This article was taken from our archives. It first appeared in the December 1994 issue of The Bermudian. It appears here as it did originally.
The notion of Bermudians having anything to do with piracy in the 17th and 18th Centuries is heresy to some historians. But the proof of the proverbial pudding lies in the Bermuda Archives and the Bermuda Library; chronicled there is a flamboyant period in which, although Bermuda never became a base for piracy, it certainly came very close. Notably, the Island was an important centre for the issuing of general amnesties called “Acts of Pardon,” which forgave pirates for notorious past deeds — provided they subsequently walked the path of “honest citizens.”
In the archives lies a bundle of pardons that bear testimony to the time in which pirating enjoyed its golden age. Among them is a batch issued in 1718. One, in particular, is interesting, for it was made out to Captain Henry Jennings, a character with strong Bermudian family ties, who turned model citizen the same year he left the so-called “Fellowship of Buccaneers.”
In his less-civilised days, Jennings had set up headquarters in New Providence Island (now Nassau, Bahamas), where merchants and agents bought pirated goods and resold them in North Carolina and Bermuda.
The pirate settlement in New Providence sat next to the harbour where Jennings was joined by other pirates, who before long, made up a shantytown of tents and palm-roofed huts. The pirates, in turn, were joined by storekeepers, innkeepers, prostitutes and escaped convicts. By 1717, the colony numbered some 2,000 people, of which two-thirds were pirates.
The Pirate Commonwealth flourished for about two years under Jennings, whose intelligence and resourceful leadership under Jennings, whose intelligence and resourceful leadership were highly respected. Among other things, he established a system of insurance to cover loss of limb and to look after pirates’ families in the event of death. The group’s notable rogues included the infamous female pirate Anne Bonney, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, Charles Bellamy, Charles Vane and Edward England. After receiving his pardon, the latter ‘retired’ to Madagascar, where a thriving pirate colony took root and two of Bermuda’s notorious pirate captains, John Bowen and Nathaniel North, established their hunting grounds at the turn of the 18th Century.
Jennings’ greatest triumph was his raid on the remains of the Spanish fleet, wrecked by a hurricane off the Florida coast. The bedraggled Spaniards were moving their treasure to a storage point on land when Jennings and his men attacked.
Realising the flotilla was too strong for his three ships, he raided the loot via land. He did this with great success, marching inland and descending on the unsuspecting garrison. Jennings’ men carted off 300,000 pieces of eight, narrowly missing a larger haul which the Spaniards had already moved.
(Interestingly, this encampment was found in the 1960s by treasure-hunter Kip Wagoner, who unearthed a fortune of silver and gold.) Jennings crowned his success by capturing a Spanish galleon while returning to Port Royal, Jamaica.
In 1717, London merchants already smarting heavily from massive losses to Jennings’ pirates, petitioned King George I to take drastic action. His Majesty was persuaded to offer a general amnesty to all buccaneers — a royal proclamation that was first sent to Bermuda. Here, Lieutenant-Governor Henry Pulleine immediately put the amnesty into force and then sent copies south to the pirate stronghold of New Providence. Jennings decided to accept the amnesty and persuaded many of his followers to do the same. Those who followed his lead included some of the most hardened pirates of the time — including Edward Teach (better known as the infamous Blackbeard).
As many as 150 pirates accepted the pardon from the King’s agent, Woodes Rogers, who was sent to the Bahamas as Governor-in-Chief. (Rogers, incidentally, is credited with rescuing Alexander Selkirk the model for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, during a world voyage in 1710.) In the Bahamas, he was welcomed by Jennings’ “guard of honour’ – a phalanx of pirates resplendent in their finery, brandishing cutlasses and pistols. Despite the pardon, Rogers noted that soon afterward, many rogues returned to piracy “like dogs to vomit.”
Locating the site of the amnesty has been a point of confusion in the history books. In his epic The General History of the Pyrates, which sold out in 1726, nine years after the amnesty, Defoe writes: “Jennings, and by his example, about 150 other Pirates, came to the Governor of Bermudas to collect their certificates, and the Commanders who were present in the Island at the time were Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Christopher Winter, Nicholas Brown, Paul Williams, Charles Bellamy, Oliver La Bouche, Major Penner, Edward England, T. Burgess.”
Most recent historians believe the amnesty first occurred in New Providence, but in fact by the time it arrived there, an amnesty was already in force in Bermuda on September 5, 1717. Henry C. Wilkinson confirms the date in his 1950 Bermuda in the Old Empire, as does Defoe’s biographer, Professor Manuel Schonhorn, of Southern Illinois University.
It’s also known during this period that Teach and Vane set sail with a squadron to come to Bermuda. Some believe they hoped to turn the Island into a pirate stronghold, but seemingly they just wanted their pardons before returning to the Bahamas and their old trade.
Jennings eventually became a very wealthy man, settled in Bermuda and apparently led a respectable life — perhaps even assisting Defoe with his Caribbean Pyrates.
But Teach (Blackbeard) resumed his piratical ways. Based out of Bath, North Carolina, Blackbeard’s hunting grounds lay between the American East Coast and in and around Bermuda waters. He made one more effort to stake his claim to the Island – although he’d been granted safe haven under Governor Eden in Bath — but was sidetracked by easier conquests on the way. In the end, Teach doubled back to North Carolina, where the Royal Navy finally caught up with him.
At the end of the 17th century, Bermuda counted a full third of her men at sea at any one time. Incredibly, the Island had a registry of close to 400 two-masted fishing boats and 76 ocean-going vessels ranging from 10 to 100 tons. The latter were all engaged in “some maritime business.”
Bermuda’s social elite — including governors — certainly weren’t exempt from the lures of pirate gold, either. Richard Norwood, a skilled surveyor who brought his expertise to Bermuda in 1613, was appointed to survey the Island. But he also brought his famous diving bell; its official raison d’être was to scout for “pearls,” but as these treasures are always found near estuaries, of which there are none in Bermuda, it’s more likely he hoped to search for Spanish wrecks around the Island.
Governor Nathaniel Butler also carried out such a search in the 1620s on the San Antonio — a small vessel that was part of a convoy from Cartagena, Colombia that wrecked on Long Bar in 1621 – carrying more than 60,000 crowns in gold, silver and “other gems,” documented in Spanish records. Butler went on to govern Providence Island (off Nicaragua), where he led privateering assaults on the Spanish Main. Butler’s predecessor was Governor Miles Kendall (1618- 19) who during his tenure came close to turning the Island into a virtual pirate colony.
Butler slammed Kendall as “a man marching to all dunghill actions, senseless of reputation and utterly incapable of all noble respect.” Among Kendall’s friends were pirate Daniel Elfrith with whom he spent many hours planning pirating cruises through the West Indies. Kendall also allowed the infamous pirate Kirby victualling rights and gave him permission to retrieve cannons from a Flemish wreck in Somerset. Realising Kendall was an embarrassment, Britain’s influential Rich family — whose relatives ran The Bermuda Company and had a reputation for commissioning privateers and pirates — was forced to replace him with Butler. (Elfrith and Kendall went on to found Providence Island, where their none-too-subtle ways proved beneficial not only to their own pockets, but also to the mercenary Rich clan.) Butler, meantime, brought many good reforms to the Island.
Later in the 17th century, the governorship of Colonel Richard Coney was plagued with insurrections of one type or another. He was loathed by Bermudians, and in turn, accused them of being bent on making the place “a refuge for pirates.” Coney contended he feared an onslaught by the Spanish less than the treachery of his own people – who were openly dealing with well-known rogues and trading company tobacco. Bermudians, Coney asserted, were “all akin by consanguinity and villainy.” So shaky was Coney’s hold on power that when a ship of 10 guns sailed into St. George’s in 1685, he appealed for assistance. The ship was captained by Bartholomew Sharpe, who had been commissioned to capture Indians and pirates. In Bermuda, his ship was used as a detention centre for malcontents.
What Coney didn’t know, or turned a blind eye to, was that Sharpe, himself, was wanted for piracy. “Every day, Bermuda produces a new monster,” fumed Coney. But in the end, he received help from a Captain St. Lo who transported Sharpe away for trial on piracy charges. Coney continued to try to suppress the illegal activities of Bermudians — selling of tobacco, illegal trading with pirates and the looting of wrecks. To add to his woes, whispers were coming from the West End, that an incredible treasure from a sunken galleon in the West Indies was purported to have been secretly landed and hidden.
Two of Bermuda’s most notorious characters in the pirating trade were Captains Nathaniel North and John Bowen — the latter Richard Norwood’s grandson. The duo cruised the western part of the Indian Ocean with their crews, covering immense distances between the East African Coast, the Red Sea, the Malabar Coast and the Arabian Gulf. They hunted for prey in the shape of treasure-bearing ships of the Indian moguls and Arabian princes. The duo spent the best part of four years together, their combined efforts far out-doing their more famous predecessors, Kidd Avery and Thomas Tew. They also survived countless engagements, not only overcoming better-armed foes, but also vicious monsoons, treacherous reefs and mutinous crews.
On one occasion, after a successful raid on the Arabian Coast, an exhausted Bowen and North were returning to Madagascar when they found themselves firmly up on reefs. Their ship Speaker was a total wreck, but luckily for them, Mauritius Island (home to the dodo bird) was nearby. They soon got on very good terms with the governor – thanks to a magnanimous gift from their healthy cargo.
After staying at Mauritius for a year, they purchased a Dutch craft and returned to Madagascar.
Before long, they found themselves organising another raid on the Malabar coast, their craft now the Speedy Return. Through many a storm and against formidable foes, Bowen and North brought to heel many a fine vessel, along with huge riches both in cargo, ransomable rich citizens and enslaved people.
Returning to the Mascarenas, a smaller island near Madagascar, Bowen and his men went ashore to retirement. North carried on to Madagascar, where he more than equalled Henry Morgan’s Caribbean adventures. North’s armies conquered most of northern Madagascar in wars against native tribes that lasted many years. North’s death came during a lull in these campaigns when he was resting ashore. A force of 2,000, taking advantage of the monsoon season and the dense jungle, descended on North’s plantation, slaughtering en masse. Many died, including North — who was speared through the chest.
North’s surviving crew were so incensed by the invasion, they met the force headlong and slaughtered nearly all of them. Not satisfied, they went on a rampage for nearly two years, eventually capturing and bringing the whole of Madagascar under their control.
Back in Bermuda, the Crown finally put the enterprising Bermuda Company to rest in 1684 and took strict control of the Island and its government. As a result, locals moved their pirating operations south, and went “a’ turtling” instead on the Spanish Main.
