Pirate Lovers

Many former pirates became privateers during the course of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, which was fought between Spain and Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic during 1718-1720. It was a thin line between privateering and piracy. The difference being, privateers, technically, worked for the Crown. Pirates were self-employed. When the time was right, many pirates jumped over the line into privateering with both feet, and none were more famous than the infamous pirate Charles Vane’s old quartermaster ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham. 

Rackham didn’t lack for courage, but perhaps for judgment. After abandoning Vane in November 1718, he convinced his band to cruise just off the shore of Jamaica, a particularly dangerous environment as the island was home to the Royal Navy’s West Indies fleet and a large number of merchant vessels. With risk came rewards. On December 11, 1718, the pirates lay chase to the merchant ship Kingston, overtaking her so close to Port Royal that the townspeople watched the attack. The ship, it turned out, was carrying a cargo valued at 20,000 pounds, much of it in the form of a large parcel of gold watches hidden in the bulk cargo. Her Jamaican owners were not going to let such a brazen theft succeed. As it happened, there were no warships in the harbor, but with the governor’s blessing, the owners outfitted a pair of privateering vessels to recover their ship/

Three months later, in early February 1719, the privateers finally found the Kingston at Isla de los Pinos, south of Cuba. Rackham’s brigantine was anchored alongside, but most of the crew was ashore, sleeping off hangovers under the brigantine’s sails, which they’d converted into temporary tents and awnings. Surprised and in no condition to defend themselves, Rackham’s company fled into the woods, hiding their until the privateers left with the Kingston and most of her cargo. Rackham and his men were left with two boats, a canoe, a few small arms, twenty silver watches, and several large bales of silk stockings and laced hats. After donning the finery, the pirates became divided on how to proceed. From their captives they had learned that King George had extended his pardon (the same extension that had allowed some of Blackbeard’s men to escape hanging in Virginia). Rackham and six followers decided to take the pardon in Nassau, where they might claim that Vane had forced them into piracy. They left in one of their boats and worked their way around the eastern tip of Cuba, capturing various Spanish boats along the way.

Rackham arrived in Nassau in mid-May 1719 and convinced Governor Rogers to pardon his men. They lived in Nassau for a while, hawking watches and stockings, drinking in what taverns and brothels still remained after Rogers clamped down on some of Nassau’s moral excesses. As their money ran out, Rackham’s friends shipped out on privateers or merchant sloops. Rackham, with his captain’s double-share of plunder, lasted the longest. During this time, he made the acquaintance of one of New Providence’s most infamous harlots, Anne Bonny, wife of James Bonny, a rank-and-file pirate who had become one of Rogers informants. Rackham took a fancy to the fiery young woman, who swore like a pirate and had cuckolded her husband on a great many occasions. Rackham spent the last of his money courting her then shipped out on one of Burgess’s final privateering missions, and spent his share of the proceeds on his new flame. 

The two fell in love and, sometime in the spring or early summer of 1720, approached James Bonny to seek an annulment of their marriage. Bonny agreed to do so in exchange for a substantial cash payment, but they would need a respectable witness to sign the appropriate papers. They chose their witness poorly. Richard Turnley, a mariner despised in some circles for having piloted HMS Rose safely into the harbor when Rogers first arrived, not only refused to act as witness, he informed Governor Rogers of the situation. Rogers, perhaps having read too many of the religious pamphlets he’d brought with him from England, told Bonny that if she annulled her marriage he would have her thrown in prison where he would force Rackham to whip her. Anne “promised to be very good, to live with her husband and keep loose company no more.” 

She had no intention of doing any of these things.

Unable to continue their relationship ashore, Rackham and Bonny decided to take to the sea as pirates…

                  (to be continued) 

Note: Reprinted to a great extent from “The Republic of Pirates” by Colin Woodard.