Famous Pirates

Pirates of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea were a major problem for the shipping industry of the Americas, England and several European countries in the 16th-18th centuries. This was the Golden Age of Piracy.

Pirates Of The Caribbean- Captain Jack Sparrow Stand Up
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One of the most famous pirates was Blackbeard. He was from England and his real name was Edward Teach or Drummond or Thatch. He lived 38 years from 1680-1718. Blackbeard started out in the navy then turned pirate after the wars in Europe were over. He was noted for his wild appearance. He had a huge braided beard that was woven with hemp. In battles, he would put lighted matches into his beard and the smoke would surround his head. This would make him look very fierce. As far as pirates go, he was never known for being overly brutal to the defenseless. Some think his appearance made crews of others ships surrender just at the sight of him. He is also said to have had 14 wives. He made port in the Carolinas and Nassau,in the Bahamas and was finally caught and beheaded. His time of piracy was only 4 years. A must read about pirates is Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast .

Calico Jack was an English pirate also. His real name was John Rackham and he lived from 1682-1720, a mere 38 years. He wore colorful clothes and hence his name. He is remembered for having 2 female pirates in his crew. They were Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

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Anne Bonny was born in Ireland in 1705 an illegitimate child of an attorney and his maid. When the affair became public the three fled to Charleston, SC. Official records are scarce as with all pirates but as the story goes, she met and fell in love with Calico Jack while still married. Calico Jack offered to buy her with silver from her husband but he said no. So the two ran off, she disguised as a man so she could be part of his crew. (In those times pirates didn’t like women on board.) According to legend, she stabbed and killed a fellow crew member when he found out she was a woman.

Also on board was another new sailor. Anne and this new sailor became fast friends and the story is they were attracted to each other romantically until one day she walked in on this crew member changing clothes. She discovered she too was posing as a man. This was Mary Read. The two became instant friends and vowed to keep their secret but that was short lived. Jack didn’t like this new friendship so, when confronted, Anne and Mary had to tell him their secret. Both were allowed to stay on the ship and dressed as men. Both ladies became pregnant and when the ship and crew were captured, Calico

Jack was hung as was a lot of their crew. The ladies were granted a stay until the babies were born. It is said that Mary Read died in childbirth but there was no record of Anne Bonny. Some believe her father came to her rescue and got her out of jail. She had Jack's second child and lived out her life in Charleston, South Carolina remarried and lived a respectable life until her death at the age of 77 in 1782.

Captain Henry Morgan was England’s most notorious and successful privateer. He lived 1635-1677. His uncle was governor of Jamaica and in 1660 Morgan went to Jamaica and married his uncle’s daughter, Mary. As a privateer for England, he conquered Panama from the Spanish in what some say was the most barbaric atrocity ever committed by a British pirate against a Spanish colony in the Americas. What Morgan didn’t know was there was a treaty between the Spanish and the English and he had violated it. He proved his case of not knowing about the treaty in court and was relieved of the charges. He returned to Jamaica the following year and became lieutenant governor. One of Morgan’s confidants gave explicit accounts of all his disreputable acts to Alexander Exquemelin who wrote a book about him. Morgan sued them both and won 2 hundred English pounds for damages. This book, The Buccaneers of America, contributed to his bad reputation as a blood thirsty pirate. Morgan is one of the few pirates to retire from piracy with very few legal problems. He died in Jamaica in 1688 at the age of 53.

Bartholomew Roberts was a Welsh pirate who lived from 1682-1722. He is considered by some the most successful pirate of this Golden age. He commandeered over 470 ships. Black Bart, as he was called after his death, was a tall black man and was very brave. Like all pirates, Black Bart had a love for jewelry and fine clothes. But unlike other pirates it is said he drank tea instead of rum. It is noted that he drank beer on occasion. He was not cruel to his prisoners as some pirates but if he felt that the crew wanted him to be cruel or brutal to a particular prisoner he did but only to keep the men appeased. In 1997 a book called Women Pirates: And the Politics of the Jolly Roger by Gabriel Kuhn and Tyler Austin, said that Black Bart was a female transvestite. It was argued that when he died his corpse was thrown overboard wrapped in a sail and weighted down as he wanted to be buried at sea but also to conceal this fact. No evidence as ever been given to support this claim.

Famous pirates of the Caribbean and Atlantic are numerous and these are only a few. We make movies about them and the legends and stories make them larger than life but most of them were considered ruthless and cared little about their victims.