On this day in history...

[William Brand]

August 24 -

1608 - On this day in 1608, the first English convoy landed at Surat, India.

And on this day in 1658, the Battle at Grevelingen saw the defeat of Spanish forces by the English.

And in 1704, the Battle of Malaga, the largest naval battle in the War of the Spanish Succession, created a strategic victory of the Grand Alliance.

[William Brand]

August 25 -

On 25 August 1685, Charles Swan separated from his confederates Peter Harris and Edward Davis, and sailed up the coast of Mexico, but met with little success.

And on this day in 1718, hundreds of French colonists arrived in the Louisiana area and New Orleans was founded.

[William Brand]

August 26 -

On this day in 1641, the West India Company conquerored Sao Paulo de Loanda, Angola.

And on this day in 1651, the Battle of Plymouth took place. General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked a convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter. The Dutch were victorious.

[William Brand]

August 27 -

On this day in 1601, Olivier van Noort completed the first Dutch exploration of the New World.

And on this day in 1667, the earliest recorded hurricane struck North America at Jamestown Virginia.

[William Brand]

August 28 -

On this day in 1565, the oldest city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida, was established.

And on this day in 1609, Henry Hudson discovered and explored Delaware Bay.

[GregF]

On August 29, 1723, a young fisherman on his first voyage at sea was captured by a small pirate crew off the coast of present-day Canada. That fisherman was John Fillmore, who would become the great-grandfather of the future U.S. president, Millard Fillmore. The pirate crew was under the command of a man named John Phillips. Phillips and four other men had been part of a fishing crew working near Newfoundland when, only days before, they deserted their captain in a stolen schooner and set out as pirates.

John Fillmore would sail as a captive aboard Phillips’ ship for eight months. Phillips nearly sliced Fillmore’s head off with a sword at one point and threatened to kill him at another, but Fillmore and several other captives were ultimately able to stage one of the most successful uprisings in the history of Atlantic piracy.

My new post on Fillmore here: http://www.gregflemming.com/2014/08/29/capture-john-fillmore/

[William Brand]

Very nice addition, Greg. Thank you.

August 29 -

On this day in 1721, privateer George Shelvocke and his men weighed anchor aboard the 'Sacra Familia' and set sail for China with only thirty men and "a few negroes", reaching Macao toward the end of the year.

[William Brand]

August 30 -

On this day in 1682, William Penn left England to sail to the New World.

[GregF]

On August 31 1724, the British warship HMS Diamond, cruising in the Bay of Honduras near modern Belize, battled and nearly destroyed two pirate vessels under the command of Francis Spriggs

A quick summary here: http://www.gregflemming.com/2013/12/01/logbook-accounts-hms-diamond/

[William Brand]

September 3 -

On this day in 301, San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.

[GregF]

On September 5, 1722, Marblehead fisherman Nicholas Merritt and nine other men, most of them forced captives like Merritt, escaped from the pirate Edward Low and his crew. Merritt and the other men had been sent aboard the sloop Thomas and James, which was taken near at the Isle of Maio, one of the southernmost of the Cape Verde Islands. In the early morning, “a little after break of day,” on Thursday, September 5, the captives set a course away from Low's other two pirate vessels -- Merritt later said “we hailed close upon a wind and stood away” -- and the men aboard the sloop were able to slip away.

On September 26, they arrived at Saint Michael in the Azores. Unfortunately, the men were suspected of being pirates themselves, despite the fact that they had just intentionally escaped from Low's crew, and were placed in jail. Merritt was held until June of 1723, when he finally secured passage back to Boston.

[William Brand]

September 8 -

On this day in 1628, at the Bay of Matanzas Cuba, Piet Heyn captured the Spanish silver fleet.

And on this day in 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to 300 English soldiers.

[William Brand]

September 11 -

On this day in 1692, Ingela Olofsdotter Gathenhielm née Hammar, a Swedish privateer in service of King Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War, was born.

From 1711, Ingela was married to the privateer and pirate Lars Gathenhielm, who in 1710 had received permission from the king to attack and plunder ships from enemy nations on the Baltic Sea (and also, as it was said, often attacked other ships as well) and sold the valuables of the ship in Dunkerque. He was making a fortune, and was ennobled in 1715.

Ingela had met Lars when they were children, as the farms of their parents were next to each other. They had five children, and she is believed to have been not only his wife but also his companion in his professional life, and the brain behind a lot of his plans as a privateer and pirate. They both ran the affairs from their base in Gothenburg. When her husband died in 1718, Ingela took over his Privateering (and his alleged Pirate empire), continued its business and also expanded it during the remaining war. She was called the Shipping Queen.

Swedish privateering ended after the peace treaty with Denmark in 1720 and Russia in 1721. Ingela married the lieutenant Isak Browald in 1722, and in 1729 was buried with her first husband in Onsala.

[William Brand]

Just to catch up a bit...

September 23 -

On this day in 1641, the ship Merchant Royal wrecked off Land's End in rough weather.

September 24 -

On this day in 1493, Columbus set sail with 17th ships on his 2nd expedition to New World.

September 25 -

On this day in 1492, a Crewman on the Pinta sighted "land" a few weeks early.

And on this day in 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

Also on this day in 1639, the first printing press in America was used.

And also on this day in 1690, Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper in the American colonies out of Boston, published the first & last edition due to being the worst newspaper of the time. The public found their reporting to be so bad that the newspaper had only one edition.

[Coastie04]

I wonder how the reporting in the Publick Occurrences would stack up to current newspapers. At least my local one is pretty poor, with misspelling and grammatical errors more of the norm than the exception.

[William Brand]

I wonder how the reporting in the Publick Occurrences would stack up to current newspapers. At least my local one is pretty poor, with misspelling and grammatical errors more of the norm than the exception.

I'm reminded of a story. A friend of mine took a journalism class at USU and the teacher explained that extra credit would be rewarded to anyone that could fine five glaring mistakes in the local paper each day. My friend's hand shot up and he declared, "I have the paper right here and I've found five on just the first page!"

October 4 -

On this day in history, the Danish ship Dannebroge exploded and sank in the Great Northern War during the action of of October 4, 1710

Also on this day in 1744, the first rate HMS Victory was lost in a storm near Salcombe.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

now if we could just get reporting of the news, even if it is misspelled

like the page Pub Status, nothing new listed there, but I have not been able to access the pub for almost a week now, and was glad when it just came up finally on my computer, and I am glad to see it didn't sink in a internet storm.

[William Brand]

November 3 -

A letter from a gentleman belonging to this vessel, dated St. Barts, Nov. 3, 1821, says—

" We arrived here, after a rather rough passage, in eighteen days from Boston, all well. We expect to sail again in two or three days. We found here the piratical ship which robbed the Orleans Packet. She is now in possession of the Swedish government. She came into their possession in the following manner : — The crew landed her cargo on a small island near this, from whence it was taken by a schooner to St. Thomas ;— they then run the ship into Five Island Harbour, where all the crew, except two men, deserted her. — The government hearing of her being there, sent a guard and took possession of her, brought her into this harbour, and confined the two men found in. her as pirates. — It is said, Capt. Elton has requested the Governor to allow him to take them to the United States for trial. This piratical ship was originally the U. S. brig Prometheus, which was condemned two years since, and was then sold."

[William Brand]

November 15 -

Including the seven men aboard the Mary Anne, nine of Bellamy's crew survived the wrecking of the two ships. They were all captured quickly, however, and on October 18, 1717, six were tried in Boston for piracy and robbery. The following were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging: John Brown of Jamaica, Thomas Baker and Hendrick Quintor of the Netherlands; Peter Cornelius Hoof of Sweden; John Shaun of France; and Simon van der Vorst of New York. Carpenters Thomas South and Thomas Davis, who were tried separately, had been conscripted by Bellamy – forced to choose between a life of piracy or death. Therefore, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows. The last survivor was a 16-year-old Miskito Indian named John Julian – who was a skilled navigator, and also the Whydah's pilot. He was not tried, but instead was sold into slavery after his capture.

On this day in 1717, the famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather accompanied the six condemned men as they were rowed across Boston Harbor to Charlestown. All six men confessed and repented in the presence of Mather, but they still hanged.

[GregF]

Great post on the Boston execution of the Whydah survivors. I had not remembered that was today!

A few months ago, I wrote a piece for the Cape Cod Times on another of the survivors (not convicted) you mention, John Julian -- http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20140426/OPINION/404260341.

[William Brand]

November 16 -

Born in 1785, Zheng Yi Sao, whose birth name is unknown, spent her early years engaged in a variety of illicit activities. By 1801, she was working as a prostitute in Canton's floating brothels, which is where she met the notorious pirate captain, Zheng Yi. The two were married in 1801, with the condition that Zheng Yi would share equally with his wife his power and that he would give her the opportunity to help them secure more wealth from their pirating activities. For six years the husband-and-wife team grew their piracy business along the coast of the South China Sea. Using military coercion and his family's pirating credentials, Zheng Yi was able to gather together a bevy of competing Cantonese pirate fleets into a strong coalition. Within several years, the Red Flag Fleet was one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China.

Then, on this day in 1807, Zheng Yi died. Rather than step aside and assume a quiet life as a widow as other women may have done in 19th century China, Zheng Yi Sao (whose name means ""widow of Zheng Yi"") deftly manoeuvered to assume control of her late husband's booming pirate business. She oversaw and led a fleet of more than 1,500 ships staffed with more than 60,000 pirates.

[William Brand]

November 17 -

In November of 1718, Spotswood had obtained valuable information on Edward Teach's whereabouts, and he planned to send his forces across the border into North Carolina to capture him. He gained the support of two men keen to discredit North Carolina's Governor—Edward Moseley and Colonel Maurice Moore. He also wrote to the Lords of Trade, suggesting that the Crown might benefit financially from Teach's capture. Spotswood personally financed the operation, possibly believing that Teach had fabulous treasures hidden away. He ordered Captains Gordon and Brand of HMS Pearl and HMS Lyme to travel overland to Bath. Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl was given command of two commandeered sloops, to approach the town from the sea. An extra incentive for Teach's capture was the offer of a reward from the Assembly of Virginia, over and above any that might be received from the Crown.

Maynard took command of the two armed sloops on this day in 1718. He was given 57 men—33 from HMS Pearl and 24 from HMS Lyme. Maynard and the detachment from HMS Pearl took the larger of the two vessels and named her Jane; the rest took Ranger, commanded by one of Maynard's officers, a Mister Hyde. Some from the two ships' civilian crews remained aboard. They sailed from Kecoughtan, along the James River, on 17 November in pursuit of Edward Teach.

[William Brand]

November 18 -

On this day in 1497, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reached the Cape of Good Hope.

And on this day in 1720, John 'Calico JAck' Rackam was hanged in Port Royal. Rackam's body was then gibbeted on display on a very small islet at a main entrance to Port Royal now known as Rackham's Cay.

[Jas. Hook]

November 17 -

In November of 1718, Spotswood had obtained valuable information on Edward Teach's whereabouts, and he planned to send his forces across the border into North Carolina to capture him. He gained the support of two men keen to discredit North Carolina's Governor—Edward Moseley and Colonel Maurice Moore. He also wrote to the Lords of Trade, suggesting that the Crown might benefit financially from Teach's capture. Spotswood personally financed the operation, possibly believing that Teach had fabulous treasures hidden away. He ordered Captains Gordon and Brand of HMS Pearl and HMS Lyme to travel overland to Bath. Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl was given command of two commandeered sloops, to approach the town from the sea. An extra incentive for Teach's capture was the offer of a reward from the Assembly of Virginia, over and above any that might be received from the Crown.

Maynard took command of the two armed sloops on this day in 1718. He was given 57 men—33 from HMS Pearl and 24 from HMS Lyme. Maynard and the detachment from HMS Pearl took the larger of the two vessels and named her Jane; the rest took Ranger, commanded by one of Maynard's officers, a Mister Hyde. Some from the two ships' civilian crews remained aboard. They sailed from Kecoughtan, along the James River, on 17 November in pursuit of Edward Teach.

... and so the Hampton Blackbeard Festival was created.

[William Brand]

November 19 -

On this day in 1620, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod and began exploring the coast.

November 20 -

And lest we forget that pyracy continues...

On this day in 2008, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution, proposed by Britain, introducing tougher sanctions against Somalia over the country's failure to prevent a surge in sea piracy.