LREADY proclaimed the movie of the summer, has plundered the pocketbooks of audiences around the world ? including Bermuda.

But the film ? a gleeful recycling of every pirate clich? since owes more to the storybook than to history. In Hollywood, after all, the truth is often ignored for the sake of a good story.

However, it might interest those who have packed the Little Theatre this past fortnight to learn the deeds of real Bermudian pirates whose wild exploits would compare favourably even to antics of Johnny Depp and company.

By the late 17th century, Bermuda ? a tiny, lonely outcrop once at the brink of oblivion ? had achieved something resembling prosperity.

The island?s Parliament had been sitting continuously for more than 70 years, the threat of a Spanish invasion had passed and Richard Norwood?s second survey had divided the island into eight tribes ? an early term for ?parish? ? among the island?s 8,000 men, women and slaves.

But there was still a struggle for survival. Rats and disease from visiting ships had ravaged the island and the crops that had sustained the other colonies had proved a spectacular failure on this one. There were also tensions between the islanders and the Governor. Acting on orders from the Somers Isle Company, the Governor forbade any Bermudian shipping activity.

?There had been some unsanctioned shipping activity for some years,? says William Zuill, local historian and author of .

?We know, for instance, that Bermudians were involved in efforts to dive on certain reefs. We regard 1684 as a turning point in Bermudian history because that?s the year the Bermuda Company ended. It was at about this time that the Bermudian salt trade began in earnest.

?We don?t know the precise date, but records kept by the American governors show that they were anxious that the salt trade with the Bermudians not be disrupted.?

Thus began a centuries-long relationship between Bermuda and the islands of the Turks and Caicos. A sailor?s time there was invariably nasty, brutish and ? if he was lucky ? short.

?It would take a few weeks to reach the Turks and Caicos depending on the wind,? said Mr. Zuill. ?Once there, the white sailors would be dropped there to gather the salt. The captain and the black crews would go ?a-morooning? as it was called.

?That usually involved diving on wrecks or doing some trading. This became the norm for some 30 years. One Governor even described his difficulty forming a quorum in Parliament, because most of the men were off salt trading.?

Enter Thomas Tew. No other Bermudian pirate has ever received such prominence in sailors? lore as he. In fact, Tew was an Anglo-American sailor of no great distinction before arriving in Bermuda from Rhode Island in 1691. Some contemporaries maintain that Tew had come to the island to settle permanently on land. But the promise of fortune beyond the horizon lured him.

Tew, an unrefined man with the language and manners of the sea, did not ignore its call. At first, he entered the somewhat reputable state-sponsored brand of piracy. For 300 pounds he bought a letter of marque ? a licence to privateer ? from Governor Isaac Richier. Next, he found himself a crew ? no doubt former salt traders tempted by the promise of greater riches.

But the traditional relationships between blacks and whites, slaves and freemen which dictated life on land held no sway on the water.

?Yes, Tew would have had a diverse crew,? said Mr. Zuill. ?What would happen is the owner would rent slaves to the captain. I suspect privateering may have been more popular because slaves did get part of the earnings.?

Little is known about Tew?s first voyages on the Around this time, however, something occurred which would alter the destinies of all sea-faring Bermudians. The Governor of the Bahamas, one Ellas Askett, began a policy of seizing Bermudian ships in the Caribbean.

Bermuda had, and continues to share much in common with the Bahamas. During the English Civil War puritans in Bermuda found refuge there when loyalists here drove them into exile. Free blacks also were forced in to exile there during the slave rebellions in Bermuda during the mid-17th century. Indeed, there are still many Bahamian families, especially in the northern islands, with Bermudian names.

Even still, the tensions between the two colonies threatened war. Governor Askett is recorded as saying: ?I have never hanged a Bermudian, but would make no more of it than to hang a dog.?

This incident is thought to mark the beginning of Bermudian piracy.

Meanwhile, Thomas Tew had been commissioned to raid a French settlement in East Africa. Somewhere along the way, he offered to his crew to forfeit the protection of the Crown and become pirates.

The response has become famous: ?A gold chain or a wooden leg, we?ll stand by you!?

The only surviving account of what happened next is by one Captain Johnson. Scholars have long suspected that this was a pen name for Daniel Defoe (of fame), but this is now considered seriously doubtful.

?Tew sailed around Africa, in to the Indian Ocean and eventually in to the Red Sea. It was fairly easy for pirates because it concentrated with ships. Tew found an Arabian vessel laden with gold and protected by 300 soldiers.

His crew, although outnumbered, managed to capture the ship and the gold it contained. After that, if we follow the Johnson account, Tew then met a French pirate called Captain Misson who persuaded Tew to follow him to Libertalia.

?Libertalia was supposedly a pirate?s utopia in Madagascar where there was no slavery. We?re not entirely sure whether it actually existed. Even if you discount the Misson story, however, Tew still appears to have a large ship with an enormous treasure.?

From there, Tew sailed back to Rhode Island where he and his crew divided their treasure among them. The Bermudian crew was given ?3,000 each, while Tew took ?12,000 for himself. Tew?s Bermudian investors, hearing of their good fortune, soon arrived to collect their share.

According to legend, Tew directed them to a beach and instructed them to start digging. They all became very rich men, very quickly. For example, Mr. Zuill says that the Gilbert family used their new-found wealth to purchase a sizeable amount of land in Devonshire .

Pirates were demonised in their day and glorified in ours. In fairness, they probably deserve neither. But within in the notorious annals of piracy, no man shines as brightly as Thomas Tew. He was a rare example of a man whose deeds exceeded his legends.

With an inexhaustible supply of courage, charisma and infamy and rallying-cry worthy of Hollywood, Tew was the quintessential pirate. Even Captain Johnson, who himself took a dim view of pirates, was compelled to say: ?On a point of gallantry, Tew was inferior to none.?