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- "No woman could captain a vessel. That would be unnatural, a violation of the laws of God and man. The...the Almighty would never permit it."
- ―Nathaniel Bainbridge to Jack Sparrow
Nathaniel Bainbridge was an officer of the British Royal Navy and the East India Trading Company during the Age of Piracy. He was most notably in command of the EITC merchant brig Fair Wind.
Biography[]
Nathaniel Bainbridge was an able seaman who lived in London with his family. He served in the British Royal Navy, but he later joined the East India Trading Company. Over the time, the EITC officials gave him the captaincy of the Fair Wind, a merchant vessel of the Company.
The Fair Wind usually sailed on a triangular route from her home port of Calabar in Africa, to Port Royal on Jamaica, to finish it by making port in London, England, from where she sailed back to Calabar. Bainbridge made many voyages for the Company, sailing on the Fair Wind for nearly a decade. He employed Jack Sparrow, a 25 year old adventurer, as the ship's First Mate.
In the early 1710s, following the departure from Port Royal, the Fair Wind was attacked somewhere in the Atlantic by the Venganza, a pirate frigate captained by Esmeralda, the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean. Captain Bainbridge, inebriated and aghast at the thought of a woman commanding a ship, even a pirate ship, attacked Esmeralda, but his old age and life of drinking caught up to him and he died of an apoplexy after suffering a simple cut to his arm.
Jack Sparrow, who knew Esmeralda from his earlier adventures, managed to persuade her to take only one third of the ship's cargo of rum. The next morning, after Bainbridge's burial at sea, Sparrow took command of the ship as acting captain and sailed her to London, where he unloaded the cargo and gave his report to the officials at the London EITC Office. He also visited Bainbridge's family, and gave them the edited story of his last moments, to leave them with a better memory of him.
Personality and traits[]
- "You see, the captain...he drank. Usually just at night, but that morning, he was in his cups, Mr. Beckett, sir, to be frank about it."
- ―Jack Sparrow to Cutler Beckett
Nathaniel Bainbridge was an able seaman, but also a great alcoholic. He usually walked around with the flask of wine in his hands. He also couldn't stand the idea of a woman commanding a ship, even a pirate vessel, which drove him to attack Esmeralda.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
| v • d • eCrew of the Fair Wind | |
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