A
Black Sheep in the Bellamy Family Tree
Rufus' mom, Virginia Woods
Bellamy, was a major authority on knitting, and her book published in
1952 was a definitive source of cutting edge knitting techniques. I will
discuss her talents as a fine poet in a separate column to come. But I'd
like to touch here on perhaps the most notorious of Rufus', ancestors,
Black Sam Bellamy, “The Prince of Pirates.”
Back in the 80's when divers
discovered the wreckage of Black Sam's galley, the Whydah, I asked Rufus
if he was related to the pirate. Rufus, never one to brag about
anything, told me that yes, Black Sam was a distant relative, albeit his
immediate family down-played the fact. I pointed out to him that I had
some well know ancestors I wasn't too proud of either: mainly that one
of the two Charles Pinkneys prominent in South Carolinian politics had,
like Jefferson, been a slave owner. The other Charles was a passionate
abolitionist.
The city noticed it only because
the water pressure in the whole city began dropping. That's when they
uncovered the problem. I needn't go into how much that lapse cost Rufus,
but again, “Oh the humanity!” So lapses and pirates and all considered,
Rufus was as MSC president Roland Dille remembers him, “a beloved but
complexly memorable” guy.
Gene Pinkney - 7/5/21 - For
the Daily News
html uploaded 09-04-2021
Black Sam Bellamy and Other of Rufus'
Kin
In telling of my dear mentor
Rufus Bellamy's talents and foibles, I came across some really
interesting members of his famous family. His father, Francis Rufus
Bellamy was a very prominent publisher and past editor of The New Yorker
in 1933 as well as authoring and editing numerous other publications.
At any rate, here are just a few facts I uncovered
by my daughter's Googling up Sam Bellamy and his Whydah. He was born in
England and learned sailing in the British navy. In the year and a half
of his greatest raiding activity he captured over 50 other ships and
claimed the Whydah for his own. He earned the reputation for being a
sort of Robin Hood of the high seas, because he gave a lot of his booty
to the needy, but apparently Black Sam could afford to be generous: In
that single year of 1717 he pirated over two-hundred million dollars (in
today's money), worth of treasure, making him “the richest pirate in
history.” And fittingly, he and the Whydah and its crew, (all but 2),
were lost in a nor'easter off of Cape Cod. Divers are still scavenging
that wreck and have so far salvaged over 400 million dollars worth of
treasure.
You might have perceived that Rufus too had sailing in
his blood. I did write recently of our near disaster in his lobster
boat. And I have room here to mention just one other of his memory
lapses. During a winter when he was back in Moorhead teaching, he leased
his big two story house in Castine to renters but forgot to tell them to
turn off the water when they moved out. As a result a frozen pipe burst
in his upstairs bathroom causing the tub to overflow. The water ran down
the steps, under the front door, down the front steps and across the
street down into the bay and froze creating an ice slide across water
street. Curly, of the three stooges, could have ridden a toboggan from
that bathtub all the way down into Castine Bay whooping all the way.
