After a few days of Foxy’s beach party I’m ready for a some peace and quiet. I like Foxy but his place was a bit much for me. Too many boats, too many people. I needed somewhere quieter. I was even thinking of marooning the crew and buggering of somewhere on my own. Perhaps Nyum fancies a little daytrip somewhere? Leave the somtam club in Margaritaville for a while. Do them good.
My idea was to sail back around Tortola and look at some of the smaller islands in the St. Francis Drake Channel. Maybe see if I could spot Oscar’s place from a distance. So that’s what we’re doing.
Very nice round here it is. You can see the attraction for the old pirates and chancers. A lot of those blokes knew they had a date with a rope whatever they did. So why not have a bit of fun? Make your own rules. Help yourself to some loot me hearties. Ha, ha. The Lesser Antilles is just the place for it lads. Lots of unguarded merchant ships moving about and lots of small bays and islands where you can hide a sloop.
Rackham, Dampier, Stede Bonnet, Calico Jack, Bart Roberts and Henry Morgan all sailed through the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Edward Teach alias Blackbeard marooned 15 blokes on Dead Chest Island just over there. Yo, ho, ho. And there’s Norman Island where Robert Louis Stevenson got the idea for Treasure Island or so they say.
Stede Bonnet was a funny character. He’d been a successful planter in
Barbados but he must have got bored. Some say he just wanted to get away from
his missus. Nobody knew about Pattaya in those days so he bought a ship in
Bridgetown and hired a crew. Not the usual pirate way of doing things. Then off
he went plundering. But he wasn’t very good at it. Too much the gentleman
maybe. He teamed up with Blackbeard for a while but the bugger tried to nick
his ship. Stede ended up dangling from a rope in South Carolina.
All those blokes were amateurs beside Sir Francis Drake when it came to piracy. Francis was the biggest pirate of the lot. Thanks to some nifty footwork with QE1 he even got it legalized! Her Majesty gave Francis some impressive looking documents which freed him and the lads to plunder the Spanish Main without needing to feel guilty. Not that they thought twice about it. Frank was always ready to have a go at anything Spanish and the money was good. And Frank knew his ships. He sailed through the Straits of Magellan and did Peru. Takes bottle that does.
He captured treasure galleons off Peru and ambushed the Spanish supply chain in Panama. Ended up with more loot than he could handle. He had to split the proceeds with Liz of course but they both did alright. She invested 1,000 crowns in him and got 47,000 back. Enough to pay off England’s foreign debt and keep the country running for several years. She let Francis keep 10,000 crowns for himself. He bought Buckland Abbey near Plymouth but he didn’t stay there long. He went back to the Caribbean several times and died eventually of fever. He was buried at sea in a lead casket off Nombre de Dios, which was founded by Diego de Nicuesa (the Royal Carver) in 1510.
It’s not easy, living like I do, to keep up with all the major events in the art world. But I try.
Whenever I get a chance I like to check on what Tracey Emin’s up to. It’s a way of keeping up with the Zeitgeist. And Tracey’s been a busy girl it looks like.
You may recall that she was quite upset about the public reaction to the warehouse fire at Saatchi’s. Well who wouldn’t be? Apparently some people sniggered. People can be such Philistines sometimes.
But she didn’t let it get her down. She got to work on a film about teenage girls committing suicide in Margate. I always liked Margate myself. Had a few laughs there.
All those blokes were amateurs beside Sir Francis Drake when it came to piracy. Francis was the biggest pirate of the lot. Thanks to some nifty footwork with QE1 he even got it legalized! Her Majesty gave Francis some impressive looking documents which freed him and the lads to plunder the Spanish Main without needing to feel guilty. Not that they thought twice about it. Frank was always ready to have a go at anything Spanish and the money was good. And Frank knew his ships. He sailed through the Straits of Magellan and did Peru. Takes bottle that does.
He captured treasure galleons off Peru and ambushed the Spanish supply chain in Panama. Ended up with more loot than he could handle. He had to split the proceeds with Liz of course but they both did alright. She invested 1,000 crowns in him and got 47,000 back. Enough to pay off England’s foreign debt and keep the country running for several years. She let Francis keep 10,000 crowns for himself. He bought Buckland Abbey near Plymouth but he didn’t stay there long. He went back to the Caribbean several times and died eventually of fever. He was buried at sea in a lead casket off Nombre de Dios, which was founded by Diego de Nicuesa (the Royal Carver) in 1510.
It’s not easy, living like I do, to keep up with all the major events in the art world. But I try.
Whenever I get a chance I like to check on what Tracey Emin’s up to. It’s a way of keeping up with the Zeitgeist. And Tracey’s been a busy girl it looks like.
You may recall that she was quite upset about the public reaction to the warehouse fire at Saatchi’s. Well who wouldn’t be? Apparently some people sniggered. People can be such Philistines sometimes.
But she didn’t let it get her down. She got to work on a film about teenage girls committing suicide in Margate. I always liked Margate myself. Had a few laughs there.
Then the bosses at UKTV Gold asked Tracey to make a piece after they heard ‘The Bill’ was her favourite program. So she stitched a piece called ‘Tracey Emin Loves The Bill’. You can see it in the ITV1 studio canteen.
And guess who just bought one of Tracey’s creations? Posh Spice that’s who. No it’s not an old bed it’s a nice neon heart for David. Set her back about 80,000 quid. Money well spent I’d say.
A lot of the smaller islands round here are privately owned. I could see Oscar’s but the house must have been on the other side. Didn’t feel like visiting him today anyway. I’ll go tomorrow maybe. Or the day after.
No comments:
Post a Comment