Tag: famous pirates

William Kidd, better known as Captain Kidd, had a very unfortunate career. He is believed to have been born into a poor seaman’s family in Dundee, Scotland in around 1654, later settling in New York. Not much else is known about his early life except that he took to the seas like his father before him. Although active in the grey area of privateering, it is likely that he never intended to adopt a life of piracy and was simply a victim of circumstances.

Kidd the privateer

Kidd is thought to have worked on a French privateer frigate, the Sainte Rose, during peace time. He was involved in actions against the Dutch and Spanish, including participating in the failed French attack on the Dutch Guianas. When England declared war on France in 1688, Kidd patriotically became a privateer against the French in American theatre of the War of the Grand Alliance known as King William’s War.…

Benjamin Hornigold is famous for founding the ‘Pirate Republic’ and ‘The Flying Gang’ of Nassau, but probably even more so for betraying the pirate cause. He is said to have been born around 1660 and little is known of his early life. It is thought to have been born in Norfolk, England, although other claims include Jamaica. He might have been married to Sarah Norris in England in 1679, but her fate is unknown. Hornigold was a privateer in The Spanish War of Succession, and later claimed he was continuing this conflict rather than committing acts of piracy. He had a puritan background and was a known patriot, constantly refusing to attack British and Dutch ships. He was also reluctant to take lives and generally treated his captives well.

Hornigold the pirate

Hornigold left Port Royal, Jamaica for Nassau in 1713, starting out in two piraguas, the second captained by John West.…

Presuming all the tales of his exploits are true, Edward Lowe, also Low or Loe, was probably the most cruel and bloodthirsty pirate of the Golden Age, possibly second only to François l’Olonnais. He is reported to have been prone to violence from an early age. The legend of his savagery spread far and wide. With a fearsome reputation and a small fleet of ships, Lowe and his crew captured at least a hundred ships during his short career, burning most of them.

Early life

According to Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates, Edward Lowe was born in 1690 in Westminster, London. He was born into poverty and was active as a petty criminal like the rest of his family from an early age. His brother Richard was hanged for burglary in 1707 when Ned was only 17. He fled to Boston, Massachusetts in circa 1710 where he continued his life of crime.…

Most of the information we have available to us about the infamous and mysterious pirate known as Blackbeard is somewhat unreliable. Due to his estimated age when he met his death of between 35 and 40 years old, it is believed he was born circa 1680. What is certain is the date died – 22 November 1718. He was commonly known as Edward Teach or Thatch, but other spellings of his name include Thach, Thack, Tack, and Theach, but all these names might have been pseudonyms he used in order to protect the family name. The name Teach was mentioned in the Boston News-Letter of the time, but it may have been a spelling error. Other sources use the name Thatch, especially those who knew him personally. He was described by Henry Bostock, captain of the merchant sloop Margaret, which was taken off Crab Island near Anguilla, as being tall and thin and possessed of an immense black beard.…

Henry Avery was one of the most successful pirates of all time in terms of the plunder he accumulated, despite only being active for two years. Not much is known about his early life, but it is commonly accepted that he was born in 1659 in the West Country of England, probably in Newton Ferrers, a village about six miles south-east of Plymouth, Devon. The more common spelling of Avery’s surname is Every. He was also known under several alias including Long Ben and Benjamin Bridgeman.

He joined the English Navy, although the exact year is unknown. He is recorded as working as a midshipman aboard a sixty-four-gun ship named the HMS Rupert, under Captain Francis Wheeler and possibly participated in the Nine Years War, but was probably a seaman long before then. After being discharged from the Royal Navy he began working as an illegal slave trader in Africa, although this part of his life is not well documented.…