Bart Roberts

[Fox]

Hi all,

Can anyone help me out with a hunch I'm trying to chase? I need to know, relatively exactly (well, more exact than "off the African coast") where Bart Roberts and his consorts were operating in mid-late August until the end of September 1721.

Cheers

[MadMike]

Foxe,

From what I gather in Johnson's "Pyrates" (vol 1), off the African coast near Cape Lopez...

Yours, &c.

Mike

Pirates of Massacre Island

http://www.geocities.com/flpyrate/index.html

[JoshuaRed]

According to Patrick Pringle, who based his account on the original trial proceedings of Robert's crew:

"So about the middle of 1721 he went back to the Guinea coast. Here he ravaged the shipping of the Royal African Company, and by the end of the year his total number of prizes was over four hundred. In August he took the Royal African Company frigate Onslow, which he refitted and renamed the Royal Fortune, giving the previous ship of that name to the captain of the Onslow. He sailed with two consorts, Great Ranger and Little Ranger, and continued to cruise off the Guinea coast."

He goes on to state that in Jan. 1722 H.M.S. Swallow, commanded by Cpt Ogle, sighted Roberts at anchor off Cape Lopez. So Johnson was right, by and large.

[Fox]

Looks like my hunch was wrong, but thanks guys.

OK, the next question is: What other bands of (probably English) pirates were operating with 5 ships near the Canaries in Aug-Sept 1721?

[JoshuaRed]

Good question. Give me a week or more to pore through my books and I might find it....five ships? That's a major player. And Bart was by and large the last major player...so I'm stumped. Sure it was English?

[Fox]

Well, they were flying an English flag when first spotted. It might have been a classic false flags ruse, but the witness certainly believed them to be English.

If anyone found record of 5 pirate ships acting together in the right time or place I think that would be good enough, how many such fleets can there have been?

It was this last thought that made me think they might have been Roberts. I don't recall him havin a squadron of 5 ships, but one or two of them might have been prizes, and I couldn't think of any other pirates that powerful off the African coast at that time. However, I suspected from the start that it was to far North for him, hence this thread.

[JoshuaRed]

Well let's say he took the Onslow in very early August. Do you think that would give him enough time to reach the Canaries in Sept at some point? He certainly could have made it back to Africa by Jan. '22.

Also, have the dates your reference mentions been updated to our modern calendar? That could account for the discrepancy.

[Fox]

I'm working from an original source, so it'll be on the same calender as Johnson.

The difficulty is that I don't know exact dates (hence the wide slot).

All the info I've been able to find on Roberts movements at that time seem to indicate that he was off the Grain Coast and heading South, well away from the Canaries.

It's possible that the pirates mentioned are actually just one crew with 4 prizes in tow I suppose, but it seems unlikely: how many pirates hung onto 4 prizes they weren't going to use?

[JoshuaRed]

Perhaps Roberts sent one of his cruisers off to plunder the Canaries then rendezvous with him back at Africa?

[Fox]

That's not impossible but it's a bit further than I'd like to go without decent evidence if you know what I mean. Plus, if it could be one of Roberts' consorts with some prizes in tow then it could just as easily be some independent pirate with some prizes in tow.

[JoshuaRed]

Yes, and it's also entirely possible that there were some successful pirate crews out there that managed to operate under the radar, without ever being discovered or caught. Efficient, ordinary seamen who very quickly and very quietly stole a few ships and vanished into history without leaving time for sensationalist stories about them to arise.

After all, most of the "Notorious Pyrates" are the ones who ultimately were caught and brought to justice. There were plenty more who lived to tell, but smartly DIDN'T tell and took their deeds to their graves.