On this day in history...

[William Brand]

May 22 -

Richard Sawkins or Hawkins died on this day in 1680. He was a British buccaneer who participated in the Pacific Adventure, a privateering expedition headed by Captain John Coxon.

Although little is known of his early life, Sawkins was captured by HMS Success and later imprisoned in Port Royal while awaiting trial for piracy as late as December 1, 1679. He was apparently released however as he is later recorded commanding a small 16-ton vessel with a crew of 35 men and one gun. Along with Peter Harris, he joined up with Captain John Coxon's privateering expedition near Bocca del Toro in late-March and was one of 330 buccaneers who landed on the coast of Darien with Coxon and Bartholomew Sharp. Marching overland through the jungle, Sawkins participated in a surprise attack and looting of Santa Marta, later crossing the isthmus in Indian canoes, and sailing down the Santa Maria River eventually making their way to the Pacific Ocean.

Arriving with his own group soon after, flying a red flag with yellow stripes, Sawkins soon captured two small Spanish vessels before sailing with his group towards Panama City. As they neared the city, Sawkins encountered a Spanish fleet of eight ships and, after a fierce battle, Sawkins was celebrated by his crew for his bravery and skill in their victory in what was later known as the Battle of Perico.

However, some of the party began arguing amongst themselves, and John Coxon eventually left the expedition with his seventy men and returned across the isthmus on foot. With the departure of Coxon, the remaining privateers elected Sawkins as head of the expedition while Sharp was out on a separate voyage.

After his victory over the Spanish fleet, Sawkins sailed towards Panama City and blockaded the harbor. Forced to negotiate with Sawkins, the Governor of Panama demanaded to know Sawkins intentions. Sawkins responded by demanding five hundred pieces of eight for each of the crew, and a further one thousand for each of his officers. In addition to this, Sawkins also demanded an end to the harassment and exploitation of the local native tribes. He later learned that the Bishop of Santa Martha, who had been Sawkins' prisoners five years earlier, was present in the city and sent him a present of two loaves of sugar. Although he received a gold ring from the Bishop, he received no response from the governor and the crew, soon growing restless, eventually persuaded Sawkins to abandon his blockade and continued sailing south along the coast.

Landing with a party of sixty men, Sawkins led an attack against the town of Puebla Nueva on May 22, 1680. However, having prior knowege of the privateers' presence in the area, three well-fortified breastworks had been constructed by the time of his arrival. Despite having lost the element of surprise, Sawkins continued his attack on the town and was killed by a musket-ball while at the head of his men.

[William Brand]

May 23 -

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". It was first published as a book on on this day in 1883. it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 under the title Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North.

[William Brand]

Also on this day in 1701, William Kidd was hanged for piracy.

[William Brand]

May 30 -

In 1619, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was appointed Governor-General of the VOC. He saw the possibility of the VOC becoming an Asian power, both political and economic. On this day in 1619, Coen, backed by a force of nineteen ships, stormed Jayakarta driving out the Banten forces; and from the ashes established Batavia as the VOC headquarters. In the 1620s almost the entire native population of the Banda Islands was driven away, starved to death, or killed in an attempt to replace them with Dutch plantations. These plantations were used to grow cloves and nutmeg for export. Coen hoped to settle large numbers of Dutch colonists in the East Indies, but implementation of this policy never materialized, mainly because very few Dutch were willing to emigrate to Asia.

[William Brand]

June 1 -

On this day in 1676, 'Kronan', the largest warship in the Swedish navy during the Scanian War, sank in rough weather in the Battle of Öland.

Also on this day in 1822, Capt. Carter of the schooner Swan, arrived yesterday from Havana, reports that on his outward passage from this port, on the 27th at 8 o'clock, A. M. being then within 30 miles from Havana, he was boarded by an open boat from the shore, manned with nine men, who all appeared to be Spanish, armed with muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and knives, who plundered the vessel of every thing they could carry off. They also robbed the captain and crew of their clothing, even stripping the jackets from their backs, and the shoes from their feet.

The villains would not even spare the property of a Spanish Priest, passenger on board, but they robbed him also of his clothes, money, and plate, the value of 800 dollars ; they however afterwards, returned his gown. A sail heaving in sight, they left the schooner with orders to steer E. N. E. and not go over three leagues from shore, under pain of death.

From their conversation while on board, it appeared that they intended to board the schooner again in the evening, run her ashore and burn her, but she escaped by the darkness of the night.

[GregF]

On June 3, 1722, Edward Low’s pirate crew struck New England. In that single day the pirates captured three vessels, one after another, as they were sailing near Block Island, just off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. The captured sloops were robbed and at least two of them were disabled when the pirates stole several sails and masts and vandalized the vessels. One of the victims was a young captain from Rhode Island named James Cahoon, who stood helpless on his wooden deck as the pirates boarded and looted the vessel. The pirates hacked at Cahoon with a sword, leaving him bloodied and badly wounded. They forced Cahoon’s crew to disable the vessel by removing the bowsprit and boom and throwing them overboard. Low’s crew plundered Cahoon’s supply of food and water and took his mainsail back with them to their brigantine, the Rebecca.

Another of the sloops taken by the pirates that Sunday was also torn apart and then left stranded at sea about ten miles from Block Island. One of the wealthier passengers aboard the sloop, the adjutant of a militia regiment from New York, was stripped of a sword, a gun, buttons, and a number of articles of fine clothing, including a red Persian silk scarf and a beaver hat with silver lace. The pirates took casks of food, water, and gunpowder from the three vessels they captured that day, but they eventually sailed off to the north without taking any of the vessels or their crews.

[GregF]

On the morning of June 10, 1723, just before the break of dawn, a British warship stationed out of New York spotted two sloops sailing less than 50 miles south of Long Island. The captain of the warship, Peter Solgard, was all but certain the sloops were trouble -- he had been told by a sea captain three days earlier that they were pirate ships under the command of a notoriously violent captain, Edward Low. It didn't take long for Low's crew to spot the warship, HMS Greyhound, and head directly for it. The next twelve hours gave rise to one of the most dramatic sea battles with pirates in the history of America.

After several hours of fighting that day, Low sailed away in his sloop but Low's quartermaster, Charles Harris, was unable to retreat in the second sloop. With so little wind that day and their mainsail practically in pieces, even by rowing Harris’ crew could not get free of the Greyhound. At about five o’clock that afternoon, Harris signaled his surrender. Harris and thirty-five members of his crew who had survived the battle were taken prisoner and many of them were taken back to Newport, Rhode Island in Harris’ sloop. In the Greyhound, Solgard continued to chase after Low for several more hours, but lost sight of their sloop around nine o’clock that evening somewhere in the sea between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. The Greyhound then returned to Newport that night. Harris’ crew was put on trial a month later, and most of the pirates were convicted and hanged in July in what remains one of the largest mass executions in the history of colonial America.

[William Brand]

Thank you, Greg.

On this day in history, yesterday...

June 19th -

Captain Howell Davis (or Hywel) (or Davies) (ca. 1690 – 19 June 1719) was a Welsh pirate. His piratical career lasted just 11 months, from 11 July 1718 to 19 June 1719, when he was ambushed and killed. His ships were the Cadogan, Buck, Saint James, and Rover. Davis captured 15 known English and French ships.

[William Brand]

June 28 -

On this day in 1726, Atkinson brings Captain Fly and other pirates to Great Brewster were they are put under guard to await trial. Atkinson was outnumbered five to one when he sighted some fishing boats and called for their assistance, tricking Fly to go forward with a glass, leaving his weapons behind. See citation.

"The men who had not taken on with Fly, were, Atkinson, Capt. Fulker's mate, and two youths belonging to him ; the carpenter and gunner belonging to Capt. Green; six of Capt. Gale's men, and the aforesaid Benbrooke, who belonged to Capt. Harris, with three of the men out of the schooner. Atkinson, seeing the prisoners and forced men were five to one of the pirates, thought of delivering himself from the bondage he was in : and as by good luck several other fishing vessels hove in sight,right ahead of the snow, he called to Capt. Fly, and told him he spied several other vessels ahead, desiring he would come forward and bring his glass. Fly did so, and leaving his arms on the quarter deck, set on the windlass to see if he could make out what they were. Atkinson, who had concerted his measures with one Walker and the above mentioned Benbrooke, secured the arms on the quarter deck, and gave them a signal to seize Fly; which they did, with very little trouble, and afterwards made themselves masters of the other three pirates and the snow, the rest of the prisoners, not knowing any thing of, or what the design might be, remaining altogether inactive, and brought the snow and pirates to Great Brewster, where a guard was put on board, June 28, 1726."

[GregF]

Great post on William Fly! A few months back, I posted a pic of Nixes Mate Island in Boston Harbor, where Fly was hanged in chains following his execution...

http://www.gregflemming.com/2013/08/21/where-pirates-were-buried/

[William Brand]

June 29th -

On this day in 1694, French Privateer, Jean Bart, captured a huge convoy of Dutch grain ships, saving Paris from starvation. Jean Bart was raised into the nobility with a peerage.

[GregF]

On July 12, 1726, William Fly and several other convicted pirates were executed in Boston. At the trial a week before, Fly and three other men -- Samuel Cole, Henry Greenville, and George Condick -- were convicted. On July 12, all but Condick were executed before a large crowd in Boston Harbor near the mouth of the Charles River. Condick, a “drunken, ignorant fellow who served as ship’s cook,” was granted a last-minute reprieve at the gallows.

Later that same day, several men steered a boat out of Boston Harbor. The wooden craft rode low in the water, weighted down by its cargo. Their destination was Nixes Mate Island, a small patch of land less than six miles from Boston. Today, Nixes Mate Island is little more than a mound of rocks capped by a cone-shaped harbor marker with black and white stripes. But in July 1726, before much of the slate on Nixes Mate had been dug up, there was more to the patch of land. The men were headed there in a boat loaded with the corpses of the three executed pirates. Two of the pirates, Cole and Greenville, were buried. But Fly was hung in chains on the small harbor island to rot, a gruesome symbol of the pirates that sailed the Atlantic during this bloody era.

A picture of Nixes Mate Island as it looks today on my web site: http://www.gregflemming.com/2013/08/21/where-pirates-were-buried

Edited July 12, 2014 by GregF

[William Brand]

July 14 -

On this day in 1698, the Darien scheme began with five ships, bearing about 1,200 people, and departed Leith for the Isthmus of Panama.

Also on this day in 1714, the Battle of Aland occurred wherein the Russian fleet overpowered the larger Swedish fleet.

And on this day in 1769, the expedition led by Gaspar de Portola established a base in California and set out to find the Port of Monterey.

[William Brand]

July 15 -

The Bahamas did not come under external threat during Rogers' second term, but the reappointed governor had difficulties. Still seeking to bolster the island's defenses, Rogers sought imposition of a local tax. The assembly, which had been instituted in Rogers' absence, objected, and Rogers responded by dissolving it. The governmental battle exhausted Rogers, who again went to Charleston in early 1731 in an attempt to recover his health. Though he returned in July 1731, he never truly regained his health, and died in Nassau on this day in 1732.

Also on this day in 1741, Alexei Chirikov sighted land in Southeast Alaska. He sent men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

[William Brand]

July 17 -

On this day in 1596, At 10:30AM, Dutch explorer Willem Barents arrives at Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Sea.

Also on this day in 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh was arrested by forces of King James.

[William Brand]

July 18 -

On this day in 1696, Czar Peter I's fleet occupied Azov at the mouth of the Don River.

And on this day in 1700, according to British Admiralty Records in the Public Records Office in the UK, the HMS Poole, commanded by Captain John Cranby, engaged pirate Emanuel Wynn's ship off the Cape Verde islands. Cranby chased Wynn into a cove at Brava Island but, assisted by Portuguese soldiers, Wynn escaped Poole. Most historians agree that Cranby's account is the first mention of a Jolly Roger, which Cranby described as "a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hour glass." Wynne is believed to be the first (or some sources contend one of the first) pirate to fly the now familiar form of the jolly roger. His flag, showing the distinctive skull and crossbones motif, was augmented with another common pirate symbol: an hourglass (meant to signify to his prey that only by timely surrender could they evade death).

Wynne began his piratical career raiding English merchantmen off the coast of the Province of Carolina near the end of the 17th century. He later moved to the more profitable waters of the Caribbean, attacking both English and Spanish ships.

Also on this day in 1718, Howell Davis was given command of the Cadogan and set out for Brazil. However, his crew mutinied and sailed to Barbados instead. Davis was imprisoned there on the charge of piracy, but was eventually released and sought shelter in the pirate den of New Providence in the Bahamas. With New Providence being cleaned out by Governor Woodes Rogers, Davis left on the sloop Buck and conspired with six other crew members, who included Thomas Anstis and Walter Kennedy, to take over the vessel off Martinique. Davis was elected captain and conducted raids from his base at Coxon's Hole.

[GregF]

June 19, 1723 -- On this day, 26 convicted pirates from the crew of the pirate captain Edward Low were hanged in Newport, RI -- one of the largest mass executions in American history. One of Low’s two sloops, under the command of Charles Harris, had been captured by the HMS Greyhound in June. Exactly one week after their trial in Newport, the condemned men were hanged. Their bodies were buried across the harbor on Goat Island.

My description of the executions: http://www.gregflemming.com/read-the-prologue/

[William Brand]

July 19 -

On this day in 1545, the Tudor warship, Mary Rose, sunk in Portsmouth Harbor at Hampshire, England.

Also on this day in 1702, Philemon Ewer, the English shipbuilder is born. He is responsible for the rebuild of the first ship built in North America back in 1696. He also built the HMS Salisbury, which served as the location for the famous experiments on scurvy in 1747, by James Lind.

[William Brand]

Well...yesterday in History...

July 22 -

On this day in 1713, Rogers' expedition arrived at Nassau Harbor, surprising and trapping a ship commanded by pirate Charles Vane. Negotiations ensued, but failed, and Vane used a captured French vessel as a fireship in an attempt to ram the naval vessels. The attempt failed, but the naval vessels were forced out of the west end of Nassau harbor, giving Vane's crew an opportunity to raid the town and secure the best local pilot. Vane and his men then escaped in a small sloop via the harbor's narrow east entrance. The pirates had evaded the trap, but Nassau and New Providence Island were left in Rogers' hands.

On this same day and year, a minor engagement took place between Sweden and Russia.

[William Brand]

July 23 -

July 23, 1718 - This date was selected for pardon for all acts of piracy committed by surrendering pirates. Some chose the pardon and some didn't.

[William Brand]

July 24 -

On this day in 1534, the colonization of New France began in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier.

[William Brand]

July 25 -

On this day in 1689, France declared war on England. This was just one of many wars of the Golden Age that would create excellent conditions for privateering, smuggling and piracy.

And speaking of wars, on this day in 1722, the Three Years War begins along the Maine and Massachusetts border.

Also on this day in 1729, North Carolina became a royal colony.

[William Brand]

July 26 -

On this day in 1499, Alonso dhe Ojeda discovered Curacao Island.

On this day in 1519, Francisco Pizzaro received a royal charter for the west coast of South America, and 10 years to the day later he was appointed governor of Peru.

Also on this day in 1579, Francis Drake left San Francisco to cross the Pacific Ocean.

And on this day in 1678, England & Netherlands signed a treaty and sent an ultimatum to France.

[William Brand]

July 27 -

On this day in 1549, the ship of Jesuit priest, Francis Xavier, reached Japan.

Also on this day in 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England from Virginia.

And on this day in 1661, English Parliament confirmed the Navigation Act.

Then on this day in 1714, the Battle at Hango (Hangut) took place, wherein the Russians beat the Swedish fleet.

Annnnnd on this day in 1720. the second important victory of the Russian Navy took place at the Battle of Grengam.

[William Brand]

July 28 -

On this day in 1586, Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to Europe on his return to England.

Also on this day in 1609, Admiral George Somers settled in Bermuda.

And on this day in 1708, Monarch Amengkurat II [sunan Mas] of Mataram gave himself up to the VOC (Dutch East India Company).