Given that piracy in various forms has existed for thousands of years, it may seem strange to focus on just a 30 year period. The Elizabethan navy was bolstered by the use of ‘privateers’, little more than pirates under royal licence. Drake made a career of such activity, with Elizabeth taking a deniable share of the booty. And after the 1660 Restoration British ships predated on Mughal Indian Ocean vessels without many voices raised against it. But with the fire then turned on official ships, 1700-1730 is often seen as the final phase of a ‘golden age of pirates’.
Why should this be and what was actually involved? Where did it happen and who were the pirates? It’s agreed that the phenomenon got a final sugar rush after the War of the Spanish Succession. The 1713-1715 Peace of Utrecht marked a change in the international order - to an era characterised by the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Britain. But it also left many Anglo-American sailors unemployed, who then turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Unpaid and mistreated, in the circumstances they saw this as an attractive option .
Piracy background
They were entering an environment where a buccaneering
culture had taken root. Jamaica's 17th century Port Royal had
been a local pirate hub where figures like Henry Morgan held sway. Devastated
by an earthquake in 1692, this chief market for fenced plunder was gone. But England’s
Navigation Acts had weakened some of its colonies so officials often turned a blind
eye to pirate gold. From the end of the century colonial trans-Atlantic
shipping started to boom, especially with the slave trade. The Caribbean was
ideal for piracy - little enforceable law, many uninhabited islands and plenty
of valuable shipping trade.
Port Royal before the earthquake
An army of privateers and buccaneers in the early 18th
century departed Europe and America for the West African coast. Others flocked
to the Bahamas and the Tortugas. New Providence Island with its port, Nassau, became
their main base. It was aptly named the ‘Republic of Pirates’. For 25 years or
so, despite the later recovery of Port Royal, it served as the western
hemisphere’s pirate capital.
Buried treasure?
Myths abound, of course. Pirates rarely buried treasure. Most of the loot was promptly divided up among a vessel's crew, who preferred to spend it. Often the ‘treasure’ was perishable goods like calico, cocoa and food which of course would have been ruined if buried. The only recorded case of buried treasure was of William Kidd, when heading to New York to try and clear his name.
Still, some pirates did indeed fly individual versions of the ‘Jolly Roger’ skull and crossbones when attacking a ship. Most pirate crews weren’t really as anarchic as portrayed in popular myth, but kept to a code of regulations. It’s hard to find evidence that they made anyone ‘walk the plank’ either.
Infamous names
Capt. Charles Johnson (a presumed pseudonym of a man who may have had pirate connections), published
a General History of Pirates in 1724. It sparked public imagination, highlighting
the deeds and careers of buccaneers of the time. Most led short lives. Among
them were ‘Black Sam’ Bellamy, the chief ‘ideologist’ of piracy, lost at sea in
1717. Londoner Edward Low had a reputation for evil - ‘a man of amazing and
grotesque brutality’ said Conan Doyle. Active from 1721-1724, he was notorious
for torture, cutting off ears, noses and lips and roasting them in front of his
victims before killing them. Disappearing from history and never caught,
London’s National Maritime Museum believes he ended his days in Brazil.
‘Black Bart’ Roberts was perhaps the most successful pirate ever with over 400 ship captures. And Henry Every was one of the few pirate captains to retire with his loot without being taken or killed in battle. But many of the bigger names were hanged, either in the Caribbean or at London’s Execution Dock, including William Kidd (1701); Stede Bonnet, a rich Barbados plantation owner turned pirate (1718); ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham (1720); Charles Vane (1721) and William Fly (1726). Hundreds of others ended up on the gallows, too. Colony officials became more organised and tolerance for such methods of wealth redistribution steadily declined.
Women were poorly represented in this profession. But two female pirates - Mary Read and Anne Bonny - stand out. Reade died in jail. Bonny, Jack Rackham’s former lover, pleaded pregnancy at her trial, and then vanished from history. No record of a childbirth or execution exists.
Blackbeard's shipwreck
In 1996 the Queen Anne’s Revenge wreckage was discovered. This early 18th century frigate was the flagship of Edward Teach, better known as ‘Blackbeard’. He looked fearsome but his bark was worse than his bite. He supposedly struck terror into those he came across. It seems he wasn’t especially violent, let alone vicious. Killed in action in 1718, he was romanticised after his death and became the fictional model of a pirate.
Model of Blackbeard's vessel, Queen Anne's Revenge
The wreck of Blackbeard's vessel has been discovered and an underwater excavation carried out. Many of its objects have been preserved and catalogued in a museum at Beaufort, North Carolina. It's probably the only example of a real pirate vessel that survives.
Piracy as cultural fantasy
One of the stereotypical features of pirates in
popular culture, the eye patch, actually dates back to the Arab Rahmah ibn
Jabir al-Jalahimah who lost his eye in an 18th century battle. And
of course the Barbary pirates operated as slave dealers well into the 19th
century. The parrot on the shoulder, hooked hand and wooden leg appendages are
from the RL Stevenson and JM Barrie school of children’s fiction. But earrings
may have had validity as a common form of portable wealth and ready means for a
pirate's relatives, if any, to pay for his funeral when required.
Finally it’s perhaps surprising that in the 1980s and 90s pirates were used in many UK primary schools as role models. As supposedly classless and culturally neutral figures, pirates were deemed to be a handy aid towards inclusion especially in the more diverse classrooms. But this idea of 'jolly japes' was based on myths, not on the cruel truth. The exemplars were actually a crowd of despicable robbers and vicious murderers. A strange example of a myth built upon a myth?
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