Summer is ending and oh how I wish I was still in the Caribbean. I had a wonderful vacation this year (even if there were hints of Lovecraftian horrors!), but I’d go back to Atlantis in a heartbeat, and I imagine I could get a ton of writing done in between dips in the Cove. Thoughts of the Caribbean, however, always conjure notions of pirates, and this week that means Blackbeard.
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| Arrr – The Capture of Blackbeard! |
Yes, Captain Teach himself. And the reason was another amusing video from the talented folks at Horrible Histories, which mentioned one “Israel Hands,” who happened to be one of the antagonists in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. After a bit of research, it turns out that the Mr. Hands of Stevenson’s novel was named after a real life pirate who indeed worked for none other than the infamous Blackbeard! You can see the reference to him here.
Perhaps Treasure Island is actually the sequel to My Life With Blackbeard (or whatever his memoir was called), but now I’m thinking of pirates, which has me longing for the Caribbean and for Atlantis. If only summer was a few months longer! Despite the season’s end, however, I’m still smiling, especially after discovering this other video from Horrible Histories about that very effective form of discipline called keelhauling. [Video was sadly deleted from YouTube.] Yes, I suppose that lamenting the end of summer is better than being keelhauled. But I still wish I was back in Atlantis!