Under the Black Flag
Page 31
HCA High Court of Admiralty records
CSPC Calendar of State Papers: Colonial, America and West Indies
NMM National Maritime Museum
PRO Public Record Office
Introduction
1. John Turner, Sufferings of John Turner, Chief Mate of the Ship Tay Bound for China and Their Seizure and Captivity Among the Ladrones (London, 1809).
2. Lucretia Parker, Piratical Barbarity or the Female Captive (New York, 1826), p. 15.
3. John Robert Moore was Professor of English at Indiana University. He announced his discovery that Captain Charles Johnson was really Daniel Defoe at a meeting of the Modern Language Association in 1932. His two key books on Defoe and Johnson were Defoe in the Pillory and Other Studies (1939) and Daniel Defoe, Citizen of the Modern World (Chicago, 1958).
4. Letter of February 3, 1814, from John Murray to Byron, quoted in Rutherford, p. 69.
Chapter 1
1. This account of Stevenson is drawn from: Colvin (1911 edition); Bell; McLynn; and the introduction and notes in the Oxford University Press World Classics edition of Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (Oxford, 1990).
2. Quoted in Emma Letley’s Introduction to Treasure Island (op. cit.), p. vii.
3. Robert Louis Stevenson, My First Book (first published in The Idler, August 1894), reprinted in Treasure Island (op. cit.), p. 197.
4. Quoted in Emma Letley’s Introduction to Treasure Island (op. cit.).
5. McLynn, p. 266.
6. Bell, p. 281.
7. Johnson, p. 121.
8. Bell, p. 103.
9. Letter to W. E. Henley, May 1883, in Colvin, p. 116.
10. CO.1/57, f 381, PRO.
11. Captain Chaloner Ogle’s letter to the Admiralty. ADM.1/2242, PRO.
12. Johnson, p. 344.
13. Ned Ward, The Wooden World Dissected (London, 1707), p. 82.
14. The Post-Man, issues of 21 to 24 September (London, 1717).
15. PRO, HCA 1/42/26v, and PRO, HCA 1/41/189v. For further details see correspondence from Cheryl Fury and J. D. Alsop in The Mariners Mirror, volume 80 (London, 1994), pp. 341-42.
16. Dampier, volume II, p. 223.
17. Senior, p. 15.
18. Rediker (Cambridge, 1989; paperback edition), p. 258.
19. Quoted in Harland, p. 177. Harland’s book is a detailed survey of ship handling and the language used by seamen throughout the Western world when working their ships.
20. For further details of seamen’s clothes see: Rodger (op. cit.), pp. 64–65; Rediker, p. 11; Ritchie, p. 114; Dudley Jarrett, British Naval Dress (London, 1960); Commander W. E. May, The Dress of Naval Officers (London, 1966).
21. Senior, p. 37.
22. Johnson, p. 243.
23. CO.323/3, f 56(ii), PRO.
24. Ordinary of Newgate, His Account of the Behaviour, Confession, and Last Speech of Capt. Alexander Dolzell, 1715 (London, 1715). A copy is in the Caird Library, NMM.
25. Johnson, pp. 84–85.
26. CO.152/12, no. 67(iii), PRO.
27. Lee, p. 233.
28. Johnson, p. 243.
29. Drury, Madagascar (London, 1897).
30. Rediker, pp. 12, 260; and Rodger, p. 114.
31. Earle, pp. 65–66.
32. These figures are based on lists of men on trial for piracy which are given in trial documents, Colonial Office Documents, Johnson’s General History of the Pirates, and in contemporary newspapers.
33. CO.152/13, f 282, PRO.
34. CSPC, volume 1720–21, no. 758.
35. CO.23/1, part 3, f 49 (ii), PRO.
36. CO.1/57, f 381, PRO.
37. Dampier, volume I, p. 33.
38. Exquemelin, part IV, p. 366.
39. CO.38/24, no. 145, PRO.
40. G. E. Manwaring and W. C. Perrin, The Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring, 2 volumes (Navy Records Society, London, 1920–21).
41. William Lithgow, Rare Adventures and Painfull Peregrinations (London, 1632).
42. Johnson, p. 111.
43. This account of J. M. Barrie and Peter Pan is taken from: Green; Haill; Birkin; and the Oxford University Press World Classics edition of J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy (Oxford, 1991).
44. Haill, p. 14.
45. The details of Avery’s life are taken from: Hill, pp. 99–105; Daniel Defoe, The King of the Pirates, Being on Account of Famous Enterprises of Captain Avery, with the Lives of Other Pirates and Robbers (London, 1724); Johnson; and an excellent summary in Ritchie, pp. 85–89.
46. Hill, p. 102.
47. Johnson, p. 57.
48. There is a useful entry on Charles Johnson in the Dictionary of National Biography.
49. Before The Pirates of Penzance had its premiere in London, a performance was given at the Royal Bijou Theatre at Paignton in Devon on December 30, 1879, to establish the British copyright, and a few hours later a performance was given at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York in order to establish the American copyright.
Chapter 2
1. A graphic description of Nombre de Dios in 1570 by Juan López de Velasco is quoted by Andrews, p. 19.
2. The details of Drake’s raids are taken from: Kenneth Andrews, Drake’s Voyages (London, 1967); Wilson; Williams, The Sea Dogs; and Neville Williams, Francis Drake (London, 1973).
3. Williams, The Sea Dogs, p. 90.
4. The experienced Portuguese pilot Nuno da Silva spent fifteen months on board and gave a detailed description of her sailing qualities. Wilson, p. 45.
5. Williams, The Sea Dogs, p. 130.
6. Ibid. p. 130.
7. The brief account of Cortés and Pizarro is taken from J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance (London, 1963), and The Times Atlas of Exploration, edited by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (London, 1991).
8. Figures compiled by Earl J. Hamilton in American Treasure and the Price of Revolution in Spain are quoted in The New Cambridge Modern History (Cambridge, 1957), p. 452.
9. The standard work on historical coins is the handsome book produced by the British Museum and Spinks: J. Cribb, B. Cook, and I. Carradice, The Coin Atlas: The World of Coinage from Its Origins to the Present Day (London, 1990).
10. Peter Wood, The Spanish Main (Amsterdam, 1979), p. 18.
11. For useful introductions to Hawkins see Williams, The Sea Dogs; and Andrews.
12. Peter Wood, The Spanish Main, p. 56.
13. Ibid., p 64.
14. For a balanced assessment of Exquemelin, see Earle, The Sack of Panama, pp. 265–66.
15. “An advertisement to the reader concerning this second edition” (1684) quoted in Exquemelin, p. 1.
16. Exquemelin, p. 103.
Chapter 3
1. Pope, p. 347.
2. The account of Henry Morgan in this chapter is based on: Pope; Earle, The Sack of Panama; Exquemelin; and Pawson and Buisseret.
3. Pope, p. 343
4. Ibid., p. 261.
5. Ibid., p. 342.
6. Ibid., p. 343.
7. On November 21, 1671, Morgan signed a deposition giving his age as thirty-six, which would make his year of birth 1635. He was born either in the village of Penkarn, Monmouthshire, or Llanrhymny in Glamorganshire. His favorite estate in Jamaica was called Llanrhymny after the Welsh village near Tredegar (called Rhymney today). His father was probably Robert Morgan.
8. Pope, p. 65.
9. Ibid., p. 148.
10. Ibid.
11. There is a brilliant description of the Portobello raid, based on a study of the relevant Spanish documents, in Earle, The Sack of Panama, pp. 54–90.
12. Ibid., p. 74
13. Ibid., p. 83.
14. Ibid.
15. Sir Thomas Modyford, Governor of Jamaica, noted that the shares of each privateer were half that of the Portobello expedition (ibid., p. 129).
16. Pope, p. 198.
17. Earle, The Sack of Panama, p. 237.
18. Taken from the printed apology in later editions published by William Croo
ke, and quoted in Pope, p. 334.
19. Ibid., p. 246.
20. Ibid., p. 250.
21. Ibid., p. 258.
22. Letter from Lord Vaughan to Sir Joseph Williamson. The letter continues: “Sir Henry has made himself and his authority so cheap at the Port, drinking and gaming at the taverns, that I intend to remove there speedily myself for the reputation of the island.…” Quoted by Pope, p. 277.
23. For Hans Sloane’s treatment of Morgan see his account in A Voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers, and Jamaica, 2 volumes (London, 1717–25).
Chapter 4
1. These details are taken from the proclamation issued by Governor Woodes Rogers on September 5, 1720, and published in The Boston Gazette, October 10 to 17, 1720.
2. Johnson provides the details of Rackam’s story, but see also Black. Black was Archivist of Jamaica for many years and provides some additional information. Johnson’s facts are confirmed by the printed transcript of the Trial of Rackam, CO.137/14, PRO.
3. Black, p. 110.
4. Johnson, p. 156.
5. Woodes Rogers’ proclamation, The Boston Gazette, October 10 to 17, 1720.
6. See news item from New Providence in The Boston Gazette, October 10 to 17, 1720.
7. Captain Jonathan Barnet had been issued with a commission to attack pirates by the Governor of Jamaica in 1715. See CO. 137/12, no. 78 (i-v), ff 231–235, PRO.
8. In the printed transcript of Rackam’s trial, there is a description of the fight in the evidence given by James Spatchears, a mariner of Port Royal (CO.137/14, PRO).
9. Ibid.
10. Johnson, p. 153.
11. The transcript of the trial was printed in Jamaica by Robert Baldwin in 1721. It is entitled The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and Other Pirates. There are two copies bound into the Colonial Office documents relating to Jamaica in the Public Record Office, Kew (CO.137/14, PRO).
12. These details and the quotations which follow are all taken from the transcript of the trial, CO.137/14, PRO.
13. CO.137/14, PRO.
14. Black, p. 117.
15. Details are taken from Edgar J. March, Sailing Drifters: the Story of the Herring Luggers of England, Scotland and the Isle of Man (Newton Abbot, 1969), pp. 227–29.
16. Barlow.
17. For a discussion of the role of wives, sweethearts, and prostitutes in the Georgian navy see Rodger (1990 paperback edition), pp. 75–80.
18. See Wheelwright, Amazons and Military Maids, a scholarly survey of women who joined the navy and the army dressed as men, which has a comprehensive bibliography.
19. “The Intrepid Female or Surprising Life and Adventures of Mary Anne Talbot, Otherwise John Taylor” in volume II of Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum (London, 1804).
20. Quoted by Wheelwright, p. 84.
21. Ibid, p. 141.
22. For a vivid picture of life on board ship in the eighteenth century see Rodger, pp. 60–71; also Barlow, Dampier, and other journals and memoirs of former seamen.
23. Lavery, pp. 200–203.
24. Johnson, p. 212.
25. Rediker (1989 paperback edition), p. 261, note 16.
26. These quotations are taken from the printed transcript of the trial of Bellamy’s crew (CO.5/867, part I, PRO).
27. Dow and Edmonds, p. 226.
28. Ibid., p. 227.
29. Johnson, p. 170.
30. CO.323/6, no. 81, PRO. It is interesting to note that at the top of the list of women who signed the petition is the name of Mary Read. Could this be the companion of Anne Bonny? If we suppose that Mary Read was aged twenty-five in 1709 when she signed the petition, she would have been thirty-six at the time of her trial in 1720, which would fit in with her story.
31. Johnson, p. 76.
32. CSPC, volume 1717–18, no. 298, p. 149.
33. There is a brief account in Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book, Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers (originally published 1837, cited 1993 paperback edition), p. 2.
34. From a dispatch written by Lord Justice Drury, President of Munster, to the Privy Council in London, November 7, 1578. This quotation and most of the details of Grace O’Malley’s life are taken from Chambers. This is a fascinating and carefully documented study of the Irish patriot.
35. Anne Chambers thinks it more likely that her nickname was a corruption of the Gaelic “Grainne Ui (Ni) Mhaille” or Grace of the Umhalls: Chambers, p. 55.
36. Ibid., p. 25.
37. Ibid., p. 85.
38. Ibid., p. 93.
39. Ibid., p. 129.
40. Ibid., p. 145.
41. Ibid., p. 150.
42. Two of the most vivid descriptions of life among the Chinese pirates are the journals of two seamen: John Turner, Sufferings of John Turner, Chief Mate of the Ship Tay Bound for China and their Seizure and Captivity Among the Ladrones (London, 1809); and Richard Glasspoole, A Brief Narrative of My Captivity and Treatment Amongst the Ladrones (London, 1935). Glasspoole was an officer in the East India Company’s ship Marquis of Ely and was captured off Macau in 1809. The most authoritative account of the activities of Mrs. Cheng and the Chinese pirates of the early nineteenth century is Murray. Professor Murray carried out extensive research on the Chinese documents in the archives at Taiwan and Beijing.
43. Classpoole, p. 127.
44. Karl F. Neumann, History of the Pirates who Infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810 (London, 1831), p. 24. This is a translation of Yuan Yung-lun.
45. For a detailed description of the Chinese pirate vessels see Murray, pp. 91–98.
46. Ibid., pp. 143–44.
47. Professor Linda Grant de Pau makes this claim in her book Sea Faring Women (Boston, 1982).
Chapter 5
1. For details of the shipwreck of the Whydah and the subsequent trial see The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy, etc., CO.5/867, part I, f 10, PRO; Johnson; and much useful material in Vanderbilt.
2. ADM.1/2242, PRO.
3. Johnson, p. 322.
4. CO.1/57, f 381, PRO.
5. Dampier, volume I, p. 301.
6. Quoted in John Masefield’s Introduction to Dampier, volume I, p. 13.
7. Ibid., volume I, p. 126.
8. Rogers, p. 3.
9. Dampier, volume I, p. 184.
10. Exquemelin, p. 278. For full details of the capture of the charts and an assessment of their importance see A Buccaneer’s Atlas, edited by D. Howse and N. Thrower (Los Angeles and Oxford, 1992), pp. 22, 27.
11. CO.152/12, no. 67 (iii), PRO.
12. Johnson, p. 208.
13. Ibid., p. 209.
14. The Boston News Letter, January 14 to 21, 1712.
15. Ibid., January 4 to 11, 1720.
16. Johnson, p. 315.
17. Rediker, Davis, and Middleton.
18. The Four Voyages of Capt. George Roberts.… Written by Himself (London, 1726). The relevant section describing the encounter with Low is reproduced in Dow and Edmonds.
19. Dow and Edmonds, p. 161.
20. Ibid., p. 168.
21. Ibid., p. 231.
22. Proceedings of the Court Held on the Coast of Africa, HCA.1/99.3, PRO.
23. Dow and Edmonds, p. 325.
24. Rediker, pp. 191–93.
25. CO.37/10, no. 10 (ii), PRO.
26. Rogers, p. 207.
27. Exquemelin, p. 100.
28. Ibid., p. 475.
29. Proceedings of the Court Held on the Coast of Africa, HCA.1/99.3, PRO.
30. Bruce Ingram (ed.), Three Sea Journals of Stuart Times (London, 1936), p. 230.
31. Exquemelin, p. 343.
32. Johnson, p. 168.
33. Exquemelin, pp. 430–31.
34. Johnson, p. 213.
35. Ibid., p. 213.
36. Ibid., p. 211.
37. Burg, p. 110.
38. HCA.1/55, PRO.
39. Murray, pp. 25, 50 and Note 67, p. 191.
40. Rodger, p. 81.
Chapter 6
1. The details of the attack on the Princes Galley are taken from: The Deposition of John Wickstead. CO.28/18, f 23, PRO; The Trial of Robert Corp and Henry Wynn, CO.152/14, f 292, PRO; Johnson, p. 315.
2. CO.152/14, f 292, PRO.
3. Joseph Hiller, the Public Notary at Boston, had a full account of the attack printed in The Boston Gazette of August 15 to 22, 1720. See also Johnson, p. 217.
4. Johnson, p. 217.
5. There was a fifth-rate ship and two sloops stationed at Jamaica, two fifth-rate ships stationed at Barbados, and a sixth-rate ship at the Leeward Islands. See The Present Disposal of All His Majesties Ships & Vessels in Sea Pay, ADM.8/14, PRO.
6. CSPC, volume 1717–18, June 21, 1718.
7. CSPC, volume 1717–18, no. 787.
8. The Boston News Letter, August 12 to 19, 1717.
9. The Deposition of George Barrow, Master of the Sloop Content, CO.28/18, f 22, PRO.
10. These figures are compiled from details of pirate attacks in: Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies; Johnson; reports in The Boston Gazette, The Boston News Letter, The Maryland Gazette, The New York Gazette; and depositions and other documents in the Public Record Office.
11. See The Boston Gazette, October 10 to 17, 1720; and CO. 137/14, PRO.
12. For details of this attack see The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy … on the 18th October 1717 (the trial of the survivors of Bellamy’s crew), CO.5/867, part I, f 10, PRO.
13. Although there are numerous references to Roberts’ attacks in Colonial Office documents, the only description of his physical appearance is in Johnson, pp. 243–44.
14. See captain’s log of HMS Swallow, ADM.51/954; Captain Ogle’s letter of April 5, 1722, to the Admiralty, ADM.1/2242; and Proceedings of the Court Held on the Coast of Africa … (trial of Roberts’ crew at Cape Coast Castle), HCA.1/99.3, PRO.
15. CSPC, volume 1717–18, no. 551.
16. CSPC, volume 1717–18, no. 797.
17. Rediker, pp. 267–68.
18. Quoted from Part IV of Exquemelin (op. cit.), p. 311, and see also p. 309, note 1; and Dampier, volume I, pp. 30, 35.
19. For details see Earle, The Sack of Panama, p. 64.
20. Exquemelin, part IV, p. 324.