Puritans and Pirates

Left out a third group, and I would hope a significant one in effect if not in numbers. Lieutenant Robert Maynard is one of many who represent those who sustain civilization in the face of Obama and his kind:

Blackbeard operated in many coastal waters; it was difficult for larger vessels to engage him in battle. Two smaller hired sloops were therefore put under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard, with instructions from Spotswood to hunt down and destroy Blackbeard, offering a reward of £100, and smaller sums for the lesser crew members.

Maynard sailed from James River on November 11, 1718, in command of thirty men from HMS Pearl, and twenty-five men and a midshipman of HMS Lyme, and in command of the hired sloops, the Ranger and Jane (temporarily commissioned as His Majesty's Ships to avoid accusations of piracy themselves). Maynard found the pirates anchored in a North Carolina inlet on the inner side of Ocracoke Island, on the evening of November 21.

Maynard and his men decided to wait until the following morning because the tide would be more favourable. Blackbeard's Adventure had a crew of only nineteen, "Thirteen white and six Negroes", as reported to the Admiralty. A small boat was sent ahead at daybreak, was fired upon, and quickly retreated. Blackbeard's superior knowledge of the inlet was of much help, although he and his crew had been drinking in his cabin the night prior. Throughout the night Blackbeard waited for Maynard to make his move. Blackbeard cut his anchor cable and quickly attempted to move towards a narrow channel. Maynard made chase; however his sloops ran aground, and there was a shouted exchange between captains. Maynard's account says, "At our first salutation, he drank Damnation to me and my Men, whom he stil'd Cowardly Puppies, saying, He would neither give nor take Quarter", although many different versions of the dialogue exist.

Eventually, Maynard's sloops were able to float freely again, and he began to row towards Blackbeard, since the wind was not strong enough at the time for setting sail. When they came upon Blackbeard's Adventure, they were hit with a devastating broadside attack. Midshipman Hyde, captain of the smaller Jane, was killed along with six other men. Ten men were also wounded in the surprise attack. The sloop fell astern and was little help in the following action. Maynard continued his pursuit in Ranger, managing to blast the Adventure's rigging, forcing it ashore. Maynard ordered many of his crew into the holds and readied to be boarded. As his ship approached, Blackbeard saw the mostly empty decks, assumed it was safe to board, and did so with ten men. Blackbeard's assault was preceded by several grenades made by filling rum bottles with gunpowder. Broken glass swept the deck and gunpowder smoke obscured Maynard's view of Blackbeard's boarders.

Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowspritMaynard's men emerged, and the battle began. Primary sources disagree about the exact circumstances of Blackbeard's death. The most quoted account of the following events comes from the Boston News-Letter. (Other, more direct, accounts included the letters of Maynard himself and those of his commanding officers.)

“Maynard and Teach themselves begun the fight with their swords, Maynard making a thrust, the point of his sword against Teach's cartridge box, and bent it to the hilt. Teach broke the guard of it, and wounded Maynard's fingers but did not disable him, whereupon he jumped back and threw away his sword and fired his pistol which wounded Teach. Abraham Demelt struck in between them with his sword and cut Teach's face; in the interim both companies engaged in Maynard's sloop. Later during the battle, while Teach was loading his pistol he finally died from blood loss. Maynard then cut off his head and hung it from his bow.”

Despite the best efforts of the pirates (including a desperate plan to blow up the Adventure), Teach was killed, and the battle ended. Teach was reportedly shot five times and stabbed more than twenty times before he died and was decapitated. Legends about his death immediately sprang up, including the oft-repeated claim that Teach's headless body, after being thrown overboard, swam between 2 and 7 times around the Adventure before sinking. Teach's head was placed as a trophy on the bowsprit of the ship (it was also required by Maynard to claim his prize when he returned home). After the sheer terror of the battle with the pirates, and the wounds that the crew received, Maynard still only acquired his meager prize of £100 from Spotswood. Teach's head was placed on a pike or pole on the north shore of the Hampton River in Virginia, at a place now called Teach's Point, as a warning to other sailors who thought of taking up a life of piracy.

God help us! Even supposed conservatives are historically illiterate!

The Puritans came so they could live in a place where their own moral code was imposed by law. Religious freedom was not a hallmark of Puritan Massachusetts (otherwise there wouldn’t have been Rhode Island as a separate colony). Indeed Congregationalism was the established church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1848. (Congress could make no law respecting an establishment of religion, but there was not such ban on the several states until the 14th Amendment and a little interpretive jurisprudence thereafter.)

Our ‘Liberals’ are the intellectual descendants of the Puritans—they want to regulate every little aspect of our lives (sex excepted), from what kind of car we can drive, to how far we can drive it, to what kind of lightbulbs we can use, or whether we can buy used childrens’ toys (no), just like the Puritans wanted everything regulated. (They almost starved trying socialism.) Witch trials? Visit any college campus with a ‘liberal’ speech code.

Penn and Calvert (the Quaker and the Papist, neither Puritan nor ‘pirate’) came for religious freedom, and established it in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

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