. Maybe Spain or Portugal. His real only prerequisites being the country's protection against being extradited for piracy crimes. Strangely enough, the answer to Bonnet's prayers would come from the British Crown at itself in the form of a decree called a proclamation for suppressing of pirates, or, as it was better known, the act of grace. Across the Atlantic, the repercussions of the, quote, golden age of piracy were finally beginning to affect life in England. King George I was facing pressure from merchants and shareholders to enact some sort of measure to quell the exponentially growing crime

rate on the high seas. Their livelihoods were quite literally being dumped in the ocean. His solution, which on the surface appears slightly counterintuitive, was to offer a pardon to any and all pirates who surrendered themselves to the crown before the 5th of January that year. It gave pirates, like Bonnet, the opportunity to turn themselves in with next to no consequences, save their promise never to practice piracy against the crown ever again. Now, if that offer sounds a little too good to be true, you wouldn't be the only one to think so. The language of the proclamation made it clear

that the crown only offered, quote, promise of a pardon, which, if pop culture rhetoric has taught us anything about pirates, it's that a promise to or from one is about as binding as a scrap of masking tape, or, you know, a marriage contract with Steed Bonnet. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of skepticism in the pirate community towards the king's pardon, leading some historians to theorize that Blackbeard, with his general distrust of authority and recently acquired small fleet of pirate vessels, sent Bonnet to the town of Bath to acquire a pardon

for himself as a test before he attempted to procure one of his own. For Bonnet's part, it didn't take much to convince him to seek the pardon for himself, especially since one could argue running away from his problems was historically Steed's favorite pastime. It probably took even less convincing for Bonnet to leave his ship and his crew in the care of Blackbeard as he set sail on a small dingy inland to settle his affairs. Maybe he even waved back to his crew as they grew into small dots on the horizon, as he felt the weight he'd been holding onto as a pseudo-captain turned guest-turned prisoner lifting with every inch he floated closer to land.

But Steed's old crew aboard the revenge wouldn't have seen the small hand waving toward them in the distance. No, just as Steed Bonnet stepped on land toward what he was sure would be a brighter future, his old hired crew was just realizing that Blackbeard and Blackbeard's own pre-revenge crew had just turned their weapons against them. Now, if there was an official rulebook on how to be a pirate, I imagine the first rule would be

printed in all caps across the front page, bolded, highlighted, and double underlined. Never trust a pirate. Unfortunately for Bonnet, such a book was not held in his fully stocked library aboard the revenge, and Blackbeard wasted no time taking advantage of Vonet ignorance to strip the revenge of any and all things of value. To their horror, this unfortunately included Bonnet's original crew, who, thanks to the very captain they had so very recently switched their allegiance to, were left marooned on an island near Top Sail Inlet off the coast of North Carolina. Because, of course, Blackbeard was the type of petty, not only to strip the revenge clean of everything, save a few barrels of food,

but to take his crew just to maroon them on an island so that, Bonnet couldn't have them. When Blackbeard initially took command of the revenge, he had managed to assemble 150 men after the Spanish Navy had all but decimated Bonnet's already modest crew of 75. But as rumor of the revenge's exploit spread, soon even the men they were robbing were begging to join their company. In one instance, upon crossing paths with the revenge, a merchant ship willingly surrendered and pledged their loyalty to Blackbeard rather than suffer the consequences of their most likely imminent demise. As time went on, what had started as a mere 150 aboard one lone damaged ship mounted to upwards of 400 men spread across several vessels. And while this may have

sounded like a good thing, bonnets, and by extent the revenges, dead weight, was becoming more apparent by the day. especially since any raid Blackbeard undertook had to be split amongst all of his crew, and Plunder shared 400 ways didn't come with the same sense of satisfaction or the amount of money it would with a smaller group. And since Blackbeard was essentially cleaning house after Steed, it was clear that Steed's men had to go. Meanwhile, in Bath, Bonnet had successfully expunged his record of all criminal pirate activity, and he was more than ready to set sail aboard his ship onto the next chapter of his life.

Unfortunately for him, this was also the point in which he finally noticed the metaphorical knife that had been sticking out of his back ever since he'd landed on the mainland. When he stepped aboard the revenge after just three days away, remember, he was always planning on coming back to his ship, he just wanted to clear his pirate record. He was planning on taking the ship that he owned to wherever he would live next. But he now realized he owned a ghost ship. It was little more than a hollowed out husk of driftwood, run aground, and completely abandoned in his absence. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but even Bonnet, a man so fond of literature that he built a library at sea, was in no mood to appreciate it.

Once upon a time he had named his ship the revenge, but taking stock of his empty sloop and completely missing crew, quickly changed it from a name to a purpose. And when he eventually found his few remaining men marooned and left to die on an uninhabited island, for once the skeptical crew and their inept gentleman pirate were in agreement. Blackbeard was going to pay. Unfortunately, I have to spoil the ending to this particular part of the story and tell you, Blackbeard did not pay, at least not by bonnet's hands. As great the tale of the revenge's revenge would have been, apart from a handful of near misses,

the two enemy captains would never cross paths again in their lifetime. Bonnet, however, didn't know this yet and quickly made it his life's mission to make Blackbeard suffer for his treachery, for turning the revenge into a Blackbeard franchise and then completely abandoning it. The first, amongst a series of hiccups in Steve Bonnet's plans, proved to be the most problematic one. Technically, he was no longer a pirate. At least,

he wasn't supposed to be, according to the terms of his pardon. The ink had barely dried on Bonnet's pardon before he was already about to break the only term of his agreement. Granted, he was given little other choice. Blackbeard had left the revenge

with nothing but a few casks of food, and after failing to secure a privateering commission from the governor following his pardon, Bonnet forged ahead the only way he knew how. This time, Bonnet began conducting his pirate business under the name Captain Thomas, and sailing a ship that looked remarkably similar to the revenge, but was instead named the Royal James. And to ensure that Bonnet's activities were relatively above board, he made sure that all of his run-ins with merchant vessels were classified as trades,

even if he stole everything but the shirts off their backs in exchange for maybe a small parcel of rice, or in one case, an old anchor cable. Originally, the Royal James only, quote, traded out of necessity, but by July 1718, the gentleman pirate and his crew had once again fully abandoned all charades of diplomacy in favor of embracing the pirate life. In the summer of 1718, the Royal James was on an. extended glorified shopping spree, boarding merchant vessels and taking their fill before going off to find their next victims. During this time, Bonnet managed to add two more sloops and a handful of

new crew members to a small but mighty fleet. Soon after acquiring the new ships, the Francis and the fortune, Bonnet and his men sailed their way into the Cape Fear River estuary off the coast of North Carolina, only to find that they had a much more practical problem on their hands. The Royal James had a leak. As the ship began to take on more and more water, and the Atlantic hurricane season was closing in, Bonnet and his crew had no choice but to make landfall to fix their flagship vessel and wait out the bad weather. By late August, word of Bonnet's extended stay in the Cape Fear River had reached Charles. and the governor of South Carolina was less than pleased.

Even though Bonnet's location was technically in North Carolina, outside the governor's jurisdiction, Governor Johnson was not prepared to let someone with seed Bonnet's lengthy criminal history and ties to arguably one of the most nefarious pirates of their time lounge about on a beach nearby. And so, on September 26th, 1718, Colonel William Rett found himself sailing into the Cape Fear Rivermouth with two government ships

and 130 militiamen on a commission from Governor Johnson to carry out the capture and arrest of Steed Bonnet and the crew of the Royal James. Meanwhile, from further up the waterway, Stead Bonnet held his spyglass to his eye and squinted at the blurry shapes he saw bobbing in the distance. Now, he may not have been the most experienced pirate, but Bonnet was at least 90% sure that the masses he saw were ships, merchant vessels, if he was not mistaken. And it was under that assumption that Bonnet sent three canoes full of his crew to go off and capture the mysterious merchant ships in the river mouth. However, as his men drifted closer, the sight of the British naval flag quickly enlightened Bonnet's crew, as to the reality of their situation. The men hastily scrambled to turn around and sail back

to warn their captain about the imminent attack, but when they returned, they realized that the Royal Navy's ships behind them weren't moving at all. In fact, it seemed as though one of the vessels was stalled in the opening of the estuary. Abord the British naval ship, the Henry, poor Colonel Rhett was having a rough day,

with Bonnet in his sight, the Henry sped towards its target only to be abruptly jarred to a halt as its hull scraped the bottom of the Cape Fear River. Without any way to free itself from its sandy prison, the Henry transformed from dangerous adversary to only slightly intimidating art installation, as the tide continued to drop lower and lower. And so, with the British Navy stuck in the entrance to the harbor and Bonnet and his men unable to, to flee due to Rhett blocking their only escape route, all parties were forced to angrily brood in their respective corners until the moon inevitably turned the tides in one of their favors. By the time the Henry finally managed to get itself back on the water, the sun had long since disappeared below the horizon, and even Bonnet was not so foolish as to attempt to navigate the rocky

estuary in the dark. Together, he and the crew of the Royal James decided to wait until morning before taking any action. But as the moon rose, Bonnet's patience waned. Before long, even the crew had taken note of his erratic behavior. By the late hours of the night, the once timid aristocrat had all but vanished, eclipsed by the shadow of a man being forced to watch the last of his freedom wash away with the tide. The wounds of Blackbeard's betrayal still stung fresh in his memory, and as he and the crew of the Royal James waited for the sun to rise, Bonnet couldn't help but see treachery etched into the faces around him. With nothing else to do, Bonnet set about preparing his men for battle, assembling the 40 or so men that he'd scattered amongst his three vessels and bringing them together aboard the

Royal James to defend their flagship and its captain. Predictably, some of the men were less than enthusiastic when asked to put their life on the line, to which Bonnet simply responded, quote, If anyone refused to fight, he would blow their brains out. It was also at this point that, with no one left to yell at, Bonnet returned to his captain's quarters to write a letter to the governor of South Carolina, because, when in doubt, always asked to speak to the manager. In his letter, he condemned the governor for his actions against him and his crew,

and he ended the message explaining that should Rhett follow through on his attack come daybreak, he would not hesitate to, quote, burn and destroy all ships and vessels going in or coming out of South Carolina. But as the sun rose over the Atlantic, any words uttered by Bonnet, written or otherwise, were swiftly forgotten. The Royal James was the first to make a move. launching full speed ahead towards the Henry, hoping Rhett would take the bait and chase them out of the harbor and into the open ocean,

where they would make their escape. However, in order to complete this maneuver, the Royal James was forced to avoid the Henry in the relatively narrow river mouth by banging close to the shore, which, predictably, was when everything once again devolved into chaos. Rett, realizing what Bonnet was attempting to do, used the advantage of having two vessels to try to flank the Royal James on either side, only for Rett to feel the familiar, dreaded scrape of sand below dragging the Henry to a halt.

To Colonel Rett's horror, the other ship sent with him, the sea nymph, had run aground as well, meaning instead of corraling Bonnet on either side, they had given him a row. runway in which to sail off to freedom. Except, of course, they hadn't, because just as Bonnet gleefully came to the same conclusion and barreled forward to greet his victory upon the open ocean, the Royal James II came to a screeching halt as its hull found the warm embrace of the Cape Fear River floor. And suddenly, for the second time in 24 hours, Rhett and Bonnet were stuck twiddling their thumbs and staring at each other while they waited for the tide to release them from their oddly specific purgatories. However, this time, the Royal James had managed to beach itself in such a way that they were within shooting distance of the Henry, which led the crews of both vessels to fire

recklessly at each other as they waded out their stalemate. Bullets and taunt were exchanged an equal measure over the following six hours, until at last fate chose the Henry to be the winner. When Rhett carefully maneuvered his ship so that the Royal James was effectively staring down the barrels of their cannons, Bonnet finally waved the white flag and surrendered himself to be taken into custody at Charlestown. But of course, steed being steed,

he was not planning on staying there for long. For all the trouble it had taken to apprehend Steed Bonnet and bring him into custody, their welcome upon arriving in Charlestown was surprisingly underwhelming. For one, Charlestown had yet to build a suitable prison to hold the more than 30 pirates Governor Johnson now had in his custody, improvising the governor had Bonnett's crew put in a spare one-story building in town until they could organize their trials. However, Bonnet, whether it was due to his, I've never slept in anything less than silk, attitude,

or because they didn't want him plotting something nefarious with his men, was intentionally isolated and put into the care of South Carolina's provost-martial, Nathaniel Partridge, who imprisoned him in his own home, which meant that while Bonnett's 30 men were detained in some decrepit shack with barely a chamberpot split between them, Bonnet suffered silently in the private guest quarters of a prominent South Carolina government official. Imagine. But Steed didn't have to suffer alone for long.

Soon the prosecution had managed to turn two of Bonnet's crew into key witnesses in exchange for clemency. As such, they were then separated from the rest of the crew and consequently sent two partridges home to await trial. At least Bonnet's boat swin, Ignatius Pell, was. The other man set to testify for the prosecution, a man named David Harriet, arrived at Partridge's home, but quickly began conspiring with Bonnet. Like I said earlier, Bonnet was never planning on staying imprisoned for long. And so, three weeks after his initial arrest, Bonnet and Harriet slipped out past the heavily bribed guard surrounding the Partridge estate and escaped into the night.

Some historians report that the two men dressed in women's clothing as disguises, which I'm inclined to believe is true, if only because Bonnet's previous lifestyle choices lean towards the more theatrical. But regardless, Harriet and Bonnet managed to make it to the small canoe that they'd arranged for, and they sailed quietly out of Charlestown Harbor. Now, if Governor Johnston had thought he was angry at the idea of Steed Bonnet lounging beachside on the shores of Cape Fear River, that was nothing compared to what he felt upon getting word that Bonnet had escaped custody.

And after a week spent sending search party after search party out to no avail, the governor's fuse was burning dangerously short. Desperate to begin Bonnet's trial, the governor put out a reward for 700 pounds for Bonnet's capture, and once again, Colonel Rhett was sent out to scavenge the land for any and all traces of the dread gentleman pirate. Ultimately, in typical steed fashion, his demise came from his own hand,

or rather his pen. While it's true that Bonnet had successfully escaped without a trace, that didn't mean he'd managed to get very far. The canoe that he and Harriet had disappeared into the night with had only taken them to the edge of the Charlestown Harbor to a place called Sullivan's Island. There, the man who supplied them the canoe was meant to have secured them a sloop to actually escape on. Only that ship never came.

And after a week without word, Bonnet was tired of waiting and decided to take matters into his own hands. He confronted his adversary the only way he knew how, with a strongly worded letter. After dotting his eyes and crossing his teas with what I imagine to be slightly more aggression than was probably called for, Bonnet sent off his letter of complaint about the contract for his slew, but it would never reach the shipseller. Instead, the note would fall into the hands of Colonel Rhett, and following an altercation that left Harriet and two others dead, Bonnet ultimately handed himself in for the final time,

with little other choice but to face the court that would ultimately decide his fate. Given his proclivity for reading, it stands to reason that in another life, Bonnet could have abandoned his family's sugar plantation for law school instead of piracy. But that wasn't this life, and Steed Bonnet in the courtroom was his own worst enemy. The one witness the prosecution still had, the Royal James's Boat Swain, Ignatius Pell, tried to protect Bonnet as best he could. When asked if Bonnet was their commander-in-chief, Pell answered, much to the annoyance of the prosecution. He went by that name, but the quartermaster had more power than he.

The entirety of Bonnet's trial proceedings are available for free online, so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say it's both impressive and kind of funny that the judge's tone of increasing exasperation comes through so clearly, even 300 years after the fact. At one point, an incident of the Royal James stealing upwards of 20 barrels of molasses was brought into evidence,

leading the judge to ask the question on everyone's mind, what need had you of so much molasses? To which Bonnet replied cryptically, quote, I did not carry it away and it was contrary to my inclination. I like to imagine the judge

had been wearing glasses all day, just so that at that moment he could have taken them off and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, trying to hold it together when he repeated back to him You gave orders for it to be done, and yet it was contrary to your inclinations.

There are other highlights, like Bonnet claiming innocence about a raid of another sloop due to him having been asleep at the time, but ultimately it was a futile effort. On November 10, 1718, the jury found Stede Bonnet guilty, and two days later, the judge sentenced him to death. On December 10th, Steed Bonnet found himself putting one foot in front of the other as he stepped up the galaes at the White Point Garden in Charlestown. When he looked out at the crowd assembled to witness his final moments, he had no choice but to finally face the consequences of the life he had chosen for himself. I consider that I speak to a person, the judge had said to him on the day of his sentencing, whose offenses have proceeded not so much from his name. not knowing as his sliding and neglecting his duty. There was no more running for Steed,

no more starting over. No amount of money or charming naivete could save him now. As the noose tightened around his neck, Steed Bonnet, the gentleman pirate, cast his eyes on the horizon, just as he had a year and a half earlier, sailing aboard the freshly christened revenge, awaiting fate. That was a little. the sad end to the unintentionally funny life of Seed Bonnet. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear what happened to Blackbeard after he and Bonnet parted ways. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Ferrell.

Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day and I was like and dad I think I want to really give this a shot I don't know what that means but I just know the groundlings I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent he said if it was based solely on talent I wouldn't worry about you which is really sweet yeah he goes but there's so much luck involved and he's like just give it a shot he goes but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore it's okay to quit if you saw it written down it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah. It would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and The Big Money Players Network. It's Will. Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. Woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved.

And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Given how much of a house. hold name Blackbeard is compared to Steed Bonnet, it may surprise you to learn that his pirating career was roughly the same length as our gentlemen pirates. After leaving the Revenge's crew to die on an island near Top Sail Inlet, Blackbeard went to the one place Bonnet least expected, Bath, North Carolina. Yes, Teach also went to get himself a pardon from the governor, only he went one step further, befriending the governor and gaining a privateering commission so that he could continue to pillage and plunder,

but under the protection of the law. The governor of Virginia, though, was not a fan of Blackbeard, and after the well-publicized antics he and Bonnet had polled, he was itching to see Blackbeard brought to justice. The governor of Virginia sent a man named Lieutenant Reynard off with two slopes to Ocricoke Island, where they had received word that Blackbeard and his men were hiding out. With many of Teach's men, including his second in command, Israel Hands on business inland,

Blackbeard found himself at a disadvantage when the fight with Maynard began. After massive carnage sustained on both sides from cannon and gunfire, the fight was ultimately won by Maynard. His secret strategy had been sending the majority of his men below deck just before they were boarded by Blackbeard's men. The ensuing surprise attack cost Edward Teach his life. And on November 22, 1718, Blackbeard was killed by five bullet wounds and around 20 cuts laid across his body.

Maynard would then famously decapitate him and hang his head from the front of his ship, only for it later to be put on a stake at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay as a warning for other pirates who sailed by. It's somehow oddly fitting that a man whose life and death have been aggrandized to such mythological proportions should sit side by side in history with someone as ostensibly unremarkable as Stied Bonnet. In the end, both men only engaged in piracy for around two years, a blink of an eye in the course of the three centuries that we've spent talking about them since. despite having polar opposite personalities on paper, there are legends that Blackbeard would light slow-burning fuses

and then carefully place them in his beard to make it look as though he existed in a halo of thick black smoke. And if that doesn't scream, Steed Bonnet's theatrical tendencies, then I don't know what does. And maybe it's all just legend, but maybe there's a reason their stories have been inextricably tied together over the centuries.

Maybe those two men who sailed out for adventure or freedom or money were more similar than history gives them credit for. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is produced by Rima Il Kiali. with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans,

a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human