We are all in some way enraptured by the idea of piracy - but pirates were far
from romantic. Today we market them to children - yet the are an adult subject,
through and through. Pirates were for the most part a crude, filthy and brutal lot.
They committed theft, murder, rape - yet three centuries later we revere them
and envy their way of life. They symbolize freedom at a time when social code
ruled every corner of the globe. They flouted convention and lived their lives by
their own free will and desire, leading to the mantra that Bartholomew "Black
Bart" Roberts espoused until his death in 1722 - "A short life, but a merry
one." There was a difference between pirates and privateers, which is listed
below.
from romantic. Today we market them to children - yet the are an adult subject,
through and through. Pirates were for the most part a crude, filthy and brutal lot.
They committed theft, murder, rape - yet three centuries later we revere them
and envy their way of life. They symbolize freedom at a time when social code
ruled every corner of the globe. They flouted convention and lived their lives by
their own free will and desire, leading to the mantra that Bartholomew "Black
Bart" Roberts espoused until his death in 1722 - "A short life, but a merry
one." There was a difference between pirates and privateers, which is listed
below.
| Pirates, Privateers, and Gentlemen of Fortune... |
Pirates, Gentlemen of Fortune: Speculated to come from the Mid. English slang "py-rat",
or someone intent on stealing a piece of the pie. {There is a lot of debate over the origins of the
word but this is my personal favorite}. Gentlemen of Fortune is a mockingly-eloquent way to speak
of someone involved in the "Sweet Trade", or "on the account" - basically, involved in pirate
activities. Piracy itself is described as being "robbery committed on the high seas". The technical
start of high seas is low-water mark, when the tide has ebbed completely.
Privateers: Basically a pirate with a license. With constant upheaval in Europe - Dutch, Spanish,
Portugeuse, French and English all fighting amongst themselves - a license, or "Letter of Marque",
would be issued by each crown to a select group of sailors to maraud others. Yet to the victims of
the raids, a privateer was still a pirate.
It is believed the origin of the term Jolly Roger was derived in two ways. In the 1690s English
Admiralty law required that English privateers fly a red flag to differentiate them from other sailors.
The nickname for this flag by their French enemies was jolie rouge, translated into "pretty red".
Also, the earliest pirates used a bloodstained cloth run up the mast as their piratical colors.
And remember, pirates were hanged! They weren't hung! {They may have been hung, which the ladies
wouldn't mind, but if they had a rope around their neck and dropped or pulled upwards to their
deaths, they were hanged!} Hanging has always carried with it the stigma of being the death of a
criminal, of the worthless.
Charleston, SC {then "Charles Towne"} was an incredible draw for pirates during the Golden Age
{spawned to a great degree by the rise and fall of Queen Anne's War or the War of Spanish
Succession, 1701-1714, at which time thousands of sailors found themselves suddenly
unemployed}. The English colony was still young and vulnerable, grateful for the money and goods
that the men of fortune brought with them. Yet by 1718 they had completely overrun the port and a
decent merchant could not get his ship in or out of the harbor. During the second week of May,
1718, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and his somewhat tepid sidekick "Gentleman Pirate" Stede
Bonnet blockaded the port for one week, demanding several thousand pounds of sterling silver and
medical supplies to treat the venereal disease caught by the crew in the Caribbean. Governor
Johnson of South Carolina gave into their demands in exchange for the safety of Councilmember
Samuel Wragg and his young son, yet swore revenge would be his. He hired out of his own pocket
Col. William Rhett to capture them {Col. Rhett is buried at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in
downtown Charleston - he has a great tombstone inscription reading "He died suddenly, but not
unprepared"} and then the port was assauged by another pirate, Charles Vane. Rhett followed Vane
for awhile, but after he was unsuccessful, returned in his venture to capture Blackbeard and Bonnet.
He never caught Blackbeard; that pirate had separated from the weak-willed Gentleman Pirate,
whom Rhett successfully caught and brought back to Charleston to see justice done. Being a
wealthy sugar plantation owner from Barbados and a gentleman, Bonnet was held on house arrest,
though his crew was housed in the dungeon of what is known today as the Old Exchange Building on
East Bay and Broad Streets in downtown Charleston. {Reb's novel Devil of Charleston is set
during this time period}.
There was a fanciful escape by Stede Bonnet through a window in the middle of the night wearing
women's clothing, and a second apprehension outside of Sullivan's Island, SC, which led to his
following 29 of his crew into death by hanging on White Point of the Charleston peninsula
December 10, 1718. Due to the wretched viewpoint of the day in regards to hanging, Bonnet
actually requested to be drawn and quartered {the English version of this torture entails the
stomach being slit open and each limb chopped off, ending with decapitation and/or removal of the
heart from the chest cavity}.
Other pirates came and went with varying degrees of success; Richard Worley, Christopher
Moody, George Lowther, Edward Low, and a young girl named Anne Cormac. She later became
Anne Bonny, the most notorious female pirate who ever lived, mistress of the handsome John
"Calico Jack" Rackham {whom is believed was the basis of Johnny Depp's immortal Capt. Jack
Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean}. The tide had turned against pirates; they found few ports
open to them after Woodes Rogers arrived in the Caribbean to cleanse the waters of the pirate
menace. Calico Jack and Anne Bonny's vessel, Revenge, was seized off of Negril, Jamaica in
October of 1720. They were tried in St. Jago de la Vega {Spanish Town} in November; Calico
Jack was sentenced to hang. Anne Bonny, along with their fellow female pirate cohort Mary Read,
claimed pregnancy to avoid the hangman's noose. Legend states that only the women were fighting
when they were seized by the Royal Navy. Thus, when Jack went to his death and stopped to see
Anne for the last time, she is reported to have said, "Well Jack, I hate to see it come to this, for I
have loved you more than any man I have ever known - but I have to tell you - if you had fought like a
man, you need not hang like a dog."
Rackham's body was left in an iron cage off the Jamaican coast, known today as "Rackham's Cay".
Mary Read died of prison fever. Anne Bonny was freed due to her father's connections and
returned to Charleston at the ripe age of 19. She later married and lived out the rest of her days in
obscurity. Whether she knew it or not, her story was the beginning of the romantic view of piracy -
ladies of the time were forbidden to discuss such things, yet word of the female pirate leaked out
anyway, giving "ideas" to the impressionable young girls who dreamed to live a life of adventure and
romance on the high seas.
or someone intent on stealing a piece of the pie. {There is a lot of debate over the origins of the
word but this is my personal favorite}. Gentlemen of Fortune is a mockingly-eloquent way to speak
of someone involved in the "Sweet Trade", or "on the account" - basically, involved in pirate
activities. Piracy itself is described as being "robbery committed on the high seas". The technical
start of high seas is low-water mark, when the tide has ebbed completely.
Privateers: Basically a pirate with a license. With constant upheaval in Europe - Dutch, Spanish,
Portugeuse, French and English all fighting amongst themselves - a license, or "Letter of Marque",
would be issued by each crown to a select group of sailors to maraud others. Yet to the victims of
the raids, a privateer was still a pirate.
It is believed the origin of the term Jolly Roger was derived in two ways. In the 1690s English
Admiralty law required that English privateers fly a red flag to differentiate them from other sailors.
The nickname for this flag by their French enemies was jolie rouge, translated into "pretty red".
Also, the earliest pirates used a bloodstained cloth run up the mast as their piratical colors.
And remember, pirates were hanged! They weren't hung! {They may have been hung, which the ladies
wouldn't mind, but if they had a rope around their neck and dropped or pulled upwards to their
deaths, they were hanged!} Hanging has always carried with it the stigma of being the death of a
criminal, of the worthless.
Charleston, SC {then "Charles Towne"} was an incredible draw for pirates during the Golden Age
{spawned to a great degree by the rise and fall of Queen Anne's War or the War of Spanish
Succession, 1701-1714, at which time thousands of sailors found themselves suddenly
unemployed}. The English colony was still young and vulnerable, grateful for the money and goods
that the men of fortune brought with them. Yet by 1718 they had completely overrun the port and a
decent merchant could not get his ship in or out of the harbor. During the second week of May,
1718, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and his somewhat tepid sidekick "Gentleman Pirate" Stede
Bonnet blockaded the port for one week, demanding several thousand pounds of sterling silver and
medical supplies to treat the venereal disease caught by the crew in the Caribbean. Governor
Johnson of South Carolina gave into their demands in exchange for the safety of Councilmember
Samuel Wragg and his young son, yet swore revenge would be his. He hired out of his own pocket
Col. William Rhett to capture them {Col. Rhett is buried at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in
downtown Charleston - he has a great tombstone inscription reading "He died suddenly, but not
unprepared"} and then the port was assauged by another pirate, Charles Vane. Rhett followed Vane
for awhile, but after he was unsuccessful, returned in his venture to capture Blackbeard and Bonnet.
He never caught Blackbeard; that pirate had separated from the weak-willed Gentleman Pirate,
whom Rhett successfully caught and brought back to Charleston to see justice done. Being a
wealthy sugar plantation owner from Barbados and a gentleman, Bonnet was held on house arrest,
though his crew was housed in the dungeon of what is known today as the Old Exchange Building on
East Bay and Broad Streets in downtown Charleston. {Reb's novel Devil of Charleston is set
during this time period}.
There was a fanciful escape by Stede Bonnet through a window in the middle of the night wearing
women's clothing, and a second apprehension outside of Sullivan's Island, SC, which led to his
following 29 of his crew into death by hanging on White Point of the Charleston peninsula
December 10, 1718. Due to the wretched viewpoint of the day in regards to hanging, Bonnet
actually requested to be drawn and quartered {the English version of this torture entails the
stomach being slit open and each limb chopped off, ending with decapitation and/or removal of the
heart from the chest cavity}.
Other pirates came and went with varying degrees of success; Richard Worley, Christopher
Moody, George Lowther, Edward Low, and a young girl named Anne Cormac. She later became
Anne Bonny, the most notorious female pirate who ever lived, mistress of the handsome John
"Calico Jack" Rackham {whom is believed was the basis of Johnny Depp's immortal Capt. Jack
Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean}. The tide had turned against pirates; they found few ports
open to them after Woodes Rogers arrived in the Caribbean to cleanse the waters of the pirate
menace. Calico Jack and Anne Bonny's vessel, Revenge, was seized off of Negril, Jamaica in
October of 1720. They were tried in St. Jago de la Vega {Spanish Town} in November; Calico
Jack was sentenced to hang. Anne Bonny, along with their fellow female pirate cohort Mary Read,
claimed pregnancy to avoid the hangman's noose. Legend states that only the women were fighting
when they were seized by the Royal Navy. Thus, when Jack went to his death and stopped to see
Anne for the last time, she is reported to have said, "Well Jack, I hate to see it come to this, for I
have loved you more than any man I have ever known - but I have to tell you - if you had fought like a
man, you need not hang like a dog."
Rackham's body was left in an iron cage off the Jamaican coast, known today as "Rackham's Cay".
Mary Read died of prison fever. Anne Bonny was freed due to her father's connections and
returned to Charleston at the ripe age of 19. She later married and lived out the rest of her days in
obscurity. Whether she knew it or not, her story was the beginning of the romantic view of piracy -
ladies of the time were forbidden to discuss such things, yet word of the female pirate leaked out
anyway, giving "ideas" to the impressionable young girls who dreamed to live a life of adventure and
romance on the high seas.
| Mary Read, Ann Bonney & Calico Jack Rackham |
| Edward Teach, Blackbeard |
| _________________________________________________ |
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