Next in my international writings’ blog is the lovely Emma Rose Millar,
who writes about pirates and slavery in the historic West Indies. Can you give us a taster of your book Five
Guns Blazing, Emma?
We were set down at New Providence Island,
Bouspeut and I. He had washed himself in salt water and changed into his land
attire; stockings and a shirt with puffed sleeves, decorated with a single gold
pin. It was a strange sensation being on dry land again; my legs buckled and I
could not stand upright for long without swaying. ‘Ah,
Beedham!’ laughed Bouspeut taking my elbow
with his strong hands. ‘You were not cut out for a life at sea.’
He led me into the
shady forest with the bracken cracking beneath our feet, into a shanty town
where pirates lazed drunkenly smoking their pipes. I heard whispers and gasps.
‘It’s Bouspeut; he
is here!’ I had no idea he was so infamous.
We carried between
us a chest full of our ill-gotten gains; earthenware and cutlery, which was
heavy and with which I struggled. In the end, Bouspeut, being of far superior
strength, took my burden from me and carried it alone for the last quarter of a
mile or so. At the market we opened our coffer and peddled our wares among the
stallholders who purchased them cheaply. Such items yielded little profit if
bought and sold through legal means; the colonists were forbidden to
manufacture anything and any such goods had to be imported usually from England
and Spain. Treasures were always turning up on the islands, nobody asked where
from, they were weighed and paid for silently by men whose mouths had surely
been
sewn up by the devil himself.
‘Did you know this
was the place I first met Anne Bonny?’ he asked as he shopped for fabric in the
makeshift market. Bouspeut kept his eye out for anything he could use;
sheepskin, damask, taffeta. Purples and reds were a favourite for him but in
particular he was after some calico for Rackham’s coat; he did so like that
particular fabric, rougher than cotton, thicker than linen yet not as tough as
canvas. He wove a path from stall to stall, past the food traders peddling
their salt-fish and plantain and yam.
‘Is it for
Rackham?’ asked one of the black-toothed traders. ‘You’d do better to go to the
Jewish haberdasher; you know how superstitious he can be.’ Jack believed that
the fruits of piracy were surely cursed; a strange type of logic when you
considered that all that he purchased was bought with lifted gold!
‘You met Anne
Bonny here?’ I asked incredulously. New Providence was a safe haven for
pirates; indeed the governor even invited them so that a good stock of fighting
men would be ready should Spanish ships attack. The sail-tent city of pirates,
buccaneers and privateers sprang up around the banks of Bonefish Pond,
sheltered by the forest which allowed for foraging and illegal wood cutting.
The existence there would have been rustic to say the least for a woman of Anne
Bonny’s birth and reputation; they slept only on raised decking covered with canvas
to keep the out the mosquitos which hung silently over the wetlands, hunted
water fowl and cast nets in wait for conch and crawfish. Life in the hideaways
was notoriously dull; huge quantities of rum and tobacco and frequent visits to
the Bahamian brothels were necessities to stave off the boredom which blighted
the settlements.
(Five Guns Blazing – Emma Rose Millar and
Kevin Allen)
Sounds so exciting, Emma. Can you give us
something of the background to your story?
During the Golden Age of Piracy, New
Providence was the capital of the British Bahamas The
island was a natural harbour, close to the all major American and Caribbean
17th and 18th century trade
routes. The shallow waters made
it difficult for large warships to enter. Although the threat of army presence
was always looming, local governors were accepting bribes not to prosecute
pirates for their crimes. The island became a kind of pirate utopia, home to
the likes of Edward Teach, (Blackbeard), Charles Vane and of course my own leading
man, John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham. By 1716, over five hundred pirates were
operating from the island. But all that was about to change.
In July 1718, Woodes Rogers was appointed
governor. His plan was to offer a Royal Pardon to all pirates who would take up
the offer immediately. Many did, and were recruited by Rogers as privateers
with comissions to plunder and take the Spanish ships, or as pirate-hunters
tasked with ridding the island of the pirates who terrorised its seas. Benjamin
Hornigold who retired after a yearlong spree of villainy became one of his most
faithful servants. In just a few days, the island was entirely pledged from the
pirates.
Some pirates however chose to continue with
their life of treachery, including John Rackham, Anne Bonny, who Rogers had
flogged for adultery, and the notorious Charles Vane who burned a captured ship
right in front of Rogers.
Over a three year period, the seas became
red as pirates were killed in battle, caught, sentenced and hanged.
Today,
New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas. It remains a popular
holiday destination offering some of the world’s best scuba diving and
snorkelling sites.
Thank you so much Emma! I know that you’re published by Crooked Cat
Publishers, but what does the cover of your new book like, and how can we buy
it?
Five Guns Blazing is available now on Amazon
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