pirates the savers?

[Mission]

“Capt. Thomas Cromwell of Boston, master of the ship ‘Separation,’ obtained a commission in 1645 from the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Admiral of the Long Parliament, and after capturing several rich prizes in the West Indies, came into Massachusetts Bay and was forced by a strong northwest wind to take refuge in Plymouth Harbor where he remained for two weeks. There were about eighty men in his crew and they ‘did so distemper themselves with drink as they became like madd-men; … they spente and scattered a great deale of money among the people, and yet more sine than money.’ [bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 441]” (Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, p. 23)

[Mission]

"When [Captain] Knot Arrived within the Capes [of Virginia - at Virginia Beach]. the Wind turning Westerly, as he came to an Anchor, upon which 4 of the Pyrates came to him and required leave to hoist their boat out, which Knot Complied with, accordingly these 4 men put off the Boat, designing to go to the Bay, [These four pirates, four other pirates and two Portuguese prisoners had been put on Knot's ship along with a boat for their use after Knot's ship was captured about 300 miles from Virginia Beach. Knot had been forced to take the men back to shore and say they were passengers from London if asked.], but being quickly weary with rowing, they put into Back River [an inlet of Chesapeake Bay]; as soon as they came on Shore, their first care was to find out a Tavern, where they might ease themselves of their Golden Luggage. ['They [apparently referring to all 8 of the pirates] had brought on Shore with them in Spanish Gold and Gold Dust upwards of 1500 Pound Sterling.'] They soon found a place to their mind, where for some time they lived very profusely treating all that came into their Company, and there being in the House English Women Servants, who had the good fortune by some hidden Charms, to appear pleasing to these Picaroons, they set them Free, giving their Master 30 Pounds, the price he demanded for their time. Their Extravagant way of living soon discovered they were not Passengers from London, as they pretended, but rather Pyrates, accordingly they were taken up, and Commited on Suspicion, as such, to the County Goal. The other four not hearing of the fate of their Companions landed at Hampton in James River [Virginia], where pursuing the same courses, they were likewise taken up and Commited to Goal." (The American Weekly Mercury, Thursday March 17th, 1720)

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Thanks for sharing. Most interesting. 

 

Another example of not saving.

 

Did not something similar happen to Henry Every's men in Britain? 

[Mission]

This is interesting and related to the idea of saving money, at least in the short term.  It is from Ed Fox's book Pirates in Their Own Words, being taken from court examinations of four former pirates who traveling from Madagascar (where their money would have had only limited value) to New York (where there would be many opportunities to spend it.) Ed explains,

Quote

One remarkale feature of these depositions is that many of the passengers were arrested in possession of large sums of money but none of them appear to have obtained it by piracy. Three of those whose testimonies are reproduced here won all their money gambling (though nobody on board the Margaret admitted to losing money gambling) and the very enterprising Richard Roper managed to accumulate the equivalent of around 35 years’ worth of wages for a seaman in a comparatively short time by doing sewing repairs and nursing favours for his shipmates. Money acquired through piracy could, of course, be confiscated, but money that was come by legitimately could not, and this may or may not have had a bearing on the pirates’ keenness to explain the source of their income. The fact that they all told the same unlikely story suggests that it was something they had discussed together beforehand. (Fox, p. 59-60)

Their money was seized by Captain Lowth of the East India company who seized the ship when it stopped at the Cape of Good Hope.

The four men being questioned included:

   1. Thomas Bagley - "...he saith that he had ...in gold and silver to the value of Two Thousand one hundred and Fourty peeces of Eight together with his Chest and Cloaths, and saith that he wonne the foresd mony at play." (Fox, p. 62-3)

   2. Michael Hicks - "...he had aboard ...abt the value of one hundred pound sterling in silver and in gold abt the value of six hundred pounds sterling, great part of which mony he won at play." (Fox, p. 65)

   3. Richard Roper - "...he had aboard ...abt the value of four hundred pounds sterling in silver and gold and Cloaths and other things to ye value of ten pounds, most of the sd mony being given him for tending upon sick people working of Cloaths and other services." (Fox, p. 68)

   4. John Barret - "he had aboard ...one and twenty hundred Lyon Dollars [a large Dutch silver coin], thirteen hundred ps of Eight, in plate and small mony to ye value of one hundred ps of Eight and in corrall and amber to the value of one hundred peeces of Eight more, a great part of which mony he won at play." (Fox, p. 71)

Had they not lost the money, it would have been interesting to know what happened to them after they reached New York.

[Coastie04]

Is that just a pirate's way of laundering money?  I can imagine: "No judge, I didn't acquire that money by piracy; my shipmates did and then I won it from them fair and square."

[Mission]

Actually, I got something wrong in my original post (which I have changed). I had said the ship was seized by George Lowther, which would have been impossible because this all occurred in 1696. Lowther's pirate career didn't begin for another 25 years. (I had thought they had mispelled his name which was fairly common until I realized the dates were so out of synch.)  Instead, the money was taken by a Captain Lowth of the East India Company. He seized the ship the Margaret, which was under the command of Samuel Burgess, for reasons not stated in the accounts found in Ed's book. Burgess had sailed to Madagascar in the Margaret to sell goods to pirates and obtain slaves for the return trip. It seems likely that Lowth thought he was seizing pirates (although they had pardons, which he also seized)  and pirated goods;  the four men claiming that the money was not pirate treasure, but gambling or care-giving earnings in their testimonies was an attempt to claim the money was legally obtained and get the money back. Without futher evidence, however, who can say?

Because Lowth seized the ship, the owners of the Margaret sued the East India Company. Burgess was convicted of piracy in a trial in London as a result of these events, so it would seem that the owners of the ship lost that suit, although I don't actually know that. I suppose the pirates could have brought individual suit to get their money back since they had received pardons... although their explanations for how they came by the money were absurdly flimsy and, based on other court accounts of pirates from this period, probably wouldn't have held up.