On this day in history...

[William Brand]

January 11 -

John Evens of Wales began piracy with some chosen fellows, rowing out of Port Royal, Jamaica, in a canoe, September 1722. They landed at night and took to petty thieving from two houses. In Dun’s Hole they stepped aboard a Bermuda sloop lying at anchor and told the crew bluntly that from now on John Evans was master of this ship, “which was a Piece of News they knew not before.” As a treat for the crew, John Evans spent three pistols “of liquid refreshment” at the local inn. Everyone there like him so much that he was invited to call again. Which he readily did the same night. He then rifled the house, taking away all his men and he himself could carry. They set sail for Hispaniola in this sloop now called Scowerer with a crew of 30. The first prize of “extraordinary” value was a Spanish sloop which, after having sold the cargo, enabled each man to cash in a summa of 150 pounds. Beating up for the Windward Islands, they took a 120-ton ship from New England, plundered her and took out the mate and three other men.

Then, on this day in 1723, they seized the 200-ton Lucretia and Catherine and “began to take upon themselves the Distrubution of Justice, examining the Men concerning their Master’s usage of them, according to the Custom of other Pyrates”. The cruise brought them to the island of Aruba where they met a Dutch sloop, “and so making her their prize, they plunder’d her of what came, when shar’d, to 50 Pounds a Man.”

Piracy was not bad at all for Evans, capturing prize after prize, but Lady Luck choose his boatswain, a noisy, surly character, always looking for trouble, even with his captain, to become his undoing. Evans responded with fervent glee so the boatswain challenged his superior to fight it out ashore with sword and pistol. The Boatswain refused to fight when the boat was near the shore. Evans took his cane and had him polished and scrubbed high and dry. Suddenly the boatswain drew his pistol and shot Evans through the head. Stone dead. The boatswain jumped overboard to swim frantically for his freedom but the Scowerer’s brought him back. Now the gentlemen of fortune, provoked by the death of their captain who had so much blessed them with good luck, should decide the man’s future. Tired of waiting so long, the chief gunner stepped forward and shot the boatswain. “But not killing him outright, the Delinquent in very moving Words, desired a Week of Repentance only.” Another pirate had not such a patience, without more ado shot him dead.

The plunder of close to 9,000 pounds sterling was divided among the crew, after this session the expedition broke up.

[William Brand]

January 12 -

On this day in 1702, in North America, ships from Fort Maurepas arrive at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff to build Fort Louis de la Mobile (future Mobile, Alabama) to become the capital of French Louisiana.

[William Brand]

January 13 -

On this day in 1690, English Pirate Thomas Pound was initially found guilty for acts of piracy. However, he was later reprieved. He was sent to England, where he was later released and eventually gained command of his own ship, before his death in 1703.

Also on this day in 1722, the Weekly Journal reported: "That several pirate ships infested the coast [off Martinique] where one carrying 30 guns and 400 men some days before had engaged two French men-of-war. She caried a black flag at her topmasthead. The action took place off Monserrat but she got away from them and bore away from Antegoa. That 5 men were newly come in there that did belong to Inwen, captain Ross, from Cork, Ireland, having on board 600 barrels of beef besides other provisions which ship was taken off Martinique by a pirate sloop well mounted with guns and 140 men. That colonel Doyly of Montserrat with his family was on board the said vessel and was very much cut and wounded by the pirates. That 21 of these brutes had forced a woman passenger successively, afterwards broke her back and flung her into the sea."

[William Brand]

January 14 -

On this day in 1639...

In Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American colonies, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.

The Dutch discovered the Connecticut River in 1614, but English Puritans from Massachusetts largely accomplished European settlement of the region. During the 1630s, they flocked to the Connecticut valley from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in 1638 representatives from the three major Puritan settlements in Connecticut met to set up a unified government for the new colony.

Roger Ludlow, a lawyer, wrote much of the Fundamental Orders, and presented a binding and compact frame of government that put the welfare of the community above that of individuals. It was also the first written constitution in the world to declare the modern idea that "the foundation of authority is in the free consent of the people." In 1662, the Charter of Connecticut superseded the Fundamental Orders; though the majority of the original document's laws and statutes remained in force until 1818.

[William Brand]

January 16 -

On this day in 1704, approximately one hundred lives were lost when the 4th rate HMS Colchester was wrecked in Whitesand Bay.

[William Brand]

January 17 -

Benjamin Franklin was born on this day in 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts. Later in his life in In 1778, while ambassador to France, Franklin hired privateers to capture British sailors and use them to exchange for the Americans held by the British in insufferable conditions.

[William Brand]

January 19 -

On this day in 1527, the carrack named St Anthony or Santo António (and also reported as Saint Andrew) of Portugal) foundered in Gunwalloe Bay, Cornwall while en–route from Lisbon to Antwerp. She had a mixed cargo including copper and silver ingots, and was said to be worth an estimated £100 million in today's values. One half of the crew was lost. The wreck was located in 1981 and a selection of her cargo can be seen in the Charlestown Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre, Charlestown. The site is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

And on this day in 1676, the Barbary corsair, Canary, left Algiers with two ships laden with goods and "presents" (tax money and the like) for the sultan at Istanbul. He anchored in view of the port to have all passengers and crew embark during the night and departed in the early morning, flying flags from the mastheads, firing all guns and muskets.

Also on this day in 1704, the English government declared a day of fasting in the days weeks that followed the 'Great Storm of 1703, saying it "loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of our people". "The storm, unprecedented in ferocity and duration, was generally reckoned by witnesses to represent the anger of God—in recognition of the "crying sins of this nation." It remained a frequent topic of moralizing in sermons well into the nineteenth century.

[William Brand]

January 20 -

On this day in 1605, Andreas Franson of Holland took the ship Jonas. Franson had previously captained the ship Leeuwin (Lioness) and chased a Spanish ship from Dunkirk that had taken refuge in Portsmouth. Franson made a pact with master John Muckill of the 50-ton Mary Catherine of Southampton to capture the nearby anchored ship called Jonas, with a cargo of cotton, lawns, says and cambrics worth a 10,000 pounds on the night of January 20th. Muckill with 16 men rowed to the Jonas and took her. The two captains split up the goods between them, Muckill keeping the ship. Franson then sailed Westward and anchored at Cawsand Bay where he opened up his prizegoods for trade. People flocked from nearby Plymouth to barter with him, without any action being taken by the authorities. Thereafter he sailed to Morocco to dispose of the remnants of Jonas’s cargo.

[William Brand]

January 24 -

Hugo Clerck, from the Republic of the United Netherlands, captained a 19-gun ship active in the English Channel. He approached three vessels, thinking them to be merchantmen. He "Caught a Tartar", as the seamen say, for these vessels formed a well-armed Dutch escort under command of famous pirate hunter Moy Lambert. Clerck's ship was damaged after a running fight of several hours. Clerck tried to escape by brisk sailing but was out-sailed. Quarter was eventually granted, "Soo heeft den roover sijn lyeseil ingenomen ende sijn marseylen wat gestreecken ende hebbent opgegeven." (So the sea rover took in his sails and gave up.) With his 61 men brought to Holland, their belongings and the ship were ransacked by the Dutch who took the ship’s contents (iron and steel, and 19 iron guns) to Holland. Clerck confessed his misdeeds on this day in 1615.

Also on this day in 1686, men under Captain Swan voted him out of office and marooned him with 36 men. Then with John Read as captain, Cygnet sailed haphazardly to Cambodia, China and Formosa, even hit Australia. Dampier traveled with them, but became “weary of this mad Crew” and gradually became disenchanted with his profession as a searover.

[GregF]

On January 25, 1723, Edward Low’s crew captured two trading vessels from New York as they were within sight of the island of Curacao. The pirates took four men from one of the ships as captives, whipping one of them repeatedly because he had previously served on a British warship. Low kept one of the vessels captured near Curacao, a snow called the Unity.

Within a week's time, however, the Unity would be set free with a number of captives aboard. That happened because Low's crew encountered the HMS Mermaid somewhere between Cartagena, Columbia, and the northernmost tip of the coastline of Panama. The pirates initially set a course towards the Mermaid, but as soon as they realized they were chasing a British warship, they changed course. Low put a number of captives on the Unity and set it free. The Mermaid came after Low, but by heading towards some shoal water, he was able to escape.

[William Brand]

January 25 -

Also on this day in 1721, George Shelvocke and his men sailing aboard the Jesus Maria, and unable to find a Pacific passage against unfavorable winds, dropped anchor at Coiba Island. The place was uninhabited, so they made their base there through early February when they met up with John Clipperton's crew.

[William Brand]

January 26 -

On this day in 1572, pirate Barend Barendsz was beheaded at Enkhuizen, Holland, for "het sich te buyten gaen aan seeroverij en andere ghewelddaden" (extreme behavior in piracy and other violences).

And on this day in 1696, the French corsair Jacques Boscher, a hard-headed man, calm and quiet when circumstances asked for it, and cousin to Dugay-Trouin, distinguished himself in the taking of English Eastindiaman 'London'.

Also on this day in 1749, the Dutch East Indiamen 'Amsterdam' ran aground near Hastings at East Sussex.

[William Brand]

January 27 -

On this day in 1647, the Ottoman fleet of 45 galleys attacks the ship of the Venetian admiral Tommaso Morosini. Both Morosini and the Ottoman admiral, Kara Musa Pasha, were killed. After suffering significant casualties, the Turks were driven off by the arrival of the remaining Venetian fleet.

[William Brand]

January 28 -

On this day in 1671, Lawrence Prince, a 17th-century Dutch buccaneer and an officer under Captain Sir Henry Morgan and Major John Morris later led a vanguard numbering 300 buccaneers against the Spanish. Prince supported the main force, with Morgan and Collier leading the right and left wings while the rearguard was commanded by Colonel Bledry Morgan.

Morgan had discovered that Panama had roughly 1,200 infantry. He split his forces, using some to march through the forest and flank the enemy. The Spaniards were untrained and rushed Morgan's line where he cut them down with gunfire, only to have his flankers emerge and finish off the rest of the Spanish soldiers. Although Panama was at the time the richest city in New Spain, Morgan and his men obtained far less plunder than they had expected. Much of the city's wealth had been removed onto the Spanish treasure galleon, La Santisima Trinidad (a ship that nearly a decade later would be taken by English pirates, including one William Dampier, participating in the adventures of Captain Sharp et al. into the South Seas that then stood out into the Gulf of Panama, beyond the looters' reach. Or rather, had Morgan's men not decided that celebrating the capture of Panama was of higher importance than chancing their efforts with a ship which, at that point may or may not have been of any value, then they would have remained in a fit enough state to have made an attempt on it before the ship had had time to exit the bay. In reasoning, their decision at that time did not appear a bad one. As well as considering the further risk they would have exposed themselves to after battling with the Governor of Panama and his army, they were still in desperate need of victuals to satiate their extreme hunger after weeks of arduous marching from Fort San Lorenzo; the Spanish having made every effort to starve them on their approach by ensuring all villages were empty of provisions, and had setup numerous ambuscades by which to attack and taunt them. However, upon learning the extent of the wealth transferred onto that galleon, their decision turned out to be a major error in their judgement. For if they had remained sober enough and chosen to venture that little further, with their superior nautical skills at their disposal, they would have surely landed the amount of spoils they were expecting. Most of the inhabitants' remaining goods were destroyed in a fire of unclear cause. Morgan's men tortured those residents of Panama they could catch, but very little gold was forthcoming from the victims. After Morgan's attack, the Panama city had to be rebuilt in a new site a few kilometres to the west (the current site). The former site is called Panamá Viejo and still contains the remaining parts of the old Panama City.

Also reported on this day in 1725…

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 January 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.

Francis Spriggs and his crew later captured a Portuguese bark and looted the ship's stores while the crew were put through "the sweats" or a "sweat", a mild form of torture in which a ring of candles is lit in a circle around the mainmast and each crewman was made to enter the circle and run around the mast while the pirates poked and jabbed at them with pen knives, forks and other weapons in a sort of gauntlet. After they had finished with the bark, the crew were put back on their ship, to which the pirates set fire.

[GregF]

Terrific post about Spriggs. In my book I have a great image of pirates from Spriggs' crew subjecting a captive to a "sweat":

http://www.gregflemming.com/photo-gallery/

[William Brand]

Thank you, Greg.

January 29 - This one is well outside the Golden Age of Piracy, but...

The pirate Abbas of Borneo, brother of the Rajah of Achin, took possession of the brig Futtal Khair of Calcutta at the mouth of the Ryak River in the Archin district of Borneo in 1843. Crewmen and passengers were imprisoned while warriors plundered the vessel. To get restitution of the British property a British navy-expedition sailed from Penang on this day in 1844, and burnt down Abba's base in Northern Borneo.

[William Brand]

January 30 -

On this day in 1560, Acquitan Classisq, commander of the ship Sweepstake, attacked the French ship Jacques de Octe and "handed over to the Marshalsea for safe custody, under strong and strict imprisonment". Classisq was found "guilty of felonies, robberies, murders, illicit extortions and lamentable conspiracies".

Also on this day in 1649, the ship Garland of the Royal Navy of Topsham, carrying garments and other possessions of the late Charles I, together with some personal belongings of his fugitive Queen and the wardrobe of the Prince of Wales, wrecked at Godrevy. She was taking shelter off St. Ives in a great storm and dragged her anchors. Only a man, boy and wolf-dog survived out of about sixty passengers and crew.

And on this day in 1670, Captains Buffon, a barbary corsair from Amsterdam, and Captain Jut arrived without a prize. Captain Jut commanded the 40 gun ship De Bloempot (The Flowerpot), crewed by 50 christians and 300 moors. This ship was burned by admiral Van Gent.

[William Brand]

January 31 -

Salomon des Champs, aka De Scanis, was the youngest undermerchant of the VOC-ship Batavia. He was loyal towards the ringleader Jeronymus Cornelisz during and after him taking over the command of Batavia by mutiny. Salomon had no part in the orgy of murders until Cornelisz grabbed a child from its mother and told Salomon: "Here is a noose. Strangle it without any sound, if you please."

On trial at Batavia, Java, the judge could not ignore this homicide. Salomon was sentenced to keel-hauling, threefold. In this punishment a rope was rigged from yardarm to yardarm passing under the bottom of the ship, the delinquent secured by it, sometimes with lead or iron attached to his legs. Then the delinquent was hoisted up to one yardarm then dropped into the sea, hauled underneath the ship, and hoisted up to the opposite yardarm, the punishment repeated after having had time to recover one’s breath, but the hapless Des Champs suffered more. He was beaten with 100 strokes with the cat-o’-nine-tails. Then the Council of Justice found out he had done more mischief, so they hanged him on this day in 1630.


Also on this day in 1709…

Thomas Dover, aka Doctor Quicksilver, was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, taking the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. Dover practiced as a physician at Bristol until appointed as “second captain” to Woodes Rogers to sail for a South Sea expedition, which was a common but special privateering enterprise and to some showed strong pirate aberrations. Dover had no nautical experience whatsoever but insisted on being given a command, which he finally obtained when promoted to the rank of captain of a small Spanish prize taken off the South American West coast. He partook in the sack of Guayaguil in April of 1709. He also partook in the seizure of the Acapulco ship, with a booty more than a million pounds sterling. Dover was also the one who, on the morning of the 31st of January 1709, out of sheer curiosity asked for a boat to be lowered when a light was spotted burning on the heights of an island in the Juan Fernandez group. With the second mate Frye, Dover scanned the stony beach, and suddenly saw a funny character hopping along the shoreline. His legs and feet were bare, and hairy pelts of animals covered the upper thighs and body. Stitched skins formed an uncouth jacket, or something like it, and the creature sported a long beard and a wild mat of hair – in all more a beast than a human being. Dover and Frye rescued this man, found to be one Alexander Selkirk, the real life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.


And on this day in history, 1721, John Clipperton and his crew departed Cocos Island. They left behind eleven men (three English and eight Negroes) that Clipperton said had 'deserted'.

[William Brand]

February 1 -

John Clipperton of Ireland had sailed as first officer with Dampier in 1703-‘4. He mutinied in Panama Bay with 20 other men and went off in a small prize on his own account before returning to England. Eleven years later in command of the ship Prince Eugene, and in consort with another pirate vessel, he took two Spanish vessels off Paita on the Pacific coast of South America in 1715. The loot comprised goods and money to a value of 400.000 pesos. Clipperton was captured early in 1716.

Clipperton became a Commander of 36-gun privateer Success in company of Shelvocke’s Speedwell during the war between Spain and England/France/Holland in 1719 and 1720. After Shelvocke had belittled him as a tradesman and a freebooter, he more or less took over the position as a commodore of the two ships. Sailed the same route but refused to meet his consort, even when, in the Pacific, both ships were continually drawn to each other. He recaptured Prince Eugene, 1 February 1720, , the same vessel which had been taken from him on his previous cruise, and captured with her the Marquis of Villa-Rocha and the family of the Marquis on their way to Lima. Clipperton, accompanied by these prizes, steered for the Port of Velas at the Western extremity of Nicoya peninsula.. With the war over he tried to win the Manila galleon in Philippine waters and thus crossed the Pacific, missing the galleon by two months, reaching Guam in May of 1722. He there attacked a 20-gun ship in the roads but, in approaching her, ran his Success on the rocks within range of the other ship’s guns, which began to hammer her. Now Clipperton’s mind "plunged into depressive neurosis," wrote historian K. Poolman, "He drank a bottle of brandy and fell down in a drunken stupor on deck, where he lay snoring as shot from the Spaniard whistled around them." Lieutenant Davison took command and fought the ship well, until he was killed. Second lieutenant Cook then took over, and also put up a good defense. After 48 hours on the rocks the ship was got afloat again. His crew deserted and Success was condemned at Macao, China. Clipperton as jailed but released after presenting his commission from the English king. Basically this circumnavigation was no act of piracy but one of a privateer. Finally he reached Europe again in a Dutch ship and died a few days afterwards.

[William Brand]

February 2 -

New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.

[William Brand]

February 3 -

On this day in 1685, Rod Cap, one of Cowley’s men, succumbed to the great scourge of the period during the epic passage to Guam, almost 8.000 nautical miles.

"We throwed overboard Rod Cap, who died with the scurvy."

Also on this day in 1735, a Dutch East Indiamen called The Vligenthart (Flying Hart) was lost after striking a sand bank off the coast of Vissingen, Zeeland. Every one of the 461 sailors, soldiers and merchants aboard perished.

[GregF]

On February 4, 1724 a crew of pirates and captives sailing under the command of John Phillips spotted a snow off the coast of Maryland. Phillips immediately started to chase, although the snow was moving so quickly through the water that it took about three days for the pirates to draw within range and capture the vessel. Phillips sent three members of his crew and one forced man over to the snow to take command. The men sent over to the snow were led by a pirate named Samuel Ferne, who had been with Phillips since he first formed his crew in 1723. But Ferne’s loyalty to Phillips was crumbling. Like just about everyone else on the pirate ship, he was tired of dealing with Phillips’ rage day in and out. The night the pirates captured the snow, Ferne decided to abandon Phillips. Ferne and the other pirates extinguished all the lanterns aboard the snow and tried to slip away into the dark, open sea. But Phillips immediately suspected what Ferne was up to and put out all of his lights too. With both vessels darkened, neither had much of an advantage and Phillips was able to stay relatively close to the snow.

The attempted escape by Ferne did not end well. Regaining the snow several days later, Phillips fired at the snow and then, after the deserters ultimately surrendered, he killed Ferne by thrusting a sword almost entirely through his body and then, a moment later, shooting him in the head.

http://www.gregflemming.com/2013/09/14/marthas-vineyard-and-pirate-mutiny/

[William Brand]

Thank you for posting. I didn't have any historic trivia for the day and that's a great story.

[William Brand]

February 5, 1721 -

On this day in 1721, John Clipperton, sailing aboard his ship the 'Success', met up with George Shelvoke and forty surviving members of his crew at Coiba Island. With about 120 men between them, they joined forces.

Also on this day in 1722, the HMS Swallow, commanded by Captain Chaloner Ogle, came upon the three pirate ships, the Royal Fortune, the Ranger and the Little Ranger careening at Cape Lopez. The Swallow veered away to avoid a shoal, making the pirates think that she was a fleeing merchant ship. The Ranger, commanded by James Skyrme, departed in pursuit. Once out of earshot of the other pirates, the Swallow opened her gun ports and opened fire. Ten pirates were killed and Skyrme had his leg taken off by a cannonball, but refused to leave the deck. Eventually, the Ranger was forced to strike her colors and the surviving crew were captured.

Roger Ball. one of Roberts’ men in the ship Royal Fortune, upon being captured by HMS Swallow , tried to blow up the ship with Morris and Main. Being damp the keg had detonated with only enough force to smash a hole in the ship’s side through which he was thrown. Ball was picked up by the Swallow’s boat and resisted all attempts to dress his wounds, and although in terrible pain, he refused to be touched. "Why," he said, "John Morris fired a pistol into the powder, and if he had not done it, I would." Ball then became delirious during the night. He raved at the top of his voice about Roberts’ bravery and cunning. He was whipped the next morning on the forecastle for his insolences. He wrenched at the grating and was lashed more violently for his resistance. He remained through the day lay "in a private corner, with a look as sullen as winter", eating nothing, silent, brooding in the darkness. Eventually he lapsed into a coma and was gone.

[William Brand]

February 7 -

On this day in 1596, Francis Drake of Devonshire, England died at sea. He proved a superb seaman, master and pirate in his day and this was said of him…

“El terror que el solo nombre de Drake impulsa la construcción de foritificaciones para defender nuestras ciudades de los posibles ataques y saques del temido corsario’’ (the terror [that] the sound of his name evoked, forced us to construct fortifications to defend our cities against the attacks and plunders of this terrible corsair).

Also on this day…

Domingo Eucalla, was one of ten pirates captured by the British Sloop of War, Tyne, and hanged on February 7, 1823 at Kingston, Jamaica. Eucalla showed the greatest courage, making a moving speech to the spectators from the gallows, as described in this excerpt from "The History of the Pirates,: Containing the Lives of Those Noted Pirate Captains, Mission, Bowen, Kidd, Tew, Halsey, White, Condent, Bellamy, Fly, Howard, Lewis, Cornelius, Williams, Burgess, North and their several crews" by Thomas Carey.

"Several of the prisoners cried out for mercy, pardon, pardon.

Domingo Eucalla, the black man, then addressed them. "Do not look for mercy here, but pray to God; we are all brought here to die. This is not built for nothing; here we must end our lives. You know I am innocent, but I must die the same as you all. There is not any biddy here who can do us any good, so let us think only of God Almighty. We are not children but men, you know that all must die; and in a few years those who kill us must die too. When I was born, God set the way of my death; I do not blame any body. I was taken by the pirates and they made me help them; they would not let me be idle. I could not show that this was the truth, and therefore they have judged me by the people they have found me with. I am put to death unjustly, but I blame nobody. It was my misfortune. Come, let us pray. If we are innocent, so much less we have to repent. I do not come here to accuse any one. Death must come one day or other; better to the innocent than guilty."

He then joined in prayer with the others. He seemed to be much reverenced by his fellow prisoners. He chose those prayers he thought most adapted to the occasion. Hundreds were witnesses to the manly firmness of this negro. Observing a bystander listening attentively to the complaints of one of his fellow wretches, he translated what had been said into English. With a steady pace, and a resolute and resigned countenance, he ascended the fatal scaffold. Observing the executioner unable to untie a knot on the collar of one of the prisoners, he with his teeth undid it. He then prayed most fervently till the drop fell. "

The other nine prates hanged were Augustus Hernandez, Juan Hernandez, Pedro Nondre, Miguel Jose, Francisco Miguel, Breti Gullimillit, Manuel Lima, Juan Gutterez, and Francisco de Sayas.