by Pat Croce
But before a pirate will consider getting out of the game—assuming he isn’t captured or killed long before the opportunity arises to make that decision—he will attempt to amass as much booty as possible. And while the vast majority of plunder comes from ships, more than a little bit also comes from land-based pillaging.
Demons on water, pirates are absolute hell on earth as well. We’ve ransacked and plundered innumerable hamlets, villages, towns, and cities over the years, causing many to seek protection from the military, or post lofty rewards for our capture and subsequent execution. But despite the dangers, we still go ashore quite often to raise Cain and have a little piratical fun.
Worth noting: Ransacked populaces don’t just help individual pirates become rich. In some instances, plunder benefits an entire nation. For example, the Spanish robbed the Aztecs and Incas of their precious
HOT, COLD, LUKEWARM, IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW REVENGE IS SERVED—IT’S ALWAYS SWEET!
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW “BLACK BART” ROBERTS was absolutely heartless in his treatment of sailors from Martinique and Barbados solely because the governors of those islands sought his capture. One of Black Bart’s flags even depicted him standing on the skulls of the two governors. In one incident, the victims of a Martinique vessel were flogged, others had their ears cut off, and some were hung from the yardarms and used for target practice.
ANNE BONNY’S ESCAPE
ANNE BONNY was sentenced to be hanged along with “Calico Jack” Rackam and nine other members of the WILLIAM’s crew. But because Bonny “pleaded her belly” (she was pregnant), she was spared from execution and jailed instead, only to somehow escape and disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.
[ fig. 38 ] PLEADING HER BELLY
treasures and then caravanned the booty across the Isthmus of Darien and onto the treasure fleets, thereby helping Spain become the wealthiest country in the world.
However, sometimes ransacking and pillaging is not the best way to find the booty. Valuables and treasure aren’t always in plain view. And when the plunder is hidden, the most effective way to find it involves getting someone to talk. Unfortunately, cross looks and harsh words don’t loosen lips. For those situations, fear, and if it comes to it, force, are necessary. Unfortunately, that means torture. But when it comes to getting our hands on gold, silver, jewels, and other valuables, believe me when I tell you we have absolutely no qualms dispensing pain in great quantities to find what we’re looking for.
If after amassing your fortune, you’ve decided the dangerous seafaring trade is no longer in your bones—assuming you survive long enough to make that decision—becoming a broker of booty and plunder can be a lucrative career. Adam Baldridge, a veteran buccaneer himself, built a stone fortress with a battery of forty great guns protecting a bottlenecked harbor on the tiny island of St. Mary’s, off the eastern shore of Madagascar. Here, he had reign over dozens of warehouses filled with pirate plunder, and acted as an agent for New York pirate broker Frederick Philipse. Some useful broker tips:
Location, location, location. Find an island or location along the seaboard where pirates can readily unload their booty (without fear of being caught) for barter, or at outrageous prices (in your favor, naturally). Pirates will gladly pay for what they want and need—if they can’t steal it!
Remember the types of people you’d be dealing with. If they can’t afford your exorbitant prices, or if they can’t come to an agreement with your bartering terms, they may try to steal your goods—perhaps even killing you first—so have a dependable security force in place.
Even better, keep some pirates on your payroll. If pirates have plunder they aren’t willing to part with for the deal you quoted, steal it from them. All is fair in business and piracy!
Develop a network of relationships that allow you to sell the contraband at inflated prices and purchase necessities on the cheap.
LIVE SOULS MAKE THE BEST BARGAINING CHIPS.
When HENRY MORGAN invaded Porto Bello in 1668, he used the women, old men, nuns, friars, and even the mayor as human shields for his buccaneers to storm the Santiago Castle. Ultimately, Morgan captured the city and demanded a 350,000-peso ransom or else he’d burn the city to the ground. Of course, they paid.
At the height of his piratical career, BLACKBEARD sailed directly into the port of Charleston (South Carolina) with his four-ship, 400-man pirate fleet and set up a blockade of the harbor. In one week he seized eight ships and kidnapped several prominent local citizens for ransom. All commerce to the large American seaport was curtailed, and the name of Blackbeard was forever etched into the annals of history.
TIGHT LIPS ARE FOR FOOLS. SOONER OR LATER, EVERYONE TALKS.
EDWARD ENGLAND was wise enough to know that dead men tell no tales. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t scare the bejesus out of them to get them to talk. Upon capturing a merchant vessel, England would instruct his pirate crew to tie double-headed shot around the captive captain’s neck and toss him overboard unless he revealed where the ship’s valuables were hidden. If the merchant captain obliged, he was spared. If not, Davy Jones welcomed another eternal guest.
After a crewmember aboard the captured William and Mary was beaten, bound, and tied to the bowsprit, CHARLES VANE gave his pirate crew permission to place burning matches in the victim’s eyes until he confessed what riches were aboard the ship.
HOW TO MAKE AND USE A WOODLING CORD
This nasty torture device causes many a man to talk—and many others to wish they had!
TIE a pair of knots in the middle of a two-foot length of rope. Distance between knots should be the distance between the prisoner’s eyes.
TIE ends of the rope into a secure knot.
FORCE prisoner to kneel, and bind his arms behind his back.
PLACE cord around the prisoner’s head, with the two knots directly over his eyes.
INSERT a belaying pin or a one-foot length of wood between cord and the back of the prisoner’s head.
SLOWLY twist wood in a clockwise direction, increasing pressure on the eye sockets via the knots.
STAND back. If the prisoner doesn’t speak, his eyes might implode and squirt all sorts of nastiness on your feet.
Our canoes returned on the 25th, who gave us an account they would pay no more than two and twenty thousand pieces of eight for the rest of the ransom, and that the tenient would pursue his Prince’s orders, who forbade the payment of any more. That he had five thousand men at hand, with which he waited to see if we would put our threats in execution. Upon this fierce and bold answer, we had a consultation together, whether we should cut off the heads of all the prisoners. The plurity of voices, together with mine, was that it were better we should go and look after the two and twenty thousand pieces of eight, than shed any blood.
SIEUR RAVENEAU DE LUFFAN,
A Journal of a Voyage Made into the South Sea by the Freebooters of America (1698)
ISTHMUS OF DARIEN
Also known as the Isthmus of Panama, this narrow strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea is both an important trade route and a fantastic shortcut between the two bodies of water. This is where SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ambushed and plundered the Spanish Silver Mule Train in 1573.
[ fig. 39 ] ISTHMUS OF DARIEN
They proceeded now to the West Indies, but before they had gotten far on their voyage, they attacked a rich Portuguese ship, called the Nostre Signora de Victoria, bound home from Bahia, and after some resistance, took her. Edward Low tortur’d several of the men, to make them declare where the money lay, and extorted by that means, a confession that the captain had, during the chase, hung out of the cabin window, a bag with 11,000 moidores, or which, as soon as he was taken, he cut the rope, and let it drop into the sea.
Low, upon hearing what a prize had escaped him, rav’d like a fury, swore a thousand oaths, and ordered the captain’s lips to be cut off, which he broil’d before his face, and afterwards murdered him and all the crew, being thirty two
persons.
CAPTAIN CHARLES JOHNSON,
A General History of the Pyrates (1726)
As you know by now, pirating is not for the squeamish. The lifestyle takes a serious toll on all who live it, and many a man who enters the profession does not last very long, for a wide variety of reasons. So when all is said and done, and your piratical run has finally come to an end, if you are still among the living and can manage a paper and quill, take the time to chronicle your exploits in the hopes that your legend will live on long after your bones have turned to dust.
Text copyright © 2011 by Pat Croce.
Illustrations copyright © 2011 by
David Hopkins.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Croce, Pat.
The pirate handbook : a rogue’s guide to pillage, plunder, chaos & conquest / Pat Croce. p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4521-1011-0
1. Pirates—History. I. Title.
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