Powder Monkey of Cape Fear

Episode 2

Grampa lit up his pipe and I watched a swirl of white smoke circle his head like a Christmas wreath.

“There’s beer in the ice box. You want one?”

“Uh, no, Grampa.”

“I do. Get me one. There’s a good fellow.”

Outside a cricket started up, kicking a cricket symphony into high gear. A dog passed by the road at the far end, stopped, sniffed, and continued on. I opened a beer, poured it into a tall glass from the freezer, and handed it to Grampa. He took a drink and set the glass on the side table. I sat back down, leaning forward, waiting for the punchline or the explanation, whichever was to come next.

“Giovanni da Verrazzano visited the south tip of the North Carolina coast in 1524 and called the place Promontorium Tremendum.”

I looked at him, dipping my head slightly. He glanced at me.

“Cape Fear,” he said as if I should have known. “And it’s been that ever since. Dangerous place! Fierce weather, treacherous shoals and currents, all add up to bad news for sailors.”

Grampa sat back, puffed the pipe, then leaned forward again.

“Your great-great-great-great… grandfather Thomas Wilfred Donny was a sailor. He sailed from Bristol with the British Navy as a young man assigned the lowest and most dangerous task on board a ship – Powder Monkey – Gunner’s Assistant. The young assistants were treated badly, rarely paid, and had little chance of advancement – in fact, it was most likely they’d be the first killed in any sort of fight.”

“Why’d he take the job? I would have turned it down.” I had him there.

“Couldn’t,” was Grampa’s reply. “It was go to sea or starve in Bristol, and once aboard, you did what you were told. He was a Powder Monkey or he would be hanged – that was all there was to it. Life at sea was hard.”

Grampa sat back, reflecting on how hard the British Navy must have been. Outside, I saw the afternoon light begin to fade. It had taken me most of the day to drive. I looked around for a light. As I did, Grampa twisted in his chair, picked up a dimmer switch from the floor beside him and a light in the corner behind him came alive. He sucked a full breath and continued.

“That was before the light at Bald Head Island. It was tricky working a sailing vessel through those waters, but that is one of the things that made it a haven for pirates. Topsail Island got its name from the pirate ships that moored there; you couldn’t see anything but their topsails.

“It was in 1717 that young Thomas Donny became reassigned at random to the crew of a coastal merchant ship. He leaped at he chance, though he didn’t dare show it. Though it was a smaller vessel under dubious leadership, anything would be better then the life of a Powder Monkey.

“The merchantman was soon captured by one of the most famous pirates there was, one Stede Bonnet, the ‘Gentleman Pirate.’ The crew was taken hostage and informed that they could sail...” Grampa raised his head with the words, “...or swing.” He dropped his head and looked at me through bushy furrowed eyebrows.

“Bald Head Island was their favorite stopping point to get food. Blackbeard himself used the place quite a lot. In fact, it was there that Captain Bonnet met Captain Teach and fate took a turn for your great-great-great… er, grandfather.”

Grampa sat back again, puffed his pipe, turned it over, and tapped it on his palm over a metal trashcan at his feet. The ashes dumped out and he set the pipe on a circular pipe stand on the shelf to his right.

“Grampa, go on – you can’t stop there!” I broke in.

“How ‘bout some food? You hungry?”

“No! Please, go on.”

“Just trying to be sociable is all. Bald Head Island wasn’t just used for a watering hole. No, it was sometimes used as a bank vault. A lot of times a pirate’s loot was more supply than gold: food and water, powder and shot, or tools and lumber. But sometimes there were treasure chests and when they got worrisome, the pirates would put them someplace safe.

“It was just after Bonnet and Blackbeard joined up that Blackbeard set one of his officers to run Bonnet’s ship. Bonnet agreed, though he had little choice in the matter; he wasn’t much of a seaman. Young Thomas Donny was off the ship getting water when a short-crew passed him up with a chest. He had learned that the way to survive, be it British Navy, merchantman or pirate vessel, is to keep your head down. He was busy keepin’ his head down when the short-crew came back the other way only without the chest.

“Once they were gone, he followed the footprints to a place where the ground was just turned. A whistle sounded 'return to ship', so he noted the spot. That night, according to his letters, a squall came up and it rained to beat all, removing any track or trace of the previous day’s adventures.

“It was pretty soon after the siege of Charles Town of that year when they returned to these waters. Blackbeard convinced Bonnet that it would be best if they were to get pardons and Bonnet set out with some of the pirates to see Governor Eden at Bath Town. It was then that Thomas Donny saw a chance to slip away.”