Tuesday Talk: What's In A Name? by Helen Hollick

www.helenhollick.net

You would think that pirates, being pirates, would have either straightforward memorable names or ‘Jolly Roger’ type names wouldn’t you? I mean you have Captain Hook from Peter Pan (appropriate,) Captain Pugwash from – well, Captain Pugwash. Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Black Sam…

And many of their ships had names with variants upon the theme of  Revenge, Rover, or Adventure. (I presume that there was no ‘Suggested Ships’ Names’ books in the early eighteenth century – and pirates didn’t have much of an imagination.)

Black Sam Bellamy was called ‘Black Sam’ because of:

1.      His black coat

2.      His black hair

3.      His black ribbon, which he used to tie back his black hair

Take your pick of which one you fancy.

‘Blackbeard’ was actually Edward Teach. Or Tatch. Or Thatch. (When looking into the matter of pirates you soon come to realise that there are quite a few maybes, might-haves, probablies and perhapses.) The difference between Blackbeard’s name could be explained because it is believed that he might have (see… what did I tell you?) originated from Bristol, so would have had a distinct, strong West Country accent, pronouncing his name as something like ‘Taaa…ch’.  Oh and yes, he was famous for his black beard.

Blackbeard

‘Calico Jack Rackham’ was so-called because he (Jack Rackham) loved wearing calico. 

Calico Jack Rackham

As for the Jolly Roger, the popular name for the familiar pirate flag, we (again) are not certain of its origin. The best theory is that it comes from the French Jolie Rouge. But there’s no written or verbal source to confirm this, and as most of the early pirates started out as privateers with a Letter Of Marque, which was a legal license-to-kill or plunder the enemy – Spain and France –  it seems odd that French words would have been eagerly used. It’s just as possible that the first (now unknown) pirate who flew a variation of the skull and crossed-bones flag was a jolly chap called Roger.

My own Jesamiah Acorne was a name I made up while thinking about the idea for Sea Witch while walking along a rain-drizzled Dorset  beach (see the full story HERE if you don’t already know it.)

A friend (and now my editor) Nicky G. mentioned something quite interesting while reading through my recently published Pirates : Truth And Tales…

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Stede Bonnet was not a very successful pirate. (Understatement. He was useless.) ‘How did he pronounce his name?’ Nicky asked.

Answer: no idea.  But it led to an interesting conversation.

Bonnet as in a Jane Austen lace-trimmed bonnet?  (Not very piratical!) Or did he say  ‘Bonnay’?

I am reminded of the UK sit-com Keeping Up Appearances where the lead character Hyacinth Bucket calls herself Hyacinth Bouquet.

Very recently my dear friend, John F. Millar who runs a fabulous 'Colonial Style' B & B in Williamsburg, Virginia, came across something interesting about the pirate Thomas Tew:

Tew went on only two expeditions. He came back from the first a very rich man, but did not return from the second. He is known as the ‘Rhode Island Pirate’, as it is widely believed that his family settled there in the early 1640s. Allegedly, he was married with two daughters.

Moving to Bermuda in 1691 he engaged in government-backed privateering and obtained his Letter of Marque in 1692. His mission was to attack and destroy a French territory in the Gambia, West Africa. After a few days at sea, Tew turned to piracy telling his crew that it would be more profitable than blasting away at a few French buildings. They sailed to the Red Sea, taking a ship heading from India in 1693. With their victim offering no resistance Tew’s men ransacked the hold and acquired treasure worth something in the region of £100,000 (add a couple of 0s for today’s equivalent!) They returned home in the spring of 1694. Tew paid off the men who had sponsored him and pursued an amicable friendship with the Province of New York Governor.

Thomas Tew relates his exploits to
Gov. Fletcher of New York.
Painting by Howard Pyle

By winter that year, Tew sought another Letter of Marque and sailed off again with between thirty to forty men, increasing the crew to nearer sixty when he reached Madagascar. At the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the entrance to the Red Sea, Tew came across several more pirates all with the same intention, one of them being Henry Every. They joined forces and in either June or September 1695 came across a Mughal convoy.

Tew attacked one of the ships, the Fateh Muhammed, and in the battle that followed was killed by a cannon ball: a direct hit to his belly which disembowelled him. Shocked and disheartened his crew surrendered. One version of the tale states that Henry Every caught up, captured the Fateh Muhammed and freed the men held prisoner in the hold, while another claims that those who had not been immediately executed died in an Indian prison. Tew’s resting place is unknown as he would have been buried at sea. Tew’s family is rumoured to have lived a pleasant life of luxury from his first plundered fortune.

Now, like me, I assume you’ve read the above pronouncing ‘Tew’ to sound like ‘Pew’ - the benches you sit on in church, or  ‘phew’ or dew as in morning dew.

Well, apparently not! It is Tew to rhyme with ‘sew’ or ‘go’ or ‘no’ or toe...

Confusing lot these pirates aren't they?

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Oh and yes, Jesamiah Acorne. With an ‘e’.

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