Yes, Stede Bonnet Is Real
Those who’ve studied swashbucklers (or had a passing interest in pirate history) are probably familiar with Stede Bonnet – aka The Gentleman Pirate – who is one of piracy’s more notable names due to his eccentric ways and unusual backstory.
Most pirates didn’t exactly choose their profession; they were forced into it by circumstance. Stede Bonnet, on the other hand (as Our Flag Means Death correctly depicts) was a wealthy landowner in Barbados with a wife and children who – for reasons historians have never fully uncovered – had a bit of a midlife crisis and abandoned his family to become a pirate.
He Really Did Pay His Pirates a Wage
In general, pirates only earned a share of whatever loot they successfully pillaged, but Stede was clearly not a ‘zero hours contract’ kinda bloke, and – as the show suggests in episode one – he really did insist on paying his crew a regular wage.
His highfalutin’ piracy practices also extended to how he got his beloved ship, The Revenge: while most pirates acquired their vessel by… well, nicking it, Stede Bonnet really did pay to have his own ship made from scratch, a dozen massive cannons and all.
Stede Bonnet’s Library Is Also Real
Yes, really. He might have run away from his comfortable life in Barbados, but Stede Bonnet wasn’t ready to give up all his creature comforts, so he did what any reasonable bloodthirsty pirate would do and installed a full library on board his ship.
A report in The Boston News Letter literally describes him as walking about on deck ‘in his morning gown’, before retiring below ‘to his books of which he has a good library aboard.’ That’s right, even his fancy pirate PJs were real.
