William Greenaway - Marooned by Pirates
Found in a book about Pirates:The appalling punishment of marooning, on the other hand, was all too real a possablility.The offender was simply put ashore on a desert islet far from land and left there to die.Only a few survived.Among them were Captain William Greenaway and seven companions.Toward the end of 1718, unwilling to join the mutineers on their sloop and go pirating, Greenaway and the others were cast ashore stark naked and without provisions on Green Key, an uninhabited Bahamian island of ragged coral and dense scrub.What saved this particular group of maroons was the indecision of the pirates who marooned them.At the last moment, just as they were about to sail away, the pirates relented a little.Returning ashore, they collected the marrons and carried them out to a caputred sloop, which they slashed the rigging and sails to ribbons so the the sloop was next to useless.The maroons were now in a worse position than before.Anchored a mile offshore without food or water, they would have perished if they had not found a broken hatchet blade on board.Greenaway, the only man who could swim, went ashore with the ax blade around his neck and cut down trees to make rafts.With the rafts the men ferried fruit, berries and cabbage palms onto the sloop.After a week the castaways had mended the rigging and patched up a sail.But they had barely set off when, to their horror, they saw the pirates returning.They took to the rafts and paddled ashore, hiding in the brush-from which they watched in despair as the pirates chopped down the mast of their sloop and then sank the vessel in deep water.For eight days the maroons lived on berries,shelfish and sting rays, which they speared with sharpend sticks.Several times the pirates landed and called out to them but the maroons did not answer.At last the pirates promised safe conduct, and Greenaway and his companions emerged from hiding.But it was a trick.The pirates forced Greenaway and two of his companions to join thier crew and deposited the remaning five back on the key.Then the pirates sailed off again.For a fortnight, the abandoned men survived as best they could on the sparse provender thier little island had to offer.Then the pirates returned. Incredibly - possably at Greenaway's urging - they laid at the water's edge a large cask of flour, a bushel of salt, two bottles of gunpowder, two muskets, a store of shot, a good ax, a dozen knives, and some pots and pans.In addition, they left three hunting dogs of the kind used throughout the West Indies for catching wild hogs--the main source of a ship's provition in those days.The Maroons worst hardships, if not their isolation, were over.They built themselves a hut.They ate roast pork. They settled down to a long wait for rescue by some passing ship.But the ship that came was not a rescue ship.It was the pirates again.The pirates burned down the maroon's hut ate their roast pork.Then they gave the marrons a bottle of rum and promised never to return.They never did.Instead they were soon afterward captured by Spanish authorities who, after Greenaway told his story, dispatched a rescue boat under a Bahamian named John Sims."Comfortable news!" Sims cried out to the maroons, who were hiding in the treetops for fear the pirates had returned."Relief!"So ended the ordeal of the men on Green Key, fortunate survivors of the diabolical pirate punishment callled marooning.
I would like to know if anyone has ever heard of this man Captian William Greenaway before or any other sailing Greenaway's
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Re: William Greenaway - Marooned by Pirates
Pam Eagleson 1/22/02