Pirate Bonnet Heads For Carolina!


August 12, 1718: On this day in 1718, "Gentleman Pirate" Stede Bonnet's sloop-of-war flagship the Royal James and two other armed sloops, the Francis and the Fortune, captured a shallop as they sailed from Delaware Bay into the Cape Fear River. The Royal James was Blackbeard's former sloop and armed with eight cannon. The other two sloops were similarly armed. All together, 46 pirates crewed them. The Royal James was badly in need of careening with hurricane season quickly approaching and Bonnet had chosen the Cape Fear estuary as a reliable shelter against storms. For the next few weeks, Bonnet's crew made repairs to the Royal James with materials salvaged from the captured shallop. In the coming month, reports of Bonnet's presence in the region would make their way to South Carolina Governor Robert Johnson, prompting him to issue an order for Militia Colonel William Rhett to command an operation "to destroy the pirate threat." READ MORE
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