"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti


[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]


Thursday, April 7, 2022

Pirate Legends of the Caribbean Seas - Pirate Poems & Vids





A Collection of Sea Shanties (vocal only)
Aug 21, 2015

A collection of shanties with no instruments.






Horrible Histories - Blackbeard's Song
Jun 17, 2010

The famous pirate and his crew sing
about his vicious reign of the high seas.


The Taking of Teach the Pirate
by Benjamin Franklin - 1719


One of Ben Franklin's earliest writings, The Taking of Teach the Pirate (also called The Downfall of Piracy) was written by a twelve year old Ben upon hearing of the news of the killing of Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard the Pirate, who had stolen from shipping vessels and coastal towns along the east coast of North America and the East Indies for several years.

The poem recounts the last hours of Blackbeard's life as he fought against Lieutenant Robert Maynard and his sailors. Sent out to capture the loathed pirate by Alexander SpotswoodRoyal Governor of Virginia, Lieutenant Maynard cornered Blackbeard at Ocracoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. After a short battle on the morning of November 22, 1718, Blackbeard was dead, his severed head proudly displayed from the HMS Jane, as Lieutenant Maynard sailed home to claim the prize for killing such a despised soul.




The Taking of Teach the Pirate
by 12 year old Benjamin Franklin


Will you hear of a bloody Battle, Lately fought upon the Seas, It will make your Ears to rattle, And your Admiration cease; Have you heard of Teach the Rover, And his Knavery on the Main; How of Gold he was a Lover, How he lov'd all ill got Gain.

When the Act of Grace appeared, Captain Teach with all his Men, Unto Carolina steered, Where they kindly us'd him then; There he marry'd to a Lady, And gave her five hundred Pound, But to her he prov'd unsteady, For he soon march'd off the Ground.And returned, as I tell you, To his Robbery as before, Burning, sinking Ships of value, Filling them with Purple Gore; When he was at Carolina, There the Governor did send, To the Governor of Virginia, That he might assistance lend.

Then the Man of War's Commander, Two small Sloops he fitted out, Fifty Men he put on board, Sir, Who resolv'd to stand it out: The Lieutenant he commanded both the Sloops, and you shall hear, How before he landed, He suppress'd them without Fear.

Valiant Maynard as he sailed, Soon the Pirate did espy, With his Trumpet he then hailed, And to him they did reply: Captain Teach is our Commander, Maynard said, he is the Man, Whom I am resolv'd to hang Sir, Let him do the best he can.

Teach reply'd unto Maynard, You no Quarters here shall see, But be hang'd on the Main-yard, You and all your Company; Maynard said, I none desire, Of such Knaves as thee and thine, None I'll give, Teach then replyed, My Boys, give me a Glass of Wine.

He took the Glass, and drank Damnation, Unto Maynard and his Crew; To himself and Generation, Then the Glass away he threw; Brave Maynard was resolv'd to have him, Tho' he'd Cannons nine or ten: Teach a broadside quickly gave him, Killing sixteen valiant Men.

Maynard boarded him, and to it They fell with Sword and Pistol too; They had Courage, and did show it, Killing the Pirate's Crew. Teach and Maynard on the Quarter, Fought it out most manfully, Maynard's Sword did cut him shorter, Losing his Head, he there did die.

Every Sailor fought while he Sir, Power had to weild [sic] the Sword, Not a Coward could you see Sir, Fear was driven from aboard: Wounded Men on both Sides fell Sir, 'Twas a doleful Sight to see, Nothing could their Courage quell Sir, O, they fought courageously.

When the bloody Fight was over, We're inform'd by a Letter writ, Teach's Head was made a Cover, To the Jack Staff of the Ship: Thus they sailed to Virginia, And when they the Story told, How they kill'd the Pirates many, They'd Applause from young and old.

- BF


* * * * * * *



Blackbeard, Bluebeard & Redbeard
A Pirate Story by Eric Herman
Sep 17, 2008





Bluebeard and Redbeard and Blackbeard

by Kenn Nesbitt (Author), Ethan Long (Illustrator)


Blackbeard and Bluebeard and Redbeard, they say,
Hijacked a ship and went sailing away.
Seaward they scudded and skipped on the breeze,
Searching for treasure to plunder and seize.

Riches, regrettably, couldn’t be found.
Ships bearing booty were nowhere around.
Therefor the buccaneers wandered afloat
thinking of things they could do with their boat.

Bluebeard said, “Aargh, since we’ve nothing to do,
Why don’t we paint our new pirate ship blue?”
Redbeard spoke up, saying, “Aye, but instead,
wouldn’t ye rather we painted her red?”

Blackbeard said, “Blimey, you’re both off the track.
No other color’s as handsome as black.”
“Blue!” shouted Bluebeard, and Redbeard yelled “Red!”
Blackbeard said, “Black! You’re both cracked in the head!”

Redbeard grabbed brushes and buckets and paints
Over his shipmates insistent complaints.
Rather than letting him paint the ship red,
They got some blue paint and black paint instead.

Swiftly the three of them painted their boat,
Each a completely dissimilar coat,
Making a color not red, black or blue;
Mixing, instead, an entirely new hue.

That was the last that was seen of the three
Simply because they refused to agree.
They weren’t torpedoed or shelled or harpooned.
They disappeared, for their ship was marooned.


Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2009.
All Rights Reserved.

Reading Level: Grade 4

* * * * * * *


This most famous fictional pirate was real



"Pirates - A Ballad of John Silver"
by John Masefield (as read by Tom O'Bedlam)
May 20, 2011




A Ballad of John Silver


We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the crossbones and the skull;
We'd a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore,
And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore.

We'd a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship,
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip;
It's a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored,
But we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid their ships aboard.

Then the dead men fouled the scuppers and the wounded filled the chains,
And the paint-work all was spatter dashed with other peoples brains,
She was boarded, she was looted, she was scuttled till she sank.
And the pale survivors left us by the medium of the plank.

O! then it was (while standing by the taffrail on the poop)
We could hear the drowning folk lament the absent chicken coop;
Then, having washed the blood away, we'd little else to do
Than to dance a quiet hornpipe as the old salts taught us to.

O! the fiddle on the fo'c'sle, and the slapping naked soles,
And the genial "Down the middle, Jake, and curtsey when she rolls!"
With the silver seas around us and the pale moon overhead,
And the look-out not a-looking and his pipe-bowl glowing red.

Ah! the pig-tailed, quidding pirates and the pretty pranks we played,
All have since been put a stop to by the naughty Board of Trade;
The schooners and the merry crews are laid away to rest,
A little south the sunset in the islands of the Blest.



* * * * * * *






Pirate Music - The Jolly Roger
Mar 20, 2018


Pirate music about a pirate ship that goes on many dangerous expeditions and adventures in search of gold and treasures. This music is called The Jolly Roger. We hope you enjoy it!


* * * * * * *



40 Useful Pirate Phrases for the
International Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 18, 2017


Arrr, matey, brush up on your pirate
speak before this pirate day is upon us.

Avast ye, hearties: Tuesday, September 19 is National Talk Like a Pirate Day and you don’t want to look like a scallywag. Captain Syntax shares a few useful phrases in this video so your pirate lingo will sound like that of an old salt, matey. And don’t forget the rum… er, grog.


How to Talk Like a Pirate
Sep 18, 2017




Jake and the Never Land Pirates
Talk like a Pirate! | Disney Junior UK
Apr 16, 2011

Sing and dance along with the Never Land Pirate Band!



PIRATE VOICE TUTORIAL & TIPS
(How to talk like a pirate!)
Jul 28, 2020




Popular Pirate Phrases

Abandon Ship: An order to leave the vessel immediately, usually in the face of some imminent danger

Ahoy: Hello

Avast Ye: A command meaning pay attention or listen

Aye, Aye: Yes, I understand

Batten Down the Hatches: When everything on a ship is tied down to prepare for an approaching storm

Booty: Refers to any ill-gotten goods swiped from another party

Bounty: The reward for capturing a criminal

Briny Deep: The ocean

Carouser: A reckless person who drinks too much

Chantey: A song that sailors sing in unison while working

Clap of Thunder: A strong alcoholic beverage, usually referring to a shot

Davy Jones’ Locker: Graveyard at the bottom of the sea for those killed or drowned

Dead Men Tell No Tales: An expression that means dead people will not betray any secrets. Used as a threat to kill someone, or a way of saying there were no survivors.

Doubloons: Types of gold coins

Fire in the Hole: A cannon is about to be fired

Grog: Diluted rum, but can be used to refer to any alcoholic concoction

Hang the Jib: To pout or frown

Hearties: Friends, comrades

Hornswaggle: To swindle something, usually money, out of someone else

Jolly Roger: The name for the iconic black pirate flag featuring a white skull and crossbones

Lad, lass, lassie: A child or young person

Landlubber: Someone without sailing ability

Loot: Stolen money or possessions

Marooned: To be abandoned with no food, drink or possessions

Me: My

Old Salt: Experienced pirate or sailor

Plunder: To steal

Run a Rig: Play a joke on someone

Scallywag: What an experienced pirate would call a newbie

Scurvy: A derogatory adjective meaning lowly or disgusting

Seadog: A veteran sailor

Shiver Me Timbers: An exclamation of surprise

Sink Me: An exclamation of surprise

Son of a Biscuit Eater: An insult

Thar She Blows: A whale sighting

Three Sheets to the Wind: Someone who is very drunk. One sheet is mildly drunk, and four sheets is passed out.

Walk the Plank: When someone is forcibly ordered to walk off a wooden board into the sea, resulting in drowning

Wench: A woman

Ye: You

Yo Ho Ho: A jolly expression



* * * * * * *



Epic Pirate Music - Pirates & Buccaneers
The Life of a Pirate
May 27, 2019

Brandon Fiechter's Music
Epic pirate music about adventurous pirates,
buccaneers, and sailors who search the seven seas
for treasure.



SAILS | 1 Hour Best of Epic Pirate Adventure Music Mix
Music for Life of a Pirate
Feb 15, 2021





* * * * * * *



William Henry Davies Biography


William Henry Davies (1871 - September 26, 1940), was a Welsh poet and writer. He spent most of his life as a tramp in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time.

He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, where his father died when he was two years old. His mother then abandoned him and his siblings when she remarried, leaving them to be brought up by their grandparents.

He was a difficult and somewhat delinquent young man, and after failing to settle as an apprentice, took casual work and travelled. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) is an account of his times in the USA 1893 - '99, during which he lived as a vagrant. He lost a leg while jumping a train in Canada, and wore a wooden leg.

He returned to England, living a rough life in London in particular. His first book of poetry, in 1905, was the beginning of success and a growing reputation; he drew extensively on his experiences with the seamier side for material. By the time of his prominent place in the Edward Marsh Georgian poetry series, he was an established figure. He is generally best known for two lines from his poem, Leisure:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

He married in 1923 Helen Payne, an ex-prostitute and his junior by three decades; his frank account of how this came about was only published in 1980. They lived quietly in Sussex and Gloucestershire.



The Child and the Mariner

A dear old couple my grandparents were, 
And kind to all dumb things; they saw in Heaven 
The lamb that Jesus petted when a child; 
Their faith was never draped by Doubt: to them 
Death was a rainbow in Eternity, 
That promised everlasting brightness soon.
An old seafaring man was he; a rough Old man, but kind; and hairy, like the nut Full of sweet milk.
All day on shore he watched The winds for sailors' wives, and told what ships Enjoyed fair weather, and what ships had storms; He watched the sky, and he could tell for sure What afternoons would follow stormy morns, If quiet nights would end wild afternoons.
He leapt away from scandal with a roar, And if a whisper still possessed his mind, He walked about and cursed it for a plague.
He took offence at Heaven when beggars passed, And sternly called them back to give them help.
In this old captain's house I lived, and things That house contained were in ships' cabins once: Sea-shells and charts and pebbles, model ships; Green weeds, dried fishes stuffed, and coral stalks; Old wooden trunks with handles of spliced rope, With copper saucers full of monies strange, That seemed the savings of dead men, not touched To keep them warm since their real owners died; Strings of red beads, methought were dipped in blood, And swinging lamps, as though the house might move; An ivory lighthouse built on ivory rocks, The bones of fishes and three bottled ships.
And many a thing was there which sailors make In idle hours, when on long voyages, Of marvellous patience, to no lovely end.
And on those charts I saw the small black dots That were called islands, and I knew they had Turtles and palms, and pirates' buried gold.
There came a stranger to my granddad's house, The old man's nephew, a seafarer too; A big, strong able man who could have walked Twm Barlum's hill all clad in iron mail So strong he could have made one man his club To knock down others -- Henry was his name, No other name was uttered by his kin.
And here he was, sooth illclad, but oh, Thought I, what secrets of the sea are his! This man knows coral islands in the sea, And dusky girls heartbroken for white men; More rich than Spain, when the Phoenicians shipped Silver for common ballast, and they saw Horses at silver mangers eating grain; This man has seen the wind blow up a mermaid's hair Which, like a golden serpent, reared and stretched To feel the air away beyond her head.
He begged my pennies, which I gave with joy -- He will most certainly return some time A self-made king of some new land, and rich.
Alas that he, the hero of my dreams, Should be his people's scorn; for they had rose To proud command of ships, whilst he had toiled Before the mast for years, and well content; Him they despised, and only Death could bring A likeness in his face to show like them.
For he drank all his pay, nor went to sea As long as ale was easy got on shore.
Now, in his last long voyage he had sailed From Plymouth Sound to where sweet odours fan The Cingalese at work, and then back home -- But came not near my kin till pay was spent.
He was not old, yet seemed so; for his face Looked like the drowned man's in the morgue, when it Has struck the wooden wharves and keels of ships.
And all his flesh was pricked with Indian ink, His body marked as rare and delicate As dead men struck by lightning under trees And pictured with fine twigs and curlèd ferns; Chains on his neck and anchors on his arms; Rings on his fingers, bracelets on his wrist; And on his breast the Jane of Appledore Was schooner rigged, and in full sail at sea.
He could not whisper with his strong hoarse voice, No more than could a horse creep quietly; He laughed to scorn the men that muffled close For fear of wind, till all their neck was hid, Like Indian corn wrapped up in long green leaves; He knew no flowers but seaweeds brown and green, He knew no birds but those that followed ships.
Full well he knew the water-world; he heard A grander music there than we on land, When organ shakes a church; swore he would make The sea his home, though it was always roused By such wild storms as never leave Cape Horn; Happy to hear the tempest grunt and squeal Like pigs heard dying in a slaughterhouse.
A true-born mariner, and this his hope -- His coffin would be what his cradle was, A boat to drown in and be sunk at sea; Salted and iced in Neptune's larder deep.
This man despised small coasters, fishing-smacks; He scorned those sailors who at night and morn Can see the coast, when in their little boats They go a six days' voyage and are back Home with their wives for every Sabbath day.
Much did he talk of tankards of old beer, And bottled stuff he drank in other lands, Which was a liquid fire like Hell to gulp, But Paradise to sip.
And so he talked; Nor did those people listen with more awe To Lazurus -- whom they had seen stone dead -- Than did we urchins to that seaman's voice.
He many a tale of wonder told: of where, At Argostoli, Cephalonia's sea Ran over the earth's lip in heavy floods; And then again of how the strange Chinese Conversed much as our homely Blackbirds sing.
He told us how he sailed in one old ship Near that volcano Martinique, whose power Shook like dry leaves the whole Caribbean seas; And made the sun set in a sea of fire Which only half was his; and dust was thick On deck, and stones were pelted at the mast.
Into my greedy ears such words that sleep Stood at my pillow half the night perplexed.
He told how isles sprang up and sank again, Between short voyages, to his amaze; How they did come and go, and cheated charts; Told how a crew was cursed when one man killed A bird that perched upon a moving barque; And how the sea's sharp needles, firm and strong, Ripped open the bellies of big, iron ships; Of mighty icebergs in the Northern seas, That haunt the far hirizon like white ghosts.
He told of waves that lift a ship so high That birds could pass from starboard unto port Under her dripping keel.
Oh, it was sweet To hear that seaman tell such wondrous tales: How deep the sea in parts, that drownèd men Must go a long way to their graves and sink Day after day, and wander with the tides.
He spake of his own deeds; of how he sailed One summer's night along the Bosphorus, And he -- who knew no music like the wash Of waves against a ship, or wind in shrouds -- Heard then the music on that woody shore Of nightingales,and feared to leave the deck, He thought 'twas sailing into Paradise.
To hear these stories all we urchins placed Our pennies in that seaman's ready hand; Until one morn he signed on for a long cruise, And sailed away -- we never saw him more.
Could such a man sink in the sea unknown? Nay, he had found a land with something rich, That kept his eyes turned inland for his life.
'A damn bad sailor and a landshark too, No good in port or out' -- my granddad said.


* * * * * * *


"The Seaman's Flaunt to the proud Pirate"
Poem animation
Jul 16, 2012

Here's a virtual movie of a reading of an old English seafaring Poem that is often sung as a sort of sea shanty "The Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt to the proud Pirate" There isn't a known author or date of origin for this memorable piece of sea poetry. I have employed the visual services of an old Sea Dog to be our reader me hearties.

Salcombe is a town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England has a long nautical history. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, built mostly on the steep west side of the estuary and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The town's extensive waterfront and the naturally sheltered harbour formed by the estuary gave rise to its success as a boat- and shipbuilding and sailing port and, in modern times, tourism especially in the form of pleasure sailing and yachting. There is also a crabbing industry.

History and Background to Salcombe

Until about 100 years ago Salcombe earned its living from the estuary and the sea. Fishing, seafaring, boat and later shipbuilding with smuggling and probably some piracy were the principal occupations. The oldest local settlements were not built at the water's edge but at some distance inland. The reason was that danger came from the sea. Long after the invasions which some of us learned about at school - Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman, it still remained a source of danger. Some of these dangers are mentioned in the following paragraphs. Others include pirates seeking temporary shelter and supplies and, in the case of those from the Barbary States of North Africa, slaves. Hundreds of Devon people were kidnapped in the 1600s and taken to the slave markets of Algiers and Sallee on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Some were eventually ransomed but others never returned home.

Kind Regards,

Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2012



An ink drawing of A Broadside


The Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt
to the Proud Pirate
by Anonymous


A LOFTY ship from Salcombe came,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
She had golden trucks that shone like flame,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"Masthead, masthead, "the captains hail,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Look out and round; d' ye see a sail?"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"There's a ship what looms like Beachy Head,"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Her banner aloft it blows out red,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"Oh, ship ahoy, and where do you steer?"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"Are you man-of-war, or privateer?"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I am neither one of the two," said she,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"I'm a pirate, looking for my fee,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"I'm a jolly pirate, out for gold:"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"I will rummage through your after hold,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

The grumbling guns they flashed and roared,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Till the pirate's mast went overboard,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

They fired shot till the pirate's deck,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Was blood and spars and broken wreck,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

"O do not haul the red flag down,"
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
"O keep all fast until we drown,"
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

They called for cans of wine, and drank,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
They sang their songs until she sank,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

Now let us brew good cans of flip,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
And drink a bowl to the Salcombe ship,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.

And drink a bowl to the lad of fame,
Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we;
Who put the pirate ship to shame,
On the bonny coasts of Barbary.



* * * * * * * * * *


The 10 Manliest Sea Shanties

by Brett & Kate McKay
September 23, 2008 • Last updated: June 4, 2021



I soon got used to this singing, for the sailors never touched a rope without it . . . Some sea captains, before shipping a man, always ask him whether he can sing out at a rope.
–Herman Melville, Redburn

It’s the 19th century. You’re a young man seeking adventure and a test of your manhood. You decide to sign up on a ship to see exotic foreign lands. You take the trip to the coast. You find a big coastal town and you walk through the docks admiring the ships. Finally, you spot one that you like. You walk on deck and a tall man dressed in black coat confronts you. It’s the captain.
“What do you want lad?”
“I want to sign on board sir,” you say.
He looks you up and down, and says “Aye. But first I need to give you a test.”
You’re not worried. You were expecting this and, in fact, hoping for it. You want to show the captain what you can do. After all, you were always the strongest out of all your friends. You could climb up any rock or tree since you learned how to walk. And you also knew a bit about navigation from your grandfather. You were eager to show what a great addition to the crew you’d make.
“How well can you sing?” the captain asks.

Of  Wooden Ships and Iron Men

Sea Shanties were work songs sung on ships during the age of sail. They were used to keep rhythm during work and make it more pleasant. Because these songs were used to accomplish a goal, rather then for pure entertainment, the lyrics and melody were not very sophisticated. Still, the songs were usually meaningful and told of a sailor’s life, which included backbreaking labor, abuse from captain and crew, alcohol, and longing for girls and dry land.

A typical shanty had a call-and-response format. One sailor(a shantyman) would call out a verse, to which the rest of the sailors would respond in unison. The work would occur usually on the last syllable of the response or some other cue. An example can be found in the movie Moby Dick:

Shantyman: Our boots and clothes are all in pawn

Sailors: Go(pull) down ye blood red roses, go(pull) down.

Shanties were divided into several categories, named after the work they were used for. There were long haul shanties and short haul shanties for long and short rope pulling. There were windlass shanties for pumping out water(all wooden ships leaked to some extent and water would have to be pumped out regularly), and capstan shanties for raising and lowering the anchor.

There was also a fifth kind of sailor song, which wasn’t really considered a true shanty because it was not used for work. Foc’sle, forecastle or forebitters were songs sung after the work was over. They were named after the sailor’s living quarters, where they would gather around to drink and sing wild ballads. 

For the purpose of the article I’m including a few of them as shanties.

The categories weren’t set in stone and sailors would often borrow songs and change the melody and rhythm to suit their work. It seems the only rules regarding sea shanties were that the songs talking about life at sea were sung on the outward part of the journey, and songs talking about coming home and dry land were sung while the ship was homeward bound.

Today, not many people know about the existence of sea shanties. They are usually sung at sea festivals and pirate shows. You can sometimes hear them in movies about the sea, such as Master and Commander and Moby Dick. But the true tradition of shanties ended with the age of sail.

The 10 Manliest Sea Shanties

1. Blow the Man Down

A very popular halyard shanty among modern shantymen. The Spongebob Squarepants theme is a variation of this tune. The version sung on ships usually told about a policeman accusing a sailor of being a black baller and the insulted sailor knocking the policeman down and ending up in jail. The modern version usually tells a story about a sailor meeting a pretty young damsel. The title and chorus refer to the abuse sailors endured on the ships of the Black Ball line.

2. Roll the Old Chariot

A capstan shanty of African-American origin. The song told about the indulgences sailors dreamed of partaking once they came on shore. It was very easy to add lyrics to it, and so individual sailors would list things they loved most that “wouldn’t do them any harm.”The line, “A drop of Nelson’s blood wouldn’t do us any harm,” refers to Horatio Nelson whose body was put in a casket of brandy following his death at the battle of Trafalgar.

3. The Coasts of High Barbary

This one was a forecastle song. Originally an English song, it was later rewritten by American sailors to tell about a victorious battle with pirates disguised as another ship. The pirates pleaded for mercy but the sailors gave them no quarter.

4. Spanish Ladies
This is the song that you can hear in Master and Commander and Jaws. It was a capstan shanty sung on homeward bound journeys. The lines “we’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors, we’ll rant and we’ll roar along the salt seas,” might as well have been a battle cry. The verse “we’ll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy,” perfectly describes the sailor’s recipe for a bad mood.

5. The Bonny Ship The Diamond

This was a forecastle song telling a true story about whaling ship The Diamond which was lost at sea in 1819. Whaling in the age of sail was perhaps the most dangerous job a man could do. Sailors were required to kill the biggest creature on earth from a rowboat. The frost and winds and hard work alone were enough to make sure that only the toughest men signed up for the job.

6. Rolling Down to Old Maui

Another whaling forecastle song. This one featured a sweet melody which reflected the melancholy of tired sailors. It told about coming home from a whaling trip and describes leaving behind the hardships of hunting for whales.

7. Blood Red Roses

A halyard shanty about going around Cape Horn to whale. Rounding Cape Horn was one of the toughest tasks in the age of sail because of the strong and unfavorable winds in the area.

There is some speculation as to what “blood red roses” is referring to. Some people say it’s a name for the Royal British marines who wore a red uniform. Others say it’s referring to whale’s blood on the surface of the water.

8. Fiddler’s Green - Irish Song

A forecastle ballad. Fiddler’s Green is sailors’ and fishermen’s version of heaven. A place where there is no work, where you have a mug of beer that refills itself, and there are pretty ladies dancing to a sound of fiddle that never ends. The idea of Fiddler’s Green was taken from an old Irish legend and adapted by sailors because at sea the dying did not have the chance to get properly anointed and therefore did not have the chance to enter Christian heaven.

9. Lowlands

A very sad capstan shanty (although it was probably sung more often in the forecastle). As with all shanties, there are many versions, but the basic story is that the sailor dreams about his love and in that instant he knows that she has died. There are versions where it’s the sailor’s girl that dreams about the sailor. Some versions are more elaborate and include sailors seeing red roses on his girl’s body as a symbol of blood, wet hair as a sign of drowning, and so on. In some versions after the death of a sailor the girl cuts her hair so that no other man will find her attractive.

10. Haul Away Joe

A short haul shanty. Another popular shanty among modern shantymen. It contains, in my opinion, the best two lines of any shanty or sea song: “When I was a little boy my mother always told me…That if I did not kiss the girls, my lips would grow all moldy.” The rest of the song usually tells about the sailor’s adventures with women of different nationalities until he finds one that’s “just a daisy.”

Sea Shanties in the Movies


Master and Commander Shanties
Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate



Jaws
Tiburón - Farewell and adieu (V.O.)

Pirate Legends of the Caribbean Seas

Blackbeard's final stand


8 Famous Pirates from the ‘Golden Age of Piracy https://www.historyhit.com/famous-pirates-of-the-golden-age-of-piracy/

Ten Most Famous Pirates in History
https://boattoursjohnspass.com/10-most-famous-pirates-in-history/

YouTube.com: Pirate legends of the Caribbean Seas https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pirate+legends+of+the+caribbean+seas



The Pirate Republic of Nassau



Wikipedia - Global List of Pirates

Rise of the English Sea Dogs and Dutch Privateers: 1560–1650

  • Andrade, TonioThe Company's Chinese Pirates: How the Dutch East India Company Tried to Lead a Coalition of Pirates to War Against China, 1621–1662].
  • Bicheno, Hugh Crescent and Cross: The Battle of Lepanto 1571, Phoenix Paperback, 2004, ISBN 1-84212-753-5
  • Rachel Carley (2000). Cuba: 400 Years of Architectural Heritage. Watson-Guptill. p. 224. ISBN 0-8230-1128-3.
  • David Cordingly (1997). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Harvest Books. p. 320. ISBN 0-15-600549-2.
  • Currey, E. Hamilton Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, London, 1910.
  • Earle, Peter (2003). The Pirate WarsMethuen Publishing. p. 304. ISBN 0-413-75880-X.
  • Gerhard, Peter. Pirates of New Spain, 1575–1742. Mineola, NY: Courier Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-486-42611-4
  • van der Hoven, Marco, ed. Exercise of Arms: Warfare in the Netherlands, 1568–1648. Brill Academic Publishers, 1997. ISBN 90-04-10727-4
  • Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9.
  • Kupperman, Karen OrdahlProvidence Island, 1630–1641: The Other Puritan Colony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-521-55835-8
  • Lane, Kris E. Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas, 1500–1750. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. ISBN 0-7656-0257-1
  • Lunsford, V.W., Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands (2005)
  • Manthorpe, Jonathan. Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan. New York, 2005.
  • Mattingly, GarettThe Defeat of the Spanish ArmadaISBN 0-395-08366-4 – a detailed account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, it received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee in 1960.
  • Maxwell, Kenneth. Naked Tropics: Essays on Empire and Other Rogues. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94576-3
  • Mcgrath, John Terrence. The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. ISBN 0-8130-1784-X
  • Michael, Franz. The Origin of Manchu Rule in China. Baltimore, 1942. Journal of World History, 2004 Dec.; 15(4):415–44.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, in chapter XXXIX of his classic El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, mentions Uluç Ali under the name of "Uchali", describing briefly his rise to the regency of Algiers.
  • Rodger, N.A.M. The Safeguard of the Sea; A Naval History of Britain 660–1649. (London, 1997).
  • Roding, Juliette and Lex Heerma van Voss, ed. The North Sea and Culture (1550–1800). Larenseweg, Netherlands: Uitgeverij VerLoren, 1996. ISBN 90-6550-527-X
  • Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
  • Schmidt, Benjamin. Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-521-80408-6
  • Stradling, R.A. The Armada of Flanders: Spanish Maritime Policy and European War, 1568–1668 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History). Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-521-40534-8 (issued in paperback 2004, ISBN 978-0-521-52512-1)
  • Wolf, John B. The Barbary Coast: Algeria under the Turks, W.W. Norton, New York/London, 1979, ISBN 0-393-01205-0.

Age of the Buccaneers: 1650–1690

  • The Pirates of the Caribbean II in Tortuga in the XVII Century Tortuga, 1918.
  • Haring, Clarence. The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century. Methuen, 1910.
  • Walpole, HoraceLetters, Volume 4 (at Project Gutenberg)
  • Lunsford, V.W., Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands (2005)
  • Marley, David F. Pirates and Privateers of the Americas. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1994.
  • Morris, Mowbray. Tales of the Spanish Main. Kessinger Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-4179-5373-X
  • Riccardo Capoferro, Frontiere del racconto. Letteratura di viaggio e romanzo in Inghilterra, 1690–1750, Meltemi, 2007.
  • Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
  • Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates: an A–Z Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
  • The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp and Others in the South Sea, Being a Journal of the Same; Also Capt. Van Horn with His Buccanieres Surprising of La Veracruz; to Which Is Added the True Relation of Sir Henry Morgan His Expedition Against the Spaniards in the West-Indies and His Taking Panama; Together with the President of Panama's [i.e., Juan Perez de Guzman] Account of the Same Expedition, Translated Out of the Spanish; and Col. Beeston's Adjustment of the Peace Between the Spaniards and English in the West Indies. London: Printed by B.W. for R.H. and S.T. and are to be sold by Walter Davis..., 1684.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Golden Age of Piracy: 1690–1730

  • Andrews, Thomas F. (editor) (1979) English Privateers at Cabo San Lucas: the Descriptive Accounts of Puerto Seguro by Edward Cooke (1712) and Woodes Rogers (1712), with Added Comments by George Shelvocke (1726) and William Betagh (1728). Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles.
  • Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail.
  • Breverton, Terry (2003) The Book of Welsh Pirates and Buccaneers. Glyndwr Publishing. ISBN 1-903529-09-3
  • Cooke, Edward (1712) A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World. 3 vols. Lintot, London
  • Ellms, Charles (1837) The Pirate's Own Book: Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers. Portland ME: Sanborn & Carter (reissued: New York: Dover Publications 1993 ISBN 0-486-27607-4)
  • Gilbert, H. (1986) The Book of Pirates. London: Bracken Books.
  • Johnson, Charles (1724) A General History of the Pyrates. 2 vols. London: Charles Rivington
    • Johnson, Charles (1724) A General History of the Pyrates, from their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time... 2nd ed. London: Printed for, and sold by, T. Warner
    • Johnson, Charles (1724) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (1998 ed.). Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-732-0.
    • Johnson, Charles (1728) The History of the Pirates: containing the lives of Captain Mission.... London: Printed for, and sold by, T. Woodward, 1728.
  • Little, Bryan (1960) Crusoe's Captain: Being the Life of Woodes Rogers, seaman, trader, colonial governor. London: Odhams Press
  • Lunsford, V.W., Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands (2005)
  • Menefee, S. P. "Vane, Charles," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 56 (2004): pp. 94–95.
  • Pennell, C. R. (2001) Bandits at Sea: a Pirates Reader. New York: NYU Press ISBN 0-8147-6678-1
  • Pickering, David (2006) Pirates. CollinsGem. New York: HarperCollins Publishers; pp. 80–82
  • Rediker, Marcus (2004) Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press ISBN 0-8070-5024-5
  • Rogers, Woodes (1712) A Cruising Voyage Round the World. London: Andrew Bell
  • Rogozinski, Jan (1996) Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press ISBN 0-306-80722-X
  • Rogozinski, Jan (2000) Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean. Stackpole Books ISBN 0-8117-1529-9
  • Seitz, Don Carlos, Gospel, Howard F. & Wood, Stephen (2002) Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates. Mineola, New York: Courier Dover Publications ISBN 0-486-42131-7
  • Smith, Captain Alexander (1926) History of the Highwaymen. London: George Routledge & Sons ISBN 0-415-28678-6
  • Steele, Philip (2004) The World of Pirates. Boston: Kingfisher Publications ISBN 0-7534-5786-5
  • The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates. London: Printed for Benj. Cowse at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1719.

Decline of Piracy: 1730–1900

  • Cordingly, David (1997). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Harvest Books.
  • Gregory, Kristiana. The Stowaway: A Tale of California Pirates. Scholastic Trade, 1995. ISBN 0-590-48822-8
  • Pickering, David. "Pirates". CollinsGem. HarperCollins Publishers, New York. pp. 96–97. 2006
  • Rothert, Otto A. The Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, Otto A. Rothert, Cleveland 1924; rpt. 1996 ISBN 0-8093-2034-7



* * * * * *


Documentary National Geographic (360p poor video resolution)
The Golden Age Of Piracy Terror At Sea
May 11, 2016


Jarvis Smoak
Piracy is typically an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents.

Piracy is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of States. It is distinguished from privateering, which is authorized by national authorities and therefore a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. Privateering is considered commerce raiding, and was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) for signatories to those treaties.


* * * * * *




Piracy in the Caribbean


The era of piracy in the Caribbean began in the 1500s and phased out in the 1830s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe and North America with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1660s to 1730s. Piracy flourished in the Caribbean because of the existence of pirate seaports such as Port Royal in Jamaica,[1] Tortuga in Haiti, and Nassau in the Bahamas.[2] Piracy in the Caribbean was part of a larger historical phenomenon of piracy, as it existed close to major trade and exploration routes in almost all the five oceans.[3][4][5]


click to enlarge

Main trade routes prey to 16th-century piracy: Spanish treasure fleets linking the Caribbean to Seville, Manila galleons (after 1568) (white) and Portuguese India Armadas (after 1498) (blue); (click to enlarge)

Causes

Pirates were often former sailors experienced in naval warfare. In the 16th century, pirate captains recruited seamen to loot European merchant ships, especially the Spanish treasure fleets sailing from the Caribbean to Europe. The following quote by an 18th-century Welsh captain shows the motivations for piracy:

In an honest Service, there is thin Commons, low Wages, and hard Labour; in this, Plenty and Satiety, Pleasure and Ease, Liberty and Power; and who would not balance Creditor on this Side, when all the Hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower Look or two at choaking. No, a merry Life and a short one shall be my Motto.

—Pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts

Piracy was sometimes given legal status by the colonial powers, especially France under King Francis I (r.1515–1547), in the hope of weakening Spain and Portugal's mare clausum trade monopolies in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This officially sanctioned piracy was known as privateering. From 1520 to 1560, French privateers were alone in their fight against the Crown of Spain and the vast commerce of the Spanish Empire in the New World, but were later joined by the English and Dutch.

The Caribbean had become an important center of European trade and colonization after Columbus' discovery of the New World for Spain in 1492. In the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas the non-European world had been divided between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north–south line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. This gave Spain control of the Americas, a position the Spaniards later reiterated with an equally unenforceable papal bull (The Inter caetera). On the Spanish Main, the key early settlements were Cartagena in present-day ColombiaPorto Bello and Panama City on the Isthmus of PanamaSantiago on the southeastern coast of Cuba, and Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola. In the 16th century, the Spanish were mining extremely large quantities of silver from the mines of Zacatecas in New Spain (Mexico) and Potosí in Bolivia (formerly known as Alto Peru). The huge Spanish silver shipments from the New World to the Old attracted pirates and French privateers like François Leclerc or Jean Fleury, both in the Caribbean and across the Atlantic, all along the route from the Caribbean to Seville.

French pirate Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555

To combat this constant danger, in the 1560s the Spanish adopted a convoy system. A treasure fleet or flota would sail annually from Seville (and later from Cádiz) in Spain, carrying passengers, troops, and European manufactured goods to the Spanish colonies of the New World. This cargo, though profitable, was really just a form of ballast for the fleet as its true purpose was to transport the year's worth of silver to Europe. The first stage in the journey was the transport of all that silver from the mines in Bolivia and New Spain in a mule convoy called the Silver Train to a major Spanish port, usually on the Isthmus of Panama or Veracruz in New Spain. The flota would meet up with the Silver Train, offload its cargo of manufactured goods to waiting colonial merchants and then load its holds with the precious cargo of gold and silver, in bullion or coin form. This made the returning Spanish treasure fleet a tempting target, although pirates were more likely to shadow the fleet to attack stragglers than to engage the well-armed main vessels. The classic route for the treasure fleet in the Caribbean was through the Lesser Antilles to the ports along the Spanish Main on the coast of Central America and New Spain, then northwards into the Yucatán Channel to catch the westerly winds back to Europe.

By the 1560s, the Dutch United Provinces of the Netherlands and England, both Protestant states, were defiantly opposed to Catholic Spain, the greatest power of Christendom in the 16th century; while the French government was seeking to expand its colonial holdings in the New World now that Spain had proven they could be extremely profitable.[citation needed] It was the French who had established the first non-Spanish settlement in the Caribbean when they had founded Fort Caroline near what is now Jacksonville, Florida in 1564, although the settlement was soon wiped out by a Spanish attack from the larger colony of Saint Augustine. As the Treaty of Tordesillas had proven unenforceable, a new concept of "lines of amity", with the northern bound being the Tropic of Cancer and the eastern bound the Prime Meridian passing through the Canary Islands, is said to have been verbally agreed upon by French and Spanish negotiators of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.[6] South and west of these lines, respectively, no protection could be offered to non-Spanish ships, "no peace beyond the line." English, Dutch and French pirates and settlers moved into this region even in times of nominal peace with the Spanish.

The Spanish, despite being the most powerful state in Christendom at the time, could not afford a sufficient military presence to control such a vast area of ocean or enforce their exclusionary, mercantilist trading laws. These laws allowed only Spanish merchants to trade with the colonists of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. This arrangement provoked constant smuggling against the Spanish trading laws and new attempts at Caribbean colonization in peacetime by England, France and the Netherlands. Whenever a war was declared in Europe between the Great Powers the result was always widespread piracy and privateering throughout the Caribbean.


The Iberian Union of Spain and Portugal (1580–1640)
(click to enlarge)


The Anglo-Spanish War in 1585–1604 was partly due to trade disputes in the New World. A focus on extracting mineral and agricultural wealth from the New World rather than building productive, self-sustaining settlements in its colonies; inflation fueled in part by the massive shipments of silver and gold to Western Europe; endless rounds of expensive wars in Europe; an aristocracy that disdained commercial opportunities; and an inefficient system of tolls and tariffs that hampered industry all contributed to Spain's decline during the 17th century. However, very profitable trade continued between Spain's colonies, which continued to expand until the early 19th century.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the arrival of European diseases with Columbus had reduced the local Native American populations; the native population of New Spain fell as much as 90% from its original numbers in the 16th century.[7] This loss of native population led Spain to increasingly rely on African slave labor to run Spanish America's colonies, plantations and mines and the trans-Atlantic slave trade offered new sources of profit for the many English, Dutch and French traders who could violate the Spanish mercantilist laws with impunity. But the relative emptiness of the Caribbean also made it an inviting place for England, France and the Netherlands to set up colonies of their own, especially as gold and silver became less important as commodities to be seized and were replaced by tobacco and sugar as cash crops that could make men very rich.

As Spain's military might in Europe weakened, the Spanish trading laws in the New World were violated with greater frequency by the merchants of other nations. The Spanish port on the island of Trinidad off the northern coast of South America, permanently settled only in 1592, became a major point of contact between all the nations with a presence in the Caribbean.

History

Early seventeenth century, 1600–1660

Changes in demography

In the early 17th century, expensive fortifications and the size of the colonial garrisons at the major Spanish ports increased to deal with the enlarged presence of Spain's competitors in the Caribbean, but the treasure fleet's silver shipments and the number of Spanish-owned merchant ships operating in the region declined. Additional problems came from shortage of food supplies because of the lack of people to work farms. The number of European-born Spaniards in the New World or Spaniards of pure blood who had been born in New Spain, known as peninsulares and creoles, respectively, in the Spanish caste system, totaled no more than 250,000 people in 1600.

At the same time, England and France were powers on the rise in 17th-century Europe as they mastered their own internal religious schisms between Catholic and Protestant and the resulting societal peace allowed their economies to rapidly expand. England especially began to turn its people's maritime skills into the basis of commercial prosperity. English and French kings of the early 17th century—James I (r. 1603–1625) and Henry IV (r. 1598–1610), respectively, each sought more peaceful relations with Habsburg Spain in an attempt to decrease the financial costs of the ongoing wars. Although the onset of peace in 1604 reduced the opportunities for both piracy and privateering against Spain's colonies, neither monarch discouraged his nation from trying to plant new colonies in the New World and break the Spanish monopoly on the Western Hemisphere. The reputed riches, pleasant climate and the general emptiness of the Americas all beckoned to those eager to make their fortunes and a large assortment of Frenchmen and Englishmen began new colonial ventures during the early 17th century, both in North America, which lay basically empty of European settlement north of Mexico, and in the Caribbean, where Spain remained the dominant power until late in the century.

As for the Dutch Netherlands, after decades of rebellion against Spain fueled by both Dutch nationalism and their staunch Protestantism, independence had been gained in all but name (and that too would eventually come with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648). The Netherlands had become Europe's economic powerhouse. With new, innovative ship designs like the fluyt (a cargo vessel able to be operated with a small crew and enter relatively inaccessible ports) rolling out of the ship yards in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, new capitalist economic arrangements like the joint-stock company taking root and the military reprieve provided by the Twelve Year Truce with the Spanish (1609–1621), Dutch commercial interests were expanding explosively across the globe, but particularly in the New World and East Asia. However, in the early 17th century, the most powerful Dutch companies, like the Dutch East India Company, were most interested in developing operations in the East Indies (Indonesia) and Japan, and left the West Indies to smaller, more independent Dutch operators.

Spanish ports

By 1600, Porto Bello had replaced Nombre de Dios (where Sir Francis Drake had first attacked a Spanish settlement) as the Isthmus of Panama's Caribbean port for the Spanish Silver Train and the annual treasure fleet. Veracruz, the only port city open to trans-Atlantic trade in New Spain, continued to serve the vast interior of New Spain as its window on the Caribbean. By the 17th century, the majority of the towns along the Spanish Main and in Central America had become self-sustaining. The smaller towns of the Main grew tobacco and also welcomed foreign smugglers who avoided the Spanish mercantilist laws. The underpopulated inland regions of Hispaniola and Venezuela were another area where tobacco smugglers in particular were welcome to ply their trade.In the early 17th century, the Spanish colonies of CartagenaHavanaSantiago de CubaSan JuanPorto Bello, Panama City, and Santo Domingo were among the most important settlements of the Spanish West Indies. Each possessed a large population and a self-sustaining economy, and was well-protected by Spanish defenders. These Spanish settlements were generally unwilling to deal with traders from the other European states because of the strict enforcement of Spain's mercantilist laws pursued by the large Spanish garrisons. In these cities European manufactured goods could command premium prices for sale to the colonists, while the trade goods of the New World—tobacco, cocoa and other raw materials, were shipped back to Europe.

The Spanish-ruled island of Trinidad was already a wide-open port open to the ships and seamen of every nation in the region at the start of the 17th century, and was a particular favorite for smugglers who dealt in tobacco and European manufactured goods. Local Caribbean smugglers sold their tobacco or sugar for decent prices and then bought manufactured goods from the trans-Atlantic traders in large quantities to be dispersed among the colonists of the West Indies and the Spanish Main who were eager for a little touch of home. The Spanish governor of Trinidad, who both lacked strong harbor fortifications and possessed only a laughably small garrison of Spanish troops, could do little but take lucrative bribes from English, French and Dutch smugglers and look the other way—or risk being overthrown and replaced by his own people with a more pliable administrator.

Other ports
The English had established an early colony known as Virginia in 1607 and one on the island of Barbados in the West Indies in 1625, although this small settlement's people faced considerable dangers from the local Carib Indians (believed to be cannibals) for some time after its founding. The two early colonies needed regular imports from England, sometimes of food but primarily of woollen textiles. The main early exports back to England included sugar, tobacco, and tropical food. No large tobacco plantations or even truly organized defenses were established by the English on its Caribbean settlements at first and it would take time for England to realize just how valuable its possessions in the Caribbean could prove to be. Eventually, African slaves would be purchased through the slave trade. They would work the colonies and fuel Europe's tobacco, rice and sugar supply; by 1698 England had the largest slave exports with the most efficiency in their labor in relation to any other imperial power. Barbados, the first truly successful English colony in the West Indies, grew fast as the 17th century wore on and by 1698 Jamaica would be England's biggest colony to employ slave labor.[8] Increasingly, English ships chose to use it as their primary home port in the Caribbean. Like Trinidad, merchants in the trans-Atlantic trade who based themselves on Barbados always paid good money for tobacco and sugar. Both of these commodities remained the key cash crops of this period and fueled the growth of the American Southern Colonies as well as their counterparts in the Caribbean.

After the destruction of Fort Caroline by the Spanish, the French made no further colonization attempts in the Caribbean for several decades as France was convulsed by its own Catholic-Protestant religious divide during the late 16th century Wars of Religion. However, old French privateering anchorages with small "tent camp" towns could be found during the early 17th century in the Bahamas. These settlements provided little more than a place for ships and their crews to take on some fresh water and food and perhaps have a dalliance with the local camp followers, all of which would have been quite expensive.

From 1630 to 1654, Dutch merchants had a port in Brazil known as Recife. It was initially founded by the Portuguese in 1548.[9] The Dutch had decided in 1630 to invade several sugar producing cities in Portuguese-controlled Brazil, including Salvador and Natal. From 1630 to 1654, they took control of Recife and Olinda, making Recife the new capital of the territory of Dutch Brazil, renaming the city Mauritsstad. During this period, Mauritsstad became one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world. Unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch did not prohibit Judaism. The first Jewish community and the first synagogue in the Americas – Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue – was founded in the city.

The inhabitants fought on their own to expel the Dutch in 1654, being helped by the involvement of the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War. This was known as the Insurreição Pernambucana (Pernambucan Insurrection). Most of the Jews fled to Amsterdam; others fled to North America, starting the first Jewish community of New Amsterdam (now known as New York City). The Dutch spent most of their time trading in smuggled goods with the smaller Spanish colonies. Trinidad was the unofficial home port for Dutch traders and privateers in the New World early in the 17th century before they established their own colonies in the region in the 1620s and 1630s. As usual, Trinidad's ineffective Spanish governor was helpless to stop the Dutch from using his port and instead he usually accepted their lucrative bribes.

European struggle

The first third of the 17th century in the Caribbean was defined by the outbreak of the savage and destructive Thirty Years' War in Europe (1618–1648), which represented both the culmination of the Protestant-Catholic conflict of the Reformation and the final showdown between Habsburg Spain and Bourbon France. The war was mostly fought in Germany, where one-third to one-half of the population would eventually be lost to the strains of the conflict, but it had some effect in the New World as well. The Spanish presence in the Caribbean began to decline at a faster rate, becoming more dependent on African slave labor. The Spanish military presence in the New World also declined as Madrid shifted more of its resources to the Old World in the Habsburgs' apocalyptic fight with almost every Protestant state in Europe. This need for Spanish resources in Europe accelerated the decay of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The settlements of the Spanish Main and the Spanish West Indies became financially weaker and were garrisoned with a much smaller number of troops as their home countries were more consumed with happenings back in Europe. The Spanish Empire's economy remained stagnant and the Spanish colonies' plantations, ranches and mines became totally dependent upon slave labor imported from West Africa. With Spain no longer able to maintain its military control effectively over the Caribbean, the other Western European states finally began to move in and set up permanent settlements of their own, ending the Spanish monopoly over the control of the New World.

Even as the Dutch Netherlands was forced to renew its struggle against Spain for independence as part of the Thirty Years' War (the entire rebellion against the Spanish Habsburgs was called the Eighty Years War in the Low Countries), the Dutch Republic had become the world's leader in mercantile shipping and commercial capitalism, and Dutch companies finally turned their attention to the West Indies in the 17th century. The renewed war with Spain with the end of the truce offered many opportunities for the successful Dutch joint-stock companies to finance military expeditions against the Spanish Empire. The old English and French privateering anchorages from the 16th century in the Caribbean now swarmed anew with Dutch warships.

In England, a new round of colonial ventures in the New World was fueled by declining economic opportunities at home and growing religious intolerance for more radical Protestants (like the Puritans) who rejected the compromise Protestant theology of the established Church of England. After the demise of the Saint Lucia and Grenada colonies soon after their establishment, and the near-extinction of the English settlement of Jamestown in Virginia, new and stronger colonies were established by the English in the first half of the 17th century, at PlymouthBostonBarbados, the West Indian islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Providence Island. These colonies would all persevere to become centers of English civilization in the New World.

For France, now ruled by the Bourbon King Louis XIII (r. 1610–1642) and his able minister Cardinal Richelieu, religious civil war had been reignited between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots). Throughout the 1620s, Huguenots fled France and founded colonies in the New World much like their English counterparts. Then, in 1636, to decrease the power of the Habsburg dynasty who ruled Spain and the Holy Roman Empire on France's eastern border, France entered the cataclysm in Germany—on the Protestants' side. The Franco-Spanish War continued until the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees.


Central America and Caribbean sovereignty in 1700

Colonial disputes

The English colonies on Saint Kitts and Nevis, founded in 1623, would prove to become wealthy sugar-growing settlements in time. Another new English venture, the Providence Island colony on what is now Providencia Island in the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, deep in the heart of the Spanish Empire, had become the premier base for English privateers and other pirates raiding the Spanish Main.Many of the cities on the Spanish Main in the first third of the 17th century were self-sustaining but few had yet achieved

 any prosperity. The more backward settlements in Jamaica and Hispaniola were primarily places for ships to take on food and fresh water. Spanish Trinidad remained a popular smuggling port where European goods were plentiful and fairly cheap, and good prices were paid by its European merchants for tobacco.

On the shared Anglo-French island of Saint Christophe (called "Saint Kitts" by the English) the French had the upper hand. The French settlers on Saint Christophe were mostly Catholics, while the unsanctioned but growing French colonial presence in northwest Hispaniola (the future nation of Haiti) was largely made up of French Protestants who had settled there without Spain's permission to escape Catholic persecution back home. France cared little what happened to the troublesome Huguenots, but the colonization of western Hispaniola allowed the French to both rid themselves of their religious minority and strike a blow against Spain—an excellent bargain, from the French Crown's point of view. The ambitious Huguenots had also claimed the island of Tortuga off the northwest coast of Hispaniola and had established the settlement of Petit-Goâve on the island itself. Tortuga in particular was to become a pirate and privateer haven and was beloved of smugglers of all nationalities—after all, even the creation of the settlement had been illegal.

Dutch colonies in the Caribbean remained rare until the second third of the 17th century. Along with the traditional privateering anchorages in the Bahamas and Florida, the Dutch West India Company settled a "factory" (commercial town) at New Amsterdam on the North American mainland in 1626 and at Curaçao in 1634, an island positioned right in the center of the Caribbean off the northern coast of Venezuela that was perfectly positioned to become a major maritime crossroads.


The French raid on Cartagena took place on 6 May 1697, as part of the War of the Grand Alliance

Seventeenth century crisis and colonial repercussions

The mid-17th century in the Caribbean was again shaped by events in far-off Europe. For the Dutch Netherlands, France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years War being fought in Germany, the last great religious war in Europe, had degenerated into an outbreak of famineplague and starvation that managed to kill off one-third to one-half of the population of Germany. England, having avoided any entanglement in the European mainland's wars, had fallen victim to its own ruinous civil war that resulted in the short but brutal Puritan military dictatorship (1649–1660) of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and his Roundhead armies. Of all the European Great Powers, Spain was in the worst shape economically and militarily as the Thirty Years War concluded in 1648. Economic conditions had become so poor for the Spanish by the middle of the 17th century that a major rebellion began against the bankrupt and ineffective Habsburg government of King Philip IV (r. 1625–1665) that was eventually put down only with bloody reprisals by the Spanish Crown. This did not make Philip IV more popular.

But disasters in the Old World bred opportunities in the New World. The Spanish Empire's colonies were badly neglected from the middle of the 17th century because of Spain's many woes. Freebooters and privateers, experienced after decades of European warfare, pillaged and plundered the almost defenseless Spanish settlements with ease and with little interference from the European governments back home who were too worried about their own problems to turn much attention to their New World colonies. The non-Spanish colonies were growing and expanding across the Caribbean, fueled by a great increase in immigration as people fled from the chaos and lack of economic opportunity in Europe. While most of these new immigrants settled into the West Indies' expanding plantation economy, others took to the life of the buccaneer. Meanwhile, the Dutch, at last independent of Spain when the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia ended their own Eighty Years War (1568–1648) with the Habsburgs, made a fortune carrying the European trade goods needed by these new colonies. Peaceful trading was not as profitable as privateering, but it was a safer business.

By the later half of the 17th century, Barbados had become the unofficial capital of the English West Indies before this position was claimed by Jamaica later in the century. Barbados was a merchant's dream port in this period. European goods were freely available, the island's sugar crop sold for premium prices, and the island's English governor rarely sought to enforce any type of mercantilist regulations. The English colonies at Saint Kitts and Nevis were economically strong and now well-populated as the demand for sugar in Europe increasingly drove their plantation-based economies. The English had also expanded their dominion in the Caribbean and settled several new islands, including Bermuda in 1612, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632, and Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1648, though these settlements began like all the others as relatively tiny communities that were not economically self-sufficient.

The French also founded major new colonies on the sugar-growing islands of Guadeloupe in 1634 and Martinique in 1635 in the Lesser Antilles. However, the heart of French activity in the Caribbean in the 17th century remained Tortuga, the fortified island haven off the coast of Hispaniola for privateers, buccaneers and outright pirates. The main French colony on the rest of Hispaniola remained the settlement of Petit-Goâve, which was the French toehold that would develop into the modern state of Haiti. French privateers still used the tent city anchorages in the Florida Keys to plunder the Spaniards' shipping in the Straits of Florida, as well as to raid the shipping that plied the sealanes off the northern coast of Cuba.

For the Dutch in the 17th century Caribbean, the island of Curaçao was the equivalent of England's port at Barbados. This large, rich, well-defended free port, open to the ships of all the European states, offered good prices for tobacco, sugar and cocoa that were re-exported to Europe and also sold large quantities of manufactured goods in return to the colonists of every nation in the New World. A second Dutch-controlled free port had also developed on the island of Sint Eustatius which was settled in 1636. The constant back-and-forth warfare between the Dutch and the English for possession of it in the 1660s later damaged the island's economy and desirability as a port. The Dutch also had set up a settlement on the island of Saint Martin which became another haven for Dutch sugar planters and their African slave labor. In 1648, the Dutch agreed to divide the prosperous island in half with the French.


"Haunts of the 'Brethren of the Coast'", a map of the time reproduced in "Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts" (1897)

Golden Age of Piracy, 1660–1726

The late 17th and early 18th centuries (particularly between the years 1706 to 1726) are often considered the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the Caribbean, and pirate ports experienced rapid growth in the areas in and surrounding the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Furthermore, during this time period there were approximately 2400 men that were currently active pirates.[10] The military power of the Spanish Empire in the New World started to decline when King Philip IV of Spain was succeeded by King Charles II (r. 1665–1700), who in 1665 became the last Habsburg king of Spain at the age of four. While Spanish America in the late 17th century had little military protection as Spain entered a phase of decline as a Great Power, it also suffered less from the Spanish Crown's mercantilist policies with its economy. This lack of interference, combined with a surge in output from the silver mines due to increased availability of slave labor (the demand for sugar increased the number of slaves brought to the Caribbean) began a resurgence in the fortunes of Spanish America.

England, France and the Dutch Netherlands had all become New World colonial powerhouses in their own right by 1660. Worried by the Dutch Republic's intense commercial success since the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, England launched a trade war with the Dutch. The English Parliament passed the first of its own mercantilist Navigation Acts (1651) and the Staple Act (1663) that required that English colonial goods be carried only in English ships and legislated limits on trade between the English colonies and foreigners. These laws were aimed at ruining the Dutch merchants whose livelihoods depended on free trade. This trade war would lead to three outright Anglo-Dutch Wars over the course of the next twenty-five years. Meanwhile, King Louis XIV of France (r. 1642–1715) had finally assumed his majority with the death of his regent mother Queen Anne of Austria's chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. The "Sun King's" aggressive foreign policy was aimed at expanding France's eastern border with the Holy Roman Empire and led to constant warfare (Franco-Dutch War and Nine Years' War) against shifting alliances that included England, the Dutch Republic, the various German states and Spain. In short, Europe was consumed in the final decades of the 17th century by nearly constant dynastic intrigue and warfare—an opportune time for pirates and privateers to engage in their bloody trade.

French pirate François l'Olonnais was nicknamed Flail of the Spaniards and had a reputation for brutality – offering no quarter to Spanish prisoners.

In the Caribbean, this political environment created many new threats for colonial governors. The sugar island of Sint Eustatius changed ownership ten times between 1664 and 1674 as the English and Dutch dueled for supremacy there. Consumed with the various wars in Europe, the mother countries provided few military reinforcements to their colonies, so the governors of the Caribbean increasingly made use of buccaneers as mercenaries and privateers to protect their territories or carry the fight to their country's enemies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these undisciplined and greedy dogs of war often proved difficult for their sponsors to control.

By the late 17th century, the great Spanish towns of the Caribbean had begun to prosper and Spain also began to make a slow, fitful recovery, but remained poorly defended militarily because of Spain's problems and so were sometimes easy prey for pirates and privateers. The English presence continued to expand in the Caribbean as England itself was rising toward great power status in Europe. Captured from Spain in 1655, the island of Jamaica had been taken over by England and its chief settlement of Port Royal had become a new English buccaneer haven in the midst of the Spanish Empire. Jamaica was slowly transformed, along with Saint Kitts, into the heart of the English presence in the Caribbean. At the same time the French Lesser Antilles colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique remained the main centers of French power in the Caribbean, as well as among the richest French possessions because of their increasingly profitable sugar plantations. The French also maintained privateering strongholds around western Hispaniola, at their traditional pirate port of Tortuga, and their Hispaniolan capital of Petit-Goâve. The French further expanded their settlements on the western half of Hispaniola and founded Léogâne and Port-de-Paix, even as sugar plantations became the primary industry for the French colonies of the Caribbean.

At the start of the 18th century, Europe remained riven by warfare and constant diplomatic intrigue. France was still the dominant power but now had to contend with a new rival, England (Great Britain after 1707) which emerged as a great power at sea and land during the War of the Spanish Succession. But the depredations of the pirates and buccaneers in the Americas in the latter half of the 17th century and of similar mercenaries in Germany during the Thirty Years War had taught the rulers and military leaders of Europe that those who fought for profit rather than for King and Country could often ruin the local economy of the region they plundered, in this case the entire Caribbean. At the same time, the constant warfare had led the Great Powers to develop larger standing armies and bigger navies to meet the demands of global colonial warfare. By 1700, the European states had enough troops and ships at their disposal to begin better protecting the important colonies in the West Indies and in the Americas without relying on the aid of privateers. This spelled the doom of privateering and the easy (and nicely legal) life it provided for the buccaneer. Although Spain remained a weak power for the rest of the colonial period, pirates in large numbers generally disappeared after 1730, chased from the seas by a new British Royal Navy squadron based at Port Royal, Jamaica and a smaller group of Spanish privateers sailing from the Spanish Main known as the Costa Garda (Coast Guard in English). With regular military forces now on-station in the West Indies, letters of marque were harder and harder to obtain.

Economically, the late 17th century and the early 18th century was a time of growing wealth and trade for all the nations who controlled territory in the Caribbean. Although some piracy would always remain until the mid-18th century, the path to wealth in the Caribbean in the future lay through peaceful trade, the growing of tobacco, rice and sugar and smuggling to avoid the British Navigation Acts and Spanish mercantilist laws. By the 18th century the Bahamas had become the new colonial frontier for the British. The Republic of Pirates at the port of Nassau became one of the last pirate havens. A small British colony had even sprung up in former Spanish territory at Belize in Honduras that had been founded by an English pirate in 1638. The French colonial empire in the Caribbean had not grown substantially by the start of the 18th century. The sugar islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique remained the twin economic capitals of the French Lesser Antilles, and were now equal in population and prosperity to the largest of the English's Caribbean colonies. Tortuga had begun to decline in importance, but France's Hispaniolan settlements were becoming major importers of African slaves as French sugar plantations spread across the western coast of that island, forming the nucleus of the modern nation of Haiti.

End of an era

Due to a high degree of tension among the colonial powers, most of the ships stationed in the Caribbean were more concerned with engaging each other than they were with engaging the pirates of the time. However, this same time period saw a resurgence of piracy in the Caribbean due to the growth of the slave trade. Pirates saw the slave trade as a new lucrative source of income. They could easily capture a crew and ransom the valuable slaves that were their cargo.[12] As the piracy increasingly interfered with the lucrative slave trade come from the Caribbean, colonial powers had a changing attitude towards piracy. Military presence had been growing in Caribbean waters for some time, but now the Royal Navy especially was more concerned with the growing issue of slavery, increasing the number of ships dedicated to policing slavery from two in 1670 to twenty-four by 1700. Despite increasing military power, Piracy saw a brief resurgence between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and around 1720, as many unemployed seafarers took to piracy as a way to make ends meet when a surplus of sailors after the war led to a decline in wages and working conditions. At the same time, one of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the war gave to Great Britain's Royal African Company and other British slavers a thirty-year asiento, or contract, to furnish African slaves to the Spanish colonies, providing British merchants and smugglers potential inroads into the traditionally closed Spanish markets in America and leading to an economic revival for the whole region. This revived Caribbean trade provided rich new pickings for a wave of piracy. Also contributing to the increase of Caribbean piracy at this time was Spain's breakup of the English logwood settlement at Campeche and the attractions of a freshly sunken silver fleet off the southern Bahamas in 1715. This last large resurgence of piracy saw a change in attitude of the colonial powers towards piracy. It had once been seen as a somewhat minor offense only punishable if suspects and evidence were taken back to Europe for formal proceedings. Now, the English Parliament set the system of courts of Vice-Admiralty, appointing seven commissioners in the colonies to carry out the legal proceedings. These commissioners were chosen from naval and colonial officers who already contained a certain amount of bias towards the local pirates, instead of civilian judges. Pirates were given no representation in the new courts and were, therefore, often sentenced to hang. Between 1716 and 1726 approximately 400 to 600 pirates were executed.[13] Another major attitude change was the policy that if one's ship was attacked by pirates, then one must fight back and attempt to resist to the capture of their ship lest they receive six months imprisonment.[11]The decline of piracy in the Caribbean paralleled the decline of the use of mercenaries and the rise of national armies in Europe. Following the end of the Thirty Years' War the direct power of the state in Europe expanded. Armies were systematized and brought under direct state control; the Western European states' navies were expanded and their mission was extended to cover combating piracy. The elimination of piracy from European waters expanded to the Caribbean beginning as early as 1600 with the expansion of standing Royal Naval vessels in the Caribbean, numbering 124 by 1718. Other colonial powers soon followed suit and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, France, Spain, and the United States had all stationed ships in the Caribbean.[11]

With royal attitudes growing so harsh towards the pirates in the Caribbean, many fled to areas of the world where piracy may still be a profitable trade. Black Bart, Bartholomew Roberts, perhaps the most successful pirate that had sailed in the Caribbean, eventually returned to Africa in 1722.[14] Other, less successful pirates from the golden age in the Caribbean attempted to flee North to the Americas. Stede Bonnet, an accomplice of Blackbeard, supposedly began to plunder ships along the Atlantic Coast, but was captured along the South Carolina coast in 1718.[15]

Jean Lafitte, New Orleans' legendary pirate

This early 18th century resurgence of piracy lasted only until the Royal Navy and the Spanish Guardacosta's presence in the Caribbean were enlarged to deal with the threat. Also crucial to the end of this era of piracy was the loss of the pirates' last Caribbean safe haven at Nassau.

The famous pirates of the early 18th century were a completely illegal remnant of a golden buccaneering age, and their choices were limited to quick retirement or eventual capture. Contrast this with the earlier example of Henry Morgan, who for his privateering efforts was knighted by the English Crown and appointed the lieutenant governor of Jamaica.[10]

In the early 19th century, piracy along the East and Gulf Coasts of North America as well as in the Caribbean increased again. Jean Lafitte was a pirate/privateer operating in the Caribbean and in American waters from his havens in Texas and Louisiana during the 1810s. But the records of the US Navy indicate that hundreds of pirate attacks occurred in American and Caribbean waters between the years of 1820 and 1835. The Latin American Wars of Independence led to widespread use of privateers both by Spain and by the revolutionary governments of Mexico, Colombia, and other newly independent Latin American countries. These privateers were rarely scrupulous about adhering to the terms of their letters of marque even during the Wars of Independence, and continued to plague the Caribbean as outright pirates long after those conflicts ended.

About the time of the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States Navy had grown strong and numerous enough to eliminate the pirate threat in the West Indies. By the 1830s, ships had begun to convert to steam propulsion, so the Age of Sail and the classical idea of pirates in the Caribbean ended. Privateering, similar to piracy, continued as an asset in war for a few more decades and proved to be of some importance during the naval campaigns of the American Civil War.

Privateering would remain a tool of European states, and even of the newborn United States, until the mid-19th century's Declaration of Paris. But letters of marque were given out much more sparingly by governments and were terminated as soon as conflicts ended. The idea of "no peace beyond the Line" was a relic that had no meaning by the more settled late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Rules of piracy

Aboard a pirate vessel things were fairly democratic and there were "codes of conduct" that reflect modern laws. Some of these rules consisted of a dress code, no women,[16] and some ships had no smoking. The rules, the punishment for breaking them, and even the staying arrangements would be decided among everyone going on the ship before departure, which was a very abstract process compared to the strict rules and procedures in the Royal Navy. In further contrast to the society of Britain's colonies, on board a pirate vessel racial divisions were usually unknown and in some instances pirates of African descent served as ships' Captains.[17] Another activity that had to be engaged in before the ship left the dock was swearing an oath to not betray anyone in the entire crew, and to sign what was known as the ship's Article,[16] which would determine the percentage of profit each crew member would receive.[2] Furthermore, some of the ways for deciding disagreements among pirate crew members were fighting till first blood or in more serious cases abandoning an individual on an uninhabited island, whipping them 39 times, or even executing them by firearm. Despite popular belief, however, the punishment of "walking the plank" was never used to settle disputes among pirates. There was, however, a division of power on a pirate crew between the captain, the quartermaster, the governing council for the vessel, and the regular crewmen;[2] but in battle the pirate captain always retained all power and ultimate decision-making authority to ensure an orderly chain of command.[17] When it came time to split the captured wealth into shares, profits were normally given to the person in each rank as follows: Captain (5–6 shares), individuals with a senior position like the quartermaster (2 shares), crewmen (1 share), and individuals in a junior position (1/2 a share).[2]

Early and Golden Age pirates

Jean Fleury

Born in Vatteville and financed by shipowner Jean Ango, French privateer Jean Fleury was Spain's nemesis. In 1522, he captured seven Spanish vessels. One year later most of Montezuma's Aztec treasure fell into his hands after he captured two of the three galleons in which Cortez shipped the fabled booty back to Spain. He was captured in 1527 and executed by order of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He had a very well equipped ship.

François Le Clerc

François Le Clerc also nicknamed "Jambe de bois" ("Pie de Palo", "wooden leg") was a formidable privateer, ennobled by Henri II in 1551. In 1552, Le Clerc ransacked Porto Santo. One year later, he mustered one thousand men and caused havoc in the Caribbean with his lieutenants Jacques de Sores and Robert Blondel. They pillaged and burned down the seaport of Santo Domingo, and ransacked Las Palmas in the Canary Islands on his way back to France. He led another expedition in 1554 and plundered Santiago de Cuba.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bow

He was born about 1680 in England as Edward Thatch, Teach, or Drummond, and operated off the east coast of North America, particularly pirating in the Bahamas[1] and had a base in North Carolina[10] in the period of 1714–1718. Noted as much for his outlandish appearance as for his piratical success, in combat Blackbeard placed burning slow-match (a type of slow-burning fuse used to set off cannon) under his hat; with his face wreathed in fire and smoke, his victims claimed he resembled a fiendish apparition from Hell. Blackbeard's ship was the two-hundred-ton, forty-gun frigate he named Queen Anne's Revenge.

Blackbeard met his end at the hands of a British Royal Navy squadron[10] specifically sent out to capture him. After an extremely bloody boarding action, the British commanding officer of the squadron, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, killed him with the help of his crew. According to legend, Blackbeard suffered a total of five bullet wounds and twenty slashes with a cutlass before he finally died off the coast of Ocracoke, North Carolina.[18]

Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan, a Welshman, was one of the most destructive pirate captains of the 17th century. Although Morgan always considered himself a privateer rather than a pirate, several of his attacks had no real legal justification and are considered piracy. Recently found off the coast of what is now known as the nation of Haiti, was one of Captain Morgan's "30-cannon oak ships," which was thought to have aided the buccaneer in his ventures.[19] Another Caribbean area that was known for the headquarters of Captain Morgan was Port Royal, Jamaica.[1] A bold, ruthless and daring man, Morgan fought England's enemies for thirty years, and became a very wealthy man in the course of his adventures. Morgan's most famous exploit came in late 1670 when he led 1700 buccaneers up the pestilential Chagres River and then through the Central American jungle to attack and capture the "impregnable" city of Panama. Morgan's men burnt the city to the ground, and the inhabitants were either killed or forced to flee. Although the burning of Panama City did not mean any great financial gain for Morgan, it was a deep blow to Spanish power and pride in the Caribbean and Morgan became the hero of the hour in England. At the height of his career, Morgan had been made a titled nobleman by the English Crown and lived on an enormous sugar plantation in Jamaica, as lieutenant governor.[10] Morgan died in his bed, rich and respected—something rarely achieved by pirates in his day or any other.

Bartholomew Roberts

Bartholomew Roberts or Black Bart was successful in sinking, or capturing and pillaging some 400 ships.[10] and like most pirate captains of the time he looked fancy doing it.[16] He started his freebooting career in the Gulf of Guinea in February 1719 when Howell Davis' pirates captured his ship and he proceeded to join them. Rising to captain, he quickly came to the Caribbean and plagued the area until 1722. He commanded a number of large, powerfully armed ships, all of which he named FortuneGood Fortune, or Royal Fortune. Aboard his vessels the political atmosphere was a form of democracy that depended on participation; in which was a rule that everyone aboard his ship had to vote on issues that arose.[2] Efforts by the governors of Barbados and Martinique to capture him only provoked his anger; when he found the governor of Martinique aboard a newly captured vessel, Roberts hanged the man from a yardarm. Roberts returned to Africa in February 1722, where he met his death in a naval battle, whereby his crew was captured.

Amaro Pargo

Amaro Pargo in his role as a privateer, he dominated the route between Cádiz and the Caribbean, on several occasions attacking ships belonging to enemies of the Spanish Crown (mainly England and Holland),[20] earning recognition in his time as a hero and coming to be regarded as "the Spanish equivalent of Francis Drake".[21][22][23] Because of his service to the Spanish Crown and country, he was declared a Caballero hidalgo in 1725 and obtained certification of nobility and royal arms in 1727.[24] Amaro Pargo lived for ten years in the Caribbean, specifically on the island of Cuba where he had descendants. Due to the trade and looting of him he became a very wealthy person in his time.

Stede Bonnet

The hanging of Stede Bonnet in Charleston, 1718

Probably the least qualified pirate captain ever to sail the Caribbean, Bonnet was a sugar planter who knew nothing about sailing. He started his piracies in 1717 by buying an armed sloop on Barbados and recruiting a pirate crew for wages, possibly to escape from his wife. He lost his command to Blackbeard and sailed with him as his associate.[10] Although Bonnet briefly regained his captaincy, he was captured in 1718 by a privateering vessel that was employed by South Carolina.[10]

Charles Vane

Charles Vane, like many early 18th-century pirates, operated out of Nassau in the Bahamas. He was the only pirate captain to resist Woodes Rogers when Rogers asserted his governorship over Nassau in 1718, attacking Rogers' squadron with a fire ship and shooting his way out of the harbor rather than accept the new governor's royal pardon. Vane's quartermaster was Calico Jack Rackham, who deposed Vane from the captaincy. Vane started a new pirate crew, but he was captured and hanged in Jamaica in 1721.

Edward Low

Edward – or Ned – Low was notorious as one of the most brutal and vicious pirates. Originally from London, he started as a lieutenant to George Lowther, before striking out on his own. His career as a pirate lasted just three years, during which he captured over 100 ships, and he and his crew murdered, tortured and maimed hundreds of people. After his own crew mutinied in 1724 when Low murdered a sleeping subordinate, he was rescued by a French vessel who hanged him on Martinique island.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Anne Bonny and Mary Read, convicted of piracy on 28 November 1720

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were infamous female pirates of the 18th century;[25] both spent their brief sea-roving careers under the command of Calico Jack Rackham. They were also known to have been associated with other well known pirates: Blackbeard, William Kidd, Bartholomew Sharp, and Bartholomew Roberts.[2] They are noted chiefly for their sex, highly unusual for pirates, which helped to sensationalize their 1720 October trial in Jamaica. They gained further notoriety for their ruthlessness—they are known to have spoken in favor of murdering witnesses in the crew's counsels—and for fighting the intruders of Rackham's vessel while he and his crew members were drunk and hiding under the deck.[25] The capstone to their legend is that all the crew including Rackham, Anne and Mary were tried in a Spanish town close to Port Royal.[1] Rackham and his crew were hanged, but when the judge sentenced Anne and Mary to death he asked if they had anything to say. "Milord, we plead our bellies", meaning they asserted they were pregnant. The judge immediately postponed their death sentence because no English court had the authority to kill an unborn child. Read died in prison of fever before the birth of the child. There is no record of Anne being executed and it was rumored her wealthy father had paid a ransom and took her home; other accounts of what happened to her include that she returned to piracy or became a nun.[25]

Privateers

The Spanish Amaro Pargo performed in the Caribbean and lived in Cuba for ten years.

In the Caribbean the use of privateers was especially popular for what amounted to legal and state-ordered piracy.[10] The cost of maintaining a fleet to defend the colonies was beyond national governments of the 16th and 17th centuries. Private vessels would be commissioned into a de facto 'navy' with a letter of marque, paid with a substantial share of whatever they could capture from enemy ships and settlements, the rest going to the crown.[10] These ships would operate independently or as a fleet, and if they were successful the rewards could be great—when Jean Fleury and his men captured Cortes' vessels in 1523, they found an incredible Aztec treasure that they were allowed to keep. Later, when Francis Drake captured the Spanish Silver Train at Nombre de Dios (Panama's Caribbean port at the time) in 1573 his crews were rich for life. This was repeated by Piet Hein in 1628, who made a profit of 12 million guilders for the Dutch West India Company. This substantial profit made privateering something of a regular line of business; wealthy businessmen or nobles would be quite willing to finance this legitimized piracy in return for a share. The sale of captured goods was a boost to colonial economies as well. The main imperial countries operating at this time and in the region were the French, English, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese. Privateers from each country were all ordered to attack the other countries' vessels, especially Spain which was a shared enemy among the other powers.[2]

By the seventeenth century piracy and privateering became less-acceptable behaviour, especially as many privateers turned into full-blown pirates so they would not have to give part of the profit they made back to their country of employment. Corruption led to the removal of many officials over the years, including Governor Nicholas Trott and Governor Benjamin Fletcher. One way that governments found and discouraged active pirates and corrupt privateers was through the use of "pirate hunters" who were bribed with all or at least most of the wealth that they would find aboard pirate vessels, along with a set bounty. The most renowned pirate hunter was Captain William Kidd, who hit the peak of his legal career in 1695 but later saw the benefits of illegal piracy and made that his new vocation.[10]

The most well-known privateer corsairs of the eighteenth century in the Spanish colonies were Miguel Enríquez of Puerto Rico and José Campuzano-Polanco of Santo Domingo. Miguel Enríquez was a Puerto Rican mulatto who abandoned his work as a shoemaker to work as a privateer. Such was the success of Enríquez, that he became one of the wealthiest men in the New World.[26] Also highlights the Spanish Amaro Pargo also stands out, who frequently traded in the Caribbean while looting ships of the enemy powers of the Spanish Crown. Amaro Pargo lived for ten years in the Caribbean, specifically on the island of Cuba where he had descendants.[27]

Buccaneers

Pirates involved specifically in the Caribbean were called buccaneers. Roughly speaking, they arrived in the 1630s and remained until the effective end of piracy in the 1730s. The original buccaneers were settlers that were deprived of their land by "Spanish authorities" and eventually were picked up by white settlers.[2] The word "buccaneer" is actually from the French boucaner, meaning "to smoke meat", from the hunters of wild oxen curing meat over an open fire. They transferred the skills which kept them alive into piracy. They operated with the partial support of the non-Spanish colonies and until the 18th century their activities were legal, or partially legal and there were irregular amnesties from all nations. For the most part buccaneers attacked other vessels and ransacked settlements owned by the Spanish.[10]

Traditionally buccaneers had a number of peculiarities. Their crews operated as a democracy: the captain was elected by the crew and they could vote to replace him. The captain had to be a leader and a fighter—in combat he was expected to be fighting with his men, not directing operations from a distance.

Spoils were evenly divided into shares; when the officers had a greater number of shares, it was because they took greater risks or had special skills. Often the crews would sail without wages—"on account"—and the spoils would be built up over a course of months before being divided. There was a strong esprit de corps among pirates. This allowed them to win sea battles: they typically outmanned trade vessels by a large ratio. There was also for some time a social insurance system, guaranteeing money or gold for battle wounds at a worked-out scale.

The romantic notion of pirates burying treasure on isolated islands[2] and wearing gaudy clothes had some basis in fact. Most pirate wealth was accumulated by selling of chandlery items: ropes, sails, and block and tackle stripped from captured ships.

One undemocratic aspect of the buccaneers was that sometimes they would force specialists like carpenters or surgeons to sail with them for some time, though they were released when no longer needed (if they had not volunteered to join by that time). A typical poor man had few other promising career choices at the time apart from joining the pirates. According to reputation, the pirates' egalitarianism led them to liberate slaves when taking over slave ships. However, there are several accounts of pirates selling slaves captured on slave ships, sometimes after they had helped man the pirates' own vessels.

In combat they were considered ferocious and were reputed to be experts with flintlock weapons (invented in 1615), but these were so unreliable that they were not in widespread military use before the 1670s.

Slave pirates

Many slaves, primarily from places in Africa, were being exported to colonies in the Caribbean for slave labour on plantations. Out of the people that were forced into slavery and shipped off to colonies in the years from 1673 to 1798, approximately 9 to 32 percent were children (this number only considers Great Britain's exports).[28] While on the average 12-week journey to the colonies, the new slaves endured ghastly living conditions that included cramped spaces too small to stand up in, hot temperatures, and poor diets. They were ravaged by disease and death. Many of those taken as slaves were victims or prisoners of civil war.[16] Many aspects of being a slave overall increased the allure of the pirating lifestyle. During the 17th and 18th centuries, piracy was at its height and its symbolic interpretation of freedom was well received. This abstract ideal was very appealing to slaves and victims of imperialism. Even though the main European powers did not want slaves to find out about the freedom that piracy offered, "...30 percent of the 5000 or more pirates who were active between 1715 and 1725 were of African heritage."[29] Along with the opportunity of a new life and freedom, the indigenous people of Africa were greeted with equality when they joined pirating communities. Many slaves turned pirate "secured" a position of leadership or prestige on pirating vessels, like that of Captain.[29] One of the main areas of origin for these slaves was Madagascar. Great Britain was one of the largest importers of slaves to American colonies such as Jamaica and Barbados.[30]

Roberto Cofresí—a 19th-century pirate

Roberto Cofresí, better known as "El Pirata Cofresí", became interested in sailing at a young age. By the time he reached adulthood there were some political and economic difficulties in Puerto Rico, which at the time was a colony of Spain. Influenced by this situation he decided to become a pirate in 1818. Cofresí commanded several assaults against cargo vessels focusing on those that were responsible for exporting gold. During this time he focused his attention on boats from the United States and the local Spanish government ignored several of these actions. In early March 1825, Cofresí engaged the USS Grampus and a flotilla of ships led by Capt. John D. Sloat in battle. He eventually abandoned his ship and tried to escape by land before being captured. After being imprisoned he was sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where a brief military trial found him guilty and on 29 March 1825, he and other members of his crew were executed by a firing squad. After his death his life was used as inspiration for several stories and myths, which served as the basis for books and other media.[31]

Boysie Singh—a 20th-century pirate

Boysie Singh, usually known as the Raja (the Hindi word for king), or just Boysie, was born on 5 April 1908 on 17 Luis Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Saint George CountyTrinidad and Tobago to Bhagrang Singh (a fugitive who immigrated to Trinidad and Tobago from British India) and his wife.[32]

He had a long and successful career as a gangster and gambler before turning to piracy and murder. For almost ten years, from 1947 until 1956 he and his gang terrorized the waters between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of Venezuela, later on becoming the Fourth Republic of Venezuela. They were responsible for the deaths of approximately 400 people. They would promise to ferry people from Trinidad to Venezuela but en route he would rob his victims at gunpoint, kill them and dump them into the sea.

Boysie was well known to people in Trinidad and Tobago. He had successfully beaten a charge of breaking and entering which nearly resulted in his deportation before he was finally executed after losing his third case – for the murder of his niece. He was held in awe and dread by most of the population and was frequently seen strolling grandly about Port of Spain in the early 1950s wearing bright, stylish clothes. Mothers, nannies, and ajees would warn their children: "Behave yourself, man, or Boysie goyn getchu, allyuh!"[33] Boysie Singh died in Port of Spain by being hanged in 1957 for the murder of a dancer, Hattie Werk.

Caribbean piracy in the 21st century

Piracy in the Caribbean is still present today, largely confined to small-scale pirating operations in the waters off of VenezuelaTrinidadGuyana, and Suriname. These pirates are often fishermen who have resorted to piracy due to economic crisis or turf wars between groups of fishers.

Much of the modern-day piracy in the southern Caribbean is a result of the economic upheaval in Venezuela. Venezuelan fishermen, who previously made a living off of catching tuna, shrimp, crab, and octopus, have lost this means of money due to the economic crisis, and are forced to resort to piracy on fishermen off the coasts of Guyana and Trinidad, robbing them and holding them for ransom.[34][35]

Another major source of modern Caribbean piracy stems from turf wars between rival groups of fishermen from Guyana and Suriname. In April 2018, Guyanese nationals Chris Parsram, Rameshwar Roopnarine, Madre Kishore, David Williams, Ramdeo Persaud, Ray Torres, and Ganesh Beeharry were all arrested in Suriname and sentenced to 35 years in prison, for an attack on 20 Surinamese and Guyanese fishermen in which they were thrown overboard; only four made it to shore, with the rest being thrown into the water and presumed either dead or missing.[36] The attack was believed to be in retaliation for the shooting death of their leader a few weeks prior.

Piracy in popular culture

A lot of fiction involving sea pirates and piracy takes place at the Caribbean Sea.

Films

Games

Popular Books

Other

Historical studies

See also

References

  1. Jump up to:a b c d Campo-Flores/ Arian, "Yar, Mate! Swashbuckler Tours!," Newsweek 180, no. 6 (2002): 58.
  2. Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Smith, Simon. "Piracy in early British America." History Today 46, no. 5 (May 1996): 29.
  3. ^ Peter GerhardPirates of New Spain, 1575–1742. Dover Books 2003. ISBN 978-0486426112
  4. ^ Peter GerhardPirates of the Pacific, 1575–1742. University of Nebraska Press 1990 ISBN 978-0803270305
  5. ^ Kris Lane, foreword by Hugh O'Shaughnessy Blood and Silver: the history of piracy in the Caribbean and Central America, Oxford, Signal (1967) and (1999)
  6. ^ "(Page 11 of 18) – Unequal War and the Changing Borders of International Society authored by Colombo, Alessandro".
  7. ^ Bartolome de Las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account (1542)
  8. ^ Morgan, Kenneth. "Symbiosis: Trade and the British Empire." BBC. Accessed 17 February 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/trade_empire_01.shtml.
  9. ^ "Recife," Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2011): 1.
  10. Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l Boot, Max (2009). "Pirates, Then and Now". Foreign Affairs88 (4): 94–107.
  11. Jump up to:a b Boot, Max (1 January 2009). "Pirates, Then and Now: How Piracy Was Defeated in the Past and Can Be Again". Foreign Affairs88 (4): 94–107. JSTOR 20699624.
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  13. ^ Boot, Max (2009). "Pirates, Then and Now: How Piracy Was Defeated in the Past and Can Be Again". Foreign Affairs88 (4): 94–107. JSTOR 20699624.
  14. ^ Defoe, Daniel. A General History of the Pyrates. Minneapolis: Dover Publications, Incorporated, 1999. Print.
  15. ^ Rediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon, 2004. Print.
  16. Jump up to:a b c d "The real Pirates of the Caribbean." USA Today Magazine 137, no. 2764 (January 2009): 42–47.
  17. Jump up to:a b Leeson/ Peter "Democrats of the Caribbean," Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 300, no. 3 (2007): 39.
  18. ^ Moore, David D. (April 2018). "Captain Edward Thatch: A Brief Analysis of the Primary Source Documents Concerning the Notorious Blackbeard". The North Carolina Historical ReviewXCV (2): 147–187.
  19. ^ "Pirate Shipwreck," Maclean's 114, no. 30 (2001): 12.
  20. ^ Frers, Ernesto (September 2008). Más Allá Del Legado Piratagoogle.esISBN 9788479279639. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  21. ^ Canarias En Hora https://web.archive.org/web/20160718232523/http://canariasenhora.com/#!/amaro-pargo-el-pirata-bueno. Archived from the original on 18 July 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016. {{cite web}}Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ La Opinión de Tenerife (15 December 2013). "Amaro Pargo cobra fama internacional"laopinion.es. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  23. ^ "Amaro Pargo, una de piratas... – Discover Tenerife"Discover Tenerife. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  24. ^ "AMARO PARGO: LA TRADICIÓN HISTÓRICA DE UN CORSARIO LAGUNERO (III). Por Carlos García, Del libro "La Ciudad: Relatos Históricos" 1996"lalagunaahora.com. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  25. Jump up to:a b c Highleyman/ Liz. "Who Were Anne Bonny and Mary Read?," Lesbian News 32, no. 11 (2007): 18.
  26. ^ Bracho Palma, Jairo (2005). La defensa marítima en la Capitanía General de Venezuela, 1783–1813. Instituto Nacional de los Espacios Acuáticos e Insulares. p. 87.
  27. ^ De Paz Sánchez, Manuel; García Pulido, Daniel (2015). El corsario de Dios. Documentos sobre Amaro Rodríguez Felipe (1678-1747). Documentos para la Historia de Canarias. Francisco Javier Macías Martín (ed.). Canarias: Archivo Histórico Provincial de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ISBN 978-84-7947-637-3. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  28. ^ Teelucksingh, Jerome. "The ‘invisible child’ in British West Indian slavery." Slavery & Abolition 27, no. 2
  29. Jump up to:a b Farley/ Christopher, "The Black faces beneath black flags," New York Amsterdam News, 7 July 2005.
  30. ^ Bialuschewski, Arne, "Pirates, Slavers, and the Indigenous Population"
  31. ^ Luis R. Negrón Hernández, Jr. "Roberto Cofresí: El pirata caborojeño" (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 May 2007.
  32. ^ "Boysie Singh 20th Century Pirate of the Caribbean". 7 August 2005.
  33. ^ Derek Bickerton. The Murders of Boysie Singh: Robber, Arsonist, Pirate, Mass-Murderer, Vice and Gambling King of Trinidad. Arthur Barker Limited, London. (1962).
  34. ^ "Trinidad: Fishermen abducted by Venezuelan pirates return home"St. Lucia News Online. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  35. ^ "Venezuelan pirates – the new scourge of the Caribbean"BBC News. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  36. ^ "Guyanese pirates handed heavy jail sentences in suriname"Kaieteur News. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2021.

External links