{"id":4604,"date":"2024-09-25T10:34:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T14:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/palmeravacationclub.com\/blog\/?p=4604"},"modified":"2024-09-25T10:34:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T14:34:49","slug":"the-pirates-of-the-lowcountry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palmeravacationclub.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/the-pirates-of-the-lowcountry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pirates of the Lowcountry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hilton Head Island\u2019s location on South Carolina\u2019s southernmost coast has landed it smack-dab in the middle of many momentous events in our country\u2019s history time and time again. While technically not at the heart of it all, its short distance from cities like Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC, has allowed for some spillover, causing this little island to have incredible\u2014and sometimes lesser-known\u2014stories of its own.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that the Lowcountry was frequented by pirates during what we now call the Golden Age of Piracy?<\/strong> No, it wasn\u2019t just the Caribbean that notorious pirate captains explored. In fact, the waterways between the mainland and Carolina barrier islands served as great hiding places for pirate crews.<\/strong> Their ships were specifically designed to navigate shallow water in the event that they needed to lose any ships that were chasing after them. For example, Skull Creek<\/strong>, an inland waterway that runs between Hilton Head Island and Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, was a great area for crews to stop and clean their ship\u2019s hulls at low tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to join a pirate crew on Hilton Head Island?<\/strong>\u00a0Set sail with\u00a0Pirates HHI<\/strong>\u00a0and embark upon a hunt for treasure within the inland waterways just like the pirate legends before you. Learn more about how to sign up for a pirate cruise,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s name a few pirates that have been known to sail through Hilton Head Island\u2019s surrounding waters that you may or may not have heard of:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blackbeard<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Arguably the most infamous and feared pirate captain, this British privateer officially came on the scene as a true pirate in 1716. His ship, the Queen Anne\u2019s Revenge, scourged the coasts of Virginia, the Carolinas, and the Caribbean, and while the wreck was eventually found by divers off the coast of North Carolina in 1996, Blackbeard\u2019s famed treasure has yet to be found\u2013if it even existed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blackbeard was often considered the devil incarnate by his own crew, instilling fear with crazed antics like lighting fuses tied into his beard and hair so that smoke would surround his head in a menacing way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blackbeard\u2019s most peculiar tale is his blockade of the Charleston harbor, where he took several ships hostage while demanding medicine. You can learn more about this event and even the intriguing theory that Edward\u00a0Black<\/em>, not\u00a0Teach<\/em>, was actually a Lowcountry resident all along in\u00a0CHS Today\u2019s article by Jen Ashley<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captain Kidd<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Captain William Kidd made a name for himself in the early days of the Golden Age of Piracy. Originally from Scotland, Kidd became a privateer at a young age for England and then moved to New York. He was commissioned five years later to run down and apprehend pirates in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out, however, that Captain Kidd wasn\u2019t too good at tracking down these pirates, and he had a mutiny on his hands. So the story goes, the crew of his ship, the Adventure Galley, forced him to become a pirate himself, taking a ship and its spoils, and renaming it the Adventure Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon returning to the West Indies as a pirate, he was actually able to obtain a pardon. It seemed as though he was in the clear until an investor in his initial voyage had him arrested, leaving Kidd to stand during a rigged trial. While some of it is yet to be found, Captain William Kidd\u2019s treasure inspired the works of the novel, \u201cTreasure Island\u201d and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about Kidd on\u00a0History UK\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u201cGentleman Pirate,\u201d Stede Bonnet<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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If there\u2019s one thing about pirates, it\u2019s that they almost always have a great story, and Stede Bonnet has one of the most unusual ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many pirates get their start as sailors or privateers, Bonnet\u2019s story has a beginning that quite honestly sounds like an ending. A landowner and retired army major, Bonnet completely left his family and land, and bought a ship\u2013something that almost never happened, by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was deemed the \u201cGentleman Pirate,\u201d as many of his crew (and others) could see he had no prior knowledge of sailing, let alone captaining a pirate ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He actually crossed paths with Blackbeard, and after agreeing to sail together, Blackbeard realized that Bonnet was a novice. After taking his ship and marooning his crew members, Bonnet actually got real revenge and took his ship and crew back from the fearsome captain. Learn more about Captain Bonnet in this\u00a0Smithsonian article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anne Bonny & Mary Read<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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While there were female pirates, the most infamous were Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Not only did they sail under the same pirate captain, Calico Jack, but they also shared a somewhat similar childhood. Both girls were raised as boys as they were illegitimate daughters in each household. Anne Cormac, originally born in Ireland, moved to Charleston, South Carolina, with her family, and later married a sailor named, John Bonny. Mary, on the other hand, was born in England and had to be passed off as her dead half-brother to be able to receive money from her family. Mary continued to disguise herself as a man and actually joined the military, and eventually found a liking to sailing\u2013conveniently during the Golden Age of Piracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two found their way into Calico Jack\u2019s crew at separate times, but this pirate duo\u2019s legacy is hardly ever separate. Historians find it very significant that Jack Rackham even would let one woman join his crew, let alone two, since women aboard ships were seen as bad luck, especially to superstitious crew members. The two women were fierce and often fought other crews disguised as men.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t