Character is Destiny
First Published CindyValler.com Greek philosopher Heraclitus’s maxim “character is destiny” applies to this most famous and intrepid Yankee privateer Captain in America’s War for Independence, and to his extraordinary Haraden family of America’s oldest seaport, Gloucester, Massachusetts. Jonathan Haraden left the fishing port of Gloucester as a boy to work for Salem merchant George Cabot. He answered the call for opportunity, […]
Second Wind
In Beyond Beauport, my adventurous mid-life protagonist Shannon Clarke takes to the sea on her uncle Patrick’s brigantine ship Second Wind to seek her pirate ancestry and hunt for authentic pirate gold. She aspires to captain the vessel and writes a tribute poem with a 4-3-4-4 beat. Readers appreciated this as Second Wind became an important character in the story. A Second Wind Gusts anew […]
Pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny — Friends of Coincidence or Destiny?
Rafael Sabatini (1875 –1950) is one of my favorite writers of pirate fiction. Here a famous quote by him regarding coincidence . . . “Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted. Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the […]
Magnificent Brigantines: A Pirate Heritage
Readers of Beyond Beauport include sailors, boaters, beach readers and landlubbers.Sailors and non-sailors alike have expressed their pleasure of nautical descriptions and maritime history woven into the story. A brigantine, Second Wind plays a character and central image in my novel Beyond Beauport. I won’t reveal her secrets here. Brigantines were a favorite for Mediterranean pirates in the thirteenth century, […]
On This Day in 1789, Pirate Rachel Wall Was Hanged at Boston Common
On this day October 8, 1789, 229 years ago Rachel Wall was hanged at Boston Common near the corner of Tremont and Boylston street. Rachel and her husband George moved from Boston to Essex near Gloucester, Massachusetts to launch their plan to raid vessels off the North Shore. She was actually arrested and convicted of highway robbery, for stealing a […]
Battle of Gloucester Reenactment
Event Date: August 11; Time: 9 AM to 1 PM; Location: Pavilion Beach, Gloucester; Where to view it from: Above Pavilion Beach, Beauport Hotel, or from Stacey Boulevard Update on the Battle of Gloucester Re-enactmentBy James Masciarelli and Terry Weber MangosJoe Garland’s book, Guns off Gloucester, published in 1975 told of an important early skirmish of the American Revolution on August 8, 1775 […]