A Pirate's Life

 Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and be good, God would permit us to be pirates.

Mark Twain

I love getting to know the history of any place I visit. While away on th Eastern shores of Newfoundland I became fasicinated with the history of a place formly known as Cat Harbour...or what the French in the 1700's referred rto as "Wrecking Bay". Amongst the stories of the sad end of  the Island's original first nation's group-the Beothuks, the many ship wrecks that landed in the harbour and those who plundered them, the lives of ferocious, determined  people who settled these dangerous shores against all odds,  and the battles between the Orange and Green settlers leading to exilation of the Irish Catholics from these parts, there is a story of a pirate named Billy Murne. 

Billy somehow landed on these shores in the early to mid 1800's. It is said he escaped the plank, and came to this isolated area with a cache of stolen gold.  It is believed he buried his treasure somewhere along the craggy and rocky shoreline, going to his death with the secret of its whereabouts. The following is a tale that has been told amongst the peoples of Lumsden, Pound Cove, and Dead Man's Bay for centuries. I felt inspired to put it to verse.

Billy Murne's Secret

The old pirate, lifting his head, pulled his nurse close enough to hear .

With desperate voice and weary body, he whispered in her ear.

“Can you keep a secret, my luv?” he asked, strong liquor on his breath,

Both knew, the land stranded Billy Murne would soon be facing death.

With wide eyes of greed, and an excited beating in her chest

Young Helen Gray leaned over her charge and quietly whispered “ yes. “

Across her dirty face was painted the most beautiful of smiles

For at long last her hard work, she thought, would prove to be worthwhile

Searching his wrinkled face and closing eyes, she waited for the word;

For the moment the whereabouts of his buried gold would finally be heard

At last, with a toothless open mouth and a voice sonorous and weak

Billy looked into her eyes and he began to speak.

"Well, Helen luv, this declaration just might make you cry."

With one last breath and a triumphant grin, Billy croaked,

"Aye, so can I?"

At last, the world is full of stories isn't it?  These stories make our history (and her story). Crooks, thieves, and plunderers are a part of the history of this nation. Like Mark Twain quotes, above many of us dream of the Life of a pirate, don't we? Or at the very least, the finding of a pirate's treasure.

I'm dishonest and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.

Captain Jack Sparrow.

All is well!