........
Episode
2
Grampa
lit up his pipe and I watched a swirl of white smoke circle his head
like a Christmas wreath.
“There’s
beer in the ice box. You want one?”
“Uh,
no, Grampa.”
“I
do. Get me one. There’s a good fellow.”
Outside
a cricket started up, kicking a cricket symphony into high gear. A
dog passed by the road at the far end, stopped, sniffed, and
continued on. I opened a beer, poured it into a tall glass from the
freezer, and handed it to Grampa. He took a drink and set the glass
on the side table. I sat back down, leaning forward, waiting for the
punchline or the explanation, whichever was to come next.
“Giovanni
da Verrazzano visited the south tip of the North Carolina coast in
1524 and called the place Promontorium Tremendum.”
I
looked at him, dipping my head slightly. He glanced at me.
“Cape
Fear,” he said as if I should have known. “And it’s been that
ever since. Dangerous place! Fierce weather, treacherous shoals and
currents, all add up to bad news for sailors.”
Grampa
sat back, puffed the pipe, then leaned forward again.
“Your
great-great-great-great… grandfather Thomas Wilfred Donny was a
sailor. He sailed from Bristol with the British Navy as a young man
assigned the lowest and most dangerous task on board a ship –
Powder Monkey – Gunner’s Assistant. The young assistants were
treated badly, rarely paid, and had little chance of advancement –
in fact, it was most likely they’d be the first killed in any sort
of fight.”
“Why’d
he take the job? I would have turned it down.” I had him there.
“Couldn’t,”
was Grampa’s reply. “It was go to sea or starve in Bristol, and
once aboard, you did what you were told. He was a Powder Monkey or he
would be hanged – that was all there was to it. Life at sea was
hard.”
Grampa
sat back, reflecting on how hard the British Navy must have been.
Outside, I saw the afternoon light begin to fade. It had taken me
most of the day to drive. I looked around for a light. As I did,
Grampa twisted in his chair, picked up a dimmer switch from the floor
beside him and a light in the corner behind him came alive. He sucked
a full breath and continued.
“That
was before the light at Bald Head Island. It was tricky working a
sailing vessel through those waters, but that is one of the things
that made it a haven for pirates. Topsail Island got its name from
the pirate ships that moored there; you couldn’t see anything but
their topsails.
“It
was in 1717 that young Thomas Donny became reassigned at random to
the crew of a coastal merchant ship. He leaped at he chance, though
he didn’t dare show it. Though it was a smaller vessel under
dubious leadership, anything would be better then the life of a
Powder Monkey.
“The
merchantman was soon captured by one of the most famous pirates there
was, one Stede Bonnet, the ‘Gentleman Pirate.’ The crew was taken
hostage and informed that they could sail...” Grampa raised his
head with the words, “...or swing.” He dropped his head and
looked at me through bushy furrowed eyebrows.
“Bald
Head Island was their favorite stopping point to get food. Blackbeard
himself used the place quite a lot. In fact, it was there that
Captain Bonnet met Captain Teach and fate took a turn for your
great-great-great… er, grandfather.”
Grampa
sat back again, puffed his pipe, turned it over, and tapped it on his
palm over a metal trashcan at his feet. The ashes dumped out and he
set the pipe on a circular pipe stand on the shelf to his right.
“Grampa,
go on – you can’t stop there!” I broke in.
“How
‘bout some food? You hungry?”
“No!
Please, go on.”
“Just
trying to be sociable is all. Bald Head Island wasn’t just used for
a watering hole. No, it was sometimes used as a bank vault. A lot of
times a pirate’s loot was more supply than gold: food and water,
powder and shot, or tools and lumber. But sometimes there were
treasure chests and when they got worrisome, the pirates would put
them someplace safe.
“It
was just after Bonnet and Blackbeard joined up that Blackbeard set
one of his officers to run Bonnet’s ship. Bonnet agreed, though he
had little choice in the matter; he wasn’t much of a seaman. Young
Thomas Donny was off the ship getting water when a short-crew passed
him up with a chest. He had learned that the way to survive, be it
British Navy, merchantman or pirate vessel, is to keep your head
down. He was busy keepin’ his head down when the short-crew came
back the other way only without the chest.
“Once
they were gone, he followed the footprints to a place where the
ground was just turned. A whistle sounded 'return to ship', so he
noted the spot. That night, according to his letters, a squall came
up and it rained to beat all, removing any track or trace of the
previous day’s adventures.
“It
was pretty soon after the siege of Charles Town of that year when
they returned to these waters. Blackbeard convinced Bonnet that it
would be best if they were to get pardons and Bonnet set out with
some of the pirates to see Governor Eden at Bath Town. It was then
that Thomas Donny saw a chance to slip away.”