Thomas Tew

Thomas Tew (c.1640-1695) was an Anglo-American privateer turned pirate, most famous for establishing a route that would become known as the Pirate Round, a circuit around the Atlantic, the Cape of Good Hope, the Horn of Africa and India, copied from the route taken by East India Company ships, that would become a popular circuit for pirates in the years following.
It is written that Tew had a family in Rhode Island as early as 1640. however his birthplace is a mystery. Whether he was born in New England or Great Britain is a matter of some debate. What is known is that he enlisted as a privateer against the French and Spanish, and by 1691 had moved to Bermuda. The following year, Tew obtained a letter of marque from the Governor of Bermuda. Various backers provided him with a vessel, a seventy-ton sloop named the Amity, armed with eight guns and crewed by forty-six officers and men. He and another captain obtained a privateer's commission from the lieutenant governor of Bermuda to destroy a French factory off the coast of West Africa. Thus equipped, in December of that year, Tew set sail as a privateer against French holdings in The Gambia. However, they were not long set sail when Tew announced his intention of turning to piracy, asking the crew for their support, since he could not enforce the illegal scheme without their consent. Tew's crew reportedly answered with the shout, "A gold chain or a wooden leg, we'll stand with you!" The newly-turned pirates proceeded to elect a quartermaster, which was common practice to separate powers from the Captain.

Tew's first voyage was successful, having reached the Red Sea in the later part of 1693, the Amity  chased down a large ship en route from India to the Ottoman Empire. The ship was carrying over 300 soldiers, however they surrendered almost immediately without a single casualty among the pirates. Tew's men helped themselves to the ship’s rich treasure, worth £100,000 in gold and silver alone, not counting the value of the ivory, spices, gemstones and silk taken. Tew's men afterward shared out between £1,200 and £3,000 per man, and Tew himself claimed about £8,000. Tew was in favour of hunting down the rest of the Indian convoy, but yielded to the opposition of the quartermaster. He set course back to the Cape of Good Hope, stopping at the island of St. Mary's on Madagascar to careen. Tew returned to Newport in April, 1694. Benjamin Fletcher, royal governor of Province of New York, became good friends with Tew and his family. Tew eventually paid off the owners of the Amity fourteen times the value of the vessel.

Tew's flag

Tew's second voyage ended in disaster. Having established the route that would later be known as the Pirate Round, Tew set sail again in November 1694 with 30-40 men, but by the time he reached Madagascar had recruited around 20 more. By August 1695, He fell in with a brigade of pirates at the mouth of the Red Sea intent on recreating Tew's success of taking down an Indian treasure ship the previous year. The squadron was led by Henry Avery, captain of the powerful warship, the Fancy. The battle waged on for hours, and Tew himself was disembowelled by cannon fire, whereupon his demoralised men surrendered. However, Avery and the rest of the brigade fought on and eventually won, and Tew's men went free.

Tew's burial place is unknown, but it is said he was the father of the Malagasy king, Ratsimilaho. William Kidd, before he also turned pirate, was commissioned by William III to hunt down Tew. Little did either of them know Tew was already dead when the commission was issued.

Madagascar

Piracy around Africa has always been (and to some extent, still is) rife. Largely a site for slave trading, between 1680 and 1725 Madagascar was a bona fide pirate stronghold. This was not as long-lived as the piracy of the West Indies, but it was far more lucrative, not to mention barbarous. While the pirates of the West Indies were concentrating on looting coastal towns and raiding bulky Spanish treasure ships, others looked to the glittering riches of the East for their plunder, and the small, awkwardly defended two-masted grabs and gallivats of the Mogul and Arab fleets. While piracy continued in these waters throughout the 17th century, it was not until the last decade that the English government became concerned. Lord Bellomont, who was then governor of New York and New England, wrote to the Lords of the Admiralty in 1699:

"The vast riches of the Red Sea and Madagascar are such a lure to seamen that almost no withholding them from turning pirates."

Many famous buccaneers operated out of Madagascar, not least the legendary William Kidd, who was a privateer turned pirate, put on trial and hanged in 1701. Kidd's turn to piracy was as a conclusion of the war with the Spanish, and as Defoe puts it in his history, 'Privateers in Time of War are a Nursery for Pyrates against a Peace.' Kidd's trial helped to stoke the myth of a flourishing pirate commonwealth in a tropical paradise with vast holdings of gold and jewels, which, for a pardon, pirates seemed willing to share with the depleting English Exchequer. Henry Every was one of the most successful pirates in history (more on him later) who managed to buy his pardon with a sum greater than the national debt.

A map of Madagascar, circa 1702-1707

Pirates around Madagascar plundered merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. They deprived Europe-bound ships of their silks, cloth, spices, and jewels. Vessels captured going in the opposite direction (to India) lost their coin, gold, and silver. The pirates robbed the Indian cargo ships that traded between ports in the Indian Ocean as well as ships commissioned by the East India Companies of France, England, and the Netherlands. As late as 1721, British and colonial ships were still supplying these Madagascar pirates with stores and ammunition, in exchange for slaves which were sold in the West Indies.

The seas around Madagascar were treacherous, and many ships were wrecked on its shore. While there were English and French colonies on Madagascar at the time, the island is covered in jungle and three times the size of Great Britain, making it difficult for shipwrecked sailors to locate them. Added to this, was the peril of hostile natives. 

Robert Drury

Robert Drury was one unfortunate lad who, aged 14, was part of a slaver ship called the Degrave. The ship ran aground off the southern coast of Madagascar in 1701 and the crew were forced to abandon her, and were taken prisoner by the king of a native clan. The crew attempted escape but failed, and most were cut to pieces, except for Drury and a couple of other youths. Drury was a slave to the natives for 10 years, eventually becoming the king's royal butcher. During a war with a neighbouring kingdom, an emissary came to speak to the king who was Drury's master. The emissary also spoke privately to Drury, and told him if he managed to escape to the west coast, his people would help him onto the first British ship they saw. Drury did escape, and followed the Olinahy river to St Augustine bay on the west coast. There Drury found a community of stowaways and other European cast-offs living under the local clan, and eventually, through his new European friends, news would return to his father who asked a certain Captain Mackett to go to the coast to have him returned to England on his ship, the Masselage. Drury returned to England on September 9th, 1717. Upon his return, Drury published his journal, and gave one of the earliest exploratory accounts of southern Madagascar. He would return to Madagascar again to become a slave trader and pirate. 

Drury's description of the geography of southern Madagascar was held with some scrutiny. In Defoe's history, he writes: 

'It must be observed, that our speculative Mathematicians and Geographers, who are, no doubt, Men of the greatest Learning, seldom travel farther than their Closets for their Knowledge, &c. are therefore unqualify'd to give us a good Description of Countries: it is for this Reason that all our Maps and Atlasses are so monstrously faulty, for these Gentlemen are obliged to take their Accounts from the Reports of illiterate Men.'

Thanks for reading folks, see you next Wendesday for more pirate fact fun! - Captain