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“The Major was no Sailor”

“The Major [Stede Bonnet] was no Sailor as was said before, and therefore had been obliged to yield to many Things that were imposed on him, during their Undertaking, for want of a competent Knowledge in maritime Affairs; at length happening to fall in Company with another Pyrate, one Edward Teach, (who for his remarkable black ugly Beard, was more commonly called Black-Beard:)”

(A General History of the Pyrates: from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence to the Present Time*)


* The famous book, which appeared also in the TV series Black Sails, was published under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson in 1724. According to a widely known theory, the real author might have been Daniel Defoe. However, researchers from the recent decades consider the theory, that most likely it was Nathaniel Mist, a printer and journalist, who published the book.