Calico Jack

John Rackham ( December 26th 1682 – November 18th 1720) was an English pirate who, as I mentioned last week first became known as a pirate as the quartermaster aboard Captain Vane's ship, the Ranger. He is remembered best as Calico Jack, a name he got from wearing calico fabric clothing, a coarse, gauze-like material. He is also remembered for his Jolly Roger design, Death's head and crossed sabres, as well as having two female crew members, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. As I mentioned last week, Rackham deposed Vane as captain of his own ship for his refusal to attack a heavily-armed French Man O' War. Rackham named him a coward and Vane and those loyal to him were put aboard a smaller ship in their inventory to form their own smaller crew.

Rackham's Jolly Roger

Rackham assumed command on the 24th of November 1718. They roved the Caribbean sea for some time then, before taking Christmas ashore. After they resumed roving, they came across no substantial prizes for more than two months. They did capture a ship laden with convicts heading for the plantations, but this was recaptured by the English within a few days. They then took two ships, one from Carolina, one from New England, and retreated to the Bahamas to clean and refit the ship with the stores they had captured. However, Woodes Rogers, who was by now governor of Providence, sent out a well-armed sloop to take the pirates. The sloop succeeded in recovering the two taken ships, but Rackham and his crew escaped. From there they laid low in Cuba for a time, until their money had run out, and once again returned to roving.

Rackham and his men were refitting their small sloop, Vane's old ship the Ranger, when a Spanish coastguard warship entered the harbour, along with a small English sloop they had captured. The Spanish warship saw the pirates but could not get at them at low tide, so they parked in the harbour entrance to wait for morning. Rackham saw the warship too, and he and his men rowed over to the captured English sloop and overpowered the Spanish guards there. As dawn broke, the warship began blasting the Ranger, now empty, as Rackham and his men silently sailed past in their new prize. From there Rackham and his men made their way back to Nassau, where they appeared before Governor Rogers and asked to accept the royal pardon, claiming that Vane had forced them to become pirates. Rogers, who hated Vane, believed them and allowed them to accept the pardon and stay. Their time as honest men would not last long. While in port, Rackham began an affair with Anne Bonny, wife of sailor James Bonny, who was employed by Woodes Rogers. After finding out about the relationship, James Bonny brought Anne to Governor Rogers, who ordered her whipped on charges of adultery. Rackham offered to buy Anne in a "divorce by purchase," but she refused to be sold like an animal. Instead, they escaped to sea together, with a new crew, possibly including remnants of Rackham's old crew, voiding their pardons, and stealing a sloop belonging to John Ham. Rackham's crew continued to rove successfully for a time, until the 20th of October 1720, when upon taking a sloop in Discovery Bay, intelligence reached the governor of their presence, and so he sent one Captain Barnet to apprehend Rackham and his men. Rackham was caught unawares when he was treating with another crew, and he and his men were arrested and taken to Port Royal, Jamaica. Rackham was hanged on the 18th of November, 1720.

Charles Vane

Charles Vane (c.1680 – March 29, 1721) was one of the notorious pirate captains of the New Providence Pirate Republic, an alliance of pirates that for a time dominated the waters of the Caribbean. His piratical gains in today's currency would exceed £1.5 million. Like most pirates of note, Vane was vicious and cruel, showed little respect for the pirate code and cheated his crew on multiple occasions, and killed hostages after promising mercy.
Nothing is known of Vane's early life, but he began his pirate career serving under Captain Henry Jennings. At the end of July 1715, a Spanish treasure ship was wrecked by a hurricane off Florida, and as the survivors attempted to salvage the cargo, Jennings raided the wreck site, making off with some £87,000 in gold and silver.
Vane was not long a captain of his own when Woodes Rogers and his fleet descended on the Caribbean to put an end to piracy. Outnumbered and out-gunned, the majority of the pirates in New Providence, including Captain Jennings, surrendered and accepted the promised royal pardon for their crimes. Vane had other ideas, and in July 1718, as the Royal Navy's Men O' War descended on New Providence to negotiate a surrender, Vane and a crew of like-minded buccaneers who refused the pardon, filled a recently captured French vessel with gunpowder and set it alight, on course for the incoming royal Men O' War. In the confusion, Vane and his crew made their escape on a sloop called the Lark, alongside Blackbeard and his Queen Anne's Revenge, proudly flying piratical colours and firing on the English ships as they fled.
Two days later, Vane captured a Barbadian sloop, and fitted it with 25 hands, commanded by one Mr Yeats. The next day, Vane captured another sloop called the John and Elizabeth laden with pieces of eight. Now armed with three ships and considerable loot, Vane and his men retired to a small uncharted island which they claimed as a base.
From there Vane began several months of successful roving, trading up to a larger sloop called the Ranger, and became one of the most dangerous pirates of the day, collecting a number more ships to add to his fleet. However he neither respected nor trusted his consort Mr Yeats. Vane had hoped to prevent his underling from taking the pardon by fitting his crew with a significant number of ex slaves, for whom the pardon would mean re-enslavement. However, one evening Yeats and his crew made a break for it, and made sail away from Vane's hideout. Vane gave chase in his own ship and fired on them, but to no avail. Yeats and his crew accepted the pardon, the black pirates were returned as slaves to the owner from whom they had originally escaped.

An early 18th Century engraving of Vane

After a time of searching for Yeats, Vane retreated to the Cape Fear river in North Carolina to clean his ships. The governor of South Carolina ordered one Colonel Rhet to take two well armed sloops up to the Cape Fear river in search of pirates. However, upon beginning his voyage, Rhet met with a ship that had been plundered by Vane not long since, one sailor aboard informed the colonel that he thought he had heard one of the pirates say they should clean ships in one of the southern rivers. So Rhet altered his course southward in search of Vane, thereby missing him.Vane meanwhile had met with Blackbeard on Ocracoke Island (where the latter would meet his end later that year) and tried to convince him to join a mounted attack to retake Nassau from the English. Blackbeard refused, having too much to lose.

Deposed

Lacking the firepower to take Nassau alone, Vane returned to roving, and in November 1718, came upon a French Man O' War. Vane felt the ship was too dangerous to attack, and wished to avoid engaging her. However Vane's quartermaster, Jack Rackham, felt the French ship was laden and slow, and would prove easy to take. Vane and his first mate, Robert Deal, along with fifteen or so others, were outnumbered by Rackham and the rest of the crew, however the pirate code allowed a captain to make all decisions regarding fighting, chasing, or being chased, and so the French ship was left unmolested. However, the next day Vane was obliged to stand to a vote, and Rackham called out Vane as a coward, and usurped him as captain of his Ranger. Vane, and all those who had voted with him, were put aboard one of the smaller of the pirate company's ships, with sufficient supplies and ammunition.
Undeterred, Vane continued roving, within three days taking a sloop off Jamaica, and making his loyal mate Robert Deal captain of her. On the 16th of December 1718, Vane and Deal took a third ship, the Pearl, and carried her to a small island called Bonacca, where they made their hideout. In February 1719, Vane's ship was hit by a tornado and he was wrecked on an uninhabited island near Honduras. Most of his men drowned, but Vane himself survived, living on fish for several weeks. Deal's ship survived, and continued to rove for a short time, until Deal and his crew were taken by one of Rogers' Men O' War.
Eventually a ship pulled into the island Vane was castaway upon. The ship's master, one Captain Holford,  was a former pirate and acquaintance of Vane's, however Holford refused to rescue Vane, saying he did not trust him, fearing he would lead his own men against him. So Holford left Vane stranded, and claimed that he would return in one month, and if he found Vane still upon the island he would take him prisoner to Jamaica to be hanged. Fortunately for Vane, he found rescue on a second passing ship some time later, claiming to be another man. However, Vane's luck ended when the ship he was aboard met with Holford's ship, and in coming aboard, Holford happened to cast his eye down into the hold and recognised Vane, and outed him to his new captain. Vane was then arrested, taken to Jamaica and imprisoned. He was hanged on the 29th of March, 1721. 

Captain Martel

Ahoy mateys! This week I am writing about a rather unknown pirate captain, John Martel of Jamaica, but nevertheless had gains in excess of $1.5 million US in a present value adjustment. Like most carribbean pirates, Martel started out as a privateer in a war against the Spanish, but at the conclusion of the war, turned to piracy.
At the start of his pirate career, Martel commanded a pirate sloop of eight guns and 80 men, and his first recorded act of piracy was in September 1716, when he attacked the galley Berkley, robbing a Captain Saunders of £1000 in cash, and afterwards raided another sloop by the name of King Solomon, from which he took an indeterminate but valuable amount of money, provisions and goods.

Martel's flag

Martel eventually captured a galley called the John and Martha from a Captain Wilson, and took the ship as an upgrade. The new ship had 20 guns, as opposed to Martel's original eight, and had cargo of logwood and sugar that Martel carried to market. Martel marooned most of the original crew of the John and Martha but detained a few to bolster his crew. Martel now had a galley of 22 guns, 100 men, and left 25 hands aboard his old sloop. Thus armed, Martel began a lucrative pirate career, plundering ships across the Caribbean and the east coast of America, including fellow pirate vessels, taking everything from gold dust, to slaves, to ivory.
By 1717, Martel had a small flotilla comprised of two ships with 20 guns, a sloop of eight, a sloop of four and one sloop unarmed. He made a base for himself on the tiny island of St. Croix, and mounted guns at the mouth of the inlet as defence. Martel was known for his cruelty even by his own men, who reported that he killed the entire crew of a merchant vessel he captured for no reason.

Captain Hume

Martel's eventual downfall would come in the form of Captain Hume of Barbados, commander of the HMS Scarborough, who was hunting two pirate sloops that molested the colonies. The Scarborough was fitted with 30 guns and 140 men, but battle and illness had thinned Hume's ranks to just 80, and was therefore in an ill state to go to sea, however Hume left his sick men behind and recruited more from the other islands, taking on soldiers from Antigua, Nevis, and St. Christopher's. Hume set out in search of the sloops, but to no avail, and returned to Barbados. By chance, that night a boat had anchored there from St. Croix, and Hume received information about a pirate ship of 22 or 24 guns with other vessels in tow going into the Northwest part of the island.
The Scarborough weighed immediately, and by next morning of the 17th of January 1717, came in sight of Martel and his crew. The larger ship was unable to continue due to the shallow water of the inlet and the fact that it was guarded by an armed sloop. So Hume exchanged fire with the coast for several hours. Eventually he came to anchor alongside the reef, and at about 4 in the afternoon, managed to sink the sloop that had been guarding the inlet. For three more days the Scarborough laid siege to the island, until Martel made a break for it, but his ship ran aground and Hume quickly caught up to him. In a panic, Martel and his crew abandoned ship, and set her alight with 20 slaves burned alive in the hold. 19 of Martel's crew escaped on a second sloop, but Martel and the rest took to the woods of the island, and were never seen again, presumably dying of starvation on the island.

Blackbeard

Ahoy mateys! This week I am writing about probably the most famous buccaneer of all time, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

Born in Bristol around 1680, little is known of Blackbeard's early life. Born and raised in a thriving harbour town, he was no doubt brought up with a strong maritime culture. It is known that he could read and write, giving rise to the possibility he was from a wealthy family. During Queen Anne's War, Teach joined a privateer ship bound for Jamaica. He received distinction "for his uncommon boldness and personal courage" but was never raised to any command. In the latter end of 1716, Teach turned to piracy, captaining a sloop owned by fellow pirate Benjamin Hornigold (more on him later).

Career

Despite his infamy, Blackbeard's pirate career was very short lived, spanning only two years. As Teach was beginning his pirate career, Captain Woodes Rogers was setting out for the Caribbean to rid the waters of piracy forever. In the spring of 1717, Blackbeard and Hornigold sailed from New Providence, a pirate haven established by Captain Jennings some years earlier, to the American mainland. On their way, Teach and Hornigold seized a shallop from Havana carrying 120 barrels of flour, a sloop from Bermuda carrying 100 barrels of wine, and a ship bound for South Carolina from which they got "plunder of considerable value". That September, Teach and Hornigold encountered hapless would-be pirate Stede Bonnet, a landowner and military officer from a wealthy family who had turned to piracy earlier that year. Bonnet's crew of about 70 were reportedly dissatisfied with his command, so with Bonnet's permission, Teach took control of his ship Revenge. The pirates' flotilla now consisted of three ships; Revenge, Teach's old sloop and Hornigold's Ranger. By October, another vessel had been captured and added to the small fleet.

In November, they took a French merchant slave vessel  named La Concorde near Saint Vincent, and with Hornigold's permission, Teach took and named himself captain. Teach sailed to Bequia to allow the ship's former crew and whatever slaves declined to join Teach to disembark. In an surprising act of candour, Teach donated his old sloop to the crew he had just robbed, which they renamed Mauvais Rencontre (Bad Meeting) and sailed for Martinique. Teach mounted 40 guns on his new ship, and renamed her Queen Ann's Revenge, possibly after Bonnet's sloop. Shortly after, Hornigold returned to Providence to accept Rogers' pardon.
From there Teach began to cut a bloody swathe across the Caribbean, seizing dozens of vessels in the months to follow, sinking and burning many more, and invited several captains to join his fleet, including one David Herriot, captain of the Adventure, which Teach sent the famous Israel Hands (who appears in a fictionalised form in Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island) to man for the piratical account.
In April, the fleet lay siege to Charleston, in South Carolina. Taking several ships hostage, Blackbeard demanded ransom of a chest of medicines from the Governor, threatening to burn the ships and send the governor the heads of those he had taken prisoner. Humiliated, but unable to refuse the demand, the Governor sent aboard a chest of medicines worth approximately £400. Blackbeard released the hostages, but not before relieving them of their provisions and around £1500 in gold and silver.

Blackbeard's own flag, a skeleton spearing a heart while toasting the Devil

After plundering Charleston, Blackbeard and his men were wanted. They learned of the royal pardon, and wished to take it but were wary. The pardon stipulated it only applied to crimes committed before January 5th, and so risked hanging for their actions at Charleston. Most authorities could waive this condition, but Blackbeard was still wary. In a cunning move, he sent Stede Bonnet to accept the pardon first to see if he would be granted it, and at the same time cheated his former comrade out of all of his loot and provisions. On the pretence of running into an inlet to clean his ship, Blackbeard ran his ship aground. Feigning distress, Blackbeard ordered Bonnet's sloop to come to his rescue, but in answering the call, Blackbeard's man Israel Hands ran Bonnet's ship aground also and both were stuck. This done, Teach and Hands seized the other sloop with forty hands, abandoned the Revenge and marooned the sloop's crew on a small desert island. Bonnet, having received his pardon, set out for revenge against Teach, and rescued his marooned crew after two days. He was unable to find Blackbeard, and returned to piracy. He was caught in September 1718, and he and all but four of his crew were hanged in Charleston.
Satisfied that the offer could be trusted, Blackbeard went to North Carolina to see Governor Charles Eden and accept the pardon. Blackbeard bribed the Governor, for not only was he allowed to keep his Queen Ann's Revenge, it being listed as a prize taken from the Spanish, but Teach continued pirating and returned to Eden repeatedly with prizes in exchange for absolvement.

Final Battle

In the autumn of 1718, Blackbeard threw a party at Ocracoke Island, just off the coast of North Carolina, which was attended by many infamous pirate captains of the day. The party waged on for several days, and news of it spread to the neighbouring governors. Two ships were deployed to capture the pirates, the Jane and the Ranger, commanded by a Lieutenant Robert Maynard, that engaged Blackbeard and his men on November 21st. Taken unawares in the midst of their celebration, Blackbeard and nineteen men climbed about the Adventure, and gave battle to Maynard. Blackbeard fired a devastating broadside, which killed around a third of Maynard's men in a single volley. Around 20 were killed on the Jane, and nine on the Ranger.

Maynard hid his men in the hold, and as Blackbeard boarded the Jane, they burst from their hiding place and surprised the pirates. Blackbeard rallied his men and the two groups fought across the deck, which was already slick with blood from those killed or injured by the broadside. Maynard and Teach fired their flintlocks at each other, Blackbeard was hit but continued fighting. Teach drew his cutlass and managed to break Maynard's sword. Against superior numbers and discipline, the pirates were pushed back toward the bow, allowing the Jane '​s crew to surround Maynard and Teach, who was by then completely isolated. As Maynard drew back to fire once again, Teach moved in to attack him, but was slashed across the neck by one of Maynard's men.Badly wounded, he was then leapt upon and killed by several more of Maynard's crew. The remaining pirates quickly surrendered. Teach's corpse was thrown into the inlet while his head was suspended from the bowsprit of Maynard's sloop so the reward could be collected. Israel Hands, who had been ashore during the battle, survived and was taken to Virginia for trial. In exchange for pardon, he testified against the corrupt officials Teach had dealt with. It is said he died a beggar in London.

Personality

Blackbeard is best known for his unspeakable cruelty rather than his aptitude for piracy. It is for his visciousness he is remembered, for actions such as shooting one of his own men for snoring. Sources claim he was married no fewer than fourteen times, sometimes to girls as young as sixteen. On the first night of his marriage, it was custom for him to go ashore with five or six of his brutal companions, and force his new bride to prostitute herself to his companions one after another before his eyes. Blackbeard was given to such wickedness as if he aimed to make his men believe him the Devil himself. One day at sea, he told his men, "Come, let us make a Hell of our own, and see how long we can bear it." Accordingly he filled several pots with brimstone and other flammable materials, and down in the hold, set them alight. They sat there until they had almost suffocated, and at length his crewmen opened the hatches to breathe, he himself pleased he held out the longest.

In times of combat, teach wore a sling that held a brace pistols, and stuck lit matches under his hat, which framed his face, making his eyes appear more fierce and wild, and made him the very idea of hellish fury. The beard for which he is best remembered is said to have gone all the way up to his eyes, and he tied it in small tails with ribbons in the contemporary style of wigs.
Teach once shot Israel Hands in the knee, giving the reason that "If I do not now and then kill one of them, they will forget who I am." The night before he was killed, Blackbeard had sat up all night drinking with his men, and knowing the sloops coming for them, someone asked if his wife was aware of where his money was buried. Blackbeard replied that nobody but himself and the Devil knew where, and the longest liver should take it all.