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Errol Flynn as Custer
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A last drink in a dirty dive bar
After our ship docked and the cargo
[went through fumigation,
knowing that Jamaica’s "Port Royal",
[was our new destination,
I was having a last drink in a dirty dive bar
in Auckland harbor,*
[when I saw a guy with a scar, *New Zealand
a guy who I knew very well, from the past,
the last person I should be able to meet,
[indeed the last.
He was the friend of my youth,
Errol Flynn, the unique…
He looked at me and said.....
- ''Listen Greek,
I’m not General Custer, or Captain Blood, or a freak...
I come from the Pitcairn Island and a family antique.
My grandma was the sister of Flynn's mother...
Yep....the same surprise, shows and any other.
We are descendants from men of a story
[that you know,
you must know, the Bounty mutiny, don’t say no…..
Fletcher Christian ? Captain Bligh.?
Timor?''
I replied... ''I know, I know,
[no need to tell me more…
This weird guy lowered his voice
[and said,
I’m not General Custer, or Captain Blood, or a freak...
I come from the Pitcairn Island and a family antique.
My grandma was the sister of Flynn's mother...
Yep....the same surprise, shows and any other.
We are descendants from men of a story
[that you know,
you must know, the Bounty mutiny, don’t say no…..
Fletcher Christian ? Captain Bligh.?
Timor?''
I replied... ''I know, I know,
[no need to tell me more…
This weird guy lowered his voice
[and said,
- ''The destination of your ship
[is widespread
everywhere across the Auckland port,
so I would like to have your support,
at my request to travel with you…
Please convince the captain,
[to hire me on with the crew..
From an early age I dreamed,
(while he was talking his eyes gleamed)
of traveling to Jamaica’s Port Royal…
I want to have the courage to be loyal,
to the dream I have made.
Without your own substantial aid,
this trip will never be... I'm afraid.. ''
I asked him what is so great in this place.
He answered......... "there exists a trace,
the trace of Captain Blood,
[my cousin Errol, the known,
it's an obligation to do it,
[because I'm his clone…''
[is widespread
everywhere across the Auckland port,
so I would like to have your support,
at my request to travel with you…
Please convince the captain,
[to hire me on with the crew..
From an early age I dreamed,
(while he was talking his eyes gleamed)
of traveling to Jamaica’s Port Royal…
I want to have the courage to be loyal,
to the dream I have made.
Without your own substantial aid,
this trip will never be... I'm afraid.. ''
I asked him what is so great in this place.
He answered......... "there exists a trace,
the trace of Captain Blood,
[my cousin Errol, the known,
it's an obligation to do it,
[because I'm his clone…''
____________________________________
In the English colony of Port Royal, Blood is purchased by Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the beautiful niece of the local military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill). Attracted by Blood's rebellious nature, Arabella does her best to improve his chances of living by recommending him as the personal physician of the local governor, who is suffering from a gouty foot. Outwardly resentful towards Arabella for trying to do him favors, yet silently appreciative for her support, Blood nevertheless continues to hatch a plan of escape for himself and his fellow slaves. The plan is almost foiled when Bishop gets suspicious and has one of the men flogged in an attempt to make him talk. Later, Blood is spared a similar fate when a Spanish squadron attacks the town. During the raid, Blood and his fellow slaves escape, seize control of the Spanish raiders' ship, and sail away to begin a life of piracy.
Blood and his men soon achieve incredible success and fame. When the old governor is unable to contain the pirate menace, Colonel Bishop is promoted to his post, and Arabella is sent to England for a recreational sojourn. Sometime later, while sailing back to the Caribbean, the ship on which Arabella and royal emissary Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson) are travelling is captured by Blood's treacherous partner, Captain Levasseur (Basil Rathbone), who plans to hold the two for ransom. Blood purchases them himself, relishing the opportunity to turn the tables on his former owner, but Levasseur objects vehemently and is killed in the ensuing duel.
Back on the open seas, Blood offers Arabella valuable jewelry from his conquests as a sign of his love for her. Rather than showing gratitude for being rescued, Arabella is indignant at having been purchased by Blood and calls him a "thief and a pirate". Despite his anger at being rejected, in an act of gallantry he orders his men to set sail to Port Royal to deliver Arabella and Lord Willoughby to safety, despite the presence there of Colonel Bishop and his forces.
As they approach Port Royal, they sight two French warships attacking the undefended colony, after Bishop deserted his post in his single-minded pursuit of Blood. Lord Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the corrupt king. When Willoughby reveals that James II has since been deposed in the Glorious Revolution and that Willoughby has been sent by the new king, William of Orange, to offer Blood and his men a full pardon and a commission with the Royal Navy, they change their minds and prepare for battle.
After setting Arabella ashore, Blood and his men approach the harbor disguised under French colors, and in the ensuing pitched battle, they defeat the enemy and save the colony. As a reward, Blood is appointed the new governor of Port Royal and has the pleasure of dealing with his hostile predecessor, now in serious trouble for dereliction of duty, and finally winning the hand and heart of Arabella.
* Errol Flynn, The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. The governments of Germany, Italy, --and to a lesser extent Portugal—contributed money, munitions, manpower and support to Nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco. The government of the Soviet Union, and to a lesser extent France and Mexico, likewise aided the "Loyalist" or "Republicans" of the Second Spanish Republic.
The aid came even after all the European powers had signed a Non-Intervention Agreement in 1936. While individual sympathy for the plight of the Spanish Republic was widespread in the liberal democracies however, pacifism and the fear of another world war prevented them from selling or giving arms.
Flynn's political beliefs appear to have been left-wing. He was a strong supporter of the Spanish Republic and a fervent opponent of ultra-conservative Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War
According to his autobiography, Errol Flynn's mother, Marelle Young, was a descendant of Midshipman Edward ("Ned") Young, a Bounty mutineer who went to Pitcairn with Fletcher Christian. Young had four children with Toofaiti, Nancy, George, Robert and William, and three more with Christian's widow Mauatua, Edward, Polly and Dorothea. His descendants still live on Pitcairn, Norfolk and in New Zealand.
the tales of a Greek
* Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // page c22 // e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS
_____________________________________________________________
poetic work // page c22 // e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS
_____________________________________________________________
* Pitcairn Island, The Mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh. According to accounts, the sailors were attracted to the "idyllic" life and sexual opportunities afforded on the Pacific island of Tahiti. It has also been argued that they were motivated by Bligh's allegedly harsh treatment of them.
Eighteen mutineers set Bligh afloat in a small boat with eighteen of the twenty-two crew loyal to him. To avoid detection and prevent desertion, the mutineers then variously settled on Pitcairn Island or on Tahiti and burned Bounty off Pitcairn.
In an extraordinary feat of seamanship, Bligh navigated the 23-foot (7 m) open launch on a 47-day voyage to Timor in theDutch East Indies, equipped with a quadrant and pocket watch and without charts or compass. He recorded the distance as 3,618 nautical miles (6,701 km; 4,164 mi). He then returned to Britain and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty on 15 March 1790, 2 years and 11 weeks after his original departure.
The British government dispatched HMS Pandora to capture the mutineers, and Pandora reached Tahiti on 23 March 1791. Four of the men from Bounty came on board soon after her arrival, and ten more were arrested within a few weeks. These fourteen were imprisoned in a makeshift cell on Pandora's deck. Pandora ran aground on part of the Great Barrier Reef on 29 August 1791, with the loss of 31 of the crew and four of the prisoners. The surviving ten prisoners were eventually repatriated to England, tried in a naval court, with three hanged, four acquitted, and three pardoned.
Descendants of some of the mutineers and Tahitians still live on Pitcairn. The mutiny has been commemorated in books, films, and songs.
* Jamaica, Port Royal, In seventeenth century England, an Irish doctor named Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is summoned to aid Lord Gildoy, a wounded patron who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion. Arrested while performing his sacred duties as a physician, he is convicted of treason against the King and sentenced to death by the infamous Judge Jeffreys in the Bloody Assizes. By the whim of King James II, who sees an opportunity for profit, Blood and the surviving rebels are transported to the West Indies to be sold into slavery.In the English colony of Port Royal, Blood is purchased by Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the beautiful niece of the local military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill). Attracted by Blood's rebellious nature, Arabella does her best to improve his chances of living by recommending him as the personal physician of the local governor, who is suffering from a gouty foot. Outwardly resentful towards Arabella for trying to do him favors, yet silently appreciative for her support, Blood nevertheless continues to hatch a plan of escape for himself and his fellow slaves. The plan is almost foiled when Bishop gets suspicious and has one of the men flogged in an attempt to make him talk. Later, Blood is spared a similar fate when a Spanish squadron attacks the town. During the raid, Blood and his fellow slaves escape, seize control of the Spanish raiders' ship, and sail away to begin a life of piracy.
Blood and his men soon achieve incredible success and fame. When the old governor is unable to contain the pirate menace, Colonel Bishop is promoted to his post, and Arabella is sent to England for a recreational sojourn. Sometime later, while sailing back to the Caribbean, the ship on which Arabella and royal emissary Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson) are travelling is captured by Blood's treacherous partner, Captain Levasseur (Basil Rathbone), who plans to hold the two for ransom. Blood purchases them himself, relishing the opportunity to turn the tables on his former owner, but Levasseur objects vehemently and is killed in the ensuing duel.
Back on the open seas, Blood offers Arabella valuable jewelry from his conquests as a sign of his love for her. Rather than showing gratitude for being rescued, Arabella is indignant at having been purchased by Blood and calls him a "thief and a pirate". Despite his anger at being rejected, in an act of gallantry he orders his men to set sail to Port Royal to deliver Arabella and Lord Willoughby to safety, despite the presence there of Colonel Bishop and his forces.
As they approach Port Royal, they sight two French warships attacking the undefended colony, after Bishop deserted his post in his single-minded pursuit of Blood. Lord Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the corrupt king. When Willoughby reveals that James II has since been deposed in the Glorious Revolution and that Willoughby has been sent by the new king, William of Orange, to offer Blood and his men a full pardon and a commission with the Royal Navy, they change their minds and prepare for battle.
After setting Arabella ashore, Blood and his men approach the harbor disguised under French colors, and in the ensuing pitched battle, they defeat the enemy and save the colony. As a reward, Blood is appointed the new governor of Port Royal and has the pleasure of dealing with his hostile predecessor, now in serious trouble for dereliction of duty, and finally winning the hand and heart of Arabella.
* Errol Flynn, The Spanish Civil War had large numbers of non-Spanish citizens participating in combat and advisory positions. The governments of Germany, Italy, --and to a lesser extent Portugal—contributed money, munitions, manpower and support to Nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco. The government of the Soviet Union, and to a lesser extent France and Mexico, likewise aided the "Loyalist" or "Republicans" of the Second Spanish Republic.
The aid came even after all the European powers had signed a Non-Intervention Agreement in 1936. While individual sympathy for the plight of the Spanish Republic was widespread in the liberal democracies however, pacifism and the fear of another world war prevented them from selling or giving arms.
Flynn's political beliefs appear to have been left-wing. He was a strong supporter of the Spanish Republic and a fervent opponent of ultra-conservative Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War
According to his autobiography, Errol Flynn's mother, Marelle Young, was a descendant of Midshipman Edward ("Ned") Young, a Bounty mutineer who went to Pitcairn with Fletcher Christian. Young had four children with Toofaiti, Nancy, George, Robert and William, and three more with Christian's widow Mauatua, Edward, Polly and Dorothea. His descendants still live on Pitcairn, Norfolk and in New Zealand.
the tales of a Greek
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