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Yo! Ho! The Jolly Roger!

This rousing tale of a pirate attack was told by a Wellfleet descendant of Captain Samuel Snow of Truro, Cape Cod.

Grandfather was born in Truro and followed the sea from a boy until he was about fifty-five years of age, being a Captain many years. When sixteen years old, he went as cook to England on a vessel, which was attacked by pirates on the high seas.

The lookout sighted them and at his cry of `Pirates’ all hands worked desperately to clap on full sail. But ships flying skull and cross-bones at their mastheads were fast ships. Very soon the pirate cannon warned the ship to heave to, which she did. The pirates climbed out of their boats and began to swarm up her side. My grandfather was ordered by the Captain to stand at the rail.

`Cookie,’ said the Captain, `they’re coming up fast. As soon as you can see the whites of their eyes, you take this big jug and hit them on the head. Work quickly and strike hard.’

Grandpa was a strong young man and said he obeyed the Captain’s order, although he felt as though every hair on his head was standing up straight. But he lifted the jug in the air and when the first pirate showed his head over the rail, carrying a cutlass in his mouth, Grandpa brought the jug down hard and in a minute one pirate was in the sea. Altogether Grandpa knocked three of them to the bottom of the ocean, and shortly after the vessel escaped, without further violence, out to free waters.

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