Bonnet, Stede (?-1718), was a retired British Army officer who became a pirate, probably to escape his Barbados Island home. He quietly bought and fitted out a ship, the Revenge, and plundered ships along the Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware coasts. For a while, he sailed with the British pirate Blackbeard. According to legend, Bonnet forced his prisoners to “walk the plank” to their death. But there is little evidence that he or any other pirate actually did this. Bonnet’s attacks eventually angered the citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, so much that they sent out ships to capture him. He surrendered after an odd battle in which all ships ran aground. He was hanged in Charleston on Dec. 10, 1718.
