Black Bart's
Infamous Pirates



Here mates ye be finding many memorable characters from the vast array of pirate lore from centuries past. Just scroll down to view them all.


Enjoy Scallywags!


 





 

Blackbeard (Edward Teach)
1680-1718

 

Edward Teach was the most infamous pirate of them all. Nicknamed Blackbeard after
his distinctive long black beard, he was tall & carried two swords, six pistols & several knives when in battle.

Blackbeard sometimes killed his own crew for sport. He shot his first mate Israel Hands in the knee, crippling him for life, just the sheer fun of it. He was so strong he could split a man from head to toe with one blow from his cutlass.

Justice caught up with Teach on November 22, 1718 when his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge was attacked by two Royal Navy sloops. Lieutenant Robert Maynard fought with Blackbeard and after five bullet wounds and 20 or so sword cuts Blackbeard finally died. Maynard cut Teach’s head from his body and hung it form the bowsprit at the front of his ship. Legend has it that the headless body of Blackbeard swam around his ship several times until the corpse sank to the bottom of the sea.

 





 

Sir Henry Morgan
1635-1688

 

This Welshman stared off as a privateer, attacking the Spanish for King Charles. He was a natural leader who insisted upon military discipline and showed little or no mercy to his enemies.

In 1668, Morgan had assembled a small fleet and setting sail from Port Royal, Jamaica they made their way to Cuba. Morgan and his men, along with French buccaneers from Tortuga, marched 30 miles inland and laid siege to the city of Porto Bello. Using prisoners as human shields, his men took three forts and the city.

Despite peace with Spain in 1669, the governor of Jamaica, Thomas Modyford, in 1670 had Morgan assemble 2,000 buccaneers and they sailed to Panama to sack the city. Morgan did just that. Marching through the jungle to the city, the pirates routed the defenders, killing upward of 500. When little treasure was found, they destroyed the city and it’s inhabitants. This was the last great buccaneering adventure for Morgan.

Morgan & Modyford were sent back to England under arrest for this bloody venture, however, Morgan was hailed a hero, knighted and made lieutenant-governor of Jamaica. He returned to Port Royal a very wealthy man. He was now a plantation owner and considered the most successful of all the buccaneers. He died in Port Royal in 1688.

 





 

Anne Bonney
1700-1722?

 

Anne Bonney is perhaps the most famous of women pirates. She was the girlfriend of a relatively successful pirate named John "Calico Jack" Rackham. She decided to join his pirate crew and dressed herself as a man.

When the navy caught up with Jack, he gave himself up, along with his drunken crew, without a fight. The only crew members that did try to fight, however, were Anne and her friend, another female pirate named Mary Read. After their capture, Rackham and his crew were sentenced by the Governor of Jamaica to be hanged. Anne was so disgusted with Jack and his men, that she was happy to watch him hang. Anne Bonney’s last words to Calico Jack were, “If you would have fought like a man, you needn’t
die like a dog.”


Both Anne & Mary were given a temporary stay of execution because they had both pleaded their bellies, meaning they were both pregnant. Mary Read died in prison, most likely from a fever while giving birth. For Anne, there is no historical record of her being release from prison or of her execution. Some say that her wealthy father ransomed her trying to save the Bonney family name.

 





 

William "Captain" Kidd
1645-1701

 

Captain William Kidd might have been the most unlucky pirate to set sail on the high seas. People talk more about his fate, and less about his deeds. For his one and only act of piracy he paid for with his life, being hanged in London in 1701.

Earlier in his life, Kidd had a successful career as a privateer. His prestige had given him wealth and a family, however, that would all soon change. Kidd was summoned by the King of England in 1695. Kidd was persuaded by the Earl of Bellamont and other political backers to lead a legally dubious expedition to rid the Indian Ocean of pirates. Kidd accepted.

Kidd set sailed and reached Madagascar in 1697 with his 34-gun ship, Adventure Galley. There were a few attacks on French ships, but Kidd failed to get any treasure. His crew was frustrated and demanded that they in turn pirates themselves. Having put down a possible mutiny by killing one of the ringleaders, Kidd went on the account. His greatest prize being the treasure ship Quedah Merchant, which he soon made his flagship.

Kidd became a wanted man now, as the East India Company forced the English government to brand him as a pirate. The backers couldn't support him anymore and any pardon was unacceptable. He had no other choice but to try to make some kind of a deal through Governor Bellamont.

In April 1700, Kidd sailed to Boston, believing he could rely upon the protection of the governor of New York and Massachues, the Earl of Bellamont. Unfortunately for Kidd, Bellamont refused a pardon based on the fact that the treasure ship Quedah Merchant in fact belonged to the British East India Company and by unknowingly capturing it, he committed an act of piracy. Bellamont clapped Kidd in irons and sent him to London, where he was tried for murder and piracy.

In 1701, Captain Kidd was finally hanged for piracy and other crimes. This unlucky man had even a disastrous death. The first rope put around this neck broke so he had to be strung up a second time. His lifeless body then was left to dangle over London's Thames River in a cage, as a grisly reminder and warning to pirates and seamen about violating British law.

Kidd is said to have buried his treasure on Long Island, outside New York, before he went to Boston. He is the only known pirate to have done so. His treasure has never been found. It is likely that Governor Bellamont retrieved the treasure after Kidd’s arrest, however, the story of buried treasure still lives on, as to what all pirates are looking for, thanks to the novel, Treasure Island.





Check out me other pages Home Port / The Pirate Life / Pirate Glossary / Pirate Picture Gallery / Black Bart for Hire for more piratical fun.

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