“A Look At the Colonial World Through the Eyes of….”

I live on a pirate ship and I work at sea. My name is Captain John Quelch and I have been the captain of the Charles for less than a week. My life is very easy on land, but much harder at sea. I roam the ocean searching for rich ships to plunder. I did not start out captain at the beginning of this voyage, but right when we left port we threw the captain overboard. I have a privateer license, so I can plunder ships legally, but I have to give a share to the government. I’m only allowed to attack French and Spanish ships.

The English and the Portuguese have an alliance, but I plundered nine of their ships, getting almost 10000 euros, as you can see, the Portuguese ships have better loot. I am always armed with a pistol and cutlass.The ships is always cramped and always reeks of unwashed bodies. I have the best cabin because I am captain, but it still is terrible compared to the land. I have gotten all of the loot and I am heading back to Marblehead where I will most likely be put to death for plundering Portuguese ships. Little does the governor know that I have hid some of the loot on Star Island.

I have just seen a very big Spanish merchant ship. It does not seem to have many men or cannons. Me and my crew have just raised a friendly flag. The Spanish ship does not know that we are zeroing in on it to attack them. “Fire!” The gunner screams as we approach the Spanish ship. We raise the black flag and the Spanish ship now realizes what we are doing. They try to escape but we cut them off easily. We start to board their ship. We take as many hostages as we can so I can ransom them off. My crew searches the ship for any valuable cargo. The ship has plenty of food and water and the whole ship yells in excitement as they see the food and drink. The whole crew comes back aboard our ship and we all celebrate with much ale and the fresh water.