Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow - SB

Reminder that this page is inactive - follow and message me at Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow - 2.0

Sharing here as well, despite that this is no longer the primary page. Please visit the Amazon link for my new book, or reach out to me via messenger for signed copies at:

Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow - 2.0

Today is the day! After a slight delay beyond my control, my book "Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Southeast Coast: A Historical Assessment on Pirate Folklore" is now available on Amazon for everyone, including the US and CA!

https://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Ghosts-Buried-Treasures-Southeast/dp/B0CJDBLTT6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DBMM15RQ0M9U&keywords=pirate+ghosts+%26+buried+treasure+marrow&qid=1695750807&sprefix=%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1

This also means that today I am now able to place my order for author copies as well for those of you who wanted signed copies. A huge thanks to all of you who placed preorders, the amount of interest in the book is definitely appreciated and inspiring. Thanks mates. Again, apologies for the slight delay, but it was beyond my control. Back on track now though!

This being said, while the book is now Available through via Amazon, if you'd like to instead receive a signed copy and the proceeds to largely to go the author instead of the corporation, just message me and we can make that happen via PayPal, Zelle, or Venmo.

Further, for those of you placing orders, or those who have previously placed pre-orders, I would like to perhaps request leaving an honest review of the book on Amazon after you've gotten a chance to check it out. Even single-sentence reviews help indie authors immensely! And lastly, for you readers who may happen to use the site Goodreads, my book is now listed on the site as well, and leaving a review there as well would be greatly appreciated!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199143000-pirate-ghosts-buried-treasures-of-the-southeast-coast

Be on the lookout!

Ahoy everyone! I have wonderful news. After four and a half years of working on my book, it not only is now 100% complete, but tomorrow keep your eyes out for a very special post here, where I will be announcing the book's title, premise, and release date! It has been a long journey, and I've kept the premise under wraps for the most part (aside from a few I've spoken, or conferred, with). But its very gratifying to be able to state that the project is complete, and I am very excited to reveal more information tomorrow and in the coming days.

- For those of you I've spoken with regarding the name and premise, please refrain from mentioning until the announcement tomorrow. Thanks mates. 🏴‍☠️

(Pictured is a photo I took of my skeleton last evening out at the beach)

Just a reminder for those following this account, for continued pirate history, follow me over at:

https://www.facebook.com/shipwreckedwithcaptainmarrow2.0

I have some news coming up soon, and I don't want you to miss it. 🏴

🏴‍☠️URGENT. Follow Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow - backup for continued pirate history. This page is considered sunk. 🏴‍☠️

It pains me to finally make this call, but after 4+ years of building this page up and having so many wonderful followers, that due to Facebook I'm having to abandon ship. This page will no longer be making any posts.

For those of you unaware, Facebook's AI flagged a post of mine from January 2022 as of September 2022. The reason for the flagging, was that the history post contained a picture of a pirate that had been hanged (a screenshot from Black Sails), and Facebook deemed that this Shipwrecked page was promoting "suic1de."

Although I understood the complaint, and happily removed the post and removed every single picture I'd ever put up regarding pirates meeting their end, and didn't fight them on it, this page received a shadowban. The name of the page has been altered with SB to reflect that.

For those who are not familiar with the term, it basically means that while this page was not deleted, posts coming from this page (and anything associated with my actual FB profile) would be far less likely to ever appear naturally in anyone's feeds. Whether it be from this page, or shared from this page. Even if you shared a post from here, it's far less likely that any of your friends would happen to see it on their feeds. Only you followers who continue interacting with this page's posts on a regular basis, through comments and sharing (and to a lesser degree Liking posts) have continued to see posts on a regular basis over the last 10 months.

A shadowban also comes with the fun secret timer. It could expire after 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or could be permanent. But, one doesn't know unless you twiddle your thumbs and keep hoping. September became October, October became December, and so on, and now it has been 10 months. This page will be left up, in case it ever resolves itself, but going forward I will be using the new page.

This page has suffered greatly these past ten months. Before the shadowban, I was reaching around 990,000 people on a monthly basis and gaining about 1,000 to 2,000 new followers per month. Ever since October, I only reach about 20,000 people per month now. 1/49th of my usual reach. And in 10 months, I've only gained 523 new followers. People as a whole aren't seeing my posts. And I've had many reach out wondering what happened to be because they never see this page's posts anymore. It's very hurtful, as a creative person, as a person who is a writer, a person who does art, to put so much effort into something and then knowing you're being shafted despite complying with the rules. I was sad about what happened at first, it then became anger, then acceptance, and now its back to anger. I didn't deserve this.

I have done everything to appeal the shadowban. I've not been able to get in contact with anyone from Facebook for the entire 10 months.

In fact, if you even see this post in your feed, you've lucked out. You are one of few in the grand scheme of things.

Thank you all so much for all the support, and going forward PLEASE follow Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow - backup, I will begin posting from there today. It is created from an alternate FB profile as well, so it has no links to the shadowban on this page, nor my account.

If you value this page and feel comfortable doing so, I would appreciate it if you could perhaps share this post (not that many would see it admittedly) so it may assist me in rebuilding the new page. Thank you. 🏴‍☠️

On the 5th of July, 1717, Blackbeard entered written history for the first time, in a letter by a pirate hunter working on behalf of the Governor of South Carolina.

During March, pirate-hunter Matthew Munthe (or Munson) had visited the Bahamas under orders from Deputy Governor Robert Daniel of South Carolina, who had become concerned what effects the pirates there may have on trade. During his time there, Munthe had learned much about the pirates operating out of Nassau, and would go on to be the first to mention one of Blackbeard’s potential names in reference to him; Thatch. Munthe later sent a report back to Daniel, written on July 5th that stated:

”Five pirates made ye harbor of Providence their place of rendezvous vizt. Horngold, a sloop with 10 guns and about 80 men; Jennings, a sloop with 10 guns and 100 men; Burgiss, a sloop with 8 guns and about 80 men; White, in a small vessel with 30 men and small arms; Thatch, a sloop with 6 guns and about 70 men.”

Blackbeard had entered the life of piracy previously in the year of 1716, and had until this point been part of Benjamin Hornigold’s crew, but had since been placed in charge of a sloop they had taken as a prize. Thatch is his first mentioned name, but various other reports over the years would refer to him as Tetch, Tatche, Teach, Drummond, and historian Kevin Duffus believes his true name could have even been Edward Beard (with Black being added as a descriptor, much like ‘Black’ Sam Bellamy or ‘Black’ Bart). Keep in mind when reading Thatch, the first 'h' is silent, which is responsible for the "tetch/tatch" spellings.

There is also the possibility of course that any of the names could have been an alias as well, instead of his true name. But in any case, “Blackbeard” entered history on the 5th of July with his first ever written mention. Blackbeard would, of course, go on to be arguably ‘the’ most famous pirate in history, and has found his way into nearly every type of pirate-themed media, from theater to movies, to video games, board games, novels and more.

(Pictured are recent cinematic portrayals of ‘Blackbeard’; Ray Stevenson [RIP] in the series ‘Black Sails’, James Oliver Wheatly in the series ‘The Lost Pirate Kingdom’, James Purefoy in the movie ‘Blackbeard: Terror At Sea’, Ian McShane in the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’, and as portrayed in the series 'Our Flag Means Death' by Taika Waititi])

On the 4th of July, 1696, privateer Captain William Kidd arrived in New York, to recruit more crew to assist him on his hunt for pirates.

Kidd had sailed from London in his new ship, the Adventure Galley with his letter of marque signed by King William III. The goal was to head out to sea and hunt pirates, in particular “Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, William Maze, and all others who associated with pirates, as well as any enemy French ships.”

However, while traveling the River Thames out to sea, Captain Kidd and his men failed to salute a navy yacht near Greenwich, resulting in the navy vessel’s captain retaliating by pressing many of Kidd's crew into naval service instead.

On the way to New York, the Adventure Galley overtook a French vessel, and Kidd would arrive to the New York docks on the 4th of July, intent on securing new replacement crew. Those he would end up with on board were known and hardened criminals, with assumptions that some perhaps even had experience with piracy prior.

In time, Kidd would be faced with accusations of piracy himself, due to circumstances where he would allow his new crew to call some of the shots. Namely, their later interaction with the Quedagh Merchant.

(Pictured is a map of 1700 New York, and artwork depicting the streets of 1700 New York)

On the 3rd of July, 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood in Virginia would write his complaints of pirates in the Bahamas to the Commissioners of Trade.

In his letter, his complaint regarded the island of New Providence, Nassau in particular where “a Nest of Pyrates are endeavoring to establish themselves” and that the overall lack of a British presence controlling the area was to blame. In 1706 a fleet consisting of French and Spaniards had assaulted Nassau, leaving it abandoned in the aftermath and devoid of British presence, and shortly afterwards English privateers would use it as a base of operations during the War of Spanish Succession.

Nassau became the infamous pirate haven shortly after 1713, as many privateers were out of work as the War of Spanish Succession had drawn to a close, and for the last three years prior to Spotswood’s letter, Nassau thrived for smugglers and outlaws. Notable pirates such as Benjamin Hornigold, Samuel Bellamy, Henry Jennings, and Charles Vane had operated out of Nassau by this point.

Despite his complaints about Nassau’s state of being, Spotswood wouldn’t receive a response for almost an entire year. Eventually in 1718, Governor Woods Rogers would be appointed to the island by England finally solving Spotswood’s complaint. As Rogers would introduce the King’s Pardon, leading to Nassau losing it’s infamous glory as a ‘pirate haven,’ and seeing a decline in piracy in general throughout the Caribbean.

(Pictured is the recreation of the Governor’s Palace of Governor Alexander Spotswood in Williamsburg VA, and the pirate haven of Nassau [as depicted in Black Sails])

On the 2nd of July, 1718, Captain Stede Bonnet, who’d recently accepted the King’s Pardon and denounced his pirate ways, and had already turned back to piracy, would capture the Fortune off of Delaware Bay.

Bonnet had recently received a royal pardon from Governor Charles Eden in Bath NC, but when he’d returned to Topsail Inlet to have met back up with Blackbeard he’d found him and the Adventure gone.

Bonnet never abandoned the idea of going to St. Thomas in the Caribbean to be an official privateer, however St. Thomas was currently in the midst of hurricane season, and the more pressing matter was that Blackbeard had taken most of the food he’d had on board. In the Revenge, Bonnet quickly returned to piracy adopting the alias of Captain Thomas, and renaming his sloop the Royal James, as to not sully the name of the newly reformed Stede Bonnet and Revenge sloop.

He’d begun robbing ships off the coast of Virginia, and proceeded to assault and loot nine more merchant vessels in the Delaware Bay. While he proceeded to let the catches leave after being hit, he instead opted to capture the Fortune for himself on July 2nd. The Fortune was a ship from Bristol England, with a Captain Thomas Read commanding her, who would be taken prisoner by Bonnet.

A few days later he would capture another sloop, the Francis, and by the end of the month they would all set sail south, bound for the Cape Fear River in North Carolina to eventually careen and repair.

(Pictured is Captain Stede Bonnet [as portrayed in Our Flag Means Death], a look out to sea from Delaware Bay, a 1680s Map which shows Delaware Bay, and the flag associated with Stede Bonnet as depicted in the General History of Pirates by Charles Johnson)

On the 1st of July, 1719, the extension for the King’s Pardon came to a close. The pardon was introduced as an option for pirates to denounce their ways officially, and was extended on the 6th of September in 1718 to the new deadline.

The Pardon’s original deadline had been September 6th of 1718, but with concerns that the news hadn’t yet reached some pirates deeper in the Caribbean, the offer was extended until July 1st of 1719. During the time period between the pardon being offered and July 1st, many pirates would denounce their criminal ways and return to society with a clean slate, with some going on to become privateers of England.

However though, the reasons that drove many to piracy didn’t simply die with the acceptance of a pardon, many who were competent pirates simply were not desirable candidates for jobs outside of the sea and drifted back to what they knew and were familiar with. As a whole, the pardon saw an increase in new Privateers working for England, an increase of pirate hunters in the Caribbean, and many pirates hanging up their hats, so to speak. The King’s Pardon was a success for England, and another nail in the coffin for the Golden Age of Piracy.

(pictured are pirates in line waiting to sign the pardon in Nassau to denounce piracy [from Black Sails])

On the 30th of June, 1704, the ex*****on of pirate Captain John Quelch and his crew occurred in Boston, on accounts of piracy.

Quelch and his crew had been captured after having attacked and plundered nine Portuguese ships off the coast of Brazil. The Portuguese however, were not listed in his letter of marque and recently Queen Anne and the King of Portugal had recently become allies.

When they had arrived in Marblehead MA, many of the crew scattered with their plunder, but Quelch and some of his men were rounded up and had been taken to Boston for trial. The crew had left under a privateering license that allowed them to attack the ships of Her Majesty’s enemies” namely France and Spain, and instead the crew had mutinied against their captain and assaulted the Portuguese ships. The crimes were taken seriously as acts of piracy, and an embarrassment to the crown.

On the 30th of June, Quelch and his men would be marched through Boston to Charles’ River (between Broughton’s Ware-house and the Point), and upon reaching the gallows would receive a long and fervent sermon by minister Cotton Mather. Reportedly, the pirates showed signs of repentance, aside from Quelch himself, who took a bow and reportedly warned the spectators that:

”They should take care how they brought Money into New England to be Hanged for it.”

(Pictured is the hanging of John Quelch as depicted by the Salem MA Wax Museum of Witches & Seafarers, and the cover of the 1705 printed “The Arraignment, Trial, and Condemnation of Capt. John Quelch, and Others of his Company”)

On the 29th of June, 1665, buccaneers Captain Henry Morgan, Captain John Mauricio and Captain David Martien, during their Granada Campaign, took the provincial capitol of Granada by surprise.

Off Sisal they had plundered a vessel that had been laden with corn and sent the ship away with a message for the Governor of Yucatan, that they would return and lay waste to his province. They struck a few more ships along the coast, sacked Trujillo (a small Spanish port), and eventually arrived at Cape Gracias a Dios.

Joined by nine native guides, the pirates sailed southward to Monkey Point in Nicaragua before heading inland up the San Juan River in small boats. More than 100 miles, and three waterfalls traversed, and crossing Lake Nicaragua, they eventually snuck up on the capitol, arriving on the 29th of June, taking it by surprise. Where they:

”Marched unescried into the center of the city, fired a volley, overturned 18 great guns in the Plaza de Armas, took the sergento mayor (garrison commander’s) house, wherein were all their arms and ammunition, secured in the great church 300 of the best men prisoners, abundance of which were churchmen, plundered for 16 hours, discharged all the prisoners, sunk all the boats (to prevent pursuit), and so came away.”

They would go on to plunder a nearby island named Solentiname in Lake Nicaragua on their way back out to sea. By August of the same year, it was written that they had, in seven months, sacked five Spanish towns, traveled almost 3,000 miles, and had countless lesser engagements. David Martien would be referenced by Governor Sir Thomas Modyford in 1666 in a letter to London as “the best man of Tortuga,” and there is a possibility that during 1668 that Martien may have participated in Robert Searle’s sack of St. Augustine in Spanish controlled La Florida.

(pictured is an edited infographic from ‘Pirates of the Americas Volume 1’ displaying the route taken during the Granada Campaign, a look out from a beach at Punta Mona [Monkey Point], and pirates on a small boat)

On the 28th of June, 1726, mutineer Captain William Atkinson, who had joined other like-minded captives of pirate William Fly against him, arrived into the Boston Harbor in the Fame’s Revenge to turn the pirates on board over to the authorities.

Having led a mutiny of his own on May 27th and turning to piracy, Captain William Fly had been sailing the Fame’s Revenge off the coast of North Carolina. During an attack on a merchant vessel named the John and Betty, he’d not only gained a meager reward of sail cloth and muskets; but a well-experienced seaman pilot named William Atkinson who was forced to join Fly’s crew.

Fly’s piracy continued off the coast of Delaware, and when Atkinson was told to bring the ship to Martha’s Vineyard, Atkinson over-steered on purpose. When Fly found his ship instead arriving at Nantucket, he threatened to shoot Atkinson on the spot, but another of the pirate crew intervened, believing that it was an honest mistake.

By the 23rd of June, Atkinson had convinced the pirates that he had ingratiated himself into the crew and had learned of a plot to depose the captain. Fifteen men, who had also been previously forced into the life of piracy by Fly had plans to overthrow the captain, and wanted Atkinson to become their new captain.

Fly had sent six of his more loyal men off on a separate schooner to capture a prize ship that had appeared on the horizon, and this is when the mutineers decided to strike. While William Fly sat upon the capstan, four of the mutineers approached, catching him by surprise and easily subdued him without a fight.

Fly, while captive cursed out loud, livid, calling out and wishing for “all the devils of hell to come and fly away with the ship.” His wishes didn't come true, and instead the Fame's Revenge made her way safely to Boston.

On the 28th of June, Atkinson and the other mutineers would arrive at Boston, delivering to the authorities Captain William Fly, Samuel Cole, George Condick, and Henry Greenville. Come July 12th, aside from Condick the others would be condemned to death.

(pictured is a 1722 map of Boston)

On the 27th of June, 1719, pirate Captain Edward England captured the 'Elizabeth and Katherine,' the ship that Robert Sample would become the captain of.

Edward England had been looting ships as captain of the Royal James, stretching from Cape Verde to the Azores in late 1718, and had been plundering ships near Gambia (West Africa) for a time in 1719. During which he captured the Mercury, renamed her Queen Anne’s Revenge (not to be confused with Blackbeard’s vessel, which ran aground in NC one year prior), and appointed crewmember Robert Lane to captain her.

On the 27th of June, England captured a six-gun, fourteen-man Barbadian ship named “Elizabeth and Katherine” which was commanded by a Captain Bridge. A total of four of her crew joined the pirates, and the ship was refitted as a vessel for piracy. Captain England relocated some of his crew to her and renamed her the Flying King. The men decided by majority votes that Robert Sample (sometimes spelled Richard Semple) would become her captain.

Sample would sail off alongside Captain Robert Lane to continue their acts of piracy, looting ships in the Caribbean, before heading to Brazil to plunder Portuguese ships.

(Pictured is a beach in Gambia, a painting portraying Edward England from the game Uncharted 4, and the supposed jolly roger England flew [the famous skull over crossed bones, like Sam Bellamy])

On the night of the 26th of June, 1680, French buccaneer Sieur de Grammont, member of the Brethren of the Coast, led an assault against the port city of La Guaira in Caracas. Joining him in the endeavor were privateers Captain Thomas Paine and Captain William Wright.

La Guaira was a daunting target, protected by two forts and cannons facing the sea. But quietly going ashore with only 47 of his crew, the buccaneers slipped into the sleeping city, successfully capturing its garrison commander and 150 soldiers by surprise without a struggle. Inhabitants awoke in the morning to the surprise that their city had become occupied by pirates and were now roaming the streets and beginning to plunder the town.

Before long, word reached Caracas of the attack and a Spanish militia force began marching on the port the following day to repel the invaders. Captain Juan de Laya Mujica of La Guaira however had managed to evade capture, along with his own troop, when the port was taken. De Laya and his men, before the soldiers could arrive, opted to fight back against the pirates.

The counterattack led by De Laya rousted the pirates from the town and back to their vessels, fighting along the beach. During his retreat, Grammont was slashed across the neck with a machete, nine buccaneers fell dead upon the rocky beach, and several more escaped to the ships with sustained injuries.

Grammont would survive his injury and continue leading his men for years to come. The buccaneers managed to plunder from the port a “goodly amount of booty” as well as a number of Spanish hostages, including the Governor of La Guaira. The Spaniards were shocked by the pirates’ audacity to attempt such an attack.

(Pictured is a 1928 depiction of Grammont in 1686 from the book “Les freres de La Coste, Flibustiers et Corsaires,” a map of La Guaira from 1700, and the rocky beach of Playa Los Angeles at La Guaira)

On the 25th of June, 1699, Captain William Kidd buried his treasure of gold and jewels on Gardiner’s Island in New York.

Captain Kidd had been sailing to Boston to answer for his charges of piracy, intending to meet with Lord Bellomont, believing that he would support Kidd and defend him from the accusations against him. In case he needed it as a bribe, even if everything else were to be confiscated, he would have this treasure available, hidden safely on the island. He could also, he believed, use the knowledge of the treasure’s location as a bargaining tool should it come to it.

He buried the treasure with the permission of the proprietor of the island, John Gardiner. The contents deposited were a chest, and a box (separately for Lord Bellomont), each full of gold dust, Spanish dollars, rubies, and diamonds. In addition were two other boxes of bars of silver, and silver candlesticks and bowls. It had all been buried between Bostwick’s Point and the Manor house, and for the trouble, Kidd had given Mrs. Gardiner a length of gold cloth that he had captured from a Moorish ship.

In total, the documented list of all the treasure records a tally of 1,111 ounces of gold, 2,549 ounces of silver, a small bag of gems weighing 66 ounces, and at the time was worth a total of 5,453.6 British pounds, which converted to current day’s USD would be around 2.1 million dollars.

Reportedly, Kidd had threatened that “If I call for it and it is gone, I will have your head or your son’s,” however later in Gardiner’s testimony of the event on July 17th, he makes no mentions of any threats and describes the discussion as quite civil.

Kidd arrived in Boston, and Lord Bellomont betrayed him, instead having Kidd arrested for the accusations of piracy. Captain Kidd was thrown into solitary confinement and wouldn't have his trial until about a year later, during which he would be found guilty of piracy and murder. Afterwards, John Gardiner would alert Lord Bellomont of what had transpired and authorities quickly unearthed the treasure and began delivering it back to London. It is rumored that John Gardiner would keep one of the diamonds for himself, which later passed to his daughter.

Today a plaque on the island marks the spot where Captain Kidd’s treasure had been buried. When 1843 would come around, author Edgar Allen Poe would use the tale of Kidd’s buried treasure as inspiration for his own work “The Gold Bug.”

Many historians today speculate that his 2.1 million dollars worth of treasure would have been far, far less than he would have attained from the Quedagh Merchant. Gone are things the target ship would have been carrying, such as pearl strings, tiaras, chalices, crucifixes, religious figurines and much more. It’s likely that Kidd parted ways with the bulkier cargo, such as the silk and satin bales and barrels of tea, crates of coffee, etc. But the lack of the rest of the treasure that should have been produced has led to lots of speculation, and many buried treasure myths about the “rest of Kidd’s buried treasure” along the eastern US coast on the way up to Boston.

Some even point the finger at the Gardiner family as having not produced the entire contents of the buried treasure; as they had arrived to the island as farmers, and after Kidd’s ex*****on they began displaying signs of unusual income, and grew to be one of the wealthiest families of the area.

(Pictured is Captain Kidd as depicted in 'Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates' [1921] burying treasure on Gardiner's Island,” Gardiner’s Island as seen from the sky, the stone plaque marking the location on the island where the treasure was buried, and the receipt given to John Gardiner listing the entirety of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure from the East Hampton Library)

On the 24th of June, 1723, an article would be published in the “New-England Courant” detailing the capture of pirate Charles Harris and his crew.

The article recalled an event from the 10th of June, of when HMS Greyhound captured Harris and his men, recalling of how the pirates had initially believed the Greyhound to have been a whaling vessel and pursued her as a target while hoisting their jolly roger, and even upon discovery that she had in fact been a warship carrying twenty guns the pirates did not let up and still demanded surrender and came alongside to attempt to board, only to receive a full broadside from the warship.

HMS Greyhound had specifically been sent out, captained by Peter Solgard, to hunt down Edward Low and his fleet. After a few moments of cannon fire, both the Fancy and the Ranger opted to flee from the engagement, and were pursued for several hours.

The Greyhound came alongside the Ranger and and began boarding with grappling hooks, leading to the crews skirmishing with small arms. After a few moments of intense close-quarters combat, the pirates surrendered. While Charles Harris’s Ranger and her crew were captured, Low fled in the Fancy, south to the Azores despite being dis-masted from a well-placed cannon shot.

As a side-note, the New England Courant was a newspaper owned by James Franklin, brother of Benjamin Franklin.

(Pictured is what the New England Courant looked like [with this one being a snippet of one from 1722], and pirates attempting to board a vessel)