Black Sails Season 3 Episode 3
The pirates are dealing with the real bad ‘uns. Not with robbers, but with merchants, those folk who will backstab and thieve, but under guise of law. Fortunately for Rackham and company these people also spill secrets. In the middle of insulting Max, the leader of these despicable rogues spills the beans about the approach of Rogers and company. Hold it? Flint is a strategist? Since when? Flint has lost more battles than he’s won. Flint’s been overthrown, and tricked his way back into power based only on the failed leadership of others. But, somehow, Flint is the pirates’ “only strategist.” To quote Vane, “What the fuck is the matter with you people?” Now Flint is breaking every law of the sea, by dividing the crew into an “A” list and a “B” list, one to be fed, the other not. How, exactly, the food and water rations were “lost in the storm” is already and extremely sketchy. Why were they anyplace except stored in the middle hold, the safest place on the ship? Flint by now is hallucinating in earnest, and the ghost of Miranda, blood smeared but dry, is talking to him. And in spite of her, he’s killing his men. Among the pirates, Silver is still a man, even if he is missing part of his body. And he’s smarter than Flint. Robert Lewis Stevenson even said so in the book that inspired Black Sails. “The men feared Flint, and Flint feared Silver.” Silver looks at a rotting whale, sees the sharks under it, and knows that a shark is food. Silver uses truth and smarts to win Flint’s respect, and the fates reward him with the wind that the pirates so desperately need. Not that we believed for a minute that the wind wouldn’t come, but the timing blesses Silver’s audacity. Back on Nassau, the pirates plan to defend their island, without Flint but with Blackbeard. Blackbeard, conveniently just come to the island, conveniently wants Vane as his protégé, badly enough that he will step in and rescue the rest of Nassau. Not that he plans to stay. I don’t know if this determination of Blackbeard to take off into the uncharted sea and carry on war with the world is a way to kill him off, or an excuse to keep him from overpowering Flint later. One or the other, I’ll wager. A historical note here: The historical Hornigold taught the historical Blackbeard to be a pirate. Blackbeard taught Vane. Vane taught Rackham. Together they represent four generations in the same line of pirates. The series praises Flint, but Rackham seems to me to be the man with the greater vision. Back on Roger’s fleet, Rogers spills his beans to Eleanor. He’s raised his money for the enterprise by promising to subdue Nassau within two months. And he’s promised the Spanish to find and return the Urca gold. How exactly an Englishman ended up dealing with the Spanish, or promising them the return of the gold (which could be defined as legal salvage) after England’s long history of taking Spanish gold on the slightest of pretexts, remains unexplained. It’s clearly the excuse to bring in a Spanish war ship for a big fight later, but I don’t like it. What I do like is Roger’s way to get around the newly-resolute pirates. Well, Eleanor’s. Yes, historically Benjamin Hornigold was one of the founders of Nassau. Yes, Hornigold supported the pirate’s taking of pardons. The fact that the real man did so from the other side of the barricades is not important here. The sides line up nicely, and the unexpected has happened once again. The pirates begin to lay down their arms. How do I know? Because this island is one of the most famous in all of literature. It’s called Treasure Island.
