Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean

by David Cordingly

  Sailing into the bay of Dry Harbour, they fired a gun at the merchant sloop Mary and Sarah. Thomas Dillon, the master of the vessel, and his crew escaped ashore in a boat to the accompaniment of shots from Rackam’s sloop. When Dillon hailed the attackers he was told that they were English pirates, that he need not be afraid, and they urged him to return to his ship. Dillon later swore on oath that there were two women on the pirate sloop and that ‘they were both very profligate, cursing and swearing much, and ready and willing to do any thing on board’.7 According to Dillon, the pirates then took over the merchant sloop and her cargo and ‘carried her with them to sea’. It is not clear whether he was forced to accompany them or whether he returned to shore. From Dry Harbour they continued sailing west and the last of their victims was Dorothy Thomas, a Jamaican woman who was in a canoe filled with provisions. As Rackam’s sloop came alongside, the female pirates encouraged their shipmates to kill the woman ‘to prevent her coming against them’. Dorothy Thomas would later provide the most damning evidence against Mary Read and Anne Bonny. She said that they ‘wore men’s jackets and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads; and that each of them had a machet and pistol in their hands, and cursed and swore at the men, to murder the deponent’.8 She further said that she knew them to be women by the largeness of their breasts.

  By the beginning of November the pirates were off Negril Bay at the western end of Jamaica. Today this is a tourist resort and the seven-mile expanse of beach is lined with smart hotels, but in the eighteenth century it was a desolate spot. Beyond the beach was nothing but swamps and mangroves. Towards evening two sloops on a trading voyage to Cuba hove in sight. One of them was commanded by Captain Bonnevie, the other by Captain Jonathan Barnet. Back in 1715 Barnet had applied to Lord Hamilton, then Governor of Jamaica, for a commission to capture pirates. He was granted the commission on condition that he keep a fair journal of his proceedings; that he did not attack any British ships or those of His Majesty’s allies, friends or neutral nations; that before he set sail from Port Royal he deliver a list containing the names of his crew to the chief officer of the customs; and that he fly a union flag which was distinguished from those worn by His Majesty’s ships by a white square or escutcheon in the middle of the flag.9 It is not known whether Barnet had renewed his commission, but the new Governor of Jamaica, Sir Nicholas Lawes, would later inform London that a trading sloop ‘being well manned and commanded by a brisk fellow one Jonathan Barnet did us a very good piece of service …’.10

  Bonnevie hailed Barnet and told him he could see a sloop lying close inshore which had fired a gun. Barnet, whose vessel was well armed, decided to go and investigate. At around 10 p.m. he came up with the anchored vessel and hailed her. The response was, ‘John Rackam of Cuba.’ Barnet ordered him to strike immediately to the King of England’s colours. One of the pirates replied that they would strike no strikes and immediately fired a swivel gun at Barnet’s sloop. At this Barnet ordered his men to fire a full broadside and a volley of small shot. The effect of this was to carry away the boom of the pirate sloop, which effectively disabled her. The pirates called for quarter and surrendered to Barnet and his men. They were taken ashore at Davis’s Cove, a few miles beyond Negril Point, and were delivered into the custody of Major Richard James, a militia officer.11 The major assembled some men to guard the pirates and took them across the island to the jail in Spanish Town (then known as St Jago de la Vega).

  The trial of the pirates was held before Sir Nicholas Lawes as President of the Admiralty Court and twelve commissioners. These included two naval captains, one of whom was Captain Edward Vernon, who was commander-in-chief of British naval ships on the Jamaica station and later, as Admiral Vernon, led British attacks on Portobello and Cartagena. Calico Jack and the ten male members of his crew were tried on Wednesday 16 November 1720. The female pirates were tried twelve days later. The charges concerned the attacks off Harbour Island, off Hispaniola and off the north coast of Jamaica. Because the prosecution was able to call eyewitnesses to confirm the ‘piracies, felonies, and robberies committed by them on the high sea’ the result was a foregone conclusion and all the men on trial were found guilty and condemned to death. The day after the trial five of the pirates were hanged at Gallows Point, and the rest were hanged the next day. The bodies of Calico Jack, George Fetherston and Richard Corner were taken down from the gallows and hanged in chains at Gun Key, Bush Key and Plumb Point, where they could be seen by the sailors on ships sailing into and out of the harbour of Port Royal.

  The trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read followed similar lines because the charges against them were exactly the same. What the court had to determine was whether the women had played an active part in the piracies and, as we have already noted, Thomas Dillon and Dorothy Thomas were in no doubt about their role. Two Frenchmen, speaking through an interpreter, confirmed that both women were very active in the attacks on Spenlow’s schooner and Dillon’s sloop, and went on to say, ‘Anne Bonny, one of the prisoners at the bar, handed gun-powder to the men, that when they saw any vessel, gave chase, or attacked they wore men’s clothes; and at other times, they wore women’s clothes; that they did not seem to be kept, or detained by force, but by their own free will and consent.’ After all the witnesses had been examined the president of the court asked the two women whether they had any defence to make or any witnesses to speak on their behalf, but they had nothing to offer on either score. After consulting with the twelve commissioners sitting alongside him, the president informed the women that they had unanimously been found guilty and told them, ‘you shall be severally hanged by the neck, till you are severally dead. And God of his infinite mercy be merciful to both your souls.’12

  Not till after they had heard these words did the women make the shock announcement that they were both pregnant, and they asked that there might be a stay of execution. An examination showed that both of them were indeed ‘quick with child’ and the sentence was suspended. They were returned to prison, where Mary Read was ‘seized with a violent fever’ and died in custody. The parish register for the district of St Catherine in Jamaica records her burial on 28 April 1721.13 The fate of Anne Bonny is a mystery. According to Captain Johnson, she remained in prison until she gave birth to her child and was ‘afterwards reprieved from time to time. But what is become of her since, we cannot tell.’ Some evidence has come to light which suggests that her father, William Cormac, managed to get her released from jail and took her back to Charleston, where she married a local man, had eight children by him and died in 1782 at the age of eighty-four. What is certain is that over the years the story of the female pirates joined the other stories of warrior women and they have become feminist icons, their lives providing the inspiration for ballads, plays, novels and several Hollywood films.14

  In the Epilogue the links between Robinson Crusoe and Woodes Rogers’ account of Alexander Selkirk will be explored in some detail but it is worth noting here the similarities between another classic work of fiction by Daniel Defoe and real historical events. As the historian Marcus Rediker has pointed out, Anne Bonny and Mary Read were real-life versions of the heroine of Defoe’s Moll Flanders, which was published in 1722, less than two years after the trial of the pirates.15 Moll Flanders was a thief, a whore and a spirited adventurer rather than a pirate, but Rediker notes that in common with Read and Bonny she was illegitimate, poor at birth and, like them, she did cross-dress at one point in her life. All three of them experienced homelessness, a roving existence, found themselves on the wrong side of the law and faced the gallows. Defoe might have seen brief references to the capture and trial of the female pirates in the newspapers and it is possible that he saw the printed transcript of the trial before he wrote Moll Flanders. But he would not have seen Johnson’s detailed account of the early lives of Bonny and Read (the General History of the Pyrates was not published until 1724) – unless, of course, he was the real author of Johnson’s history.16

 
Charles Vane was executed in Jamaica soon after the hanging of Calico Jack and his men. After being voted out of his command by his crew and replaced as captain by Calico Jack, Vane had sailed away to the Bay of Honduras in a small sloop with a few of his supporters. They had captured three more sloops and were sailing in the seas off Jamaica when they were hit by a violent tornado. Vane’s sloop was driven on to the shore of a deserted island and wrecked. Vane survived but most of his companions were drowned. After a few weeks a ship called by to take in water. She was commanded by Captain Holford, an old buccaneer who was a former acquaintance of Vane. Holford refused to take Vane on board his ship because he believed that he would conspire with his crew, ‘knock me on the head, and run away with my ship a pyrating’. Soon after Holford had departed another ship dropped anchor off the island and the captain allowed Vane to join his crew. Unfortunately for Vane this ship happened to cross the course of Holford’s ship and the captain invited Holford to come aboard. When Holford spotted Vane working down in the hold he told his fellow captain that the seaman he had rescued was none other than Vane the notorious pirate. The captain agreed to hand him over and Holford took him in irons to Jamaica, where he was delivered up to the authorities. In March 1721 Vane was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.17 In his General History of the Pyrates Captain Johnson noted that Vane proved a coward on the scaffold and ‘died in agonies equal to his villainies’.18 A gentleman who witnessed the execution at Gallows Point informed Johnson that Vane showed not the least remorse for his crimes.

  13

  Great Debts and Bills

  The hanging of Calico Jack and Charles Vane in Jamaica was another victory for the authorities in the war against the pirates but it was no consolation for Woodes Rogers. He had already requested leave of absence in order to go home ‘to settle the affairs of this neglected colony’.1 On 26 November 1720 he authorised his Council to send a letter to Secretary Craggs in London. It is a letter which reveals Rogers to be so worn down by his responsibilities and his financial concerns that his health has been affected. Craggs was informed that the Governor’s bills were being refused everywhere; that he had sacrificed his utmost fortune to maintain the garrison, and ‘the trouble which our hardships has given Governor Rogers has occasioned in him a great decay of health, which has induced him to go for South Carolina with hopes to recover himself’.2 After appointing William Fairfax as Deputy Governor to take charge of the government of the Bahamas in his absence, Rogers embarked on a ship for South Carolina and arrived in Charleston on 6 December.

  At this stage in its development Charleston (still called Charles Town in honour of King Charles II) was a relatively small settlement at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. It had been established by English settlers as recently as 1670 and in its early years was under constant threat of attack by the French and Spanish as well as by marauding tribes of Native Americans. The fortifications surrounding the town looked more impressive than they were and its chief defence was its position. Situated on a peninsula between two rivers, it was surrounded by water on three sides; and the entrance to the spacious harbour was notoriously difficult to navigate because it was protected by an extensive harbour bar and shifting shoals. By the time of Blackbeard’s raid in 1718 Charleston had become a thriving port, with a rapidly growing export trade in rice, indigo, timber and hides. It would be some years before the town developed the streets of elegant Georgian buildings for which it is well known today, but as Rogers sailed into the harbour he would have been impressed by the number and variety of ships lying at anchor. Among them was HMS Flamborough. Rogers had tried to prevent her commander, Captain John Hildesley, from leaving Nassau in the aftermath of the abortive Spanish invasion but had failed to do so. Hildesley had received an urgent request from South Carolina to take his warship there. He had left Nassau on 1 May 1720 and arrived at Charleston two weeks later.

  If he was hoping for a rest from the troubles of the Bahamas, Rogers was disappointed. In the interval between the departure of Governor Robert Johnson and the arrival of the next Governor there was considerable unrest in the town. Captain Hildesley attempted to take charge but he was an abrasive character and only made things worse. He quarrelled with Colonel Rhett, the man who had fought and captured Stede Bonnet. He openly criticised the way the place was being run, and he caused a riot on the waterfront when he ordered his lieutenant to seize the chief mate of the merchant ship Samuel and had him flogged with ‘24 severe lashes on his bare back’. All this and more was reported to Secretary Craggs, who was also told that ‘Governor Rogers of Providence was here for about six weeks and fought a duel with Capt. Hildesley upon some disputes they had at Providence, they were both slightly wounded.’3 A search through the letters of naval captains to the Admiralty has revealed a letter from Hildesley which explains the origins of this duel. Since he is reporting events to his superior officers in London, it is not surprising to find that Hildesley blames Rogers for the disputes that arose between them.

  The root of the problem was that Rogers needed warships for the defence of New Providence and believed he had the authority to dictate terms to naval captains. In the words of Hildesley, ‘all men of war which should happen to come into this port were subject to his orders … he did not value the Lords of the Admiralty for his commission was signed by the King’.4 When the Spanish invasion fleet had arrived off Nassau, Hildesley had insisted that all the vessels in the harbour should come under his command, and when he discovered that no watch was being kept on the guardship Delicia he had sent his first lieutenant across to take possession of the ship. This had so annoyed Rogers that he had put Hildesley and his lieutenant under arrest on the Delicia and threatened to imprison the naval captain in the fort. Later, when Hildesley punished a member of the Delicia’s crew for attempting to throw his first lieutenant overboard, Rogers ‘pointed the Fort guns at His Majesty’s ship and encouraged the mob to rise which ye next day assaulted my lieutenant ashore’.5 Rogers was also angry when Hildesley refused to take his warship with two sloops and 300 men to attack Moors Castle, the great fortress which protected the entrance to the harbour of Havana. The disputes led Rogers to challenge Hildesley to a duel with sword and pistol and to appoint a time and place to meet. Hildesley had arrived punctually to meet the challenge but Rogers, ‘wisely considering what would of consequence follow’, had sent his Attorney-General in his place, and the duel had been postponed for another time and another place.

  Hildesley also criticised Rogers for ruling the island in a despotic manner. He observed that the island’s Council was ‘obliged to say, write and sign as he directs for his Government is absolute as will appear to all the world when his conduct is called into question’.6 In October of the previous year Captain Whitney, commander of HMS Rose, had called in at New Providence to take in water and he had subsequently informed the Admiralty, ‘I found the Governor complaining for want of help … I observed a general dissatisfaction at the Governor, and believe it had ended to the disadvantage of the Proprietors of the Islands.’7 It may be that Rogers’ despotic and sometimes bullying behaviour was due to the pressures he was under, the isolation of his position and the breakdown in his health, but there does seem to be a pattern to his behaviour when under stress. The observations made by Dr Thomas Dover concerning Rogers’ violent outbursts during the latter stages of the circumnavigation, as well as his treatment of Hildesley and his assault on Captain Wingate Gale, suggest that he was a man with a short fuse and a hot temper.

  Writing to Secretary Craggs from Charleston on 20 December, Rogers was able to report that he was now feeling much better, thanks to the sea air during his voyage and the cold weather he experienced on his arrival. He made no mention of his dispute with Captain Hildesley but did express his concern about two matters he had learnt about during his stay at Charleston. The first was his discovery that a new copartnership had been set up for improving the Bahama Islands. He was surprised that he had not been informed of this. T
he second was more worrying. Some months previously Rogers had sent Lieutenant Robert Beauchamp to England to let people know about the state of the island and its defences. At this critical time in his life Rogers needed friends in London but he now learnt that Beauchamp had been speaking out against him. ‘I hear he has acted to my disadvantage, I pray God forgive him … if what I hear is true he is a most ungrateful man.’8 Beauchamp had come out to the Bahamas with Rogers in 1718 and one of the Governor’s first acts had been to appoint him First Lieutenant of the Independent Company and Secretary General of all the islands.

  Rogers did not improve his situation by writing a second letter to Craggs from Charleston in which he announced that it was his intention to return to New Providence and, having put his affairs in order, set out for London at the beginning of April, whether or not he was granted leave to do so. The Lords of Trade and Plantations had ignored Rogers’ numerous requests for assistance but they were not going to ignore the fact that he was intending to leave his post as Governor. It was unfortunate for Rogers that he now lost his principal contact in London. On 16 February 1721 James Craggs died of smallpox. He was succeeded as Secretary for the South by Lord Carteret, an energetic and ambitious young man of thirty. John Carteret had inherited a barony at the age of five, been educated at Westminster School and Oxford and taken his seat in the House of Lords in 1711. He had been one of the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas and served briefly as ambassador to Sweden. He would ensure that the post of Governor of the Bahamas did not remain vacant for long.