Some essential terms
Corsairs, pirates, buccaneers, freebooters; if all these names seem the same to you - after all, they are all pirates! -but their differentiation is essential to understanding the history of piracy in the Bahamas
A privateer ship was a vessel with a government authorization, a letter of marque or a commission to capture enemy ships. In short, they were the king's private pirates: the privateer fought for his country and in all legality, and his activity ceased with the war. The English call privateers "privateers," literally "private warriors. When they were captured by the enemy, they were treated as prisoners of war. Many of them turned to piracy when the gains were substantial.
A pirate ship, on the other hand (from the Greek peiratus: "which attempts fortune on the seas") acts on its own behalf without being commissioned by a government. Pirates are outlaws who attack ships of any nationality for financial gain. They are hunted by all nations; once captured, they are tried and hanged.
The buccaneer (not to be confused with the English word "buccaner", which means "privateer") is not a sailor. He is an adventurer who comes most often from Europe, especially from Normandy. Buccaneers form a brotherhood with very free morals, which lives on the fringe of all authority. They settle in regions deserted by the colonists, hunting wild boar, pigs or wild oxen to recover their meat and leather. Buccaneers traded with Dutch, English and French crews who needed the hides for military equipment; in exchange, they received weapons, gunpowder and alcohol.
Finally, the name freebooter comes from a 17th century English word, "free booter". It refers to privateers, mandated by a government, or simple pirates who gather in the Caribbean islands to plunder the Spanish colonies scattered throughout the Atlantic.
Piracy in the Bahamas
Ideally located at the crossroads of the maritime routes between Europe and the Americas, the Caribbean has been a region conducive to the development of piracy since the beginnings of colonisation. If the Bahamas were populated by unscrupulous pirates during a good part of the 17th century, coveting Spanish ships bringing back to Europe precious cargoes from their "Indian" colonies, it was mainly privateers and freebooters who marked the history of piracy on the archipelago at the turn of the 18th century. Appointed by the English government in the 1690s, who saw them as a way to harass and fight French and Spanish enemies (especially during the War of Spanish Succession between 1701 and 1714), privateers carried a letter of marque that guaranteed their status. However, at the end of the war, England withdrew its protection for privateers, as it no longer had the use of them. The privateers became outlaw pirates, even though they had established a true Republic in Nassau in the meantime! Another consequence of the end of the war was that the strength of the Royal Navy increased from 40,000 to 10,000 men: many of them, idle, fell into a state of freebooting, leading to the golden age of great piracy.
The Bahamas, beyond its remarkable location at the crossroads of the sea lanes, enjoys an ideal geography for piracy. Countless islets, deep coves, hidden coves, sheltered bays, straits and other narrow channels form easy retreats, ports of call and secret hideouts that serve the twisted designs of seafaring adventurers to perfection. Sandbanks and reefs put captains of heavily laden ships at a disadvantage, and from their bases, pirates can attack, pillage and ransom the galleons and passing ships that constantly criss-cross this part of the oceans.
Nassau, Republic of Corsairs from 1706 to 1718
Although never an organized state in the true sense of the word, a Pirate Republic, governed throughout its existence by its own independent code of laws, was formed in Nassau in 1706 by former privateers turned pirates. Pleasure and debauchery were so exacerbated there, it is said, that before dying, a pirate wished only one thing: to return to Nassau! The activities developed at that time obviously caused a great deal of damage to Caribbean trade and navigation, until the Bahamas officially became a royal colony of the British Empire in 1718. The English privateers, who were commissioned by the British Crown until the end of the War of Spanish Succession in 1714, suddenly lost interest in the English government, which decided that the cup was full and that the pirates, now outlaws, had to be stopped. Former privateer Woodes Rogers was appointed as the colony's first Royal Governor and campaigned by offering royal pardon to all those who would cease their illegal activities. The Golden Age of Piracy would soon come to an end. Only Blackbeard and a few of his companions refused to surrender and escaped after burning a ship to cover their escape; they would later be killed in a legendary battle off the coast of Virginia.
Famous pirates
All the major figures of the freebooters passed through the Bahamas at one time or another: Henry Morgan, whose treasure is still being sought, preferred Andros; Captain Kid had his favourite anchorage in Exuma; Anne Bonny retired to Cat Island; while Georges Watling appropriated San Salvador, which was named after him until the beginning of the 20th century before being renamed in 1926. Many others, including the famous Jack Rackham, sailed the waters of the archipelago during the 18th century. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, made New Providence his headquarters and played cat and mouse at the end of his life with the British Navy.
Sir Henry Morgan, a native of Wales and captain of his state, made a reputation for himself in the freeboard that was by no means usurped. Born in 1635 to a modest family of landowners in the United States, he emigrated at a very young age to the Caribbean, which seemed to him to hold the promise of adventure. He started out as a farm labourer on a plantation in Barbados, then wandered from island to island until he took the direction of a ship. He chooses to settle in Port Royal, Jamaica, where he makes his main den. He roamed the waters of the Greater Caribbean with incursions into the Bahamas during the 17th century, pillaging and ransoming ships and Spaniards who sailed the seas and coastal settlements. Its operations are rigorously conducted. England, delighted to harm the Spanish enemy, turned a blind eye and even supported the buccaneer's actions by financing some of them, not without collecting its tithe along the way.
The story of the buccaneer is also written in a feminine style with Anne Bonny and Mary Read. If freebooter rules and traditions do not allow women on board ships, the case of these two pirates is out of the ordinary. The legend of Anne Bonny begins with her encounter with the terrible Calico Jack or Captain Jack Rackham, popularized as "Rackham the Red" by Hergé. During one of the pirate's stopovers in New Providence, Anne boards his ship and operates with the crew, disguised as a man and armed to the teeth, while living an idyll with the captain. Prompt to board and skilled with the sword, she quickly forges a legendary reputation for courage and cruelty, and commands the respect of her acolytes. On the same ship was another female pirate, Mary Read, who had joined the crew shortly before Anne Bonny. From a very young age, Mary, the daughter of a naval officer, had defied the adventure by joining the infantry, then on various privateer ships and merchant ships, also disguised as a man. The story of the two women is partly related. In 1720, Captain Barnet, a pirate-hunting sailor appointed by Royal Governor Woodes Rogers, attacked Calico Jack's ship at a time when the crew, after many libations, was drunk. The two women faced the attackers alone, but their warlike ardour was not enough to make the attackers back down. All the prisoners were tried for piracy, sentenced to be hanged in 1720, and executed a few months later at Port-Royal. Declaring themselves pregnant, Mary and Anne prevented their sentence from being carried out. Mary died in prison of a tropical fever; Anne gave birth to a child, and for a reason that still escapes us, she was pardoned and disappeared from the face of the earth.
Last but not least, Captain Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, began his career as a seaman on an English privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession, and became a pirate in 1713. His enormous black beard, which earned him his nickname, covered half his face and reached down to the middle of his chest. He wore his beard, which was naturally pretty, braided with ribbons and wrapped around his ears. He was a heavy drinker, a polygamist, and a great lover of women, and had 14 wives. In a barbaric mood, with a paunchy, violent and unpredictable face, he kept his crew in a state of terrorized submission. "If from time to time I didn't kill one of my sailors, they would forget who I was," he readily declared. He was mainly active along the coast of Carolina, which he adopted as his favorite haunt. His career was short-lived as he died in Ocracoke Bay in 1718, after a fierce battle with the forces of the Governor of Virginia, who were rising up against the blockade of the city of Charleston. His death signaled the decline of piracy in North American coastal waters.
