Taika Waititi’s HBO Max Pirate Show Is Based On A Bonkers True Story – Cracked.com | Articles

Bonnet was a “sizeable landowner” and father of three who was described as “bookish” and decidedly un-pirate-like. But then, at age 29, he had a bit of a mid-life crisis (spoilers: he was way past the middle of his life) and decided he wanted to go a-sailing and a-plundering, despite not really knowing anything about a-either of those things. Historians agree that he was motivated by “discomforts he found in a married state.” Many interpret this to mean that he got fed up with his nagging wife, but others point out that this is a sexist assumption: it’s possible that he found out he didn’t like women, or that his “Bonnet” simply didn’t work. 

Anyway, Bonnet hired himself a crew, bought a 10-gun ship he called the Revenge and went on a series of successful raids along the Eastern Seaboard. He flew the skull and crossbones flag (which not many real pirates actually used) and liked to make his prisoners walk the plank (which, again, practically no one did outside of novels). Dude was 100% cosplaying.

But as time passed, Bonnet’s crew became increasingly aware of the fact that their captain was winging it and had no idea what he was doing, so he started having trouble controlling that rowdy bunch. That’s when they happened to bump into the legendary pirate Blackbeard, who basically said, “Here, let me take care of this for you,” and took over Bonnet’s ship and crew. In return, Bonnet was allowed to hang around in Blackbeard’s ship, where he was often seen walking about “in his morning gown” and mostly just sticking to his sizeable book collection. He became the weird roommate who does nothing all day except on a pirate ship.