#there was never a force that could separate roberts from the commodore after that

[viric-dreams]

Weeks after learning of the Commodore's death--when he could no longer lie in bed consumed by grief, after he was forced to get up, to feed himself, to keep going--Roberts had visited the Dark-Spectacled Admiral. There was no love lost between the Admiral and the Commodore over the years. Roberts had heard plenty of the stories of the Commodore's frustrations upon return from his many trips to London. He hadn't seen the Admiral himself since he was barely more than a child. Yet he had to try.

As the years had gone by, the old guard had slowly faded out of the picture, until there were so very few people left who remembered the olden days. Remembered the Commodore as Roberts knows--knew him. The man who was full of jokes and life, whose charisma captured a room. One who cared. A man who'd spent hours yelling encouraging words through a layer of crumpled steel, trying to grant some level of comfort to a trapped and terrified child, to at the very least abate some of that terror in what could've likely been his final moments. The man who had slowly faded into placidity and smiles and bright nothingness as the years had gone on.

The Admiral was no friend to either of them, not since the schism, but perhaps he might remember the friendship the two had once had. Perhaps he might care that he died. Perhaps there is someone else who remembers the man, the same one Roberts does, and feels something at his passing. He has to try.

He adjusts his spectacles, hiding the puffiness of his eyes from view, and knocks on the door.

[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/