Tortuga - A turtle shaped island, north of Hispanola, or what is called today, Haiti, was a wild-and-wooly place that welcomed pirates of all nations in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. As adorable Jack Sparrow said, - "Ah, the sweet and prolifferous bouquet that is Tortuga!"
Port Royal, Jamaica - Set at the tip of a 13 mile long natural sandspit on the southern coast of Jamaica, Port Royal had one of the best natural harbors in the world. The water there was 6 fantoms, or 30 feet deep, deep enough to accept the keels of galleons, a rarity in the tropics where many deep keeled ships had to settle for dropping anchor far off shore because of shallow tropical coves. Port Royal, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was a lawless, rollicking, rowdy, yet, surprising elegant town, [once you got away from the notorious waterfront]. In Port Royal's shops could be found everything to set up easy, cosmopolitan living. It was a most effluent place, thanks to pirate plunder. Unfortunately, practically all of it sank under the tidal waves of the June 7, 1692 earthquake. Thousands of lives were lost then and sanctimonious preachers said the disaster was God's punishment on what was called, "The Sodom Of The New World". Captain Henry Morgan was buried on Port Royal's sandspit and divers off the coast of Kingston, Jamaica still hope to find his gravestone.
Madagascar - the huge island in the southern hemisphere, off the coast of Africa, was fabled to be the spot where the legendary pirate kingdom of Libertalia was created. There, it was said, raggedy pirates lived almost like sultans with harems of beautiful island women. Did Libertalia really exist?... Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, on the isle of Mauritius, of the eastern coast of Madagascar, the dodo birds became extinct, after being clubbed to death many times by hungry sailors.
New Providence Island - It was once called Santa Catalina, and then, in the early eighteenth century, New Providence, then, it was re-named Nassau, after it's major town. It, too, for a while, was a most lawless and swinging pirate place.
Okracoke Inlet, North Carolina - This was where the flamboyant pirate Blackbeard, Edward Teach, was killed. His pirating career lasted only about 2 years. I have been to the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, N. Carolina, and believe me, it is worth going. They have the remnants of Blackbeard's ship "The Queen Anne's" revenge on display. It is said that at the mouth of Bath Creek, if you are very, very lucky, you can still see, under the water, at times, an eerie yellow glow... It's Captain Teach holding up a lantern, looking for his lost head. Uh... Some say that skull was made into a punch bowl.
Hello. I'm writer Antoinette Beard/Sorelle Sucere. Welcome to my blog, which is dedicated to all the loving, intelligent, brave, wise, strong, gentle, kind, sweet-and-geeky, humble-and-patient, --- whether they have hands, paws, hooves, wings, fins, or even, --- yes, flippers, --- and to all eager readers and hard-working authors, everywhere. ;)
Meanwhile...
I love all creatures. I consider them, all of them, to be sentient beings... I write thrillers, fantasy, mysteries, gothic horror, romantic adventure, occult, Noir, westerns and various types of short stories. I also re-tell traditional folk tales and make old fairy tales carefully cracked. I'm often awake very early in the morning. A cuppa, and fifteen minutes later I'm usually writing something. ;)
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