IN & UNDA DE SEA
oCEAN ADVENTURES
A bust of Stede Bonnet
currently on display at
Arlington Museum
the
ballad of Bonnet
magine a tale of pirates for
sale, fierce warship battles,
pillaging, plundering, rocky
escapes, deals cut with the infamous
Blackbeard the pirate, and death...
that would be the tale of Stede Bonnet
otherwise known as “the gentleman
pirate”.
I
Bonnet’s story doesn’t start in the typical Pirate
fashion; he started out rich. At the start of 1717
Bonnet was a retired army general and a wealthy
plantation owner residing in Barbados, the island
of his birth. He was also an increasingly miserable
husband of one and father of three. in fact, it is
said that it was his dissatisfaction with his wife
Mary and married life in general that drove him
to a life of piracy despite having no knowledge of
seamanship.
While this lack of knowledge would prove to
be a continuing issue with his crew, it was his
cultured and military background that made him
unique and would earn him the nickname of “the
Gentleman Pirate”.
Bonnet “The Gentleman” was noted to have
actually paid to have his ship, “the Pirate
Ship Revenge”, built from
scratch and paid his
The flag of
“The Revenge”
30 | Caribbean Dreams
“ ...it is said
that it was his
deteriorating
relationship
with his wife
Mary that
drove him to
a life of piracy
despite having
no knowledge
of ship board
life.”
70+ crew steady wages, straying from the usual tradition
of hijacking, forced labor and the sharing of the plundered
spoils.
In the dead of night, and without a word to family or
friend Bonnet and “The Revenge” set sail in the s