影片對白  Commodore, I beg you, please do this for me. As a wedding gift.

考考你  現學現賣

4. Shiver my timbers

Shiver my timbers (often misquoted as Shiver me timbers) is an exclamation in the form of a mock oath usually attributed to the speech of pirates in works of fiction. 文學家們常用這一詞語來表示"震驚，驚訝或是惱怒"。當船在海上航行遇到風浪的時候，海浪使得船上下搖晃，船員感到很恐懼，由此引出了這個shiver my timbers。

5. Sit well with

"Please, fit or suit, be acceptable to 合適，接受"的意思，例如：I don't think that explanation sits well with the headmaster.

文化面面觀

歷史上著名的海盜

Edmund Cook (Cooke)

1679-81? English. Ship: Trinity. Cook was among the few buccaneers with a semi-legitimate excuse for his piracies. In December 1673, as he headed toward England with valuable goods (possibly smuggled out of Cuba), a Spanish vessel captured his ship near Havana and turned her crew adrift. Claiming that Madrid refused to reimburse his losses, Cook acquired a letter of reprisal. Early in 1679, he landed in Cuba, ambushed a Spanish ship, and sold her cargo in Jamaica.

William Dampier was hired as a surgeon by Cook and a Captain Lynch, who planned to sail together. However, Cook's small ship was alone when he reached the Panamanian coast in February 1680. There he ran into Bartholomew Sharp's company, which had just sacked Portobelo. Excited by their success, Cook and his men enlisted in a new adventure. Under John Coxon's command, the pirates marched across the Isthmus and won a fierce battle near Panama City on May 3.

Soon after the battle, Cook received command of the 100-ton Mayflower, captured at Pueblo Nuevo. But her crew refused to accept Cook as captain and he moved to Sharp's flagship, the Trinity. Cook joined in raids along the Peruvian coast and was still on board when they reached the Juan Fernandez Islands in January 1681.

After another mutiny, John Watling took Sharp's place as captain and immediately imprisoned Cook in irons for homosexual acts. Since homosexuality was commonplace among the buccaneers, Watling's act is difficult to understand. Cook is not mentioned again, and he probably died soon after.

John Rackham ('Calico Jack')

Contemporay picture of John Rackham

July 1718 to November 1720. English. Ships: William. Nicknamed 'Calico Jack' because he wore clothing made of calico (a white cloth imported from Calcutta, India), John Rackham was typical of many pirates whose sloops preyed on coastal shipping. Little is known of his origins, but by 1718 he had somehow made his way to New Providence Island. He served with Charles Vane, fleeing the Island when Vane escaped from Governor Rogers. By the spring of 1719 he was elected as quartermaster, and became Vane's deputy. Soon after a quarrel broke out among the crew, and Rackham replaced Vane as the Captain. Vane was put ashore and Rackham continued Vane's cruise in two sloops.

According to some accounts the vessels were both lost when a Jamaican based patrol sloop captured them while most of the crew were ashore. Rackham returned to New Providence, and in May 1719 he was granted a pardon by Governor Rogers as a part of Rogers' general pirate amnesty. It was there he met Anne Bonney, wife of James Bonney, and they became lovers. Law-abiding life ashore proved unpalatable, and in August 1719, with other former pirates, Rackham and Bonney stole a sloop named William, and returned to piracy. His crew included the female pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Reade. Based in Bahamian waters, he cruised between Bermuda and Hispaniola, capturing several ships and a number of profitable cargoes. He then sailed around Cuba attacking local craft before reaching the north coast of Jamaica. There his luck ran out. While at anchor off the western tip of the island, he was surprised by a sloop belonging to the Governor. Most of Rackham's nine male crew were drunk, but according to testimonies the women roused the men into action. The William cut her anchor cable and fled, but was overhauled by the Jamaican sloop during the night. The ships exchanged fire, and then Captain Barnet led a boarding party onto the deck of the pirate vessel. Bonney and Reade were the only members of the crew who offered any kind of resistance. Rackham himself was apparently too drunk to defend himself. The women were overcome, and the pirates were taken to Port Royal to stand trial. He was tried on November 27th and hanged the next day.

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