Confession: I have a thing for pirates. Yes, I do. Why? Maybe it’s just the sea, the wild loneliness of it, and the salt. I was raised on salt air and water, and consider fresh water, even vast bodies of fresh water, to be a little…. Wanting. Or maybe it’s the rebelliousness of the pirates, their brute strength and wild eyes and hairy chests, the way they climb rigging (do you know anyone- anyone at all- who can climb rigging?), and wear eye patches and earrings and- yes- parrots. I don’t know. Have you seen Pirates of the Caribbean? Suffice it to say that Johnny Depp is a man who should always wear eyeliner.
The thing is that Bill was a pirate once. Yes he was. I didn’t know him at the time, which may have been fortunate for both of us, but he was a pirate, and I’ve seen pictures (and if you come to my house I will show you one, because I have them). He played Frederick, the young and innocent pirate in his high school’s production of Pirates of Penzance. I am very proud of those pictures, and look at them with Some Frequency. So maybe I prefer innocent pirates. Or maybe I just prefer Bill.
I recently finished reading a book about a pirate, and he is the innocent sort, too. The book is Captain Blood, a provocative title- yes?, by Rafael Sabatini. It was published in 1922 and tells the story of an Irish doctor who, through the unjust wickedness of King James of England, is sold into slavery in the Caribbean. Peter Blood behaves himself for awhile, doctoring the victims of their cruel slave-owner, stewing in rage over outrageous injustice, and quietly falling in love with Arabella Bishop who, wouldn’t you know, is the niece of aforementioned slave-owner.
Of course it wasn’t long before I, myself, was in love with Peter Blood. The foolish Arabella doesn’t see that she, too, is in love with him until the very satisfying end of the book. Blind and Foolish Girl! He’s handsome, he’s kind, he’s intelligent, he speaks fluent French, Spanish and, of course, English, and lapses charmingly into the sweetest Irish brogue on those rare occasions when he is Beside Himself (which he is over Arabella Bishop– who wouldn’t love that ?).
He becomes a pirate almost by accident, which makes it Entirely Forgiveable, and then he is the Very Best Pirate, with a reputation that precedes him all over the watery deeps. He doesn’t kill people much, and yet he becomes fabulously wealthy and has all sorts of interesting pirate-type fellows who obey his every word, because he’s just such a great pirate. He’s cunning, too, and wise, and gets himself and his fleet (who do you know who has a fleet?) out of Impossible Scrapes, and says things wittily and makes you laugh.
Sabatini had a wonderful time writing this book, I am sure of it. Blood is just Beautiful– larger than life, but real and humble and sweet, too (remember the lapse into the brogue?). And his vocabulary is great. Of course when one is writing about pirates, one should use words like swarthy and thither, but he also throws things like starboard and larboard and yardarm at you, and these are words my grandfather tried to teach me when I was six, so I love them. And then there are lines like this: “He was maddened by the tormenting lure of the unattainable,” (who isn’t?) and passages like this: “And whilst (whilst!) the most formidable vessel of the Spanish fleet was thus being put out of action at the outset, Blood had sailed in to open fire upon the Salvador. First athwart her hawse he had loosed a broadside that had swept her decks with terrific effect, then going on and about, he had put a second broadside into her hull at short range. Leaving her thus half-crippled, temporarily, at least, and keeping to his course, he had bewildered the crew of the Infanta by a couple of shots from the chasers on his beak-head, then crashed alongside to grapple and board her, whilst Hagthorpe was doing the like by the San Felipe.”
Such naval brilliance! Such tactics! Such writing!
And Sabatini’s language is so rich that he is able, without causing me to raise my eyebrows, to use words like aswim and empurpled. I will never in good conscience be able to use those words, but I will always admire them.
And I will always admire Captain Blood. And Captain Jack Sparrow. And Rafael Sabatini, who knew how to create a Really Good Time.
Thank you, Susan, for the loan!
