Lorem Ipsum

[Date]

Black Beards Mentor

By, Logan Lambke

Author : Logan Lambke Proffesor Workman ENC101

If asked to picture a group of Pirates, stereotypical images of Yo-Ho!-ho! jingles being sung by pirates while drunk off their asses would be most peoples first thought.. Sadly, these thoughts are simply not true in most cases and are modeled after a single crew that actually did do these sorts of things. The crew is that of Benjamin Hornigold, the mentor of the Infamous Black beard. Drinking rum underneath the beautiful solar rays on the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean without a worry in mind. Sounds like an ideal life of a pirate at sea, right? While this image may seem idyllic and fulfill lazy peoples fantasies around the world, it is a far cry from the truth.

Sadly, the public has been wrongly lead to believe this through various mediums stretching the truth to make a worthwhile story. The most popular of these stereotypes is Pirates of the Caribbean, starring Johnny Depp. The truth about pirates and their crew was that the ships were well-oiled machines and each Vivamus porta crewman was assigned est sed est. specific jobs on a daily basis, overseen by a strict professional captain. If that isnt a big enough deterrent for someone looking for a leisurely life at sea, let them know many of the crewmembers were actually scared for their lives. If crewmembers didnt work well with others or constantly misbehaved there was a chance they could end up marooned on an island with nothing but hot sand and the sun, or even the likeliness of death. While I would love to mention walking the plank as a punishment, I cannot because that is

actually a myth as well and there are little to no accounts of people ever walking the plank. Walking the plank may be a myth, but you can be at ease knowing that pirates did wear eye patches and did wield wooden limbs. Both eye patch and wooden limb served practical uses. Crewmembers would use the eye patches for covering one eye from the sun so that it would be adjusted when he or she needed to go below deck(which is very dark), while the wooden legs and arms were used in replacement for amputated limbs after battle.

Aliquam dolor.

byline

Lorem Ipsum

While pirates now seem to be very serious and objective minded people there is one case that stands apart from the rest. Benjamin Hornigold and his crew are special, because although they may have been professional they are one of the reasons why people believe all pirates were care free and lived without rules. One of such reasons was that Benjamin would selectively capture ships, often excluding specific ships such as ones coming out of English harbors. Benjamin and his crew would often seize control over a ship just to pick up a few select goods and leave the rest of a huge treasure; this had never been heard of before and seemed very uneconomical. On one occasion the crew overtook a merchant ship in Honduras for the sole reason of demanding new hats. When the captured crew looked puzzled, they explained that the crew had gotten drunk the night before and most had thrown theirs overboard.

The crew began its piracy in 1713. Hornigold and his crewmates actually used canoes when they first started their pillaging rampage. While that story must have been very embarrassing for their first victims to explain, Hornigold secured a ship soon after and gave people a far more serious tale to tell. He and his crew

would continue to terrorize merchants with Benjamin at command, until the year 1717. During that time, Hornigold was actually voted to be replaced as captain by his second in command Edward Teach, more popularly known as Black Beard. Teach wasnt that fearsome of a pirate either and definitely not one of the most successful contrary to popular belief. In fact His fleet was small in comparison to many pirates of the past. The reason Black Beard became such a popular man was because of his appearance. He would put slowly burning fuses into his hair and beard to give him an evil looking appearance. Black Beards appearance helped him out tremendously because captured crewmembers would simply hand over their cargo without a fight after seeing his horrific appearance. This saved Black Beard lots of men and money because he did not have to deal with casualties or

damage as often. His frightening image is what sailors would tell stories about and that is the reason why he is remembered instead of many other pirates. Later teach would be on opposite sides of his old captain when Benjamin Hornigold accepted an offer to become a pirate hunter for the government and track down the very men he used to steal with. Hornigold chased many pirates off in the short time that he was a pirate hunter but was killed soon after in 1719 when his ship was caught in a hurricane. Hornigolds life was short but his legend will continue to live on forever.