Learning From Literature

Under The Black Flag by David Cordingly

Cover of Under The Black Flag by David Cordingly

Under The Black Flag:The Romance and The Reality Of Life Among The Pirates by David Cordingly is a history book published in 1995.

Pirates have always captured our imagination with stories of black schooners, tropical islands, treasure maps, colorful parrots, and buried gold. However, many stories commonly believed are actually a blend of historical facts mixed with 300 years’ worth of poems, romantic novels, adventure tales, and swash-buckling films. Pirates rarely walked the plank and typical plunder was not gold and silver but silk, cotton, tobacco, and slaves. 

While covering topics ranging from wooden legs and talking parrots to buried treasure, Cordingly compares the modern world’s perception of our eye-patch-wearing swordfighters with the real world of piracy. Even though there have been pirates since the Greeks, Romans, and Vikings, Under The Black Flag specifically focuses on the Golden Age of Piracy coinciding with the colonization of the New World.

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Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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Wooden Legs & Parrots
  • Long John Silver from Treasure Island + Captain Hook from Peter Pan heavily influence the modern-day idea of pirates
    • Entirely fictional but a basis in truth
  • Pirate Demographics
    • 73-98% were seamen (formerly merchant service, Royal Navy, or privateers)
    • Multinational – French, Italian, Portuguese, African, British, American, etc
    • Mostly young men (average age = 27)
    • Very few aristocrats
  • Not everyone was treated equally – pirates used & traded slaves as a commodity
    • Pirates shared the same prejudices as everyone else
  • Captains = tough & ruthless + skilled in navigation / seamanship
  • Serious injuries were common
    • William Phillips → injured his leg, called the carpenter, got the largest saw from the tool chest & cauterized it with head of a broadaxe
  • Birds & Animals were common souvenirs
    • Parrots → popular because they’re colorful, can speak, and easy to care for
  • Henry Avery
    • 1653 — born in Plymouth
    • Not aristocratic or cruel, average height, fat, jolly complexion
    • 1694 — seized his privateer ship after months of delayed pay
    • 1695 — Fancy, 46 guns + 150 men, based in Madagascar
    • Raided the largest ship from the Great Mogul of India’s fleet
      • Had 40 guns & 400 rifles + $100 million+ of goods
    • Abandoned other ships, retired in the West Indies, never heard from again
Plundering The Treasure Ports
  • Spain & The New World
    • 1492 — Christopher Columbus landed in Bahamas
    • 1502 — permanent settlement established on Hispaniola & Balboa
    • 1519 — Hernan Cortes conquered Aztecs in Mexico
    • 1532 — Francisco Pizarro conquered Incas in South America
    • Spain controlled most of South / Central America
    • Just between 1596 -1600, imported treasures worth $774 million
  • Western Europe Finds Out
    • 1523 — French ship captured Spanish ships returning from Mexico
    • Found 3 cases of gold ingots + 500 lbs of gold dust + 680 lbs of pearls + emeralds & topazes + Aztec masks, rings, & cloaks
    • From then on, France, Britain, & others raided + took advantage of New World
  • Sir Francis Drake of Britain
    • 1573 — spent 2 months fighting through Panama jungle, raided Spanish caravan with 15 tons of silver + £100,000 lbs of gold coins
    • 1577 — left for around-the-world voyage
    • 1578 — exited Strait of Magellan + raided west coast of South America
    • 1579 — intercepted THE Spanish treasure ship en route from Lima to Panama
      • Disguised as a slow, harmless merchant ship & surprised Spanish
      • Captured jewels + 13 chests of gold + 80 lbs of gold + 26 tons of silver + more 
      • £12 million today — one of the largest raids of all time
    • 1580 — returned after 2 years & 9 months
      • 1st to complete circumnavigation (second ship) – national hero of the Queen and was knighted
      • Total value of treasure → £68 million today
Sir Henry Morgan
  • Widely admired & powerful
    • Upon death, Jamaica had a state funeral
    • Knighted & appointed Lt. Governor of Jamaica
    • Owned several thousand acres & sugar plantations
    • Commonly met with Dukes, Parliament members, and friends to the King
    • Happily married 20+ years
  • 1635 — born in Wales
  • 1654 — joined army, captured Jamaica – from then on a key British base
  • 1665 — raided Spanish, became established military leader 
  • 1667 — named Admiral of the “Brethren of the Coast” – all “buccaneers”
  • 1668 — captured & ransomed Portobello, Panama
    • Surprise attack – rowed canoes & marched for miles before dawn
    • One of most successful operations of 17th century
  • 1669 — Spanish trapped Morgan in harbor
    • Cut cannon holes in merchant ship, filled it with gunpowder, sailed it towards largest Spanish ship, blew it apart
    • Fake landed men on land – hid men on bottom of boat so Spanish pointed guns at land, during night slipped out of harbor
  • Britain & Spain decreed peace but Spaniards raided Jamaica still
  • 1670 / 1671 — gathered largest buccaneer fleet ever seen & sailed for Panama City for revenge
    • Panama → principal Spanish treasure port, 1,200 defenders + 400 horsemen
    • 500+ Spanish wounded or dead… only 15 buccaneers died
  • Morgan was arrested for breaking peace (Spain attacking first was ignored)
    • Spent two years in London among friends of the court, free to do as he wished
  • 1674 — knighted & appointed Lt. Governor of Jamaica
  • 1687 — ill after years of debauchery & illness, died soon after
Women Pirates and Pirates’ Women
  • Seafaring was traditionally male
    • Unthinkable women would be subject to storms, shipwrecks, scurvy + tropical diseases, long absences from home, physical demands, foul-smelling conditions
    • Surprising number joined Navy / merchant ships in disguise
    • Only female pirates mentioned are Bonne + Read, Alwilda, Grace O’Malley, and Mrs Cheng
    • Cheng & her husband created a confederation of 50,000 pirates in 1809 – larger than the Navy of many countries
  • Calico Jack → treated victims respectfully, loved women, small-time local pirate
  • Anne Bonny
    • born near Cork, Ireland, illegitimate daughter of a lawyer
    • raised as a boy, pretended to be his lawyer’s clerk to avoid scandal
    • father, mistress & Anne moved to Carolina after affair revealed
    • married penniless young seaman, sailed to New Providence
    • 1719 — wooed by Calico Jack, abandoned husband, joined pirates
    • became pregnant, had child in Cuba, returned to crew
  • Mary Read
    • born in England – no father, siblings died
    • raised as a boy
    • entered army as man & proved her bravery in several battles
    • married fellow soldier, he died soon after, left for West Indies
    • her ship captured by Calico Jack & Anne Bonny, joined the crew
  • Arrest in 1720
    • Calico Jack & male crew hanged
    • Anne Bonny & Mary Read told court they were pregnant, sentence revoked
    • Mary Read died in prison from fever soon after
    • No one knows what happened to Anne Bonny
Storms, Shipwrecks, and Life at Sea
  • Shipwrecks & Storms were devastating
    • 1717 — Largest shipwreck, off Cape Cod, 144 men died including Sam Bellamy
  • Navigation was extremely difficult
    • Until 1760s, no method of finding longitude at sea
    • Charts → often inaccurate, commonly up to 10° (600 miles, a fatal error)
  • Daily Life
    • Relaxed & easy-going but underlying order
    • Macho Image → hard drinking, coarse language, threatening behavior, casual cruelty, gambling (cards, backgammon, dice)
  • Pirate communities were democratic – unlike any institution in these times, 100 years before French Revolution
    • Elections determined captain + could be removed
    • Crew decided destination + ships to plunder
    • Captain → absolute power during fighting / pursuit
    • Quartermaster → settled minor disputes, authority to punish, led attacks, commanded captured prizes
  • Created written articles every voyage / new captain
    • Every member signed
    • Outlined plunder distribution, injury compensation, basic rules / punishments, etc
    • Earliest form of medical insurance
      • Loss of right arm → 600 pieces of eight (left arm = 500, eye / finger = 100)
Into Action Under the Pirate Flag
  • Typical Features Of Pirate Attacks
    • Victims didn’t resist
    • Pirates didn’t disguise hostile intentions during approach
    • Didn’t immediately board – demanded captain come over
    • Loot was usually gear & goods (food, drink, ropes, sail, etc)
    • Forced detention of skilled men was common (carpenters, coopers, surgeons)
  • Vast majority of pirate attacks were with 1 ship, but the most successful captains had multiple
    • Bartholomew Roberts → 42-gun + 30-gun + 24-gun + 16-gun “store” ship (total men = 508)
    • Blackbeard → 40-gun, 300 men + 12-gun, 115 men + 2 other ships
    • Vane → 12-gun + 8-gun
  • Bartholemew Roberts (Black Bart)
    • Most successful pirate – captured 400+ vessels
    • Dressed in style, liked music, didn’t drink, discouraged gambling
    • His Merchant Army ship was captured by pirates, a few weeks later he was elected captain
  • Roberts’ Most Famous Raid
    • Found 42 merchant ships going to Lisbon
    • Came alongside one & threatened to kill them if they made signs of distress
    • Interrogated & discovered richest ship in the fleet had 40 guns + 150 men
    • Captured & took off before warships arrived
    • 90,000 gold pieces + diamond cross intended for the King of Portugal + chains and jewels + sugar, skins, tobacco, and more
  • Pirate Flags
    • Bleeding hearts, blazing balls, hourglasses, spears, cutlasses, & skeletons
    • Black flag = death, symbol of piracy
    • Blood-red flag = battle, no prisoners
    • Common to fly fake flags for disguise
    • Roberts captured 14 French ships by flying Dutch flag & making signals used by slave traders
Torture, Violence, and Marooning
  • No mention of walking the plank in any accounts (except 1 person in 1829)
  • Often closer to horror, not romanticized stories
    • Bartholomew Roberts — whipped men to death, cut off ears, tied men to yardarms & fired as target practice
    • Edward Low — cut off captain’s lips and broiled them, murdered crew of 32
    • Henry Morgan — crew burned women in indecent parts & roasted one woman upon a baking stove 
    • Montbars of Languedoc — cut open victim’s stomach, extracted one end of guts, nailed it to a post, forced the man to dance to death by beating his backside with a burning log
  • Common Tortures
    • Stretched limbs with chords while beating them
    • Placed burning matches between fingers then burning alive
    • Slender cords twisted around the head till eyes burst out of the skull
  • Marooning was common for West Indies pirates
    • Common punishment for stealing or deserting
    • Resulted in slow death from starvation / exposure
Pirate Islands and Other Haunts
  • Port Royal, Jamaica
    • 1655 — founded
    • 1680 — almost 3,000 people and a thriving community with hundreds of houses, churches, taverns, workshops, etc
    • Supported pirates for protection & economics (commonly splurge plunder in town)
    • 1692 — earthquake & tidal wave, killing 4,000+
    • Kingston became the new town but pirates weren’t welcome
  • Madagascar
    • 1695 — Henry Avery sailed to capture Great Mogul’s Treasure Ship
    • 1696 — pirate colony established, lucrative trade between pirates & NYC / Boston merchants
    • 1700 — 17 pirate ships & 1,500 men in town
    • Rivalries with natives + tropical diseases forced an end
  • Shores of Central America
    • Bay of Campeche & Bay of Honduras → communities of logcutters + pirates
    • Hard men living in primitive conditions without “civilized” society (lots of drinking)
    • Swamps, mosquitos, alligators, parasites, stinging flies
  • Nassau, Bahamas
    • Largest headquarters → Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Charles Bellamy, Charles Vane, Stede Bonnet, Calico Jack, Mary Read & Anne Bonne, among 30+ other famous captains
    • So overrun the King sent warships & orders to kill all pirates
  • Woodes Rodgers
    • 1679 – Born in Bristol
    • 1708 – left for privateering expedition around the world, surviving storms, gunshot wounds, mutinies
    • 1711 – returned with £800,000 of plunder
    • Chosen to be governor of Bahamas, repaired defenses & local government
    • End of Nassau as pirate headquarters
Sloops, Schooners, and Pirate Films
  • Majority of pirate ships were captured prizes
  • Pirate ships were faster, better armed, and more seaworthy than most merchant ships
    • Average Merchant Ship → 10 – 18 men + 6 guns
    • Average Pirate Ship → 150+ men, some with 30 – 40 guns
    • For noncombative merchants, it was like being attacked by a naval warship & unstoppable (hence why most didn’t resist)
  • Blackbeard
    • Queen Anne’s Revenge
    • Made 32-gun naval warships retreat
    • Blockaded harbor of Charleston, SC for 5 days, plundered ships & ransomed town
  • Famous Captains’ Largest Ships (not to mention they had additional ships)
    • Bartholomew Roberts → Royal Fortune, 51 guns + 230 men
    • Henry Avery → Fancy, 46 guns + 150 men
    • Captain Kidd → Adventure Galley, 34 guns + 152 men
    • Sam Bellamy → Whydah, 28 guns & iron grenades
  • Pirate Schooner — Not established until the Great Age of Piracy was over
Captain Kidd and Buried Treasure
  • There are very few documented examples of pirates burying treasure
    • Most spent plunder drinking & gambling
    • Usual plunder was goods, silks, spices, slaves
  • Captain William Kidd
    • Violent temper + fatal inability to earn respect of his crew
    • Large, powerful, & bullied his men – constantly boasting and arguing
    • 1614 — born in Scotland
    • 1689 — privateer in the Caribbean
    • 1691 — arrived in NYC, married a wealthy widow, moved into large house
    • For the next 4 years, cultivated relationships with politicians & merchants
  • Kidd’s Privateering Expedition
    • King William III, the Lord Chancellor, & Massachusetts Governor funded Kidd’s expedition to capture pirates in the Indian Ocean
    • 1696 — left NYC with 152 men
    • Attacked pilgrim convoy not in the contract… while flying the red flag of piracy
    • Captured English ship & crew tortured men to find valuables
    • Laccadive Islands → stole local boats for firewood, raped local women, attacked village, beat inhabitants 
    • Killed a crew member by fracturing his skull
    • Docked in a pirate harbor & joined pirate captains for drinks
    • 1699 — British government declared him a pirate
    • Returned to NYC hoping to negotiate, was eventually arrested
    • Remained in prison 2 years until trial, followed closely considering influential people that funded venture, sentenced to hanging
    • 1701 — only pirate in British history to speak before assembled parliament
  • Buried Treasure?
    • Rumors circulated he had £400,000 of treasure
    • While negotiating before arrest, his ship sailed back-and-forth near Gardiners Island & Block Island
    • £14,000 was recovered, not near £400,000
    • People to this day believe he buried treasure near / on Gardiners Island
Hunting Down the Pirates
  • 1718 — Governor of Virginia organized expedition to hunt Blackbeard
    • Lieutenant Menard had 2 sloops but only small arms, pistols, swords
    • Blackbeard had 19 men + 9 mounted guns + knowledge of the channels
    • Maynard hid men below-deck off Ocracoke Island, NC & surprised Blackbeard’s men boarding
    • Blackbeard & Menard were in a swordfight as he was shot 4 times, stabbed 20 times, and still kept fighting until a final slash with a broadsword
  • Pirate activity peaked around 1720
    • 1,500 – 2,000 pirates in Caribbean & North America
    • In comparison, Port Royale had 3,000 people, Charleston 5,000, Newfoundland 2,000, and NYC 18,000
  • Pirate population declined quickly due to pardons, stepped-up naval patrols, rewards for capture, and public executions of pirates
    • 1720 → 2,000 pirates
    • 1723 → 1,000 pirates
    • 1726 → under 200 pirates & less than half-dozen attacks
  • 1718 — Royal Navy had 67 “ships-of-the-line”, 63 warships, & 13,000 seamen
    • Even the smallest had 50 guns, equal to Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge (the largest pirate ship)
    • 1715 — before, only 4 navy ships on East Coast + 5 in Caribbean
  • Notable Battles
    • 1718 → death of Blackbeard
    • 1722 — death of Bartholomew Roberts + 52 crewmen hanged
    • 1723 — death of Edward Lowe, one of the most brutal pirates, + 26 crewmen hanged
    • 1718 — death of Stede Bonnet, consort under Blackbeard, + 33 crewmen hanged
Trials, Executions, and Hanging in Chains
  • For 400+ years, pirates were hanged at Execution Dock on Thames’ north bank
    • Thousands attended, pirate often gave a speech
    • Body was left for three tides before removed
    • Taken to unmarked grave, dissection, or hung from chains
    • American pirates executed at Boston, Charleston, Williamsburg + Newport
  • Displayed corpses of notorious pirates at visible places
    • Captain Kidd, Captain Gow, Calico Jack, Charles Vane
  • 1716 – 1726 → 400 pirates publicly hanged
    • Publicity ensured seaman were aware of penalties for piracy & was a powerful deterrent
  • Trials
    • Usually 1-2 days (even when groups of 30 were involved)
    • Pirates had no legal representation, had to conduct own defense with little / no education 
    • Almost no witnesses used on pirates’ behalf

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