The they "did piratically, feloniously, and in a hostile manner, attack, engage and take, seven certain fishing boats" and that they assaulted the fishermen and stole their fish and fishing tackle.Included with part of Captain Rackam's crew were two women, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. I also found an interesting quote describing them:
... the two women, prisoners at the bar, were then on board the said sloop, and wore mens jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads; and that each of them had a machet and pistol in their hands, and cursed and swore at the men, to murder the deponent; and that they should kill her, to prevent her coming against them; and the deponent further said, that the reason of her knowing and believing them to be women then was by the largeness of their breasts.Both Read and Bonny escaped the noose by pleading pregnancy, though Mary Read died soon after the trial (1721) from a fever. Anne Bonny slipped into obscurity not to be heard of again.
These tidbits that I have uncovered come from Under The Black Flag by David Cordingly. A great and informative book on pirates, but there is a book that I just ordered that should be even better. A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates by a certain Captain Charles Johnson was published in 1724. It is widely suspected that Captain Johnson actually interviewed many of the pirates that he writes about and that Captain Johnson is a pseudonym. Some people believe that Daniel Defoe actually wrote the book, but noone has been able to prove it.
If you haven't guessed already, I am preparing for the next Dark Age. I plan on getting a ship and ring in the Dark Age with some good 'ole fashioned looting, thieving, and pillaging, plus some violence on the side... just kidding, life on the seas would keep me even farther from SD so you don't have to worry about me turing into a pirate ;)
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"Jack Sparrow...for your willful commission of crimes against the Crown...said crimes being numerous in quantity and sinister in nature, the most egregious of these to be cited herewith – piracy, smuggling, impersonating an officer of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England, sailing under false colors, arson, kidnapping, looting, hijacking, brigandage, poaching, plundering, pilfering, pillaging, extortion, depravity, depredation, and General Lawlessness...and for these crimes you have been sentenced to be, on this day, hung by the neck until dead..."
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