Pirates

Response to Jolly Roger

I enjoyed reading this book of adventure. It was a fast read and only took me an hour to finish one evening. I’m sure I would have enjoyed this story as a child too because I always liked a good mystery or suspense book. It is entertaining to see how characters will get out of the predicament they find themselves in. I gathered that this was a series book because they talked about thier last adventure with knights and dragons for the reader to read about some other time. One thing I wondered about this story is why Fred ends up under the back when the boys come back to the future.

Response to “Pirate Diary” and “What if you met a Pirate?”

As I read about young Jake Carpenter joining his uncle aboard a ship to sail and see the world, I wondered if there were any young people in real life who did this. I also wondered if his dad knew the kind of harsh treatment that took place on the ships or if Jake himself had any idea about this before his voyage. I learned at the end of the story that piracy exists even today and that some people have been forced to flee ships in an open boat as Will, Jake’s uncle, was set adrift in the story.

In reading “What if you met a Pirate?” I found it more realistic that pirates wore common sailing clothes instead of the flashy clothing most imagine. For the most part, pirates spent their time sailing and taking care of their ship. They may have raided ships just a few hours each month. Pirates’ ships were not very big so they could hide them in the rivers and marshes and take boats by surprise often at night. I never really thought about the fact that pirates did not bathe and were actually very smelly. Fresh water was precious aboard ships and salt water did not clean people or clothes well. Also most pirates carried knives with them to cut line, canvas and food. They did not carry a pistol, sword or dagger unless attacking another ship.

I Poem Blackbeard First Draft

FIRST STANZA

I am the most frightening and fearful of pirates

I wonder if you have what I want

I hear the cannon fire

I see victims in the distance

I want your gold, silver and jewels

I am the most frightening and fearful of pirates

SECOND STANZA

I pretend I am indestructible

I feel a longing for something more

I touch my treasures

I worry that I haven’t enough

I cry because I have no friends

I am the most frightening and fearful of pirates

THIRD STANZA

I understand you are terrified

I say this is what I was going for

I dream I am a legend someday

I try to terrorize and take all that I can

I hope I am successful

I am the most frightening and fearful of pirates

Google Image

I Poem Blackbeard Second Draft

FIRST STANZA

I am the most threatening and formidable of pirates

I wonder if you have what I want

I hear the cannon fire as my crew and I prepare for attack

I see victims in the distance

I want your goods and pieces of eight

I am the most threatening and formidable of pirates

SECOND STANZA

I pretend I am indestructible

I feel a longing for something more

I touch my gold and jewels

I worry that I haven’t enough

I cry because I have no friends

I am the most threatening and formidable of pirates

THIRD STANZA

I understand you are terrified

I say this is what I was going for

I dream I am a legend someday

I try to terrorize and take all that I can

I hope I am successful

I am the most threatening and formidable of pirates

Google Image

Double Entry Diary

 

Quotes and connections or reactions to

“Pirate Diary”

 

Sect. I

Quote p.15 “Eat them in the dark. Or if you can’t wait until nightfall, tap them on the deck. This knocks the worms from their homes.”

 

Reaction/Question: This was referring to ship biscuits containing worms. This seemed so disgusting. I wonder if the sailors got sick eating these?

 

Sect II

Quote p. 28 “Even a pirate who is full of sin may be saved.”

 

Connection: This is true. Romans 3:23“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” 

Romans 10:9 “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

 

Sect III

Quote p.52 “It’s Jack Rattenbury. He was hanged for piracy two months back.”

 

Reaction/Connection: I don’t believe the government set a good example for people by allowing privateers, or legal pirating. They were legalizing stealing. Doesn’t this seem a bit crooked?

 

 

Quotes and connections or reactions to

“What if you met a Pirate?”

 

Sect I

p. 6 On shore, pirates might be wild, but at sea there were strict rules. Each crew member made his mark-sometimes in blood-on a written contract. By signing, he promised to obey the rules: no gambling, drunkenness, fighting, stealing (from one another), or sleeping on duty.

 

Reaction: This seemed to contradict the typical pirate stereotype. 

 

Sect II

p. 20 Sometimes pirates even dressed up like women and children to fool other ships.

 

Reaction: This was very hard for me to imagine. I always pictured pirates as rough and tough looking men and I got tickled at the illustration in the book where they dressed like this.

 

Sect III

p.21 Walking the plank never happened. There is not a single record of it in the pirate accounts.

 

Reaction: I was very surprised to learn this. I believe this is a very common alternative misconception.

 

Section IV Questions

Pt. A

1. The colonists were settlers in North America who came from Britain.
2. The Navigation Acts were laws, which forced colonists to trade only with England, using English ships with English crews.
3. The colonists did not like these acts because they had to accept low prices for their goods.
4. Freebooters were pirates in the colonial days that mostly smuggled untaxed goods to settlers.
5. The colonists welcomed the pirates because they didn’t like paying high taxes.

 

Pt. B

1. I learned that there were several names for pirates and different kinds. One thing I learned is that some were allowed by the government to steal from and attack ships as private men of war or privateers. Others known as freebooters smuggled goods to colonists free of tax as a service.

2. I believe the privateers were the most interesting to learn about because I never knew pirates were connected with the government