Pirates of the Caribbean Part 1 (No Zombies)
By Brian J. Lancaster (August 2022)
Website: www.laughingcoyote.net
Putting aside that the term "terrorism" wasn't coined until the French Revolution, what's the difference between a pirate and a terrorist at sea? Pirates like Henry Morgan and Blackbeard purposely instilled fear into communities, took hostages, tortured prisoners, blew buildings up with cannons, etc. If anyone today committed piracy, it's safe to say they would be labeled as terrorists, especially if they happen to have been born in a place where people have higher melonin levels.
Another major difference is ideology. I'm assuming that most terrorists have beliefs that they would die for besides personal glory, rum, and wenches. Another factor to consider is how desperate the crews were, whether they became pirates for the sake of pure survival, boredom, spite, or ideology. Spoilers: spite is the winning reason, and it's the best motivation to do anything.
#1) François l'Olonnais (Lolona)
Considered to be the first European pirate of reknown in the Caribbean Sea to fly the black flag, François l'Olonnais (or Lolona if you can't pronounce French) came from France as an indentured servant. His servitude ended in 1660, and he began wandering between the different islands before finally settling in Haiti. He then decided to take up piracy, plundering Spanish ships.
I don't even know if this is a picture of him to be honest (from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates)
A couple of years afterwards, he shipwrecked in Campeche, Mexico, where his entire crew was slaughtered by Spanish soldiers. Lolona survived by covering himself in blood and hiding under the corpses of his crewmates. With the help of some escaped slaves, he made his way to the island of Tortuga, where he held a town hostage.
Spain sent a ship from Havana to intervene. Lolona captured the ship, beheaded the entire crew except one, whom he sent back to Havana with a message: "I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever."
Lolona's hatred of the Spaniards probably began during the Thirty Years' War, then was compounded by having to hide under a pile of his crewmates' bodies. The most horrific account of this anti-Hispanic animosity comes after an attempted ambush by the Spanish. He was torturing a prisoner for information when he realized the prisoner wasn't going to spill a drop. Lolona became so enraged that he cut out the Spaniard's heart and took a hearty bite out of it.
This act of cannibalism was so repugnant that most of his fleet abandoned him, leaving him with a single ship. He shipwrecked (once again) on the Las Petras islands, where he was captured by natives and killed.
The lesson here: Don't get too drunk while navigating near the shore, and also probably don't eat a human heart in front of your own crew for revenge or you will creep them the fuck out.
The sloop was the most common ship for pirates at the time, because they were small, fast and could catch up with larger merchant ships. During times of peace between the European powers, they were almost useless for shipping goods legally.
Also. rum is fucking gross. Don't drink rum, drink vodka.
#2) Captain Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan was born in Wales in 1635, and probably joined the forces of Oliver Cromwell in 1654 to attack the Spanish in the Caribbean. His surgeon in Panama (Alexandre Exquemelin), however, claimed he was kidnapped and sold into indentured servitude, as well as that Henry Morgan committed unspeakable atrocities against the Spanish. Captain Morgan then sued the shit out of his ex-surgeon and forced him to retract it from the book he had published.
His surgeon's rumors of his mustache were also greatly downplayed.
Regardless of his origins, in 1655 Henry Morgan arrived in Barbados. He participated in the attack on Jamaica and took it from the Spanish. He proceeded to marry the daughter of his uncle, who was the Lt. Governor of Jamaica.
Captain Morgan pursued his legal military and political career under the flag of England, as well as privateering and attacking Spanish merchants passing by Tortuga with the "brethren of the coast”, made up of farmers-turned-pirates. Then he led his attack on Panama in 1671. Unbeknownst to Morgan, this was during peacetime.
First he took the Spanish fort at the mouth of the Chagres River, then moved through the jungle to Panama City. Supposedly the Spanish fled, Captain Morgan's reputation preceeding him. Unfortunately, they took all their gold and silver with them, leaving poor Morgan with nothing to give to the crown.
He was arrested by the governor of English-ruled Jamaica to keep the peace with Spain and sent to London as a prisoner. However, he commanded the loyalty of so many men in Jamaica that he was shortly reenlisted, and returned to the Caribbean as Lt. Governor of Jamaica in 1674. This laid out the carpet for his peaceful retirement on his sugar plantation.
Captain Morgan with Prisoner
In 1681, England passed new laws forbidding attacks on Spanish ships. Henry Morgan died happily in 1682, at the ripe old age of 53, really at the perfect time.
Port Royal residents began picking up legitimate jobs, though the city was still considered to be a cesspool of criminals by many. According to Angus Konstam’s book Blackbeard, "One somewhat biased visitor claimed, 'Its population consists of pirates, cutthroats, whores, and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world.’” The tradition of privateering was already instilled in Port Royal.
The Lesson Here: Don't attack another colony without permission from the government that's paying you, but even if you do, make sure you are rich already so you can retire comfortably in Jamaica.
#3) Edward Teach? (Blackbeard)
Blackbeard's true identity is still debated, but most historians agree that he was Edward Teach, who took a job on a slave ship from England around 1700. Slave ships required a larger crew than normal, because they needed men to watch the slaves and prevent an Amistad from happening. Whether or not Blackbeard gave himself his own nickname, as with every famous criminal with a nickname, is yet undecided (he probably gave himself his own nickname).
As Angus Konstam says in his book Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate (2006), "It was said that you could smell a slaver from a mile downwind, so bad was the stench of unwashed, maltreated humanity on board."
Blackbeard
In 1692, before Blackbeard arrived in Port Royal, an earthquake and flood killed 2,000 people. The city was devastated, the economy ruined, and Blackbeard probably saw lingering devestation when he arrived. Like other Europeans heading toward the Caribbean at the time, he travelled the islands for a while, looking for a place to settle down, to the extent that one could in the West Indies.
In 1701 the War of Spanish Succession began, or Queen Anne's War to the British. The English allowed privateering against the Spanish once again. Blackbeard captured a French slave ship and prompty renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge. When the war was over in 1716, privateers had no work, and Blackbeard shortly thereafter packed up all his shit and moved to the Bahamas, where he met Benjamin Hornigold.
Blackbeard began working for Hornigold (nothing to do with any sexual attraction toward the element) around 1719 in the Bahamas. Hornigold was considered the founder of the Republic of Pirates, a stronghold on the Bahamian island of New Providence. This base flew the standard skull and crossbones flag and followed the "pirate code". Eventually Blackbeard would fly his own flag, depicting a skeleton toasting Satan and stabbing a heart with a spear.
Blackbeard's Jolly Roger Flag
During his prosperous career, Blackbeard also terrorized Charleston in North Carolina in 1718. He was so infamous that the colony gave him all the medicine he demanded and he took off.
Blackbeard was eventually surprised by the British navy on Ocracoke island, near South Carolina. He had a brief conversation with the Brits while he sipped a glass of wine on deck, then later the battle ensued. It's best to read about Blackbeard's death here, because I can't word it any better: https://time.com/5457008/blackbeard-death/
Other than Blackbeard, the colony of South Carolina was a famous haven for buccaneers, including the infamous female pirate Anne Bonny, who will be in Pirates of the Caribbean Part 2 (No Zombies).
The Lesson Here: When governments pay mercenaries to attack other colonies, they should really provide some kind of social program afterwards to make sure they don't turn into a cannon so loose that all hammocks are useless.
Conclusion
This article was meant to examine the mindset behind the European pirate in the Caribbean, but it's really turning into an article about how to just be a pirate and not get shot, stabbed, or hanged by the government (grammar lesson: "hung" is past tense for jackets, "hanged" is for execution). Be like Captain Morgan.
It seems thus far that the most famous pirates in United States culture hated the fuck out of Spain for some reason. So look out for Part 2, which will cover Irish-born Anne Bonny, as well as Don Pedro Gilbert, who worked for Colombia, sacking American ships coming from Florida well into the 1800s.
Sources
Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. Angus Konstam. 2006.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/Sir-Henry-Morgan/
https://www.scetv.org/stories/2019/did-you-know-history-piracy-south-carolina
https://www.thepirateking.com/bios/nau_jean_david.htm
https://podbay.fm/p/the-pirate-history-podcast
https://time.com/5457008/blackbeard-death/
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