The Navy ships were able to hurriedly cut their anchor lines to get away. As night fell, Vane knew his situation was impossible, so he set fire to his flagship and sent it towards the Navy ships, hoping to destroy them in a massive explosion. He made an impression by firing on the Royal Navy immediately, and sent a letter to Rogers demanding to be allowed to dispose of his plundered goods before accepting the pardon. Vane controlled the harbor and the small fort, which flew a pirate flag from its flagpole. While most pirates accepted the enforced pardon, Vane resisted it and any who attempted to honestly reform. In August 1718, two men-of-war along with Woodes Rogers, arrived in Nassau to oversee the King's pardon. Vane triumphantly re-entered Nassau, essentially taking over the town. In June and July of 1718, he seized many more small merchant vessels, more than enough to keep his men happy. He soon took a 20-gun French ship and made it his flagship. Vane decided that his position in Nassau was too weak, so he set out to capture a proper pirate ship. Vane knew that Woodes Rogers, the new governor, would be arriving soon. Vane was able to traded up ships by first capturing a Barbados sloop and then a large 12-gun brigantine, each of which he named the Ranger in turn. Vane and his men treated the sailors and merchants cruelly in spite of the fact that they had surrendered instead of fought. By April of 1718, Vane had captured twelve merchant ships. He also showed scant respect for the pirate code, cheating his own crews out of their fair share of plunder and killing surrendered sailors after promising them mercy. Vane was infamous for his cruelty toward the crews of captured vessels. Soon he had recruited forty of Nassau's worst cuthroats, including seasoned buccaneer Edward England and "Calico Jack" Rackham, who would himself become a notorious pirate captain. Vane and a handful of pirates outfitted a small sloop "the Lark" for service as a pirate vessel. Vane, however, scoffed at the notion of retirement from piracy and soon became the leader of those who refused the pardon. In 1718, the King of England issued a blanket pardon for all pirates who wished to return to an honest life. Jennings (with Vane on board) was one of the first to reach the site, and his buccaneers raided the Spanish camp on shore, making off with some 87,000 in recovered gold and silver. As the surviving Spanish sailors salvaged what they could, pirates were quick to try and take advantage of the wreck site. In late July of 1715, a Spanish treasure fleet was hit by a hurricane off the coast of Florida, dumping tons of Spanish gold and silver not far from shore. In 1716, he began serving under the infamous pirate Henry Jennings. He arrived in Port Royal sometime during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714).
And so long as Anne and Rackham are around, it will have the most nuanced and unique relationships.There is little documentation of Charles Vane's early career. Removing Vane is a blow, but so long as Rackham, Flint, and Silver are still around, it will still have the most compelling dialogue scenes on TV. As it demonstrated in the carriage road chase sequence, it knows when to go full-throttle with action and when to pull back with quieter two man play dialogue scenes. Week in and week out, Black Sails has some of the best writing, acting, and storytelling on TV. As a relative term, “Not as good” still means that it will be better than 95% of other shows.
That being said, Black Sails was better than 98% of other shows. It’s entirely possible that Black Sails won’t be as good without Charles Vane. Why? Because Black Sails is still better than 95% of other shows His death is a profound loss to the show. Hell, I wrote an oddly prophetic accidental eulogy a few months ago about how great he was. He was dynamic, intriguingly idealistic, and he was always game for a batshit insane plan. But no matter how crazy they seemed, you could always trace them back to his psyche. While other characters are schemers and talkers driving the plot in chess-moves, Vane barreled his way through it with unpredictable game-changing actions. For someone who analyzes the show, his brain was the most fun to pick. I watched the episode twice to prepare for my discussion with Zach McGowan, and I still ugly-cried the second time.
Before I tell you why this doesn’t merit a rage-quit, let’s get one thing straight: Charles Vane was my favorite too.
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