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Welcome to the Hello.

Welcome to the Pirate History Podcast.

The morning of April 15, 1644 began quietly on Chesapeake Bay. The people of St Mary's, the capital of the

Maryland colony, opened up their shops for business or marched into the fields. The fishermen were already on their way back

home when a large Bristol flyboat anchored just offshore. By about mid-morning, business was in full swing near the docks. A party of

Iroquois merchants were camped just outside town doing a brisk trade. A Dutch merchant named David DeVries drifted lazily down the James River on his way to St Mary's from his business in Jamestown.

And a small fisherman's boat, still angling for her catch apparently, worked the waters in the distance.

All of them devrise and those on Fisherman's boat and everybody in town, noted the two large ships

that entered the harbour, but no one paid them any special attention.

DeVry, who was on deck enjoying a smoke, watched with disinterest.

Those two ships approached the Bristol flyboat at anchor and they separated. They were moving around her, which was a bit odd. They had no need to do so. It's almost as if they were preparing to attack the Bristolman.

Those two ships moved to either side of the Bristolman and opened fire with everything they had and they had a lot of guns, far more than they

advertised, far more than anyone giving the ship a passing glance could have seen.

Captain DeVries, though, was not surprised. He'd been a commander in the war and

he'd seen the attack coming. But apparently the Bristol captain did not.

DeVries watched in fascination as the ships traded fire back and forth, and he noted that the

two attackers were preparing to launch their boats.

Alarmingly, DeVry was drifting right into their path, but he deployed his men into the rigging

...