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Month: April 2026

  • Under the Black Flag, Charleston: Pirate History Presentations

    Under the Black Flag draws near, and the lantern‑light grows brighter… There’s a certain hush before a gathering of pirate scholars — the kind of hush you hear on the deck of a ship just before dawn, when the sea holds its breath and waits to see what stories will be told. This year’s Charleston…

  • The Man Lately From Madagascar

    Charleston, 1694 The docks of Charles Town have always had their share of wanderers — sailors blown off course, merchants chasing coin, men who’d rather not be asked their names. But every so often, someone stepped ashore who carried a different kind of silence. A silence that made the gulls quiet and the dockhands look…

  • The Ghost of Anne Bonny: Charles Town’s Red‑Haired Reckoning

    There be tales the sea keeps, and tales the sea spits back out when it’s good and ready. And then there be the tales that refuse to die — the ones that cling to the rigging like salt and haunt a city long after the bones are dust. Today’s plunder is one of those. Gather…

  • Charleston’s Pyrate Queen — Anne Bonny

    Before Charleston ever whispered the name Blackbeard, there was a woman whose legend burned hotter than any fuse in a pirate’s hat. Anne Bonny — Irish-born, sharp-tongued, fearless, and utterly unwilling to live the life the world tried to hand her. Charleston was her proving ground, the place where she shed her old skin and…

  • Blackbeard’s Medicine Chest — The Treasure He Wanted More Than Gold

    Today’s plunder is Blackbeard’s Medicine Chest — The Treasure He Wanted More Than Gold! I’ll be talking about this in Charleston at the Under the Black Flag event! For now, here’s a preview…so, get your grog and let’s set sail! When most folks picture pirate plunder, they imagine chests of silver, Spanish gold, and jewels…

  • Charleston Pirate Ghosts: The Ones Who Still Want a Drink

    Charleston’s taverns have seen more secrets than her churches, and some of those secrets still linger in the corners where the light doesn’t quite reach. The Phantom Patron of the Old Taverns There are cellars off East Bay and Queen where the brick sweats and the air smells like rum even when no one’s ordered…

  • Charleston Pirate Ghosts: The Ones Who Still Walk the Waterline

    Charleston is a city that pretends she’s polite, but anyone who’s walked her cobblestones at night knows better. The harbor wind carries old stories, and some of those stories still have boots on. The Lantern Man of the Battery Some nights, when the tide is low and the moon is high, you’ll see a lantern…

  • Charleston Pirate Ghosts: A Plunderer’s Guide to the Restless Dead

    Charleston wears her ghosts like jewelry—quiet, glittering, and a little bit dangerous. By daylight, she’s all pastel houses and church steeples. But once the sun drops behind the harbor and the tide turns, the city remembers what she really is: a port. And ports never forget their pirates. Where the dead still walk the docks…

  • Weather Witch: Tales from The Pearl Inn Preview

    The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming collection of short stories by Virginia Chandler titled Weather Witch: Tales from The Pearl Inn. This work is copyrighted and no one (except Virginia Chandler) has the right to copy or distribute without permission. Enjoy, if you will, and kindly respect the author’s rights. The Black Spot…

  • Weather Witch: Tales from The Pearl Inn

    The character of Marianne Williams Ward, (loosely based upon the real-life sister of pirate Paulsgrave Williams), was first introduced in my novel, The Devil’s Treasure.  Her appearance in that story was brief, but, (unbeknownst to me at the time), Marianne was going to be living rent free in my head for years, (which, by the…