On this day in history...

[William Brand]

NOVEMBER 21, 1724

On this day in 1724, the pirate ship 'Revenge' attacked the British ship 'Sarah'. Most of the crew was set adrift, though some deemed useful were given the option of joining John Gow's crew. Over the next few months, John Gow attacked several other ships.

Also on this day in 1996, Intersal Inc., a private research firm, discovered the wreck believed to be the 'Queen Anne’s Revenge'. It was located by Intersal's director of operations, Mike Daniel, who used historical research provided by Intersal's president, Phil Masters and archaeologist David Moore. The vessel is in the Atlantic Ocean in shallow water offshore from Fort Macon State Park (34°41′44″N 76°41′20″W), Atlantic BEach, North Carolina. Several of the cannons and more than 16,000 artifacts have been recovered.

[William Brand]

November 22nd -

On this day in history in 1684, French Buccaneer, Raveneau de Lussan, joins other buccaneers under Laurens de Graaf, sailing from Petit-Goâve to try the sweet trade.

Also on this day in 1718, Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach is killed at Ocracoke, a Province of Carolina, having been shot no fewer than five times and cut about twenty.

[William Brand]

November 24th -

November 24, 1642 - Abel Janzoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)

November 24, 1718 - Captain Brand, unaware of Edward Teach's death, sends two canoes down Pamlico River to Ocracoke Inlet, to see if Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach and his men could be seen. They returned two days later and reported on what had already transpired with the death of Teach.

[William Brand]

November 25th -

November 25, 1500 - Governor De Bobadilla of Santo Domingo captures Columbus.

[William Brand]

November 26th -

On this day in history, the Southern part of England was hit by one of the most sever natural disasters of all time. Called 'The Great Storm of 1703', observers at the time recorded barometric readings as low as 973 millibars (measured by William Derham in south Essex), but it has been suggested that the storm may have deepened to 950 millibars over the Midlands.

In London, approximately 2,000 massive chimney stacks were blown down. The lead roofing was blown off Westminster Abbey and Queen Anne had to shelter in a cellar at St. James's Palace to avoid collapsing chimneys and part of the roof. On the Thames, around 700 ships were heaped together in the Pool of London, the section downstream from London Bridge. HMS Vanguard was wrecked at Chatham. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's HMS Association was blown from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden before way could be made back to England. Pinnacles were blown from the top of King’s College Chapel, in Cambridge.

There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the West Country, particularly around Bristol. Hundreds of people drowned in flooding on the Somerset Levels, along with thousands of sheep and cattle, and one ship was found 15 miles inland. At Wells, Bishop Richard Kidder was killed when two chimneystacks in the palace fell on the bishop and his wife, asleep in bed. This same storm blew in part of the great west window in Wells Cathedral. Major damage occurred to the south-west tower of Llandaff Cathedral at Cardiff.

At sea, many ships (many returning from helping the King of Spain fight the French in the War of the Spanish Succession) were wrecked, including on the Goodwin Sands, HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Northumberland, HMS Mary, and HMS Restoration, with about 1,500 seamen killed particularly on the Goodwins. Between 8,000 and 15,000 lives were lost overall. A ship torn from its moorings in the Helford River in Cornwall was blown for 200 miles before grounding eight hours later on the Isle of Wight. The number of oak trees lost in the New Forest alone was 4,000.

The storm of 1703 caught a convoy of 130 merchant ships and their Man of War escorts, the "Dolphin", the "Cumberland", the "Coventry", the "Looe", the "Hastings" and the "Hector" sheltering at Milford Haven. By 3pm the next afternoon losses included 30 vessels.

[madPete]

Aye... Calypso was mighty pissed at someone!

Edited November 27, 2013 by madPete

[William Brand]

Aye...

November 27th -

On this day in history the 'Great Storm of 1703' began to subside, but not before exacting a heavy toll.
Winstanley's tower (known as the first Eddystone Lighthouse) was almost completed erased from existence. Winstanley himself was on the lighthouse, completing additions to the structure. No trace was found of him, or of the other five men in the lighthouse.

In the English Channel, fierce winds and high seas had swamped some vessels outright and drove others onto the Goodwin Sands, an extensive sand bank situated along the southeast coast of England and the traditional anchorage for ships waiting either for passage up the Thames estuary to London or for favorable winds to take them out into the Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships, including the entire Channel Squadron, and upwards of fifteen hundred seamen drowned.
- The third rate Restoration was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands; of the ship's company of 387 not one was saved.
- The third rate Northumberland was lost on the Goodwin Sands; all 220 men, including 24 marines were killed.
- The third rate (battleship) Stirling Castle was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. Seventy men, including four marine officers, were saved, but 206 men were drowned.
- The fourth rate Mary was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The captain and the purser were ashore, but Rear Admiral Beaumont and 268 other men were drowned. Only one man, whose name was Thomas Atkins, was saved. His escape was very remarkable - having first seen the rear admiral get onto a

piece of her quarter-deck when the ship was breaking up, and then get washed off again, Atkins was tossed by a wave into the Stirling Castle, which sank soon after. From the Stirling Castle he was swept into a boat by a wave, and was rescued.
- The fifth rate Mortar-bomb was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands and her entire company of 65 were lost.
- The sixth rate advice boat Eagle was lost on the coast of Sussex, but her ship's company of 45 were all saved.
- The third rate Resolution was lost at Pevensey on the coast of Sussex; all her ship's company of 221 were saved.
- The fifth rate Litchfield Prize was wrecked on the coast of Sussex; all 108 on board were saved.
- The fourth rate Newcastle was lost at Spithead. The carpenter and 39 men were saved, and the other 193 were drowned.
- The fifth rate fire-ship Vesuvius was lost at Spithead; all 48 of her ship's company were saved.
- The fourth rate Reserve was lost by foundering off Yarmouth. The captain, the surgeon, the clerk, and 44 men were saved; the other 175 members of the crew were drowned.
- The second rate Vanguard was sunk in Chatham harbour. She was not manned and had no armament fitted; the following year she was raised for rebuilding.
- The fourth rate York was lost at Harwich; all but four of her men were saved.

Lamb (1991) claimed 10,000 seamen were lost in one night, a far higher figure, about 1/3 of all the seamen in the British Navy. HMS Shrewsbury narrowly escaped a similar fate. Over 40 merchant ships were lost.
The Great Storm also coincided with the increase in English journalism, and was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale. Special issue broadsheets were produced detailing damage to property and stories of people who had been killed.
Daniel Defoe produced his full-length book, The Storm, published in July 1704, in response to the calamity, calling it "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England." He wrote: "No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it." Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces." Winds of up to 80mph destroyed more than 400 windmills. Defoe reported in some the sails turned so fast that the friction caused the wooden wheels to overheat and catch fire.

[Jib]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing this!

[Silver]

enjoying the "on this date in history" posts !!!

[William Brand]

I'm glad that these are well received.

November 28 -

On this day in 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

On November 28, 1717 - Captain Benjamin Hornigold captures the slave ship La Concorde de Nantes, which would later become the Queen Anne's Revenge near the island of Martinique. Hornigold turns her over to one of his men —Edward Teach, later known as Blackbeard—and made him her captain.

[Coastie04]

I'll second the opinion of the others here; thank you for these posts. I look forward to them whenever I'm checking up on the pub!

[madPete]

Aye... Aye think we'll keep this Quartermaster!

mP

[William Brand]

Thank you, all. I'm trying my best to find historical tidbits pertaining to pirates, the sea and the Age of Exploration by sea, so I haven't found historical trivia for all days yet. This thing will grow year to year.

[Coastie04]

Once you've got the year completed, you could make one of those peel-away daily calenders. I'd buy one for sure!

[William Brand]

I want one too.

December 2 -

On this day in history, 1547, Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro dies at Castilleja de la Cuesta, Castile.

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and, for a short time, became alcalde (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, resulted in the recall of the expedition at the last moment, an order which Cortés ignored. Arriving on the continent, Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous people against others. He also used a native woman, Doña Marina, as an interpreter; she would later bear Cortés a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés, he fought them and won, using the extra troops as reinforcements. Cortés wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. After he overthrew the Aztec Empire, Cortés was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to a high-ranking nobleman, Antonio de Mendoza. In 1541 Cortés returned to Spain, where he died peacefully but embittered, six years later.

Because of the controversial undertakings of Cortés and the scarcity of reliable sources of information about him, it has become difficult to assert anything definitive about his personality and motivations. Early lionizing of the conquistadors did not encourage deep examination of Cortés. Later reconsideration of the conquistadors' character in the context of modern anti-colonial sentiment also did little to expand understanding of Cortés as an individual. As a result of these historical trends, descriptions of Cortés tend to be simplistic, and either damning or idealizing.

[Animal]

Well done, Mr. Brand!!! We need to talk at Fort Taylor this year.

[William Brand]

December 11 -

On this day in 1695, Bellomont, who was now governing New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, asked the "trusty and well beloved Captain Kidd" to attack Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, William Maze, and all others who associated themselves with pirates, along with any enemy French ships. This request, if turned down, would have been viewed as disloyalty to the crown, the perception of which carried much social stigma, making it difficult for Kidd to have done so. The request preceded the voyage which established Kidd's reputation as a pirate, and marked his image in history and folklore.

Also on this day in 1719, the first recorded display of Aurora Borealis in the Colonies.

[William Brand]

December 12 -

On Friday, December 12,1718 gallows were erected in New Providence of the Bahamas for the hanging of nine pirates, captured by Benjamin Hornigold (the pirate turned pirate hunter). The group of nine pirates included William Cunningham and James Bendall.

William Cunningham had served under Teach through 1716 and into 1717 as a gunner aboard the schooner Batchelor’s Adventure. He had refused the royal pardon offered at New Providence in 1717, but had accepted a pardon one year later, in July of 1718. Cunningham returned to piracy with John Augur because "he was asleep when Bunce went on board the Scooner [to which he belonged] at green Key, and that Bunce brought him punch and told him, that he must either join him or be put upon a maroon key, alias a desolate key."

James Bendall was also offered a pardon by the English king and indeed "received the benefit of His Majesty’s most gracious pardon...bestowed to deliver from his former unlawful course of life", but could not resist the call of freedom and carried on his piracies around the Bahama’s and Virgin Islands. Bendall was captured at the island of Exuma after having "feloniously" taken three ships: Mary, Batchelor’s Adventure and Lancaster, "their cargoes and tackle; and further that they had marooned James Kerr, merchant, and others on Green Cay." During his trial, Kerr (aka Carr) was recalled to speak for him. Under oath Kerr declared that he "heard the prisoner [bendall] say that he wished he’d begun the life sooner for he thought it a pleasant one, that is the life of a pirate. He also said that he had a strong inclination to have smothered John Gravers Esq his Majesty’s Collector for the Islands as he lay ill and weak in his bed for the prisoner was for a short time a servant of mr. Graves before he shipped himself for the intended voyage and joined the other prisoners in their mutiny and piracy."

Woodes Rogers, now governor, captain-general and judge of the local vice-admiralty (having debated the several circumstances of the cases), sat among the authorities awaiting the spectacle. A small crowd, composed of seamen, women and ex-pirates, milled about. A party of 100 soldiers escorted the condemned men to the fatal spot. They were charged with "Mutiny, Felony, Piracy". People say that William Cunningham behaved "very penitent and conscious of his guilt", but that James Bendall was totally unrepentant, behaved in a sullen and moody manner, his last words were that he repeated he had "wish’d he had begun the Life [of a pirate] sooner, for he thought it a pleasant one."

They were hanged at ten o’clock in the morning and the execution of these pirates marked the end of New Providence as a pirate stronghold.

[William Brand]

December 13 -

On this day in 1577, after years of financial and political preparations, Drake set sail with his small fleet bound for the Strait of Magellan. With the support of the queen, high officials and investors, he launched the voyage with 160 seaman and a dozen of what they then called “gentlemen adventurers”, in casu “angry, young men”, who also had invested in the enterprise. The fleet consisted of one large ship, the Pelican, later re-named Golden Hind, and four smaller ones.

[GentlemenScotty]

loud applause

[William Brand]

December 14 -

"On the sea near the Islands of Bayon five marauders attacked the Portuguese ship called Nuestra Señora de Concepción." The date given was the 14th of December 1604. Our Lady carried a valuable cargo of timber, sacks of hides and "an Alexandrian traveling carriage belonging to Gonsalvo." Gonsalvo's importance in society is not explained, and he might have been anyone of consequence from an ambassador downward. In the end of the verdict it is read: "Jennings, Curtys and Carbyn were hanged". The place of the execution is given as Wapping, but no date.

Also on this day in 1679, William Cammock one of Sharp’s men, died at sea off the coast of Chili. "His disease was occasioned by a sunfit, gained by too much drinking on shore at La Serena; which produced in him a celenture, or malignant fever and a hiccough." He was buried at sea with the honors of "three French vollies".

On this day in 1720, one of Roberts’ men, John Clark, and a seaman aboard the snow Eagle when taken by Roberts were hanged. "The said Roger Hewer and John Clark to be taken to the Sands of Leeth within the floodmark upon the second Wednesday of December next being the 14th of the said month between the hours of two and four o’clock in the afternoon and there to be hanged by the neck upon a gibbet till they be dead."

The pirates blew out their last painful breath "within the floodmark" (infra fluxum ac refluxum) because piracy was theft at sea and thus a crime against the admiralty, whose jurisdiction extended to the low tide mark. This writ extended throughout England.

[William Brand]

December 15 -

On this day in history, Henry Morgan recaptures the island of Santa Catalina on his campaign through Panama.

[William Brand]

December 16 -

On this day in history, 1617, Spanish viceroy Hernando Arias de Saavedra founds provinces Rio de la Plata (Argentina)/Guaira (Paraguay)

Also on this day in history back in 1773, some Boston colonists threw a tea party for the British.

[William Brand]

December 18 -

On December 18, 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.

The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded Puritans in Nottinghamshire, England, founded their own church, separate from the state-sanctioned Church of England. Accused of treason, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the more tolerant Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and make a decent living, the group sought financial backing from some London merchants to set up a colony in America. On September 6, 1620, 102 passengers–dubbed Pilgrims by William Bradford, a passenger who would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony–crowded on the Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New World.

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored at what is now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod. Before going ashore, 41 male passengers–heads of families, single men and three male servants–signed the famous Mayflower Compact, agreeing to submit to a government chosen by common consent and to obey all laws made for the good of the colony. Over the next month, several small scouting groups were sent ashore to collect firewood and scout out a good place to build a settlement. Around December 10, one of these groups found a harbor they liked on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. They returned to the Mayflower to tell the other passengers, but bad weather prevented them from docking until December 18. After exploring the region, the settlers chose a cleared area previously occupied by members of a local Native American tribe, the Wampanoag. The tribe had abandoned the village several years earlier, after an outbreak of European disease. That winter of 1620-1621 was brutal, as the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and ward off sickness. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were dead. The remaining settlers made contact with returning members of the Wampanoag tribe and in March they signed a peace treaty with a tribal chief, Massasoit. Aided by the Wampanoag, especially the English-speaking Squanto, the Pilgrims were able to plant crops–especially corn and beans–that were vital to their survival. The Mayflower and its crew left Plymouth to return to England on April 5, 1621.

Over the next several decades, more and more settlers made the trek across the Atlantic to Plymouth, which gradually grew into a prosperous shipbuilding and fishing center. In 1691, Plymouth was incorporated into the new Massachusetts Bay Association, ending its history as an independent colony.

[William Brand]

December 19 -

On this day in 1675, The Barbary corsair Admiral Canary entered the port of Algiers in his ship the Rose, in company with Recip who commanded The New Moon and had captured two fluiten (Dutch merchant vessels) and two Portuguese caravels. One fluit was taken while on her way from Cape of Good Hope to Holland. The second fluit, called Hope, a 14-gun ship with a 24-men crew on her way from Venice to Amsterdam, had a cargo of 1.000 bales of rice and chests with raisins. The ship had defended herself against Recip some days before she was taken by Canary.

Also on this day in 1716, Thomas Davis, a Shipwright out of Carmarthenshire, Wales, was forced into piracy by Bellamy from the Bristol ship St. Michael. Thomas was told he would be transferred to the next ship captured. When Bellamy took the London built Whydaw Thomas reminded him of his promise but was told that, as a carpenter, he was too valuable to release. He was one of the two out of the 146 on board who got ashore alive after Whydaw was shipwrecked one year later. Thomas swam ashore from the bar on which the ship was breaking up quickly. After reaching the beach he had to climb up the face of the cliffs to avoid being beaten by the heavy rollers at high water. As soon as it became light Thomas looked for signs of life. He found a house about two miles distant from the cliffs. He was taken to Barnstaple gaol and a few days later to Boston and put in the Stone Gaol in irons. He convinced the court that he was a forced man and was acquitted in October of 1717.