Bartholomew Roberts

Bartholomew Roberts, born John Roberts on the 17th of May 1682 in Casnewydd Bach, Pembrokeshire, was a Welsh pirate who operated in the Americas, Caribbean and West Africa in the early 18th Century. He is the undisputed most successful pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy, having taken over 470 ships in his career, making his earnings in today's money equivalent to £22.5 million. It isn't known exactly when he changed his name to Bartholomew, but it was likely as a pirate alias, perhaps inspired by a famous buccaneer of the time, Bartholomew Sharp.

Roberts is thought first to have gone to sea at the age of 13, but then he disappears from records until 1718, where he is listed as a mate aboard a Barbados sloop. In 1719, he was third mate aboard a slave ship named Princess, when the vessel was seized by pirate Captain Howell Davis. Davis pressed Roberts into his service, who quickly proved himself as a navigator. It is said that Davis would use Welsh to communicate with Roberts, keeping it hidden from the rest of the crew.
Davis then hoisted English colours and sailed to the Portuguese island of Principe, and posing as an English captain, invited the Governor for lunch aboard his ship, intending to hold him hostage. However, the Portuguese somehow discovered that Davis was a pirate, and invited him for a glass of wine at the fortress first, and he his party were ambushed and shot dead en route.
This meant a new captain had to be elected. The ship had a parliamentary system, and the men aboard were divided into "Lords" and "Commons". Commons could vote in the election of a captain, but only Lords could nominate candidates. Within six weeks of his capture, Roberts was elected captain, which was particularly curious given that he often protested being on board at all.

Roberts' first act as captain was to avenge Captain Davis, and sailed the inherited Royal Rover back to Principe and viciously sacked the island. Soon afterwards he captured a Dutch Guineaman, then two days later a British ship called the Experiment. While the ship took on water and provisions at Anamboe, a vote was taken on whether the next voyage should be to the East Indies or to Brazil. The vote was for Brazil. Roberts and his men spent nine weeks searching Brazilian waters without success, when as they were about to return to the West Indies, they encountered a fleet of 42 Portuguese ships in the Todos os Santos' Bay. Roberts quietly captured one of the vessels and ordered the captain to point out the richest ship in the fleet. He pointed out a ship of 40 guns and a crew of 170, which Roberts and his men boarded and captured. The ship proved to contain 40,000 gold moidores and jewellery including a cross set with diamonds, designed for the King of Portugal.
Roberts, now vastly wealthy, sailed for Devil's Island off the coast of Guinea to spend the loot. After a few weeks there, they sailed to the River Surinam and captured a sloop. When a brigantine was sighted in the distance, Roberts and forty men chased it in the faster sloop, leaving Kennedy in charge of the Royal Rover. Due to unfortunate weather, the sloop became wind-bound for eight days, and when Roberts was finally able to return, he discovered that Kennedy had sailed off with the Royal Rover and what remained of the loot. Roberts and his crew renamed their sloop the Fortune and between them drafted a charter of eleven rules now known as the Pirate Code:

1. Every man shall have an equal vote in affairs of moment. He shall have an equal title to the fresh provisions or strong liquors at any time seized, and shall use them at pleasure unless a scarcity may make it necessary for the common good that a retrenchment may be voted.
2. Every man shall be called fairly in turn by the list on board of prizes, because over and above their proper share, they are allowed a shift of clothes. But if they defraud the company to the value of even one dollar in plate, jewels or money, they shall be marooned. If any man rob another he shall have his nose and ears slit, and be put ashore where he shall be sure to encounter hardships.
3. None shall game for money either with dice or cards.
4. The lights and candles should be put out at eight at night, and if any of the crew desire to drink after that hour they shall sit upon the open deck without lights.
5. Each man shall keep his piece, cutlass and pistols at all times clean and ready for action.
6. No boy or woman to be allowed amongst them. If any man shall be found seducing any of the latter sex and carrying her to sea in disguise he shall suffer death.
7. He that shall desert the ship or his quarters in time of battle shall be punished by death or marooning.
8. None shall strike another on board the ship, but every man's quarrel shall be ended on shore by sword or pistol in this manner. At the word of command from the quartermaster, each man being previously placed back to back, shall turn and fire immediately. If any man do not, the quartermaster shall knock the piece out of his hand. If both miss their aim they shall take to their cutlasses, and he that draw the first blood shall be declared the victor.
9. No man shall talk of breaking up their way of living till each has a share of 1,000. Every man who shall become a cripple or lose a limb in the service shall have 800 pieces of eight from the common stock and for lesser hurts proportionately.
10. The captain and the quartermaster shall each receive two shares of a prize, the master gunner and boatswain, one and one half shares, all other officers one and one quarter, and private gentlemen of fortune one share each.
11. The musicians shall have rest on the Sabbath Day only by right. On all other days by favour only.

The traitor Kennedy proved a very poor pirate with no knowledge of navigation, and following his betrayal, Roberts excluded any Irishman from joining his crew. Kennedy and his crew intended to give up piracy and sail for Ireland, but being a poor navigator hit the west coast of Scotland. Seventeen of the crew were arrested near Edinburgh and put on trial for piracy, with nine of them being hanged. Kennedy slipped away and reached Ireland. Having soon spent all his ill-gotten gains in Dublin, he went then to Deptford where he is said to have kept a brothel. When one of his prostitutes accused him of theft, he was sent to the Bridewell Prison, where he was denounced as a pirate by the mate of a ship he had taken. Kennedy was transferred to the Marshalsea prison and put on trial for piracy. He was hanged at Execution Dock on the 21st of July, 1721 amid a rather long winded speech.

Roberts meanwhile, had returned to the Caribbean and in February 1720, was attacked by naval sloops from Barbados and Martinique, and the Fortune was forced to flee battle with heavy damage.Roberts swore vengeance against the inhabitants of Barbados and Martinique. He had a new flag made with a drawing of himself standing upon 2 skulls, one labelled ABH (A Barbadian's Head) and the other AMH (A Martiniquian's Head).

Roberts' flag

After making repairs, Roberts sailed north to Canada to ravage Newfoundland. After raiding Canso, Nova Scotia, capturing a number of ships around Cape Breton and robbing the Newfoundland banks, Roberts raided the harbour of Ferryland and captured a dozen vessels. On the 21st of June he attacked the larger harbour of Trepassey, sailing in with black flags flying. All the ships in the harbour were abandoned by their panic-stricken captains and crews, and Roberts seized Trepassey without any resistance being offered. Roberts had captured 22 ships, but was angered by the cowardice of the captains who had fled their ships. Every morning when a gun was fired, the captains were forced to attend Roberts on board his ship; they were told that anyone who was absent would have his ship burnt.
Roberts replaced his Fortune with a brig from Bristol, and fitted her with 16 guns. When the pirates left after about a week, all the other vessels in the harbour were set on fire. During July, Roberts captured nine or ten French warships and commandeered one of them, fitting her with 26 cannons and changing her name to the Good Fortune. With this more powerful ship, Roberts captured many more vessels before heading south for the West Indies. In September the same year he renamed it the Royal Fortune, the first of several ships to be given this name by Roberts. Then he spent several months successfully roving the Caribbean and taking dozens of prizes. It is also said that he attacked and captured the governor of Martinique at sea, and hanged him from the yardarm of his ship.

By the spring of 1721, Roberts had almost completely paralysed trade in the West Indies, and so crossed the Atlantic for West Africa. It was there that the Royal Fortune proved to be leaky, and so the pirates moved to another ship, the Sea King that belonged to an allied pirate, and then renamed the Royal Fortune. Roberts then captured two large ships at Point Cestos, one of these was the frigate Onslow, transporting soldiers bound for Cabo Corso Castle. A number of the soldiers wished to join the pirates and were eventually accepted, but as landlubbers were given only a quarter share. The Onslow was converted to become the fourth Royal Fortune.

By this time, Royal Navy ships had left England in search of Roberts. On the 5th of February, the HMS Swallow found several of Roberts' ships carousing by the Calabar River. The Swallow veered away to avoid a shoal, making the pirates think that she was a fleeing merchant ship. The Ranger, commanded by James Skyrme, departed in pursuit. Once out of earshot of the other pirates, the Swallow opened her gun ports and opened fire. Ten pirates were killed and Skyrme had his leg blown off by a cannonball, but refused to leave the deck. Eventually, the Ranger was forced to strike her colours and the surviving crew were captured.

Five days later, on the 10th of February, the Swallow returned to the Calabar River where The Royal Fortune and others were still moored. At first, the pirates thought that the approaching ship was the Ranger returning, but a deserter from the Swallow recognized her and informed Roberts while he was at breakfast. Most of the crew were drunk, and unfit for duty. As he usually did before action, Roberts dressed himself in his finest clothes:

"Roberts himself made a gallant figure, at the time of the engagement, being dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his hat, a gold chain round his neck, with a diamond cross hanging to it, a sword in his hand, and two pairs of pistols slung over his shoulders ..." 

Roberts' plan was to sail past the Swallow, which meant exposing themselves to a broadside. Once past, they would have a good chance of escaping. However, the helmsman failed to keep the Royal Fortune on the right course, and the Swallow was able to approach to deliver a second devastating broadside. Roberts was killed by a grapeshot, which struck him in the throat while he stood on the deck. Before his body could be captured, Roberts' wish to be buried at sea was fulfilled by his crew, who weighed his body down and threw it overboard after wrapping it in his ship's sail. It was never found.

The battle continued for another two hours, until the Royal Fortune‍ '​s mainmast fell and the pirates surrendered. Only three pirates, including Roberts, had been killed in the battle. A total of 272 men had been captured by the Royal Navy. Of these, 65 were black, and these were sold into slavery. The remainder, apart from those who died on the voyage back, were taken to Cape Coast Castle. 54 were condemned to death, of whom 52 were hanged and two reprieved. Another twenty were allowed to sign indentures with the Royal African Company. 17 men were sent to the Marshalsea prison in London for trial, while over a third of the total were acquitted and released.

Captain Chaloner Ogle who commanded the Swallow was rewarded with a knighthood, the only British naval officer to be honoured specifically for his actions against pirates and eventually became an Admiral. This was a decisive battle in the war against piracy, and many consider the death of Roberts to be the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.

William Kidd

William Kidd was a Scottish privateer, pirate hunter and pirate born in Dundee, 22rd of January, 1645. It has been questioned whether he was a true pirate, as there is evidence that he may have only acted as a privateer, and his execution was political. Regardless, his actions were far less violent than many of his contemporaries. His father was John Kyd, a naval captain who was lost at sea. Kidd later moved to New York City, and by 1689, had joined an Anglo-French pirate crew who sailed the Caribbean. The crew later mutinied, and put the captain ashore, Kidd became the new captain and the ship was renamed the Blessed William. Kidd then sailed the ship to the British colony of Nevis, and was appointed by the governor Christopher Codrington, to a small fleet tasked with defending the colony from the French, with whom the English were at war. Being unable to pay the sailors, Governor Codrington allowed his defenders to act as privateers, and take whatever spoils they would from the French. Kidd sailed for the tiny French island of Mariegalante, whereupon he and his men pillaged and razed the only town on the island, and looted around £2000 sterling.

William Kidd, portrait by James Thornhill

During the Nine Years War, Kidd captured an enemy privateer vessel and was awarded £150 by the crown for his service. One year later, the Blessed William was stolen by pirate captain Robert Culliford, while he was ashore at Antigua in the West Indies.On the 16th of May 1691, Kidd married Sarah Bradley Cox Oort in New York, an English woman in her early twenties who was already twice widowed and one of the wealthiest women in New York, due to the inheritance from her first husband.
On the 11th of December 1695, Kidd was tasked with pirate hunting, specifically the pirates Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Maze. Little was it known that Tew at least was already dead when the order was issued. Kidd would have been socially bound to accept the contract, as refusal would have been viewed as disloyalty. The expedition was well funded, and his new ship, the Adventure Galley, weighing over 284 tons burthen, she was equipped with 34 cannon, 150 men, and notably, oars. The oars were a key advantage as they enabled the Adventure Galley to manoeuvre in a battle when the wind was still.
As Kidd's expedition was leaving from London, the Adventure Galley sailed out down the Thames, Kidd unaccountably failed to salute a Navy yacht at Greenwich, as custom dictated. The Navy yacht then fired a shot to make him show respect, and Kidd’s crew responded with an astounding display of impudence, by turning and slapping their backsides in disdain. Because of Kidd's refusal to salute, the English vessel's captain retaliated by pressing much of Kidd's crew into naval service, despite rampant protests. Thus short-staffed, Kidd sailed for New York City, capturing a French vessel en route. In his desperate need to replenish his officers and crew, Kidd was forced to hire replacement crewmen in New York, many of whom were scoundrels and former pirates.

In September 1696, Kidd sailed from New York for Africa in search of pirates. Kidd's voyage was fraught with bad luck, as a third of his crew died of a cholera outbreak on the Comoros Islands just off Madagascar, and the Adventure Galley developed a number of leaks. What's more, he failed to find any pirates. Kidd then sailed to the mouth of the Red Sea in search of pirates, and once again failed. By this point Kidd was getting desperate. According to Edward Barlow, a captain employed by the English East India Company, Kidd attacked a Mughal convoy under escort by Barlow's East Indiaman, and was repelled. If the report is true, this marked Kidd's first foray into piracy.
As would be mentioned at his trial, Kidd had many opportunities while at sea to attack other vessels, and yet did not, and many of his crew deserted. Those who remained aboard would make frequent open threats of mutiny. Kidd killed one of his own crewmen after a heated exchange. The crewman was gunner William Moore, who urged Kidd to attack a Dutch vessel that had come into range. Kidd refused, stating the act was not only piratical but would anger the Dutch-born King of England. Kidd called Moore a lousy dog, and Moore retorted, "If I am a lousy dog, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin and many more." Kidd hurled a large iron bucket at Moore, who fell to the deck with a fractured skull and died the following day.
On the 30th January 1698, Kidd raised French colours and took his greatest prize, an Armenian ship, the 400-ton Quedagh Merchant, which was loaded with satins, muslins, gold, silver, an incredible variety of East Indian merchandise, as well as extremely valuable silks. The captain was an Englishman named Wright, who had purchased passes from the French East India Company promising him the protection of the French Crown. After realising the captain of the taken vessel was an Englishman, Kidd claims he tried to persuade his crew to return the ship to its owners, but they refused, claiming their order from the English crown was to take French vessels, which included Armenian ones.
On the first of April, 1698, Kidd landed at Madagascar, and met with Captain Robert Culliford, who had stolen the Blessed William from him eight years earlier, now captaining the Mocha Frigate. Kidd reportedly treated with Culliford, and drank his health. Most of Kidd's crew abandoned him for Culliford, and only 13 remained with him and the Adventure Galley. Deciding to return home, Kidd left the Adventure Galley behind, ordering her to be burnt because she had become worm-eaten and leaky. Before burning the ship, he was able to salvage every last scrap of metal down to the door hinges. With the loyal remnant of his crew, he returned to the Caribbean aboard the Adventure Prize.
While returning to New York City, Kidd learned that he was a wanted pirate, and that several Royal Navy men-o'-war were searching for him. Realising that the Adventure Prize was a marked vessel, he cached her in the Caribbean Sea and continued toward New York aboard a sloop. He deposited some of his treasure on Gardiners Island, hoping to use his knowledge of its location as a bargaining tool. One of Kidd's investors lured him to Boston on the false promise of clemency, and had him arrested on the 6th of July, 1699. Kidd spent more than a year in prison before he was sent to England for questioning by Parliament. The new Tory ministry hoped to use Kidd as a tool to discredit the Whigs who had backed him, but Kidd refused to name names, naively confident his patrons would reward his loyalty by interceding on his behalf. There is speculation that he probably would have been spared had he talked. Finding Kidd politically useless, the Tory leaders sent him to stand trial before the High Court of Admiralty in London, for the charges of piracy on high seas and the murder of William Moore. Whilst awaiting trial, Kidd was confined in Newgate Prison, and wrote several letters to King William requesting clemency. Much of the evidence in Kidd's defence was misfiled, and six of his associates testified against him in exchange for pardons. Kidd was hanged on the 23rd of May, 1701, and Execution Dock. His body hung on the Thames at Tilbury Point for three years.

On the 13th of December, 2007, the Quedagh Merchant was found by divers. A cannon was recovered, known as Captain Kidd's cannon, which is now a permanent exhibit at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.In May 2015, a 50kg silver ingot was found of the coast of Madagascar, believed to be part of Kidd's treasure. The bar was presented to the President of Madagascar.

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.

Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny (born Anna Cormac) was an Irish pirate born in Kinsale, County Cork in 1700. Very little is known of her life, but it is known that she was the bastard daughter of a lawyer, William Cormac, and his maidservant, Mary Brennan, conceived while Cormac's wife was ill and living with her Mother in Law.  Brennan also had a suitor, a young man who worked as a tanner in the town. The tanner used to call on the house when Cormac was out, and on one occasion, slipped three silver spoons into his pocket. Brennan soon noticed they were gone, and confronted him. Alarmed, he hid the spoons under Brennan's bedsheets. When Mrs. Cormac recovered from her illness and returned to the house, Brennan told her of the missing spoons. The tanner was called for, and claimed it was a jest, and told Mrs Cormac the spoons were in Brennan's bed. The matter was then settled, however Mrs. Cormac then realised that Brennan would surely have found the spoons if she had been sleeping in her own bed. She then left her husband, and Cormac and Brennan (who was pregnant) moved to Kinsale where Bonny was born.
They moved to Carolina when Bonny was 12, and her mother died shortly after. Her father failed to establish himself as a lawyer and joined a more profitable merchant business.
Bonny is said to have been a comely lass with red hair and a hot temper, and is said to have badly beaten a young man who tried to rape her, and he lay ill of it for a considerable time. Her father expected a good marriage for her, however at a young age she married James Bonny, a poor sailor and small-time pirate who hoped to inherit Cormac's estate, but Cormac disowned his daughter. The two moved to Nassau, a haven for pirates in the Caribbean. When Woodes Rogers arrived to quell the pirate fleets, James Bonny became his informant.

Once in Nassau, Bonny quickly tired of her husband and left him. It was then she met Captain "Calico" Jack Rackham, and became his lover and accomplice aboard the ship Revenge. She had a son by him in Cuba, who would take the name Cunningham, and once recovered, she returned to sea with Rackham. Reports say that Bonny was a competent pirate and skilled in combat, and Woodes Rogers included her name in a list in a 'Wanted Pirates' circular in the continent's only newspaper, The Boston News-Letter. It was then that she met "Mark" Read, a pirate in Rackham's crew, who she took a fancy to. After endeavouring to mate his better acquaintance, Mark revealed himself to be a woman, Mary Read. She revealed herself to Rackham also to calm his jealousy, but her identity remained a secret to all others.

When Rackham's crew was attacked by pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet in 1720, most of the crew including Rackham were dead drunk, and only Read, Bonny, and one unnamed other stood on deck to fight the hunters. They were overwhelmed and taken to Jamaica for trial. Like Read, Bonny was pregnant at the time of her trial, and was able to "plead the belly" to stay her execution. Her last words to Rackham were, "I am sorry to see you here, but if you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog."

There is no historical record of what happened to Bonny after her imprisonment, only that she was never executed. Some speculate that her father ransomed her, or that she escaped, or that she lived out her days in jail, but nobody knows for sure.

Mary Read

Mary Read was an English pirate born outside of London circa 1690, famously one of only two women convicted of piracy in the early 18th Century.

Read was bastard-born to a widow of a sailor who had died at sea. To preserve her dignity, Read's mother moved to the countryside so as to hide her bastard child from those who knew her. Read had had an elder brother, Mark, a year older who had died in infancy. Read's mother dressed her as a boy to disguise the girl as her brother in order to continue receiving financial support from her late husband's mother. Upon presenting the child, the old woman was fooled and offered to adopt the child from her, but Read's mother claimed parting would break her heart, and so instead the grandmother gave Read's mother a crown a week as maintenance until she died when Read was thirteen.

Read completely assumed the identity of her brother Mark, and apparently having a masculine bearing and making a convincing boy, found employment on a ship before joining the British Army. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Read fell in love with a Flemish soldier, and using their military wages and gifts from well-wishing comrades, moved to the Netherlands and opened an inn named 'De drie hoefijzers' (The Three Horseshoes).Read's husband died in obscure circumstances not long after they were married, and with the Peace of Ryswick being concluded, the military custom their inn had relied on dried up, and so with her life in the Netherlands ruined, she readopted her male persona and enlisted in the Dutch military. However, with the war over there was no room for advancement, so Read quit the service and found work on a ship bound for the West Indies.

The ship was taken by pirates, and being the only 'Englishman' aboard, Read was pressed into their crew. Later, Read and the crew she served in took the king's pardon, but later enlisted as a privateer in a war against the Spanish. No sooner had this crew set sail than they, with Read among them, turned on their captain and resumed their old trade.
In 1720, she joined Calico Jack's crew, still disguised as a man. She revealed herself to Rackham's lover Anne Bonny, who having taken Read for a handsome young lad, sought to make his better acquaintance. Read was forced to disappoint Bonny by revealing that she was a woman, and so as to quiet the jealous Jack Rackham, revealed herself to him also.

Read took a lover among those pressed into Rackham's crew, whose name is lost to history. However it is known that he quarrelled with one of the pirates, and one challenged the other to a duel ashore. Read was afraid for her lover's life, and so made a point of quarrelling with the same pirate, and also challenged him to a duel ashore, two hours sooner than he was to face her lover. She fought him with sword and pistol, and killed him on the spot. Later at her trial, Read would not give up her lover's identity, but would only say he was an honest man pressed into the pirate crew and they had both resolved to find an honest livelihood at the first opportunity.

Later that year, while hosting an off-shore rum party, Rackham's crew were attacked by pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet, who disabled Rackham's ship with a broadside. Rackham and most of his crew fled into the hold, probably dead drunk, leaving only Read, Bonny and one unnamed other to fight the hunters. Read allegedly fired angrily into the hold where the crew were hiding and killed one for cowardice.

The crew was overwhelmed and arrested, and Read and the others were taken to Spanish Town, Jamaica and convicted of piracy. However as Read was pregnant, she was granted a stay of execution, known as 'pleading the belly' to postpone her hanging.

Read died of a fever in prison, and was buried on the 28th of April, 1721, aged c.30.

Henry Avery, The Pirate King

No pirate was ever so well known in his day as Captain Avery of the Fancy, who has been the inspiration for many pirate myths and characters. Operating in the last years of the 17th Century, Avery and his fleet terrorised the Atlantic and Indian oceans until 1696, and became the focus of the world's first global manhunt.As always with pirates, little is known of their early life, but what is known of Avery is he was born  near Plymouth on the 23rd of August, 1659. He served in the Royal Navy during the Nine Year's War, and afterwards became a slave trader off the African coast. In 1693 he became a mariner again, as first mate on the Spanish warship of forty-six guns, the Charles II. But after the ship's owners failed to pay their wages, so on the evening of the 7th of May, 1694, Avery led a mutiny against the captain, put him ashore with five or six loyalists, and sailed the ship for the Indian Ocean to begin their pirate career.

Henry Avery, the Pirate King

In 1695, The Fancy sailed to the Arabian Sea, where a 25-ship convoy of Grand Mughal vessels was making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, including the treasure-laden flagship Ganj-i-sawai and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. Avery joined forces with several other pirate vessels, and found himself in command of a small pirate squadron, including a sloop captained by English pirate Thomas Tew. As the pirates gave chase, the smaller vessels in the squadron gradually fell behind, and at some point Tew was killed in an engagement with a Mughal ship. Avery had more success, and captured the escort ship the Fateh Muhammed and then the Ganj-i-sawai, having broken the ship's mast in a broadside. The bloody hand-to-hand battle on deck waged for several hours. The pirates took heavy losses but the spoils were astronomical. Avery had captured up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels, making him the richest pirate in the world, equivalent to around £52.4 million in present day money. Avery and his crew then tortured and killed a great number of the passengers and raped women of all ages. Some women stabbed themselves with daggers or jumped overboard, committing suicide to escape this fate.The plunder of Emperor Aurangzeb's treasure ship had serious consequences for England, with Avery's attack damaging relations so terribly that the very existence of English trade in India was threatened. When the damaged Ganj-i-sawai finally limped its way back to harbour in Surat, news of the pirates' rape of the Muslim women was considered an unforgivable violation of the Hajj. The local Indian governor, Itimad Khan, immediately arrested the English subjects in Surat and kept them under close watch, partly as a punishment for their countrymen's depredations and partly for their own protection from the rioting locals. Aurangzeb was livid, and quickly closed four of the company's factories in India and imprisoned the officers, nearly ordering an armed attack against the English city of Bombay with the goal of forever expelling the English from India.
To appease Aurangzeb, the East India Company promised to pay all financial reparations, while Parliament declared the pirates hostis humani generis ("enemies of the human race"). In mid-1696 the government issued a £500 bounty on Avery's head and offered a free pardon to any informer who disclosed his whereabouts. When the East India Company later doubled that reward, the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history was underway. The Crown also promised to exempt Avery from all pardons and amnesties it would subsequently issue to other pirates. 
Avery meanwhile sailed to New Providence, and under the name of Henry Bridgeman and claiming to be an unlicensed slave trader, offered the Governor £860 to let them stay and not ask questions. New Providence was underfunded and underpopulated, and at serious risk of French attack, and so the Governor agreed. As the manhunt for Avery escalated, the Governor by now having realised who he was, covered for him in exchange for the Fancy, as well as fifty tons of ivory tusks, one hundred barrels of gunpowder, several chests of firearms and ammunition, and an assortment of ship anchors. As the heat mounted, and the governor himself coming under suspicion, he had the Fancy destroyed to remove the key piece of evidence that Avery was in his town.
Regardless the Governor was forced to either put a warrant out for Every's arrest or, failing to do so, effectively disclose his association with the pirate. Preferring the former choice for the sake of his reputation, he alerted the authorities as to pirates' whereabouts, but was able to tip off Avery and his crew before the authorities arrived. Avery's 113-person crew then fashioned their hasty escape, vanishing from the island with only twenty-four men ever captured, six of whom were executed. His last words to his men were a litany of conflicting stories of where he planned to go, doubtless intended to throw pursuers off his trail.

Avery's crew split up, while Avery was spotted in Dublin harbour in June 1696, with about twenty other men in the sloop Sea Flower. They aroused suspicions while unloading their treasure, and two of the men were subsequently caught. Avery, however, was able to escape once again. His fate after this encounter is unknown.

Captain England

Edward Seegar was born in Ireland around 1685. He changed his name to England when he took up piracy. Like many pirates, he originally served as a privateer in the Royal Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession, but was captured by a pirate captain Christopher Winter and pressed into joining the crew. Defoe describes England as a man of reason, who should have known better than to turn pirate, perhaps indicating that he was educated. Defoe also describes England as good-natured, courageous, not avaricious and averse to the ill-treatment of captives.
England, along with Charles Vane, took part in Captain Jennings' assault on the Spanish salvage ship at Palma de Ayz, Florida, where they escaped with £87,000 of gold and silver. By March 1718, England was Vane's quartermaster, a position that would later be given to Calico Jack (to Vane's eventual detriment) after Vane granted England captaincy of his own ship, one of Vane's captured sloops, in the summer of 1718. Captain England's Jolly Roger is the best remembered pirate flag in history, the death's head and crossed humerus. 

England's Jolly Roger

England was clever, but did not wish to take the king's pardon. So with the Royal Navy bearing down on the Caribbean, he sailed for the coast of Africa. En route to Africa, England seized a number of ships, notably a ship called the Cadogan, a ship captained by a man called Skinner, who some of England's crew knew, and had served under before. Skinner had failed to pay the men any wages, and so when he came aboard, Skinner was met by his old Boatswain, who said, ″Ah! Captain Skinner! Is it you? The only man I wished to see. I am much in your debt, and now I shall pay you in your own coin.″ The men immediately seized Captain Skinner, bound him to the windlass and pelted him with glass bottles. Then they whipped him about the deck until they were bored. Afterwards they said, because he had been a good Master he should have an easy death, and so out of mercy, shot him through the head.It was aboard the Cadogan that Howell Davis was mate. Being a likeable man, he gained favour with England, who, after having his pick of prizes from the ship, granted him captaincy of the Cadogan, from where he would start his own notable pirate career.
It was then that England upgraded to his best remembered ship. He seized a vessel called the Pearl, from a Captain Tyzard, which he renamed the Royal James. In the spring of 1719, the rovers returned to Africa, and entered into a very prosperous period of piracy, taking 10 ships in a single voyage and recruiting over 50 sailors from their collective crews.

England and his crew settled in an unspecified African town for a time, but after some friction with the natives, fighting broke out and the town was put to the torch. Afterwards, they put to a vote where they should head next, and elected for India. They shaped their course accordingly and sailed for Madagascar, in search of the legendary pirate Henry Every, who's crew they had heard to be settled on the island. They did not find Every's crew, who were settled on the other side of the island, and so continued on to India. By 1720, England had reached the Indian Ocean, where he met with fellow pirate Captain Oliver la Buse. England captured a thirty-four gun Dutch ship, which he named Fancy in honour of Henry Every, and he made the Fancy his new flagship. 

Battle with the Cassandra

Once in the Indian Ocean, England attacked an East India Company ship called the Cassandra, captained by James Macrae, which resulted in a protracted, deadly battle, in which both ships ran aground. Macrae and his surviving men escaped onto land, where they hid for 10 days, England laying siege to them, holding the beached Cassandra to ransom. Finally, Macrae surrendered. The value of the Cassandra's cargo was estimated at £75,000. England, being notable for his kindness, spared Macrae's life, and gave him the heavily damaged Fancy in exchange for the Cassandra. England lost 90 men capturing the Cassandra, and John Taylor, England's Quartermaster and captain of England's ship, the Victory, had strongly objected to sparing Macrae. At this point, an unknown member of the crew appeared, 'a fellow with a terrible pair of whiskers, and a wooden leg, being suck round with pistols, swearing and vapouring upon the Quarter-Deck, and asks, in a damning manner, which was Captain Macrae'. Macrae believed that this man was to be his executioner, but when he came near him, he took him by the hand, swearing damn him he was glad to see him, and said "and show me the man that offers to hurt Captain Macrae, for I'll stand by him', and so with many oaths told Taylor he was an honest fellow, and that they had formerly sailed together. This put an end to the dispute and Taylor went to bed. England advised Macrae to begone before Taylor awoke, lest his generosity leave him overnight.

A short time later, England and his crew heard a false rumour that Macrae was organising a fleet to take back the Cassandra. Enraged, like Calico Jack before him, Taylor deposed his captain and seized his ships, marooning England on Mauritius with three others, including the one-legged man who had defended Macrae. England survived for a while on the charity of other pirates, possibly some of Henry Every's old crew. He died in 1721, from ″severe strings of his conscience″ according to the unreliable account of a sailor named Downing, either from disease or suicide.