Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  Yet another familiar theme in the history of piracy is that the means used to try and eradicate piracy tended to be the same throughout the centuries. Established states usually either issued pardons or applied maritime power to destroy piracy, or sometimes used both approaches at the same time. Rome’s general, Pompey, used both, as did the English monarchy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Occasionally, however, piracy operated outside the bounds of suppression, by reason of geography or pirate strength, as in the medieval Mediterranean, or perhaps today off Somalia and in the Malacca Straits. And it is worth noting that the frequently mentioned ‘golden age’ of piracy, from the 1680s to the 1720s in the Caribbean and Atlantic world, is too narrow a vision – in fact, there were always golden ages of piracy around the world which came and went.

  A common problem for all pirates was the question of logistics. Whether it was a pirate galley in the Classical period; or Henry Morgan during his several expeditions; or a buccaneer ship facing starvation crossing the Pacific; as in the case of William Cowley; or other buccaneers calling in at the Juan Frenandez Islands for food and water; or a Red Sea pirate waiting weeks for a Muslim ship to sail by, and then calling in at St Mary’s for supplies; or William Kidd trying to find provisions on the coast of India; or pirate voyages in the early 1700s sailing between the Caribbean, west Africa and the Americas as Bart Roberts did; pirate captains always had to be thinking of provisions, and water and beer to drink for their crews. In reality, quite a few ships were captured and towns were raided, not in the search for any treasure but because the pirates needed to eat and drink, to say nothing of necessities such as sails, cables and anchors. This was the case with some of Bart Roberts’ attacks, because he was the captain of a large number of pirates who simply needed to be kept alive with food and drink before they could operate as pirates. Pirate logistics were normally quite difficult, and could not always be solved through finding turtles to eat.

  Finally – why has piracy fascinated writers and readers across the centuries? Part of the answer is the exotic locations, colourful individuals, liberty of action outside social norms, the freedom to roam the seas, and the lure of treasure and instant wealth. But a larger part of the answer is that people seem to be especially interested in those individuals who inhabit the boundaries of society and challenge the social order – criminals like the Mafia, highwaymen, Wild West gunslingers, witches and warlocks, social deviants, religious heretics, mass murderers, social rebels – and pirates. Pirates are among those groups at the ever changing cultural edges of society who are constantly defining what is acceptable and what is not. Perhaps that is why pirates are shape shifters, and thus objects of interest because of their role as social and moral boundary markers. It may even be that the decade of ruthless pirate extermination in the west in the 1720s was a response to the emergence of state formation in the Caribbean and the Americas, which demanded a strong new establishment of social and moral norms.3

  Whatever the reason for our interest in piracy, society has constantly changed its vision of the pirate over the centuries and will continue to do so, from the enemy of all mankind, to our present image of the historical pirate as a charismatic individual, always ready to drink a bottle of rum and open a dead man’s chest.

  Abbreviations

  Johnson: Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates , London, 1724, introduction and commentary by David Cordingly (Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut, and Conway Maritime Press, London, 1998, 2002).

  ADM: Admiralty files, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.

  BL: British Library, London.

  CO: Colonial Office files, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.

  HCA: High Court of the Admiralty files, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.

  PRO: Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.

  Definitions

  Pirate: one who robs or plunders on the high seas, or uses the sea to raid harbours, ports and towns, without social or political authority.

  Privateer: an individual or a ship authorised by a letter of marque or a letter of commission, to capture the merchant vessels and cargoes of a hostile nation. Privateers might also carry a letter of reprisal, authorizing reprisal against a foreign subject or ship. Privateers were regulated and had to obey a number of rules concerning codes of conduct.

  Corsair: a privateer or pirate who operated in the Mediterranean. These might be from the medieval Mediterranean, or the later Barbary Coast of North Africa, or licensed by the Knights of Malta and the Knights of St Stephen.

  Buccaneer: originally used to describe the hunters of cattle and pigs on the island of Hispaniola. Later often used to describe the privateers and pirates who sailed in the Caribbean and in the South Seas.

  Filibuster: a term used by French and Dutch writers to describe a pirate in the West Indies, and derived from the Dutch word for Freebooter.

  List of Illustrations

  1. ‘A pirate as imagined by a Quaker gentlemen.’ Author’s collection.

  2. ‘A typical pirate.’ Author’s collection.

  3. ‘Band of armed pirates.’ Author’s collection.

  4. ‘A pirate takes aim.’ Author’s collection.

  5. ‘A pirate shot.’ Author’s collection.

  6. ‘Pirate Bold and ship.’ Author’s collection.

  7. ‘Pirate at the wheel.’ Author’s collection.

  8. ‘A pirate stands over his victim.’ Author’s collection.

  9. ‘A typical pirate.’ Author’s collection.

  10. ‘Pirate captain surveys the deck.’ Author’s collection.

  11. ‘Captain Scarfield.’ Author’s collection.

  12. ‘Flirting on deck.’ Author’s collection.

  13. ‘Beach scene.’ Author’s collection.

  14. ‘Marooned pirate.’ Author’s collection.

  15. ‘Rescue on its way.’ Author’s collection.

  16. ‘Stabbed in the back.’ Author’s collection.

  17. ‘Buried treasure.’ Author’s collection.

  18. ‘Pirates carrying treasure.’ Author’s collection.

  19. ‘Discovered treasure.’ Author’s collection.

  20. ‘Pirates make off with treasure.’ Author’s collection.

  21. ‘Examining treasure.’ Author’s collection.

  22. ‘Captain Mayloe shot Captain Brand through the head.’ Author’s collection.

  23. ‘She would sit quite still, permitting Barnaby to gaze.’ Author’s collection.

  24. ‘Burning the Ship.’ Pirates did often burn the ships they captured, partly in order to prevent their victims from sailing off and revealing where the pirates were, and what they had done. The crews of these captured ships were normally allowed to land or row away. Author’s collection.

  25. ‘Pirates used to do that to their Captains now and then.’ Author’s collection.

  26. ‘So the Pirate Treasure was divided.’ Dividing up treasure among a pirate crew was an important process, in which care was taken to make each share as equal as possible. Some skilled members of a pirate crew, including the captain, surgeon, gunner, and carpenter, would be given more than one share. Author’s collection.

  27. ‘Colonel Rhett and the pirate.’ Author’s collection.

  28. ‘The Pirate’s Christmas.’ Author’s collection.

  29. ‘He lay silent and still, with his face half buried in the sand.’ Author’s collection.

  30. ‘There Cap’n Goldsack goes, creeping, creeping, creeping, looking for his treasure down below!’Author’s collection.

  31. ‘He had found the captain agreeable and companionable.’ In the late seventeenth century many colonial governors were sympathetic to pirates, happy to share the spoils. This picture shows the pirate Thomas Tew being entertained by New York Governor Benjamin Fletcher in the 1690s. Author’s collection.

  32. ‘How the buccaneers kept Christmas.’ Author’s collection.

&nbs
p; 33. ‘A pirate fighting it out.’ Author’s collection.

  34. ‘The burning ship.’ Fire was always a grave threat, and precautions were taken on all ships to prevent this happening. Pirates usually operated at trade routes fairly close to land because that was where merchant ships were to be found, so crews could normally get ashore if there was a fire. Author’s collection.

  35. ‘Pirates fighting.’ Author’s collection.

  36. ‘Dead men tell no tales.’ Some pirate captains did murder their victims. This was especially the case in the nineteenth century, when one pirate captain in 1824 told his men ‘dead cats don’t mew’, obviously instructing his crew to kill their captives. Author’s collection.

  37. ‘Daughter of Captain Keitt.’ Author’s collection.

  38. Execution of Stede Bonnet. Stede Bonnet was hung in Charles Town, South Carolina in 1718. Bonnet was an unlikely pirate, being a middle aged plantation owner from Barbados. Bonnet holds a posy of flowers, a common touch with the condemned at hanging, and he is executed using the short rope drop, which took some time to produce death. Author’s collection.

  39. Cape Corso Castle. A depiction of Cape Coast Castle on the West African coast, where Roberts’ large crew were tried, and some of them hung, in 1722. Cape Coast Castle was a Royal African Company factory where African slaves were held before being shipped to their destinations. Author’s collection.

  40. A wounded Spaniard shot by Capt Low’s crew. This scene depicts an event after a Spanish ship was captured off Honduras by Captain Low. One of the Spanish sailors jumped into the water to escape but was recaptured. He begged for mercy but one of the pirates made him kneel down, and placing the muzzle of his gun in the Spaniard’s mouth, pulled the trigger. Author’s collection.

  41. Captain Anstis’ mock trial. This mock trial, which took place in 1722, on an island off Cuba, reflected the pirates’ attitude toward the justice system of the day. Some pirate humour and some pirate fear both seem to be part of this trial, which was fully reported by Captain Charles Johnson. Author’s collection.

  42. A symbolic representation of a pirate captain. Note the fashionable clothes, wig and three cornered hat. Also the gentleman’s rapier sword and flintlock musket. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  43. Different versions of pirate flags. Two of the flags were designed by the pirate captain Bartholomew Roberts – the lower left flag has Roberts standing on two of his opponent’s skulls – A Bahamian’s head and a Martinican’s head. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  44. Buccaneers attack a Spanish ship in a cannon duel. Normally, buccaneers preferred to take a ship by surprise or by boarding rather than in a fire fight, because Spanish fire discipline was often superior. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  45. Title page of Esquemeling’s The Buccaneers of America, first published in Amsterdam in 1678. Several other versions followed. Esquemeling is important for his first hand accounts of two of Henry Morgan’s expeditions, and for his knowledge of the buccaneers.

  46. Esquemeling’s vision of a typical French buccaneer on Hispaniola. There were two kinds of buccaneer – those who hunted wild bulls and cattle in a two man operation, and those who hunted wild boars in teams of five or six men. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  47. This is the buccaneer fort constructed on Tortuga by the French adventurer LeVasseur, in the 1640s. He ironically named it his ‘Dove Cot’. Interestingly, the fort incorporates the latest ‘bastion trace’ outline, useful against cannon. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  48. Henry Morgan’s raid on El Puerto del Principe, Cuba. The buccaneers took the town, but found only 50,000 pieces of eight, since the Spanish were forewarned. Morgan also forced the inhabitants to produce and slaughter 500 cattle for the buccaneers, who were often short of food. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  49. Portrait of the buccaneer Roche Brasiliano, a Dutchman, but named thus because of his long residence in Brazil. He raided along the coast of Central America, capturing several ships. He hated and tortured Spanish prisoners. But he spent all his plunder on alcohol and women. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  50. Morgan’s capture of Panama City in 1671. The buccaneers defeated the Spanish defenders of Panama City in a set battle outside the city, and then plundered Panama and surrounding area for several weeks. Panama was probably set on fire by some of the inhabitants. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  51. William Dampier, painted around 1697. Dampier was a buccaneer but also an acute observer of nature, and published his observations in a number of volumes. The books were readable, satisfied the public’s desire for knowledge about the world, and made Dampier famous. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  52. A map of the Americas from Dampier’s book, A New Voyage Round the World (1697). It was in this area that the buccaneers operated and raided. Dampier himself joined some of these raids, but also circumnavigated the world. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  53. Dampier’s map of the world from his A New Voyage Round the World (1697). The map shows that Dampier was vague about North America, but that he knew South America and the Pacific, and in a later voyage he explored parts of Australia. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  54. Hanging a pirate in the eighteenth century at Execution Dock, Wapping, London. At the time, hanging was a slow, unpleasant death due to the ‘short drop’ which did not break the neck of the condemned. Here, the chaplain, or ‘ordinary’, tries to elicit a last speech of repentance from the pirate. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  55. A woodcut of the execution of one of Avery’s crew in 1696. Bodies of the condemned were placed between the high and low water marks of the River Thames to signify the authority of the High Court of the Admiralty. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  56. A copy of the first page of the 1700 piracy act of William III. This act allowed a seven man jury of officials or naval officers to be assembled anywhere in the world in order to try pirates and execute them if guilty. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  57. A well known pirate, Charles Vane gained fame by refusing to accept Woodes Rogers’ offer of a pardon in the Bahamas in 1718. Vane escaped by using a fire ship at night, and then pirated for two years, meeting up once with Blackbeard before being caught and hung in 1720. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  58. Captain Charles Vane. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  59. A report of the trial of the pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew at Charles Town in 1718. Bonnet was unusual in being a gentleman and man of means, who reportedly became a pirate in order to escape his wife. He was no mariner, and was hung along with most of his crew in 1718. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  60. This pirate captain was known as ‘Calico’ Jack Rackam, due to his penchant for wearing white calico clothes. Rackam was not a very successful pirate, but gained posthumous fame for having two women pirates in his crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. He was easily captured, and tried and hung in Jamaica in 1720. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  61. This picture shows the front page of the very lengthy report of the trial of Captain Jack Rackam and his crew, published in Jamaica in 1721. The report also contains the separate trial of the two women pirates in his crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  62. A portrait of Anne Bonny (or Bonn), who served on Captain Jack Rackam’s ship. She abandoned a husband on New Providence in order to run away with Rackam, and became his lover. She was captured and tried along with Rackam, but was spared execution because she was pregnant. She then disappears from history. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  63. A portrait of Mary Read, who served on Captain Jack Rackam’s ship. She had allegedly previously served in the army, which helped when she fought a duel with a sailor who threatened her lover. She was captured and tried along with Rackam, but was spared execution because she was pregnant. She died in prison. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  64. Captain Bartholomew Roberts, one of the most successful pirates. In his last battle in 1722, he dressed in a crimson waistcoat and trousers, a hat with a red plume, and wore a gold chain and diamond cross. He was killed in this battle against the Royal Navy, and thrown overboard as he had req
uested. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  65. Captain Bartholomew Roberts again depicted in fine clothes. He carries a cutlass and a brace of pistols in a sash, as was normal. Roberts was unusual in not drinking alcohol, and in demanding strong discipline in his large crew. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  66. Captain Bartholomew Robert’s crew drinking at the slaving port of Old Calabar in 1721. The drink would have been rum or brandy. However, Roberts’ pirates fought a battle with the local inhabitants here, and then set fire to the town. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  67. ‘Extorting tribute from the citizens.’ The prelude to torture, when pirates forced individuals to confess where their valuables could be found. This probably relates to Morgan’s sack of Panama in 1671. Author’s collection.

  68. Portrait of Henry Morgan. Technically not a pirate, Morgan launched several raids on Spanish towns, the most famous being the raid on Panama. Esquemeling writes that Morgan’s buccaneers cruelly tortured many prisoners in these towns in order to find and seize their valuables. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  69. Morgan fights his way out of Lake Maracaibo, which was blocked by a fort and three large Spanish ships. Morgan used fire ships and boarding to deal with the Spanish ships, and trickery to steal past the fort at night. Courtesy of Joel Baer.

  70. ‘Jack followed the Captain [Blackbeard] and the young lady up the crooked path to the house.’ Author’s collection.

  71. ‘He led Jack up to a man [Blackbeard] who sat upon a barrel.’. Author’s collection.

  72. ‘The combatants cut and slashed with savage fury.’ When pirates boarded a ship, the fight was often violent, but also usually short. Blackbeard was killed in 1718 in a ship board struggle, and the fight was bitterly contested with cutlass and pistol. Author’s collection.

  73. The famous pirate Blackbeard (or Edward Teach) engaged in a fight for his life against Lieutenant Maynard of the Royal Navy. The fight took place in Ocracoke creek, North Carolina, in 1718. Blackbeard sustained many wounds before being cut down by a Royal Navy sailor. Courtesy of Joel Baer.