Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A Brief History of Piracy in the Caribbean

John "Calico Jack" Rackham's flag
The history of piracy dates back more than 3000 years. One of the oldest documents mentioning pirates is an inscription on a clay tablet from 1350 B.C. which briefly refers to unprovoked attacks by ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
    Over the course of the next 1600 years there have been various instances of piracy in ancient Greek texts, the most well known of which is the tyrant Polycrates, who seized control of the city of Samos. Polycrates shared power with his two brothers at the time, but soon after the attack he had them killed, presumably out of greed for complete rule over the fleet. The Greek pirate apparently commanded 100 vessels and committed acts of piracy that made him notorious throughout Greece.
    The most famous pre-cursors to the Caribbean pirates were the Vikings. The Vikings were unique in that they were accomplished navigators and the only people at the time that sailed in the open sea. All other cultures would sail only within sight of land because they didn’t have the expertise for more sophisticated navigation. The Vikings ruled the seas from roughly 800 to 1100 A.D.
    Piracy in the Caribbean began with the Buccaneers in the early 17th century. Buccaneers were mostly runaway sailors and deserters from France and England who made their way to the Caribbean. They learned how to live off the land. They would hunt cattle and pigs and cook strips of the meat on racks called boucans, a method they learned from the local Indians. So they became known as boucaniers. A large number of these men settled on the Island of Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic/Haiti. They sold the jerky to passing ships and sometimes, if they were so inclined, they would steal a ship.
    At the time, several islands in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main were owned solely by Spain. It was a very profitable area of trade among the Spanish nations and garnered the interest of England, Holland and France, who wished to do trade there as well. But the Spanish would not permit it. Such defiance angered the leaders of the other nations and gave rise to a conflict that would last roughly 100 years. It all started with the boucaniers, whose presence had not gone unnoticed by the Spanish. In order to rid Hispaniola of its unwelcome inhabitants, the Spanish killed a huge amount of the animals the boucaniers were living off of with the intention of driving them out. What happened instead was an uprising that England and France would eventually use to their advantage. The boucaniers, in order to earn a living, began robbing and killing Spaniards since they had eliminated their source of food.
    In 1654, Oliver Cromwell, High Lord and Protector of England, set his sights on Hispaniola. 400 miles away, in Portsmouth, England, a fleet was assembled. It consisted of 18 warships, 20 transport vessels and 3000 men.
On Christmas day, 1654, the British force prepared to leave. A young Welsh ensign by the name of Henry Morgan volunteered for service with the fleet. Morgan was a very well connected man. He was the nephew of Edward Morgan, a general in Charles’ Army in France and Thomas Morgan, a General in Cromwell’s army. He had learned from his uncles a great deal about warfare. Morgan would become one of the most famous Privateers in history, known across the Caribbean as The Sword of England.
    It took over a month for the fleet to reach Hispaniola and rough seas caused them to make landfall near Santa Domingo, 25 miles from their intended destination. They traveled through the jungle for 3 days to reach the city. Word had reached Santa Domingo of the invading force. The English army never made it there. They were attacked in the jungle and suffered very heavy losses, forcing them to make a hasty retreat.  Since they couldn’t very well sail all the way back to England and tell them “Sorry, we failed,” They went looking for another city to invade. They found their way to Jamaica, which was not very populated and easy to seize, especially because there was no Spanish presence there. They took residence in Port Royal, which became their base of operations for their campaign against the Spanish territories.
    Word reached Cromwell of the devastating attack at Santa Domingo. It would have been far too expensive for the English to raise another army so they hired the Buccaneers—the English pronunciation of boucaniers—to protect Jamaica from the Spanish and to attack their merchant ships. It was far cheaper for them to hire private ship owners to fight for profit. These men became known as privateers. Privateers needed a license to attack enemy ships in times of war, known as a Letter of Marque. Anything captured from said ships was to be brought back to the governor and distributed among the men involved in the attack. Privateering was little more than thinly veiled piracy. They were no rules of engagement that privateers had to follow. They could attain their treasure however they chose as long as it was brought back to the governor to be counted and divided.
    In 1662, the governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Motiford, made Morgan captain of his own ship. By that time Morgan had become known as a fierce warrior and a brilliant commander. He had a talent for leading men and commanding their admiration and respect.
In 1668, Henry Morgan was appointed Admiral and given the command of 15 ships and 500 men. It was not long before Morgan decided it was time to attack the city of Portobello. Unlike the army, participation in any campaign is voluntary, so Morgan had to convince as many ships as he could to join his cause. Portobello was the third largest city in the Caribbean. It was a main treasure port, and it was very heavily fortified and well-manned. It was considered to be impregnable. But Morgan didn’t see it that way, and he managed to convince the fleet that the city could be seized. By that point, Henry Morgan was already well-known, but his attack on Portobello would make him famous.
The attack was very successful and profitable. The fact that the Spanish city was considered impregnable worked in Morgan’s advantage. The attack was not expected and the men guarding the city probably were not accustomed to combat because no one ever dared to attack them before. The Privateers, on the other hand, were professional killers. It was all they did.  Portobello didn’t stand a chance. They went from fort to fort, killing and pillaging, throughout the night. Most men fled at the sight of them. Those who did not were tortured until they revealed the location of their hidden treasure. A common torture method the Buccaneers used was to tie a rope around a man’s genitals, attach it to a pulley and slowly lift the man from the ground until he spoke or his member was torn from his body. Morgan and his privateers are said to have been brutal in their methods and apparently tortured and killed not only men, but women and children. It is unclear if Morgan ordered these things to be done or if the men took it upon themselves to do it. On that, we can never know for sure. When the men reached the final fort, a bloody battle ensued, but Morgan and his army eventually came out victorious. In order to stop the Privateers from burning the city, the Spanish paid them 100,000 pieces of eight.
Later that same year, Morgan set his sights on Panama, the second largest city in the New World and a major treasure port for silver mined in the mountains of South America. He set out with 36 ships and 2000 men.  There was no Panama Canal back then, so the men had to travel for nine days through the jungle to reach the city, battling disease and forced to eat snakes and other undesirable types of meat. They finally made it the city and even though they were out-manned, they managed to sack the city with the mere ferocity of their attack. As Panama burned, the Spaniards were able to sneak out a great deal of the city’s treasure on a ship, making what remained surprisingly small. Once the spoils were split up, the amount each man got was minimal and this sparked rumor that Morgan had taken more than his share.
In 1672, facing accusations of piracy, Morgan was summoned by King Charles II to Whitehall Palace in London. King Charles, convinced that the Spanish had made the accusation to smear Morgan’s name, decided that the Admiral should be commended for his leadership and tactical skills. Henry Morgan was knighted and made Governor of Jamaica. For the next 17 years, he served as Governor until his death in 1688. He died peacefully in his bed at the age of 53.
On September 7, 1701, the turmoil in the Caribbean came to a head and full scale war broke out, pitting the nations of England and Holland against France and Spain. The conflict, which became known as Queen Anne’s War, was a very lucrative time for the Buccaneers. The war raged on for 12 years. Then on April 11, 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed and trade among the four nations was opened.
All of a sudden 40,000 Privateers, who had made a fine living off the conflicts in the Caribbean, were suddenly out of a job. Many of them had spent most of their adult lives as Privateers and didn’t know how to do anything else. What happened next was the greatest explosion of piracy the world has ever seen.
On July 24, 1715, a Spanish fleet of 11 galleons set sail from Havana, Cuba, bound for Spain. The ships were filled to capacity with gold, jewels and 7 million newly minted silver coins. On the 6th day of the journey, the treasure fleet sailed directly into the heart of a powerful hurricane. All 11 ships, unable to withstand the storm, wrecked off the coast of Florida near Palmar de Ayes. Work began quickly to recover the lost treasure.
When word of the wreckage reached Port Royal, Henry Jennings, a former privateer, gathered a crew of 300 men and set sail toward Florida. The Spanish had built a temporary shack, guarded by 60 men, to house the recovered gold, most of which was in fairly shallow water. The attack came in the night. Jennings and his small army raided the camp and eliminated every guard there. The treasure they found consisted of 300,000 pieces of Spanish silver. Jennings and his crew made roughly 10 years worth of their former wages in a single night.
When they reached Jamaica, they were greeted by armed guards. Apparently word had spread of the raid and the men involved in it. The guards told the assembled crew that if they stepped a single foot on Jamaican soil they would be shot. Jennings, not yet deterred, told the guards he had a gift for the Governor and to step aside. The guards repeated their threat, declaring that the crew’s actions were no longer legal. Reluctantly, Jennings set sail looking for a place where they could go without threat. They found their way to Nassau, New Providence which would become the first pirate haven. But Nassau was more than just a pirate haven, it was a town run entirely by pirates.
Jennings, now a wealthy man, retired from piracy and spent the rest of his life living off the fortunes he had stolen from the Spanish. He was the first to turn pirate after the demise of the privateers, but many others would follow in the years to come. The Golden Age of Piracy had begun.
In 1717, the first appearance of ex-privateer Edward Teach appears in official historical documentation. It is hard to trace Teach’s life before 1717 because his real name is unknown.  He is more commonly known as Blackbeard, the most fearsome pirate in the Caribbean.  On November 28, 1717, Blackbeard was the captain of a sloop and was sailing with a second ship. They encountered a French merchantman called The Concorde. The merchant vessel was quickly captured. Teach claimed the vessel as his flagship and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge. He then increased the ship’s armament to forty cannons. It was bigger than any other pirate ship at the time. Not long after acquiring his new vessel, he encountered a British merchant vessel called The Great Allen. Blackbeard managed to capture the ship without having to fight. The mere ferocity of his appearance and his methods of intimidation were all it took. Teach was 6’ 4”, with long black hair and a thick beard. Before attacking a ship, he would tuck slow-burning fuses under his hat and light them. So, the people on the other vessel would see this tall man with a mass of black hair coming towards them with smoke wreathed around his face. He was armed to the hilt and screaming like a maniac. He must have looked like the devil himself. The men on the other side of his blade had two choices: surrender or die. Most of them chose the former. The crew of The Great Allen were no different. Teach took the ship and set them adrift.
For all his ferocity, they was one thing that set Teach apart from other sailors of the day: he could read and write and was likely very intelligent. He did very well in a position of leadership. Most ships would go through a dozen or so captains in a period of a couple of years. A pirate ship was run like a democracy--essentially the first democracy of the time. The men chose who their captain would be, so the greatest threat to a captain was an unhappy crew. But Blackbeard’s crew was never unhappy. From November 1717 to May 1718 Blackbeard and his men captured at least 15 ships. He commanded 4 vessels and 400 men. Blackbeard had become the most powerful and feared pirate in the world.
In May of 1718, Blackbeard’s fleet formed a blockade outside Charles Towne, South Carolina. They attacked and plundered any ships that were entering or leaving. He also took several people hostage, holding them for ransom while a group of his men went to collect supplies from the town. The agreement was that once Blackbeard’s men got the supplies the hostages would be set free. Instead of collecting the supplies and coming right back, the pirates got drunk. When Blackbeard’s men did not return at the specified time, he prepared nooses to hang the prisoners. It was then that his men finally returned with the ransom they demanded. The hostages were a bit surprised when it is nothing more than a small chest of medical supplies. Blackbeard needed the supplies to cure several of his crew from disease, which was most likely venereal disease contracted from women in the Bahamas. Blackbeard sent the hostages back to the city completely naked and sailed on.
In June of 1718, Blackbeard led his fleet into Topsail Inlet. As they neared the shore, the Queen Anne’s Revenge violently ran aground, and the hull was shattered. The only thing keeping it afloat was the sandbar beneath. He immediately had all the plunder and supplies on the large ship transferred to one of his other ships, the sloop Adventure. Then he left a large number of his men stranded on the sandbar while he sailed away with his remaining crew. The entire thing was actually deliberate. Blackbeard wanted to downsize a crew that had become too large. He sailed The Adventure to nearby Orcacoke Island and dropped anchor. There is some speculation as to why Blackbeard settled on this island. It was likely one of two things: he wanted to retire, or he wanted to establish a new base.
Word of Blackbeard’s presence reached the ears of Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia. On November 17, 1718, Spotswood sent out two sloops commanded by Captain Robert Maynard  to kill the infamous pirate. On November 22, Blackbeard spotted the sloops at the mouth of the inlet. Blackbeard boarded his ship and lifted the anchor. Apparently, Maynard ordered the men to spread sand on the decks to keep sailors from slipping on the blood he anticipated would be spilt in the battle. Blackbeard was outnumbered 3 to 1, but he had the advantage of cannons. Maynard’s sloops had only what arms the men carried--i.e., pistols and cutlasses. Blackbeard turned his ship and sailed away from the two sloops. Maynard pursued Blackbeard, but he was actually being led. Blackbeard knew those waters well. Maynard’s ship struck a sandbar. Blackbeard turned toward the stuck ship. When he came into range, the cannons fired. As the men reloaded the cannons, the second sloop retreated. The canons fired again and when the smoke cleared, only Maynard was left standing. At the sight of this, Blackbeard and his crew drew near and stormed the  corpse-ridden deck. That’s when the dead bodies on the ship leapt up and attacked the surprised pirates. Maynard’s trap was sprung. During the battle, Blackbeard and Maynard engaged each other. They both drew their pistols and fired. Blackbeard missed. Maynard did not. Amazingly, the bullet did not seem to affect Blackbeard much, and he attacked Maynard with his cutlass. Blackbeard, seeming unaffected by the bullet wound, broke Maynard’s blade in half and closed in for the killing stroke. At that moment, one of Maynard’s crewmen attacked the pirate from behind, striking a mortal blow. Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, the most feared pirate to ever live, died on the deck of Maynard’s sloop. The crew, now leaderless, retreated. Maynard then had Blackbeard’s head chopped off and mounted on the bow sprit as a trophy--and a warning to other pirates.
Around the same time as Blackbeard’s death, a woman named Anne Bonny arrived in the pirate haven of Nassau. Bonny was the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and by most accounts, a beautiful woman. She was apparently sought by all the men in the region. Bonny struck up a conversation with a pirate named John Rackham, also known as Calico Jack for the colorful clothes he often wore.  Bonny quickly became involved with Rackham, despite the fact that she was a married woman. The Governor, hearing news of her infidelity, threatened to have her flogged. In response, Bonny left with Rackham on his ship, becoming the first woman pirate in the Caribbean.
Not long after this, Rackham and his crew attacked a ship and forced the crew to surrender. However, one man refused to drop his sword. Instead of killing him, the pirates tantalized him with the offer to join the crew, which was the most common way pirate crews were formed--recruitment from captured ships. The young man, Mark Read, agreed to join. But before long, Rackham regretted allowing the young man on board when he noticed how friendly he and Anne were becoming. Rackham began to get jealous. As the pair got friendlier, Rackham finally exploded. He drew his pistol on young Mr. Read, threatening to kill him for trying to steal his woman. Read told him to put down his gun.
“I am no threat to you, sir,” Read declared. Then he removed his shirt and exposed his chest, revealing that he was actually a woman. She re-introduced herself to Rackham as Mary Read and covered herself up.
Word spread quickly across the Caribbean of Calico Jack, the man with two women pirates on his ship. This was completely unheard of at the time. Women were not given the same rights as men, but here were two openly female pirates fighting alongside the men as equals.
On October 22, 1720 Rackham and his crew dropped anchor in Dry Harbor Bay, Jamaica. The men stayed below deck and got drunk while Bonny and Read stayed on the deck to keep watch. They were the only sober crew members onboard. Eventually, they spotted a ship approaching. The women quickly roused the men below. The ship set sail as the other vessel drew close. It was clearly a ship of pirate hunters judging by how boldly they approached. The vessel drew closer and the captain asked John to identify himself. Bonny told him to lie. Instead, the drunken pirate boldly responded, “I am John Rackham of Cuba, fight me!”
The other ship opened fire. The battle was short  and ended when a cannon shot shattered the boom of Rackham’s vessel. They were dead in the water. The men knew that they would be boarded soon, so they decided to go below deck again and continue drinking, essentially accepting their fate. The men were captured and sentenced to hang. As Rackham was taken to the gallows, Bonny told him, “Had you fought like a man, Jack, you need not have been hanged like a dog.“
The women went on trial too, but they received a stay of execution because both were pregnant. It is assumed that Bonny was impregnated by Rackham. It is unknown who the father of Read’s baby was, though some have speculated that it was also Rackham.
On April 8, 1720, Mary Read died in prison. It is unclear if she died while giving birth, or if it was from fever. There are no records of Anne Bonny’s fate. After her imprisonment, she simply disappears from all historical records. It has been speculated that her wealthy and influential father may have pulled some strings and sprung her from prison.
In that same year, a pirate vessel in the Atlantic Sea captured a ship and forced a man named Bartholomew Roberts into piracy. Although Roberts initially refused to join, the men did not kill him or set him adrift because he could read and write (and therefore navigate) which were skills greatly sought after on any ship. So they took him by force. Roberts did not fit in with the crew and refused to drink, but he was an excellent sailor and navigator. A month later, when the captain was killed off the west coast of Africa, the veteran pirates voted Bart as their new captain. He accepted. When the crew asked where they were going, Bart said they would avenge the captain’s death. It was a good tactic for gaining the men’s loyalty. They found the men responsible for the captain’s death and exacted their revenge. Not a single crew member died and the plunder they received was ample. Robert’s had the loyalty of the crew then, and no man doubted his ability to lead.
Bart was a little different than other pirates. He never drank alcohol, not even rum. He preferred to drink tea instead. He was also the first pirate captain to hold Sunday services on his ship. It was a strange dichotomy, men who prayed to God on Sunday and committed violent acts of piracy Monday through Saturday.
After Bart avenged the death of his former captain, he set sail for the Caribbean sea. As he journeyed across the Atlantic, they attacked practically every vessel they encountered. In January of 1720, word reached the governors of Martinique and Barbados of Black Bart Roberts and his pirate crew. The governors hired pirate hunters to kill Roberts. By this time, the nations of France, Spain, Holland, and England had become very good at killing pirates. They hanged 200 to 300 pirates every year. But Bart didn’t care and he declared war on the governors.
In 1721, Roberts approaches a French man-of-war with the Governor of Martinique onboard. Bart’s ship was disguised as a merchant vessel. The man-of-war drew near. As soon as they came close enough, Bart raised his Jolly Roger and opened fire.  The French ship was taken easily. The pirates boarded the vessel and seized the governor. Then Roberts fashioned a noose and hanged the governor from the yardarm of his own ship. Roberts declared that he would do the same to the governor of Barbados. However, that never happened, likely because the governor would not be so stupid as to give Black Bart the chance to do the same thing to him.
By the following year, Roberts had become the most successful pirate in history. He had caught roughly 400 ships up to that point. His most recent capture was a vessel called The Neptune, which turned out to be filled with alcohol. On Feb. 10th, 1722 the crew dropped anchor near Cape Lopez, Africa, and proceeded to get extremely drunk. While drinking up the stores of alcohol from the plundered Neptune, they spotted a Royal navy man-of-war approaching. Since the men were drunk and completely unprepared, they scurried below deck to hide. Roberts remained on deck. As the ship drew near, Roberts was sitting astride one of the cannons, aggressively challenging the ship to attack. In response to this, the navy ship fired its cannons. Black Bart Roberts was killed instantly by the blast. The crew honored Roberts request to never let his body be taken. They wrapped his body in cloth, then in chains, and dropped his body in the sea.
Although other pirates came after Roberts, he was the last truly successful pirate in the Caribbean. Essentially, the golden age of piracy died with Black Bart.  The military forces of the four nations had become strong and their numbers overwhelmed the dwindling pirate population.
Piracy in that time period had always represented one thing: freedom. Pirates were men who lived on the fringe of society. They made their own rules. They lived on the sea, and most died there, too. Although piracy still exists today, it has never been as prevalent as in the 18th century.
And it probably never will be again.



Bibliography

“True Caribbean Pirates.” Documentary. The History Channel. 9 July 2006.
Cordingly,  David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. New York: Random House, 1996.

Edward Teach (Blackbeard). Fortune City. 6 March 2009.                             <http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/lennon/897/teach.html>.

“History of Piracy.” The History Channel. 6 March 2009.                                           <http://www.history.com/marquee.do?content_type=Marquee_Generic&content_type_id=53944&display_order=1&marquee_id=53952>.

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