Coverpage
"Never Question Your Captain's Orders"
It was known that the famous pirate Blackbeard shot
one of
his shipmates one day out of sheer cruelty. This is the version
of the
story that is known to be true, but Blackbeard's grandson says that he
has the
real version of the story. He is going to tell us this version
today.
Thank all of you for coming tonight. I am very
excited
about telling you the story about my grandfather. It is my
privilege to
retell this story to you. I know you all are very excited to hear
the
story, so I will just get right into it.
My grandfather was at the peak of his pirating
career.
He was invading more ships, capturing more treasure, and expanding his
clan. He was officially the captain of the biggest group of
pirates in
the whole Caribbean. His clan, "Teach's
Crew," was well known and well respected among other pirates in the
world.
Teach's
Crew set out on their biggest mission
in their clan's history. They were going to invade fifteen ships
in one
night. If they succeeded, they were going to have enough money to
purchase their own island to settle on. These plans were very
important
to the future of "Teach's
Crew." If they were able to get this done, they would become the
most powerful they have ever been. They had one problem though;
some of
the crew were questioning the talents of Blackbeard. There were
rumors
that some of his men were saying that he was not tough enough to run
this big
of a crew, but of course no one was brave enough to say this to
his
face.
Blackbeard did put his men's loyalty to a test. He gave strict
orders to
take everything they could find on the ship, but to not mess with any
of the
captains. His men were ordered to show the captains respect by
letting
him sail away safely after the attack. If his men did not listen
to him,
he would take care of them after the mission was completed.
Blackbeard and his men went on their mission.
They
swept through the sea, bombarding every ship they ran into.
Blackbeard's
men were ruthless. They took everything they could find, and
showed all
the captains respect, except for one rebellious member of the
crew.
Shipmate Eyepatch
decided to be a rebel. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "Screw
the
captain's orders. Let's show this captain what 'Teach's
Crew' is all about!"
He grabbed the captain of the ship and threw him
down a set
of stairs. He took out his whip and starting to whip his back
over, and
over again. Eyepatch
almost beat him to death.
Finally after a gruesome beating, Eyepatch
picked up the captain and made him walk the plank. Walking the
plank was
known to be the most disrespectful thing to do to a captain.
Eyepatch
finished up his torture, and then gathered everyone around and told
them to
return to the ship. He thought he was going to get away with all
of this
without getting into any trouble. Little did he know, Blackbeard
was in
disguise on the ship, and watched him do those terrible things to the
captain.
Teach's
clan returned to their base, "The Black Hole," to celebrate.
Blackbeard approached Eyepatch
and told him he had done such a great job that Blackbeard would like
him to sit
right next to him during the celebration. Eyepatch
agreed, and sat in the chair to the right of Blackbeard. The
party was
about to begin, so Blackbeard tapped on his glass to give a toast.
"This is to the great job done by our crew
tonight! This is to a job well done! And last but not
least, this
is to the great leaders I have in this crew. Men like Eyepatch.
Men who would stay by his captain's orders, and never disobey!
Blackbeard turned and looked over at Eyepatch.
Eyepatch
looked as if he had seen a ghost. He looked up at him like a dog
that had
disobeyed his master, and pleaded
with the pirate.
"Please don't hurt me! I am so sorry, my great
captain! I will never do anything like this again," Eyepatch
said.
Blackbeard reached down to his gun belt and said, "I
know you won't, because you are never going to get another chance."
Blackbeard fired his pistol right into Eyepatch's
head and killed him. His body crashed down onto the floor,
spilling blood
everywhere.
Blackbeard's crew looked at him with a frightened
face. From this day on, no one in his crew ever went against his
orders,
and no one ever questioned his leadership.
Blackbeard's Pistol
Web Source
Author's
Note: The original story was very
short. However, I researched some more and found a Wikipedia
entry on Israel Hands, the man that Edward Teach really shot.
Israel Hands was not a very well known pirate until 1718 when he became
Blackbeard's right hand man. Hands was not even the intended
victim of Teach's shot, however Teach missed his target and the bullet
hit Hands. According to Wikipedia, Teach then said, "That
if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he
was".
I stated how the real story went in the beginning of my story, and then
said
that Blackbeard's grandson was going to tell his version of the
story.
His grandson's version told that one of Blackbeard's men questioned his
loyalty
and defied his orders. A major part of the story that I changed
was that in my created story, the man Blackbeard shot dies, but Israel
Hands did not die from Blackbeard shooting him. I made this story
almost entirely from my own imagination, starting from what I know
about Israel Hands and him being shot by Edward Teach. I created
a fictional character,
Eyepatch.
He was the one that defied Blackbeard's orders. This set up the
idea of
Blackbeard making a lesson out of one of his men. I then made
Blackbeard
kill this man. I spent a lot of time creating this story.
Most of
the ideas are mine, and I decided not to use the traditional legend
because I do not have all the facts of what happened before and after
Hands was shot. I thought it would make a more complete story if
I developed it myself, using just a minimal amount of true
details. I think the moral of my story is to never disobey your
boss, or
any direct orders you are given by one of your superiors. I
believe I used my
creativity and
was able to develop a great story using similar ideas expressed by the
original
author.
"The Most Feared"- (American Folklore Website)
Wikipedia - Israel
Hands