Blackbeard, the Pirate Vs the Outer Banks Boy from Nowhere
About this ebook
I have tried to put together a story from what I have read and what I have learned on the waterways from my adventures and experiences of living and traveling on the water.
The Outer Banks are filled with the fruits of Gods larder. One had only to use skill and daring moves to survive in these days on the waterways.
The story starts as Blackbeard the pirate glared across the campfire. The boy hidden in the bushes that could not be seen was scared. There would be no mercy for him if he was discovered. He learned how to hide and spy on his enemies from the Indians on the Outer Banks.
The boy had just turned 14 years old; he was looking across the fire at Blackbeard and is motley crew in the background. What his eyes focused on was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. She was partly dressed in a gown of blue and trimmed with silver. Her dark eyes flashed in defiance to what the pirate was saying. Her pretty red lips snarled in scorn, and how much ransom do you think you will get if you have your way with me, and then throw me to your crew?
The smoke from the fire baffled and the boy took this time to back away and get out of the bushes. He made himself a promise, he would free this captive for himself or his bones would lie forever in the sands along the shore. Now he would try to prove his manhood.
About the author
I was born near a lighthouse far out at sea on January 20, 1913. I must have heard the ocean roar and heard it pounding on the shore. Eight summer’s came and with it a big three-mast schooner. Prohibition was the name of the game. I was at the tiller, far at sea and my father was out from sampling the tea; I was the youngest rum runner of them all. I needed all that I could earn to support a pretty nineteen year old wife and home; 10-27-1931 we married and bought property in Milbridge, Maine. Vera Alley Kelley and I were married for 65 memorable years. I was a rigger at the Boston Navy Yard during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 12-7-1941; I also worked on “OLD IRONSIDES”. South Portland’s West yard in Maine, where I worked as a “pusher rigger”, I helped build and steered Liberty Ships for Captain Litchfield at all of the harbor trial test runs. I moved to North Carolina to enjoy my boat and the weather, I developed a small marine railway yard in Harkers Island near the Outer Banks. There in 1969 I got a call; The “BIG BAD JOHN” had run aground. I was recommended to Jimmy Dean as the right licensed captain to pilot her to Florida. Later I was hired to Captain the “M.V. MOUNT HOPE” for cruises from Rhode Island to Canada. The forty five foot ketch the “FROLIC”, I bought for my own. The “FROLIC” was berthed at Morehead City close to my home. The last 25 years I have written of experiences of my wonderful lifetime. I am now 98 years old and still going strong; I now reside on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina with my family of five generations. Capt. Gardner Martin Kelley 10-22-2011
