Real name Peter Thurlow, the 35-year-old seaman is the trusted quartermaster of Dream Chaser. The man from Spanish Town in Jamaica is known for his love of rum and beer. He is a personal friend of Blackbeard, whom he idolizes, even going as far as to imitate his appearance by growing a long black beard, which was unusual for the time period.
He is a close friend to Captain Ironside, to whom he is extremely loyal, and although taciturn in nature, he isn’t afraid to speak up when he feels a wrong decision has been made. The youngest son of a Jamaican plantation owner, he joined Dream Chaser looking for adventure after meeting Blackbeard in a tavern in Nassau. He had originally planned to join Blackbeard’s crew, but missed the sailing after a particularly long binge. After meeting Ironside in the same tavern, he was accepted into the crew, this time abstaining from alcohol so as not to miss the departure until he was safely on board out at sea. Due to his daring and shrewdness he was soon elected as quartermaster by the crew who trust him as much as they do the captain.
Pete’s excessive drinking got him into trouble on several occasions, and, in fact, he earned his nickname after being discovered asleep on a stack of powder kegs with his pipe and tobacco lying nearby. This misdemeanor would have merited numerous lashes or worse on any naval or merchant vessel, but the crew voted to overlook their popular shipmate’s transgression on this one occasion, his contribution to the running of the ship outweighing his misdeed.
Like many other pirates, Pete too is a Jacobite sympathiser, a supporter of the exiled Stuart king, but more out of antipathy to King George than out of genuine love of the institution of monarchy. He is under no illusion that the situation of the poor would be that much better should James ascend to the throne.
“The small council’s ready for yer, Cap’n,” said a man dressed in a long, shabby, grey coat with a long, black beard and blood-shot eyes standing beside him. It was Peter Thurlow, the quartermaster, also known as Powder Keg Pete after early one morning after a drunken binge he was discovered to be sleeping in the powder magazine atop a row of powder kegs, oblivious to any danger to his own person or to the ship.