#//he was voted in as the new captain after Hornigold

[vocesincaput]

OPEN STARTER: Samuel Bellamy

After making sure to give the precise instructions as to what he wanted done to remove the Captain's quarters and the kind of cannons he wanted installed in it's place, Samuel had spent some time on board the Whydah Gally whilst letting his crew leave the ship and enjoy some downtime. Letting them relax and enjoy themselves was more important to him than having his own time away from the ship.

Once several of them had returned and he have asked for them to keep an eye on the instalment of the new cannons, Samuel finally left the ship and stepped out onto the docks. It had been a long, long time since he had stepped foot in the Republic of Pirates and some time since he had been on land anywhere and the memories of previous times he had been there came to mind with a mixture of emotions.

He made his way through the streets until he came to Spanish Jackies and glanced around briefly. Same as ever, it seemed. Samuel was a little different than the last time he had been inside the establishment. He had finer clothes now that he could afford them, something he had very much taken a liking to. Currently wearing a fine black coat that came to half way down his calves. Edges embroidered with a golden filigree design. Long, dark hair tied back in a single black satin bow.

As he approached the bar and ordered himself the finest drink they had, Samuel glanced around again. Wondering if any of the old crew would be around and whether anyone would come questioning about the large new ship in the docks. Things had changed for him since he had last been there and, old habits dying hard, Samuel steeled himself for any problems that would arise. Both old or new.

[jaynovz]

Is it time for me to foam at the mouth about one of Silver's most batshit insane decisions in the entire show?

(So the ramble underneath this is literally 2k, so like, make good choices I guess. also pls imagine me as Pepe Silvia meme the entire time)

So I see people talking a lot about how Silver is fucking deranged bonkers banana cakes he has 10,000 snakes in his head instead of a brain and of course I agree this is just Canon.

However, the moments that we focus on are like 3.3, doldrums talking to Billy about Flint controlling reality when he's starving and dehydrated or like what he says in response in 3.10 when Flint tells him his story, about Thomas.

Both of those are very very good moments for Silver being fucking crazy and saying things out loud with his human mouth that no regular unfucked human being would come up with, he set new RECORDS for it, agreed.

TODAY I want to talk about a different moment, what I think is the most egregious example of Derangement. It's in the Silver-Flint gold conversation in 2.7.

Quick context-- Before Silver meets back up with Flint in 2.7 he was sent after a VERYYYY dissatisfying conversation (aka "the gold is still a priority" where Silver challenges Flint on the Vane and the fort and Abigail Ashe plan and Flint lies to his face) to go influence the men to vote for Flint's side of things over Hornigold's. After dealing with the Logan situation in the middle of that (which I don't actually think Flint ever finds out about Silver helping to cover that shit up, but that's not the point right now) he shows back up right in the middle of Hornigold addressing the pirate council and accusing Flint of a bunch of crimes (most of which are accurate lol) and Flint is Angy about "where the fuck has you [Silver] been?" and Silver tells him (loud enough for the entire council to hear mmhmm) that the gold is gone.

Now the order of the scenes, the timeline, means The Reveal about the gold is with Max later, (right, that later is the point it becomes real for us because we're finding out the same as Max's that Silver has made the gold disappear) and so it's hard to keep in mind until a second watch how the entire time there in the tent and Silver is putting on this performance, such a good show about it the whole time and then he goes and talks and gives the speech to the whole fucking combined crew and that entire time we don't know yet.

But Silver knows. He has already engineered a situation where he has convinced to the scouts that they're going to sell the location of the gold to another crew!! He has already removed the Urca gold from right under Flint's nose!! (Which is like the thing that Flint has been working towards for an unknown amount of years since he found out about it right? This thing, this sort of mythical amount of money, which is going to solve problems and effect change and build a future and fulfill Thomas ideals.)

And while he's talking he has already waved his hand and made it disappear in the narrative and he did it so skillfully that we don't even suspect that this is happening until the reveal and so sometimes it's hard to go back and think about the 2.7 tent conversation.

Potentially it doesn't quite HIT on the first watch. Maybe not even the second.

But yeah what I want to draw attention to is that... this ENTIRE TIME, from the moment Silver shows back up, he is putting on the performance of his fucking life. He's ALREADY met the scouts Vincent and Nicholas on the jetty, he's ALREADY convinced them ON THE FLY ON A WHIM to lie to Captain Flint. He's ALREADY coached them through exactly what to say to sell it, to lie to Captain James Flint's fucking face. right??? and THEN only after that does he goes to meet Flint.

And the very specific thing I am focusing on isn't even THAT gamble, which is fucking SCARY CRAZY ALREADY. But the WAY this boy pulls the bluff out, the lengths he goes to during the next convo in the tent about "there is no we. the gold was the inducement" and all that. You know the scene.

I wanna underline how Silver decides midstream, midargument to... FLIP IT AROUND and accuse Flint of making the gold disappear.... when Silver literally just made the gold disappear.

Silver: I believe I've been clear about the nature of my investment here. The gold was the inducement. Now no gold… Flint: It's an unfortunate development that we have to adapt, and quickly. Silver: Adapt? I've had about my fill of adapting lately. Doing your bidding, keeping the crew in line for you. Flint: I wasn't the only one to benefit from that. Silver: It certainly seemed that way. Even now you're the only one benefitting from it. Flint: What are you saying, that I'm benefitting from the gold having disappeared? Silver: It certainly solved a number of problems for you, didn't it? I have half a mind to wonder if you didn't orchestrate this whole thing to your advantage.

So yeah I'm uh, I'm literally foaming im frothing im cappucino right now. I want to put this UNDER THE MICROSCOPE AND STUDY HIM. what in the FUCK. Silver knows the entire time, this ENTIRE EXCHANGE, that not only is the gold still on the beach but that he is gonna fucking SELL THE LOCATION to Max and Rackham. And then sits there cool as a fucking cucumber with his mask of irritability...(because of course if he had nothing to do with it!!) Like of course he would be mad that the gold is gone, because the gold was the inducement RIGHT.

All of the rest of that is a foundation for like the craziest part isn't necessarily that he's putting on the act That's in keeping with him, we've seen that, we saw that he was getting more and more frustrated and that part doesn't surprise us that like he would... I mean we saw him steal the page and we saw him burn the page and we have seen him make these types of kind of batshit decisions so we're like "okay this this checks out."

But the truly deranged part where it goes beyond like it just like they're like literally... he. he. HE ACCUSES FLINT OF THE THING HE JUST DID. There was no reason for you to say that and at this point it's like he is SEEING how CLOSE he can get to the fire, he is seeing how much RISK can be pulled off. He's getting off on poking and sleeping dragon in the eye when he knows very well the entire time that he stole the fucking dragon's gold.

"I have half a mind to wonder if you didn't orchestrate this whole thing to your advantage."

I--

it's... it's some reverse psychology bluffing gamble, it's "let me say what has happened, let me literally ADMIT WHAT I JUST DID but no YOU did it, I projected it onto YOU. hope that you don't think about that too hard. let me hope that this works out"

There was... THERE WAS JUST NO REASON FOR IT. He was already pulling it off, the conversation was. "There is no we" and "I was clear about the nature of my investment" THAT'S ENOUGH. STOP.

there's just no reason for him to have done that but it's because he's fucking crazy he's a crazy person

The way his brain works just does not follow lines of logic like a sane human being!!

FURTHER POINT--

this is how we also get to the point where he convinces himself to go to Charles Town (because we see him go to Charlestown!! we see him on the ship the next time!! in 2.8!!)

and he says to the scouts that, yknow, paraphrasing "we came on this endeavor in order to allay suspicion about the fact that we have all double crossed this crew that we are sailing with right now including Flint"

now the thing about that is that and I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't know if I've said it in a formal post that so many people had defected/deserted because the gold was gone and they had no appetite for storming the fort after that. And then Silver went and convinced to the rest of the crew remaining to go to Charlestown to seek the pardons right and that's what Flint wanted him to do. So if Silver then defected because the gold was indeed the inducement and there was no gold then I don't think Flint would have fucking batted an eye!!!

And neither would anyone else!! because even though Silver is very useful to Flint as a tool right now, Flint was very mission-focused, very Miranda-focused very pardons-focused, very "let's fulfill Thomas's dream"-focused. So even though he does and has needed Silver a lot recently to influence the crew, I don't think he was really thinking about him basically for two-three episodes after that basically. Cuz they don't talk again, right, and they are just not in each other's orbit for 2.8, 2.9, 2.10.

So what that tells me is that Silver goes to Charlestown and he just... really didn't have to he could have stayed in Nassau and assisted Max or just laid low until the gold got retrieved and then potentially taking his share and left before Flint crew got back!!

I've talked about this specific part before where Silver says that their safety is contingent upon whether Flint is successful in his endeavor or not. Like he says that out loud to Vincent (which is the most bat ship banana cakes bonkers thing ever) about it because he's basically hitched his horse to the outcome of this pardon situation when he absolutely didn't have to do that to get the goal he and the scouts could have all just deserted and no one would have been the wiser because so many crew had, including Dufresne, because of the gold situation!!

Now there's some arguments here about well.... one of our main characters cannot just leave.

But because the writers have created a party member who wants to leave the party what they then keep having to do is invent more and more convoluted mental gymnastics to himself to continue staying and following Flint which is why at the end of the day I sort of can't really see a situation where the Silverflint thing is not like the main thing because they're both obsessed with each other in different ways (and Silver is obsessed first because he doesn't fucking leave and there's a bunch of reasons he should and there's a bunch of chances for him to do so) and so it all starts to look real fucking gay

But yes uh circling back... Silver lies to Flint's fucking face about the gold, going so far as to ACCUSE HIM of making it disappear, then goes on an extremely dangerous errand trapped on a ship full of people who he double crossed with two scouts with loose lips... when, in order to guarantee his future, if we're looking at actual real logic and actual real pragmatism and survival instincts and not just "oh I have to follow Flint because ummmm -dial up sounds-",

Then he should have stayed in Nassau.

[doks-aux]

I'm picturing both Ed and Stede being like 🧐😠😤😡 at Izzy and Sam, Ed because he doesn't like that Izzy's attention and adoration is on someone else (and maybe he has an old grudge with Sam) and Stede because he feels like Sam is stealing his whole Gentleman Pirate thing (even though people keep pointing out to him that Sam was doing it first, which does NOT go over well, they're completely different in that Stede is doing it RIGHT), and if Izzy's into that why wasn't he into Stede?!? Ed agrees, it's VERY rude that Izzy wasn't into Stede and he has half a mind to tell him so but Lucius is like oh my god STOP.

So Ed and Stede spend all their time creeping around eavesdropping and spying and bitching to each other (like Stede spying on Jack and Ed) and discussing What Must Be Done About This and planning a fuckery to Get Izzy Back and they don't even notice that Izzy and Sam just, like, went off to get (re)married.

I would pay to be able to read a fic like this, I really would. I've only run into a couple of fics where Izzy moves onto a new love interest and Ed actually has to deal with that rather than somehow winning him back. (Granted, this is probably because outside the SteddyHands circle of ships, I only read Izzy/OC and Izzy/Other Historical or Famous Fictional Pirate. Maybe it happens a lot in Izzy/Actual Character in the Show fics.) The concept of a fic where it seems like a textbook SteddyHands set-up, only for Izzy to choose the third option and especially for it to be Sam is fucking delectable. And infinite bonus points for Lucius at his wit's end because if Ed and Stede had arrived at whatever-this-is MONTHS AGO maybe things would have gone a lot smoother. But as it is he's team Izzy/Not This Bullshit now and playing look-out while they take a dinghy to elope or whatever. And Ed and Stede being so caught up in their own drama together even when it's nominally focused on someone else that they don't actually notice what's happening with that someone is perfectly on-brand.

God, there are so many good possibilities for how Stede and Sam might interact. I feel like Sam's a nice guy who'd be all "Same hat!" at Stede, especially post-character development Stede who's given up all his inherited wealth and is gaining his new riches in the proper pirate-y and looking good doing it. Which just makes it funnier if Stede gets all snitty about it. God forbid anyone stresses that Sam is called the Prince of Pirates, therefore outranking the Gentleman Pirate at least by technical definition. And there's historical precedent for an Ed-Sam grudge with irl Sam mutinying against Hornigold and being voted captain while Ed stayed loyal to the old man. And I wouldn't want Sam to be the wholly innocent party here either. Like, I can see him sincerely trying to get along and be a gentleman at first, but when he's getting passive aggression and Kraken death glares for his troubles, he decides it's no fun to be the bigger man. He should get to be a bitch, too. It's also funnier if Izzy is the most mature person in all of this after Lucius.

What's funny is that in my personal AU, Sam and Stede got started on the whole romance novel cover pirate thing about the same time. Sam's been sailing and ship-hopping and treasure-hunting his whole life, but there was a huge gap in his piracy career between Hornigold's cabin boy and the Robin Hood of the seas. This is so I can have him be as historically inaccurately middle-aged as the others while keeping his whirlwind success when he does seriously try his hand at piracy while still having it be plausible that his old friends don't even know he's still alive. He and Stede get along well enough that Stede's all giddy about Izzy being smitten with him. Ed is... getting better at the whole "Izzy is allowed to have other friends" thing, but this is a potential boyfriend and it's Sam who Ed's been butting heads with since puberty, so he doesn't take it as gracefully as Stede when it's pointed out to him. And Sam is trying to play nice with Ed because he's got a lot to answer for for letting everyone think he was dead, but like. He is eventually going to ask why Izzy is missing a toe and eventually someone is going to give him the honest answer.

I want everyone to have a nice happy ending, but I want them to yell and cry a whole lot on the way there.

[silverspadesss]

actually if they do decide to bring sam bellamy into ofmd i know how i want it to go. stede and co are back, everything’s forgiven, they’re all sailing on the revenge together again and even izzy is somehow tolerating it. they dock in the republic for supplies or whatever i don’t fucking know, and there seems to be some Big Sad News™️ since everyone there is a lot more subdued and morose than normal, but no one says anything. they go somewhere and a well-dressed pirate enters, seemingly scouring the room for someone.

and then this pirate spots izzy. instantly his face floods with relief, and before izzy has even properly clocked who it is he rushes across the room and him - ‘israel!’ - and pulls him into the kind of desperate, weighted hug you give someone when someone they love has just died. everyone is dumbfounded, izzy included. then he clocks the hair and the eyes and basically everything about this person, and so does ed, and they realise it’s fucking paulsgrave williams, sam bellamy’s first mate. they haven’t seen each other since the vote to make sam captain instead of hornigold, and paulsgrave leaving with him to captain their own ship.

and then. over paulsgrave’s shoulder izzy sees a piece of paper hastily stuck on the opposite wall. it reads something about the whydah going down in a storm, killing all but two of its crew and sending all of its cargo to the bottom of the ocean. and underneath, ‘prince of pirates: dead’.

moments after reading that sentence, izzy clings to paulsgrave like he’s drowning.

[esoanem]

VII.

“They took everything from us. And then they call me a monster. The moment I sign that pardon, the moment I ask for one, I proclaim to the world that they were right. This ends when I grant them my forgiveness. Not the other way around“

Major Content Notes:

Blood & Gore: a man loses a fight, his face is covered in blood, and an eye swollen shut

Needles: a man is tattooed with a traditional needle tapped with a stick. Blood is seen oozing from it

Nudity: two scenes with full frontal male nudity, another with a naked male character framed so genitals are covered incidentally

Slavery: slaves are seen working in a lumber yard, bound in chains. Another seen with slaves chained in a warehouse being fed

Wikipedia Synopsis:

Flint and Gates discuss Mrs. Barlow's letter after Billy's disappearance. Randall accuses Silver of being a thief in front of Dufresne, who is the new quartermaster. Eleanor suffers a loss when Mr. Scott wants nothing to do with her partnership with Flint and he becomes a part of Captain Hornigold's crew. Rackham is having trouble turning a profit at the brothel, so Max helps run the business. In need of a new crew, Captain Vane makes a deal with a man from his past to borrow his men, but ends up fighting a battle to the death.

Now Max’s arc is concluded, we don’t have too much in the way of major content notes, and those mentioned here are relatively minor. This does give us both of the times we see dicks in the show afair though

Timestamps:

As ever, all timestamps are from the “Complete Collection” DVDs which includes a Starz logo at the start, as well as a recap. Depending on your source, timestamps may vary a little, which is why I’ve included the timestamp for the opening titles. Timestamps are only given for the start and end of scenes featuring any particularly warning-worthy content

00:57: opening credits

05:54-07:10: Jack & Anne are trying to have sex but Jack has performance issues. The brothel somehow isn’t making any money. Anne gets dressed and goes, leaving Jack naked and tied to the bed. His genitals are visible

08:13-09:30: Dufresne is getting a shark’s jaws tattooed on his arm with a traditional needle tapped with a stick, blood is shown oozing from it. His hair has been roughly shorn as initiation for his election as quartermaster. Gates urges Flint to go to Mrs Barlow now and not just let her go. Flint agrees and says he’ll be back by dark

26:14-30:02: the bald man hands his men over to Vane, and recognises that he was a former slave of his. Vane gives a speech to the men insulting the bald man and they fight. Vane gets a bloody face with one eye swollen shut. The bald man tells Vane he’s proud of him before stamping hard on his face. Vane’s naked body is rolled into a shallow grave, his genitals are covered by another man’s leg

31:43-32:31: Mr Scott visits the slaves in the warehouse with a basket of apples. He tells the woman he was next to that he has asked Eleanor to free them. That this may not happen, but to not give up hope

51:01-52:43: Vane wakes up and frees himself from the shallow grave. He stabs the bald man with a wooden stake, and kills him. He is seen fully nude, and his eye is still swollen shut. His genitals are visible

Summary:

We open with Pastor Lambrick practising his Easter sermon in a field, sweating profusely as he lectures on the taint of sin. A rider bursts through the crops and gallops past him, eventually arriving at Miranda’s cottage to tell her that Flint has returned

Eleanor meets with Flint and Gates in her office. She asks how the Scarborough found him. When Flint tells her that it was a plot by her father, and that Flint means to hold him to account, she tells him that Mrs Barlow was responsible for keeping him under lock and key, and must also be addressed. When Flint hears of the events in Nassau, and how Eleanor has managed to re-establish herself as the centre of trade despite her father winding up the Guthrie business he agrees to deal with Miranda

As he leaves, Eleanor tells him that Silver proved himself indispensable in establishing the Consortium and that she has promised to put herself between Silver & any resentment Flint may harbour towards him and as such, if Silver were to not return from the Urca, she and Flint will have problems

Jack & Anne are having sex, with him tied to the bed, and her on top. She gets frustrated, saying “it’s gone limp again”

“I’m terribly sorry if I’ve ruined your morning, but at the moment I happen to have quite a lot on my mind. Ship purloined, captain and crew a distant memory, no prospects at all except for this shithole of a brothel which by some miracle of economics seems incapable of turning a profit”

"How can you run a brothel here and not make money”

"I have no fucking idea!”

She gets up, gets dressed and leaves. Despite Jack’s protest, we see him left there, naked and tied to the bed.

Max is gazing out of her window when Idelle comes in with some porridge, to help her regain her strength. When asked how she managed to get eight of Vane’s crew to just disappear, Max firmly holds her gaze and says they left for Port Royal. Idelle doesn’t believe this saying that if that’s true, she’s “Henry fucking Avery”. She tells Max that if she’s planning on working at the brothel again she shouldn’t wait long

“Rackham’s got no idea how to run this place. We’ve all got a hand in his pocket. Mapleton would tell him but she’s too busy stealing for herself. All I’m saying is, get in while the getting’s good”

Dufresne is getting a shark’s jaws tattooed on his arm with a traditional needle tapped with a stick, blood is shown oozing from it. His hair has been roughly shorn as initiation for his election as quartermaster. Gates urges Flint to go to Mrs Barlow now and not just let her go. Flint agrees and says he’ll be back by dark. In the shed, as Flint gets his saddlebags read, Gates confronts him about the letter Billy found

“Just one more thing captain, before you leave to see Mrs Barlow. I think you and I need to discuss the letter that Billy found, and why exactly it is she believes that you’re going to betray your crew”

Randall is being held back by Dr Howell, another pirate, demanding to speak to Silver. De Groot explains that a council has voted him out, and that he was inadvertently responsible, having raised the issue of the fire hazard a one-legged man in the galley might present, before it spun out of control, like most things before the council

“He’s got a raw deal, Mr Silver. The least we can do is let him say his piece”

Silver goes to Randall, and tells him that in his experience, setbacks like this often come hand-in-hand with opportunities. He accuses Silver of stealing the page

"He’s a thief. He thought I was asleep in Miss Guthrie’s tavern. I heard him talking. It wasn’t Singleton stole the page. It was him.”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about”

"Said he has the schedule in his head. That he learned it to stop Flint from murdering him”

"With all due respect, but he spent the last two days beneath a rather heavy cloud of opium, he doesn’t know what he heard”

As Silver goes to leave, de Groot grabs his arm, and tells Dr Howell to get the quartermaster now

At the Consortium, Captain Naft is rummaging for papers as the rest wait exasperated. Eventually he find his notes, and officially opens the meeting, making a note to add choosing a shorter name to the agenda. Captain Lawrence has started modifying his hold, but a good number of his crew have deserted, as he predicted, and he will need replacements

Eleanor is called away by one of her men. Mr Scott has arrived and refuses to leave. She goes down to speak to him

"Quite the story I heard out there from the Walrus’ men. They say you rallied the slaves in the Andromache’s hold, singlehandedly turned the tide against Bryson. Imagine what they’d say if they knew that you’re the reason they had to chase that ship in the first place!”

“I would like the chance to explain myself. What I did, I did out of love. And with every intention of staying here with you to help you find a safer, more settled life, a life you deserve! It was not a betrayal. It was – “

“It was not your decision to make! My life is my own. It’s not Benjamin Hornigold’s, and it’s not Charles vane’s, it’s not my father’s, and it’s not yours. Do you understand?”

He says he would have had nowhere else to go, as he is chattel property of the Guthrie estate. Eleanor is hurt by this reminder of her complicity in his enslavement, saying she’d never seen him that way. He says he needs to ask her a favour

Charles Vane wakes up in the sun, with a slave boy looking down at him. The boy has the same scar he does on his chest. The boy leads him through the lumber yard and we see that many of the workers, of all races, are in chains. Vane is called over to sit by the bald man, and asked if he means to do business. He explains his plan as the bald man keeps his back turned

"There is a place, there’s a place not far from here. A place fueled by plunder. A place of great wealth. Run by its crews. Flying no flag”

“I know of Nassau. What of it”

"She’s weak. So she’s ripe for the taking. A man with enough strength could have his hands wrapped around her throat in a matter of hours. Control the flow of trade. Get rich”

"My men are rich. Wood sells well, and we don’t rely on the mercy of the sea”

"No man is rich who could have a lot more by doing less. When you sailed as captain of these men, they sacked Campeche for you, they sacked Cartagena for you. Give me a dozen of them, and I will bring Nassau in line”

The man asks his name, and says he knows it. When Vane lays out his terms, he doesn’t answer, but turns around and presses Vane on how he knew to find him. Vane ignores the question and asks if they have a deal, before getting up to walk away, when the bald man makes a counteroffer

"How did you know to seek me out? Is my name spoken as far as Nassau? Is there someone there that connects us? Or is it something else?”

In the shed, Flint is dodging Gates’ questions about the letter, saying that his relationship with Mrs Barlow is complicated, but she clearly wants to leave Nassau so desperately she will say anything to make him come with her

"Oh for fuck’s sake enough! This is what we do! You orate, you dissemble, and I look the other way, convince myself that supporting you is in everybody’s interest, but not today. Not after what happened last night. What happened to Billy, Captain.” ”

When Flint says that Billy fell, and asks what Gates thinks happened, he points out that Billy thought he saw them all as expendable, as pawns to use for his own ends. 

“I know what happened on the Maria Eleyne. You told me the man you killed was rooting for a weapon, you told me it was self defence, but there were no weapons in that cabin. I went, and I looked. I still kept my mouth shut. I don’t know why, but I know you used the crew to assassinate those people. Men died that day, our men. And I expect there’ve been other times that we’ve been expendable to you and if yesterday was one of those days then you and I have a problem because Billy wasn’t expendable to me. He was a son to me.”

"Then perhaps you ought to have acted like a better father towards him”

"What the fuck did you just say?”

"You let his suspicions run rampant, you let his paranoia fester to the point at which when he should have been focussed on the Scarborough's guns he was focussed on hurling unfounded accusations at me”

"So I’m to blame for what happened to Billy?”

"Perhaps if you’d intervened when he first came to you with these fantasies, perhaps if you helped him understand the world in which he lived he’d still be here right now”

"I’m tired of this. I’m tired of the energy it takes to believe you, to believe in you. I’m taking this to the crew, you’re their problem now.”

"I’m taking it. After the Urca’s been secured, and the money warehoused before distribution, I intend to sequester a portion of it. Every man on that crew will still be richer than their wildest dreams, but you know as well as I do that no matter how much money they’re given, they will drink, whore, and piss it away. Now they have a chance at something better than that! But it isn’t going to happen unless somebody makes it happen”

"You’re lying to them”

"And if I don’t, who will? Everyone’s lied to. For their own good. Every mother tells their child that everything will be alright. Every soldier who’s told by his commander that courage will see them through, every subject who’s told by his ki-“

"His king? Is that what you are to us now? A sovereign? Levying a tax?”

"I’m quite serious. Who loses? Absent their worst instincts: their pride, their greed, their suspicion, in the light of pure reason, who says no to this? They’ll be rich men in a safe place rather than dead thieves on a long rope. I’m going to deliver them, Hal. I’m going to deliver them into something better.”

"I will sail with you tomorrow to take this prize. I’ll follow your lead in battle, and I’ll take your orders as consort, but when it’s done, you and I will quietly go our separate ways and I’ll thank you not to protest”

Dufresne, de Groot, and Howell are talking outside the tent. They agree that if Randall had told anyone else they’d have heard, and that Flint finding the page on Singleton does seem awfully convenient. Silver tries to convince Randall to change his story

“Say you’re successful in convincing our friends out there to believe your story. I’m not sure you’ve given proper consideration to what happens next. Do you think they just haul me up in front of the crew, air your story, and that’s the end of it? Oh Randall, I think you’ve forgotten one very important detail”

Outside the tent, Howell points out that if they bring it to the crew they’d likely hang Flint & Silver, and that will be the end of the Urca hunt. That acting hastily could come with a very hefty price. De Groot doesn’t seem to like the idea of lying to the crew, along with Flint, and asks if thy think there’s some way to guarantee Randall’s silence. Inside the tent, it seems Silver has just suggested this exact course of action

"They wouldn’t”

"Wouldn’t they? A one-legged halfwit who hazards a chance at a fortune? The odds are decidedly not in your favour. Well, you were confused, or delirious! Take your pick, but tell them now, then even if they wanted to go to the crew they’d have lost their chief witness and no-one has to die”

"You’re a thief”

“I’m a thief, right. Well, good luck, Randall. It was nice knowing you”

At the lumber camp, the bald man has lined up several of his men, and tells them to follow Vane’s orders as if they were his own. Vane gets distracted, seeing the boy with the matching scar, which leads to the bald men stepping over and looking into Vane’s shirt to see the scar

"You were one of ours? You were just a boy yourself. It could not have been easy coming back here. It must have taken great strength. Go on, take these men. Make me rich”

Vane is trembling, his voice shaking as the bald man walks away. As he speaks to the men, the bald man takes notice, stops, and starts striding back over ready to fight

"You don’t know me. But you once did. When I was the lowest among you, now I’ve returned, and I offer you a chance to be free of this place.

I’m Charles Vane, and you were a strong crew once, proper pirates, feared as you should have been before he dragged you away from the sea before he convinced you to live here like animals, because it suits his weaknesses

 There is a place not far from here where strong men live lives of pleasure, not labour. A place where you could be feared and respected once again

 Follow me and I will show you what life is”

As the bald man gets close, Vane punches him first. At the start, Vane is able to dodge the bald man’s blows, but once he gets caught, the bald man hits hard. They each hit & kick each other several times, each getting thrown or knocked to the ground. Eventually the bald man kicks Vane in the crotch and headbutts him hard, before beating his face repeatedly, leaving Vane’s face bloodied and one eye swollen shut. As Vane looks at the boy again, the bald man leans down, and says “I’m proud of you” before stamping hard on Vane’s face, with a hard cut to black. We see Vane’s naked body rolled into a shallow grave

Dufresne pulls Silver over. De Groot is inclined to hand him over to the crew, which would likely mean his death. He isn’t going to risk his life, or commit Randall to an early grave with the uncertainty of not knowing he can trust the information in Silver’s head. Dufresne has brought a test. A page from one of Dr Howell’s manuals, for Silver to memorise in the next five minutes. If he cannot reproduce it satisfactorily he will be turned over to the crew. Silver protests that this is a terrible test, that he could have read the page a hundred times, not just for five minutes, so this proves nothing. Dufresne says he’s aware, but this is the best he could do

Mr Scott visits the Guthrie warehouse with a basket of apples to give to the slaves. He tells the woman who was next to him that he asked Eleanor to facilitate their release, that she wouldn’t have the guns without them. He is careful not to say that this is certain, but does tell her not to give up hope

As he leaves, Hornigold is waiting for him, and asks for his secret to putting up with Eleanor. He tells Scott that he believes Eleanor had the Ranger’s crew killed, but that without the bodies and people saying they left for Port Royal three isn’t anything he can do

“I asked you once to get her under control. The truth is, there is no controlling her is there?”

Flint storms into Miranda’s cottage. When he goes to Mr Guthrie’s room, she tells him that he isn’t there and has taken sanctuary on Mr Underhill’s estate. He demands to know why she wrote the letter, pointing out how if it weren’t for dumb luck it could have got him killed. She says it was to show him a way out of all this

"A way out? Have you no memory of how we got in? What they took from us?”

"What does it matter now?”

He repeats the words back in disbelief, repeating them silently over and over in shock. She tells him that this isn’t a life in Nassau, that there isn’t joy or love here, but that there is in Boston, and he can go there without the war he believes is necessary to make a life, and that it requires no blood, and no sacrifice

"It requires an intolerable sacrifice”

"To accept a pardon?”

"To apologise!”

"Apologise? Who will you be apologising too?”

"To England! They took everything from us. And then they call me a monster. The moment I sign that pardon, the moment I ask for one, I proclaim to the world that they were right. This ends when I grant them my forgiveness. Not the other way around”

“This path you’re on. It doesn’t lead where you think it does. If he were here, he’d agree with me!”

Flint leaves, slamming the door

Silver is finishing recreating the page. He protests again that he had three days with the schedule, but only three minutes with the page. He says to Dufresne that he must have been pretty sure he was the thief to have thought of the test, and he doesn’t think he had that faith in Randall, and wonders who told him, asking if it was Billy. Dufresne leaves without asking. Silver and Randall are alone together in the tent

"Right now at this moment, it is just as likely you’re the one that dies as I am. What if there was a way neither of us had to die today? I go to the crew, and I offer to be your caretaker. I’ll offer to look after you day and night, and give my personal guarantee should anything happen that it comes out of my share. I think I could persuade the crew to accept that. Then you’re back on the ship, all you’ll have to do is change your story”

"You’re a thief”

"Are you fucking kidding me?! Alright yes, I’m a thief. I took the page and I shouldn’t have, I should have counted my blessings to be put off that ship, but what can I say, Randall, I’m not a joiner, I never have been, but I’m willing to do it now so pull your head from your arse and let’s both live to fight another day”

Dufresne enters, and apologises to Silver. It seems de Groot was not satisfied with the copy. As he goes to grab Silver though, Randall starts accusing all the men there of being thieves. Dufresne concludes that it seems they no longer have a witness to accuse Silver before the crew

Mr Scott enters Eleanor’s office, and she tells him that, despite money being tight right now, she has managed to arrange for all the slaves to go free. The able-bodied men will be taken onto the Black Hind under Captain Lawrence to make up for his desertions, with subsidies and credits covering the cost. Eleanor has managed to gather the money to purchase the women, who will be offered a wage in her employ. She tells Scott that he doesn’t need to worry about her if he means to stay with her, and that she doesn’t just blindly trust Flint

“I’m not blind to Flint. I know he keeps things from me, but there’s no reason for you to feel threatened by my partnership with him. If you’re to stay with me, I need to know that I can trust you”

Scott tells her that Hornigold has offered him a chance to join his crew instead though

"If you need me, I will be here for you, but as long as you insist on pursuing this course with Captain Flint, I will always be tempted to interfere”

Jack is telling one of the prostitutes that the income she’s reported for the last two days isn’t believable, and she’ll have to vacate her room to make room for someone else. At that moment, another prostitute comes down to give him five pieces. Max comes down, and asks who she serviced, saying the client she saw leaving only desires to be swaddled while he sucks on a breast, and the price they’ve always charged for mothering is twenty pieces. When the prostitute claims he only had time for a handjob, Max slaps her and asks her to confess, and hope Jack will be more forgiving than Mr Noonen would have been. The prostitute turns to Jack and swears it will never happen again

"In my experience, if you do not discipline a whore, she will always take advantage. Get your fucking house in order”

As Eleanor is collecting the dregs from abandoned mugs at the tavern she finds Flint half-passed out at a table. She leads him to her office saying that he was supposed to be back before dark, and points out that any of his crew might have seen and just before the most dangerous journey of their lives, a pissed captain might not be the best thing for them to see, saying they could find reason to doubt him

"Perhaps a little doubting me is called for”

He sits down on the bed tucked away in an alcove

"Tell me we’re not crazy, you & I. To put ourselves through all of this when the outcome’s so uncertain”

"The outcome’s only uncertain for those who disbelieve. I believe in this place and I believe if there’s anyone who can do what’s necessary to make it something better, it’s you”

He stands up from the bed. They hold each other’s gaze and she seems to briefly lean in as if for a kiss. He rises up instead, kissing her forehead and leaves

The next morning Silver is onboard the Walrus with Randall as the ship is readied to set sail. Silver wonders if maybe Randall is smarter than he lets on, and Randall smiles knowingly as he talks

"Randall, you are a fucking puzzle. Part of me thinks you must be the luckiest halfwit in the colonies the way this all played out. Part of me suspects there’s something else going on here. I’m forced to wonder if you didn’t orchestrate this whole little drama knowing it would corner me into securing your return to the crew. I’m forced to consider the possibility there’s a lot more of the old Randall in that head of yours than you’d like to let on, that you’re not halfwitted at all, but a very shrewd operator who’s managed to obtain the benefits of sailing with these men while avoiding all the risk. That perhaps, just perhaps, you’re a goddamn genius”

Flint & Gates look at each other from the decks of the Walrus & Ranger, nodding at each other as the sails are unfurled. We cut to the tavern the night before, where Dufresne approaches Gates. He tells him that the situation with Silver is resolved for now, that Silver worked out that he already knew about the page, but thought Billy told him, although it may not be long before he realises who really did. He says there is another problem though with Howell & de Groot. Gates says that once at sea their focus will be off Randall and it will go away

"Actually, it’s not Randall that’s troubling them. It’s you

Having had some time to think about it, they’re not certain that you’re up to doing what’s necessary

The lying we could forgive, Singleton we could forgive, we could forgive all of it, but not Billy. That requires an answer

When the time comes, we need to know that you won’t stand in the way. I understand that he’s your friend, but once we have the money, Flint dies. No argument”

Gates agrees in a hushed, sad tone, saying there’ll be no argument from him. We cut back to Gates & Flint nodding at each other on their ships, each playing their part as if there is nothing wrong, as the Parson’s Farewell picks up and the ships sail off

In the blackness we hear the words of Vane’s hallucination of Eleanor, and see an eye open in the darkness, and then see a hand free itself from the dirt

“You could be strong again. You could resist me. You could take this whole fucking island from me. If only you weren’t so goddamn afraid”

The bald man and his men are gathered round in a circle. As the bald man takes a bite of some meat, he is stabbed in the back with a wooden spike. Vane is behind him, covered in gravedirt, still naked, with his eye swollen shut. As the bald man gets up, Vane punches him back down until he doesn’t get back up

[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

Benjamin Hornigold was an English pirate from 1715 to 1718, and a member of the West Indies Rite of the Templar Order. He was most famous for mentoring Edward Thatch and for being one of the founders of the Pirate Republic at Nassau, before joining the Templar Order and hunting many of his former pirate brethren until he was finally assassinated by his former protégé Edward Kenway on the Santanillas Islands in 1719.

During Hornigold's first years as a pirate, his second-in-command was former privateer Edward Thatch. Soon their fleet expanded to five warships, led by the flagship Benjamin, pirating everywhere from Nassau to the Honduran coast. However, Hornigold was known not to attack British ships, leading some to believe that he was actually a privateer instead of a pirate. Sometime during this period he met Edward Kenway, who was recruited by Thatch during their career as privateers.

Eventually, Hornigold helped establish a Pirate Republic called "the Brethren of the Coast" in Nassau, sharing the responsibilities of leadership with Thatch, Vane, and James Kidd. When Kenway made his way to Nassau in 1715, Hornigold taught him how to successfully plunder ships, upgrade the Jackdaw, and lower his notoriety. Hornigold also tried to persuade Edward to give up on his estranged wife, Caroline Scott, and settle in Nassau.

Over time, word reached Nassau that a pardon was being offered by Governor Woodes Rogers to any pirate who would accept it. Hornigold kept the pardon in mind as Nassau was ravaged by disease without an available cure.

While Thatch wished to steal medicine from British warships, Hornigold suggested that they temporarily halt their pirating activities until the British no longer deemed them a threat. This resulted in an argument between the two until Kenway proposed a third solution: search for medicines in old wrecks without attracting British attention.

While Hornigold and Thatch were both initially satisfied with this approach, it was soon revealed that medicines found in the shipwrecks were in unusable condition. Frustrated by their lack of success, Thatch used the Queen Anne's Revenge to assault a British Man O' War, which left Hornigold's ship damaged. While his crew were repairing the ship, Hornigold met with Kenway and informed him of Thatch's decision. Before Kenway sailed off to look for Thatch, Hornigold told him to leave Thatch be, saying the man should take responsibility for his actions.

Although Kenway and Thatch were eventually able to recover medicines for the colony, the British arrived months later and blockaded Nassau. After meeting with Woodes Rogers and Commodore Peter Chamberlaine to discuss the King's pardon, Hornigold, Josiah Burgess and John Cockram accepted the offer and became pirate hunters for the British, tasked with bringing their former allies to justice. This led to many pirates, Kenway included, deeming them traitors and cursing their very names.

As a newly appointed pirate hunter, Hornigold became more notorious than he had ever been before, capturing several pirates who refused to take the pardon. Under Roger's command, Hornigold grew to respect his superior, and soon became a member of the Templar Order along with Burgess and Cockram.

In December 1717, Hornigold sailed to Mayaguana to attend a Templar meeting regarding the whereabouts of Olivier Levasseur, a French pirate who was in the possession of an artifact known as the Fragment of Eden. On his way there, he unexpectedly came upon Alonzo Batilla. Thinking the young pirate as a potential trouble maker to the Templar cause, he got rid of him by luring him into a trap. Hornigold then attended the Templar meeting, where he and Christopher Condent interrogated captain Barnes. The latter had no useful information about Levasseur and was shot by Condent. Surprisingly, Batilla then showed up and engaged a battle with Hornigold, to which Hornigold eventually retreated.

In 1719, Hornigold and Rogers met in Kingston. Hornigold questioned the purpose of collecting blood samples and Roger's tactics when dealing with pirates in Madagascar. Upon hearing that the blood would be used for the purposes of spying, Hornigold expressed some concern, as he had given a sample of his blood as well. However, Rogers assured Hornigold that his sample would not be used in this manner; rather, it would act as a display of trust.

They later met with the Templar Grand Master Laureano de Torres y Ayala, telling him that Burgess and Cockram were close to locating the Sage Bartholomew Roberts in Príncipe. In the midst of their conversation, Hornigold spotted the Jackdaw anchored in the harbor, and realized that Kenway was spying on them.

Forced out of hiding, Kenway admonished Hornigold for his betrayal; Hornigold defended himself by claiming that the Templars' actions were just, and that Kenway could never understand their cause. He then made his escape with the other Templars, leaving Kenway to deal with his men.

Hornigold later followed Kenway and Roberts to the Yucatán Peninsula, but was detected by the pirates and sailed into a rocky, fog-covered formation known as "the Devil's Backbone". Kenway's Jackdaw managed to avoid British ships looking for him and traded blows with the Benjamin before forcing the schooner to retreat.

Lost in the fog and badly damaged, the Benjamin ran aground on the deserted island of Santanillas. Hornigold climbed to the top of an abandoned Mayan temple on the island, creating a makeshift perimeter with his soldiers, but Kenway was able to scale the building and air assassinate his former friend.

Collapsing, Hornigold berated Kenway for how far he had fallen, disregarding the man's retort that Hornigold was no better than he was. With his dying words, Hornigold expressed regret that Kenway was too enamored with glory and bloodshed to see the wisdom of the Templars, and told Kenway that he would die alone and disgraced if he kept his present course. Despite Hornigold's betrayal of the pirate way, Edward still felt remorse for killing him and when fondly recalling old friends, Hornigold appeared amongst them.

In Real Life:

Benjamin Hornigold didn’t enter the historical record until 1713 following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (also known as Queen Anne’s War); thus, it is unknown when exactly he was born or to whom. He was, however, born in England sometime around 1680.

With the end of the war, all English letters of marque granted to privateers became null and void. This put many seamen out of work and some went on the account. Benjamin Hornigold may have been one of these men, but he still considered himself a true privateer and attacked only enemy ships.

his first act of recorded piracy took place during the winter of 1713-1714 when he used periaguas (sailing canoes) and a small sloop to loot merchant ships off the coast of Nassau, New Providence island. In 1717 Hornigold commanded a thirty gun sloop named the Ranger which was most likely the most powerful pirate ship in the region at the time.

Hornigold's first mate was Edward Teach who would later become known as Blackbeard. In the early spring of 1717 Teach commanded Stede Bonnet's the Ranger along with a captured sloop and the two seized three merchant ships, making off with 120 barrels of flour bound for Havana, rum from a Bermudan sloop and a cache of white wine from a Portuguese ship.

During this time Hornigold was known for being more of a leader of pirates and was working to help build and establish the Republic of Pirates along with fellow pirate Henry Jennings and Thomas Barrow at the fledgling settlement of Nassau and transform it into a real republic. He also took the role of a mentor for many ex-privateers who wished to turn pirate. While it is easy to overlook him as a pirate who did not accomplish much in terms of loot, the advances he made for pirates were some of the most democratic of the time.

In March of 1717, Hornigold and his crew attack an armed merchant ship that was sent by the Governor of the Province of South Carolina to hunt for pirates. After an engagement, the merchants ran the ship aground on Cat Cay and the crew fled. The ships captain later reported Hornigold's fleet had expanded to five ships and around 350 crewmen. Hornigold next attack a sloop off the coast of Honduras, however the most they did was as one crewman explained later, "They did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard.”

(Image source)

Hornigold never attacked English ships, apparently to maintain the appearance of being a privateer against the Spanish and French. However, this was approach was not well liked among his crew who in the summer of 1716 voted him out of the captaincy after they chose to attack whatever ships they wanted. Hornigold's crew was now captained by Samuel Bellamy.At the time, Edward Teach was commanding Hornigold's second ship and did not learn of the turn of events until they met again later in 1717. At this point Hornigold and Blackbeard went their separate ways as Hornigold was only in command of a small crew and a single sloop. He continued his piracy from Nassau until December 1717 when he heard about the 1718 Kings Pardon. Hornigold sailed to British Jamaica in January of 1718 to accept the pardon from the regional governor.

After accepting the Kings Pardon, Hornigold became a pirate hunter to hunt down his past allies including Edward Teach by governor Woodes Rogers. Hornigold spent the next year and a half sailing around the Bahamas to try and capture Stede Bonnet and 'Calico' Jack Rackham.

Near the end of 1719 as he was chasing pirates across the West Indies, Hornigold's ship was caught in a hurricane and was wrecked on a reef between the Bahamas and Mexico. Hornigold died during this wreck and only a few of his men who managed to get away in a canoe survived. To this day no one has recovered Hornigold's ship wreck.

Sources:

http://www.cindyvallar.com/hornigold.html

http://www.goldenageofpiracy.org/infamous-pirates/benjamin-hornigold.php

http://www.republicofpirates.net/Hornigold.html

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/benjamin-hornigold/

[tuesdaydnd]

Pirate’s Creed part two

Pirate’s Creed

02- The Flying Gang

           Everyone feels much better after their last adventure, in fact they seem to have developed new skills and have more life. Reynaud uses the crystal skull to contact their mentor. When he describes the page of parchment and the strange vision he saw, Mentor recognizes it at once.

The Eye of Thoth uses pages from an ancient Atlantean book to gain their special powers, but Atlantis wasn’t the only power in the prehistoric world. There was another island on the other side of the world in the Pacific called Lemuria. The Lemurians were brutal dictators who used their power to enslave people. Atlantis defeated them in a great war, but apparently some of them survived and fragments from Lemuria occasionally surface. These Lemurian writings served as the basis for the Ophidean Order.

The page is very important and Mentor promises to send someone to translate it as soon as possible. Reynaud also mentions that the Sunderland was ordered to kill Captain Hornigold and his crew, but to spare Jennings and his people. Mentor doesn’t know for certain why these orders were issued, but obviously they should keep an eye on Jennings.

In New Providence, the pirates are delighted to see them and Hornigold wants to hear all about their raid on Havana. Although it’s true they only brought back a fraction of the gold that was there, just the fact they were able to strike at the heart of Spanish power and escape gives the pirates hope.

There is a meeting of all the pirates. Hornigold proposes a pirate republic, but Reynaud suggests a council of captains to make decisions. Every pirate gets a vote, and the council is overwhelmingly approved.

Jennings isn’t satisfied with one island. He wants to use it as a base of operations to expand their power, taking over more territory. No one thinks this is a bad plan, but they must start small before they can expand. Reynaud lays out his plan to take the Spanish Treasure fleet. He will need every man and every ship to pull this off, but if they succeed it will be something that will go down in the history books.

Attacking the ships at sea will not be easy. First, they have to find them. Ships are sent out on a reconnaissance mission to locate the fleet. They know the fleet can’t sail until they repair the damage done when the Santa Maria’s gunpowder blew up. The only advantage they have is that the fleet will be relatively easy for them to catch once they sail past New Providence and enter the straights of Florida.

The last time they went up against a Man O’War most of the crew was on the shore. Now they’ll be facing a full crew who are ready for trouble since both the Santa Maria and the Conception have been attacked. When the fleet leaves Havana their scouts give them word of how the fleet is formed. The two Man O’Wars are at the front and back of the fleet with five treasure galleons between them. The ships are far enough apart that they won’t collide, but close enough that if one ship is attacked other ships will be able to see it. At night the flash of cannons will be visible for miles.

The decision is made for the two Eye of Thoth ships to attack the Spanish Man O’Wars and put them out of action while the rest of the pirate fleet sweeps in to take out the galleons. They have thirty ships altogether, with Jennings and his Bathsheba and Hornigold in his Ranger leading the rest of the ships. Reynaud and Xi are on the Basilisk, the Doctor and Max are on the Kraken.

They approach the treasure fleet under the cover of night. The Kraken and the Basilisk separate and approach the Conception and the Santa Maria. The plan is to hit both of them at the same time in the dead of night. As the two ships near their targets, the wind shifts and the sky grows dark. The sea swells, making navigation difficult.

The Kraken heads for the most northern ship which turns out to be the Santa Maria, the Basilisk goes for the last ship in the fleet, the Conception.

The wind and rain reduce visibility so badly that they have no trouble approaching their target. Swinging the Basilisk around they attach it to the stern of the Conception with grappling hooks. Reynaud and Xi lead the men on board. They move quietly at first and only wound rather than kill. Soon they are spotted and the Spanish open fire.

Xi uses his powers of suggestion to take control of one of the sailors, but the sound of gunfire snaps him out of his trance. As the crew swarms him, Xi has to fight to the death as waves crash over the side of the ship.

Reynaud cuts his way across the deck. He tries to go below deck and is stopped by gunfire. At the bottom of the ladder he sees Captain Diaz, who he last spoke to in Tortuga.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Max manage to get the Kraken into position and fight their way onto the deck of the Santa Maria. The ship is rocking violently and when the Doctor throws his knives the wind simply whisks them away. He is forced to fight with his hand axes. Fortunately the wind and rain make it impossible for any of the guns to be of use.

Max finds his uncanny sense of balance is the only thing keeping him upright as the violently rocking ship tosses the Spanish sailors to the deck. A powerful wave washes several of the Spanish over the railings of the ship to their doom. From his position Max sees the treasure ship behind them wildly waving a red lantern. It is the well known signal for a ship in distress.

On the Conception Reynaud is speaking with the captain as one gentleman to another.

“If you do not disengage you ship neither of us will survive,” Diaz warns.

“Surrender and join our republic,” Reynaud counter offers.

“I serve my king.”

At that moment the Conception lurches violently to one side. Reynaud loses his balance and falls part way down the ladder before catching himself. Fortunately the Spanish soldiers were tossed about by the movement of the ship and couldn’t shoot. All around him he hears the wood creaking as the full power of the storm strikes them.

On the deck of the Santa Maria Barnaby uses his whips to clear the deck of sailors. As the Doctor, Klydell and Max fight alongside him they hear a terrible sound as their ship the Kraken suddenly tears free, pulling off part of the railing on the stern of the ship. Trapped on the Spanish vessel they continue to hold off the crew, the only thing saving their lives is that the storm is too bad for guns to fire.

Looking back over the railing Klydell sees a black ship with torn and tattered sails sweeping back and forth between the ships. It seems to have no trouble maneuvering despite the storm. There are nets draped over the side, dragging the water.

“It’s the Black Freighter!” one of the sailors calls out. “He’s come to take the drowned men to crew his ship.”

It seems like a good many people are about to drown when the call comes up from below that the Santa Maria is taking on water.

On the Conception Reynaud makes a deal with Captain Diaz. They will agree to a truce until the storm ends if Reynaud will disengage his ship to keep both ships from being smashed to pieces. Reynaud orders the Basilisk cut away, leaving him and his boarding party on the Spanish Man O’War.

On the Santa Maria Barnaby heads below decks and finds that the Spanish crew is far too busy trying to pump out the water to fight. Although he is trapped on a sinking ship, Barnaby decides to take the chance to destroy it. He goes to the powder room and begins to set it to explode.

Meanwhile the Doctor has become obsessed with the Black Freighter. He manages to get a grapple onto the ghost ship as it glides by and swings on board. On the rain swept deck he confronts undead sailors. The captain is a sinister skull faced figure wreathed in lighting. The captain orders the Doctor to be killed.

When the undead sailors attack the Doctor defends himself only to find that the men have sea water instead of blood. When he hacks at a limb he finds his sword stuck fast, for the bones are as hard as iron.

Before he is overwhelmed the Doctor dives into the hold through a gaping hole in the deck. There in the space where the nets are emptied he picks his way through the drowned men to find the ones that are still alive. He tries to arm them and get them to fight back, but they are too overwhelmed with terror to be much good. When the crew moves in on his the Doctor descends a ladder to the next deck.

This turns out to be the gun deck, where strange brass cannons are watched over by the undead crew. The master of the gun deck hurls fire at him, forcing him to climb out a gun port. Outside he sees another net being drawn up. Handing his knife to a man to cut himself free,  he encourages the still living men to fight back against their fate.

On the deck of the ship the sailors make a stand, but the undead crew make short work of them. Grabbing another rope the Doctor plans to swing down to the gun deck with his grenados and hope that he can do some damage.

On the nearby Santa Maria Barnaby has planted his charges and he emerges on deck to find the Doctor gone. On the Kraken Archibald lowers a few of the sails and manages to regain control of the ship to bring it around. Barnaby, Max and Klydell quickly attach ropes and swing across.

As they do so there is an explosion from below decks. The Doctor is in the process of trying to use his grenados when the sudden explosion causes him to lose his grip in the rope and he falls into the churning sea.

The Black Freighter vanishes into the storm. The Santa Maria burns. The crew of the Kraken spots the Doctor in the water and pull him on deck. Even though he is safe, the Doctor has become obsessed with the Black Freighter. He wants to go after it. Finally, Barnaby has no choice but to lock him in the brig.

The next morning there is little sign that the Spanish Treasure Fleet ever existed. Every ship has gone down and one of them has been smashed into the beach where it has become the meeting place of the Spanish survivors.

The pirates and the crew of the Conception put to shore where Reynaud and Captain Diaz will fight a duel over the ship. It is a contest between gentlemen. When Diaz unexpectedly loses his sword early in the fight Reynaud graciously allows him to pick up the blade and continue. Both men are wounded in the duel, but finally the Frenchman has the upper hand and Diaz is forced to surrender.

As per the terms of the duel Diaz and his men are given longboats and enough provisions to reach the nearest Spanish outpost. Diaz tells Reynaud that the ship has recently been careened and the barnacles scraped from the hull, but the mast is cracked and it only survived the storm because a metal brace.

Renaud decides to rename the Man O’War the Waterheart. Max is given command of the Basilisk.

On the Kraken Barnaby has to decide what to do with the Doctor. Even in the light of day with the ghost ship vanished he continues to talk about it and wants to go after it. He begins babbling about glowing eyes and crystal skulls and shows his captain a notebook full of gibberish.

When given a chance to rejoin the crew the Doctor refuses to stop talking about the Black Freighter. Finally Barnaby allows the crew to vote. The Doctor is put to death. He struggles to the end and tries to break free, but there is no saving him, the contact with the ghost ship has driven him mad. Perhaps this is the fate of anyone who dares to challenge the Black Freighter.

Meanwhile Xi takes Clydell and a few of the other men into the woods to cut a tree for a new mast. After they’ve gathered most of the wood they need they are attacked by Natives. A Seminole warrior goes after Xi with a club that is spiked with alligator teeth.

Most of the men take cover when a rain of arrows falls on them. Clydell goes after them with his knife and hatchet. He calls to them in the language of the tribe that raised him, the Nez Perce. At first, he gets no response, but one of the warriors finally answers him in a heavily accented voice.

When the warrior tells them that this is their land, the pirate replies “Not anymore.” This enrages the warrior who calls out for the rest of the tribe to kill the intruders. Clydell drops from a tree onto the warrior and kills him with a hidden blade. Before he can scramble to safety, he is hit with two arrows.

He manages to make it back up the tree, but he is trapped in the branches by the natives. Some of the pirates were sent back to get help from the beach, but will it arrive in time?

On the beach Reynaud hears the gunshots and heads into the woods with Hans and Zahara and some of the crew.

Barnaby takes Max and the rest of the crew to attack the beached ship where the Spanish soldiers are starting to gather.

In the woods Klydell tries to leap from one tree to another, but falls and is at the mercy of the Indians. He decides to play dead.

Reynaud arrives with his men and begins to cut into the Indians. Xi and his people come out from cover and join the battle. Zahara and Afia flank the natives and attack them from behind.

During the battle Klydell tries to make a break for it. He wounds one of the Indians with a thrown knife, but is stabbed with a spear before he can get away. Xi rushes in to save him. They manage to escape, but both are hit by arrows.

The tide of battle turns, and the Seminoles retreat. Once they are no longer under attack Xi shares his healing salve with Klydell which saves him from bleeding out.

As Barnaby leads his men onto the beach they have to attack under the rifle fire of the Spanish. Several men ar struck down until they get close enough to use their pistols. Finally they are able to take on the Spanish in hand to hand. Max stabs one soldier and lifts him into the air, filing the rest of the soldiers with terror. Barnaby is using his twin whips and grenades are being thrown.

The Spanish retreat to the remains of their ship and continue shooting under cover. Realizing it would be suicide to attack their position, Barnaby orders his men to grab the longboats and turn them upside down. By carrying the boat over their heads they can attack the Spanish ship with some cover of their own. The wood of the boat isn’t thick enough to stop the bullets, but the Spanish are shooting blind and most of their shots are harmless.

Throwing the boat into the mass of soldiers, the pirates strike with swords, hidden blades and whips. The soldiers are overwhelmed and have no choice but to surrender.

The pirates patch up their wounded and mourn their dead. The wrecked ship is searched for treasure. Meanwhile the timber is finally brought out of the forest and Xi goes to work on the new mast. Once he is done with that he and Klydell still want to go into the swamps to try and catch a baby alligator.

As the wrecked ship is being searched a figure suddenly appears and attacks them. He seems to have come from nowhere. The man spits venom into Zahara’s eyes, blinding her. Reynaud and Barnaby immediately attack and a furious battle is engaged with a foe who clearly has supernatural powers.

Meanwhile Xi, Klydell and the new Doctor go into the Everglades to try and find an alligator. After nearly sinking into quicksand they encounter Seminole Indians. This time, instead of attacking, they seem amused by their quest. Since they don’t feel threatened by the three pirates the Indians agree to help them.

They find a full sized alligator basking in the sun. They try to kill the animal, but it proves to be tricky, rolling over and nearly drowning Klydell before Xi is able to stab its soft underside.

Back at the shipwreck healing salve restores Zahara’s eyesight. The attacker appears to be subdued, but almost escapes. “I work for the masters of the world,” he declares under interrogation.

After getting rid of the leeches that clung to Klydell the three pirates bring the alligator carcass back to the beach. They also find alligator eggs and bring three of them.

Just as it begins to get dark a cannon ball suddenly hits the beach. One of the pirate ships salvaging the Spanish wreck has unexpectedly fired on them. As the cannon fire tears up the beach and destroys the wrecked ship, everyone returns to the Waterheart. The prisoner tries to dive overboard and drown himself, but he is caught. They find a strange black cube in his pocket. It is made from some unnaturally smooth substance and has tiny gold filament no thicker than a human hair running through it.

Max, on board the Basilisk moves to intercept the attacking ship befoe they lose it in the dark. When the other ship opens fire on them, the red hot cannon balls start a fire on the Basilisk. As the crew is fight8ing the fire, the shifting currents pull him away from the other ship.

On the Waterheart Reynaud and Barnaby continue questioning the prisoner. Meanwhile Xi is taking the skin off the alligator and cutting it up. Zahara is stunned to see the bones of the alligator start to reform, coming together to form a whole alligator skeleton which rises up on its hind legs and approaches her.

Apparently the voodoo training with the Baron is paying off. The alligator spirit warns Zahara to beware the man of fire who is laying in wait. “He works for the snakes,” Zahara is told. “Soon you will burn.”

When the message has been delivered the bones fly apart again and return to their original positions. No one else in the room saw anything unusual happen.

The fire on the Basilisk has been put out, but they have lost the attacking ship in the darkness. Since Barnaby and Reynaud are still interrogating the prisoner the rest of the pirates decide to get a ride from another of the pirate fleet to pursue the attacking ship. They still don’t know why one member of the fleet would turn on them.

In the interrogation room Reynaud and Barnaby continue to question their prisoner. He admits he doesn’t know what the cube is. All he knows is that he was supposed to take it back to Spain and deliver it to Von Hellinger. Reynaud gets a chill down his spine when he hears the name. Von Hellinger is his arch enemy, a Dutch mercenary he fought during the War of Spanish Succession. He thought that he killed Hellinger, but not only is the man alive, he is working with the Ophidian Order.

The pirates on their borrowed ship follow the ship that attacked them all through the night and into the next day. When the sun rises they see that the ship is the Asp, a nimble sloop with cannons on her open deck. Zahara tries to communicate with the other ship, but the pirates are warned to stay back or they will be killed.

“I am your death!” the captain roars before opening fire. The two ships exchange cannon shots, with the Asp’s heated shot starting fires. Xi climbs overboard to sneak onto the enemy ship, but before he can reach it, the Asp rams the pirate ship.

Xi climbs on board and begins to fight. Most of the rest of the pirates swing over on ropes. During the furious battle they don’t notice that the captain leaps onto their own ship where he faces Zahara and Afia. The captain is swinging two red hot cannonballs on a chain over his head as he storms the ship.

The cannon balls smash down and sear anyone who gets in his way. The fires on the ship are growing even as the pirates start to take the other vessel. Afia manges to shoot him in the leg, but the powerful captain keeps fighting. Zahara is forced to take him on with only a pair of hand axes. During the course of the battle it seems as if the red hot cannon balls will tear through her.

Zahara mutters a silent prayer to the Baron. From Zahara’s point of view it seems as if everything freezes. Into the strange frozen deck the Baron suddenly appears. He tells Zahara that he will save her life if she does something for him. He wants the medallion that Captain Jonas of the Black Freighter wears around his neck. Zahara agrees to get it, although he knows nothing about the Black Freighter, and the one pirate who was on board went mad and had to be hung.

Instantly everything starts moving again. The chains holding the cannon balls snaps, sending them rolling across the deck. Zahara cuts the captain very deeply, and brings him down to the deck. Driven by an almost supernatural frenzy the captain continues to fight, until Zahara has no choice but to finish him off.

On the Asp the pirates are victorious. The ship is theirs. The surviving pirates are more than hapy to have a new captain. They feared and hated their old captain. His name was Fiera, and he seemed immune to fire. He used to take hot coals from the fire and juggle them. There is a forge on the deck so he could heat up cannon balls anytime he wanted. In addition he talked to people in his sleep who somehow gave him orders.

Captain Fiera’s worse offense in the eyes of his crew was that he refused to let them pillage the wrecks like the rest of the pirate ships were doing. After finding a single object he insisted that they stop, and then ordered them to attack the beach for no apparent reason.

Doctor Hans Grubermeisterberg gets a chance to dissect the corpse. He discovers that Fiera had bones and muscles that were much denser than normal. It’s possible that this is what happens to anyone who unlocks the hidden powers of the human body, such as they have with their training.

In the captain’s quarters Xi finds the object that the crew described. It is a large gold plate, probably used by natives for cocoa. On the back has been scratched a map of South America with a strange star shape and a line coming out of it.

After repairing the damaged bow, they sail back to New Providence to meet up with the rest of their team. They find the once shanty town is now buzzing with activity. There are numerous new buildings and new docks have been built for the arriving ships. Jennings has exchanged cannon fire with the Spanish and warns the rest of the pirates that the wrecks won’t be easy pickings anymore.

Hornigold has big plans for New Providence. To make it a proper pirate city they will have to be defended from attack. Fort Nassau has started to collapse since it was abandoned and the rusting cannons should be replaced. It would also be a good idea to have an old ship serve as a gun platform in the harbor. Hog Island mostly blocks the entrance to the harbor, allowing just two places where ships can sail in. With the fort operational and a gun platform, they can effectively hold off attacks.

At a meeting of all the pirate captains it is decided that they will take gold off the top to cover defenses and then split up the rest of the spoils. Although there is some debate, Reynaud is able to sway some people over to his side and the vote passes.

When the gold is divided up everyone is still very wealthy. This is fortunate since everything in town is very expensive. The merchants know that the pirates are flush with gold and are taking every advantage of it. On top of that the island has so few resources that everything has to be imported, which drives the prices up.

The largest trading post on the island belongs to Kaitlin Rowe, an elegant, sophisticated woman who buys and sells almost anything. As a member of the Rowe shipping family she can place stolen goods in stores in Boston or London with no questions asked. Of course she makes a very good profit.

When she asks Reynaud for the Lemurian fragment he realizes that she also is a member of the Eye of Thoth. She is able to translate the writing on the shard and says that it contains the secret to becoming invisible. She can have the translation ready for him in three days.

Outside on the streets of New Providence there is a commotion. Captain Cazalla announces that the captains have held back the best spoils from the wrecked Spanish ships. He specifically mentions a gold plate that wasn’t put with the spoils to be divided.

Barnaby sees the riot brewing and knows that Reynaud has the gold plate with the mysterious map and is going to sell it to Kaitlin Rowe. Barnaby goes and gets the plate. After making sure the map has been scratched off the back he shows the plate to the crowd.

Barnaby demands to know why Cazalla is stirring up trouble over the plate. Under intense questioning by Pierre, Cazalla admits that Vane told him about the plate.

Meanwhile in the bar known as the Old Avery a new recruit named Bobbob makes the acquaintance of Anne Bonny a pretty but tough new barmaid. When someone is too forward with her Anne decks him. One of the other men tries to bash Anne’s head in with a bottle, but Bobbob stops him. One of the pirates pulls out a sword, but Bobbob shoots it from her hand, earning a free drink from Anne.

Barnaby and Pierre arrive in the Old Avery looking for Charles Vane. They find him at a table with Calico Jack and some of the crew from the Bathsheba. Barnaby demands to know why Vane nearly started a riot. Calico Jack tries to calm everyone down, but is ignored.

Reluctantly Vane admits that he saw the plate in a dream. He sent Cazalla out after it because he knew Cazalla had the biggest mouth.

Barnaby decides to take it up with Jennnings, Vane’s captain. As they leave they see Calico Jack flirting with Anne Bonny. On the Bathsheba Barnaby demands that Jennings do something.

“If you don’t get your crew under control, I will,” Barnaby threatens.

Jennings is unfazed. He declares that his crew is his responsibility, and there aren’t any laws against what Vane and Cazalla did. On impulse Barnaby touches his eye, making the sign of the Eye of Thoth. Jennings gives a start and reaches for his sword.

When Reynaud hears what has happened he calls for a meeting of all the captains. They need to decide on the rules for their pirate republic. There is much raucous debate, with Jennings arguing that the more rules they have the more they will be like England or Spain. Most of the captains think that there have to be rules of some sort. After spirited discussion they settle on:

1.      No murder.

2.      No riots

3.      No raiding other pirates

The punishments are death for violating the first two. Death by guillotine is voted as the most popular form of execution. For the lesser offenses there is to be punishment by the stocks, flogging or having to clean all the ships in harbor. The offenders are to be judged by three captains who are impartial. The accused can have someone speak for them, which will undoubtedly lead to pirate lawyers.    

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[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

Jack Rackham was born in Port Royal, Jamaica. He became associated with Charles Vane, the both of them traveling to Nassau in 1717, where they met several other pirates, including some of Vane's former privateering associates; Edward Kenway, Edward Thatch, and Benjamin Hornigold. Together, the two men informed the others of a huge ransom being held at a nearby fort by governor Laureano de Torres y Ayala, prompting Kenway to storm the fort and take the gold.

The next year, in 1718, Jack became involved in a plot by Kenway and Vane to breach a British blockade of Nassau. Governor Woodes Rogers had previously offered the pirate captains and their crews amnesty, if they would give up their pirating and return to Britain; an offer both Vane and Rackham refused.

Following their escape from Nassau, which came at the expense of Jack's ship, the Royal Phoenix, the three pirate captains agreed to pursue Kenway's fabled Observatory. They would start by locating a ship of the Royal African Company, which they hoped would lead them to the Princess, a slave ship carrying Bartholomew Roberts, the only man able to locate the Observatory.

In alliance with the Ranger's crew, Jack mutinied against Vane, capturing him alongside Kenway and the Jackdaw's quartermaster, Adéwalé. Rackham remarked that he would sell Adéwalé in a local slave market, but that he could take no chances with Kenway or Vane, and so elected to strand them aboard the unseaworthy Ranger while he claimed the Jackdaw as his own.

Barely two months had passed before Rackham limped back to Nassau to accept the King's pardon. Upon his arrival he was detained by James Kidd and Adéwalé, the man he had recently tried to sell into slavery. Not long thereafter, the three traveled to Kenway's manor on Great Inagua, where they returned control of the ship to the formerly marooned captain.

Jack was able to continue his life in Nassau. By 1720, he had become involved with Anne Bonny, a married woman who worked at the Old Avery tavern in the settlement. Before long, however, Anne's infidelity was discovered and Jack, unable to buy off Anne's spurned husband, elected to elope with her. Together with James Kidd, now openly acting as Mary Read, Anne and Jack left Nassau and returned to a career as pirates.

At first they did well, capturing a number of small fishing vessels, but within four months of leaving Nassau they were attacked by the Royal Navy. With Jack and his crew passed out from drink, there stood only Anne Bonny, Mary Read and a third man to fight off the Royal Navy. Soon enough, the three were overrun and the vessel captured. Rackham, Bonny and Read were taken to Port Royal, and sentenced to hang for the crime of piracy.

A few weeks after his sentencing, Jack was executed, and his body subsequently placed in a gibbet. Several months later, Rackham's corpse was found by Edward during the latter's escape from the prison. The pirate mused that despite Jack's failings as both a sailor and a friend, it dismayed him to see him in that state.

In Real Life:

John “Jack” Rackham was born on December 26th, 1682 in England. Very little is known of his early life other than that.

The first record of Rackham, other than his birth, is as quartermaster on Charles Vane's sloop Ranger in 1718, operating out of Nassau, New Providence island in the Bahamas, which was a notorious base for pirates known as the "Pirates' republic." Vane and his crew were well known for taking down ships near New York. They briefly tried to pursue a French man-o-war at least twice as large as their own ship, but Vane commanded a retreat from battle, claiming caution as his reason.

Rackham disagreed with Vane’s decision to retreat and contested it, suggesting that they fight the man-of-war because it would have plenty of riches. In addition, he argued, if they captured the ship, it would place a much larger ship at their disposal. Of the approximately ninety men on the ship, only fifteen supported Vane in his decision. Vane declared that the captain's decision is considered final, however, despite the overwhelming support for Rackham's cry to fight, and they fled the man-of-war.

In November of that same year, Rackham called a vote in which the men branded Vane a coward and removed him from the captaincy, making Calico Jack the next captain. Rackham gave Vane and his fifteen supporters the other sloop in the fleet, along with a decent supply of ammunition and goods.

As captain, Rackham primarily plundered smaller vessels. He and his crew had captured the Kingston, a small Jamaican vessel, and made it their flagship. They made several conquests in the West Indies, taking a couple of large ships off of Bermuda.

In 1719, Rackham sailed into Nassau in the Bahamas, taking advantage of a general amnesty for pirates to obtain a royal pardon and commission from Governor Woodes Rogers. Rogers had been sent to the Bahamas to address the problem of pirates in the Caribbean who had started to attack and steal from British ships.

While in port, Rackham began an affair with Anne Bonny, the wife of sailor James Bonny, who was employed by Governor Rogers. James Bonny learned about the relationship and brought Anne to Governor Rogers, who ordered her whipped on charges of adultery. Rackham offered to buy Anne in a "divorce by purchase," but she refused to be sold like an animal. Afterwards, the two gathered a new crew and stole a ship, escaping out to sea and voiding Rackham’s pardon.

(Image source)

They sailed the Caribbean for two months, taking over other pirate ships. Rackham would often invite the crew of ships that he attacked to join his own, which was how Mary Read came to become part of his crew as well.

In September 1720, the Bahamas' Governor Woodes Rogers had issued a proclamation declaring Rackham and his crew as pirates—although it was not published until October 1720. After publication of the warrant, pirate hunter Jonathan Barnet and former pirate Jean Bonadvis started in pursuit of Rackham, who was cruising near Jamaica capturing numerous small fishing vessels and terrorizing fishermen along the northern Jamaican coastline.

Barnet's sloop attacked Rackham's ship and captured it after a fight presumably led by Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Rackham and his crew were brought to Spanish Town, Jamaica, in November 1720, where they were tried and convicted of piracy and sentenced to be hanged.

Rackham was executed in Port Royal on November 18th, 1720, his body then gibbeted on display on a very small islet at a main entrance to Port Royal now known as Rackham's Cay.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read both plead their bellies at their trials, ten days after Rackham's execution, and so were given a temporary stay until the claim was proven. At the trial, Anne supposedly said to Rackham, "If he had fought like a Man, he need not have been hang'd like a Dog". Read died in April 1721, most likely of fever related to childbirth. There is no historical record of Bonny's release or of her execution.

Much of the rest of Rackham’s crew, and nine men who had been witnessed drinking with the pirates, were all executed as well.

Sources:

http://www.republicofpirates.net/Rackham.html

http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/rackham_calico_jack.htm

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/calico-rackham-jack/