In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth of England began absorbing privateers into the Royal Navy to aid in her war with Spain to control the West Indies. She traded them freedom from prosecution for indentured servitude. She eventually betrayed them, killing hundreds in public hangings when they were no longer useful.
In 1598 on a dark and foggy night, the Queen’s largest warship and the pride of the English Navy drifted aimlessly into the English Channel with all her crew hanging dead from the masts. A ghost ship, a symbol, a warning that betrayal would bring harsh retribution, and that not all men were meant to wear the shackles of England, to hang in her gallows or rot in her dungeons.
There were some who would ride the winds of freedom, turn the seas red with blood, and deliver vengeance to the very shores of England.
“Come with me my brothers,
as I lead us to the edge;
Stand firm, hold fast,
Don’t slip upon the ledge.
To live your life as I do,
like wind upon the sea;
A life not meant for shackles,
our spirits soaring free.”
The Pirate King
Coming 2021. www.TomReinhart.com
