Captain Thunderbolt

There is a myth that persists that if one stole a horse in the morning , they could be hanged by sundown. In reality, horse thieves just received lengthy prison sentences. Captain Thunderbolt, born Fredrick Wordsworth Ward in New South Wales, Australia, committed such actions.

He had been an outlaw brought together with his brother in the family crime of snatching up horses and selling them.

After being captured for his misdeeds and serving four years of rough time, he got out and traveled to his Mother’s residence.

He found out after marrying a gorgeous woman named Mary Ann that his probation had expired while riding a horse. Then, he was sent to prison again with the punishment of an additional four years.

Two weeks later, their daughter Marina Emily came into this world.

Mary Ann was a ride-or-die kind of lady, too. She strapped jail breaking tools to her person and swam to Cockatoo Island to bust the captain out of incarceration.

In shark infested waters, she swam all the way to bust him out of his predicament. Along with another prisoner named Fred Britten, the three swam back to liberty.

Together, A £50 reward had been placed on their heads. In the meantime, they committed over 200 crimes. Among them of course were horse thefts but also literal highway robbery.

Mary Ann found herself in the clutches of the law while Britten must’ve escaped. Captain Thunderbolt returned the favor of his wife, breaking him out of prison and releasing her from legal hands.

Under the Vagrancy Act, Mary Ann saw arrest on two different occasions and finally, her husband had been totally inebriated on a horse while in the midst of a robbery.

This whole tale reeks of irrationalism. There is no thinking involved here. The men and woman involved in this story all could have been productive, selfish, and thoughtful members of society.

Instead, they chose to lower themselves to the level of the horse that had been stolen. Their barnyard brains all coalesced into a ball of ill-begotten thoughts.

All they had to do was lead lives of meaning and righteousness. They could have been daring and brave heroes of their own lives. No, they opted for the ugly way of thievery and vagrancy.

In their travels as criminals, they could have been professors instead. They could have been lawyers, businessmen and women, anything but scum. With their deleterious exploits they made a big fuss out of nothing.

Their roles as accomplices to crimes in Australia made them even more of a menace to the townspeople who lived around them.

Captain Thunderbolt’s end came swift. His tyranny ended when a constable pulled out his gun and shot the man. This final act of retribution offered him no hope in trying to set his life straight. Rather, he died a man dedicated to the dumb mess.

Ward might’ve been a blacksmith or a teller. Some honorable role in the community beckoned his name. He never answered it. As a way of defiance, he showed himself to be a horrific human being. His wife, although a ride-or-die type was just as vicious, if not more in some instances.

Alas, it was Ward who had become the most famous of the criminals involved. His name is forever etched in stone and in the minds of the people of New South Wales.

Aged only 36, Captain Thunderbolt’s legend will forever reflect a man who lived as a scoundrel and a lowlife. Everything about him will be directed at his dereliction of his duties as an upstanding citizen. May he rest in piss.