Searching for Pirates on slavevoyages.org

[Daniel]

Pirate scholars, ahoy!

When you have a chance, go over to http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces. Click on "General Variables," then on "Voyage Outcome," then on "Particular Outcome of Voyage." Then on "Current Query," click "Select," scroll down, and check off all the pirate subcategories; I suggest the four that start "Captured by pirates or privateers," then the ones that say "Captured by pirates - slaves sold in the Americas by another ship," "Some slaves removed by pirates/privateers," "Either shipwrecked or captured by pirates before slaves taken aboard," and "Captured by Algerian pirates." Then click "search."

You will come up with names and dates for 137 slave ships that were captured by pirates or privateers from 1567 to 1830, often showing other data like the victim's tonnage, number of guns, type of rig or hull, although unfortunately there is no similar data on the pirate vessels. Most importantly, a comprehensive list of sources for each capture appears at the bottom of every entry.

If you then go over to "Timeline," and change the variable from the "number of captives disembarked" to "total voyages," you'll see a timeline of pirate attacks on slave ships. 1719 is far and away the peak year, with 13 ships captured by pirates or privateers, with a grand total of 33 taken from 1717 to 1723.

At least as measured by its effect on the slave ships, 1717 to 1723 is the true Golden Age of Piracy. There are other noticeable outbursts of up to 5 ships captured in a year clustered around 1747, 1757, 1818 and 1828. These are presumably associated with privateering in the War of the Austrian Succession (jocularly known as the War of Jenkins' Ear in Britain), the Seven Years' War, and the Latin American wars of independence. Pirates and privateers evidently took a much lesser toll on the slave ships during 1689-97 (War of the Grand Alliance and the Pirate Round): just 5 documented captures from 1689 to 1696. And from 1660-1680, the glory years of Port Royal and Tortuga, not one of the 671 known slaving voyages in the database fell victim to a pirate or privateer.

I don't know how complete the database is, but the amount of data is astounding: almost 35,000 documented slaving voyages. At some point I'd like to cross-reference with Johnson and see how many of the captures he documents are referred to in the database. Dig in, pirate historians, and let the pirate world know what you find!

[Daniel]

Just found this: there is an entry in the database for the Onslow's last voyage before Bartholomew Roberts seized her. According to their research, the ''Onslow'' was a South Sea Company ship, not a Royal Africa Company vessel as Johnson's ''General History of the Pyrates'' has it, although Johnson is one of their sources. They give her tonnage as 360, or 268 "standardized tonnage," and suggest she was frigate-built with 26 guns (the tonnage figure differs from Richard Sanders' ''If a Pirate I Must Be'', p. 186). She had left London on June 13, 1721, with a crew of 50 men.

Sources listed are as follows:

CO390/7: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Colonial Office

CO388/25,376,379: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Colonial Office

T70/922,92-7: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Treasury

CO390/7: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Colonial Office

T70/1225,23: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Treasury

HCA1/99,pt3,CapeCoastCastle: The National Archives (Kew, UK) High Court of Admiralty

T70/4,23-4: The National Archives (Kew, UK) Treasury

Defoe,228,229,252: Defoe, Daniel, History of the Pirates (London, [1724] 1814).

[Capt. Sterling]

Thank you so very much for posting this info here!.....

Except the link does not appear to be working properly.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Capt. Sterling

[Mission]

Try this link, going through the front door into the database:

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces

(Hey Daniel, where ya' been? You should try re-enacting. It's sort of fun. Got any more new pirates for the database? )

[Capt. Sterling]

thanks Mission!!

[Bos'n Cross]

A big thanks to daniel for the link and info, i find it much to my interests! I fond it very interesting if indeed the Onslow was owned by the south sea company, it seems that slaving is the only thing that could keep them afloat after their famous market crash a year earlier....which is a shame....but interesting none the less.........thanks again!

[Daniel]

There's an entry for the ''Whydah Gally'' (spelled ''Whidaw Gally'' in the database). Most of the details are already on line on Wikipedia or the Whydah Project homepage, and the entry matches up well with those sources: 300 tons, 18 guns, captained by Lawrence Prince at time of capture.

But here are some additional details I don't see in the obvious Internet sources. The Whydah was owned by Roberts George (misprint for George Roberts?), and sailed from London on her last mission. She loaded slaves at Whydah (as you'd expect from her name), and had already unloaded them at Jamaica at some time in 1716. Thus, when Bellamy captured her in late February, 1717, it would have been at least two months after her arrival at Jamaica. Unfortunately, there is no data about the slaves she had been carrying. The database gives a "standardized tonnage for the ''Whydah'' of 343. This is an effort the researchers made to render the various tonnage measures uniform, although they admit it may not be reliable. For pre-1786 voyages, they say the standardized tonnage is an attempt to measure the registered tons.

The database also ahs an entry for the ''Concorde'', which of course became Blackbeard's ''Queen Anne's Revenge'', but I see nothing on it that is not already available at qaronline.org, especially in the excellent essay "A Brief history of Blackbeard & Queen Anne's Revenge." (61 slaves had died in the crossing before Blackbeard seized the ''Concorde'', 31 in her voyage the previous year, and 55 on her 1713 run. Even considering his actions at Charleston and Ocracoke, Blackbeard did humanity a favor by taking that ship).

[Daniel]

Try this link, going through the front door into the database:

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces

(Hey Daniel, where ya' been? You should try re-enacting. It's sort of fun. Got any more new pirates for the database? )

Don't have the money for real re-enacting, alas. I've been raising my family. Starting next autumn, I'll be studying to become something even more bloodthirsty and rapacious than a pirate: a lawyer!

I'm writing a second pirate novel now, tentatively titled Marooner's Cay. I have to get it done before autumn buries me under a ton of law books.