Saturday 14 December 2013

Maria Lindsey Cobham tawny termagant of the high seas



 
 
Still  having problems  both with  my  paint it  black   blogger  photo up loader   and  a    non functional    yahoo email for  most of the week     this combined with me  being   ill    and    plagued  by  abdominal pains   and   even worse  pains  even further down below  will make  a   usual christmas

 

Reminded  me that I had  drafted  lots of  unused posts   and rather than   take  a  selfie  of  my  medication   and pained expression     decided to   write of the brandy butter and moonfleet pirates   of the  early 1700s 

 

Namely   Maria  Cobham   the  crew murdering      pirate  queen of the   Canadian  main  who found her way into children's  books of pirates    from the  1920s onwards   where as you can see from the above   Ladybird  book illustration    Maria   really pointed both  barrels

 

  Maria was  the lover of the  rough ruffian   Eric Cobham  a man  stole a  bag of  gold  from a  sleeping  clergyman to   buy a  ship  and in a  cruel  crude career  operating out of Saint  Georges   bay

  Cobham  successfully  looted   both  East Indiamen and  Hudson Bay traders the captains tied to masts   and used for target  practice     the crews of these seized  ships  ending up either  poisoned roasted   or  sew into sacks  and thrown overboard   by  his Plymouth born  lover   Maria  Lindsey

 

Making  enough money in  loot  of furs  and  New York   bound spices   the  Cobhams retired to  France where   Eric  Cobham became   an  ancien regime  landowner and Judge    in the  Gironde  region    only  occasionally   sailing out to ransack    becalmed   ships  and  murder  their  crews   

It is said  Eric   died  a rich and respected  aristocrat  but    Maria  Lindsey   poisoned herself  in despair  over getting old   and  being rejected   in  favout  of   Cobhams  new  French wife  

 

 

The  Cobhams   however  now no longer find themselves  alongside Kidd and  Teach   since  the story was a  tourist  tale  based on a  discovered "lost  memoir"   originating in the  1920s    the  Cobhams  invented  as   bodice ripper  villains   to    interesting than the  other   fictional pirates   such as   Captain  Mission, Captain  Red Legs  Greaves and  Captain Derdrake. 

 

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