INSIDE:

Death of Dillinger—was it a ruse?

Whatever
happened
to Christopher Columbus?

Chess machines
in the B.C. epoch ("Before Computers").

The obsolete airplane that doomed the mighty battleship Bismarck.

 Deck Demons
Pirates You Probably
Never Heard Of

Blackbeard's name is brutally immortal, as is Captain Kidd's. Folk bards still sing of the latter at late-night pub revelries—and you've probably heard of "Gentleman" Stede Bonnet. Mentions of Anne Bonny or Mary Read, curious women pirates of the early 1700s, may ring one or two bells.

But what if we uttered Edward Mansfield (a/k/a Mansvelt)? Simâo Fernandes? John Taylor? The Killigrew family of Cornwall? Those names long ago were forgotten by the masses. Yet, if you'd been a victim entrusted to their "care" on the high seas, you might have held them in more satanic regard than any of their better-remembered counterparts.

Piracy has been a reality of seafaring since ancient times. Phoenicians, for example, are studied as a prosperous, comparatively enlightened seafaring society—but some of their captains were not above a touch of "heavy-handedness," shall we say, when they encountered weaker, richly laden vessels at sea. Somehow, all the wayward Phoenicians have managed to escape inclusion in latter-day pirate lore. Likewise the ancient mariners of many other cultures who committed briny crimes. To serious nautical students, it seems quaint that only a few—the same few—pirates have made it into all the history books. In two words, piracy has been blatantly "romanticized" and "stereotyped."

To briefly revive the lost records of those aforementioned, lesser-known rogues of the deck:

* Edward Mansvelt (Mansfield), of mysterious origins, operated out of Jamaica during the 1660s. A privateer for the English, he raided Spanish settlements in the Caribbean and garnered something of a fortune in pesos and humans slaves. By one account, the Spaniards finally caught and executed him in Havana; by another, he died of unknown causes on the island of Tortuga.

* A century earlier, Simâo Fernandes pirated alternately for Spain, Portugal and England!

* English pirate John Taylor made his fortune plundering vessels of many nations in the Indian Ocean around 1720. Then he "retired" to Panama, obtained a pardon, and reportedly served the Panamanian government as a coast guard commander.

* The Killigrews of Pendennis Castle, which overlooked Falmouth Harbour in Cornwall, ran a wrecker/pirate syndicate in southwestern England and Ireland during the 1500s, possibly earlier. They were so influential that local and royal officials basically accepted their shenanigans, either letting them off with toothless reprimands when caught, or turning a blind eye.

"Walk the plank?" What plank? We don't need no stinkin' plank. . . .

The Great Blithering Antiquity Quiz: October

1) Historic Clingmans Dome is the highest peak in what mountain range?
a) Rockies
b) Aleutians
c) Caucasus
d) Smokies

2) True or false: Classical author Charles Dickens once served time in a debtors prison.

3) "Tea for Two" by Youmans, Caesar and Grey was a hit song in:
a) 1904
b) 1924
c) 1944
d) 1964

4) Apart from his writings, what did 15th-Century author François Rabelais do for a living?

5) True or false: The Quixiault were a Native American people who lived along the St. Lawrence River.

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS

Molly & Margaret, American Heroines

You know the story of Molly Pitcher, a/k/a Molly Hays. She was the Pennsylvania woman who, like many American wives during the Revolution, followed her husband off to war. John Hays was a gunner. Molly—who got her nickname "Pitcher" because she regularly carried water throughout the army camp—grabbed the rammer pole and began operating the cannon after her husband and his comrades fell wounded by a British shell. It is said that George Washington himself witnessed her gutsy deed and made her a noncommissioned officer in the Continental Army.

Historians aren't certain it happened like that. But something similar apparently happened that day at the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey), so we let the story stand.

More credible is the record of a sister Pennsylvanian, Margaret Corbin. Like Hays, she followed her cannoneer husband to war. And like Hays, she took his place at the gun when he was killed. This occurred at Fort Washington on the lower Hudson River in New York. British and Hessian troops captured the fort. Corbin, who was wounded, was held prisoner briefly, then released. Despite a permanent arm injury, she later served as a Corps of Invalids guard at another Hudson River fort, West Point.

Corbin's reward for her bold service: initially, a mere $30 from the government of Pennsylvania. The Continental Congress supplemented it, providing her with a suit of clothing and a soldier's half-pay. Corbin died in 1800 at West Point, where she is buried.