by MAjesty » Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:59 am
Pirated from Wikipedia Directly
Famous Caribbean pirates
[edit]Jean Fleury
Main article: Jean Fleury
Born in Vatteville and financed by shipowner Jean Ango, French privateer Jean Fleury was Spain's nemesis. In 1522, he captured seven Spanish vessels. One year later most of Montezuma's Aztec treasure fell into his hands after he captured two of the three galleons in which Cortez shipped the fabled booty back to Spain. He was captured in 1527 and executed by order of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
[edit]François Le Clerc
Main article: François Le Clerc
François Le Clerc also nicknamed "Jambe de bois" ("Pie de Palo", "wooden leg") was a formidable privateer, ennobled by Henri II in 1551. In 1552, Le Clerc ransacked Porto Santo. One year later, he mustered one thousand men and caused havoc in the Caribbean with his lieutenants Jacques de Sores and Robert Blondel. They pillaged and burned down the seaport of Santo Domingo, and ransacked Las Palmas in the Canary Islands on his way back to France. He led another expedition in 1554 and plundered Santiago de Cuba.
[edit]Blackbeard
Main article: Blackbeard
He was born about 1680 in England as Edward Thatch, Teach, or Drummond, and operated off the east coast of North America, particularly pirating in the Bahamas[1] and had a base in North Carolina[7] in the period of 1714–1718. Noted as much for his outlandish appearance as for his piratical success, in combat Blackbeard placed burning slow-match (a type of slow-burning fuse used to set off cannon) under his hat; with his face wreathed in fire and smoke, his victims claimed he resembled a fiendish apparition from Hell. Blackbeard's ship was the two hundred ton, forty-gun frigate he named the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Blackbeard met his end at the hands of a British Royal Navy[7] specifically sent out to capture him. After an extremely bloody boarding action, the British commanding officer of the fleet, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, killed him with the help of his crew. According to legend, Blackbeard suffered a total of five bullet wounds and twenty slashes with a cutlass before he finally died off the coast of Ocracoke, North Carolina.
[edit]Henry Morgan
Main article: Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan, a Welshman, was one of the most destructive pirate captains of the 17th century. Although Morgan always considered himself a privateer rather than a pirate, several of his attacks had no real legal justification and are considered piracy. Recently found off the coast of what is now known as the nation of Haiti, was one of Captain Morgan’s “30-cannon oak ships,” which was thought to of aid the buccaneer in his ventures.[10] Another Caribbean area that was known for the headquarters of Captain Morgan was Port Royal, Jamaica.[1] A bold, ruthless and daring man, Morgan fought England's enemies for thirty years, and became a very wealthy man in the course of his adventures. Morgan's most famous exploit came in late 1670 when he led 1700 buccaneers up the pestilential Chagres River and then through the Central American jungle to attack and capture the "impregnable" city of Panama. Morgan's men burnt the city to the ground, and the inhabitants were either killed or forced to flee. Although the burning of Panama City did not mean any great financial gain for Morgan, it was a deep blow to Spanish power and pride in the Caribbean and Morgan became the hero of the hour in England. At the height of his career, Morgan had been made a titled nobleman by the English Crown and lived on an enormous sugar plantation in Jamaica, as lieutenant governor.[7] Morgan died in his bed, rich and respected—something rarely achieved by pirates in his day or any other.
[edit]Bartholomew Roberts
Main article: Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts or Black Bart was successful in sinking, or capturing and pillaging some 400 ships.[7] and like most pirate captains of the time he looked fancy doing it.[8] He started his freebooting career in the Gulf of Guinea in February 1719 when Howell Davis' pirates captured his ship and he proceeded to join them. Rising to captain, he quickly came to the Caribbean and plagued the area until 1722. He commanded a number of large, powerfully armed ships, all of which he named Fortune, Good Fortune, or Royal Fortune. Aboard his vessels the political atmosphere was a form of democracy that depended on participation; in which was a rule that everyone aboard his ship had to vote on issues that arose.[2] Efforts by the governors of Barbados and Martinique to capture him only provoked his anger; when he found the governor of Martinique aboard a newly captured vessel, Roberts hanged the man from a yardarm. Roberts returned to Africa in February 1722, where he met his death in a naval battle, whereby his crew was captured.
[edit]Stede Bonnet
Main article: Stede Bonnet
Probably the least qualified pirate captain ever to sail the Caribbean, Bonnet was a sugar planter who knew nothing about sailing. He started his piracies in 1717 by buying an armed sloop on Barbados and recruiting a pirate crew for wages, possibly to escape from his wife. He lost his command to Blackbeard and sailed with him as his associate.[7] Although Bonnet briefly regained his captaincy, he was captured in 1718 by a privateering vessel that was employed by South Carolina.[7]
[edit]Charles Vane
Main article: Charles Vane
Charles Vane, like many early 18th century pirates, operated out of Nassau in the Bahamas. He was the only pirate captain to resist Woodes Rogers when Rogers asserted his governorship over Nassau in 1718, attacking Rogers' squadron with a fire ship and shooting his way out of the harbor rather than accept the new governor's royal pardon. Vane's quartermaster was Calico Jack Rackham, who deposed Vane from the captaincy. Vane started a new pirate crew, but he was captured and hanged in Jamaica in 1720.
[edit]Edward Low
Main article: Edward Low
Edward - or Ned - Low was notorious as one of the most brutal and vicious pirates. Originally from London, he started as a lieutenant to George Lowther, before striking out on his own. His career as a pirate lasted just three years, during which he captured over 100 ships, and he and his crew murdered, tortured and maimed hundreds of people. After his own crew mutinied in 1724 when Low murdered a sleeping subordinate, he was rescued by a French vessel who hanged him on Martinique island.
[edit]Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Main articles: Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Anne Bonny and Mary Read or together known as Henry 'Long Ben' Avery[2] were two of few infamous woman pirates of the 18th century;[11] both spent their brief sea-roving careers under the command of Calico Jack Rackham.They were also known to have been associated with other well known pirates: Blackbeard, Captain Henry Morgan, William Kidd, Bartholomew Sharp, and Bartholomew Roberts.[2] They are noted chiefly for their gender, highly unusual for pirates, which helped to sensationalize their 1720 October trial in Jamaica. They gained further notoriety for their ruthlessness—they are known to have spoken in favor of murdering witnesses in the crew's counsels—and for fighting the intruders of Rackham’s vessel while he and his crew members were drunk and hiding under the deck.[11] The capstone to their legend is that all the crew including Rackham, Anne and Mary were tried in a Spanish town close to Port Royal.[1] Rackham and his crew were hung; but when the judge sentenced Anne and Mary to death he asked if they had anything to say. "Milord, we plead our bellies", in which meaning that they declared pregnancy. The judge immediately postponed their death sentence because no English court had the authority to kill an unborn child. Reed died in prison of fever before the birth of the child. There is no record of Anne being executed and it was rumored her wealthy father had paid a ransom and took her home, other stories of what happen to her include: that she returned to pirating or became a nun.[11]