Captain Calico Jack, The Original Jack Sparrow

Pirates in films, games and novels are shown as anti heros. These are all fantasy's originating from The mind of Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote treasure island. He made Long John Silvers a pirate who was a hero to the reader who were mostly boys at the time.

Long John shares some inspiration for the characters that we love today such as Jack Sparrow, but there was also a real life inspiration knows as Calico Jack. Calico Jack is known as one of the most flamboyant pirates to exist,  much like A certain sparrow everyone knows and loves.

He was a pirate with ideas that burnt bright ,but faded fast. His ideas and personality made him quite popular among his crew. His popularity launched him into the role of captain when his previous captain Charles Vane was labeled a coward.

Captain Calico Jack would go on to lead quite a career stealing a large ship called the Kingston. Shortly after stealing the large ship it was stolen back and he barley escaped with his life. He escaped to Nassau and was granted pardon for years. He eventually started trouble in his new life in Nassau when he had an affair with A women named Anne Bonney.

Anne's current husband would learn of the affair  forcing Her and Jack to steal a ship and escape.
He led a new crew with Anne by his side. She was hidden in plain sight disguised as a man. Captain Jack Calico would go on to find a merchant who did the same trick called Mary Reed.

Jack now had the only ship with two women pirates in hiding and they were not weak they could definitely hold their own. His success came to an end when his ship was overtaken by Jonathan Barnett. He stood trail and was hung in 1720. Reed and Bonney were also captured and found guilty, but were pregnant so they were spared. Read died and Anne survived, no one knew what happened to her afterwards.

The story of Calico Jack is a one hard to believe, yet one that would inspire so many stories. The Pirate long john silvers attitude and personality was made from Pirates like Calico Jack. Men who were reckless yet were seen as leaders who went on amazing adventures.

The more modern and known inspiration is Captain Jack Sparrow. Sparrow and Calico were both men who's ideas burnt bright but faded fast. Both men were not bad men they did bad things but not things that most pirates did.

The book under the Black flag states "Piracy, like rape depended on the use of force or the threat of force, and pirate attacks were accompanied by extreme violence, torture and death". Calico Jack is not this pirate he was a romanticism of a pirate that was used as an example to create Pirates we love today. Calico Jack's story was responsible for the ideal pirate everyone thinks of today that is shown in film and media.


https://owlcation.com/humanities/Golden-Age-of-Piracy



 


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