In 1726, the brutal ex-prizefighter William Fly led a successful mutiny on the good ship "Elizabeth."

Though he may have been one of the most bloodthirsty pirates, in all of history we can assume he was one of the stupidest!

because with him Fly was captured in Boston and hanged exactly one month after his pirating began, but there were others who did better in a matter of speaking.

The Golden Age of Piracy is also part of the history of South Carolina.

♪ ♪ ♪ (Mary) We all have romantic images of the swashbuckling adventurers who sailed the high seas in search of gold and glory.

It excites the blood!

It gives us images of dashing gentlemen who would sail fearlessly into Charleston Harbor.

We think of the lives these men must have led, searching the high seas, handsome, dashing adventurers, braving insurmountable odds in order to relieve Spanish galleons of their ill-gotten treasures.

Well, we are correct in only one respect... there were pirates.

The handsome, debonair adventurer belongs to fiction.

In fact, the pirates were the dregs of human society.

Take Captain William Lewis of the ship "Morningstar."

His career lasted longer than that of Fly, but he has been described as being the cruelest, most hard-hearted individual who ever lived.

For ten years, he harassed merchants shipping along the coast of South Carolina.

He was known for torturing his prisoners before he killed them.

In fact, the way he was in league with the dark powers is evidenced by the story that his crew slipped into his cabin one night and murdered him in his sleep because he was too intimate with the devil!

♪ Isn't it interesting that the majority of men who gained fame as notorious pirates began life as honest seamen.

Sir Francis Drake, England's greatest captain, was considered in his own day to be a pirate.

The man who brought the Pilgrims to the New World on the "Mayflower," Captain Thomas Jones, had earlier been imprisoned for piracy.

It was the English Crown that was primarily responsible for those early beginnings.

They loosed a scourge on the American Colonies that would haunt them for a hundred years.

♪ Even before the founding of Jamestown, pirates ravaged the coast of North America.

England's greatest rival, Spain, was becoming extremely wealthy and powerful through the gold, which it received from the New World.

Spanish galleons would bring the gold and the silver from the mines in the New World, across the seas to the mainland, and England wanted her part of it.

Even though the British Navy was strong, the Navy alone couldn't control this traffic.

So England legalized privateers, which were a little more than legalized pirates.

They condoned any action of the privateers as long as it was against Spain.

Eventually, England gained control of the seas, and she found herself the victim of these very pirates who at one time she had encouraged.

There were two things which increased the problem.

First, piracy had become a lucrative business, and men frequently found that "going a' buccaneering" was easier to gain money than to earn it by an honest living.

Consequently, it attracted all the ne'er-do-wells.

Murderers, rapists, and common criminals of all types joined honest seamen.

It's said that in the early 1700s, there were over 3,000 pirates operating out of the Bahamas alone!

This was known as "The Brotherhood of the Spanish Main."

♪ But the second complication was even more difficult to handle.

Unpopular trade laws made many merchants believe that smuggling was a necessary evil.

The merchants could purchase from the smugglers, but who was to tell the difference between smuggled merchandise and stolen merchandise?

This house at 145 Church Street was thought to have been the meeting place between su ccessful Charleston merchants and the buccaneers who ravaged the South Carolina coast.

It's thought that Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, and Richard Worley often held secret meetings behind these walls with prominent Charleston merchants, haggling over the price of stolen goods.

Popular opinion of the time said it was not only the merchants who were in league with the pirates, but also prominent government officials.

The most notorious of these was Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina who, in Bath, North Carolina, had formed a very good connection with a notorious pirate, Blackbeard.

♪ ♪ Charleston not only provided a market for the stolen pirate goods, but it also provided one of the most notorious pirates of the era.

This pirate was truly unique because she was one of the few women buccaneers.

Anne Bonny was born in County Cork, Ireland.

Her father was a lawyer.

He immigrated to Charleston, bought a plantation nearby, and became extremely wealthy.

It was his dream that his wealth and connections would help Anne make a wonderful marriage into one of the prominent Charleston families, but this dream was not to be.

♪ During her childhood, Anne exhibited an uncontrollable temper and a streak of cruelty entirely inappropriate to a member of the fairer sex.

After her mother died, Anne kept house for her father.

It was during this time that, in a fit of uncontrollable temper, she killed one of the house servants.

When Anne fell in love with a young sailor, James Bonny, her father simply threw her out of the house.

They were married and went to the West Indies.

After they arrived there, James decided he would give up pirating and turn to a more respectable life... so Anne left him!

She joined the pirate crew of Captain John Rackham, better known as "Calico Jack" because of the striped britches he wore.

After joining the crew, she fell in love for the second time.

This was a short affair when it was discovered that her would-be lover was also a woman.

Mary Read's life had been filled with even more violence than Anne Bonny's.

At one time, concealing her identity, she had even joined the British Army.

The two women became close friends.

When prey was sighted, they fought alongside the male members of the crew, enjoying the violence and the danger just as much as the men did.

Indeed, it's been said that Anne and Mary were just as bloodthirsty and cruel as any of the men pirates.

♪ In 1720, Captain John Rackham's crew was captured by the English near Jamaica.

After a quick trial, they were all sentenced to be hanged.

On the morning of his execution, Calico Jack visited Anne Bonny, hoping to hear words of consolation.

She said she was very sorry to see him there, but if he had lived like a man, he would not now be hanged like a dog.

She remained true to her character to the end.

Mary Read died of a fever before she could be executed.

Anne Bonny received many reprieves, for what causes we do not know.

However, she simply disappears from the Jamaican court records.

Charleston's most infamous woman pirate fades into oblivion, her fate unknown.

♪ The main purpose of the pirate was to intimidate, to create tales of murder and slaughter on the high seas.

They designed gruesome flags, and they gave their ships names to inspire fear.

The most favored of these was "Revenge."

Some modern historians say that over half the pirate ships must have been named "Revenge," but also pirates were notorious cowards.

If they felt the ship they had sighted would offer the slightest opposition, they were inclined to turn and sail away.

A prime example of this is Captain George Lowther.

Lowther challenged the merchant ship "Amy" off the South Carolina coast.

When the captain refused to surrender and returned fire, Lowther and his men turned around and sailed away, ran aground, and hid in the woods.

On another expedition, he ran aground again.

He was found on the beach, his pistol by his side, dead.

He had shot himself in the head rather than face the hangman's noose.

♪ One of Lowther's colleagues also terrorized the South Carolina coast.

Captain Edward Low's favorite hunting ground was along this coast, and he was tremendously feared by all Charlestonians because it was said of him that the man was totally insane!

He had a habit of torturing his prisoners by cutting off their ears and inflicting small nicks with a sword all over their body before he tortured them to death.

Low, too, escaped the hangman's noose.

He simply disappeared and was never heard of again.

Men like Lowe and Lowther and others terrorized Charlestonians, but the man most remembered was Major Stede Bonnet, alias Captain Edwards or Captain Thomas.

♪ Stede Bonnet has been described as the most unusual pirate who ever lived.

He was extremely wealthy and he owned a large plantation on Barbados.

He had everything, and it's still a mystery why he gave it all up to become a pirate.

Rumor had it that it was due to an intolerable marriage and the sharp tongue of a nagging wife.

His friends felt he had gone crazy.

Likely it was due to boredom and the need for adventure.

In 1717, Bonnet bought a ten-gun sloop and recruited a crew of 70 men, and then in the darkness of night, he slipped out of Bridgetown Harbor.

He never returned, but in mounting his expedition, Bonnet did two unusual things.

First, he bought his ship, and this just confused his crew no end.

What kind of man would go a' buccaneering and buy his own ship?

Evidently, you had to steal it to make it a real pirate vessel.

Secondly, he paid his crew wages instead of offering them a share of the booty.

The men were unsure of what kind of man they were sailing with.

Bonnet set sail for the Capes of Virginia, and in a few days captured four ships, all worthy prizes.

He sailed for Gardner's Island near New York, where he sold his booty and bought provisions.

Again, his crew was completely flabbergasted!

What kind of a pirate would buy his own provisions?

♪ Bonnet then sailed his ship to the mouth of Charleston Harbor, where, in a few days, he had captured two ships.

both excellent prizes.

Confusion broke out among the crew.

Although Bonnet didn't lack in courage and daring, he had very little knowledge whatsoever of seamanship, and his crew began to distrust him.

Mutiny was about to break out, and at the insistence of the crew, Bonnet decided to sail to the bay of Honduras to spend the winter.

In every instance where Bonnet had taken a prize, he had set the crew ashore, unharmed, because of this and his family background, he became known as "the Gentleman Pirate."

On the way to the Bay of Honduras, the good ship "Revenge" met, of all things, the pirate ship the "Queen Anne's Revenge," captained by none other than Edward Teach known as "Blackbeard."

Blackbeard understood immediately that Bonnet had very little knowledge of seamanship.

So he made Bonnet virtually a prisoner and placed one of his own crew in command of the "Revenge."

This made Bonnet furious, but there was little he could do about it.

So Teach, now with four ships, captured several prizes, very, very fine ones.

He sailed with his flotilla to North Carolina, where he ran two of the ships aground, and while Bonnet was ashore with five of his crew members, he stole all the money and the booty and sailed away.

Something good did come of this.

Bonnet was furious, but Teach had left the "Revenge," and Bonnet had his ship back.

♪ By this time, Stede Bonnet had learned much more about seamanship, and his new crew followed him readily.

He changed the name of his ship to the "Royal James," and he himself adopted the alias, "Captain Thomas."

He began raiding the Atlantic Coast.

It's said that at this time, he seemed to have developed a streak of cruelty and was more liable to torture his victims.

Evidently, during the time spent with Blackbeard, he had become more demanding, more cruel, more vicious.

In fact, he acted more like a pirate captain should!

On July 31, 1718, he entered the Cape Fear inlet in order to repair the "Royal James," which was leaking badly, and word quickly reached Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina that a pirate vessel was hove to in the Cape Fear inlet.

♪ Governor Johnson had led expeditions against the buccaneers for years, resulting in the capture of many.

Just a few months before the news of the pirate ship, he had been humiliated by Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet in Charleston Harbor.

He was determined to take action!

Shipping was at a standstill due to the pirate threat.

He was determined that he was going to defeat them.

Duties of office prevented him from leading the forces, so he called on the only man in the Carolinas whom he felt could do something about it.

♪ Colonel William Rhett lived here at 54 Hasell Street.

He has been described as one of the most strong-willed, contradictory personalities ever to live in Charleston.

He was constantly at war with the royal governors and just about any other figures of authority.

He was a man determined to do things his own way.

God help anyone who tried to stop him!

Although Johnson had, had problems with Rhett, he was still the first man he turned to.

William Rhett was the best soldier-sailor in the colony.

On September 14, 1718, Rhett equipped two sloops, the "Henry" and the "Sea Nymph," with 16 guns and 130 men.

He had no idea who the pirate captain was in Cape Fear.

His informer had used the name "Captain Thomas," the alias Stede Bonnet was using at the time.

As Colonel Rhett was leaving Charleston Harbor, he learned that another pirate captain, the infamous Charles Vane, was in the area.

He changed his plans and went after Vane, but after three days, Vane had eluded him.

So, going back to his original plan, Rhett headed north to Cape Fear.

Vane escaped Rhett, but not the noose.

His men accused him of cowardice and set him adrift, where he was picked up by an old entrusted friend, immediately taken to Jamaica, where the friend collected the reward, and Charles Vane was speedily hanged.

The life of a pirate was not an easy one!

♪ On the evening of September 26, Rhett's ships entered Cape Fear.

Bonnet's men saw them and hurried with the repair work on the "Royal James" so they could prepare it for battle.

At dawn on the 27th, Bonnet hoisted his sails and started downstream.

Rhett's ships, moving in, forced it into the shallows, and the "Royal James" was grounded, but closing in himself, Rhett's ship was also grounded.

Rhett's ship was within pistol shot of the pirates.

Bonnet's men had the advantage, because Rhett's decks were slanted, so that they were exposed.

For six hours, the two crews fired away at each other, and Bonnet's men shouted taunts to the other crew as their fire tore away a great deal of the rigging, but fate and luck were with Colonel Rhett.

When the tide came in, Rhett's ship was righted first.

He was in perfect position to attack the "Royal James."

Stede Bonnet strode up and down the decks in a murderous rage, threatening to kill any man who refused to fight to the death.

Finally, as Rhett's men were ready to board the "Royal James," Bonnet's courage failed him, and he surrendered unconditionally The white flag of submission replaced the skull and crossbones, and Colonel William Rhett brought his prisoners back to Charleston.

♪ He was not imprisoned with his men but was placed in better housing because he was a gentleman of good birth.

Stede Bonnet managed to escape.

On November 5, 29 members of his crew were sentenced to be hanged.

The next day, Colonel William Rhett returned again with Stede Bonnet as his prisoner.

He had found the pirate captain hiding on Sullivan's Island.

Two days later, his crew of 29 men were hanged here at White Point.

Two days after that, Stede Bonnet went on trial.

He was accused of capturing 13 ships and murdering 18 men, and he was sentenced to be hanged.

The execution did not take place immediately.

Bonnet wrote many appeals begging for mercy, but these fell on very unsympathetic ears, because for him, Governor Johnson had no mercy.

♪ While Stede Bonnet waited in prison, his former captor and fellow pirate, Blackbeard, was killed by Virginia troops in a bloody battle at Ocracoke Island in North Carolina.

Blackbeard's head was cut off and kept as a prize, and his body was thrown to the sharks.

On December 10, Stede Bonnet was brought to White Point.

If he had shown courage as a pirate, it had deserted him now.

With head bowed and whimpering like a child, he faced the hangman's noose in abject terror.

In his manacled hands he held a wilted bouquet of flowers.

He had traded a comfortable and easy life for 18 months of bloody adventure on the high seas.

The "Gentleman Pirate" from Barbados had found adventure.

♪ ♪ Pirates once walked these streets.

They say, on a chill winter's night, you can still hear the echo of their heavy footsteps, footsteps of free and easy men in search of gold and fame.

With their cutlass and pistol by their side, the ladies of the evening on their arms, they haunt the paths they once roamed so freely.

Searching for the next prize, the next conquest, they pass through the night and into the shadows.

[footfalls on pavement] ♪ ♪ Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 803.988.8438 ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪