Timeline of Caribbean Piracy
Drake
Morgan
Elizabethans
1558-1603
Buccaneers
“Golden Age”
1630-1697
1500
French Corsairs
1500-1559
1730
Dutch Sea Rovers
1570-1648
Freebooters
1700-1730
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Heyn
Teach
“Blackbeard”
Bonny
Read
Why Piracy?
• The great gold rush: gold, silver, gems, sugar
• European religious and political conflicts
extended into the Caribbean
• Quick route to fame, fortune, political and
military promotion regardless of social status
• Privateers and pirates could do the work of
navy at no cost to the crown
• Stragglers, shipwrecks - easy pickings
“The Line”
1494
Atlantic Triangle
Spain
Azores
Madeira
Canary Islands
Havana
Veracruz
Santiago
Portobelo Cartegena
San Juan
http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1740b6.jpg
French Corsairs, 1500-1559
• 1536 - attacked treasure ships en route to Spain
• 1537 - attacked Cartegena, Panama, Havana, Santo
Domingo, Hispaniola; populations less than 500 each
• Spain at war with France, 1540s - 1550s
• Charles V of Spain urged to fortify Caribbean
outposts - refused to do so
• Spanish gold and silver-producing interior areas well
populated and well guarded
• Atlantic Triangle most dangerous area
• French routed from Florida to protect straits
• Sores, Le Clerc establish standards for
cruelty and punitive raids
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Elizabethans, 1558-1603
• On-again, off-again war with Spain
• English contraband slave traders turned privateers - John
Hawkins, Francis Drake (anti-Catholic)
• Privateering sanctioned by crown during periods of war
• 76 crown-sponsored expeditions in Caribbean
• 1572 - Drake raided Panama; returned with fortune in gold
• Drakes “Famous Voyage” of 1577; plundered Pacific Coast of
Americas before circumnavigating globe - musicians and artists
• 1585 - Drake expedition to West Indies: sacked Santo Domingo
(25,000 ducats), Cartegena, Saint Augustine, FL
• Referred to as Draco (the dragon) by Spaniards
• Spain’s alliance with Portugal solidified its preeminent
position as a world power
• English “like vultures hovering around Caribbean ports”
• Spain forced to respond
Spain’s Response
• Massive, costly fortifications
• Flotillas funded by merchant taxes (averia);
one round-trip cost 1.4 million pesos
• Faster, better armed ships
• Patrols in Caribbean
El Morro - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Castillo del Morro - Havana, Cuba
El Morro - Santiago, Cuba
San Felipe Castle - Cartegena
San Juan de Ulua - Veracruz, Mexico
Portobello - Panama
Some settlements moved inland…
Puerto Rico
Dutch Sea Rovers, 1570-1648
• Eighty Years War (1568-1648)
• Contrabanding dyewoods, sugar
• Preserved (salted) herring trade with Baltic nations affected by
war with Spain/Portugal - salt sources cut off
• Dutch send 100 ships/year to salt pans of Araya Peninsula,
Tierra Firma
• Dutch piracy funded by East India Company and West India
Company; captured NE Brazil; colony in Chile
• Dutch begin contrabanding tobacco - Trinidad
• 1628 - Piet Heyn captured treasure convoy en route to Havana,
4.8 million pesos; West India shareholders earned dividends of
75%
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Salt Pan, Santa Pola, Spain
Araya Peninsula, Venezuela
Buccaneers, 1630-1697
“Golden Age”
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Coincided with decline of Spain and rise of British, French, and Dutch as
economic powers
Piracy attracted embittered sailors, abandoned colonists, abused indentured
servants
French “boucan” in canoes raid Spanish merchant vessels
Tortuga and Jamaica serve as pirate bases; governors take percentage of loot
1660s: Port Royal, Jamaica a pirate haven - “Las Vegas” of the Caribbean 6,000 residents, 19 taverns, 11 buccaneer captains
1668 - Henry Morgan raids Cuba, Portobelo and Panama City; ransomed
100,000 pesos in silver to abandon Portobelo; sails with 250,000
Millions in estimated economic loss to Spain (buildings, fortifications, ships, and
merchandise)
Morgan briefly jailed in England; eventually knighted and becomes Lt. Governor
of Jamaica
Growth of stable plantation economy in Caribbean forces crackdown on pirating;
Morgan turns anti-pirate
Pirates turn sights toward Pacific and Indian Oceans
Freebooters, 1700-1730
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End of Queen Anne’s War threw navy men out of service
New pirate base - Bahama Islands (Nassau)
5,000 estimated pirates in Bahamas between 1716-1726
Concentrated attacks on trading vessels and wrecks; not land
raids
Pirate characteristics: rejection of national and religious
authority; 27 year old male mariners of lower-class birth, AngloAmerican, unmarried
Edward Teach (Blackbeard) terrorized ships in West Indies;
settled in North Carolina
Anne Bonny and Mary Read - notable female pirates
Pirates aggressively pursued by English admiralty, tried and
sentenced
By 1730, piracy in Caribbean brought
to an end
Significance of Piracy to Home
Countries
• England, France and Netherlands establish
foot-holds in Caribbean; extend realms by
expansion into New World; access to raw
materials; help position as emerging
economic powers
• Spain forced to respond with expenditure
outlays to protect interests in New World
Legacy Continues
• British: Anguilla, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands,
Jamaica, Trinidad
• French: Western Hispaniola (Haiti), Martinique,
Guadeloupe, French Guiana, French St. Martin,
Marie-Galante, La Desierade, Les Saintes, SaintBarthelemy, portions of Dominica, St. Lucia,
Grenada, St. Thomas
• Dutch: Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius,
Saba, St. Maarten
• Language, laws, cultural and economic impact varies
from island-to-island depending on previous
occupying nation
Legacy Continues
Film
Literature:
Robinson Crusoe, DeFoe, 1719
Treasure Island, Stevenson, 1883
Life On A Pirate Ship: Daily Rations
Salt meat (pork, beef)
Fish
Cheese
Butter
Peas
Hard biscuit
Boiled dumplings
Life On A Pirate Ship: Code of Conduct
1.
Everyone shall obey orders.
2.
Booty will be shared out as follows: 1 share to every ordinary seaman; 1 1/2
shares to the captain; 1 1/4 shares to the master carpenter, boatswain and
gunner.
3.
Anyone keeping secret of attempting to desert will be marooned. He may take
only a flask of gunpowder, a bottle of water, a gun and some shot.
4.
The punishment for hitting a man is 40 lashes on the bare back.
5.
Anyone being lazy or failing to clean his weapons will lose his share of booty.
6.
Everyone may vote on all important decisions.
7.
Everyone may have a share of captured drink and fresh food.
8.
Anyone found stealing form another member of crew will have his ears and
nose slit open and be set ashore.
9.
Gambling with cards and money is forbidden.
10. The penalty for bringing a woman aboard in disguise is death.
11. No one may leave the crew until each man has made 1,100 pounds.
12. The compensation of losing a limb is 800 silver dollars.
http://www.hickory.k12.nc.us/NVW/Taylorci/codeconduct.htm
Sources
Blood & Silver: A History of Piracy In The Caribbean
And Central America, Kris E. Lane, Signal Books, Ltd.,
Oxford, United Kingdom,1999 (formerly Pillaging the Empire:
Piracy in the Americas, 1500-1750
The Buccaneers In The West Indies In The XVII Century,
C. H. Haring, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1910
Lives Of The Most Notorious Pirates, Charles Johnson,
The Folio Society, London, 1962
Pirates and Privavateers Of The Caribbean, Jenifer Marx,
Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida, 1992
Google Earth
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