Stede Bonnet - Resumption of Pirate Command

Resumption of Pirate Command

Bonnet returned to Topsail Inlet to find that Blackbeard had beached the majority of their former crew, robbed the Revenge and two other vessels of the squadron of most of their supplies, and sailed away for parts unknown aboard the sloop Adventure, carrying all the loot with him. Bonnet now (probably late June or early July 1718) resumed command of the Revenge. Few, if any, of his original crew from Barbados were still aboard. Bonnet reinforced the Revenge by rescuing a number of men whom Blackbeard had marooned on a sandbar in Topsail Inlet.

Shortly after Bonnet resumed command, a bumboat's crew told him that Blackbeard was moored in Ocracoke Inlet. Bonnet set sail at once to hunt down his treacherous ex-confederate, but could not find him, and Bonnet never met Blackbeard again. Although Bonnet apparently never discarded his hopes of reaching St. Thomas and getting his letter of marque, two pressing problems now tempted him back into piracy. First, Blackbeard had stolen the food and supplies he and his men needed to subsist (one pirate testified at his trial that no more than ten or eleven barrels remained aboard the Revenge). Second, St. Thomas was now in the midst of the Atlantic hurricane season, which would last until autumn. However, returning to freebooting meant nullifying Bonnet's pardon.

Hoping to preserve his pardon, Bonnet adopted the alias "Captain Thomas" and changed the Revenge's name to the Royal James. The name Royal James that Bonnet conferred on his sloop was presumably a reference to the younger Prince James Stuart, and may suggest that Bonnet or his men had Jacobite sympathies. One of Bonnet's prisoners further reported witnessing Bonnet's men drinking to the health of the Old Pretender and wishing to see him king of the English nation.

Bonnet further tried to disguise his return to piracy by engaging in a pretense of trade with the next two vessels he robbed. Soon afterward, Bonnet quit the charade of trading and reverted to naked piracy. In July 1718, he cruised north to Delaware Bay, pillaging another eleven vessels. He took several prisoners, some of whom joined his pirate crew. While Bonnet set loose most of his prizes after looting them, he retained control of the last two ships he captured: the sloops Francis and Fortune. On 1 August 1718, the Royal James and the two captured sloops sailed southward from Delaware Bay. The captured sloops lagged behind, and Bonnet threatened to sink them if they did not stay closer. During the passage, Bonnet and his crew divided their loot into shares of about £10 or £11 and distributed them amongst themselves. This is the only time Bonnet is known to have practiced this important pirate custom, and it suggests he had by then abandoned his unorthodox practice of paying regular wages to his crew.

Twelve days out of Delaware Bay, Bonnet entered the estuary of the Cape Fear River and anchored near the mouth of a small waterway now known as Bonnet's Creek. The Royal James had begun to leak badly and was in need of careening. Shortly afterward, a small shallop entered the river and was captured. Bonnet had the shallop broken up to help repair the Royal James. The work of careening was done, in whole or in part, by the prisoners Bonnet had captured. Bonnet threatened at least one man with marooning if he did not work the Royal James' pumps. Bonnet remained in the Cape Fear River for the next 45 days. According to Bonnet's boatswain, Ignatius Pell, the pirates intended to wait out the hurricane season there.