The Golden Age of Piracy

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Topic Setting:

The year is 1718, more specifically it is early october of 1718. It has been a month since the initial deadline of the King’s pardon has elapsed. The recently appointed governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers, has solidified his control after running the pirates out of the Island of New Providence, what was formerly known as the republic of pirates…

Colonialism in the Caribbean

The British began the colonization of the Caribbean as early as 1660. By then England had established Caribbean sugar colonies in St. Kitts, Antigua, Nevis, and Montserrat. Propelled by the success, the English colonisation of the Bahamas began in 1648 after a Puritan group established a colony on the island. Great Britain established another sugar colony in 1655 following the successful invasion of Jamaica during the Anglo-Spanish War. In 1670 the Spanish then formally acknowledged the English possession of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands known in the Treaty of Madrid. During the 17th century the sugar colonies adopted the system of sugar plantations that were successfully used by the Portuguese in Brazil. The Portuguese depended heavily on slave labor. The Caribbean Islands were more valuable than New England to the British as they provided the valuable good of sugar. Slave traders would sell one part of their ‘’cargo’’ on the Caribbean islands before they sold the other parts in New England. Thus soon the majority of inhabitants of the Caribbean became slaves from Africa. On Jamaica and Barbados there were strict slave codes established partly to deter slave rebellions.

History of Piracy in the Caribbean

Piracy has existed since antiquity and the Pirate Trade tends to pop up close to major trade routes throughout history. The Caribbean proved itself perfect for such endeavors since many treasure fleets coming from the Americas had to pass through there, plus its many ship ports often provided safe harbor for these marauding raiders.

Privateering

The practice of privateering emerged throughout human history, as many kingdoms, empires and nations throughout the years opted to commission privately owned sea-vessels to fight and plunder on their behalf, as such a tactic gave these land based empires a cost-effective way to take any war to the seas without having to raise or bolster their own naval forces. Additionally to that as privateers more often than not operated in something more akin to guerilla tactics, rather than open war, these privateers would also cripple the enemies economy as they would mostly attack trade vessels. The main, and almost only difference, between privateers and pirates is that privateers are commissioned by some sort of legitimized power, be that kings, governors or presidents. This commission system would get more and more formalized over the decades until the term privateer was coined in the 17th century, they were also sometimes called Buccaneers or Filibusters usually depending on the empire that commissioned them. The English became very skilled at privateering and the crown began to rely on it more and more during the 17th and 18th century as many wars were fought in the new world among the European powers, trying to seize more territory. Usually to get commissioned as a privateer, one had to kick back part of what he seized in loot to the crown, during the war of Spanish succession, Queen Anne removed said sovereign's percentage to incentivize more seamen to join up and loot for the British government. The problem with privateers however re-emerged during this era as well, because why would you want to stop this very lucrative trade and very freeing line of work just because some Monarch all the way across the ocean revoked your commission after the war ended?

Danger to Trade Routes

The new world provided many treasures for the colonizers, be they the mysterious golden cities, the beaver trade or the huge silver deposits. However, these treasures in the mind of the european superpowers couldn’t just be wasted on the natives and locals, no they had to be brought home to the metropole where they could find real use. The Caribbean with its many islands thus made for great relay stations between the old world and the new where these merchant and treasure ships could restock and refuel before taking the long journey back home. But they also proved a great opportunity for pirates and privateers to rob and loot these vessels whenever they passed through. At this point the Caribbean was not fully occupied yet and many pirate ports began growing on these islands. From these ports the pirates could attack the ships passing through, seize their loot and sometimes even their crew, and be out of sight of the authorities very quickly. And if by some chance the authorities would find their port and burn it down, a new one would just crop up somewhere else. These pirates proved a real and constant danger to these new world trade routes.

The Republic of Pirates

The Republic of Pirates made its home in the city of Nassau on the British Island of Nassau in the Bahamas. Nassau being a pirate haven began when the famous privateer Henry Avery sailed his ship the Fancy into the harbour loaded in 1696 (nice) with captured Spanish silver. He managed to bribe the Governor so he and his crew were able to use the port freely. This of course attracted more privateers and pirates until in 1703 a combined France-Spanish Fleet burned the city to the ground, this led to many of the colonial inhabitants leaving the island, and the only ones who remained were the pirates, thus turning it into a lawless land. By 1706 Pirates had fully established themselves in the town. With the end of the War of Spanish succession, some privateers were reluctant to give up their lucrative business and thus turned fully towards piracy, this just attracted more pirates to join up and come to Nassau. These pirate crews were usually made up of an equal number of Africans and Europeans, and even some women. The pirates already operating on something known as the pirate code, which came in many iterations throughout the history of Caribbean piracy, adopted many of these rules for the Island they now more or less governed. Most important of these rules were that each crew would elect their own captains, and every crewmember could vote on decisions taken by the crew, besides in battle which was the prerogative of the Captain. This democratic rule also translated to their governing of Nassau, as the crews came together and elected their own leaders, hence the name The Republic of Pirates. This Republic was dominated in the early years by two personalities and each of them had proteges. These two rivals were Benjamin Hornigold mentor to Blackbeard and Henry Jennings and his proteges Calcio Jack, Anne Bonny and Charles Vane. Despite the enmity between the two groups, they linked up together and added Josiah Burgess, Edward England and La Buse to their roster to form the Flying Gang, together this gang achieved infamy in the Caribbean and managed to dominate the Pirate Republic, even getting Blackbeard elected as Magistrate. During this time the governor of Bermuda said that the pirates on new providence outnumbered the normal citizens 10 to 1. The infamy of the Pirate Republic was soon met by calls for their destruction and the Crown would react and promulgate the Acts of Grace, also known as the Proclamation of the Suppression of Pirates, this was accompanied by the King’s Pardon.

The King’s Pardon

The British Government began to take piracy seriously as a threat after the War of Spanish Succession, as pirates started not only targeting Spanish fleets but also British ones. With the Republic of Pirates gaining infamy as a safe harbor for pirates the British government dispatched Woodes Roger with three royal Navy ships plus additional vessels to bring the pirates to heel. This was accompanied by a royal pardon granted to every pirate who turned himself in to the British authorities until the summer of 1719, which would pardon all their acts of piracy before that date if they retired from the profession. Alongside the pardon, bounties on the most infamous pirates were promulgated along with incentives for pirate crews to turn in their Captains as well. The pardon split the Republic of Pirates with some willing to accept the pardon, while others wanted to keep raiding. As Woodes sailed into the Harbor of Nassau he was greeted by the pro-pardon faction at the head of them former leader of the Republic, Benjamin Hornigold.

The Spanish War of Succession

The Spanish Succession War was a conflict that played out between the year 1701 and 1714. The conflict arose after Charles II the King of Spain, last of the Spanish Habsburgs, died without having a clear heir to the throne.

The validity of the immediate Habsburg claims as well as the claim of the Bourbons were dubious. As the Bourbons claim disregarded the renunciation of the throne successions of the two French queens, who were of Habsburg descent and through whom the claims were made. The most legitimate claim to the throne had the electoral Prince Joseph Ferdinand, the grandnephew of Charles II. However, it posed to be of utmost importance to the Bourbons to claim the Spanish throne as they feared that if any other dynasty claimed it the French influence on Europe would diminish greatly.

The war on the high seas and in the Caribbean was a largely economic war. The treasure fleets of Spain and Portugal were targeted by their opponents and colonial outposts were subjected to raids that were often executed by either privateering fleets outfitted for profit by merchants and nobles, or they included a combination of public and private financing of their efforts. These fleets would target poorly defended settlements and either raid them for their valuables or demand ransom, which was often paid in goods and slaves sometimes to the benefit of the victor's own plantations. The only permanent change of control occurred on St. Kitts, which held both French and English plantations.

After years of fighting on five fronts and on sea the parties came to an agreement. They signed the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. France ceded Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the island of Saint Kitts, and the Hudson Bay territory to England and promised to demolish the fortifications at Dunkirk. In the treaty with the Dutch, France agreed that the United Provinces should annex part of Gelderland and should retain, as a barrier against any future French invasion, certain fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. In the treaty with Prussia, France acknowledged Frederick I’s royal title (king in Prussia from 1701) and recognized his claim to some small territories. In return France obtained the principality of Orange. In the treaty with the duke of Savoy, France accepted that he should rule Sicily and Nice. The treaty with Portugal recognized its sovereignty on both banks of the Amazon River. Spain gave to Britain the exclusive right of supplying the Spanish colonies with enslaved people and ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to England and promised to cede Sicily to Savoy.

Naval Warfare

By definition, naval warfare can be defined as any tactic of military operation conducted on, under or over the sea. The sea is a great barrier between land masses; at the same time, it is also a great highway of communication, open to anyone who can traverse it. As such, mankind has long fought wars on the sea, not only to pressure enemies on land but also to secure new lands for themselves. Thanks to the ever increasing world trade, great amounts of raw materials had to be transported by the sea, which led to a dramatic improvement of naval technology as well as greatly contributing to the science of navigation itself.

Military operations, including naval ones, are executed within three levels of war – strategic, tactic and operational. The strategic level determines objectives of single nations, associations or coalitions, defines limits and assesses risks for the use of military and other instruments of power to develop operation plans to achieve these objectives. This level involves the highest levels of individual and organisational participation.

The operational level connects the tactical employment of forces to the present objectives through the design and conduct of major campaigns and operations. At the operational level, operations are planned, conducted, and executed to accomplish operational or strategic objectives within theatres or other operational areas. Activities at this level link tactics and strategy by establishing operational objectives needed to accomplish the strategic objectives, sequencing events to achieve the operational objectives, initiating actions, and applying resources to bring about and sustain these events. These activities imply a broader dimension of time or space than do tactics; it is required that logistic and administrative support be thoroughly planned for and sustained.

The tactical level focuses on planning and executing battles, engagements, and activities to achieve military objectives assigned to tactical units or task forces. Activities focus on the ordered arrangement and manoeuvring of combat elements in relation to each other and to the enemy to achieve combat objectives. The tactical level of war is linked to the operational and strategic levels through the military objective. The tactical combat objective must support the achievement of the operational objective, which, in turn, must support the strategic objective. Levels of command, sizes of units, types of equipment, or types and location of forces or components are not associated with a particular level. Naval forces or assets can be employed for a strategic, operational, or tactical purpose based on their contribution to achieving strategic, operational, or tactical objectives. The levels of war help commanders visualise a logical arrangement of operations, allocate resources, and assign tasks as appropriate. However, it is important to understand that any single action may have consequences at all levels.

The artillery used on warships usually comprises tube-launched projectile-firing weapons and excludes self-propelled projectiles, which in the 18th century meant different types and sizes of cannon as primary armament. A typical warfare ship of the 18th century mounted heavier long guns on a lower deck, and lighter long guns of the upper deck, with a few on the forecastle and the quarterdeck. The person responsible for overseeing the operation of the cannon on board was the boatswain, while the master gunner was mainly responsible for the maintenance of the guns and their carriages, as well as overseeing supplies of gunpowder and shot. Firing a naval cannon was a laborious task and required a great amount of manpower. Gunpowder acted as propellant, which was kept in a special storage area below the deck for safety, brought on occasion by powder boys.

The naval warfare of the time used a variety of shots for different occasions. Standard fare was the round shot – spherical cast-iron shot used for smashing through the enemy's hull, damaging his waterline, smashing gun carriages and breaking masts and yards, with a secondary effect of sending large wooden splinters flying about to maim and kill the enemy crew. At very close range, two round shots could be loaded in one gun and fired together. Canister shot consisted of metallic canisters which broke open upon firing, each of which was filled with hundreds of lead musket balls for clearing decks like a giant shotgun blast. A more specialised shot for similar use, chain-shot consisted of two iron balls joined together with a chain, and was particularly designed for cutting large swaths of rigging—anti-boarding netting and sails. It was far more effective than other projectiles in this use, but was of little use for any other purpose. In later years, the spherical exploding shell came into use. It first saw use in shore fortifications, and then relatively low-risk applications such as bomb-ketches, which used mortars, which required an explosive shell to be effective.

In naval warfare, great lethality does not necessarily mean great loss of life. The first reason is that, unlike ground combat, the principal aim at sea is to put the fighting machine, not the fighting man, out of action. Second, it is a long-standing constant that naval battles, once joined, are fast-moving and decisive.

Misconceptions about Pirates

With the infamy pirates enjoy to this day, many misconceptions emerged about them over the years in popular culture. For example Pirates didn’t really bury treasure, most wouldn’t dream of leaving their riches behind somewhere, the cases in which pirates did hide their booty, it was only to dodge authorities, so that no evidence of their theft could be tied to them. Another big stereotype are the eye-patches, this is actually a long-standing sailor tradition and is used to get one eye used to the darkness so that it would see better when going below deck, so yes some pirates wore eye-patches but this was by no way exclusive to their trade. Walking the plank is also another ritual ascribed to pirates often, however a pirate would just throw someone overboard if they were convicted there was no need for such a dramatic preamble as walking the plank. The general barbarity of Pirates is often always played up in popular culture, however many pirates captains at least came from aristocratic or well-off families and carried themselves as such. This misconception however can not only be attributed to popular culture, as pirates were very much aware of if their scary reputation preceded them, many a merchant ship could be taken without a fight, so many pirates, especially Blackbeard became experts in portraying themselves as scary superhuman marauders in the eye of the public, as it made their job a lot easier. The final misconception is that pirates love rum, and well that one is true, who doesn’t love rum.