[dramatic swashbuckling music]
[narrator] The Caribbean is home to a notorious band of British pirates…
[pirates cheering]
…called the Flying Gang.
They plunder merchant ships,
sailing from the Americas to Europe
and Africa.
Take everything. Gracias.
[neck snapping]
[narrator] They ravage the profits of London's merchants.
We have all lost to these heathen pirates.
These traitors!
[narrator] England's King George I has had enough,
so he comes up with a shock tactic…
-[Vane] What does it say? -[narrator] …to end piracy.
[Jennings] It's an offer from the King, a pardon.
[narrator] Clemency for those who turn their backs on piracy.
-I have your word? -My future depends on it.
-[chains rattling] -The end is coming for you.
[narrator] Those who refuse will be hunted down and hanged.
[wheezing]
It's an offer that sets pirate against pirate.
This is all your fucking pardon is good for.
[narrator] Only two pirates are left standing.
[dramatic music]
[narrator] Blackbeard…
[voice echoing] Blackbeard!
[shrill scream]
[narrator] …and Charles Vane.
And if anyone gives you any trouble, kill 'em.
[cannon fire echoing]
[narrator] In their way stands the King's man,
Woodes Rogers, the pirate terminator.
Who will win the final battle?
[dramatic swashbuckling music]
[waves splashing]
[suspenseful music]
[lantern creaking]
[narrator] Woodes Rogers has sailed halfway round the world
to stamp out Nassau's Pirate Republic in the name of God and country.
[reading indistinctly]
[pirates cheering]
What a festering hellhole.
[woman moaning loudly]
Just listen to that godless rabble.
[woman moaning loudly]
Woodes Rogers was the King's man going on behalf of the government
and on behalf of law and order to clean this place up.
[narrator] But Rogers has a problem
in the shape of the most brutal pirate who ever lived:
Charles Vane.
[shot echoes]
Look at me when I'm talking to you!
Charles Vane is a man with no breeding. No standing in society.
Hold him.
[Lawrence] No respect for authority.
-[squelching] -[screams]
Imposing his own law on other people.
[pistol cocks]
Now would be the time to say something.
[muffled gasp]
[narrator] As one of the last pirates standing,
Vane is now the self-appointed governor of the pirates' republic.
[panting]
[man shouts indistinctly]
[suspenseful music]
From Governor Vane, sir.
He would like to know your…
[gulps]
…answer.
[narrator] In his letter, Vane tells Rogers
he will take the pardon on one condition:
he's allowed to keep all his booty.
Well, look here.
A man who signs his name with a cross
seems to think he's in a position to negotiate with me.
[somber music]
Here's his answer.
If he can't read it well enough, tell him he can cooperate with the King
or he can hang.
[somber music]
[Conniff] Woodes Rogers is horrifically scarred on his face.
Last time he's been in a direct fight with pirates, he took a shot
that lodged itself in his mouth,
and here he is, once again,
about to go back into the same kinda conflict
with the very same enemy.
[somber music]
[women laughing]
[narrator] The remnants of Nassau's pirate community
await Rogers' response.
[pirates laughing]
How long's your husband been now?
He'll be working his ways on Woodes Rogers,
trying to steal a march on yous all, no doubt,
at your very great cost.
[door opens]
[somber music]
[sighs]
[shouting angrily]
[Fox] For Charles Vane, Woodes Rogers was the enemy.
He was the personification of everything that Vane hated.
He was a symbol of authority that Vane seriously opposed.
So, he was the nemesis for Vane.
We'll answer him in kind. Come on, lads.
[narrator] Vane's messenger boy is James Bonny.
His wife, Anne, the leading female pirate in Nassau,
is looking to trade up her man.
[waves splashing]
You have to take me away from him.
From James.
I will.
I'll talk to him. We'll organize it.
[romantic music]
[Cale] When Jack Rackham fell in love with Anne Bonny,
she was still married.
Now, at the time,
divorce was only really available to the wealthy,
and for everybody else, they had wife sales and wife auctions.
It was a pretty common way to get out of a marriage.
It's like trading her as a possession.
[romantic music]
Hide it for now.
I'll bring more.
I'll ride with that madman, Vane, for now,
but I'll come back with my own boat, enough to pay off that bastard, Bonny.
Rackham! Rackham!
[whispers] That man is a madman.
-I know, but he's gonna be a rich madman. -Jack!
Got a surprise for Rogers. Come on.
Come on.
[Vane] Come on!
[somber music]
[suspenseful music]
Cut along there.
[narrator] Rogers' fleet, with a force of 200 men,
is blockading Nassau Harbor.
[somber music]
Burn my honest offer to parlay?
Let's show him what a proper fucking fire is.
[Fox] Vane took one of his ships, and he filled it with everything he could find
that was flammable.
So, pitch and tar,
probably all sorts of other chemicals…
[Woodward] The sort of cherry on top was loading all the canon on this vessel
double loaded with shot,
so that when they heated up, they'd also start randomly firing
and perhaps causing damage all around.
[flames crackling]
We're set, Captain.
[narrator] Vane unleashes hell on the high seas
against the King's Navy.
[flames whooshing]
[dramatic music]
[flames roaring]
[dramatic music]
Sir! Sir!
Cut the lines!
Cut the lines or we all burn.
[Fox] These fire ships, as they were called, were one of the most terrifying
things for a sailor at sea
because all the ships are made of wood and hemp and rope and tar and canvas;
all things that would burn easily.
[flames crackling]
There's a fire, Rogers!
There's your fucking fire.
Move, quickly!
[dramatic music]
Hell awaits you, Vane.
Hell.
Woodes Rogers crew, ships, they cut their anchor cables,
they split, they just fled in any direction they could
to get away from this fire ship.
Set her to the shallows, boys. If the bastard follows, he'll run aground.
[narrator] As Rogers and his fleet scatter,
Vane escapes in his sloop.
When I come back,
you'll be a dead governor on a pile of English corpses.
[somber music]
[waves splashing]
[narrator] 700 miles north of Nassau,
up the Eastern Seaboard,
Blackbeard has decided to take the King's pardon
but carry on plundering.
Load everything!
Let's go, let's go.
[narrator] He brings a haul of booty into the Port of Bath in North Carolina.
Take a bag of sugar back. A nice little sweetener for our new friend.
[sailors talking indistinctly]
[narrator] He's cut a deal with the governor, Charles Eden.
[Blackbeard] A healthy few days fishing, you'll agree?
Thought you might like it as a gesture of goodwill.
A toast to your gracious pardon and our new partnership.
[Woodward] Blackbeard's retirement plan
hinged on the idea that he would be operating
under the legal protection of a governor.
With my men controlling your coast, you'll be safe from the Spaniards,
and there'll be more happy discoveries to line our pockets.
Governor Eden and his friends
will take a portion of Blackbeard's profits
and will even offer to fence some of the stolen merchandise.
[sinister music]
Be careful, now, Captain.
My neighbors are beginning to fret.
You don't want them to cry too loudly.
[chuckles softly]
[Woodward] This turned out to be a misapprehension by Blackbeard,
who was not realizing just how treacherous some of his enemies
in the established proper world of governors and aristocrats might be.
Keep it moving!
Faster!
[tense music]
[narrator] But Blackbeard has already crossed the line,
and spies are watching his every move.
[indistinct sailors' chatter]
[birds calling]
[narrator] Up the coast sits the spymaster,
who has infiltrated Blackbeard's crew.
The Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood,
was a member of nobility.
Now, Virginia had a great deal of trade,
particularly in tobacco,
and Spotswood's job included protecting that trade.
[man] Apologies upon disturbing you.
We have new intelligence upon the whereabouts of Blackbeard.
Blackbeard was an enormous threat to that.
Having a pirate with a powerful ship and a powerful fleet,
sailing up and down the coast of Virginia
would have been devastating for the trade,
which would then have been devastating for the colony itself.
Lieutenant Maynard,
I am looking for a particular individual.
A man that history will record
as the savior of American trade.
A man who will rid the world of Blackbeard.
Would you be that man?
That I would, sir.
Maynard was one of the oldest lieutenants in the Royal Navy.
He was a very, very experienced sailor.
He would have been an ideal man to hunt Blackbeard out
and to lead the attack on him.
You need only do one thing.
Bring me Blackbeard's head.
[gulls crying]
[blacksmith hammering]
[light, tense music]
[approaching footsteps]
[narrator] With Charles Vane safely away at sea,
Woodes Rogers lands in Nassau
as the new official governor.
[somber music]
[Woodward] Woodes Rogers was probably encouraged by his formal arrival.
Hornigold and other pirates assembled to greet him in proper fashion.
[footsteps nearing]
I gather you have all read this?
So, I'll make to the nub of it.
Nassau is now under the rule of the Crown.
As its emissary,
to all intents and purposes and the for the avoidance of doubt,
I am the Crown.
[Walker] Rogers arrival at the end of this site as a pirate nest,
it would have marked its transformation into a more formal colony
and ushered in a new era.
[Rogers] Make no mistake.
Nassau will now run according to the rule of God and the King.
Long live the King.
-Long live the King. -King.
[sighs]
Benjamin Hornigold, at the Crown's service.
Hornigold.
Ah, yes.
The fool who unleashed that murderous scum Vane
on the Caribbean.
Yes…
[tense music]
It would be a poor Christian who didn't believe in forgiveness,
and, as a God-fearing man,
I'm always pleased to offer the fallen
the path to redemption.
So, here is.
Use those skills you have as a captain of some note.
Gather as many souls as you can who are prepared to repent,
and chase down Charles Vane.
[tense music]
[scoffs]
There's no love lost between me and that animal.
He's a danger to all of us.
To all of us.
So, yeah.
I'll hunt him down for you.
[tense music]
Somewhat for the Crown, but mainly for the well-being of my companions.
Bring him to me, feed him to the sharks as you will,
but scrub that man's soul from the list of the living
and finish him.
[tense music]
[Fox] He took the King's shilling, as it were.
He accepted Rogers' authority,
and he started working for Rogers as a pirate hunter,
hunting down his former comrades and bringing them to justice.
[narrator] Hornigold sets sail from Nassau on a manhunt for Charles Vane.
[waves splashing]
[suspenseful music]
Which
one…
will…
it
be?
[unsheathes knife]
[Woodward] Vane was going out of his way to sadistically torture people,
and, you know, even if he didn't think they have treasure,
well, if there's a one percent chance they might be hiding something, we'll find out.
Tell the captain what you know.
I will cut you all into pound pieces and sink this stinking ship!
Last chance.
[shouting] Where are the jewels?
-[whispering inaudibly] -[Vane] What did that man say?
What did he say? What did that man just say?
Plotting, is it?
Well don't you even dare think about double-crossing Charles Vane,
or your thoughts will soon be separated from your dandy neck.
No one's double-crossing you, Charles. He had information useful to you.
So, where are the jewels?
No jewels, Charles.
More valuable than jewels.
[tense music]
They know where Blackbeard's camped.
Then this man must find his voice!
And tell me
where I might find the rascal.
[tense music]
Hmm?
[suspenseful music]
-[men laughing] -[hornpipe playing]
[Blackbeard] Drink!
[Fox] After Blackbeard had taken some French ships,
he and his men retreated to Ocracoke Island,
which is several miles off the coast of North Carolina.
Come on, you lazy bunch of nomads.
[pirates laughing]
-[laughing] -[man] Drink!
[pirates keep laughing]
Up the Frenchies.
They have the mother of all parties.
They cracked open the barrels.
They danced, they sang.
[narrator] But Blackbeard knows that life as a pirate
has many ways of catching up with you.
[somber music]
It's very possible that Blackbeard was suffering from syphilis.
[somber music continues]
[pained gasps]
Now, there was no cure for syphilis that was readily available
until about 1930.
[pirates laughing]
So, if people contracted this, you could expect it to eventually kill them
if something else didn't first.
[Blackbeard panting]
I think it's time, old friend,
for us to call it a day.
I think you need more alcohol.
[Vane] Edward!
Oh,
you throw a marvelous party, my friend.
[chuckles]
What a stroke of fortune you were passing this way.
[Vane] Mm.
I've been looking for you.
Nassau's lost.
And Benjamin, where is he?
He's a turncoat.
He's betrayed us all. He's a pirate hunter.
Betrayed?
Yeah.
I'm offering you the chance
to be the pirates who control the seas from Boston to Hispaniola.
[Blackbeard laughs]
You and me.
[Lawrence] I think Blackbeard knew that his time was up.
Everybody knew his name.
Everybody knew him at every single port, and he needed to find a way out of this
which didn't end in a hangman's noose,
and hanging around with a wanted criminal like Charles Vane
was not a way to go.
I'll let you have the high seas, Vane.
I'm happy with these here sands and inlets.
[woman laughing]
[tense music]
[Vane laughs]
You'll regret this,
Edward Thatch.
[somber music]
[downbeat hornpipe music]
[narrator] Ocracoke is a slap in the face,
but Vane isn't going to give up.
[Fox] Vane ordered an attack on a merchant ship.
It looked like a nice, big merchant ship, carrying wealthy cargo.
Merchant ships, although they often had canons,
very rarely fought back.
The crews weren't paid to defend the ship, they were just paid to sail it.
She looks loaded, lads.
[pirates] Yeah!
[Lawrence] The merchant ship is a French Crown-backed vessel.
This means that aboard this ship isn't just some merchant sailors,
no, these are trained officers.
This means this ship is heavy in the water because of the canon,
not because of booty.
Flak!
[cannon fire echoing]
[Fox] The canons opened fire. It was a devastating salvo.
Caused a lot of damage.
[cannon fire echoing]
Immediately, he ordered the attack off.
-Turn about! -Too late.
If we turn around now, she'll blow us to pieces.
-Let's have at her! -[pirates] Yeah!
-[pirate] Come on! -Turn about! I ain't dying on this!
-[Rackham] Come on! -[men shouting]
[Lawrence] His crew, desperate for booty,
desperate for continuing the journey, they're not scared.
But the captain says no, and this
puts a question in every single crew member's mind
about whether he is worthy enough to be their captain.
[cannon fire echoing]
[ship hull creaking]
Vane's decision to retreat caused a split in the crew.
Some people supported him, but the majority of the crew didn't.
They were disappointed that they hadn't pressed forward the attack.
-The crew feel that your command-- -You all owe me your lives.
On the contrary, your command today risked this ship and everyone aboard.
A strategic withdrawal.
Sometimes it's better to fight another day.
That faction found a leader in John Rackham,
who was the quartermaster, the second-in-command of Vane's crew,
and they really opposed Vane's leadership on this issue.
You were committed to the fight. That turnaround wasn't strategic withdrawal.
We all saw you.
It was cowardice.
We ask that you step down.
Stand down, is it?
Well I'd like to see the man brave enough to ask me to stand down.
[Fox] They demanded that he step down,
and when he refused, they took a vote on it.
And, the vote went against Vane, and Rackham took over.
Come back! Come back!
Come back! I'm your fucking captain!
Come back here! Come back!
Fuck!
Vane had a hold on his cohorts.
He was an inspirational character. They looked to him for leadership.
And so he almost certainly was surprised
when his company not only disagreed, but decided to depose him.
[somber music]
[narrator] Charles Vane is castaway.
The so-called King of Nassau's reign
was brutal, bloody and short.
[Vane] Come back! Come back! I'm your fucking caption.
[waves splashing]
[narrator] Back in Nassau, Woodes Rogers knocks the island into shape.
-[whip cracks] -[screaming]
[Rogers] Lay it on, man.
[screams]
[whipping and screaming continue]
[narrator] For Anne Bonny, her lover is back.
-[whip cracks] -[screams]
[narrator] But Calico Jack is now Captain Jack
and he can finally afford to buy Anne's freedom.
-[whip cracks] -[man screams]
I have your money, Bonny.
-[whip cracks] -[agonized scream]
[Cale] Jack wanted to do the right thing, and him and Anne, they were in love,
they wanted to be together,
and Jack was willing to do what he needed to do to make that happen.
So, he offered to buy her.
This, for the most popular girl in Nassau?
How many men a day pay me
for the pleasure of fucking such a pretty and willing whore?
[scoffs]
Imagine my luck.
Pimped to a whore who enjoys her work more than they do.
-You-- -[Rackham] Hey.
[Simon] James Bonny, at this point, is so insulted
that he decided to go to Woodes Rogers.
He said that his wife was trying to make a cuckold out of him.
Bring her to me.
[Simon] He demanded something be done about it.
So,
you cheat on your husband with a pirate?
Not a pirate, no.
I took the pardon.
I'm a free man.
Free to marry this infamous whore?
What devilry would tempt you to do that?
Perhaps we should see for ourselves.
No!
[panting, groaning]
[Anne gasps]
[Simon] Woodes Rogers decided to employ a law,
which wasn't used very often,
to beat a woman
who was cheating on her husband or trying to leave him.
The blame all fell completely onto the woman,
stripping them of any dignity
and stripping them any sort of agency and freedom to make their own decision,
to better their own lives in their own way.
[Rogers] No.
If the devil is to be beaten out of this harlot,
it is only fitting that you should do it.
[dramatic music]
[breathes heavily]
[softly] No. No!
[Anne breathing heavily] No!
[Anne gasps]
Hold.
I think it's about time you let us leave.
Don't you?
[grunts]
Cunt.
Stand down.
[Rogers breathing heavily]
[upbeat music]
[narrator] At last, Anne Bonny is what she set out to be:
a pirate on the high seas.
With her lover in tow…
Let's finish this.
[narrator] …this new legend of the Caribbean
will never again be subject to mere men.
For the first time, she considered herself to be truly free.
She was able to dress how she wanted.
She wore men's clothes.
And she had her shirt open, exposing her breasts,
proving to the world that she did not need to adhere
to society's expectations.
Not using her sexuality to get what she wanted
or anything like that,
but she was using her body as a way to show
that she belonged to nobody,
and that nobody controlled her.
[upbeat music]
[Anne gasps]
Hold!
[shot echoing]
[waves splashing]
[narrator] Lieutenant Maynard and his British crew
ditch their Naval uniforms
to hunt the coast of North Carolina for Blackbeard.
[Woodward] A Naval detachment of sailors sailed down to Blackbeard's alleged lair,
at the mouth of the creek, on Ocracoke Island.
And there they found Blackbeard and his men.
Gentlemen, we have him.
[somber music]
[Blackbeard coughing]
[narrator] In those shallow, secret inlets of Ocracoke,
Blackbeard discovers he's more vulnerable than he'd like.
From Governor Eden.
He fears Spotswood has a team of assassins after us.
[somber music]
Seems the cowardly puppies have found us.
[somber music continues]
It's a very treacherous area, where boats can run aground very easily,
and that's exactly what happened.
Maynard's vessel ran aground and was stranded.
They may be inconvenienced.
We should leave them there to rot.
They're hardly in a position to follow us.
Or we can finish 'em.
Let's put an end to Spotswood's plans now, brother.
Let's do it right now.
[coughs]
Blackbeard was determined to end this fight.
He knew he couldn't get away.
Man the canons.
Grenados, to the ready!
We fight!
[coughing]
[shot echoing]
[powder sizzling]
[cannon fire echoing]
He knew this as a do or die moment.
He had to win the battle.
[cannon fire echoing]
[Fox] They threw grenades across.
These would be cast iron balls, filled with explosives
that would explode in a hail of shrapnel, excellent for clearing decks.
[grenade exploding]
[pistol shot echoing]
[somber music]
[Choundas] Blackbeard is the first over the rail
to board Maynard's sloop and to secure her.
They see bloodied bodies sprawled across that upper deck,
and so, in Blackbeard's mind, he thinks the battle's over.
He thinks the struggle is done, and now it's just a matter of cleaning up.
[suspenseful music]
Go to the rear!
-You see him? -No. Stay sharp.
[suspenseful music]
Maynard has been clever in how he's going to approach
this inevitable confrontation between the two parties.
He's put himself in a position of strength by using the element of surprise.
Identify yourself.
[suspenseful music]
You don't know me?
I'm the devil made flesh.
The man with the flaming beard.
[Blackbeard yells]
-[both men grunting] -[blades clashing]
-[both grunting and groaning]
[somber music]
[blade clatters]
[groans]
[Blackbeard screams furiously]
[panting]
[Blackbeard groans]
[pained growl]
[angry grunt]
-[blade slicing flesh] -[Blackbeard screaming]
[narrator] It's too late for Blackbeard, but not for vengeance.
[Lawrence] Black Caesar went below decks,
where there was a lot of gunpowder
and under his captain's instructions,
to blow up the ship.
[dramatic music]
Black Caesar, there's no way of escaping himself,
this was a suicide mission.
[grunts]
[panting]
[somber music]
I think the death of Blackbeard is really the symbolic end
of the Golden Age of Piracy.
There's no greater archetype
whose image and embodiment represents the spirit
that we all understand to be pirates more than Blackbeard.
Maynard took Blackbeard's severed head
and tied it onto the bowsprit at the front of his ship,
a signal to all that he passed
that Blackbeard was defeated, that Blackbeard was gone
and that he was the man who had done it.
Let the lesson be to anyone who seeks to follow in his footsteps,
that the same fate would await them.
[somber music]
[narrator] As the sun sets on the Golden Age of Piracy,
what of the other great characters in our story?
Charles Vane is captured,
and before Port Royal's rabble,
he meets a fitting end.
On the day of his execution, the streets would be lined with people,
queuing up to this famous pirate executed.
[thunder rumbling]
[narrator] But Vane is defiant until the end.
Fuck your fucking King
and the rich assholes that milk the poor like working cattle.
[man] Go!
[Vane grunts]
[panting]
[rasps, chokes]
[narrator] Paulsgrave Williams,
ever restless.
He heads to the east coast of Africa.
Henry Jennings.
He retires as a wealthy plantation owner in Bermuda.
His old adversary,
godfather of Nassau, Benjamin Hornigold,
they say he takes up privateering again.
But then he vanishes.
most likely joining Black Sam Bellamy at the bottom of the ocean,
the pirates' watery grave.
[narrator] As for Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham,
their ending is bittersweet.
If you can't fight like a man, you deserve to hang like a dog!
Bastard! Bastard!
[narrator] He fails to defend her and tries to hide.
Both are captured by British forces and sentenced to death.
[bell ringing]
[somber music]
But Anne's life is spared when she reveals she is with child.
Some say Bonny even settles in North Carolina
and lives to see the founding of a new republic,
a new nation,
free from the British Crown,
the United States of America.
[somber music]
[dramatic swashbuckling music]