Sunday's Jumble answers.
 

Sunday's Jumble solutions from Sunday's Villages Daily Sun:

Musty.
Lading.
Elicit.
Quote.

Monday's Word Jumble:

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/c.../comic/Jumble/

Saturday's answers:

Penny.
Locale.
Bunker.
Think.

The pirates had to elicit a response from the townspeople of Charleston about the pirates' needed ransom's lading of the chest of medicine. They sent envoys who took their sweet time returning. While the captive hostages waited in the musty hold many got very restless. Some historians even quote them as saying: "they would stand by [the pirates] to the last man" if the people of Charleston "put a greater value on the chest of medicines than on the lives of the fourscore men now on the verge of destruction." Some of victims of the kidnappers even said that they would pilot the pirates' ships into the harbor and help them set fire to Charleston. Fortunately for the fate of the captured Charlestonians, the Governor's Council of Charleston had decided to meet the demands of the pirates for the medicine. Unfortunately for the kidnapped victims, the pirate envoys had decided to get rip roaring drunk and could not be found to send back the Council's response. http://librivox.org/a-general-histor...arles-johnson/

the jester baked a pie
with a crust for which you'd die
it was uncommonly scrumptiously good
though somewhat filmy it's understood

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/c.../comic/Jumble/

Monday the 18th's answers:

Mutiny.
Basic.
Apart.
Primer.

After the pirate envoys were found smiling and very drunk, they and another man took the chest of medicine back to Blackbeard's flotilla. He accepted it as ransom and started to form the idea of retiring from being a pirate. The huge amount of booty his various flotilla's crew had collected also entered into it. One basic thing though came to his mind-- the fewer people he shared it with the bigger his take. He needed a plan that would not result in mutiny. A primer for his conspiracy to work was the September 5, 1717 offer by King George I of a pardon for all pirates giving up piracy before or by September 5, 1718 and their promise of never returning to such misdeeds. He now needed to thin his ranks by setting himself and a few others apart from his larger force as well as turn himself into an acceptable authority as defined by the King's Proclamation. http://pyracy.com/index.php?/topic/1...on-of-the-act/

Jumble - Houston Chronicle

Broker.
Digest.
Court.
Clash.

Blackbeard decided his plan for his retirement would work better with the NC Governor--Charles Eden--than with the SC one--Robert Johnson. His actions with plundering at least eight ships near Charleston would clash with political connections of the SC Governor even if Eden had been appointed by the Court of Queen Anne. It would be easier to broker with the NC Governor for a good deal under the King's September 5, 1717 Proclamation of Pardons for Pirates giving up their wicked ways . In other words, the SC Governor had too much crow to digest because of Blackbeard's actions in Charleston. He had stepped on a hornet's nest through this blockade and the good citizens of Charleston were looking for someone to sting. They would get a perfect target for their revenge in Major Stede Bonnet after Blackbeard's upcoming treachery at Beaufort Inlet, NC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_(governor) http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/...tary/325/entry http://www.teachshole.com/bonnet.htm

Jumble - Houston Chronicle


Wednesday's Jumble answers:

Glory.
Venue.
Active.
Cousin.

Blackbeard headed for his chosen venue of NC to turn himself into Governor Charles Eden. First though he deliberately ran his own ship The Queen Anne's Revenge and had his pilot Israel Hands run another sloop The Adventure aground. Not wanting to share plunder nor glory he marooned 25 men in Beaufort Inlet after holding them at gunpoint and removing arms and money from them. He then culled his pirate crew even further by escaping with a few others in the sloop he had secretly moved most of his booty to earlier. He had even tricked Stede Bonnet into going to get a pardon while lying to him about saving some of the pirate loot for him. Blackbeard gave up the active life of a pirate and settled in Bath Town, NC in a home across from the NC Governor Eden. He even took a 14th wife. He could see himself with wife, more children, and close cousins in Bath Town. If only, though, the twenty men he brought with him could also give up the pirate's life. They could not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_North_Carolina http://www.qaronline.org/History/StoryofBlackbeard.aspx

Thursday's Jumble answers. February 21, 2013
 

Jumble - Houston Chronicle

Graft.
Adage.
Hoofed.
Defeat.

12 year old Benjamin Franklin and Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood of VA.
 

Two very careful watchers of Blackbeard were Benjamin Franklin who was just about or now a 12 year old apprentice for a printer in Boston and Lt. Governor of VA, Alexander Spotswood. Both were interested in the defeat of Blackbeard's pirates. Spotswood feared that Blackbeard would start his pirate career anew and target Virginia shipping. He also felt that graft between some Colonial Governors and Blackbeard was an atrocious development and an afront to King George I. He had sent a hoofed party to NC's Governor Eden to bring home that point. Benjamin Franklin feared that Blackbeard would return to piracy, get caught, and be hung. Many, especially Spotswood, believed the adage that the only good pirate was a dead pirate and Franklin even put a spin on it. "Better to swim in the sea below than to swing in the air and feed the crow, Says Jolly Ned Teach of Bristol." http://www.piratesoul.com/index.php?...ife&Itemid=201

Blackbeard would often sail up the Delaware River to find a good site to anchor away from prying eyes and then catch a ferry to Philadelphia's waterfront to enjoy telling his stories of piracy on the High Seas. He frequented a store managed by Mrs. Bulah Coates at High Street, No. 77 and at least one of his men retired to Philadelphia with Blackbeard's permission. Unfortunately for Blackbeard the Governor of Pennsylvania, William Keith, was well within Lt. Governor of Virginia Aleander Spotswood's orbit and there was soon (August 11, 1718) a PA warrant put out for his arrest. The pirate leader was shocked when he heard the news of the warrant. Now, Blackbeard would not continue trawling for wife No. 15 nor conduct his sermons on piracy from the pulpit of the local waterfront bars. Governor William Keith sent out two sloops under his agency to capture Blackbeard and his new sloop which Blackbeard had named Adventure after the previous ship Israel Hands had run aground at Beaufort Inlet, NC. Rather than stay where he was not wanted, Blackbeard bent to the nagging of his crew to resume their preying on merchant ships. They left Pennsylvania for Bermuda. http://www.republicofpirates.net/PhillyPirates.html

An evil baron well-known for his craft
was despised far and wide for corruption and GRAFT.
He bowed and kissed royalty on their hands
and he rode a fine stallion and owned vast lands
and wherever he arrived he'd arrange for a band.
They thumped their drums and blew shiny horns,
but in their hearts they felt only scorn.
One day they conspired to DEFEAT this sire,
and blasted their trumpets at the head of his horse
til the baron tumbled and fell on his arse, :censored:
and when he was trampled they felt no remorse.
They called him well-HOOFED as he lay on the grass,
and thus came the ADAGE all's well that ends well,
and that's what he gets for polishing brass.

I must say I love these poems of yours, Kitty. Benjamin Franklin wrote a poem on the demise of Blackbeard. He was only 12 or so when he did it so it is not exactly Robert Frost quality. I will give a link when I get closer to his fight with the British navy vessels around November 22, 1718.

your encouragement is appreciated. Some days I feel the stress of my move to TV, closing Apr 1, and cannot relax my imagination. When I can entertain them, it feels like I'm dancing with the words and enjoy when they find each other in some whimsical pattern. Thanks for the link to houston chr...I cancelled my paper cuz the jumble was about all it was good for and I got enough stashed for packing.
Kitty

Made a bunch of moves myself. They are stressful. Tomorrow I am going to try to cover Blackbeard's trip to Philadelphia in 1718.