User blog:Elgb333/Post-Halloween Historical Horrorshow! Pirate Girls vs Harpe Brothers



Happy Halloween Deadliest Fictioners (or Happy All Souls Days to some)! While today is the day to celebrate the various fears that haunt our world such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches and all other mythical monsters, we should all remember as well that real horror also exist in the dark realms of our history.

Real horror that will put whatever our imagination can create to shame!

'''The Pirate Girls! '''

Mary Read and Anne Bonney:

The notorious sexy pair of sea-legs that terrorized the waters during the Golden Age of Piracy!

vs

'''The Harpe Brothers! '''

Micajah and Wiley Harpe:

America's first serial killers who made the American Frontier a living and breathing Hell!

Pirate Girls
Mary Read and Anne Bonney were infamous pirates that lived in the in the early 18th century. Anne Bonney was born in County Cork, Ireland, some time around the end of the 1600's to the well-to-do attorney William Cormac before leaving her old life and venturing into piracy, where she became the lover of pirate John Rackam. Mary Read was illegitimately born in England, in the late 17th century, to the widow of a sea captain. Read left her family and disguised herself as a boy, working as a powder monkey before becoming a sailor and capable swordsman. Accounts vary as to how Anne met Mary Read. According to some historians, Rackam’s ship conquered Mary’s somewhere in the West Indies, and Mary was among those taken prisoner. After the engagement, Anne, dressed in female attire, tried to seduce the handsome new recruit. Mary, perhaps fearing repercussions from Rackam, informed Anne she was actually a woman—and bared her breasts to prove it. Anne vowed to keep Mary’s secret and the women became friends, confidantes and, depending on the source, lovers.

They then terrorized the seas for many years, earning a reputation of being hardcore and ruthless pirates who gave no quarters to their victims. In October 1720, Rackham and his crew were attacked by a "King's ship", a sloop captained by Jonathan Barnet under a commission from Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica. Most of Rackham's pirates put up little resistance as many of them were too drunk to fight. However, Read and Bonny fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet's troops for a short time. Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, where they were convicted and sentenced by Governor Lawes to be hanged. After being sentenced, Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies": asking for mercy because they were pregnant. In accordance with English common law, both women received a temporary stay of execution until they gave birth. Read died in prison, most likely from a fever from childbirth. Nobody knows what happened to Bonney, but evidence suggest she was ransomed by her wealthy family.

Weapons and Abilities
Short= Cutlass The cutlass is the classic weapon for all pirates in popular culture. But it's popularity has always been attributed for being the most favored weapon for many Navy men for its lightweight and compactness while also providing speed. A cutlass is a short sabre-type sword with curved, broad blade. The weapon was a popular weapon for sailors and pirates, being easily usable in the close quarters of the interior of a ship, and proving useful both for slashing through flesh and bone, and for more mundane tasks such as cutting thick ropes.
 * Curved broad blade
 * 24 inches

A pirate won't be a pirate without his/her set of beautifully crafted pistols. A flintlock pistol is a handgun that uses the flintlock system of firing. The flintlock mechanism works by using a spring-loaded striker to strike a piece of flint, creating a spark. Although the quality of pistols in the seas also meant that their reliability and accuracy are also degraded, still pirates are known to carry more than one when just a single won't do the trick.
 * -|Mid= Multiple Pistols
 * 20 feet range
 * For this match-up Read and Bonney each would carry 6 pistols that they can also dual-weild.

The blunderbuss is one of the most popular firearms for all seamen in their time. It was a short-barreled flintlock firearm with a flared-out barrel typically used as a form or early shotgun, loaded with metal shots, or in cases of emergency, metal scraps such as nails. It functions as a primitive shotgun, and because of this, it is very advantageous at close range, typical within the confines of a ship. The Grenado is also a very popular weapon in naval warfare. Made out of cast iron that fragments as well as fillings, this early hand grenade kill people by the use of shrapnels. It has a reliable wicker fuse and is thrown.
 * -|Long= Blunderbuss and Grenado
 * Shotgun form
 * 20 yards
 * 5-10 seconds fuse (but can be adjusted)
 * Cast iron and fillings as shrapnel
 * Can also kill with concussive force

Harpe Brothers
Micajah "Big" (1768? - August 1799) and Wiley "Little" Harpe (1770? - February 8, 1804) were murderers, serial killers, highwaymen, and river pirates who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the 18th century. Their crimes appear to have been motivated by blood lust than financial gain and they are likely America's first serial killers.

As young men, they lived with renegade Creek and Cherokee Indians who committed atrocities against white settlers and against their own tribes. By 1797, the Harpes lived near Knoxville, Tennessee. However, they were driven from the town after being charged with stealing hogs and horses. They were also accused of murdering a man named Johnson, who was found in a river, covered in urine, ripped open, and weighed with stones. This became a characteristic in the Harpes' murders. They butchered anyone at the slightest provocation, even babies. R.E. Banto in the The Ohio claims that Micajah even bashed his infant daughter's head against a tree because her constant crying annoyed him. This would be the only crime for which he would confess genuine remorseful. From Knoxville they fled to Kentucky. They entered the state on the Wilderness Road, near the Cumberland Gap. They are believed to have murdered a peddler named Peyton, taking his horses and some of his goods. Then they murdered two travelers from Maryland. In July 1799, after a scuffle for a tomahawk, Big Harpe was decapitated, and his head was hung from a tree for 10 years before being stolen. Little Harpe was captured and hung in 1804.

Weapons and Abilities
Short= Tomahawk Since the Harpe brothers lived off and killed as frontiersmen and wildmen, they would have been armed with traditional tomahawks from the Native Americans. The Indians taught the Harpes in the combat of these weapons. And the ones they used probably had an axe head and a pipe.
 * Axe and pipe
 * 2-3 feet
 * Can be thrown

While the Harpes also fought and victimized Indians, they nonetheless kept a relationship with them. One tribe, the Cherokee, accepted them as their own, and they fought as allies during the American Revolution. They may have also taught the Harpes on the use of an Indian bow, typically a D-shaped flatbow.
 * -|Mid= Cherokee Bow
 * 200 yard range
 * Iron-tipped or sharpened arrows

As frontiersman who lived off the land, the Harpes probably used long rifles to hunt their food, and kill unlucky travelers on the highway. The Kentucky long rifle is the first rifle ever made, built and used by Americans in the frontier and in their wars. It is characterized by its unusually long barrel and deadly accuracy. Though it takes more time and effort to reload than traditional flintlock weapons of the era.
 * -|Long= Kentucky Long Rifle
 * .48 caliber
 * 200 yards

X-Factors

 * In Training, I had to give the edge to the Harpe brothers. They were trained by both the Indians and the British Army. They served as militiamen during the Revolution so they must have some form of professional training there.


 * In Experience, this is an obvious edge for the Pirate Girls. They fought in a longer span of time as well as in more battles. While the Harpes did fought in a few of the battles in the Revolution, they mostly raided and killed unarmed villages and travelers.


 * Tactics and Intellect goes straight to the Pirate Girls. Whule they evaded justice for a time, the Harpe borthers were nothing more than just serial killers. In their military career, they fought only as militiamen who followed orders. The Pirate Girls led people from the front and devised tactics to evade as well as fight the great Navy's of their time.


 * The Harpes get the edge in logistics. The Pirate Girls had to rely on the supply they take from the Pirate Republic and whatever they can raid. The Harpes on the other hand played the British and Indians to support them.