Carolina Blue

Carolina Blue glimmered this week —

On the sultry shores of the south —

On the week of the 4th the sea was murky, dismal, and gray —

I suppose the lack of storms accompanied with the intense heat

soothed the tumultuous seas.

Thank You, God, both the occasion —Blessed was I  to be there to see.

Amazing how things change in a matter of weeks — or, sometimes  minutes it seems — 

Ebbs Flow, Swells Swing, the Sun, Moon, and Stars sing  ever-changing songs of God’s Mood Ring —Beneath the Toiling Sea—Oceans of Emotion— and some of its own — but mostly revealed on the surface… Reflections of you and me.

 

Victory met defeat though her discovery promises a victorious sweep.

In 1737  the largest sailing vessel ever to set sail on the high seas of her time  launched from Portsmouth England. She lengthened 226 and a half feet long from bowsprit to taff, with a lower gun deck of 186 feet. Construction of such a ship in eighteenth century funding would equate to present day cost of an aircraft carrier.

6000 oak trees fell from life to give birth to her massive 52 foot deck breadth. Seven short years later, along with74 year old war hero Admiral John Balchin, 800 – 1,100  highly skilled seamen sank to their death beneath tons of darkened water while scurrying to try and save her massive four story lamp lit hull.

1884 photo of duplicate HMS Victory built in 1759-1765

Solar Navigator .net

Undiscovered for 12 generations, at the floor of the English Channel near the Channel  Islands, the Victory, along with many sons of the most prominent British dignitaries who volunteered voyage, rested in polyandrous frozen time.

Why would there have been dignitary volunteers?  Presumably to keep watch over the treasures that were aboard the greatest ship ever built for the Royal Navy.

Ships of those days many times were what the “Brinks” and “Wells Fargo” of today are to us…armed transportation!

Victory, at the time of her demise, was the most heavily armed Battle Ship in the world.

( Her replacement built 1759-1765, piloted by famed Lord Nelson is the oldest naval ship still in commission, and is dry docked in Portsmouth ,England as a Museum Ship).

ralliers

Victory ?  For England, or for ( Odyssey ) the Florida Salvage Company who has located the all but forgotten wreckage?

“This is the most significant shipwreck discovery in history” Said Odyssey president Greg Stemm. “It’s the solution to one of the most intriguing naval mysteries in history. It went down with the most famous admiral of his time, it went down with the largest collection of brass cannon in the world on-board, and research suggest it has one of the largest shipments of  gold and silver that will likely ever be found on a shipwreck“.  ( Feb.2 2009)

Stemm and his company are very aware of possible controversies stemming from such discoveries by (Original Propitiatory) countries. Odyssey Marine is currently still in a court battle with Spain over the discovery of the shipwreck 17th century ( Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes ), in 2006. The Mercedes is said to hold $500 Million dollars worth of treasure.

*(US federal court records filed by Odyssey, seeking exclusive rights, describe the site as 25 to 40 miles from the English coast, outside UK territorial waters)*.

Wow?  You may ask. How much treasure is the Victory said to have been carrying when she went down?  The answer is a shocking …More!!!

Over 100,000 of these babies with an estimated value of $1 BILLION Dollars.

The HMS Victory was returning from Lisbon, Portugal, according  to Odyssey’s research carrying 100,000 gold coins for numerous merchant companies.  She was dispatched to Portugal’s Tagus River to rescue a Mediterranean Convoy being blockaded by the French. The great “Man of War” was needless to say successful on her last assignment.

Sadly, however, she never made it home to Portsmouth to be greeted or accommodated for her gallant mission. None of the said 900 to 1,100 sailors aboard her final voyage in her short seven year life span would ever see lands end, or the shores of merry old Ingland again. “She went down in deep waters”.  Stemm said; The most likely cause of her demise was faulty construction of the ship herself.

Manned by some of the most highly skilled seaman known and available to England at the time, and piloted by the most esteemed admiral of his, and many days before, (Admiral John Balchin), the HMS Victory rested not alone for 250 years on the silent floor of the English Channel…but in the best company she could ever have been in…the company of her valiant and loyal crew.

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“Cutty Sark” (Queen of the High Seas )

Scotland’s Favorite Son’s Poem; Where the Cutty Sark Got Her Name.

“Tam 0′ Shanter”

in the original mixed  Scots/English

When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An’ getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,

Apparently, Tam of Shanter stayed a wee bit long et the public hoose a drinkin...and while a riding home on his prized Mare Meg, et the withching hour, his Bonnet hindered his eyes a blinkin...what Tam rally saw on that foggy night, we probably will never know...and as the great Scotish Poet Robert Burns reveals, whut Tam he saw , may forever be un-told... P.W.

That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam o’ Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter:
(Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses).

O Tam! had’st thou but been sae wise,
As taen thy ain wife Kate’s advice!
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,
A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum;
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou was na sober;
That ilka melder wi’ the Miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;

meh be explains while though her sails were white as snow on a mid days scene, some sailors claim in a squall at night, from a distance, sometimes her sails were green...

That ev’ry naig was ca’d a shoe on
The Smith and thee gat roarin’ fou on;
That at the Lord’s house, ev’n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi’ Kirkton Jean till Monday,
She prophesied that late or soon,
Thou wad be found, deep drown’d in Doon,
Or catch’d wi’ warlocks in the mirk,
By Alloway’s auld, haunted kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen’d, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises!

But to our tale: Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right,
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,
Wi reaming sAats, that drank divinely;
And at his elbow, Souter Johnie,
His ancient, trusty, drougthy crony:
Tam lo’ed him like a very brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
The night drave on wi’ sangs an’ clatter;
And aye the ale was growing better:
The Landlady and Tam grew gracious,
Wi’ favours secret, sweet, and precious:
The Souter tauld his queerest stories;
The Landlord’s laugh was ready chorus:
The storm without might rair and rustle,
Tam did na mind the storm a whistle.

Care, mad to see a man sae happy,
E’en drown’d himsel amang the nappy.
As bees flee hame wi’ lades o’ treasure,
The minutes wing’d their way wi’ pleasure:
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious!

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow’r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white-then melts for ever;
Or like the Borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the Rainbow’s lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm. –
Nae man can tether Time nor Tide,

"and the wind cried Katie"

The hour approaches Tam maun ride;
That hour, o’ night’s black arch the key-stane,
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in;
And sic a night he taks the road in,
As ne’er poor sinner was abroad in.

The wind blew as ‘twad blawn its last;
The rattling showers rose on the blast;
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow’d;
Loud, deep, and lang, the thunder bellow’d:
That night, a child might understand,
The deil had business on his hand.

Weel-mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,
Tam skelpit on thro’ dub and mire,
Despising wind, and rain, and fire;
Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet,
Whiles crooning o’er some auld Scots sonnet,
Whiles glow’rin round wi’ prudent cares,

Lest bogles catch him unawares;
Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,
Where ghaists and houlets nightly cry.

By this time he was cross the ford,
Where in the snaw the chapman smoor’d;
And past the birks and meikle stane,
Where drunken Charlie brak’s neck-bane;
And thro’ the whins, and by the cairn,
Where hunters fand the murder’d bairn;
And near the thorn, aboon the well,
Where Mungo’s mither hang’d hersel’.
Before him Doon pours all his floods,
The doubling storm roars thro’ the woods,
The lightnings flash from pole to pole,
Near and more near the thunders roll,
When, glimmering thro’ the groaning trees,
Kirk-Alloway seem’d in a bleeze,
Thro’ ilka bore the beams were glancing,
And loud resounded mirth and dancing.

Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi’ tippenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi’ usquabae, we’ll face the devil!
The swats sae ream’d in Tammie’s noddle,
Fair play, he car’d na deils a boddle,
But Maggie stood, right sair astonish’d,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish’d,
She ventur’d forward on the light;
And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight!

Warlocks and witches in a dance:
Nae cotillon, brent new frae France,
But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels,
Put life and mettle in their heels.
A winnock-bunker in the east,
There sat auld Nick, in shape o’ beast;
A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them music was his charge:
He screw’d the pipes and gart them skirl,
Till roof and rafters a’ did dirl. –
Coffins stood round, like open presses,
That shaw’d the Dead in their last dresses;
And (by some devilish cantraip sleight)
Each in its cauld hand held a light.
By which heroic Tam was able
To note upon the haly table,
A murderer’s banes, in gibbet-airns;
Twa span-lang, wee, unchristened bairns;
A thief, new-cutted frae a rape,
Wi’ his last gasp his gabudid gape;
Five tomahawks, wi’ blude red-rusted:
Five scimitars, wi’ murder crusted;
A garter which a babe had strangled:
A knife, a father’s throat had mangled.
Whom his ain son of life bereft,
The grey-hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi’ mair of horrible and awfu’,
Which even to name wad be unlawfu’.
Three lawyers tongues, turned inside oot,
Wi’ lies, seamed like a beggars clout,
Three priests hearts, rotten, black as muck,
Lay stinkin, vile in every neuk.

As Tammie glowr’d, amaz’d, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious;
The Piper loud and louder blew,
The dancers quick and quicker flew,
The reel’d, they set, they cross’d, they cleekit,
Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,
And coost her duddies to the wark,
And linkit at it in her sark!

Now Tam, O Tam! had they been queans,
A’ plump and strapping in their teens!
Their sarks, instead o’ creeshie flainen,
Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linen!-
Thir breeks o’ mine, my only pair,
That ance were plush o’ guid blue hair,
I wad hae gien them off my hurdies,
For ae blink o’ the bonie burdies!
But wither’d beldams, auld and droll,
Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal,
Louping an’ flinging on a crummock.
I wonder did na turn thy stomach.

But Tam kent what was what fu’ brawlie:
There was ae winsome wench and waulie
That night enlisted in the core,
Lang after ken’d on Carrick shore;
(For mony a beast to dead she shot,
And perish’d mony a bonie boat,
And shook baith meikle corn and bear,
And kept the country-side in fear);
Her cutty sark, o’ Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho’ sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.
Ah! little ken’d thy reverend grannie,
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie,
Wi twa pund Scots (’twas a’ her riches),
Wad ever grac’d a dance of witches!

But here my Muse her wing maun cour,

Overwhelmed by the visage of the Old Witch who led the dance, in nothing but a shirt without underpants, Tam shouted ( Weel done Cutty Sark ) giving away his presence and causing him to flee for dear life into the relentless lightning filled stormy dark night .

After the Medling Mortal Bloke, in my Stew His Head will choke!!!

Sic flights are far beyond her power;
To sing how Nannie lap and flang,
(A souple jade she was and strang),
And how Tam stood, like ane bewithc’d,
And thought his very een enrich’d:
Even Satan glowr’d, and fidg’d fu’ fain,
And hotch’d and blew wi’ might and main:
Till first ae caper, syne anither,
Tam tint his reason a thegither,
And roars out, “Weel done, Cutty-sark!”
And in an instant all was dark:
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied.
When out the hellish legion sallied.

As bees bizz out wi’ angry fyke,
When plundering herds assail their byke;
As open pussie’s mortal foes,
When, pop! she starts before their nose;
As eager runs the market-crowd,
When “Catch the thief!” resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi’ mony an eldritch skreich and hollow.

The moral of the poem it appears, is never drink to long in the public house, while leaving at home a lonely spouce; Though you may run into witches casting their spells, wifey may already have prophysied it from the church as well. So as you may think you've run into a brood of demons congering a chilling curse, your wife may have spoken one already worse. So if ever ye find you stayed till the end of the KEG, DO NOT TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME!!! AND ABSOLUTLY DO NOT DRIVE...Leave the driving to your trustee friend...but I wouldn't tell the wife...that the friends name was MEG!!

Ah, Tam! Ah, Tam! thou’ll get thy fairin!
In hell, they’ll roast thee like a herrin!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin!
Kate soon will be a woefu’ woman!
Now, do thy speedy-utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stone o’ the brig;^1
There, at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the keystane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
For Nannie, far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi’ furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie’s mettle!
Ae spring brought off her master hale,
But left behind her ain grey tail:
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

Now, wha this tale o’ truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son, take heed:
Whene’er to Drink you are inclin’d,
Or Cutty-sarks rin in your mind,
Think ye may buy the joys o’er dear;
Remember Tam o’ Shanter’s mare.

“Tam O’ Shanter”  by Robert Burns  1790

In Scots;  a lowland Scottish dialect, vernacular to Germanic/Norwegian, and different from the Highland Celt-Gaelic lingo …a language worthy of an in- depth study of it’s own, Sark was the name for an undergarment worn by both men and women. Basically Tee-Shirt.

Cutty Sark, the ship, got her name from the fictional character portrayed in the poet known as “Scotland’s favorite son’s”1791 poem [Tam o’ Shanter]. By Robert Burns.  Nannie Dee, the old witch who led the dance in the poem, wearing nothing but a shirt that she had worn as a child, thereby way to short to cover her properly.

The “Great Queen of the Sea” was built for the Tea trade and races from China to England.  She was actually modified later to try and compete with the on-setting steam ship revolution, as well as Her Sails were shortened; Hence, Cutty Sark,  (little shirt.)

Built for Captain  “Jock” Willis, she launched in 1869, with a full bodied figure-head of “Nannie Dee” on her prow.

She was cut down in Sail height and mast later, to better equip her for general freight hauling, officially in 1890; though some of her last surviving crew members say that it was done prior to 1880.

As the steamrolling revolution of the Steam Ships, and the Suez Canal  already were in place as the most reliable means of shipping, though The Cutty was still much quicker, she was the last “Clipper” ship ever built for the purpose of “Merchant Marine” transports.

The ship log, and exciting, but tragic events during her voyage between 1890-91, were the basis for Joseph Conrads 1909 short story  The Secret Sharer

Legend among  Sea-Farriers of her time, say that though her sails were as white as snow on a clear sailing day, She had oft been seen in dreary mist and squall, with Sails appearing as Caribbean sea water green.

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“Santa Maria”

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Many a swell did she toil, while

carried wind and wave asunder.

And for 36 years she did sail;

Without anything taking her under.

Born and Christened the great Galician;

Kampat ( Santa Maria )

She floundered about the seas.

Slower than most, yet gained flag host;

as for Atlantic crossing none fared better than she.

But on the Christmas morn of Columbus first land;

She ran aground, both on corral and sand,

tearing her hull in two. So they stripped

her down, to build a town, on an Isle now known as Haiti

to the likes of me and you.

A twisted  irony, or maybe prophetic fate;

One can not but surely relate, and suspect

a Devils trick.

And wonder how the great

Santa Maria de la inmaculada Concepcio’n;

On Christmas day became a town called Mole’ St. Nick

( Just my thoughts after reading this )

Wiki= Santa Maria

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© paul willis 2010 -all rights reserved

“U S S Constitution”

Aye,,, matee’s

Tis me again, the ole Seadog…n with anather sea-faring tale of suspense, history, and action far yar readin entertainment. The USS. Constitution was the first requisitioned ship to stand against foreign tyranny towards the newly found United States of America, by none other than the father of the nation George Washington hiself…and Aye..she’s still afloat today.

Hard to believe um shore, but, still be a sitten et pier one, roit et the end of the historically  famous “Freedom Trail” in Bahston, Massachusetts. You can see it today…yes, nuthing too hard to see, should one decide to go thar and make thar presence be,,,Nuthing to hard far shar…like far the Constitution, thar was never too hard a sea…

Between the years 1794 and 1797 USS Constitution was under construction at Edmund Hartt’s shipyard in Boston Massachusetts . One of six frigates authorized by George Washington for construction by declaring the Naval Armament Act March 27, 1794, the Constitution launched at Boston harbor for the first time October 21, 1797.

She set sail on her first cruise, July 22, 1798. It was a cruise which took her and 450 sailors to the Caribbean seas. She was off to do battle in the undeclared;  “Quasi-war between the United States and France. A war fought completely at sea, and lasting for three years.

She made good wind to the Islands, and stood high in the water, as well as in terms of battle and defense during her first tour. After returning to Boston from the Caribbean, the Constitution was “Mothballed”  ( in today’s terms ) for about  two years. The Navy term for mothballing in 1801 was “In Ordinary“, meaning that the mast, rigging, sails, guns, and navigation equipment were all removed from the ship and stored inland, while the ship itself remained dry-docked for repairs.

By 1803, Constitution was boastfully ready for another tour of duty in another war should one arise in need of her services. That, of course wasn’t a problem as one had swollen the North African seas for the newly, now unprotected  ships of United States since the day that she went in ordinaries, in 1801.

Though British merchants, coastal dwellers, and fishermen had lived in fear of becoming slaves or killed by marauding Pirates commissioned by the Ottoman Empire as early as the late sixteenth century, by the late seventeenth century, Britain had begun paying the Algerian countries subsidies for safe passage of British ships. This did not completely stop the North African countries from taking British subjects from land, home, and sea and selling them into slavery. Still, British naval power, and diplomacy carried much weight in the shipping department.

Prior to the Revolutionary war, colonized America’s ships were under British naval protection, and tributary umbrella. During the Revolutionary war with England, the  states allied with the French, wherein France was under treaty to the nascent U.S. maritime safety with the signing of the 1778 treaty of Alliance.

By 1783, however, the U.S. had burned more than a few bridges, and therefore nothing shy of  a formidable Navy of their own, ferrying  state of the art super-vessels could get them through the ravaging pirated waters of the Barbary coast.  Collectively, the U.S. had payed millions of dollars  (most of which borrowed ) of ransom, and tributes to the corsair piloting pirates,  and at long last decided enough is enough.

Accordingly, in 1803, after resting and repairing her battle wearied hull from the three-year Quasi-War with France in the Caribbean, USS Constitution heads off on the blue horizon as the flagship of the U.S. Mediterranean Squadron to do battle with Muslim pirates, princes, and Algerian corsairs.

By 1805, the United States went unchallenged both in seaport, and the open waters of the mid-eastern joining seas. Nonetheless, the USS Constitution and her crew of valiant seamen continued to patrol the Mediterranean until 1807. She spent the next two years under repair in New York, and patrolled the U.S. Coastline as the flagship of the Northern division of ships for the protection of the American coast until 1810, and was  the Northern Squadron flagship until 1811.

Setting sail in August of 1811, the ships tinier took her across the big pond on voyage to France, England, and Holland.

All of what the USS Constitution had been through thus far was admirable but relatively ill-noted as far as public awareness until the one year cross sea voyage was complete. From whence most of her notoriety and claim to fame would arise to surface was the eminent war of 1812.

Cannon balls fired from British ships striking her thick hulled sides were bouncing off and dropping to the depths of the sea like rocks thrown by little boys at cypress trees, bouncing into the swamps below.

She proudly sailed the war while taking many merchant ships, and defeating five majorly feared British battle frigates;  one being the “Guerrier“.  It was the gallant stance against, and capture of the Guerrier, that gained her the famous name “Old Ironsides”.

Fighting on two years after that,  she took the HMS Java,  HMS Cyane, and the latter of the British brutes, the HMS Levant on February 20,  1815.

At 36 years old, the young lassi was seen moored in many harbors around the world even for the next 64 years . Her assignments ranging from training missions, to a two-year around the world cruise, and  transporting American exhibits to the Paris Exhibition in 1878, before coming home to Boston for her 100 year birthday party in September 1897.

Though she had served as a receiving ship in Portsmouth New Hampshire, and part of an Apprentice training Squadron from the time of her arrival back from the Paris Exhibition, the Constitution remained on exhibition her self for the better part of 116 years, and never sailed the high seas under her own power again…

Until 1997, just months before celebrating her 200th birthday.

The great Tall Ship Parade leading charmer is visited still today, (as Queen Elizabeth II did July 4th, 1976 ) at the end of the famed freedom trail in Boston Massachusetts.

Mr. Green Jeans Photo-Bucket

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Queen Annes Revenge

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“Along the shore I spy a ship
As she sets out to sea;
She spreads her sails and sniffs the breeze
And slips away from me.

I watch her fading image shrink,
As she moves on and on,
Until at last she’s but a speck,
Then someone says, “She’s gone.”

Gone where? Gone only from our sight
And from our farewell cries;
That ship will somewhere reappear
To other eager eyes.

Beyond the dim horizon’s rim
Resound the welcome drums,
And while we’re crying, “There she goes!”
They’re shouting, “Here she comes!”

We’re built to cruise for but a while
Upon this trackless sea
Until one day we sail away
( by John T. Baker)

Into infinity”.

Bristol, England, 1680, born was a chap, the name of Teach. Edward Teach, according to most references to his name in historical documents written within the past 200 years.

Original documents, under protection of the North Carolina office of Archives and History, and the North Carolina Maritime Museum, however, show that the fellow went by the name of Edward Thache.

At least he did during the time of his shenanigans, and brief attempt to live a reformed life in Bath Town, the first (English) town established on North Carolina soil.

Though there are other aliases, or discrepancies, about what his name actually was, none of them are all that important to us here in this rendering of his story.

Quite simply, this is because we readily recognize him by the name that carries as ominous an undertone to it, as does his legacy, and that being “Blackbeard the Pirate”.

Little is known of his background before becoming the world’s most notorious pirate. A claim to fame ironically twisted with one of the shortest durations of existence in the historically documented tyrannical tirades of the high seas.

Was he one of the many penal subjects of his time,
commissioned by the British government, to sail as crew members along with Picaroon, or Privateer Captains?

Or, was he a dedicated British sailor at one time, working a legitimate job in a far away place, that made sticking to that kind of life, rather than sailing back to England and facing unemployment seem practical?

These are details of the mans life that we may never know, but, most everything that he did from the point of parting ways from the Captain that he had worked under out of Jamaica, have been well documented.

Privateer, as well as picaroon pilfering were both sanctioned, and many times commissioned by the British, both during the Queen Anne’s war,(1702-13) and off the tidewater states, in the New World.

Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, openly expressed their disdain for British control, and therefore suffered many attacks on their ships, as well as many of the Plantations along those shores by picaroon fleets.

The original reason for the British Picaroons being in North America, was to protect the colonies who were being brutally attacked by the French, with allied Indians.
Later, however, they took on their own pirating practices, against the colonies, and divided the booty among themselves to auction off.

Privateers like Benjamin Hornigold, whom Edward Teach served under as first mate, worked for the British out of Norfolk England, attacking, and disarming enemy ships in and around the Bahamas during the war of the Spanish Succession.

Though Hornigold and his crew were already pilfering, and stealing, or sinking ships for there personal benefit by 1713, Hornigold was careful to not attack any ship flying the British flag; thereby keeping the pretense, and commissions as a privateer working for the British.

Hornigold, and his crew had taken a 30 gun sloop by 1717, and he gave the Captaincy of his previously manned sloop over to Teach.

Later that year, after acquiring a total of five ships, and a crew of at least 350 men, the lieutenants of the fleet mutinied over Hornigold, because of his policy of not taking all the ships that they came across, including the British flagships, and voted Edward Teach in as the new Captain.

Thus began the short lived, but greatly feared pirating career, as well as the renaming , of Edward Teach, to Blackbeard the Pirate.

In two short years by means of self-projecting a fearsome reputation, to gain a psychological advantage over any ship’s crew that he came across, Blackbeard took over 40 ships.

Usually, a loosely armed merchant ship would surrender readily after seeing the message that was given when Blackbeard’s flag was hoisted.

washymcwashy image

When the crews did not resist his crews stealing of their cargo, then they were left with ship to sail, and lives to live. Others who put up resistance to his plummeting, plunderers, found themselves on a deserted sand bar, or island, watching their ship burn into the tide.

Said to have been a very tall, large framed man, with a black beard covering nearly all of his face, Blackbeard, who claimed to have been empowered from Satan himself, hung lime-juice soaked canon wicks under his hat before leaping on board a vessel filled with young merchant sailors, and lit them, to give off an even more ominous look.

By November 1717, he had taken an even bigger, 14 gun French slave ship, called the La Concord, quickly increased it’s fire power to 40 guns, and called her the “Queen Anne’s Revenge”. The reputation quickly swelled to “the Pirate armed enough to put a British Man of war under the sea“.

North Carolina was governed at the time by British Lord Governor Charles Eden, who had come over from England in 1714, and assumed the Governorship of the colony.

Not only did the shallow, difficult maneuvering waters of the outer-banks of North Carolina make good hiding places for Pirates and there ships, but, it is said that with a substantial cut in the booty, so did Governor Eden.

In fact, though, there are other stories of why Blackbeard decided to go back into piracy, after settling in Bath, and receiving a full pardon from the good Governor; it is said that the Governor and Teach had a secret plan for one more big haul.

During that attempt at one last bit of skulduggery, is where Blackbeard met his watery demise. Some say this was due to Governor Eden double crossing him,to relieve himself of any connection, after learning that a British Naval Ship was on it’s way to track down the Villainous swashbuckler.

Though Blackbeard was armed to the hilt, with swords, knives, and guns, there is no record of him ever killing anyone, prior to his final battle,against Lieutenant Maynard, and his crew of British Navy men.

This battle took place, on November, 22,1718, and Teach is said to have received 20 cuts, or stabbings, and five gunshot wounds before falling to his knees, to be decapitated by Maynard’s sword.

His head was hung on the front of the Virginia ported ship, and later his scull was turned into a drinking bowl, and is now on display in a Massachusetts museum.

And though it is also told that he had 14 different wives, all of whom he was supposed to have been very gentle, and loving toward, there is only one record of him ever being married, and that to a 16 year old girl from Bath, North Carolina, by the name of Mary Ormond.

During his stay in Bath, Blackbeard was said to have been the Gentleman’s Gentleman, and sociably graceful, and poised enough to charm the likes of even the governing officials.

Apparently, he did however, frighten most everyone, due to his reputation, which, seems to have been greatly enhanced by himself to strike fear into those whom he was about to take a ship or cargo from.

No one was ever killed during a raid, and no one ever walked the plank…at least, not at the command of Blackbeard, that was ever documented.

Some say prior to his last attempt to go a pirating, he was angering, or scaring his new found neighbors, by several wild parties that he joined with other jolly roger flying crews in his favorite place to hide his ship, in Ocracoke inlet. A place that is still known today as “Teache’s Hole“
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Both Parties Lose (Oil Volcano)

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Someone had a dream, they’d see a reality one day. Life of writing, hopes of a best seller, now every-body has a dream in the way.

There are Free-books, E-books, and literature, all at the touch of a key, maybe it comes as a surprise to some, but, makes perfect sense to me.

And someone said they had a dream, from all the hush, hush, media coverage of  an oil soaked gulf stream.

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Said it was a nightmare, great waves covered the land, great whites gulped along the shore. Even into homes, tainted waters of destruction caused by a gushing spore.

It all may seem blurred to some,  a black smoke slick rising from the sea, but, seeing it from a birds eye view, it’s all so clear to me.

This post was never meant to be written in  poetic form or prose,  certainly not a joyful matter, as anyone with half a brain knows.

But like reasons we are  given of why they can’t stop a simple leak,  from my mouth in prose, do rhymes go, but things to come hold little mystery.

Sorry for my babbling, sometimes hear voices in my head, but thanks to the steel plate inside,  at least I’m not completely dead.

The scariest thing about dreams like these, is that, both could appear on the surface, as just a nightmare in our own little heads.

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But, then they could very well be prophecies;  reiterations,  or something we could have done instead of something we only said.

What could have brought us all to this place, writing of the world, blaming others for it’s  shape ?

Information travels to and fro, rivers of shared knowledge, lessons costly learned yet offered up so free;

Silent scream oceans of drowning opinions, all shouting from a collective soul, canceling our own voices, a tiny part of a roaring apathetic sea.

If we all have opinions, and know what opinions are like, then what could the problem be?

Sometimes hard, overwhelmingly surreal, hard to accept, but life bites cold as jaws of steel.

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Population,  globalization, reared their ugly heads long before dashing the hopes and dreams, of  inkwell, type and quill.

The ghosts who roam what were once their family farms, still hauntingly whisper why?

Ears of a  generation who see global conglomeration itch, but, not for those who have gone before do the tears stand, which can be seen in our wondering eyes.

Independent truckers, long lost highway songs, like whining tires of an 18 wheeler twenty years ago, passing  you on the street,

fading to silence, as it descends the hill, where it is  swallowed up,  becoming just another number of  many trucks in one large corporate fleet.

Now the train, who’s steam has been tethered,  after Government bye outs of largest iron horses, which cross tied the county

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together;

Go loaded with trucks on piggy back, it’s quite a site to see, rolling thunder, screeching steel, like the cold rails under, from sea to shining sea.

Fishing trawlers, and shrimping boats, moored along the U.S. Coast. No money to fuel the fleet. Forbidden to catch the shellfish, the world demands to eat;

Great ships of China, docked by there side, selling millions of crates of the same, as the world watches the next food star rise,to serve America up, in a 21st century global monopoly game.

_-_-_—–___-sTAaTicCc___—_ Wait  __—-_This Just In__-_—_-sTaTiCccC..….Our on the Scene News team, and reporter Jan Holman are live on the scene in Baton- Rouge …__-_-..Frank..>..—__—-_–con f .. li  c ting…    ources tell us_-___—–___–very easily, should the conditions of the oil, which has sunk to the depths of the ocean floor, form the same type of gas bubble, which happened near the surface, causing the rig to explode in the first place, come within sparking distance of one of the many thermal vents  which dot the ocean floor–_-throu–_ou_-t_–t–his

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underwater  region_–s_–T_a–tI_-cC_c-_Cc__-S-c i_ entist say, emitting steam and heat at  temperatures of molten lava, and rock…___—___—-SaTAATiCsatasSTatic._–_–meet the needs  __—_——-StatTic– One man carrying a sign which says..__—-StaTic -“the population explosion“,   Staititiciticcc Man say’s, as globalization, attempts to control that population have been in effect for a lot longer, and more obvious in other professio –__– _-

We apologize, but we seem to have lost contact with our on the scene reporter Jan Holman, But, sitting here live in the news room of our local broadcast affiliates, with Anchor man Frank Beuchette, is John Thundercloud, a man who claims to be picking up strange radio transmissions in his head, from not only our stations, but apparently from all over the world.

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Mr. Thundercloud, you are claiming that everything which is happening, and even will happen in the future concerning this great country of ours has been shown to you in some sort of …vivid dream, or premonition, or revelation, is that  correct?

Well, not exactly Frank, I actually only read about it. But, yes, you could definitely say that it was a Revelation, in fact, it was in a book called the Reve...Now John, can I call you John? Sure. Am I understanding this correctly that you are picking up radio waves from around the world, from some sort of steel plate that was placed in your head resulting from a freak hunting accident?

!!!! HERES YOUR SIGN!!!!

Well, I guess you could call it a freak hunting accident Frank, ah, can I call you Frank? Sure. I mean, I’m not sure what they were hunting, in front of the White House, unless it was people carrying protest signs, but, yes, I do hear radio transmissions resulting from that incident three years ago Frank and…

Now, John, please, can you tell us now, what you are hearing right now, or, are you picking up anything right now?

No, well, I mean, being here in the studio, I am pretty much hearing a lot of static, but, no more really than when I watch one of your shows on the six ocloc…

Okay, John we are a little pressed for time here, ah..m, could you tell us anything, anything that may relate directly to what is taking place in this world, or out on the Gulf right now ?  According to the voices that you are hearing in your head?

Well, personally, I agree with many who have commented that we as a whole, as the human race are wasteful, users, and haven’t taken care of our planet. But, that’s not what I see taking place in the Gulf.

What’s really sad, is to see how apathetic, and disconnected the general public of this country truly are, that an entire ecosystem, and lively hood of the country can be destroyed, right before our very eyes, and we refuse to see what’s taking place.

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This country has been slowly conditioned for over 30 years, to accept nearly anything that takes place as accidental, and to shift the blame to the opposite political party than that in which they personally accept as the right one.

The sadist reality is, that there is only one political machine which calls all the shots, and both sides of the general puppets, I mean public, are being played against the other, by constituents of a more global governing agenda, who are sitting in high string pulling positions on both sides of the stage.

That of course is not to say that everyone on capitol hill are under that persuasion, or agenda, but, then those who are not, are not in any position to fight what is taking place.

Personally, I see a much larger force at work behind the whole thing than just BP, although, I am sure that they are one of the top shelf constituents. I see only one thing standing in the way of the European unions globalizing the worlds economy plan, and that thing would be any free country. ie the U.S.

I don’t think the time that it has taken to “not remedy” the situation, or to stop the leak was an accident, in fact, I have serious doubts that the “Leak” itself was in fact an accident. Looking back through the hour glass of conditioning that has been poured out onto the U.S. for at least the past 35 years, there is an unmistakable trail easily seen, of conglomeration of the…huhuum: Small People;

“Let me interrupt you there Mr. Thundercloud, we have a concerned person calling in, a Mr. Jim Beordeux, who would like to comment on what you are saying”.

Go ahead, Jim, are you there ?

CloneDjedi

Uh yesir, I thank theys a whole lot to what Mr. Thundercloud has a been a saying there …ah, ahh.. ah, Frank.

I mean, uh  why else was the fishing and shrimping industry of the east coast shoreline, halted, by them,  more subtle means during the past 30 years?  While the great ships of China, as he puts it are seen meandering as a dot from the shipping lane horizon, till they look like small cities docked ashore, unloading millions of pounds of the same shrimp, and fish to sell in America, where our own shrimp and fishing boat’s wings have been clipped from harvesting ? Don’tcha see.

Why were the Independent trucking companies sold up the river to the three largest Rail-Road companies,  2 of which the US government owned 20 years ago?

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Why were the family farms forced into selling, or foreclosure, and a conglomeratin  into the Government owned feed and mass live stock companies, years ago?

And somebuddy a commented earlier, that they had heard of Police Departments supporting BP’s authority over this ah, Leak, this aint no leak, friends, this-shears a underwater explosive gas bubble, growin  bigger n bigger everyday…and try not  just local police… but the U.S. Coast Guard… is a enforcing BP’s control of thungs down thar… I’m here to tell ya Frank, after what all I done seen over the past twenty, or thirty years in this country, like Mr. Thundercloud’s a saying theys somethin just aint right.

Come to thank of it Frank, now that I look back, I’m not so shore them two twin towers wasn’t a  strategically imploded to collapse in their own foot prints like some of dem truth peoples on the T.V. have a been a sayin all along.

“Okay Mr. Beordeux ..?

Well, like that big Sweedish man,Svanberg, or how ever it is, up thar for the B.P. Mr. Beordeux?    No, I aint finished quite yet Frank. Yeah, I caint pernounce his name, but, saying that B.P. cared about us small people. Well, I thank they been closing in on the small

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people way too long as it is.   Mr. Beordeux..?    I aint finished yet Frank!  They been closing down, and buying up small business’s into larger, more easily managed, by the governing agencies, why, I can remember for twenty years at least now Frank.

Take the family farms.They probably took the first blow beginning as far back as the mid 70’s. By the late 80’s most family farms had either been forced into foreclosure, or to sell to a conglomerate; who financed the buildings for the farmers to work for the conglomerates. I know, cause my daddy was one of um.

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The farmers then, never seen no profit, until after them huge live stock buildings were payed fer, which most of them sold out before hand without ever seeing any profit, just to keep from losing even their good names and credit, them that was smart, or lucky enough to git out in time.

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Independent truckers were next, bought, or priced out of business by cut rate freight haulers, owned by the three largest railroad companies in the country ( 2 of which the government owns) then, of course, there are many that I’m skipping over.

But, before the Gulf Coast fisheries, and shrimpers were slimmed to a halt ,the East Coast fish and shrimp boats have been docked for over 20 years, other than to be able to catch their own, if they are lucky enough to own a restaurant along the coast…and that of

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course, only seasonal. They have been restricted from catching the size, limit, or species, of shrimp, or fish that the world demands to eat for over 20 years now. To the point that they can’t afford to fuel the boats. So, in a way, you could say, that they to has been  B-Peed!!!

Mr. Beordeux, we thank you for calling in but we really have to get back to Jan Holman and our on site news team, as she is waiting online right now. Jan, can you hear me?

Yes barely Frank, and I have to tell you that things are not good here in Baton Rouge. We  lost radio contact with our affiliates along the water way, at the Gulf shore, in the middle of a sentence, our affiliate reporter was silenced, just as we heard a loud explosion of some kind, and a lot of what appeared to be loud screams and chaos in those who wer    Ah WatersTATiCa Coming tHIS ….Beeeeeeeeeep…..

Revelation 16:4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

Oh my God, we have just lost contact with Jan Holman in the middle of a sentence saying  something about the water may even have been reaching up as far inland …as…

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Yes Frank, I’m picking up what seems to be a transmission from a weather plane over the Baton Rouge area  in my head right now. Seems that a tidal wave has just leveled the entire city, and is headed our way at a tremendous force and  rate of speed…StATiuc__–_—-_——-____What else Mr. Thundercloud?

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-_-_—-staTic__—-_—-_=_—–=_—-__ I seem to be picking up a station further inland or some where.  It’s a song, …. by Don McLean.

Bye Bye Miss American Pie Drove My Chevy to The Levee, But the Levee Was Dry, Them Good  old boys were

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drinking whiskey and rye, and singing this will be the day that I __—-_-_–0 ie,this e’ll be the day that I die…

iebeEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…….__—_–_______——-StAAtAIc__—_—_

_-____———___— The ghost who roam what were once their family farms, still hauntingly whisper why? _–___-sATaTic__—-__To those of us here, in the generation which can_–stAtAIC__—__— see the answer. Independent truckers, still sing out long lost highway songs, like the whining of an 18 wheelers truck tires, that passed us on the side of the road__–__—- twenty years ago, and finally fade to silence, as they crest the hill above of us, and ——___——-sATtic__—___-begin their descent, on the other side, into being just a number of the many many trucks in one large corp-orated fleet.____——–_____-__sTatidcs,__—_– Fishing trawlers, and shrimping boats, moored idle along the U.S. East Coast, either unable to afford the crude, to fuel the ship, or restricted from catching the size, and limit of the shell, which the world demands to eat, while the great ships of China, dock next to them everyday, and unload millions of frozen crates of the stuff, for all the world to see, the next network food star sizzle up for the judges to taste.  StaTiC/(0)_–wHooUR__-_-StAtICCCccc__–_w– hi—ch B.P. and Government officials were increasingly warned about by scientist and committees who apparently had their hands suddenly-_–_–__–SatAtic_—-_–_ tied, as they  are suppose to have the authority to shut down any such dangerous shot-ee short cuts –_–___——-_And.>>…….bEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

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