Daniel

And another hint: four of the Nore mutineers were hanged at 9 in the morning aboard HMS Monmouth, at the signal of a gun firing. William Johnson Neale, Narrative of the Mutiny at the Nore, Tegg 1861, p. 398-99.

I found a lead. When Capt. Mackenzie of the U.S. brig Somers hanged three young men for plotting mutiny in 1842 (they had apparently intended to turn pirate!), it was late in the morning, no earlier than 10am. Immediately after the execution, the hands were piped to dinner (i.e. lunch), which suggests it may have been very close to midday. Inquiry into the Somers Mutiny, p. 23 and 26.

Well, it makes sense to seek westerlies if you're going back to Europe. A good point about using the Gulf Stream to get to Europe, though; you can catch the Gulf Stream as far south as Florida, can't you. The bit about the trade winds starting below Madeira is also my understanding, which makes Madeira a sensible route toward the trade winds from Europe. To get to the Azores from Europe, you'd have to fight the westerlies. Although I remember reading somewhere that the westerlies aren't nearly as constant as the trade winds; they tend to veer (i.e. shift clockwise) constantly, and the west winds merely last a little longer than the others. But in The Packets they suggested that was enough to make the average Europe-North America trip 40 days, versus an average time of 24 days from North America to Europe.

There are a few more references to pirates in Donnan's books on the slave trade which don't each merit an individual thread, but could nonetheless be useful to researchers. 1. Possibly most interesting is a brief reference to an attack by Francis Spriggs not mentioned in Johnson. A footnote says that Jeremiah Clarke arrived in New England and reported that Spriggs had robbed a slave ship captained by Rhode Islander Richard Duffie. Spriggs then released Duffie and gave him 25 black slaves. The attack apparently took place near South Carolina, and was reported in the News Letter on Jan. 28, 1725. Spriggs had deserted Low around Christmas 1724, so this may have been one of Spriggs' first captures. On the other hand, if the News Letter was using the Old Style New Year, the attack may actually have been in 1726. Clarke himself had been captured by pirates some time in 1723. Donnan, III p. 118. 2. There is also a reference to Roberts, presumably Bartholomew. "Two Whipples, Christopher Almy, and Norton were concerned in a vessel which had been seized by the pirate Roberts off St. Lucia. After six or seven weeks the pirates captured a Dutch vessel, loaded it with sugar, cocoa, and and negroes, and sent Norton off to dispose of the cargo. He anchored in Tarpaulin Cove, between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and here his confederates sent sloops to convey the goods to Providence Plantations. The attention of the customs officers of both Massachusetts and Rhode Island was attracted and that portion of the cargo not already disposed of was seized." Donnan, III 116. This is one of the few descriptions I know of showing the techniques pirates used to fence their loot. I suspect the position between Massachusetts and Rhode Island was chosen to create a conflict of jurisdictions. 3. On 10/6/1725, a young slave named Jack was put up for sale in Boston. He had been taken from the Portuguese by the pirate Senor Quares in the brigantine Anna, who then brought him into Boston. Presumably Jack had been confiscated from Quares by the authoriities and then put up for sale. Donnan, III p. 19. 4. Passenger William Atkinson was captured by pirates in 1726 on a North Carolina sloop, but aided in retaking the sloop and bringing the pirates into Boston as captives. Donnan, III p. 36. 5. One slaver captain, when attacked by pirates, offered freedom to all the slaves who would join him in defending the vessel. The pirates were beaten off, and the captain honored his word, settling the freedmen on the Malbone estate in Pomfret, Connecticut. The date is unspecified, possibly some time in the 1730s when Malbone was slaving. Donnan, III p. 131. 6. The slave vessel Sarah of London, was captured by pirates in the mouth of the Gambia River; word reached Philadelphia on 3/15/1720. Donnan, IV, p. 24. 7. The slave ships Eugene, Henrietta and Gascoigne arrived in Virginia in May and June, 1721. All three reported that Madagascar pirates had "forced from them what Provisions and Men they thought fit, but in return have made them some valuable Presents of Money, etc." All three were still "very rich," and Governor Spotswood's commssioners accused them of trading willingly with the pirates. An investigation cleared all the captains except Joseph Stratton of the Eugene, who was sent to England to stand trial. Since the warship transporting him failed to bring the evidence, it is unlikely Stratton was ever convicted. Donnan, IV p. 184. 8. A report from the Boston News Letter, 5/9/1723: "Our merchants have Advice that the ship Baylor, Capt. Verney, having been Slaving on the Coaswt of Guinea, and thence set sail for Virginia, turn'd Pirate, the Negroes being thrown overboard. The said Ship was afterwards taken by a Dutch Cruizer, after a fight of four Hours." Donnan, IV p. 185. 9. Capt. Durfey, carrying slaves to the Spanish colonies under the Asiento contract, was captured by pirates and his slaves carried to Charleston, c. 4/20/1725. It is not clear whether the slaves were sold. Donnan, IV, p. 268.

Update on Moll Flanders: there is a brief scene where Moll Flanders' ship gets boarded by an unnamed pirate. He doesn't hurt anyone, but steals all their stuff. He also threatens to force her husband to join his crew. This strikes me as a bit unrealistic; Moll's husband at that point is a plantation owner who probably wouldn't have any skills that the pirates would want. There's also reference to the punishment of "branding in the hand," Moll's mother-in-law remarking that half the population of Virginia is ex-Newgate felons who've been branded on their palms.

I don't understand either of these two routes. I understand that you take the trade winds to the West Indies, but aren't the Azores way too far north for the trade winds? I thought the trade winds blew about between 10 and 30 degrees, with the horse latitudes about 30 to 35 degrees, and the prevailing westerlies between 35 degrees and the poles. The Azores are at about 38 degrees North. Shouldn't they be in the westerlies? The detour to Brazil when en route to the Cape of Good Hope also matches with my memory. But the southern trade winds blow from the east and southeast, don't they? Wouldn't they be dead foul for a ship trying to reach the Cape of Good Hope from Brazil? It looks to me like you'd have to keep going south almost to the Roaring Forties before you had a fair wind for the Cape of Good Hope. Darned if I can see what help the trade winds would be for that part of the trip.

Ages ago in the Library of Congress, I read about a sailor who was whipped with the "Pizzle of an Elephant," for I know not what hideous offense. The pizzle is the animal's male copulatory organ, as you might surmise.

After an extensive search, I still have no idea what "Brawles" are. Photas is an East India cotton. Romalls are "sea-handkerchiefs." Cuthleas is probably coarse cotton cloth. Donnan, IV, p. 98. Topseals are not topsails as one might at first think, but rather "India goods in demand on the African coast" (Donnan IV p. 37). As Jack Sparrow would say, "Well, that's just maddeningly unhelpful." Given how much of the goods were some kind of textile, I speculate that topseales and brawles were also some kind of cloth or other, especially topseales given India's status at that time as the world leader in textile production. There are many other bizarre words for the trading goods used on the Guinea Coast, any of which might have ended up as loot for the likes of Howell Davis, Bartholomew Roberts, or Edward England. For example, manelloes are metal rings used in trade (Donnan, IV, p74), and a scrivello was an elephant's tusk weighing less than 20 lbs (Donnan, III p124).

That's doubly funny, becasue "Zorrillo," translated literally, means "little fox."

Island has it right. Johnson has Vane being shipwrecked in February, 1719, being visited by Captain Holford "some weeks" after that, and shortly later being rescued by another captain, denounced by Holford, and turned over to the Jamaican authorities, who don't hang him until March, 1721. Woodard has confirmed the date of March, 1721 for the execution. There's all kinds of speculation on the Wikipedia article about why it took so long to try and execute Vane, from the bizarre (the citizens wanted him to rot in prison as long as possible) to the plausible (it took over a year to gather the witnesses). But no hard evidence. Beyond that, after February, 1719, there are no more firm dates in Johnson about Vane's life, not even for his execution. Perhaps the "some weeks" that he was cast away were closer to a year. One presumes that Vane escaped the island within a month after Holford visited, since Holford said he was coming back in about a month, but he could have been working aboard his deliverer's ship for months or a year before Holford found him and denounced him. Nor do we know how long it took Holford to touch at Jamaica after taking Vane prisoner. Still another possibility to consider is that Johnson and his sources are just plain wrong. Johnson already has two completely contradictory accounts of how Vane lost his command to Rackham, one stating that he was deposed after refusing to attack a French warship, and the other saying that Rackham forced him out for not sharing the rum evenly. The name of the island on which Vane was supposedly wrecked is not mentioned. Vane may have been wrecked at a later time, or never wrecked at all.

Many sources mention the Spanish guardacostas acting as pirates; this is one of the few actual examples I've found (another is in Johnson's introduction). The St. Francis de la Vela's attack on the John and Mary is mentioned in other sites, but this full story from the Boston Gazette is not reproduced on the Web anywhere that I know of. Note that two of England and Taylor's men are now serving with the Spanish guardacostas! A footnote adds a reference from the Boston Gazette from July 20, 1724, saying that 4 Spaniards of this group were tried for piracy and sentenced to death; no mention of how they were caught, unless they were stupid enough to actually go to the Caymans as they said they would.

Here are pictures of the oldest East Indiaman weapons in the book, still somewhat post-period, unfortunately. The three pictures of the musket are all the same weapon, made between 1753 and 1770. The pistol was made between 1771 and 1787.

On further review, I think I agree that Xbr. must mean December. Johnson says that England arrived in Madagascar around the beginning of the year 1720. If England captured Bradford on Dec. 11, 1719, kept him prisoner nine weeks (i.e. until Feb. 12, 1720) and then released him at Anobon, then obviously England could not have arrived in Madagascar until at least March, 1720. However, Johnson could be using March 25 as the "beginning" of 1720, in the old style. England would then have a busy, but not impossibly busy, few months between March and August as he sails to India, captures several vessels, sails back to Madagascar, careens and searches for Avery's men, and then sails for Anjouan where he meets and fights MacRae on August 17, 1720. On the other hand, there is a letter dated May 20, 1720 from Governor Spotswood of Virginia saying that the Callabar Merchant arrived in Virginia last month, i.e. April. This is mistaken; the Callabar Merchant arrived no later than March, because Bradford gave his deposition on March 24, 1720. Still, this suggests that the Callabar Merchant arrived some time close to March or April, which is more consistent with the ship being released in February 1720 than in December 1719. On the other hand, if the Callabar Mercant left Bristol in September 1720, then a capture date of Oct. 11, 1720 would have it no more than 40 days out of port, which is a very short time to reach Nigeria and buy 160 slaves; slavers often spent weeks on such a transaction. Dec. 11 is a far likelier date for the capture.

The following account of an attack by Edward England does not appear to be on the Web and is not reported in Johnson's General History of the Pirates. It is from Elizabeth Donnan's Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America, 1932, reprinted 1965 by Octagon Books, pp. 96-100. I am guessing that "Xbr." means October, X representing the Roman numeral ten for the tenth month. If so, this suggests that this was the time that Johnson describes England's crew as being in harbor and meddling with the native women until they came to blows with the men and set a village on fire. Possibly one of the other vessels could have been captained by the ubiquitous Oliver la Bouche, whom Johnson says was in the vicinity at this time, and another could have been the Peterborough, which Johnson says England had captured at this time, and which he cleaned and fitted out in much the way that Bradford reports.

I went to the J.M. Davis Arms Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma for my birthday, which alleges that it is the largest private collection of guns anywhere in the world. There were quite a few flintlocks, although most of them are post-period. Here, though, is a real find. This is the first real snaphaunce that I've ever personally seen. It's six feet long and has 4 barrels, and I imagine it was used as a fowling piece. They don't know how old it is, but it surely must be early 17th century. Other interesting items: A two-inch flintlock grenade launcher, supposedly for anti-ship use. Date unknown. A collection of powder flasks. Date unknown. A flintlock blunderbuss. Date unknown. The upper piece is an English holster pistol from the 1760s or 1770s.

Late update: I've been looking through Donnan's Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America. While evidence about the sailing routes is limited, I have found 1) no evidence whatsoever that the Azores were used as a stopping point, and 2) darn little evidence that Madeira was used as much as Zacks said it was, at least by sailors coming from the Americas. There is one reference to slaves being sent from America to Cape Verde by way of Madeira. But there's also a ship captain protesting vigorously to the queen against the American colonial governors forcing him to post bond to touch at Madeira on his way to the Guinea coast. Besides that, the book has no evidence of Madeira being used as a way station for ships from America at all, although there are several cases where a ship went there just to buy slaves or the famous wine. Cape Verde (Cape de Verd), on the other hand, is mentioned everywhere. There are at least a dozen references to ships stopping at Cape Verde, especially Maio and Santiago (Isle of May and St. Jago) before going on to the Guinea Coast proper. Often they picked up trade goods which they would later exchange for slaves in Guinea. Many of the charter-parties and instructions to captains direct them to procced "direct to Africa" or "direct to Guinea," but I'm not sure whether this means that they were literally forbidden to deviate from a straight line course between New England and Guinea, or just means that they couldn't pursue intermediate voyages in the Indies, Europe or wherever.

Certainly straw hats are documented; there are three of them in the inventory of the Providence from 1683 (see Jameson p. 60. The only question would be whether they were tricorne in form. The records on that are rather sparse.

Well, there's another thing learned for me. I thought marlinespikes were used to unlay and splice cable; never knew they were used to untie knots. But it makes sense. In other news, I did consult Benerson Little, but he doesn't really say much about how many pirates had blades. Mostly he just discusses the different kinds available: chiefly cutlasses, but also some spadroons, broadswords, and the occasional smallsword, hunting hanger, or scimitar.

Would one ever use a rigging knife to pry open a stubborn knot? And if so, would a sharp point be easier to slip under a tight loop for that purpose?

Yay! I'll see you there!

Went to the J.M. Davis Museum (about which more later) for my birthday, and in their library got my hands on an out-of-print copy of Frankland's Small Arms of the East India Company. It has a section on the small arms of the East Indiamen, which the Company regulated even though it didn't own most of the ships. Records are unavailable from the Golden Age, but here's an interesting list of the East Indiaman Sullivan's arms loadout from 1783. 60 brass-mounted muskets 30 bayonets with scabbards 15 pair of pistols, .56 caliber. 6 brass-mounted walnut musketoons 6 swivels 60 cutlasses with scabbards 80 cartouche boxes with belts and frogs 25 pole axes A hundredweight of musket and pistol balls in kegs A brass bullet mold 400 musket flints 200 pistol flints 4 scouring rods, 1 breech wrench, 1 spring hook, 1 melting ladle 20 spare musket rammers and 10 spare pistol rammers and 12 formers for cartridges 40 lock nails, 35 side and breech nails 12 spare triggers, 6 pipes, and 6 worms Frankland, Small Arms of the East India Company, vol. 2, p. 576. This is the first time I've ever heard of pole axes being used on a ship.

Did Henry Jennings commit any more piracy after his raid on the Bahama wrecks? After he was refused entry at Jamaica and sailed off to start the pirate base at Nassau, I haven't seen anything that says he ever even left New Providence again. Did he just sit around in Nassau and sell stuff to the other pirates after that?

Certainly every sailor had a knife, and that would go for pirates too. I'm not salty enough to know the difference between a rigging knife and other knives, but yes, knives were essential for working chip. By the mid-19th century, it was common practice for merchant captains, like Robert Waterman, to break the points off of the sailors' knives to make them less useful in combat in case of mutiny; I don't know if this was yet the case in the 17th and 18th centuries. Thus a new pirate might have a blunt-tipped knife until he had a chance to replace it with a pointy one. I wouldn't say that every single pirate would have had a sword, but certainly most would have. The primary sources are rife with references to pirates carrying swords and using them to beat, intimidate, or kill prisoners. One of Bonnet's victims reported, "as soon as they came up the shrouds, they clapped all hands to their cutlashes." 19th century Cuban and Latin American pirates are almost universally reported to be carrying cutlasses. Kidd's men beat up sailors with their cutlasses. Exquemelin says that L'Ollonois used a cutlass to kill prisoners. It is true that merchant and navy captains kept the arms locked up when not in battle, but I've never seen any evidence that pirates did the same, and the articles making each man responsible for keeping his pistol in working order, and giving the pirate who first sighted a prize free choice of any small arm aboard the captured ship, strongly suggests that pirates kept their own weapons with them. Buccaneers only occasionally had any letters of marque, largely in the 1660s when Modyford was governor of Jamaica and d'Ogeron in Tortuga. Even then, they were hardly scrupulous about following the rules, so the weapons they carried would have been determined by practicality and availability, not by any legal rules. They seem to have relied pretty heavily on firearms, especially the famous "buccaneer gun," but that doesn't mean they didn't use blades too if they could get them. I've seen way more information on boarding axes in the secondary sources than in the primary sources; I can't say how many pirates would have had them. When I get home, I'll pull out Benerson Little and give you some more information.

Hi, fellows. Cordingly wrote me back and said that, although he cannot find his oriignal calculations, his notes say that the proportions were misidentified as percentages in the published draft. That is, it should have said that out of 120 reported pirate attacks where the vessel type was identified, 55 were sloops, 45 ships, 10 brigs or brigantines, 5 schooners, 3 open boats, and 2 snows. He says I am the first person ever to catch this out of several copyeditors, which I found inordinately pleasing.

Since Cordingly apparently isn't at the NMM anymore, I have just now attempted to contact him through his agent. I'll let you all know if I get an answer.