South China Sea

Piracy has been rife in Asia since as early as the 9th Century. In particular, piracy has plagued the region of Southeast Asia and continues to do so to the present day. Despite increased efforts by the regional countries to reduce the problem, pirate attacks take place on an alarmingly regular basis in what are some of the world’s most travelled waterways. With its vast and complex coastlines, encompassing both the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos - whose islands total over 20,000 in number - Southeast Asia has provided a fertile area for the growth of piracy. Targets are never in short supply. Approximately one-third of the world’s trade and half of the world’s oil passes through the Straits of Malacca - a waterway that continues to be of great strategic importance that has been described as one of the arteries of the regional economy.
Piracy in Southeast Asia took off in a big way in the late 14th Century. With the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol fleets that had patrolled the waters retreated, and pirates quickly took to the fore. Their strength and ferocity coincided with the impending trade growth of the maritime silk and spice routes in the South China sea. 
There were various native 'tribes' of pirates that vied for control of the waters around south east Asia throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The Buginese sailors of South Sulawesi were infamous pirates who used to range as far west as Singapore and as far north as the Philippines in search of targets for piracy. The Orang laut pirates controlled shipping in the Straits of Malacca and the waters around Singapore, and the Malay and Sea Dayak pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in Borneo. The Moro pirates of the southern Philippines harassed Spanish shipping and terrorized Christian Filipino settlements, and may have captured up to 2 million slaves in the first two centuries of Spanish rule after 1565.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was frequent European piracy against Mughal Indian merchants, especially those en route to Mecca for Hajj. Captain Every who I mentioned last week made history when he attacked the Grand Moghul's ship in 1696 with its enormous gold hoard, considered an act of piracy by the British court due to their alliance with the prince, however despite the high-handed nature of the theft they were found not guilty by a jury in England. They were later retried and convicted in absentia for the mutiny and theft of the ship that had started the crew on their pirate career. European attacks in Asian waters came to a head when the Portuguese attacked and captured the vessel Rahimi which belonged to Mariam Zamani, the Mughal queen, which led to the Mughal seizure of the Portuguese town Daman.

The Red Flag Fleet

During the Qing period, Chinese pirate fleets exploded in size, with immense repercussions on the Chinese economy. The pirates preyed voraciously on China's junk trade, which prospered in Fujian and Guangdong and was a vital artery of Chinese commerce. Pirate fleets exercised hegemony over villages on the coast, collecting revenue by exacting tribute and running extortion rackets. Pirate empires flourished, and fleets grew immensely in size, rivalling the Chinese Imperial fleet. In 1802, the menacing Zheng Yi who admiraled the Red Flag Fleet, inherited the fleet of his cousin, captain Zheng Qi, whose death provided Zheng Yi with considerably more influence in the world of piracy. 

Four Chinese Pirates, hanged in Hong Kong in 1863

The military might of Zheng Yi's fleet alone was sufficient to combat the Qing navy. When he died in 1807, his wife Ching Shih, a Canton whore, quickly manoeuvred towards taking over her late husband's empire, and successfully assumed control. The fleet continued to grow and prosper under her rule, and she eventually commanding as many as 40,000 men and grew powerful enough to resist even the British Empire. Once she held the fleet’s leadership position, Ching Shih started the task of uniting the fleet by issuing a code of laws.The code was very strict and strictly enforced.

First, anyone giving their own orders (ones that did not come down from Ching Shih) or disobeying those of a superior were beheaded on the spot.
Second, no one was to steal from the public fund or any villagers that supplied the pirates.
Third, all goods taken as booty had to be presented for group inspection. The booty was registered by a purser and then distributed by the fleet leader. The original seizer received twenty percent and the rest was placed into the public fund.
Fourth, actual money was turned over to the squadron leader, who only gave a small amount back to the seizer, so the rest could be used to purchase supplies for unsuccessful ships. The punishment for a first-time offense of withholding booty was severe whipping of the back. Large amounts of withheld treasure or subsequent offences carried the death penalty. 
Pirates that raped female captives were put to death, but if pirates had consensual sex with captives, the pirate was beheaded and the woman he was with had cannonballs attached to her legs and was chucked off the side of the boat. In 1806 a British officer reported on the terrible fate of those who resisted Ching Shih's pirates; the pirates nailed an enemy's feet to the deck and then beat him senseless. Contemporary reports from the British admiralty called her "The Terror of South China". Under Ching Shih's reign, the Red Flag Fleet ruled the South China Sea. However, a combination of famine, Qing naval opposition, pressure from the British Empire and internal rifts crippled piracy in China around the 1820s, and it has never again reached the same status. Ching Shih retired with her entire loot, one of very few pirates of such prominence to successfully do so, and opened a gambling house in Canton. She died in 1844, aged 69.

Thanks for reading folks, see you next week for more pirate facts! - Captain

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

The Caribbean

Without a doubt the most famous area for piracy has been The Caribbean, and this week I cover the rise and fall of the Caribbean pirates.

Piracy began in the Carribbean during the Anglo-Spanish War of the mid 17th Century, and privateers were enlisted by both sides to raid enemy ships and settlements. However at the conclusion of the war, with Spain and England technically at peace, a lot of privateers were put out of work, and either turned to piracy or were tempted by the French governors to lend their services to the French crown. Therefore, keeping English sailors in the Restoration inactive meant losing them to France, and so blind eyes were turned to various raids against the Spanish. One pirate captain who took advantage of this situation was Henry Morgan, who in 1668 launched several attacks on Spanish dominion without official condemnation. The English crown refused to condemn him, as he was helping to fill the pockets of many beached English adventurers throughout the West Indies, and averted the danger of them going over to France.
However in 1670, the Spanish officially recognised English dominion of Jamaica, and English ships were given free movement of the Caribbean. This led to a heavy decline in the number of illegal attacks, not just from the external politics of the European crowns, but also the domestic needs of the islanders. Sugar plantation owners, who had previously been accomplices in many illegal raids, now sought only peace and security, and feared reprisals for their part in the raids on neighbouring Spanish territories. Therefore, to distance themselves from the pirates with whom they had had dealings, they openly denounced these former watchmen of their coasts and violent defenders of English interests, and the pirates became personae non gratae in the West Indies. Another factor in the decision of the plantation owners to sever ties with the pirates may have been their continued disruption of the Spanish merchant vessels, who were now peaceful trading partners seeking English sugar.
Between pressure from the European crowns and being shunned by the plantations, piracy in the Carribbean declined and pirates shifted to easier areas of plunder. English and French buccaneers under the captains Coxon, Sharp and Cook discovered a convenient overland trail through the Isthmus to the South Pacific, and plundered enormous wealth from the undefended cities of the Pacific coast, and the English campaign in that area was the most famous and well documented voyage of the age. 
Piracy declined sharply in the new world in 1701, when the War of the Spanish Succession were declared, and the mobs of unemployed seamen found work in the naval and privateering services of their respective countries, and England offered a mass pardon for all pirates who agreed to participate in the war. During these years these enemies of all civilised people became privateering patriots, and piracy all but disappeared from the seas. When the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713, the fleets were dispersed, and seamen were once again out of work. However, following this peace, the newly unemployed sailors found themselves bolstered by new armaments, larger Men-O'-War and changes in naval strategy, and these factors led to the greatest decade of pirate activity in modern history. With the peace between the European powers breeding much commerce and prosperity, the pirates of the Caribbean found easy plunder among the slow, poorly defended merchant vessels. In addition, the governors of the islands, through necessity as much as greed, continued to be casual over the commission and allegiance with captains of questionable character. Pirate ships remained largely unchallenged in the Caribbean, as naval captains were reluctant to attack well-armed and fiercely defended pirate vessels when there was no guarantee of capturing a treasure-laden prize that would justify the risk posed by attacking them.

The pirate fleets grew strong enough to rival the European powers, and pirate havens sprang up across the West Indies, a The most famous of the pirate havens was Nassau, a town that between 1703 and 1718, had no official governor and was not occupied by any European force, making in a main place for pirates operating in the area. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1000 pirates in Nassau and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants of the town. The pirates proclaimed Nassau a pirate republic, arguably the first modern democracy, and established themselves as "governors." By April 1718, Captain Woodes Rogers was dispatched from England with the sole purpose of ridding the Caribbean of pirates for good, and although general pardons were offered to pirates who peacefully surrendered, and bounties offered to those bringing them to justice, piracy continued to be so rife in the area that it all but paralysed trade in the West Indies. The English fleet eventually coaxed the pirates into submission, and with the symbolic death of the deadliest pirate of the day, Bartholomew Roberts, in 1722, the Golden Age of Piracy came to a close. Other examples of pirates that used Nassau as their base are Charles Vane, Thomas Barrow, Benjamin Hornigold, "Calico" Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the infamous Blackbeard. I will write articles about all of them separately in following weeks.

Hope you enjoyed this week's instalment folks, come back next Wednesday for an article about Madagascan pirates - Captain

The Barbary Corsairs and Captain Ward

Ahoy mateys! I'm going to spend the next couple of instalments on a timeline of piracy. I will fill out a few of the wheres and whens before I move on to famous individuals, weapons and ships. This week, I talk about the earliest pirates of the Mediterranean.

When were the earliest pirates?

There have been pirates for as long as there have been boats. Certainly the Viking raiders that assailed Britain and France in the 9th Century would qualify as early pirates, and since a similar time pirate activity has been in operation around Africa and was near constant from then on, notably with the short-lived Emirate of Crete. Perhaps the first true buccaneers were the Barbary Corsairs, Muslim pirates who were primarily slave traders, who roved the Mediterranean from out of North Africa for over 800 years. However despite the great hostilities generated by the Crusades, Muslim pirate activity in the Mediterranean was always fairly low, at least until the 15th Century. With the growth of the Ottoman Empire, in 1487 came the privateer admiral Kemal Reis, who signalled the beginning of a true menace to European Christian shipping.

A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650

The corsairs would continue to assail the Mediterranean (and sometimes as far afield as Ireland and Iceland) until the 19th Century. In the early 1600s, the Barbary pirates regularly attacked English sailing vessels, and local parishes would often have to hold fundraisers to pay the ransom for some local person or persons taken hostage, and England became familiar with captivity narratives.In the 1630s, England signed peace treaties with most of the Barbary powers, and prior to the American Revolution, this treaty extended to American vessels. Once the revolutionary war had been declared, it was open season on any American ships sailing the Mediterranean. However following the American victory of 1776, the following year the Sultan of Morocco formally recognised the USA as a sovereign nation and declared American ships were under his protection and could enjoy safe travel. This makes the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship the USA's oldest (non-broken) allegiance pact. However in 1784, Morocco became the first Barbary power to seize a US ship since the country achieved sovereignty. During the Napoleonic Wars, the corsairs ruthlessly attacked American merchant vessels, and forced the USA to pay tribute to allows its ships safe travel through Barbary territory. This threat was the direct cause of the formation of the United States Navy in 1794, which the US used to conduct two Barbary Wars in the first part of the 19th Century. The wars brought an end to the American practice of paying tribute to the pirate states and helped mark the beginning of the end of piracy in that region, which had been rampant in the days of Ottoman domination (16th–18th centuries). Within decades, European powers built ever more sophisticated and expensive ships which the Barbary pirates could not match in numbers or technology.

There were a pair of brothers who became prominent Barbary pirates in the 16th Century, Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis. Confusingly, both of these pirates were known as Redbeard. Even more confusingly, neither one actually had a red beard. Hayreddin, the younger brother, inherited the title from Oruç who was killed in a battle with the Spanish in 1518. Oruç himself acquired the name quite accidentally, as he was known as Baba Oruç (Father Oruç) in North Africa when he transported large numbers of Moriscos refugees from Spain to North Africa. This became corrupted into Barbarossa, the Italian for red beard. Hayreddin, along with the other muslim corsairs, raided the islands of the Mediterranean as well as the Spanish main throughout the 16th Century taking thousands of prisoners and slaves.

Christian pirates joined the ranks of the Barbary corsairs in around the 14th Century. Many Europeans, most of them from Catalonia, began to rove the Mediterranean and attack the North African coastal cities such as Tunis, Oran and Algiers. The Europeans quickly took to the fore when they came onto the stage, having constructed the original frigates: Light, fast, manoeuvrable galleys designed to run down the corsair slave ships. Other measures included coastal lookouts to give warning for people to withdraw into fortified places and rally local forces to fight the corsairs. This latter goal was especially difficult to achieve as the corsairs had the advantage of surprise; the vulnerable European Mediterranean coasts were very long and easily accessible from the north African Barbary bases, and the corsairs were careful in planning their raids.

Jack Ward

Other than the Barbarossa brothers, perhaps the most prominent Barbary corsair was an Englishman. Captain Jack or John Ward, nicknamed Birdy, was once called "beyond doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England" by the English ambassador to Venice. Ward was pressed into the Navy in the first years of the 17th Century, and became a privateer for Queen Elizabeth during her war with Spain. Ward and about 30 of his colleagues deserted, and stole a small barque from Portsmouth Harbour in 1603. Ward was elected captain of the new crew, one of the earliest examples of pirate democracy. From there Ward's crew captured successively bigger ships, eventually acquiring a 32-gun warship which he renamed The Gift, and attacked merchant seamen for the next two years. At the end of the war, Ward wrote to James I to ask for a pardon that he might return to England and retire, but the king refused and Ward and his crew settled in Tunis converted to Islam. Ward changed his name to Yusuf Reis, took a new wife while continuing to send money to his Christian wife in England. An English sailor who saw him in Tunis in 1608 described Ward as "very short with little hair, and that quite white, bald in front; swarthy face and beard. Speaks little and almost always swearing. Drunk from morn till night...The habits of a thorough salt. A fool and an idiot out of his trade." 

Ward was an immensely rich and successful pirate who had introduced heavily armed square-rigged ships to use instead of galleys, to the North African area, a major reason for the Barbary's future dominance of the Mediterranean. He died of plague in 1622, aged 70. A ballad was written about him, Captain Ward and The Rainbow. Ward is the likely inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow.

Hope you enjoyed this week's update folks, pirate facts here every Wednesday. - Captain