Welcome to Colleen’s Corner. This is a column meant for fun and some information About myself: I am a Freelance Photographer you often see me on the side of the road or in various places taking photos of different things animals, birds, places, people etc. l have lived in Lumby for over 8 years, you have seen my photos in the newspaper (Lumby Valley Times) and once in awhile in the Vernon Morning Star, and the Lumby Art Gallery. Photography is my passion. Disclaimer: The information on some of my photos that I write about a lot of times come from the Internet or books I research them, hopefully the facts are as close to the truth as I can come.
By Colleen Fielding
I am pretty excited as the market this coming Saturday July 19th, 2025 will be a theme day of Pirates. I am sure some vendors will be dressed up, I know I will be.
When the pirates roamed the seas, it wasn’t just men but women as well. Some were very famous, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, these two women sailed with the pirate of the name Calico Jack Rackham well before any of us were ever thought of. Way back in 1719, both of these women wore mens’ clothing, fighting beside the men. One day calico Jack and his crew were captured and to be hanged, both Anne and Bonny escaped the hanging because they were reported as being pregnant. Mary died in prison, while Anne was nowhere to be seen after her trial.
Pirates were very democratic, they held elections to choose who would be their captains.
All pirate crews had many people from different lands and cultures. Some speak Spanish, English, Greek, French, and so many other languages.
It is believed that the famous BlackBeard Pirate Captain killed some of his prisoners, but apparently he never did.
Their diets were very poor, without enough fresh vegetables and fruits a lot of pirates ended up with scurvy.
Did you know that pirates believed that whistling would bring on the strong winds which was not good for sailing.
The richest pirate to ever live was called Samuel Bellamy, apparently he was well liked and respected by his crew and others. He was quite dashing and always dressed in expensive clothing. He wore a belt with 4 pistols. Some other pirates wore a belt made of leather with a lot of different blades attached to their belt; this was called a baldric. Most pirates made their own pistols and muskets for their own weapons.
They liked the night time it helped them to surprise the ships and people that they would attack.
Some of the times pirates were actually family people, work was scarce, so they would turn to piracy to make a living to support their families.
Piracy is still around to this day, but instead of swords and knives, they use machine guns to attack boats, for their treasures including kidnaping people and selling them on the human trade markets.
