The Captains are: Blackbeard (true),Black Bart (I think this guy was an old west fiction,not pirate) Henry Morgan (a privateer and respectable Governor of Jamaica, not pirate
), Laurens de Graff(true but I only remember the name, not the pirate connection), Mary Read (true,see note under Calico Jack), Anne Bonny (true,see note under Calico Jack), William Kidd (true, though the poor fellow was robbed of his life through unscrupulous legal English laws by those that hired him to go out in the first place), Charlotte de Berry (not sure,name sounds familiar but I can't remember reading of her exploits-I may have her confused with the Ducs de Berry of French fame-that would mean she is fiction but heh, I could be wrong), Francois 'le Ollonais (true, this guy was a violent rat b*stard), Rocky Brazilliano(same as with Charlotte, I have a sneaking suspician that this one is fiction.), Bloody Mary (I think someone is trying to pull a fast one here...FICTION!), Long John Silver(of Treasure Island fame..fiction), Cap'n Hook (of Peter Pan fame...Spanish!!?-get real-he may, however, have been Spanish in the book-I never read it.), Rosanne Winnefrey (Gee,sounds like a talk show host bundled up with a famous overweight commedianne-FICTION!!!) Nicholaas van Hoorn (I could swear I've heard this name but I can't be sure of where..) and Calico Jack.
Jack be a true pirate...arrrg. He got his name from wearing a coat and/or clothes of patchwork that became associated with calico cats because of it's multi-color, if memory serves me correctly. He had NO cat on top o' his heyed!!This dude was a poor trash kind of pirate-his conquests consisted of alot of small fishing boats although he did have his moments. He carved a name for himself in 1716-18 when he served with Charles Vane (a very real threat who was a true Pirate King though he, surprisingly, is not in T2. Stede Bonnet, a true gentleman pirate, is another that was missed). Jack, however, turned out not to be a very loyal protege to Vane, as he ended up splitting with the pirate over petty differences, no doubt brought on by their mutual alchoholism. Some accounts say that Vane was voted out as Captain and replaced by Jack, others say that Jack took command of a second ship and parted company with Vane over a rum dispute. The latter is more likely, as Vane continued to operate after the incident. Jack, however, did not have too much luck. He attempted to get himself and crew pardoned by England by going after Spaniards but was betrayed by incidents that had happened while he'd been with Vane. After a few close calls and the loss of a ship, he and several crewmen made their way towards Cuba in a large boat and succeeded in forcing a Spaniard to surrender just north of the famous island. They sailed the captured vessel to Providence and succeeded in getting a pardon from the Governor there. This is where Jack parted with his old crew and eventually hooked up with Anne Bonny (yes the spelling is correct), a comely lass who was married to an ex-pirate named James Bonny. Calico Jack would be far less known were it not for his hookup with Anne and, later, Mary Read...two females who have been glamorized by history far more than deserved. According to the actual English court records, the entire voyage and adventures of these three, which started sometime in 1718, was little more than an 18 month to 2 year joyride of stealing small boats from fishermen! This, at least, is what they were eventually tried for. I gotta hand it to Jack though, according to these court records he was sexing up both women and they, especially the red-headed Bonny, were involved in sexual orgies of a scandelous nature with other members of the crew-hence the main reason why the case of these three was sensationalized in the existing press of the era. In their time, they were more famous than Paris Hilton when it came to incidents of carnal knowledge
In the end, though, it did none of them any good. Jack was hung with all of the male members of his crew [maybe five guys]. Both women were spared the gibbet due to pregnancy [JACK!! You sly dog
]. Anne was returned to her marriage to James Bonny [some accounts say under near slave-like conditions but no account of Anne labels her as anything less than promiscuous-those are the kind ones] and Mary Read, poor thing, supposedly died in prison while waiting for her own pregnancy to come to term.
). She is the one, along with Jack, that probably got the raw deal here. Bonny, however it went, seemed to land on her feet like a cat due to connections of an influential nature in the local area.
The only problem I have with the Captains of this game is that I believe you should be able to create your own Captains within established parameters. That would include two dozen generic male and female portraits of the same quality as those assigned to the existing Captains, allowing you to have the same esthetic qualities in your profiles as the 'famous Captains'. Adding Charles Vane, Steede Bonnet and a few other missing faces to existing Captains in an expansion pack would also be good.
You could then truly feel that, as a Pirate King, you were being served by trusted confederates rather than drudges you hired off the sealanes. I also believe that 'Expert Swordsman' should be a trait that works the same as 'expert dualist', but with swordsmanship. The sword, cutlass and rapier were still very much respected arts in the era of pirates.
My favorite T2 Captain? I lean towards two-Charlotte de Berry and Bloody Mary. Both have brought in some awesome hauls for me to this point, although Charlotte was lost to a mutiny once and Mary has had several ships shot out from under her. The mutiny was probably my fault, although running out of sea rations during a cruise due to lack of navigation skills did not help. Oddly, both of my choices are suspected to be fiction. So much for my knowledge of historic pirates!
Poll
