Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 3 - Ragamuffin Army & Poise, Precision and Audacity)

* Ragamuffin Army - By the time Morgan began to piece together what became known as the legendary Bretheren of the Coast (a loose coalition of marauders who operated in the Carribean Islands in the 17th Century), he was recruiting from the most unlikely groups of people imaginable. Did you know that the term "Buccanneer" actually originates from the fact that many of the mountain men who rallied to Morgan's banner were called "barbecuers" (i.e. "boucaners", from which we also get our word "bacon") by local inhabitants because of their uncouth practices of openly flaying, firing and eating the wild pigs who often roamed the islands? These groups were mostly comprised of those whom conventional society had completely forgotten or abandoned. They were the runaway or free slaves, the bankrupt, the poor, the desperate, the landless, the uneducated, the absolute bottom of the proverbial barrell. And yet, they liked Morgan as he promised them an opportunity to rally and prove themselves, rising from the ranks of the forgotten and rigid classes of reinforced aristocracy and becoming, eventually, what Talty calls "pound for pound, one of the most elite fighting forces on the planet...".

* Poise, Precision and Audacity -Morgan consistently did the impossible. Throughout his career, the Spanish found themselves retreating into supposed impossiblities, only to have to later eat their own words later. "He'll never attack Portobello... it's too well defended!" Then Morgan sent letters of ransom to bewildered Spanish authorities after sacking the fort in one of the most daring moonlight amphibious raids ever attempted in maritime warfare. "Well! At least we still have Panama! He would never dare attack Panama! We have nearly 1,500 infantry and cavalry there!" Then, after 1671, Panama belonged to Morgan. Although he was careful with the lives of his men, he was simply undaunted by... well... anything. There was no limit to his ambition (and, unfortunately, his greed), and because he simply dared, he pushed the boundaries of what was even thougth possible by the ruling Spanish heirarchy, and forced them to acknowledge England and its rag-tag bands of Privateers as a real menace. You cannot read about Morgan without walking away with the notion that poise, precision and audacity account for much.

I LOVE the idea of gathering "people at the margins" (i.e. the "zombies" i speak of in my previous post) for a cause that ultimately becomes successful, and i love the audacity that Morgan displayed in rallying the forgotten to a cause that made the Spanish Empire tremble!