Stede Bonnet's career as "The Gentleman Pirate" may represent the worst midlife crisis in history. In 1717, Bonnet, a retired British army major with a large plantation in Barbados, abandoned his family and fortune, bought a ship, and joined the infamous Blackbeard for a life, albeit a brief one, of piracy on the high seas.
Stede Bonnet's career as "The Gentleman Pirate" may represent the worst midlife crisis in history. In 1717, Bonnet, a retired British army major with a large plantation in Barbados, abandoned his family and fortune, bought a ship, and joined the infamous Blackbeard for a life, albeit a brief one, of piracy on the high seas.