Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum.

In the morning of November 22, 1718, the boarding is launched, a wild fight follows. The frightening pirate Blackbeard and Lieutenant Maynard of the Royal Navy meet themselves. They are engaged in a duel with the pistol. Blackbeard is hit. Then, they are in confrontation with the sabre, the Lieutenant's sabre breaks under the attacks of his terrible opponent. Blackbeard hurls on him to give the fatal blow, when a sailor strikes him a stab to his neck. Surmounting his pain, blood flooding on him everywhere, Blackbeard keeps on fighting courageously in spite of his multiple wounds...

What a poignant way to open this post on the terrible fight between the infamous pirate Blackbeard and Lieutenant Maynard!

This four part blog abounds in exciting true stories on pirates and privateers as well as useful maritime pirate information.

Part one is a general study of the life of a pirate around the start of the 18th Century. Of late I have been reading about pirates and Edward (Blackbeard) Teach in particular so I will use him as your archetypical pirate of the Caribbean.

Edward Teach is thought to have been born 1690 in Bristol, England. He served as a deckhand on an English Privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession but jumped ship in Jamaica and joined the pirate Captain Ben Hornigold from 1713 to 1716.

In 1717 Blackbeard captured the French ship St Vincent which he fitted out with 40 cannon, a crew of 150 men and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge. Within a short time Blackbeard became known as the "Terror of the Caribbean" with a small fleet and 300 men. In 1718 he attacked a heavily armed British warship, HMS Scarborough, winning the battle that lasted several hours, sending the Britisher in flight back to port. His reputation was sealed.

As well as the Caribbean Blackbeard raided along the Virginia and Carolina Coast. Finally the Governor of Virginia dispatched the warship HMS Pearl under the command of Lt Robert Maynard. The final outcome is as related above. Blackbeard died as the result of five bullet wounds and twenty stab wounds. Maynard suspended Blackbeard's head from the bow of his Flagship. It was later displayed on a pole at the mouth Hampton River as a deterrent.

Most people think of pirate Captains as ruthless and having absolute rule however most pirate ships operated under a very democratic system. All men were treated as equal. Skin colour, religion or ethnic origin were of little importance. The Captain and senior positions was elected by the crew and all decisions except those made during battle or in pursuit of treasure were voted on by the crew. During battle the Captain had sole authority.

They also had a Code of Conduct. The following are the rules worked out by the crew who served under pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts. They are included in a book entitled "General History of the Pyrates" by Charles Johnson, published in 1724.

1. Every man has the right to vote on all decisions to be made, and everyone has the same right to fresh food and spirits.
2. Any man who steals from his comrades shall be marooned.
3. Nobody shall game for money, either with dice or cards.
4. Lights and candles must be extinguished at eight o'clock in the evening. If crew members want to continue drinking after this time, they should do it on deck.
5. Weapons, pistols and cutlasses must be kept clean and operational at all times.
6. No women or boys may board. Whoever lures a woman on board and takes her to sea in disguise shall forfeit his life.
7. Whoever leaves the ship or his post during a battle shall be punished by death or whipping.
8. Scrapping is banned aboard. Any disputes shall be settled on Land.
9. Anyone who loses a limb during a battle shall receive an extra share of the booty.
10. The Captain and the Quartermaster shall each receive two shares of the booty; the Mate, Chief Gunner, and Bo'sun One and a half shares; Officers one and a quarter shares, and all other crew members one share each.

Unlike the ships of the regular Navies it was standard on most pirate ships for wounded crew to receive an additional purse. Pirate Veterans who were no longer able to fight enjoyed a pension and surviving dependants were supported.

The life of a pirate was tough but the rewards and benefits could be great.

In the next series of posts I shall cover weapons, pirate flags, battle tactics, female pirates and other good stuff.

Until then; Stay good and be kind to each other.

Give Me Your Username and Password! (Updated)

You may have read about people being dismissed from their employment after posting comments or videos on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

One City in the USA has taken it one step further.

Here is an article from the Montana's News Station

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Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.

That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city's background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.

The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.

The requirement raises questions concerning applicants' privacy rights.

Article 2, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution reads "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest."

The City takes privacy rights very seriously, but this request balances those rights with the City's need to ensure employees will protect the public trust, according to city attorney Greg Sullivan.

"So, we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here. So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City," Sullivan said.

Another concern the applicant raised was that by providing the City with a Facebook user name and password the City not only has access to the applicant's page but also to the pages belonging to all of the applicant's Facebook "friends."

"You know, I can understand that concern. One thing that's important for folks to understand about what we look for is none of the things that the federal constitution lists as protected things, we don't use those. We're not putting out this broad brush stroke of trying to find out all kinds of information about the person that we're not able to use or shouldn't use in the hiring process," Sullivan said.

When asked about creating a separate Bozeman Facebook page, then asking applicants to add the City as "friend," thus allowing the City to view the applicant's profile, Sullivan said officials could explore the option. This would limit the city to only view the page of the applicant.

No one has ever removed his or her name from consideration for a job due to the request, Sullivan added.

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I don't know about you but I think that the City of Bozeman had far exceeded the limits of privacy. I think it is a gross invasion of privacy. If this is the attitude before you are employed what do the expect after you are on their payroll?

What are your thoughts? Has the City of Bozeman gone too far? Would you continue with the application?

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Edit: UPDATE

Bozmean Drops Password Requirement.

A change in Bozmean's city hiring policy -- two days and one worldwide reaction after we broke the story, Bozeman will no longer ask applicants for social networking user names and passwords.

"Effective at noon today the city of Bozeman permanently ceased the practice of requesting that candidates selected for positions under a provisional job offer to provide their usernames or passwords for candidates internet sites," said Chris Kukulske, Bozeman City Manager.

Kukulski says after a 90 minute staff meeting held earlier today, officials decided asking applicants to provide their passwords to sites such as Facebook or MySpace, "exceeded that which is acceptable to our community."

Kukulski apologized for the negative impact the issue has generated from news organizations and blogs around the world.

He says this information was never required at the time of application.

"This was a question that was asked after you were conditionally offered the job."

He says the city also is suspending the practice of viewing any password protected information.

The city will continue using the internet as part of background checks to judge the character of applicants, and although the city will stop asking for passwords Kukulski says the passwords already given by previous applicants will remain the confidential property of the city.

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Flashback: Big Bad Al - The Early Years.

My mother was right. My youth was mis-spent. My Dad was a Station Master in the Railways. In Queensland the main railway runs along the coast from Brisbane to Cairns. There are branch lines that run off the main line at various points to service the Inland areas. So most of my young years was spent in close proximity to the coast. Dad owned a house at Caloundra (on the Sunshine Coast) so we spent a lot of time "at the beach".

A lot of my free time was spent surfing at King's Beach and at Alex (Alexandra Headlands). The house was at King's Beach on the point. That was in the late 60s and early 70s so it was nothing like it is today. The Sunshine Coast was a series of villages strung out along the coast. Today it is one big conglomeration of urbanisation.

As I got older and got my own car and Driver's License (in that order) I ventured further afield and would head down to the Gold Coast and Northern New South Wales (NSW).

And then I joined the Army. The end of my surfing you would think. But not so. My first posting after training was to Canungra, a small Army base in the Gold Coast Hinterland. So I was still in easy reach of some good surfing beaches. I spent 5 years there before I was forced to transfer and drifted off to continue my military career.

A few years later the Army asked me if I would like to go to Hawaii for 12 months. What a silly question. My bags were packed before they had the paperwork filled out.

That was a great posting for an old surfer. I didn't surf the big waves, I was too "rusty" by then, but did do a bit of surfing in the smaller wave areas. It was good to see the big waves at places like Diamond Head, Wiamea Bay, Sunset Beach and O'ahu. I also got to see the Beach Boys live on Waikiki Beach. A great 12 months holiday... errr... Posting. And I got paid for it.

Since then I have not done any surfing but I have spent a lot of my time near salt water. I have worked and lived on Fraser Island, the Gold Coast and Northern NSW coast. I now live in a coastal region and have no intentions of moving any time soon. If I can't smell the salt air I get Jittery.

What brought on these ramblings of my early Years? Well I was rummaging through some boxes of stuff and came across some old vinyls and tapes. (Vinyls for you young ones is the old music records. The equivalent of today's CDs) Some of you know that I listen to Country Music but I have a diverse taste in music and I still like my old Surfing Music.

So in parting I leave you with this.

EDIT: For your further enjoyment.

Damn these guys are still good. The follicles may be grayer (just like mine) but they still pick a mean guitar and drum a deadly beat. Enjoy.