Pirates: A History

by Travers, Tim

  Now the French faced the city of Cartagena itself. Thinking rationally, the Spanish governor thought that little would be gained by defending the city, so he accepted an offer from de Pointis for the citizens to march out of the city with their personal possessions and not be harmed. Likewise, the churches of Cartagena were to be spared. So on 6 May 1697, the Spanish garrison and citizens left Cartagena in solemn procession, but the agreement did not extend to the treasure of Cartagena. In this regard, de Pointis cleverly decreed that the Spanish owners could keep 1/10th of their treasure if openly declared, and could keep 1/10th of any other treasure they knew about. A very large sum was raised by this means, eight million livres said de Pointis, twenty million livres said du Casse. This was all stowed away on the French naval ships, and then de Pointis offered the buccaneers some 40,000 livres instead of the 1.6 million to four million livres they were expecting. Complacently, de Pointis called the buccaneers mere banditti, ‘the greatest part of them idle spectators of a great action.’ De Pointis then sailed away for Santo Domingo and France, leaving du Casse and the buccaneers extremely angry. Du Casse and some buccaneers resolved to appeal to Louis XIV, but others decided to return to Cartagena and extort what they could from the unfortunate citizens, which turned out to be another five million livres or so.43

  81 ‘An attack on a galleon.’ Pirates did sometimes attack in small boats, and often from the stern of their target. Surprise was also always a useful weapon.

  82 ‘Capture of the galleon.’ This scene represents the occasion when Pierre Le Grand and his crew captured a Spanish galleon in 1665, and surprised the Spanish officers playing cards below decks.

  83 ‘On the Tortugas.’ Henry Pitman, perhaps the model for Robinson Crusoe, was stranded on Salt Tortuga Island with others in 1687. Salt Tortuga lies off the coast of Venezuela.

  84 ‘Marooned.’ Many pirates and their victims were marooned, the most famous being Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on the Juan Fernandez Islands from 1704 to 1709.

  85 ‘Walking the plank.’ Very few pirates made their victims walk the plank. After all, wasn’t it simpler to just throw the victims overboard? Possibly this myth came from the practice of pirates in the Roman era, who invited their captives to walk home.

  86 ‘Buried treasure.’ William Kidd did have John Gardiner bury most of Kidd’s treasure on Gardiner’s Island, Long Island Sound, in 1699. The treasure was shortly afterwards dug up and sent to Lord Bellomont in Boston after Kidd was arrested.

  87 ‘Who shall be Captain?’ Pirate captains were almost always elected by popular vote of the pirate crew, and did not fight to become captain. But pirates did sometimes fight each other.

  88 ‘The bullets were humming and singing, clipping along the top of the water.’

  89 ‘The Buccaneer was a picturesque fellow.’ The Buccaneers of the seventeenth century were a very rough looking crew, unlike this individual. Buccaneers were usually based on Hispaniola and Tortuga, and lived by hunting wild cattle and hogs, before turning to piracy.

  90 ‘Then the real fight began.’ This picture depicts a mutiny, when some sailors decide to take over a ship. Usually there would be two or three ringleaders then others would be signed up, and a signal would be agreed to start the mutiny – normally a password, or a cannon ball rolled over the deck.

  91 ‘Captain Keitt.’ A romantic and unrealistic image of a pirate captain. Many pirate captains started off as a mate or another senior position on a merchant ship before becoming a pirate. Only a few pirate captains, such as Bart Roberts, lasted more than a year or two.

  92 Capt Edward England. A sketch of the pirate Edward England. He was reported to be kind hearted, and did not abuse his prisoners. He was removed as captain by his crew, and spent his final days in poverty and repentance at St Mary’s Island, Madagascar.

  93 Anne Bonny and Mary Read. These two women served as part of the crew on ‘Calico’ Jack Rackam’s ship. There were extremely few female pirates in the West, so they gained considerable fame. They were captured along with the rest of Rackam’s crew, and condemned to death. But both were pregnant, and so were spared the noose.

  94 Capt Bart Roberts. Roberts was one of the most successful pirate captains, taking around 400 ships. He also managed to remain as captain for some four years, before being killed in 1722 on the coast of West Africa. Roberts was unusual in maintaining discipline on his ships, and was reportedly a non drinker.

  95 Captain George Lowther. Lowther is shown watching as his ship is careened. This was a difficult task in which the ship was heeled over, and the barnacles and weed scraped and burnt off the hull. Unfortunately for Lowther, his ship was taken in 1723 as it was being careened. Lowther escaped into the jungle where he was found dead with a pistol by his side.

  96 Captain Edward Low. An appropriate image of Edward Low, his twisting body reflecting his twisted personality. Low was an unusually cruel pirate captain, often torturing and killing his captives. He seems to have been an unbalanced individual, but he was caught and hung by the French in 1726.

  97 ‘Henry Morgan recruiting for the attack.’

  98 ‘Morgan at Porto Bello.’

  99 ‘The sacking of Panama.’ A romantic vision of the ruthless sacking of Panama in 1671 by Henry Morgan and his buccaneers.

  100 ‘Blackbeard buries his treasure.’ Blackbeard was rumoured to have buried his treasure on or near Mulberry Island, Chesapeake Bay. If he did, it has not yet been found.

  101 Captain Teach. A portrait of Blackbeard. According to Captain Charles Johnson, Blackbeard did have a long, bushy beard, and he did set fire to lighted matches under his hat, and he did carry three brace of pistols in bandoliers.

  102 Captain Avery. A portrait of the pirate Henry Avery or Every. Avery was also called Long Ben, meaning that he was unusually tall. The picture relates to Avery’s greatest feat in taking two very valuable ships from India. One of these ships did belong to the Moghul emperor of India, Aurangzeb.

  103 ‘Kidd at Gardiner’s Island.’

  104 The Royal Ann. A typical Royal Navy first rate. Rates were measured by the number of guns they carried – a first rate carried from 80 to 110 guns. The large crew of 780 men was required mainly to work the guns. These ships were not useful for chasing pirates because they were slow sailors, and could not enter rivers or go close to land.

  105 The Captain’s bridge protected by a grill against Chinese pirates in the 1920s and 30s.

  106 Anti-pirate guard ready for action against Chinese pirates in the 1920s and 30s.

  107 Lai Choi San. A well known female Chinese pirate in the 1920s, who commanded a fleet of 11 junks. She was to be obeyed, and obeyed she was.

  108 Lai Choi San had singled out a large black junk with three yellow sails.

  109 Lai Choi San’s junk ready for action.

  110 Two men bound hand and foot on Lai Choi San’s junk after action.

  111 Some distance to starboard lay the sinking junk – a victim of Lai Choi San.

  112 Houses in the pirate lair of Bias Bay, near Hong Kong.

  113 The house of torture in Bias Bay, the pirate lair near Hong Kong.

  114 The powder magazine onboard Lai Choi San’s junk.

  115 A typical pirate onboard Lai Choi San’s junk.

  De Pointis’ ships and the treasure made it back to France through several inept English fleets, while du Casse in France managed to win a settlement of 1.4 million francs to be distributed among the buccaneers. Predictably, little of this settlement got through to the buccaneers, while on their way back from Cartagena, the buccaneers had run into a number of English ships which separated the buccaneers from most of their hard won treasure. Finally, in September 1697, Spain, England and Holland signed the Treaty of Ryswick, which among other things, allowed these countries to pursue and suppress the buccaneers of the Caribbean. Those buccaneers who survived were then glad enough to be employed in legal ways during the widespread war of the Spanish Succession (1701–1713), at least until the
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and the subsequent peace released yet another wave of pirates. But as far as the classic buccaneers were concerned, Cartagena was the last act of their unruly and adventurous careers.

  Now the pirate story passes to the Madagascar men and their pirate lair on the island of St Mary’s.

  6

  The Madagascar Men

  In the 1690s, a number of pirates sailed to Madagascar and the Red Sea, hoping to capture the rich Muslim ships carrying pilgrims to and from Mecca, and to fleece the wealthy trading ships sailing to and from India. The Red Sea was also attractive because it provided easier pickings than the Caribbean. In June 1692 a ship from New York, the Jacob, captured four Red Sea ships and a great deal of treasure. The crew returned to New York via Madagascar in 1693, and news of the riches to be gained in the Red Sea spread. Soon, the Governor and Deputy Governor of Rhode Island were issuing suspect commissions to privateers, who evidently aimed to cash in on this treasure trove. Thus William Mayes, Thomas Wake and Thomas Tew all sailed for the Red Sea from Rhode Island, although Thomas Tew did not have a commission. These three joined Henry Avery at the Red Sea in 1695, with Avery as admiral of the small fleet, and subsequently these ships made a huge haul of treasure in the Red Sea. However, it was Thomas Tew who was particularly successful in his earlier voyage, taking a Muslim ship, so that the crew returned from the Red Sea and Madagascar to Rhode Island in April 1694, with £100,000 in gold, silver and elephant’s teeth (ivory), which were sold to merchants in Boston.1 In fact, John Banks of Rhode Island, who had a commission to sail in the Black Barke in 1694, declared that the Red Sea via Madagascar was known as a place ‘where the money was as plenty as stones, and sand, saying the people there was Infidels, and it was no sin to kill them. Captain Thomas Tew about or near a year before coming hither with a mighty Mass of money…’2

  Many of these pirates did come back from the Red Sea as rich men, for example a group of fifteen pirates from the Avery fleet arrived back in the Americas in 1696, and were now worth ‘£1,000 a man.’3 Now it became apparent that Madagascar was an essential headquarters for those who raided in the Red Sea because it was a very convenient geographic location for them to refit and replenish with food and water, as well as enjoy rest and recreation. The main pirate stopping place was the island of St. Marie, off the north-east corner of Madagascar, known to the pirates as St Mary’s. It was known that two agents of the wealthy New York merchant, Frederick Phillips, were operating to supply the pirates who stopped there, although pretending to actually trade in slaves. (In fact, there was also a lively slave trade going on at St Mary’s.) The two agents were called Captain Adam Baldridge (he had previously killed a man in Jamaica, and then turned pirate around 1685, before landing up on Madagascar), and Lawrence Johnson. Baldridge and Johnson married local women on St Mary’s, and exercised considerable power over the locals, while guarding themselves by building a fort with twenty-two guns. Other reports suggested the fort had forty or fifty guns and 1,500 men, with seventeen ships in harbour. Nevertheless, the happy time at St Mary’s for the pirates nearly ended in the late 1690s when the local natives rebelled, destroyed the fort, and killed seven English men and four French men.4

  Despite the troubles at St. Mary’s, Madagascar continued to be a haunt of the pirates. A good example was the pirate Derick or Dirk Chivers, a Dutchman, who was elected captain of the ship Resolution. Chivers changed the name of his ship to Soldado (meaning ‘soldier’, perhaps a more militant name), and with his crew took four merchant ships in Calcutta harbour in 1696. Chivers demanded a ransom of £10,000 for their release, and when payment was not forthcoming, he hoisted ‘bloody colours’ and burnt two of the ships. Some of his pirates went ashore to expedite the ransom, and declared that they had no country – in fact had sold their country – and were sure to be hanged if taken. Thus they ‘would take no quarter, but do all the mischief possible they could.’ Chivers told the authorities in Calcutta that most of the pirates in the Red Sea area came from New York and had recently shared £700 each in New York after a recent voyage, and had sold their ship to the Governor of New York for £1,000. A short time later, some of the crew offered the Governor of New York £2,000 for the same ship, intending to go plundering again. As for Chivers’ ransom demand at Calcutta, this was still not paid due to a fleet of Indian ships coming into harbour, so Chivers retreated to St Mary’s in 1697 to refit the Soldado. The next year, Chivers and another pirate ship, the Mocha Frigate, under Robert Culliford, captured a huge prize, the Great Mohammed, worth at least £130,000. The plundering of the Great Mohammed, a pilgrim ship, was not pretty, with considerable torture and rape: the pirates ‘ravished sixty women in ye most beastly barbarous manner…’ according to one witness. Then both pirate ships returned to St Mary’s in 1699. Later, when the Royal Navy arrived at St Mary’s, the commander, Captain Littleton, offered Chivers, Culliford, and the other pirates a royal pardon, which they mostly accepted. Culliford was nevertheless tried in London, since his pardon was declared not valid, but he turned state’s witness, and was happy to disappear into the back streets of London. Chivers himself died in a Bombay prison on his way to London.5

  The Madagascar system was explained by an informant writing from Dublin in 1696. He reported that the pirate Thomas Tew pretended to load slaves at Madagascar, but his real intent was to go to the Red Sea to catch prizes. Tew and others would stop at Madagascar for victuals and water, and then it was on to Bab el Mandeb in the mouth of the Red Sea to wait for the traders who sailed from Surat and Madras in India at certain times because of the trade winds. Then they would take their ill gotten gains back to St Mary’s, and on to New England ‘where they have all been kindly received’. This last referred to New England governors and deputy governors who could be bribed, such as Walter Clarke, John Cranston and John Green of Rhode Island, Benjamin Fletcher of New York, and Cadwallader Jones and Nicholas Trott of the Bahamas.6

  Bring the Pirates of Madagascar Home!

  The reputation of St Mary’s gained almost mythical status, suggesting the pirates and traders on the island had accumulated huge riches. Hence, an advice from the East India Company, dated November 1697, contained more information about St Mary’s, exaggerating the number of pirates on the island and their wealth, but closed with the proposal that the pirates of Madagascar would accept a pardon if offered one. If the pardon was granted, ‘they would leave that Villainous way of living, and return to their habitations.’7 Some pirates did genuinely accept pardons, but this sense of large numbers of pirates on St Mary’s, possessing very great wealth, stimulated very considerable interest in England in the early 1700s. Indeed, a popular ballad of the time went as follows:

  Where is the trader of London town?

  His gold’s on the capstan

  His blood’s on his gown

  And it’s up and away for St. Mary’s Bay

  Where the liquor is good and the lasses are gay.

  Not surprisingly, therefore, petitions and proposals concerning St Mary’s flooded in to Parliament and the Crown. These all pretended to be concerned with the threat posed by the Madagascar pirates, but the proposals were even more focused on the riches and treasure supposedly possessed by the pirates. In 1708, the Earl of Morton and the Honorable Charles Egerton, and others, petitioned the Queen for a chance to bring the pirates of Madagascar home, bringing their riches with them. Most of these riches would be paid to the Queen, but some treasure was preserved for the pirates themselves, and of course Morton and Egerton were to be trustees of this transaction. Then, in 1708, in conjunction with the Morton and Egerton petition, came a strange but compelling appeal from the wives and female relations of the wealthy pirates of Madagascar. These ladies wanted the Queen to allow the pirates to come home, and to permit the pirates to keep their wealth, but to share the wealth with the undersigned women. The petition was signed by some forty-five women and one or two men. (It is curious that the first name on the women’s petition was that of Mary Read
. She was illiterate and therefore signed her name with a mark. It is just possible that this was the same Mary Read who eventually sailed with ‘Calico’ Jack Rackam.) It seems that these women were signed up for this project by the supporters of one John Breholt, who in turn was supported by the previously mentioned Egerton and Morton. Breholt hoped to sign up the wives and relations of the chief pirates of Madagascar, and especially the wife of Captain Avery, whom Breholt thought ‘might be very useful to them…’ The incentive for these women was that they would be offered a share in the proceeds of the undertaking. However, a deposition by one of these women, Penelope Aubin, stated that she had serious doubts about the undertaking, and advised Egerton to quit the affair. She therefore did not sign the petition. But certain other women who did sign the petition (Elizabeth Woodford, Barbara Ramsey and Ann Rupert) declared that Breholt offered them shares in the undertaking. All these women had taken part in a large meeting at the King’s Head Inn in the Strand, London, which Morton, Egerton and other gentlemen attended. Breholt claimed to have ships ready for the expedition, and a pardon for the pirates of Madagascar, which would be produced by Morton. One of the women who signed the petition, Elizabeth Woodford, claimed in her deposition that her son-in-law was indeed one of the pirates on Madagascar.8