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Hell on high water: the rise and fall of the golden age of piracy
The golden age of piracy saw waves of rogue sailors terrorising the Atlantic world from 1670 to 1730. But what, asks Rebecca Simon, drove this period of maritime pillage and plunder?
Listen to a version of this article: In August of 1720, a pirate named Captain Bartholomew Roberts led an attack on a British merchant ship out of Boston. According to the Boston News-Letter, the pirates stripped the sailors of their money and effects (weapons, tools and jewellery) and stole the ship’s artillery and gunpowder. Survivors claimed that the pirates were “cursing, swearing, damning and blaspheming to the greatest degree imaginable”. The pirates knew that if they were captured, they would publicly hang, but they paid no heed to these consequences. They claimed that “if it should chance that they should be attacked by any superior power or force which they could not master, they would immediately put fire with one of their pistols to their powder and all go merrily to hell together”. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of incidents like this during the golden age of piracy – a 60-year period when organised piracy flourished in the Caribbean, East Indies and along the North American seaboard. Pirates have plied their trade throughout history, but most of them were so-called privateers, working for kingdoms and governments to attack enemies and bring wealth back home. The 17th century saw a new breed of pirate emerge: men (and sometimes women) who plundered ships entirely for their own gain. On the podcast | Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy What were the pros of piracy in the 17th century? While piracy was a dangerous world, where anyone caught was almost guaranteed to hang, but the life appealed to many people. Pirate ships were extremely diverse. Crews were made up of men and women from Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, North America, India and China. Christians, Jews and Muslims sailed together – sometimes alongside freed or escaped enslaved people from Africa. Pirate ships were places where people could escape social persecution, and their crews had often chosen piracy over careers in the Royal Navy or on merchant ships, where conditions were notoriously poor. Naval and merchant ships offered the prospect of harsh punishments, meagre rations and a lack of sanitation. Pirate ships were often more egalitarian places where sailors could vote captains in and out based on their abilities. They also promised better and more abundant food – courtesy of looting – and every pirate was guaranteed their equal share. Yet egalitarianism and the prospect of a good hearty meal weren’t the only factors driving the surge of piracy in the 17th century. Geopolitics played a critical role. Intense competition between Europe’s colonial superpowers along the Americas’ eastern seaboard left the waters unsupervised and chaotic. This was the perfect environment for pirates to turn the seas into their own private playground, raiding, plundering and killing with seeming impunity. And at the vanguard of this maritime crimewave were the English. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/02/MMNK1F-079bcef.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="An early 18th‑century map of the central Americas. During the golden age of piracy, this region offered extremely rich pickings (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)" title="An early 18th‑century map of the central Americas. During the golden age of piracy, this region offered extremely rich pickings (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)" /> How did the English change the pirate world? Until the 16th century, England’s European rivals, particularly the Spanish, had led the charge to colonise the New World, and made themselves fantastically wealthy in the process. All that changed in the 1600s when – having already established colonies at Virginia and across New England – the English made a move south to the bustling trading centre of the Americas: the Caribbean. They arrived in a region already swarming with Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch vessels, which gave English pirates ample opportunity for raiding. Then, at the midpoint of the 17th century, the authorities in London passed a series of laws that made the plunder of merchant ships irresistible not only to English pirates, but colonists too. The 1651 Navigation Act stated that colonial goods could come in only on English vessels. The aim of the legislation was simple: to cripple the economies of England’s European competitors. Not only foreign merchants suffered since cutting off a diverse range of desirable goods in an instant meant the act denied English colonists a valuable income stream. Read more | Privateers, buccaneers and corsairs: why not all pirates were created equal And so these colonists now began to turn to pirates. Plantation island governors and those in the southern North American colonies either turned a blind eye to pirates, who could spirit in goods such as wine, silks from Asia, spices, cash and sometimes jewels – or they financed piracy outright, aiding and abetting the raids whenever necessary. One such raid took place in 1695 when a group of pirates led by Henry Avery captured the Indian ship Ganj-i-Sawai, slaughtered many of the men and women on board and made off with everything. Avery mysteriously disappeared after the raid, but many of his men sought refuge in North America – and they found it, mostly in Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island. On the podcast | Henry Avery: the legendary 17th-century pirate Avery’s raid on the Ganj-i-Sawai was utterly ruthless but it was far from unusual. Soon, piracy was so rampant across the Caribbean that it had become impossible to keep the shipping lanes under control. Too many governors and colonists entertained pirates, which only encouraged illegal maritime activities. Pirates were also starting to go after Spanish ships, which threatened the precarious peace between the two nations. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/02/GettyImages-520719011-41a0f6c.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="A 19th-century painting shows pirates storming a Spanish galleon in the mid-17th century (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" title="A 19th-century painting shows pirates storming a Spanish galleon in the mid-17th century (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" /> The golden age of piracy was very much fuelled by the turbulent relationship between Spain and England. Nowhere was this more evident than in the waters around the island of Jamaica. By the 1650s, this hotbed of English piracy found itself at the centre of escalating tensions between the two nations. War broke out in 1654, and when the conflict ended in 1670 with the Treaty of Madrid, Spain acknowledged English ownership of Jamaica. That may have been good news for the English state, but it didn’t look that way for pirates. One of the stipulations of the treaty was the promise to protect Spanish ships from their raids. It was in London’s interests to end the pirates’ reign of terror across the Caribbean. The English developed a two-pronged approach to eradicating piracy. First, they passed the Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy in 1700, which promised a pardon to all men who turned themselves in and named their accomplices. This was not as successful as the authorities hoped, since pirates did not trust that the conditions of the pardon would be upheld – and, sure enough, sometimes they found themselves pressed into the Royal Navy. London’s second tactic was much more aggressive. That was to establish Admiralty courts in the Caribbean and North American colonies with the express aim of trying and executing pirates using the same, harsher penalties imposed in English courts. Until then, colonial courts had been able to operate more or less autonomously, punishing convicted pirates as they saw fit. And, as the colonies were frequently reliant on piracy to fill their coffers and bring in desirable goods, those punishments were often light to non-existent. Such laxness, London decreed, had to be stopped. Yet no sooner had this new era of zero tolerance come into effect than a sharp deterioration in Anglo-Spanish relations reset the relationship between the English authorities and pirates once again. In 1701, the War of Spanish Succession broke out, embroiling most of Europe in a conflict over who would control the Spanish throne. Much of the war was fought at sea and England found itself in need of skilled seamen and fighters. Suddenly pirates had the upper hand. The English authorities issued a proclamation promising all pirates a pardon if they agreed to fight as privateers for the government against the Spanish and its allies. Under their contract, known as a letter of marque, the privateers would be allowed to keep much of the loot they stole from enemy ships. Most pirates took advantage of this proclamation because they were able to continue their operations without fear from persecution. It was a win-win situation for everyone involved. Scourges of the sea: the Atlantic world’s most notorious pirates Henry Avery Avery worked on a merchant ship and led a successful mutiny against his captain, before sailing for the East Indies where he antagonised Indian Mughal ships. In 1695, Avery attacked the Ganj-i-Sawai, brutalising its crew and the women on board and plundering it dry. In order to avoid all-out war with India, Britain organised a manhunt: some of Avery’s crew made it to the American colonies, but the man himself was never found. His fate remains a mystery. William Kidd The privateer turned to piracy in 1698 when he robbed a ship called the Quedagh Merchant off the coast of India and sailed for Madagascar. On learning he was wanted for piracy, Kidd headed to Boston for refuge, but was arrested and imprisoned before being shipped back to England. He was hanged at Execution Dock on the shoreline of the Thames on 23 May 1701. Kidd is best known for claiming to have buried his loot, which sparked a long-running fascination with pirates’ buried treasure. Blackbeard Edward Teach fought as a privateer in the War of Spanish Succession (1701–14). He turned to piracy and captured the French slave ship La Concorde, renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge. Teach was dubbed Blackbeard because of his black hair and hirsute appearance, which he used to intimidate his victims. Lighted candles were woven in his hair during battle to give the impression that he was sailing out of hell itself. Teach was infamous for blockading Charleston, South Carolina for more than a week. He was beheaded in battle on 22 November 1718. Samuel Bellamy Bellamy was best known for ordering his men to charge naked on to ships to scare his victims into a rapid surrender. In 1717, he captured the British slave ship the Whydah Gally, which was worth tens of millions of dollars, making it the wealthiest ship in the Atlantic world and Bellamy the richest pirate. Yet his great wealth was short-lived: on 26 April 1717, his boat was caught in a storm off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and crashed into rocks, killing almost everyone on board, including Bellamy. Treasure from the Whydah Gally is still being excavated to this day. Mary Read and Anne Bonny The only known female pirates during the golden age of piracy, Mary Read and Anne Bonny sailed with Captain Jack Rackham between August and October 1720, and were known to fight with their shirts open to intimidate their victims into surrendering. Survivors later claimed that the women fought and swore more than any of the men. They were captured in late October 1720 and found guilty of piracy in November of that year, but received stays of execution as both were pregnant. Read died in prison in April 1721 while Bonny’s fate remains unknown. Read more | The most famous and despicable pirates from history What was the Nassau pirate republic? If the period from the 1670s to the 1730s is widely remembered as a golden age of piracy, then the years during and immediately after the War of Spanish Succession surely marked its zenith. During the conflict many pirates began gravitating toward the island of Providence in the Bahamas to settle in the city of Nassau. Thanks to its proximity to Florida, the Bahamas was the gateway to the Caribbean and North America. The Spanish and British often fought over them: the former seeking to use the islands as a springboard from which to attack British ships; the latter wanting to employ them as a defensive base for North America. Yet during the chaos of the War of Spanish Succession, pirates were able to claim the islands for themselves. By the time the war ended in 1714, Nassau had gained a reputation for violence, disease and malcontents. This all changed when a man named Captain Benjamin Hornigold spotted an opportunity to create an official community where pirates could congregate safely. Hornigold was formerly a leading privateer in the war and mentor to many future infamous pirates, such as Edward Teach (better known as Blackbeard) and . He knew that, with the conflict ended, many privateers would suddenly find themselves unemployed. He also knew that many of these men would turn pirate and needed a safe harbour from which to launch their raids. He therefore stepped in and created law and order. Read more | The real pirates of the Caribbean: your guide to Nassau's pirate republic The pirates dubbed him “the pirate king of the pirate kingdom”. Nassau was now the pirate capital of the Atlantic world. Yet soon that capital would come under attack. In 1718 a former privateer called Woodes Rogers became the first royal governor of the Bahamas. He had a mission to eradicate piracy, and a burning desire to wipe the pirate kingdom off the face of the Earth. No sooner had he taken up his new post than Rogers had issued a proclamation that offered all pirates a pardon if they confessed their crimes before September of that year. More than 200 pirates took up the offer, reasoning that the risks of piracy now outweighed its rewards. Rogers couldn’t rely upon the support of the Royal Navy, for whom piracy was now simply not a priority. But he could call upon the assistance of Hornigold. In a remarkable turn of events, he rounded on his former brethren and became Rogers’ chief pirate-hunter (quite possibly because he viewed being in Rogers’ good books as a smart career move). Hornigold died in a wreckage somewhere along North America’s eastern seaboard in 1719, but that didn’t stop Rogers having almost 100 people publicly executed during his war on piracy. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/02/MMNJR6-af16bb5.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Woodes Rogers, seated in a 1729 painting, who as governor of the Bahamas waged all-out war on the Caribbean’s pirates (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)" title="Woodes Rogers, seated in a 1729 painting, who as governor of the Bahamas waged all-out war on the Caribbean’s pirates (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)" /> Read more | Did pirates really live on the island of Tortuga? Soon, other powerful figures were seeking to destroy pirate captains. Among them was Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant governor of Virginia, who ordered the coastguard, headed by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, to hunt down Blackbeard. Maynard caught up with his quarry on 22 November 1718 and instantly engaged him in battle. During the fight, one of Maynard’s men stabbed Blackbeard. “Well done, lad!” the cornered pirate shouted. With Blackbeard distracted and injured, one of his assailants beheaded him. The head was mounted on a ship’s mast and paraded up and down the east coast, signifying the power of those working to bring pirates to heel. Blackbeard may have been the most famous of all the pirates, but the wealthiest (at least, in the early 1720s) was Bartholomew Roberts, who commanded the world’s largest pirate fleet. His death in February 1722, after being struck by a stray bullet in a battle off the coast of west Africa, was somehow symbolic of the enormous squeeze that was being exerted on pirates across the Atlantic. Read more | Hunting pirates: how piracy's golden age came to an end With relative peace and stability replacing war and chaos along North America’s eastern seaboard, the pirates’ traditional hunting grounds were providing increasingly meagre pickings. It has been estimated that nearly 4,000 pirates were arrested between 1700 and 1726, many of whom were put to death. One of those to die was a man named William Fly who, in July 1726, was led to a scaffold in Boston. Overseeing the execution was a preacher, Cotton Mather, who spoke to a rapt audience about the evil of piracy. Fly had nothing to say and stood defiantly, refusing to atone for his actions before meeting his fate with the noose. Fly’s was the last major execution (one performed in front of a large crowd at which he was expected to utter his dying words) of a pirate in the Atlantic world. As such, it heralded the end of the golden age of piracy. Within a few years, the Atlantic world would be rocked by conflict again, in the shape of the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–48) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48). Yet instead of triggering a resurgence of piracy, these conflicts saw the few remaining pirates trading in their black flags for the letters of marque borne by state-sponsored privateers. For around 60 years, pirates had made the waters of the Caribbean and beyond very perilous places to sail. Their reign of terror may have been brought to a violent end, but they sailed into history. There, they’ve haunted the popular imagination – almost as successfully as they haunted sailors in the 17th and 18th century – for almost 300 years. This article was first published in the January 2023 issue of BBC History Magazine Check out our series on pirate myths: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?
Anne Bonny and Mary Read: the deadly female pirate duo
Dr Rebecca Simon explores the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read – the deadly female pirate duo who plundered their way to infamy
In November 1720, a pair of women named Anne Bonny and Mary Read took the stand in Spanish Town, Jamaica, accused of piracy in the Caribbean. Their surviving victims, Dorothy Thomas and Thomas Spenlow, recounted harrowing attacks in which the women fired their pistols at will, struck people with their cutlasses, swore, cursed, and even fought with their shirts open, revealing their bare breasts. The fact that the two women were said to fight harder and deadlier than their male pirate crewmates was shocking enough for the jury to convict them almost immediately. But who exactly were these women, and how did they end up being two of the most notorious pirates of the 18th century? Unfortunately, much of their early existence is a mystery, with virtually no information about their lives before they entered piracy in August 1720. The only account comes from Captain Charles Johnson’s book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates –a collection of pirate biographies published in 1724. However, the book is largely fiction, with very little fact. Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s biographies are no different, and may be the most fictitious of them all. Read more | The golden age of piracy: when pirates ruled the waves? Johnson gives their early lives parallel origin stories: they were both illegitimate children raised as boys to avoid social scandal as bastard daughters. Anne then eschewed 18th-century female societal roles by running away with a sailor, James Bonny, to become a pirate. After several years at sea, they landed at Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, and separated. Anne subsequently spent much of her time in taverns wooing sailors and pirates until she met Captain John (Jack) Rackham. Read more | Blackbeard: the life, death and 'burning beard' of Edward Teach Mary apparently had a similar story in that she joined the British Army in Flanders disguised as a young man. She then seduced and married a fellow soldier, but he died soon after, so she resumed her male identity and re-joined the army in a different regiment. Grief, however, dulled her skills, so she was honourably discharged. It was time for a new beginning. She then joined a merchant ship, which was soon besieged by pirates, and ended up in Nassau after opting to join the pirates’ ranks herself. Here she is said to have met Anne and Jack, and the three of them embarked on their own voyage as part of a larger crew. Two months of terror When the trio set sail from Providence in August 1720, Anne – thinking Mary was a man – apparently attempted to seduce her fellow crewmate. Despite the revelation that Mary was, in fact, female, they quickly become the fiercest pair on the ship, and may have even started a romantic relationship regardless. According to Johnson, Rackham was so jealous of Mary’s closeness to Anne that he threatened to slit her throat, but when he realised that she was a woman too, he acquiesced to the pair’s relationship. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy and discusses how accurate pop culture portrayals of pirates are Surviving historical documentation provides contradicting information, however: whereas Johnson claims that Mary joined Rackham’s crew disguised as a man, a written proclamation issued by Woodes Rogers, governor of the Bahamas, calls for Rackham’s arrest along with “two women, by name Ann Fulford alias Bonny, and Mary Read”. This means that Anne may have arrived in the Bahamas under a false name, and that Mary was known to be a woman when she stepped aboard with Rackham’s crew. Despite the confusion surrounding the women’s origins, their subsequent pirate careers are well known thanks to the publication of a 1721 book, The Tryals of Captain John Rackam and other Pirates’. According to the account, Rackham and his crew sailed from late August until late October 1720 on board a captured ship he named the Revenge, with their first attack taking place on 3 September, when they seized seven fishing boats off the coast of Harbour Island in the Bahamas. They struck with brute force – but none fought harder than Anne and Mary – and took fishing goods worth £10 in Jamaican currency. Things would go poorly for several weeks, but the pirates’ patience was finally rewarded on 1 October, when they managed to seize two merchant ships, taking more than £1,000 in British pounds in the process. This huge success spurred Rackham to become more reckless, and on 19 October, the crew had their greatest triumph off the coast of Port Maria Bay, Jamaica. Here they captured another merchant ship and took its captain, Thomas Spenlow, hostage. Read more | Privateers, buccaneers and corsairs: what's the difference? Later that same day, they seized a canoe containing a woman named Dorothy Thomas. Anne and Mary were ruthless in the attack and insisted they kill Dorothy, but Rackham overruled them. The two women insisted that she could speak out against them if they were caught, but Rackham ignored their advice. Their luck was waning, however. The governor of Jamaica, Sir Nicholas Lawes, had heard of their exploits and charged the famed pirate hunter, Jonathan Barnet, to attack and capture the ship. Barnet, a privateer of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), knew many pirates’ haunts in the area, and managed to get information from Dorothy Thomas regarding their whereabouts. He caught up with them off the coast of Negril Bay (now known as Bloody Bay) and lay in wait until after dark. In the meantime, Rackham and the rest of the crew were celebrating their spoils by drinking all their stolen wine. Only Anne and Mary abstained, and warned the men to keep a lookout. No one listened. Returning to dock At around 10 o’clock, Barnet approached the Revenge with a British flag, calling for Rackham to surrender. The pirate captain refused and shouted he would neither give nor take any quarter, but after Barnet fired his ship’s cannons, Rackham ordered everyone to hide down in the hold. “If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!” Mary allegedly shouted at her crewmates, still standing on deck. She shot her pistol into the hold, killing one of her fellow pirates in the process, but the men still refused to fight, leaving Anne and Mary to defend the ship alone. Captain Barnet and his men easily overpowered the duo, and soon, all the pirates were arrested and sent to Port Royal, before being carted to Spanish Town for trial. Captain Jack Rackham was one of the first to be sentenced to death. On the morning of his execution, 18 November 1720, he asked to see Anne for some final words of comfort. Still furious at how his cowardice likely led to their imprisonment, she spoke with callousness: “If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” That same afternoon he was hanged at Gallow’s Point, later renamed Rackham’s Cay. Thomas Spenlow and Dorothy Thomas were key witnesses, just as Anne and Mary predicted, and their testimony damned the rest of the pirates almost immediately. Although they all pled “not guilty”, the entire crew was condemned and sentenced to hang. At Anne and Mary’s trial, the women were asked if they had anything to say in their defence, to which they replied “no”. But after receiving their sentence of death, they revealed a shocking secret: both were pregnant. As custom dictated, they were given a stay of execution until after the birth of their children. Tragically, Mary died in prison in April 1721 of ‘gaol fever’, today known as typhus, and possibly complications during childbirth. Anne’s end is more mysterious. It has long been thought that she managed to leave prison and go back home to the Carolinas, where she lived until the age of 82. On the other hand, more recent research has located records in St Catherine’s Parish, Jamaica, listing the death of a woman named Anne Bonny in 1731, suggesting that she may have spent the rest of her life on the island. The enduring mystery that surrounds their early years, combined with their extraordinary bravery and capacity for violence, has cemented Anne Bonny and Mary Read as two of the most notorious pirates in history. But not only do their stories provide a fascinating insight into what it was like to sail during the golden age of piracy, they also show how it was possible for women to survive – and thrive – in such a dangerous world. Did X really mark the spot? Explore our series debunking common pirate myths: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent? Anne Bonny and Mary Read in pop culture Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s stories have had a profound impact on popular culture, starting with the biographies that appear in Captain Charles Johnson’s book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, published in 1724. Some 53 years later, John Gay’s Polly, a sequel to the dramatist’s famous Beggar’s Opera, premiered. The title character has a similar background to Anne: she disguises herself as a man to travel to the West Indies and find the love of her life. Along the way, she meets a fellow female pirate named Jenny, who is evidently based on Mary Read. Read more | Grace O’Malley: the fearless pirate queen of Ireland More recently, in 1978, Steve Gooch wrote a play entitled The Women Pirates: Ann Bonney [sic] and Mary Read. The initial performances were deemed a failure due to their poor production quality, but the play enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s. Since then, Anne has emerged as the more popular of the duo, with the US television show Black Sails (2014–17) featuring her as a main character. Played by Clara Paget, she is portrayed as a bloodthirsty woman, willing to murder anyone who stands in her way, but with a tragic backstory that seeks to humanise her. Bizarrely, the programme’s creators replace Mary Read with a fictional character named Max, who runs a brothel. On the whole, Mary’s erasure in popular culture is a mystery, considering she was given a richer life story in A General History of the Pyrates. However, as Anne is described as embarking upon a life of piracy out of love for her husband (unlike the more masculine Mary), it could be argued that her story has been deemed more ‘socially acceptable’ for mainstream audiences. This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed
The golden age of piracy: when pirates ruled the waves
Dr Rebecca Simon answers key questions about an era when bands of buccaneers menaced the high seas
What and when was the Golden Age of Piracy? It was a period of time when piracy was most active within the Atlantic world – primarily the Caribbean, North America, Britain, Europe and the west coast of Africa, writes historian Dr Rebecca Simon, an expert in early modern piracy. Piracy’s golden age can really be divided into three main periods: in the 1670s and parts of the 1680s, buccaneers of the Caribbean, mostly French pirates, fought over different land territories and were more land-based than sea-based. Then, there were the British pirates in the Indian Ocean in the 1690s. Here, we see figures such as Henry Every and Captain Kidd, both of whom disrupted trade between the British and Indian Mughals. The third period – and the one that most people associate with piracy’s golden age – took place between c1713 and c1730, during which time there were large organised bands of pirates. It was in this last period that the famous pirates most people have heard of were operating: Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Captain Hornigold and so on. It’s also the time when the pirate republic at Nassau, on the island of Providence in the Bahamas, was established. Read more | Famous pirates: The most notorious and despicable from history Piracy in the 1600s was mainly the product of contested ownership of plantation colonies in the Caribbean, particularly between the British and the Spanish, who were constantly at odds over who should control different regions. A main area of contention was Jamaica, which became known as one of the most successful plantation islands in the West Indies, mostly because of sugar cultivation. With so many political issues and battles taking place, the British and Spanish were unable to police piracy in the same way they had previously. Read more | The real pirates of the Caribbean: your guide to Nassau’s pirate republic The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) was another factor in the rise of activity. During the conflict, many pirates were hired as privateers – someone who was given a contract to attack enemy ships – for either the British or the Spanish. They were paid in the loot that they stole, but once the war ended, many privateers found themselves out of work and turned instead to illegal piracy. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy and discusses how accurate pop culture portrayals of pirates are The Golden Age of Piracy timeline: a century of terror The key moments during piracy’s ‘golden age’, when the seas became a playground for criminals seeking quick fortunes c1630 | A group of French and English buccaneers (privateers who attack Spanish ships) establish a base at Tortuga, a rocky island off the coast of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. It will become a major haven for pirates and smugglers over the coming years. May 1655 | Jamaica is captured by English forces during the Anglo-Spanish War –a bitter conflict begun in 1654 over England and Spain’s commercial interests. Buccaneers are encouraged by the island’s new rulers to protect it from Spanish attacks, and make Port Royal their base. 1660 | The Anglo-Spanish War comes to an end due to the ongoing political turmoil in England, which sees the end of Oliver Cromwell’s republic and the restoration of King Charles II to the throne. But with no peace treaties signed, sporadic clashes in the Caribbean continue. 1662 | Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan accompanies Royal Navy captain Christopher Mings on a raid of Santiago de Cuba – the former capital of Spanish held Cuba. The attack, supported by Jamaica’s governor, Lord Windsor, causes outrage in Spain. 11 July 1668 | Morgan and his crew occupy the Spanish settlement of Portobelo (now part of modern-day Panama). They negotiate a ransom of 100,000 pesos in gold coins and silver ingots and receive a rapturous reception back in Jamaica. The incident helps cement Morgan’s fearsome reputation. 1670 | The Treaty of Madrid is signed between England and Spain. England agrees to suppress piracy in the Caribbean, while Spain promises to recognise England’s sovereignty over Jamaica. 1674 | Henry Morgan is knighted by Charles II and made lieutenant governor of Jamaica. Originally summoned to England to face charges of piracy, he is now lauded as a hero. 30 July 1715 | A Spanish treasure fleet, carrying coins, silver, silks and spices, is wrecked off the coast of Florida. Treasure seekers quickly set out to plunder the vessel, including John Rackham, Charles Vane and Blackbeard. c1713 | Nassau, on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, becomes a fully-fledged pirate republic. Its founders are the English pirates Benjamin Hornigold, Henry Jennings, Charles Vane and Edward Teach (known as Blackbeard). Read more | Blackbeard: the life, death and 'burning beard' of Edward Teach 1713 | The first of several peace treaties is signed between England, France and Spain, who have been at loggerheads with each other during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). After being made redundant by the Royal Navy, thousands of British sailors turn to piracy – a lucrative form of income. 23 May 1701 | Scottish privateer William Kidd is hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping, London, having turned to piracy after being sent on a mission to suppress pirate activity in the Indian Ocean. September 1695 | English pirate Henry Every carries out one of the largest heists in history when he captures the Ganj-i-Sawai, a ship belonging to the Mughal emperor and laden with treasure worth roughly £600,000 (around £127m today). He becomes the subject of one of the earliest international manhunts in history, but is never found. On the podcast: Henry Avery: the legendary 17th-century pirate 7 June 1692 | An earthquake destroys Port Royal. It never recovers to its earlier heights as a vital English trading port and pirate haven. 25 August 1688 | Henry Morgan dies a wealthy man in Jamaica; an amnesty is proclaimed allowing pirates to attend his funeral without fear of arrest. 6 December 1687 | An entry in a French pirate logbook describes the raising of a flag bearing a skull and crossbones – one of the earliest known references to the ‘Jolly Roger’ symbol associated with piracy. 5 September 1717 | Britain’s King George I issues the Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates, offering pardons for those who surrender themselves by the same date the following year. May 1718 | Blackbeard blockades the port of Charles Town in South Carolina for a week, demanding medical supplies and ransacking any ships that pass. 5 September 1718 | More than 600 pirates have now been pardoned by George I, including Blackbeard and Hornigold. 22 November 1718 | Blackbeard, back at sea despite his royal pardon, is killed off the coast North Carolina by Lieutenant Robert Maynard and a group of fellow pirate hunters. The pirate’s head is fixed to the prow of Maynard’s ship as a grisly trophy. 12 December 1718 | Nassau’s time as a pirate republic comes to an end with the execution of nine ringleaders captured by Hornigold, who has recently switched sides to become a pirate hunter. 1721 | The Piracy Act is passed in Britain. The Royal Navy now has more powers to suppress piracy, while the courts can also impose harsher penalties for illegal cargo trading. March 1722 | A mass trial takes place at Cape Coast Castle, West Africa, for dozens of crewmen previously led by the late pirate Bartholomew Roberts – alleged to have plundered more than 400 ships. Fifty-two men are hanged, while 17 are sent to London’s notorious Marshalsea Prison. By now, the so-called ‘golden age’ of piracy has virtually come to an end. May 1724 | Captain Charles Johnson (likely a pseudonym) publishes A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. It contains biographies of some of history’s most prolific pirates and helps shape their near-mythical status. Words by BBC History Revealed staff writer Emma Slattery Williams The Golden Age of Piracy: 5 huge questions answered What goods and routes did pirates target? Pirates targeted lots of different areas, particularly major sea lanes that led into the West Indies – through a lot of the Bahamas, the Leeward Islands, in towards Jamaica and many American ports. Their aim was to acquire items that could give them wealth – textiles such as silks and spices, for example – as well as things that would replenish their own stores. Alcohol was also highly desirable, especially rum, which was a staple drink on a pirate ship, and wines, such as Madeira wine from Portugal. How was piracy viewed by people on land? The relationship between piracy and those on land was actually quite complicated. There were people in parts of the Caribbean and the southern American colonies who actually worked with pirates, particularly in the 1600s. Competition between the British and Spanish over plantation islands saw Britain try and cripple Spain’s economy – along with that of France and Portugal, its other main competitors – by passing navigation acts in the 1650s. Amongst other things, these banned colonists from trading with Britain’s competitors. The colonists didn’t like this. It took away their own freedom of trade and also stopped them from being able to obtain a lot of goods that they really wanted. So they worked with pirates who robbed ships at will and were able to bring these goods into the colonies illegally. Some pirates were considered well-respected members of the community in those areas. They might have had families there, or might have even been sponsored by a governor or other powerful people. Read more | Did pirates really live on the island of Tortuga This wasn’t always the case, though, particularly at the turn of the 18th century when anyone found to be trading with, or helping, pirates would consequently be considered a pirate themselves and been treated as such if caught. People living in the middle- Atlantic colonies – such as Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, New York and up into New England – had a fear and hatred of piracy because the economies of these communities were so merchantdependent, and pirates were a massive threat to merchants. There were many sailing communities, particularly in New England, that were in real danger of having their livelihoods and communities destroyed by pirates. Read more | Grace O’Malley: the fearless pirate queen of Ireland Even though there were people who supported pirates in the Caribbean and some of the southern American colonies, there were many people who were absolutely terrified of them. And pirates knew this; some would even release victims so that they would go and warn people of what their former captors were going to do. It was a way of keeping their fearsome reputations alive. A pirate with one of the most terrifying reputations was Edward Teach – known as Blackbeard – who was described as looking as if he had emerged from the gates of hell. He deliberately made himself look as frightening as possible, putting candles or pieces of fuse in his long beard so that it would smoke. So pirates were very aware of their grim reputations, and many of them did capitalise on it because it gave them an advantage when attacking ships, and often meant they could get their victims to surrender very quickly. What ailments and illnesses did pirates at sea suffer from? Pirate ships, and pretty much all other ships at the time, experienced similar ailments among their crews. Perhaps the number one threat to anyone at sea during this period was scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency and which presented in swollen, bleeding gums, swelling, joint pain, weakness and ultimately death. But pirates were generally known as being a bit healthier than many other sailors of the day; the frequency with which they were robbing ships meant that they were constantly replenishing their food stores. In addition, pirates often sailed close to lots of islands where they could replenish their stores pretty easily. They weren’t sailing over very long, drawnout distances in the same the way as merchant ships, which crossed entire oceans, so this generally kept them physically healthier. Listen | Everything you wanted to know about the Age of Sail A popular drink called grog, which we hear a lot about in pop culture, but which was actually a real drink, also helped to combat scurvy. Grog comprised one part rum, four parts water, a spoonful of brown sugar and the juice of a lime. So it was both a treat, but also a way to prevent scurvy, with the lime juice providing much-needed vitamin C. Another threat, of course, was malaria, particularly in the Caribbean. At some point, pirates started drinking a tincture of quinine – made from the bark of the cinchona tree commonly found in South America, Central America and the islands of the Caribbean – which was used to treat malaria. And then, of course, there was always the risk of injury from the fighting that was always very common. Wound infections were prevalent, and pirates could very easily lose a limb or need to have an arm or leg amputated. Syphilis was also a frequent disease on board pirate ships. Pirates visited brothels and we know that syphilis ran rampant throughout the American colonies and Europe at this time. In fact, Blackbeard, who blockaded Charleston port in South Carolina in 1718, is said to have done so in order to get medicine for himself and several of his crew, who had been ravaged by syphilis. The most common treatment for syphilis was mercury, which was believed to be effective because it took away the symptoms. Did it actually cure the disease, though? No, it actually made people sicker due to mercury poisoning, but it took away symptoms such as tremors and sores. So, syphilis, scurvy, malaria, injuries and infection were some of the main threats to sailors on board pirate ships. How were ethnic minorities treated on board pirate ships? Pirate ships were quite multinational and pretty diverse. About 50 per cent of pirate crews in the Atlantic world during the golden age of piracy would have been white British or American colonists. So the other half would have been people from a variety of countries. There were French, Spanish and Portuguese pirates, as well as pirates from East India. You might have even seen southeast Asian pirates on board ships, although that was a bit more rare, particularly in the Atlantic, but not unheard of. There were Native American pirates and, of course, there would have been black African pirates, many of whom would likely have been enslaved people who had escaped bondage or who had been released, or perhaps enslaved people whose ship had been captured by pirates and been forced into joining a pirate crew. Read more | Barbary pirates: the Muslim corsairs and their role in the slave trade We don’t know for sure how ethnic minorities were treated on pirate ships. Formerly enslaved black pirates may have been given lower positions on board, perhaps in the kitchens. This could have either been because of their skill set, or could have been because of prejudice. There were some black pirates who were treated horribly because they had essentially been captured from slave ships and ultimately sold on as slaves in other colonies – they were considered cargo, really. But most pirates didn’t actually engage in the slave trade like that. They would bring enslaved people on board if they had captured a slave ship, for example, and some of these people would then be absorbed into the pirate crew. Read more | Was pirate John Ward the real Captain Jack Sparrow? Blackbeard is known for taking on as many as 14 enslaved people as members of his crew, but he did eventually end up selling several of them. So it varied a great deal from ship to ship. The big difference for men of colour on pirate ships is that they were actually allowed on board, at a time when they wouldn’t have been permitted on other ships. So, you could say that pirate ships were places that a lot of marginalised people knew they would be accepted – the ability to fight and willingness to die in battle was deemed more important than skin colour. Religious minorities, or those who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs, could also be found on board pirate ships. Catholics, in particular, were common, but there were also known to be bands of Jewish pirates in existence as well. So, overall, pirate ships were actually quite multicultural places. When did the golden age of piracy start to slow down? Piracy’s heyday starts to end in the late 1720s. The historian Marcus Rediker has argued that the golden age of piracy ended in 1726 when the pirate William Fly was executed, because his was the last real public spectacle execution of a pirate. There was also a real crackdown on piracy after the War of the Spanish Succession, with up to 4,000 pirates thought to have been executed in the decade after 1713. By the end of the 1720s, many of the well-known pirate leaders had been executed, disappeared or retired, such as Benjamin Hornigold, Bartholomew Roberts, Blackbeard and Jack Rackham. What’s more, the appointment of former privateer Woodes Rogers as the first royal governor of the Bahamas, in 1718, had seen pirates expelled left and right from an area where they had congregated for so long. Read more | Hunting pirates: how piracy’s golden age came to an end Further difficulties between various European countries – eventually culminating in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) and the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–48) – also contributed to the decline of piracy; many of these European nations needed skilled sailors who were able to fight. Pirates were offered pardons in return for their services as privateers. A lot of pirates accepted this; for many, illegal piracy just wasn’t worth the risk anymore. Did X really mark the spot? Explore our series debunking common pirate myths: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?
It may be the most famous of pirate flags, but there were others that pirates used too, says historian Dr Rebecca Simon
When we think of famous pirates, we sometimes think of a black flag adorned with a skull and crossbones, flying high above their ship. This is close to reality, but there were many other different types of pirate flags. During the 17th century, for instance, pirates sailed under a plain red flag (the ‘bloody flag’), and by the turn of the 18th century, some ships also began to sail under a plain black flag. These soon came to take on two different meanings: red meant that pirates would give no quarter (mercy), while black meant that pirates would give quarter. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates? By the 1710s the red flag had pretty much gone out of fashion and was almost entirely replaced by the black flag, which became known as the Jolly Roger. This itself sported many different designs, one of the most common versions depicting a bloody heart alongside a devil holding a trident. Read more | Everything you need to know about the golden age of piracy However, the first iteration of the skull and crossbones flag put into widespread use was designed by the pirate Captain ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham, who created an image of a skull above a pair of crossed cutlasses. This became the most popular emblem, and by the mid-18th century the skull and crossbones flag was used exclusively. The symbol, simply meaning ‘death’, can also be found on headstones, and in later maritime logbooks next to the names of deceased crew members. This content is part of our series of pirate myths – read the rest in the series: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent? This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed Was the Jolly Roger only used by pirates? No, writes Justin Pollard The Jolly Roger is the universally recognised symbol of piracy, first recorded in France in 1687 (and used then on land rather than at sea). By the 18th century Charles Johnson in his General History of the Pyrates could record buccaneers flying a variety of black or red flags with ghoulish motifs, from the traditional skull and cross bones, to an hourglass and images of a skeleton piercing a heart with a spear. Their purpose was simple. When pirates intended to attack they would raise the Jolly Roger to indicate to their prey that they weren’t going to fight by the normal rules of engagement so they’d do well to surrender. But the Jolly Roger is still sometimes flown today – and not by pirates. Various military units have used the skull and cross bones as an insignia but the most famous flyers of the pirate flag are the Royal Navy’s submarine service who still allow the flying of the Jolly Roger on vessels returning from a successful mission. Legend has it that this originated when Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson (1842–1921), controller of the navy, called early submarines “un-English” and suggested that captured crews should be hanged “like pirates”. This story is repeated in many naval histories but a glance at Wilson’s memorandum on the matter of 21 January 1901 shows that he never said such a thing – although he was not in favour of the British building submarines. The belief that submarines operated outside the normal rules of engagement was widespread, however, and this led Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral Sir) Max Horton to fly a hastily sewn Jolly Roger on HMS E9 as it returned to port having successfully torpedoed SMS Hela in September 1914. And the tradition has remained ever since, despite various political attempts to abolish the practice. The most recent occasion of the Jolly Roger flying from a British submarine was 20 June 2011, when HMS Triumph returned to Devonport having fired Tomahawk missiles at targets in Libya as part of Operation Ellamy.
Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment?
A horrific, but morbidly fun, practice shown in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise involves unfortunate victims being forced to walk along a plank of wood positioned over the edge of a ship, usually leading to them falling overboard and drowning. Real-life pirates did not use this as a method of punishment, however. Instead, many pirates’ victims – including people forced into piracy to replace deceased crew, or hostages taken during battle – were tied up and kept below deck, where they were subject to beatings and (in extreme cases) disfigurement. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates? Marooning was also a form of punishment, reserved for victims whom the pirates deemed to be little threat on land. If a person refused to join the pirate crew but swore to stay quiet, they would be left stranded on an island with a bottle of water, a bottle of gunpowder, a pistol and a single bullet. This content is part of our series of pirate myths – read the rest in the series: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent? This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed
X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure?
Captain William Kidd famously claimed to have sequestered his riches in a hidden location, but did pirates really leave their ill-gotten gains on random beaches?
There is a long-standing idea that pirates buried their treasure and left maps enabling them to find it later. However, this is a myth. The origins of this commonly held belief stem from a story concerning the pirate Captain William Kidd (c1655–1701), who tried to escape a spell of imprisonment by writing a letter to the governor of New York and Massachusetts, Lord Bellomont, claiming that he had buried a cache of gold and jewels on Gardiner’s Island, just off the coast of New York. Read more | Blackbeard: the life, death and 'burning beard' of Edward Teach Somehow, newspapers got wind of the story and rumours of Kidd’s riches spread like wildfire. However, the search was unsuccessful – there was nothing to be found. Years later, it would serve as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel Treasure Island, only serving to perpetuate the myth further. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates? The reality is that pirates had no reason to bury their treasure. In fact, the word ‘treasure’ often did not mean gold and jewels at all; rather, it usually referred to other valuable items, ranging from textiles and spices to various wines and spirits. Read more | Everything you need to know about the golden age of piracy The majority of pirates had short lives at sea and needed to get wealthy quick, so they plundered goods and sold them on land in order to repair and restock their ships, hire new crew, support their families, or buy plenty of food and women’s company. Burying these items would have only led to lost goods and likely death before they could be recovered. So, while it makes for a fun story, the reality of ‘buried treasure’ is as fiction as Treasure Island. This content is part of our series of pirate myths – read the rest in the series: Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs? Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent? This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed
Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?
Were one-legged pirates a common site on the high seas, or are they a myth of pop culture?
Some pirates did sport eyepatches, but not for the reason most people think. The popular misconception is that pirates wore eyepatches so they could already have one eye adjusted to the dark when they went below deck during battle. Indeed, there have been several experiments to see whether the practice works, including those carried out by the US Navy during WW2, and by the TV series MythBusters in 2007, although these were inconclusive. Regardless, there is no historical evidence to suggest that eyepatches were ever worn for this purpose, and instead, the reality is actually far simpler: patches were used to cover an empty eye socket if the eye was lost to injury. Furthermore, most areas below deck already had natural light courtesy of portholes and lanterns, so it is unlikely there was ever total darkness anyway. Listen | Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates? What about peg legs? So-called ‘peg legs’ may have been a reality on pirate ships due to the high risk of injuries, but again, there are no eyewitness accounts to suggest anyone wore them. Just like the pirate trope of buried treasure, the popular use of eyepatches and peg legs stems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, , in which Long John Silver has both. Read more | Everything you need to know about the golden age of piracy As well as his friend, poet William Henley (who had his left leg amputated due to tuberculosis of the bone), the author was also likely inspired by veterans of the American Civil War, whom he met while travelling around the US. Many of the soldiers were disfigured and therefore had to use the items in their daily lives. Thus, the connection between pirates, eyepatches and peg legs was born. This content is part of our series of pirate myths – read the rest in the series: Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment? X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure? Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger? What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression ‘shiver me timbers’? Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent? This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed