Jack Boulware

Yes, another story about pirates. This is an overview of piracy on the high seas, as it pertains to what eventually became the coastal United States.

Imagine a world without swashbuckling rogues wearing eyepatches, parrots clamped to their shoulders, sailing the high seas and exclaiming “Arrrrr!” for no reason. Everyone loves pirates. We know about them because of what we learn from Johnny Depp, Erroll Flynn, Dustin Hoffman, Tim Curry, Charlton Heston, the Muppets, and umpteen others.

But that’s just the movies. Real pirates rarely forced people to “walk the plank.” It was much easier to just toss someone overboard. And no pirate ever sang the song “A pirate’s life for me,” unless he was an automated attraction at Disneyland. For centuries, real pirates have been busy elsewhere, mostly cruising the oceans for ships to hijack.

Piracy has existed as long as man has carried valuables by boat. In the 14th century BC, gangster sailors terrorized the earliest maritime trade routes of Western civilization. During the Roman era, pirates even kidnapped Julius Caesar and held him for ransom.

But after Spain began plundering – I mean exploring the New World, and galleons were bringing back loads of gold and silver, other European countries took action against the superpower. The governments of these nations wrote letters of marque, which allowed private sailors legal permission to attack Spanish ships and steal the cargo, in return for a percentage of the take. The term “privateers” sounded better than “sanctioned thugs,” which is really what they were. These privateers became the first pirates of the Caribbean.

The Golden Age of Piracy lasted roughly from 1690 to 1730, a period when pirates targeted pretty much every ship on the trade routes between Europe, the Caribbean, and the American colonies. The majority of privateers and pirates during this time were British, because England was at war with Spain. The British Crown needed to build up its navy, and sent privateers out to steal more vessels.

Our impression of pirates was formed by this Golden Age, when the oceans were menaced by men like Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Edward Low, and Calico Jack, each with their own distinctive evil-looking flag. Ships bristled with weapons, ready for any type of battle. Cannons were loaded with exploding balls, chain shot (two cannon balls connected with a chain) or sackfuls of jagged scrap iron. The crew carried muskets and blunderbusses, which could fire everything from shot to nails and pieces of glass. For short-range fighting, a pirate would pull out a cutlass, dagger, or pistol. And if all else failed, there was always a hand axe nearby.

Like biker gangs, pirates adhered to a code of ethics that was surprisingly democratic. Crew members were allowed to elect a captain, and everyone shared the confiscated booty. If you were injured, ships offered a sort of medical plan, where assistance was paid for by a special fund created by the crew.

“When you talk about vile criminals, the legends and cartoon characters, I think their way of life was so unique,” says Pat Croce, a pirate expert and owner of the Pirate Soul museum in the Florida Keys. “They wore clothes and jewelry they stole, they made a mockery of the upper class. We all have this soul of a pirate. Seafaring ways, where you look to the horizon and that’s where your goal lies. You can right wrongs in the old-fashioned ways, you can torture those who don’t do right.”

But being a pirate was not glamorous. Food was often scarce, and drinking water putrid. Crews slept on the deck in their clothes. A ship was usually infested with lice, maggots, cockroaches and rats, which spread dysentery, yellow fever, and malaria. Many crewmen contracted scurvy, which began with loose teeth and rotting gums, and escalated to belching, painful joints, and bleeding from the nose and mouth.

“You weren’t a pirate for long,” says Croce. “You either died in battle, or of disease — Calico Jack, hung. Black Bart, hung. Blackbeard, decapitated.”

A pirate’s life indeed.

Although many of us will go see the upcoming Disney film this summer, and watch pirates gallivanting about the Caribbean, it’s important to remember that the Caribbean wasn’t the only hotspot for pirates. After months spent at sea, hijacking boats and stashing treasure on remote islands, pirates also needed some downtime. Many of the most notorious pirates cooled their heels right here on the shores of North America. A little R&R to rest up, maybe eat some vegetables. Gather another crew, and then it was back to work.

I. Louisiana

In the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop sits at the corner of Bourbon and St. Phillip Streets. One of the oldest buildings in the city, this bar has been called the oldest continuously operated tavern in the country. Supposedly, it was owned by a Haitian-born pirate named Jean Lafitte. Based from the Barataria Bayou south of the city, Lafitte and his fleet of 50 ships conducted raids throughout the Gulf of Mexico, stealing cargos and smuggling goods for other pirates.

During the war of 1812, Lafitte accepted money from the British, and then went behind their backs and helped the Americans defend Louisiana. Lafitte and his Baratarians were hailed as heroes of the battle, and gained a full military pardon. He could have done whatever he liked. He chose to continue being a pirate.

Lafitte moved his operation to what is now Galveston Island in Texas, and created a utopian pirate kingdom called Campeche, with a shipyard, boarding houses, a slave market, saloons and gambling houses, and residences for 1,000. After some of his men attacked a U.S. ship, either intentionally or by mistake, Lafitte knew his days were numbered. He handpicked a crew, burned his beloved Campeche to the ground, and sailed for South America. Some believe he just disappeared, others think Lafitte may have returned and lived in St. Louis.

The Lafitte legacy remains alive in the Gulf region. His name is attached to historical parks and nature preserves, and a Cajun fishing village on Bayou Barataria. Throw a dart at a map of Louisiana or Galveston Bay, and supposedly that’s where Lafitte’s stashes of gold and jewelry are buried. Each year in Lake Charles, locals host “Contraband Days,” where actors dressed as pirates sail into the lake, kidnap the local mayor and force him to walk the plank.

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II. Florida

Florida was home to pirates as far back as the 1500s, with first Protestants and then Sir Francis Drake establishing bases from which to strike against Spanish ships. In the 1700s, a former slave and African chief named Black Caesar used the area as his headquarters, terrorizing boats throughout the Florida Keys, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Black Caesar was said to possess a harem of over 100 women, and a prison camp on Elliot Key. He was eventually captured by authorities in North Carolina, and hanged in Williamsburg, Virginia. According to folklore, he left 26 tons of silver buried near Sanibel Island.

Some years later, the waters off Florida came under control of a Spanish aristocrat-turned-pirate named Jose Gaspar. At his peak, the self-nicknamed “Gasparilla” had captured and burned 36 ships, and was based at what is now Gasparilla Island. When the American Navy cornered him in 1821, Gaspar saw no escape, and wrapped a heavy chain around his body and jumped overboard into the water, waving his sword defiantly as he sank to his death. His buried treasures have never been found.

Each year, the city of Tampa hosts a Gasparilla Pirate Fest, an annual celebration of their local rogue Jose Gaspar, “last of the Buccaneers.” A pirate ship replica, the three-masted Jose Gasparilla, docks at Tampa’s Tarpon Weigh Station for public tours.

Sometimes the vicious Florida hurricanes stopped the Spanish galleons before pirates could. Many ships remain buried along the rocky shores. In 1985, after 16 years of searching, treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his team finally located the wreck of the Atocha, and discovered an astonishing $450 million booty of silver and gold on the ocean floor. Artifacts from the Atocha and other ships are on display at the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum in Key West.

Just one block away, the $10 million Pirate Soul interactive museum showcases nearly 500 pirate artifacts, from weapons and navigational instruments to America’s only authentic pirate treasure chest. The Rum Barrel bar and restaurant next door offers a selection of over 100 rums, which is 99 more rums than pirates were accustomed to.

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II. North Carolina

Islands and inlets around Beaufort and Morehead City were magnets for pirates, and provided a home base for the notorious Blackbeard, aka Edward Teach. The Ozzy Osbourne of his day, Blackbeard understood the power of fear, and made himself look as frightening as possible. He dressed all in black, and carried six pistols in addition to a sword, cutlass and musket. Before attacking another ship, he decorated his long black beard with colored ribbons and slow-burning matches, which emitted evil-looking wisps of smoke. His own crew called him “the devil incarnate,” and his favorite drink was rum laced with gunpowder. He was said to have 14 wives, and fathered 40 children.

In 1718 his ship Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground at Beaufort Inlet, and was abandoned. Two months later Blackbeard was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke, supposedly receiving 20 cutlass slashes and five gunshots before he fell. The world’s most famous pirate was beheaded and his corpse thrown overboard, where it continued to swim around the boat, as the story goes, before finally sinking.

One of Blackbeard’s professional associates ended up gaining a small place in history for himself. Major Stede Bonnet was not a typical pirate. He was well-educated, wore fancy clothing and a wig, and bought a ship with his own money, unthinkable at the time. The “gentleman pirate” plundered ships off the New England coast, then improved his standing after joining up with Blackbeard, even though Blackbeard thought him inexperienced and a bit of a wimp. Bonnet eventually surrendered himself in North Carolina, then continued being a pirate until he was finally brought to trial in Charleston, South Carolina, and hanged.

Nearly 300 years later, in 1996 a group of archaeologists and divers announced they had discovered the wreck of Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, sitting calmly under 22 feet of water, a short distance from Fort Macon. Artifacts brought up from the wreck, including cannonballs, a brass barrel from a blunderbuss, and a brass ship’s bell dated 1705, matched descriptions of Blackbeard’s ship. No treasure has been found to date.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge Project continues to excavate the site, a process which is expected to take up to 15 years. A sample of the 16,000 artifacts brought up thusfar are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores also features an underwater tank with a mockup of the QAR on the ocean floor.

Locals have not forgotten their infamous adopted son. The region boasts a Blackbeard’s Point, Blackbeard’s Lodge, and the Queen Anne’s Revenge restaurant. The area of water where he was killed is known as “Teach’s Hole.” Gift shops sell kitschy Blackbeard playing cards, mugs, and magnets. Actors perform Blackbeard at parties, and his face is painted on Beaufort’s water tower.

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III. South Carolina

Modern-day Charleston offers pirate tours six days a week, where people can learn how pirates took advantage of the South Carolina marshes and islands to stash their treasures. At one time, the seaport of Charles Town was a major hub of smuggling. Blackbeard once kidnapped several prominent Charleston citizens and held them for ransom, to procure medicine for his crew.

Another disreputable visitor was John “Calico Jack” Rackham, so named because of his sartorial preference for loud cotton clothing. Rackham had retired from the pirate life, until he met a redhaired woman from Charles Town named Anne Bonny, and the two rejoined the pirate game. Because women were forbidden on pirate ships, Bonny disguised herself as a man, and she proved just as cutthroat as any male crew member. The first shipmate to protest her presence, she stabbed through the heart with a dagger.

Rackham’s ship was soon joined by another female pirate named Mary Read, also disguised as a man. By all accounts, the women were more fierce than any man on board. When Rackham’s boat was captured in 1720, the women put up a vicious defense, and screamed at Rackham and his drunken crew, to “come up and fight like men.” The entire lot was sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read were spared because both were pregnant. Calico Jack was hanged in the Bahamas, and his body was tarred, gibbeted (hung in an iron cage) and dangled at the harbor entrance. Read died in a Jamaican prison, and it was rumored that Bonny returned to Charles Town and married a rich landowner.

Drunken Jack Island, today a favorite for kayakers, was so named after Blackbeard sailed into the inlet to unload and bury a cargo of hijacked rum. After the inevitable celebration, the ship sailed off the next morning, leaving behind a still-sleeping crewman named Jack. Two years later Blackbeard returned to retrieve the rum, and discovered only 32 empty casks and the bleached skeleton of their shipmate. Fans of this cautionary tale can debate its truth at Drunken Jack’s Restaurant & Lounge in Murrells Inlet.

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IV. New York

The early days of New York were awash in trans-Atlantic trading and shipping, and naturally pirates ended up here. Scottish privateer William Kidd opted for early retirement and settled in New York, marrying a widow and acquiring real estate. But like most pirates, he couldn’t stay away, and returned to the sea as a British privateer, attacking French ships and capturing pirates.

Unfortunately, Kidd carried the worst kind of curse – perpetual bad luck. His crew pulled down their pants and mooned two ships from the Royal Navy, an act so disrespectful they were removed from the boat and reassigned elsewhere. He put together another group, sailed to Madagascar, where he lost another 50 men to disease, and decided the privateer business wasn’t worth it. He would rather just be a pirate.

In 1868 Kidd attacked a heavily laden ship, the Quedagh Merchant, which happened to be carrying cargo for the British East India Company — the government which had hired him as a privateer. Panicked, he fled back to New York and stashed the stolen booty in various locations, including Long Island, Block Island and Gardiner’s Island. He was arrested in Boston and sent back to England for trial. An estimated 200,000 people watched his public hanging, after which his body was tarred and gibbeted, and displayed on the banks of the Thames River for nearly two years.

One of the few American pirates of the era, Thomas Tew was born in Rhode Island, to a wealthy family, and served several years as a successful privateer, attacking Spanish and French ships. He also retired early and became a businessman, dealing with merchants from Boston to New York. The governor of New York described Tew as “a very pleasant man who tells wonderful stories.”

The lure of money dragged Tew back onto the high seas, and in 1695 he attacked a ship belonging to the Great Mogul empire. During the battle, cannon fire ripped open Tew’s belly, and his last moments of life were spent standing on deck, holding his intestines.

One of the most ruthless New England pirates was another Rhode Islander named Charles Gibbs. After a stint in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, Gibbs joined a privateering ship, then led a mutiny and became captain.

His disposition was that of a drunken hoodlum, and his capacity for violence was legendary. When taking a ship he would slaughter its entire crew. He would later confess to the murder of nearly 400 people throughout his career as a pirate.

His amassed wealth was squandered in taverns and ports around the world, and knowing no other skills, Gibbs signed onto a ship as a crewmember. He organized another mutiny, killing several men, but when arriving back in New York he was captured, and hanged at Ellis Island. His final words were “No mercy did we ever show, for dead men tell no tales.”

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V. Massachusetts

Many pirates floated about the Gold Coast, off Boston’s North Shore, spending their summers basking in the New England sun. Among the mangy lot, which included Kidd and Blackbeard, was Black Sam Bellamy, an unsuccessful British treasure hunter turned pirate.

Bellamy roamed about the West Indies, looting some 40 Spanish ships. His character was not unlike that of a polite suburban dad. His flowery orations entertained the crew, and he made sure to look after the well-being of his prisoners.

After capturing an English galley named the Whydah, whose cargo was bursting with silver and gold, Bellamy sailed back to Cape Cod, reportedly to reunite with his girlfriend. He should have been watching the storm clouds instead. In April 1717, the Whydah was caught in a vicious storm off Cape Cod, and waves smashed the ship onto the shore, killing Bellamy and 143 crewmen. To this date it is the worst shipwreck in the history of the Cape.

A former pickpocket and Boston ship rigger, Edward Low became a pirate after a failed mutiny. He collected a small fleet of ships and was by all accounts a successful pirate. But what history has retained of Low’s life revolves around his psychopathic personality. He was considered a complete lunatic. His own men even described him as a “maniac and a brute.”

He relished torturing his prisoners, making them eat their own severed ears and lips. After taking the Spanish galleon Montcova, he personally slaughtered 53 officers, and made one eat the heart of another. Killing one of his own men was the last straw. His own crew overpowered him and set him adrift in a small boat. Low’s career ended abruptly when a French ship rescued him, then recognized who he was, and hanged him.

Another mentally unstable scoundrel was William Fly, who joined the pirate ranks after killing the captain of a ship during a mutiny. He plundered several ships along the New England coast, and was known for a frightening temper and savage brutality, often whipping his prisoners for up to 100 lashes.

Fly was captured near Newburyport and brought to Boston for execution. At the moment he was to die, he scolded the hangman for not knowing his job, and adjusted the noose around his neck with his own hands. His final words were a warning for captains to treat their sailors with respect and pay them on time. His body was gibbeted at Nix’s Mate Island in Boston Harbor. Fly had been a pirate for only one month.

Nearly 270 years after the Whydah smashed to pieces in Cape Cod, excavators finally located the site of the disaster. Divers brought up a cannon, silver coins, and the ship’s bell, a positive identifier for any shipwreck. Select artifacts from the ongoing project can be seen at the Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center museum, on Macmillan Wharf in Provincetown. More artifacts and history can be gleaned from a visit to the New England Pirate Museum in Salem.

(A version of this story first appeared in Southwest Spirit magazine)