On this day in history...

[William Brand]

July 9 - 

On this day in 1722, the Boston News Letter published a list of those captured by Edward Low after he sank ships of the fleet, and abandoned the Rebecca. 

[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.

And on this day in 1702, Christopher Codrington, governor-general of the English Leeward Islands, lead 1,200 militiamen and privateers in a descent upon the shared island of St. Kitts, expelling its French Settlers.  

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 16 - 

On this day in 1661, the first banknotes in Europe were issued by the Bank of Stockholm, altering the way that money is distributed in a very new way.

[William Brand]

July 17 - 

On this day in 1596, At 10:30AM,  Dutch explorer Willem Barents arrived 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.

And on this day in 1690, Adam Baldridge arrived at Island of St. Marie in Madagascar where he built a fort and began trading with pirates.

And also on this day in 1696, a proclamation for the arrest of Henry Every was issued by the Lords Justices.

And if that weren't enough, on this day in 1696, an Irish Proclamation was put forth promising a reward for the apprehension of a pirate named Henry Every.

And finally, on this day in 1726, Captain William Fly of Jamaica and the ship Elizabeth was hanged at Boston.  His career as a pirate lasted just one month.

[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.

And on this day in 1723, Charles Harris and 25 pirates were hanged in Newport, Rhode Island.  Joseph Libbey, who was abducted the previous year along with Philip Ashton, was among them.  All were all former members of Edward Low’s crew.

[William Brand]

August 1 -

 

On this day in 1700, Culliford was arrested, and taken to the Marshalsea prison. He was tried for piracy of the Great Mohammed in 1698 and his pardon was ruled invalid. He was saved from hanging, because he was needed in Samuel Burgess' trial. Following the trial, Culliford disappeared from record, and rumor has it that he next served on a naval ship after which he disappears from the records like another famous pirate Henry Every.

Also on this day in 1708, Woodes Rogers’ expedition to capture a Manila galleon departed from Britain.

And on this day in 1721, Bartholomew Roberts captured two large ships at Point Cestos, now River Cess in Liberia. One of these was the frigate Onslow, transporting soldiers bound for Cape Coast (Cabo Corso) Castle. A number of the soldiers wished to join the pirates and were eventually accepted, but as landlubbers were given only a quarter share. The Onslow was converted to become the fourth Royal Fortune.

And also on this day in 1722, George Shelvocke returned from his round-the-world, privateering adventure.

[William Brand]

September 18 - 

On this day in 1687, the Irish made a Declaration promising a pardon to pirates who surrender themselves to Sir Robert Holmes.

[William Brand]

December 29 - 

 

On this day in 1609, 18 pirates were hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping.

 

On this day in history, 1720, John Clipperton and his crew took on fish, wood and water at Cocos Island, located off the shore of Costa Rica.  A shack was set up on the beach there to shelter a large number of scurvy invalids among the crew.  

 

This is not pirate related, but some things should be remembered, for on this day in 1890 some 150 Lakota men, women and children were massacred by the US 7th Calvary Regiment near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  Some estimate the actual number was closer to 300.

[William Brand]

January 8 - 

 

On this day in 1609, James I of England announced a general “Proclamation against Pirats.”

 

And on this day in 1676, there was an inconclusive naval battle between the French, under Abraham Duquesne, versus Dutch and Spanish forces under Michiel de Ruyter.  

[William Brand]

February 10 - 

 

Jan Abels was one of the first leaders of the Seabeggars in 1568. He was active with three vessels, manned by 40 people, in the Ems River.  On this day in 1569, with a small boat and a crew of 25, Abels took a ship from Delfzijl, Friesland, laden with cheese and goods.  He left the goods belonging to Hamburg merchants alone and sold the cheese belonging to the Spanish. He went on to seize a larger vessel and used her for further piracies, and continued to seize merchantmen from Amsterdam selecting the goods belonging to Spanish Netherlanders to sell. 

 

Thomas Armstrong, one of Roberts' men, said to have been forced into piracy after deserting HMS Swallow at Cape Three Points, West-Africa in April of 1721. When Roberts on the morning of the 10th of  February 1722 was surprised by a ship making slow headway against a offshore wind, it was Armstrong who rushed to tell him he recognized his old ship and knew her well. Armstrong told the pirate chief she "sailed best upon a wind and therefore, if they designed to leave her, they should go before it", which meant that the naval vessel was at her best when going into the wind, but sluggish when her sails were filled from behind. There were too few sober pirates to fight the powerful Swallow, Roberts pondered, that is why he would let the man-of-war come deep into the bay against the wind and then, at the last moment, his Royal Fortune would sail directly past her. However, writes Defoe: "coming close to the Man of War, they received her fire, and hoisted his black flag, and returned it, shooting away from her, with all the sail he could pack; and had he took Armstrong's advice, to have gone before the wind, he had probably escaped. But keeping his tacks down, either by the wind shifting, or ill steerage, or both, he was taken a-back with his sails; and the Swallow came a second time very nigh to him".

 

Robert's Royal Fortune was doomed and so was her crew. With Roberts' death the men surrendered. Armstrong was taken to HMS Weymouth to be executed in accordance with naval regulations. "There was nobody to press him to an acknowledgement of the crime he died for, nor of sorrowing in particular for it, which would have been exemplary." So after long hours of lamenting and bewailing his sins in general faced a noose dangling over a yard arm, secured to a capstan where some navymen waited for the order to wind up the rope. Desired the spectators to join in with him singing 2 or 3 last verses of psalm 140, which the sailors willingly did. The firing of a gun disturbed this peaceful moment and "the Deserter then was tric'd up by the Neck at the fore Yard Arm".

 

After a successful career as a pirate off the Iberian Peninsula, Captain Gow decided to return to the Orkney Islands. He was running low on supplies, and the authorities were on his trail.  Arriving in early 1725, he adopted the name Mr. Smith for himself, and renamed his vessel the George,  and passed as a wealthy trader, even courting a Miss Gordon. He was eventually recognized by a merchant passing through the islands, and his true identity was revealed.  According to other accounts, some of his prisoners escaped there and notified the authorities.  Rather than surrender, Gow and his men successfully raided the Hall of Clestrain on February 10, 1725,  but when they attempted to attack another remote mansion, they ran aground on the Calf of Eday, where they were captured.

 

And on this day in 2003, Angus MacVox opened up pyracy.com which became widely know as the ‘Pyracy Pub’.  

 

And on this day in 2023, Stynky Tudor and William Brand reopened the Pyracy Pub.  Happy Birthday, Pyracy!  

[William Brand]

February 11 - 

 

Captain Croc, aka Krok, was one of the pirates known as a  Seabeggar.  He's remembered for cutting off the nose and ears of a priest before murdering him cruelly. The prince of Orange had him arrested and beheaded on this day in 1573.

 

William Funell was Dampier’s steward and was promoted to the position of midshipsman aboard the 200-ton St. George in 1703 (others had it Funell was sailing master). Funell was involved in a privateering expedition during the War of Succession, but attacking French vessels was a delicate question at the time. St. George was joined by Cinque Ports, and this was the voyage where Alexander Selkirk decided to stay behind at Juan Fernández Island. Funell helped attack a well-armed 400-ton French vessel, “fought broadside and broadside for more than six hours”, but St. George took heavy casualties, with nine men killed and many badly wounded. Funell supported a mutiny led by Edward Morgan and set off in a prize brigantine on this day in 1705. “If I spoke a word they would dash my brains out,” said Dampier. Funell arrived in patria eighteen months earlier (August 1706) than Dampier did, after having been jailed in Ambon (in the Dutch Moluccas) for four months. Funell was thought to be clever in imitating Dampier’s successes with his own journals and chose to write his own 'A Voyage Round the World', published by Knapton, London, in 1707, which book was denounced by Dampier as a “chimerical relation”.  Most of Funell's charges in his writings against Dampier were unproven and fueled in part by malice and self-preservation.

[William Brand]

February 18 - 

 

On this day in 1688 the following was recorded at Ile à Vache.

 

"Mathurin Desmaretz, was Quartermaster with Captain Charpin of the ship St. Roze, and quarreled with him over the division of the loot.  He agreed in defining the captain’s dividend (ten lots and first choice of any captured vessel) and those of the two surgeons on board, who, in addition to the usual allowance for their chests, were to keep captured instruments which were not embellished with silver details (“qui ne seront point garnys d’argent”). Pillage included gold, silver, diamonds, pearls, musk, ambergris and all sorts of precious stones as well as all bales that were not pierced between two points or at their bases (“tous balots entammez entre deux ponts ou au fond”)."

 

 

And the Boston Gazette recorded this on February 18 of 1721.

 

"To be sold by Gyles Dulake Tidmarsh at No. 4 on the Long Wharfi, Womens Silk and Braded Shoes, Boxes of Pickels, Castle Sope, Loaf Sugar, Cocoa, and very good Spanish Snuff in half pound Pots."

[William Brand]

February 20 - 

 

On this day in 1521, Juan Ponce de León set out from Spain for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists.

 

Also…and this isn’t the least bit piratical…or is it?.  On this day in 1673, the first recorded wine auction took place in London.

 

And on this day in 1685, René-Robert Cavelier established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.

 

And on this day in 1815, the USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captured both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely.

[William Brand]

February 23 - 

 

It is believed that Captain Samuel Bellamy was born on this day in 1689, not because we have a record of his birth, but because his mother Elizabeth Bellamy is reported to have died in childbirth and was buried that day.  

[William Brand]

February 24 -

 

On this day in 1720, the Spanish fleet arrived at New Providence, only to find that Roger's had fortified the place with new defenses.  Wary of Rogers' defenses, the Spanish landed troops on Paradise Island (then known as Hog Island), which shelters Nassau's harbor, but they were driven off by Rogers' troops.

 

And on February 24th in 1725, the trial of Matthew Perry and a number of other sailors began in Newport, Rhode Island.  Perry was the first mate aboard the ship 'John and Mary' when it was captured off the coast of Belize by members of the Low-Spriggs pirate crew, now under the command of Richard Shipton (Low had been cast adrift some months earlier). Three pirates went aboard the John and Mary to take command, with orders to follow Shipton's vessel. Perry was initially bound with his hands tied behind his back, but in a matter of days, several other captives aboard the ship, who were entrusted by the pirates, were able to free Perry and gave him one of their pistols.

 

Anchored off the coast of Guanaja in the Bay of Honduras one afternoon in late December, Perry and the other captives suddenly rushed the pirates, killed two of them, and regained control of the ship. The men cut their cables and immediately set sail back home to Newport. When they arrived, however, they were put on trial -- because the men, with “force and arms,” had killed “two of the subjects of our Lord the King.” Yet since these two “subjects” were by all accounts pirates, there never seemed to be any question of the crew’s innocence. The men recounted their capture and escape, and all of them were found not guilty.

[William Brand]

March 3 - 

 

Not piratey, but...

 

On this day in 1776, the first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps began the Battle of Nassau during the American Revolutionary War.

[William Brand]

March 6 - 

 

On this day in 1697 the House of Commons passed an act with a retroactive starting date that, "Any wrought Plate of any sort or kind whatsoever" with the mark of the Hall of Goldsmiths in London (thus verifying its purity as sterling) could be brought to the mint between January 1, 1696/7 and November 4, 1697 where it would be purchased at 64d (5s4d) per troy ounce. The earlier stipulation on when the plate had been produced was dropped. If the silver did not have a goldsmith's mark the individual could accept an offer made by the mint or request an assay. As the mint was now accepting hammered English coins there was no need for stipulations that would exclude coinage. However, to prevent newly minted milled English coins, which were issued at 62d per troy ounce, from being melted down into plate for the 2d per ounce profit, it was stipulated all wrought plate produced after March 25, 1697 was to be above the sterling standard (which was 11 oz. 2 dwt.) at 11 oz. 10 dwt. of fine silver per troy pound (8&9 Guilielmi III cap. 8, Statutes vol. 7, p. 196). It is quite likely several eight reales were melted by goldsmiths into sterling silver to be traded at the mint as this would represent the highest rate offered in England for the eight reales, at 64d (5s4d) per ounce, or 1d per 7.5 grains, at this rate a full weight eight reales of 420 grains would be valued at 56d (4s8d). Of course, this valuation was only for a short period.

 

Also on this day in 1700, there was an Irish Proclamation promising a pardon and a reward for persons who caused any pirate ship or vessel, its commanders or its crew to be seized.

[William Brand]

March 9 -

 

On this day in 1500, the fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral left Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet discovered Brazil which lay within the boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

 

On the day in 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

If you haven't seen the movie, this would be a good day to watch.

[William Brand]

March 10 - 

 

On this day in 241 BC, the Romans sank the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end at the Battle of the Aegates.

 

Also on this day in 1496, after establishing the city of Santo Domingo, Christopher Columbus departed for Spain, leaving his brother in command.

 

And on this day in 1535, Spaniard Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, discovered the Galápagos Islands by chance on his way to Peru.

[William Brand]

March 11 -

 

On this day in 1718, Captain Paul Williams, a Carolina pirate who began his career as a buccaneer in the West Indies, accepted the King's pardon at New Providence.  Soon afterward he returned to piracy and was hanged a short time later at Eastman, Massachusetts.

 

And on this day in 1722, the following pirates under George Lowther were hanged at St. Kitts.  

 

John Shaw

Henry Watson

Richard West

Robert White

Robert Willis

John Churchill

Mathew Freebarn

Andrew Hunter

Sam Levercott

Nicholas Lewis

Edward MackDonald

[William Brand]

November 19 -

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

 

And on this day in 1718…

"…the Willing Mind arrived at Green Turtle Key, and took the Goods out of the Neptune, being in a very bad Condition; and after they had taken out all her Cargo, finding the Neptune to be better than they did expect; and, having a fair Wind, brought both Ships up to Providence, the Neptune got in safe, but the Willing Mind struck on the Bar, and sprung a Leak, insomuch that she was forced to unload and careen, and, when down, found her to be very bad, a Piece of her main Keel being gone, so was forced to hawl her ashore; and when the Carpenters had done what could be done to her, she could not be got up again by all the Strength that could be made, and tried for several Days, breaking and tearing all to pieces, but all to no Purpose; so the Governor order'd a Warrant of Survey on her, and was found by the Surveyors not sufficient to proceed any further, being very much damaged in her Wood-Work and Iron-Work, &c. Whereupon the said King desired a second Survey of his Ship and Goods, they lying in a very bad Condition."