Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  In fact, there was hardly any activity onboard a pirate ship that was not associated with drinking at one time or another, and this was an age in which heavy drinking was normal. But some pirates such as Roberts tried to control alcohol, while others such as Blackbeard found that rum drinking kept his crew happy, which allowed him to remain as captain. Yet sailing ships of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are complicated pieces of machinery, and a drunken crew would find it hard to work such a ship, so pirate crews simply could not have been drunk all the time. And in general, the heaviest drinking took place when a pirate ship was in harbour or being careened in some hidden bay. Port Royal, in Jamaica, long a well known pirate haunt, provided as many as 100 taverns in 1680 for the pirates and other sailors. Occasionally, such drinking and debauchery let the pirates down, as when Captain Roberts’ crew was taken by surprise by the Royal Navy in 1722 and ‘the greatest part of his men were drunk, passively courageous, unfit for service’. In the same way, Blackbeard himself spent the night in drinking before being killed in battle, and possibly would have made a better plan if he had been clear headed.43

  Pirates also obviously drank simply to quench their thirst. Since water could quickly go bad onboard ship, beer and other alcoholic drinks were a substitute for water. Pirates also drank for social reasons, in order to help maintain solidarity. Then there was drinking for comfort in cold weather; or as part of pirate rituals; or for medicinal purposes. But the drink that is most often associated with Western pirates was ‘bumboo’, a mixture of rum, water, and sugar, flavoured with nutmeg. The key ingredient was rum, and indeed rum tended to be part of most peoples’ lives in the Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

  As far as food was concerned, pirates ate anything that was available. Turning once again to Captain Snelgrave, he noted that the pirates who captured his ship ate ‘Cheese, Butter, Sugar, and many other things, they were as soon gone.’ Then Snelgrave was served slices of boiled ham laid on a ship’s biscuit, but he also observed the live fowls on his ship – geese, turkeys, chickens and ducks, being dispatched and thrown into a large cauldron – along with Westphalian hams and a pregnant sow. The cook boiled them all together and the pirate crew feasted happily on the result.44 Another common source of pirate food was the sea turtle. Turtles were kept alive by being turned on their backs, and they survived for long periods of time due to their low metabolism. This therefore provided fresh meat for pirate and other crews who killed the turtles as they needed them. A case in point was the experience of Captain Anstis’ pirate crew, who waited on an island off the south-west coast of Cuba for news of a pardon. Not having any food except rice for these nine months, they subsisted almost entirely on turtle meat seasoned with rice.45 In fact, food was always a problem for pirates, who either had to capture ships with provisions onboard, or raid local ports and villages, or buy whatever food they could. A case in point was the pirate Captain Gow, who sailed into Porto Santo, near Madeira, in 1725, and needed to buy water and provisions, since they were very short of both. The Governor was not speedy enough with the provisions, so he was kidnapped, and as a result Gow obtained a cow and calf, a good number of fowls, and seven butts of water.46

  Food shortages were always a logistical nightmare for pirates on long or even short voyages.

  Normally, in areas where ships were close to land, like the Caribbean or in the Mediterranean, food could be replaced without too much trouble. But long voyages off the Americas, and especially sailing across the Pacific, were logistical nightmares. The buccaneer, William Cowley, reported such difficulties in the 1680s. Cowley’s ship stopped at the Juan Fernandez Islands for goats and fish and green vegetables for the crew, and then sailed along the Pacific coast of South America, where men had to be put ashore in May 1683 because they were suffering from scurvy, (due to lack of Vitamin C). Later, Cowley’s ship set off across the Pacific toward the Philippines, a distance of 3,000 miles, where many men were sick from scurvy again. The ship sailed on further east and by February 1684, rats had to be caught and given to sick men since there was no other food. By March all onboard were starving, and now only the ship’s cat was left, which was killed to make broth for the sick. The ship went on to the Ladrones Islands, where coconut milk and fruit revived the crew, who also bought 50 hogs from the local Governor. Eventually, Cowley arrived back in England in 1686 after a three year voyage, which had been marked by the ever present problem of scurvy, as well as actual starvation.47

  Yet the food that was usually associated with Western pirates was called Salmagundi. This dish may have been of French origin, and spread from the buccaneers of the Caribbean to pirates and sailors in the Atlantic, West Africa, and Madagascar. Salmagundi was a highly spiced cold salad composed of chopped pieces of meat of any variety, roasted and marinated in spiced wine, then mixed with palm hearts, cabbage, anchovies, pickled herring, hard boiled eggs, onions, olives, and any other vegetables that could be found. Finally, the dish would be seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, freshened up with oil and vinegar if available, and all mixed thoroughly together. The dish protected against scurvy to some extent, and provided a contrast to the heavily salted food generally available. It would normally be served with beer, and it is of interest that Captain Bart Roberts was sitting down, drinking beer, and eating Salmagundi for breakfast, when his ship was surprised by the Royal Navy in 1722.48

  Swearing

  Pirate behaviour included much swearing, yet the overall range of late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century swearing seems quite limited, even if intensely felt. As an example, in 1691 a shoemaker in Boston was overheard swearing at his wife, ‘God damn you!’, ‘the Devil rot you!’, and the ‘Pox take you’, for which crime he spent two hours in the stocks. Pirate swearing during the same period does not seem to be nearly as terrible as might be expected by modern readers.49 But it certainly shocked contemporaries. When William Snelgrave was taken by pirates in 1719, in the mouth of the Sierra Leone river, he wrote later that the ‘execrable oaths and blasphemies shocked me to such a degree that in Hell itself I thought there could not be worse.’50

  The most common swear words of the day concerned the word ‘dog’, as in ‘you sad dog’, ‘you long dog’, or simply ‘you dog’. Also common were ‘Damn you’ or ‘Damn me’, ‘son of a bitch’, ‘damn your blood’, ‘God’s Zounds’ and words related to disease or death such as ‘pox’.

  In 1697, when William Kidd got into a heated argument with his gunner, William Moore, Kidd simply concluded the argument by saying, ‘You are a dog to give me those words.’ The seeming mildness of the swearing was belied by Kidd’s next action, which was to pick up a bucket and hit Moore on the head, so that Moore died the following day.51 The pirate Charles Vane used the ‘dog’ word in 1718 when trying to get information out of a prisoner, ‘Damn you, you old Dog, then tell where your Money is … If we find you in one Lye, we’ll Damn you, and your Vessel also …’52 Similarly, when Captain Roberts, aboard a merchant ship called the Margaret, was accosted by pirates in 1722, and Roberts delayed in rowing over to them, the pirates called out to him, ‘You Dog, You Son of a Bitch. Why have you not come aboard us?’53

  Beyond the ‘dog’ word, there were the ‘damn’ and ‘blood’ words. In 1718, Robert Hudson, feeling unfairly treated ‘cocked his Piece … and said, Damn your Blood, I’ll kill you, for sending me on the Main Yard in the Storm …’54 When Bart Roberts’ pirate ship, the Royal Rover, captured Thomas Grant, master of the Experiment in July 1719, Grant was lucky to live. He reported that one pirate immediately said to him, ‘Damn You where’s your Money.’ Grant was wise enough to tell them, but then he was noticed by the pirate Walter Kennedy, who knew him from before. Kennedy swore, ‘Damn you I know you and will sacrifice you.’ Kennedy then punched Grant in the mouth, and would have killed him, but other pirates kept Grant out of the way while Kennedy ran about with a cutlass looking for Grant.55 Similar sentiments were expressed by the pirate Richard T
aylor when he heard in 1721 that the Royal Navy was after him and his ship, ‘Damne my Blood God forgive me for swearing …’ This seems to indicate that he mildly regretted his blasphemy. At around the same time, in 1722, a pirate recorded a crew mate swearing at another, ‘God’s Zounds Damn you, you long Dog.’56 When the George Galley was taken by John Smith or John Gow in 1724, one of the mutineers, James Williams, who seems to have been an unstable personality, did not like the request of the master’s clerk that he be allowed time to say his prayers before being killed, ‘God Damn yr. Blood say your Prayers and be damned.’ Williams also pressed a reluctant crew member to shoot the mate of the captured ship, saying if he did not, he, Williams, ‘would make the Sun and Moon shine through him …’57

  Captain Charles Johnson recounted some swearing episodes, but toned them down for the publication of his book. Johnson tells the story of Harry Glasby, originally taken off the Samuel in 1720 by Bart Roberts. Glasby was a sober individual, who did not wish to be a pirate, and tried to escape, but on recapture by Roberts’ crew, was in imminent danger of being executed. However, one of Roberts crew stood by Glasby, saying, according to Johnson, ‘G__ d__ n ye gentlemen, I am as good a man as the best of you; d__ n my S__ l if ever I turned my back to any man in my life, or ever will by G__; Glasby is an honest fellow … and I love him, D__ l d__ n me if I don’t … but d__ n me if he must die, I will die along with him.’ So Glasby was saved, but not his accomplices. Johnson certainly paraphrased this speech, but it must have been close to the original, since he knew a great deal about Roberts and his crew.58

  In 1727, after being falsely accused by a fellow crew member of murder, John Ashley unleashed what he evidently thought was a severe bout of swearing against his accuser, John Prie, ‘You son of a Bitch how can you tell such a damnd Lye when you know we sailed under a Dutch jack [flag] you Dog you are the cause of my ruin … It was yourself Rot you that was the Master …’59 It was in fact John Prie who decided to kill the master of the ship Young Lawrence, swearing upon his decision, ‘Curse my Body, but I will …’ The same John Prie, looking for a particular individual, shouted, ‘Where’s the son of a Bitch god Damn my blood Ile be through him …’ On another ship, taken by the pirate Joseph Cooper, master of the Night Rambler, one John Upton tried to escape, but was given a box on the ear, and called ‘son of a Bitch’. Upton was also fired at, but luckily the ball passed through his hat and not his head.60

  The conclusion, therefore, is that of course the pirates did swear, but probably no more than the ruder elements of society at that time, and by modern standards pirate swearing was rather mild.

  Buried Treasure

  The question of buried pirate treasure is an exciting one, but unfortunately very few pirates buried any treasure for a number of reasons. First, and most important, very few pirates managed to keep any of their treasure, because it was all spent in gambling, drinking, womanising, and other pleasures, so that there was nothing left to bury. Secondly, many ships that were seized contained items that could not easily be buried, such as bales of cotton, calico, muslin, and silk, provisions, bulky goods, wine, brandy, spices, and of course, slaves. Thirdly, when pirates did capture treasure such as jewelry, gold dust, bars of silver, and so on, it was shared out very carefully among the pirate crew, so that no large amount was left to bury. Fourthly, when pirates returned to their ports or sought protection for their treasure in different safe locations, they had to pay off greedy and corrupt colonial Governors, such as Nicholas Trott of the Bahamas, and with what was left usually tried to turn their treasure into land or property or ships, so again there was nothing left to bury. Fifthly, even if there was some treasure buried, it would be recovered quite quickly by the pirates who buried it. Sixthly, although some pirates such as Henry Avery’s men in the Red Sea, collected between £700 and £1,000 pounds each, others often made very little. So of course, there was nothing for them to bury. In one case, there was not enough treasure to go around a group of pirates on St Mary’s Island, Madagascar. The loot was supposed to be distributed to 14 pirates by Captains Tew, Rayner, Mason and Coats, but there simply wasn’t enough to distribute, so these 14 pirates formed themselves into two groups of seven men each, and fought it out. The result was that ‘one of the said Sevens were all killed, and five of the others, so that the two which survived Enjoyed the whole Booty.’61 Finally, the buried treasure that does exist is usually to be found in children’s stories (Treasure Island), or in film versions of what pirates were supposed to do with their plunder (Blackbeard the Pirate, 1952).

  Nevertheless, one or two pirate stories do suggest some treasure is buried. For example, a young sailor named Morgan Miles reported in 1721 that he was at St Mary’s Island, Madagascar, in 1720, when Captain Stratton of the Prince Eugene traded with the pirate Edmund Conden, captain of the Flying Dragon. It seems that a large amount of silver dollars were transferred from the Flying Dragon to the Prince Eugene after Conden bought the cargo of the Prince Eugene, which consisted of useful pirate requirements such as muskets, powder, wine and brandy. Stratton then sailed to Chesapeake Bay on the eastern coast of North America, and at the entrance to the York River, rowed six bags of silver ashore at night, and according to Miles, buried the treasure ‘in the sand’. Stratton was then captured and brought to England, where he refused to tell the High Court of the Admiralty anything because he claimed his case was a criminal matter and therefore he was not obliged by law to answer any questions. It is not clear what happened to the buried treasure, but probably it was recovered by the authorities.62

  Another case of buried treasure was the effort made by William Kidd to preserve his wealth, obtained during his long voyage to Madagascar, the Red Sea, and the coast of India, from 1697 to 1699. On this voyage Kidd was supposed to hunt for pirates and French ships, but perhaps Kidd became a pirate himself. Kidd returned to New England in 1699 from this voyage, during which time he had taken two valuable ships, claiming them to be captured under French passes, but he now wondered if he would be seen as a pirate, and he therefore decided to split up his treasure. This was actually a common tactic of pirates who feared arrest. So Kidd gave some bags of gold and silver to friends, such as ‘Whisking’ Clark, Duncan Campbell, Major Selleck, and Thomas Way, for safe keeping, and he probably sent some more treasure to his wife in New York. Kidd had sailed to Gardiner’s Island before confronting Lord Bellomont, Governor of Massachusetts, in Boston. Bellomont had been one of Kidd’s original backers, but Kidd was unsure of Bellomont’s intentions toward him, and so he decided to bury a large part of his treasure in order to use it as a bargaining chip if needed. Kidd therefore bribed John Gardiner to bury the treasure on his island and keep it safe. This treasure amounted to 50 pounds of gold and 50 pounds of silver and a chest with medical drugs. There were also items such as spices, muslin, silk and calico clothes, which were hidden rather than buried. Most of the gold and silver was buried by tradition in Cherry Tree field on Gardiner’s Island. But Kidd was never able to reclaim this part of his wealth, since he was arrested and put in jail by Lord Bellomont who hoped to benefit himself from Kidd’s treasure. So, after Kidd’s arrest, Bellomont sent orders for John Gardiner to dig up Kidd’s treasure and deliver it to Bellomont, which Gardiner did. Undoubtedly, everybody involved siphoned off parts of Kidd’s treasure, including Gardiner, but Bellomont was able to ship to England what he claimed was the full extent of Kidd’s treasure that he had been able to recover. This amounted to some 1,100 ounces of gold, 2,350 ounces of silver, and 41 boxes of various jewels, silver coins, and valuable cloths. Perhaps the whole treasure was then worth about £10,000. This was a small percentage of what Kidd was supposed to have plundered, but Kidd probably plundered less than was publicly imagined, while he had sold much of his treasure during his voyage, and some was placed with friends and family and never recovered. Eventually, Kidd was hung in London in 1701, and now only one thing is certain, there is no buried treasure left on Gardiner’s Island.63

  T
reasure was also supposedly buried by various pirates, including William Kidd, on Oak Island off Nova Scotia. Kidd himself did not bury anything on Oak Island since he is not known to have visited there. In fact, treasure of any kind buried on Oak Island by any group of pirates or visiting ships is very improbable. This is because after many heroic attempts to locate treasure there over at least two centuries by treasure hunters, such treasure has not been found. No pirate or ship’s crew would ever bury and conceal their wealth in such a difficult location that it couldn’t be easily recovered. But there is another location where treasure is much more likely to be found, and this is St Mary’s Island, off the ocean coast of Madagascar. Here, many pirates like Henry Avery, fresh from looting Muslim ships in the Red Sea and elsewhere (see Chapter 6), would either use the island to transship their enormous treasures home to the Caribbean, or the Americas, or Europe, or they might sell parts of it to traders like John Plantain on St Mary’s Island, or they might actually stay on St Mary’s Island for some years. In all those years, very large amounts of treasure passed through the island, from the 1680s to the 1720s. So, some of that treasure seems likely to have stayed on the island. Perhaps there are caches of treasure left behind, possibly at Ranter Bay, where the trader Plantain lived, since Plantain himself claimed to be very rich in gold and diamonds.64

  One very specific location of treasure, allegedly buried by the pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach), is recorded by the sailor and part time artilleryman in India, Clement Downing. According to Downing, when he was in India in the early eighteenth century, he met with a Portuguese man named Anthony de Silvestro. This man claimed to have been with Blackbeard when the pirate was killed. Silvestro reported that at York River, Chesapeake Bay, near Mulberry Island, Blackbeard’s pirates buried ‘considerable Sums of Money in great Chests, well clamp’d with Iron Plates.’ Downing researched the story a little, and found that there was indeed an island called Mulberry Island, and stated: