Into Action Under the Pirate Flag

• When pirates took a ship they did not only want treasure but also supplies for keeping their own ship sailing since they could rarely find safe harbor and a merchant willing to sell them goods
• For the most part they took their time plundering a ship
• Most attacks were undisguised and involved only one pirate ship, though some like Bartholomew Roberts and Blackbeard used 3 or 4 ships
• Sometimes they would fly flags of different nations as disguise
• Occasionally pirates would use open boats such as canoes for attacking
• Black and red flags were identified with pirates before the Jolly Roger became traditional (black flag with skull and crossbones)
• “Jolly Roger” might have come from the name Old Roger which was used as a name for the Devil
• Pirates would also force men with specialized skills, such as carpenters and coopers, into joining their crew

Storms, Shipwrecks, and Life at Sea

• It is surprising shipwrecks weren’t more common because although most ships’ master could figure latitude, longitude could be calculated with any accuracy until the 1760s
• Before that time the common way of obtaining longitude was by measuring the distance sailed each day and the compass course, this is called “dead reckoning”
• It was common to use a local pilot in unfamiliar shallows and also to make charts for future voyages
• Most pirates would head south during winter and north in the summer, some would alternate between the Americas and Africa
• Pirate life was more relaxed than that on a merchant ship because the pirates had less drive and larger crews
• Which allowed pirates to spend much of their time drinking and gambling (many pirates would use drunkenness as a defense of their actions when brought to trial)
• Even before the French Revolution, pirates practiced democracy on board by voting on the captain, where they would sail, who they would attack and by writing up articles (or laws)
• It is uncertain to what degree homosexuality was practiced by pirates, there exists some cases of men charged with sodomy and captains using younger boys for sex, but it was likely as common as in the general population

Women Pirates and Pirates’ Women

• John Rackam (Calico Jack) sailed with two female pirates who dressed as men: Mary Read and Anne Bonny
• Anne Bonny left her husband for Jack with whom she had a child
• In the early 1700s, Rackam’s crew was captured and tried for piracy, Rackam was hung and Anne and Mary were sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted when they both revealed they were pregnant, however Mary died in prison of an illness
• Other women successfully disguised themselves as mean and joined the Royal Navy or other ship crews
• Other famous female pirates include the Irishwoman Grace O’Malley and Chinese pirate leader Mrs. Chang

Sir Henry Morgan

• Henry Morgan died in 1688 wealthy and knighted
• Had been made Lt. Governor of Jamaica
• Arrested after the sacking of Panam and sent to London where he was treated with respect and visited with members of Parliament and Royalty
• Left school early to become a soldier
• Participated in the taking of Jamaica
• Became the Admiral of the Brethren of the Coast (the association of privateers and pirates, also known as the buccaneers) at the age of 32
• In 1668 he led the capture of Portobello, a Spanish treasure port, taking one fort by using residents as human shields
• Ransomed the city to the President of Panama for gold and silver, hauling away a total of about 250,000 pesos.
• Assembled ships and men to take Cartagena, but this plan was abandoned when the HMS Oxford was accidentally blown up by drunken crew members
• He then moved on to Maracaibo where he discovered three Spanish warships blocking the harbor lagoon, in response Morgan loaded a merchant ship with gunpowder and exploded it by the warships causing a fire which wrecked one, caused another to run aground the third to be taken by his crew
• England called a cease in hostilities but Spain declared war in the West Indies, this led Morgan to gather a large force to attack Panama
• With this force he sailed upriver as close as possible and marched the remainder of the way to the city of Panama where he routed a ragtag army, however the defenders had been instructed to light gunpowder barrels and burnable buildings which resulted in most of the city being burned to the ground, Morgan also discovered that the treasure within the city had been removed during the fighting
• After the sacking of Panama the buccaneers disbanded going their separate ways
• In 1672 Morgan was arrested to appease the Spanish government

Plundering the Treasure Ports

• In the late 16th century Francis Drake, an Englishman, raided a mule train in Central America taking much silver and gold, he committed other acts of piracy before sailing around the world
  • While circumnavigating the world he captured the Spanish ship Cacafuego which carried 12 million pounds (in today’s money) in treasure
  • Returned from the voyage with 68 million pounds (today’s money) worth of treasure
• Foundation for piracy laid with Hernand Cortes’ conquering of the Aztecs and taking of their gold in Central America and Fancisco Pizaro’s conquering of the Incas with their gold and silver
  • In addition, a mountain in Bolivia was found full of silver, much of this was eventually shipped to
    Spain
• Traditional treasure loot: Pieces of Eight were made of silver, Dubloons of gold
• In 1523, Jean Fleury of France was sailing off Portugal when he captured two Spanish ships full of Aztec treasure, this alerted all of Europe to the wealth found in the New World
• Mid 1500s, John Hankins, who taught his younger cousin Francis Drake seafaring, gathered slaves from Africa and traded them in the New World until Spain became angry and chased him home, afterward the king of Spain directed the ports in the Americas not to trade with him
• Around 1630 several buccaneers settled on the island of Tortuga and built a fort to defend it from the Spanish, The Buccaneers of America was written about these men

Wooden Legs and Parrots

• Robert Louis Stevenson shaped many pirate stereotypes with his novel Treasure Island
• Plays throughout the 1700s and 1800s encouraged a light-hearted view of pirates, particularly The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan in the 1880s
• Parrots and other exotic birds were sold by seamen at markets
• Pirates valued slaves for work on ship or to be sold at market
• There were no aristocratic pirates in the 18th century as the media would have you believe, but there was in the 17th century, most notably Sir Henry Mainwaring and Sir Francis Verney
• Stede Bonnett, educated pirate, joined Blackbeard, but had no seafaring experience, he was mostly valued for his learning
• J.M. Barrie made many references to Treasure Island in Peter Pan
• Henry Avery was a typical pirate if any were:
  • Seized HMS Charles (46 guns) when in port waiting for pay, he renamed the ship the Fancy
  • In 1695 he cruised off the mouth of the Red Sea and captured the Gunsway, a 40 gun ship, owned by the Great Mogul
  • Retired after taking the Gunsway, 6 of his crew were later captured and hanged
  • Likely died in poverty
  • The play, The Successful Pirate, was based on his life and encouraged the romantic view of pirates