Captain Tonz got his start as a mariner from a very young age. As he learned the ropes and paid his dues, he gained valuable experience. Through his travels, he came across a captain who took him under his wing, and introduced the not-yet-Captain Tonz to the world of piracy.
His experiences have left him with incredible stories to tell, and in this episode, Captain Tonz gives us a small taste of his life. You can hear more from him on his own podcast, Original Pirate Material. A book and movie about his life are also in the works.
The following is from CaptainTonz.com:
At the age of thirteen I built a wooden boat in the back yard and ran away from home, that was my first Shipwreck. I then managed to run away again and got into the Vindicatrix sea school at Sharpness, I was refused for being half an inch too small but after knocking at their door and standing at the gates they got bored and let me in.. After passing through the Vindicatrix I signed on as a Deck Boy or ‘Peggy’ onboard the Blue star line’s pride of the fleet, the ‘English Star’ bound for Australia and NZ. Around the World! My life of Dreams had begun.
I was 15 years old, what happened to me on that first voyage could fill a book and one thing happened that changed my life. It was a foggy October day when the English Star sailed down the Thames, She stopped on route in the Canaries, Capetown, East London, Port Elizabeth and then Durban, it was in Durban that for the first time I disembarked the ship. My first step on a foreign land, black people were everywhere, at home I had never seen a black man. I had never drunk beer either, the crew took me to a bar and made me drink a beer, I got sick, I got drunk, I got lost running back to the ship. I ran through a ‘blacks only’ area, I asked, ‘where is my ship?’, the black people either shouted at me to go or ran away from me, I didn’t understand. The police came, I was picked up, I was thrown in a cell of cockroachs for three days then put before the magistrates. ‘Aparthied?’ what does that mean?’ I asked as the 5 policemen took me away behind the court where I was stripped and they gave me my punishment. It was six strokes of the Cat. (I have never understood why they always give six strokes because after the first three you feel nothing anymore.) The last stroke is the memory creator and the moment can be recalled as a strange ‘life moment’ with a combination of Screams, laughter, Blood, Pain, Police, Doctor, Iodine, more laughter and more pain. And all the time the same thought, ‘how did I work this?’
I became a Peiran, a Pirate. A small, very insignificant Pirate but a Pirate. It cannot be put into words or books, no Marine Academy or University could come close to the teachings I received and the capabilities I learned and mastered. How to speak and to listen to the Sea, to know her, to know what is beneath her, how she feels, how she is going to move, to become one with her and to have love and empathy and allow her to enter you and keep you safe no matter what. To know the presence of sea Creatures and comunicate and to know where you are without instruments and so many wonderous aptitudes that are far apart from what is considered ‘normal’ Pirate activities. I’ve ‘undertaken’ missions on behalf of Royalty, Shieks and Politicians. I’ve ‘assisted’ in missions involving President of the Philippines, Philippine Congress, MLF (Muslim Liberation Front), New Peoples Army Communist Rebels, Muammar Al-Ghaddafi, Goverment of Nigeria, the family of Prime Minister of Vietnam, CIA and various unmentionable orgs and gangsters. Missions varied from Investigation, logistics and capturing ships (2) and most things inbetween.
There are good doctors and bad one and good and bad cops and just about everything. There are then good and bad Pirates, unfortunately only the bad are seen. I am a Peiran Pirate The Peiran is an Association founded by the Great Sage Solon some 2,500 years ago. I was taught of the “Secrets of Solon” and given the Peiran search results that cover hundreds of years. This part of my learning years ago was of less interest to me than improving my knowledge of the sea. I was told that it would take my lifetime to fully understand what it was I was then being taught, now those words ring true and during the last few years these teachings have become clear to me.”
– Captain Tonz