.jpg) 'Pirates of the East Coast of the Americas and the Caribbean Sea' contains 14 original tracks of music and song relating to pirate individuals and their activities. Main characters, events and places described in the list below are included on the CD however more will soon be added. Please note some tracks may be substitued for issue in different countries - please check 'discography' for available albums.
Name a pirate. Any pirate. Chances are you’ve just named Black Beard, one of the most infamous of all. His career as a pirate Captain lasted a mere 15 months from 1717-1718 but a more colourful career would be difficult to find.
Born Edward Teach, or Thatch in Bristol, England, Black Beard had 14 wives. He carried 6 pistols, 2 swords and numerous other weapons into battle placing lighted matches under his hat that protruded either side of his face to increase his menacing appearance – if that were needed!
He died at Ocracoke Inlet one of the barrier islands of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, on November 22nd 1718 in an attack by HMS Ranger, Robert Maynard Captain. His head was severed from his body, hung from the bowsprit and his body thrown overboard.
One song, Black Beard – Whispers in the Darkness, mentions his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, lost at Ocracoke when Black Beard tricked his crews into running two ships aground so he could sail away and keep their loot for himself and a few comrades. The wreck has been discovered and is the subject of ongoing underwater archaeological excavations, many items, including a ships bell having been recovered from the wreck site.
Somewhat unpredictable he did actually shoot his second in command Israel Hands remarking: “That if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was”.
Anothe song, Black Beard – Who Is the One is a light hearted look at the jubilation that would have greeted the news of Black Beard’s demise, consternation that reports were untrue and the joy at receiving confirmation that he was in fact dead.
Israel Hands was master of Black Beard’s flagship and a captain of other ships in the flotilla taking part in the attack on Charleston, South Carolina. Having been shot in the knee by Black Beard and put ashore because of his wound he took no part in the battle at Ocracoke at which Black Beard was killed. He was, however, taken prisoner there and transported to Virginia for trial.
Some say he was the beneficiary of an extended amnesty period; others say he received immunity for testifying against corrupt North Carolina officials who had consorted with Black Beard. Whichever account is true he received the King’s pardon and returned to England to beg on the streets until his death.
One song here imagines Hands trying to sell his story for a few coins and suggests that he may not have been a totally reformed character after all.
Jack Rackham is first known to history as quartermaster to the pirate Charles Vane in 1718 being voted by the crew to be Captain of the ship, the William, when Vane refused to attack a larger French vessel. Called ‘Calico’ Jack because of his fondness for fancy Indian cotton shirts Rackham is perhaps best remembered for having two female crew members – he was a small scale and not particularly successful pirate.
Rackham was eventually captured and sent to St Jago de la Vega in Jamaica, where he was tried and convicted of piracy on 16th November 1720. Calico Jack and 11 of his crew mates were hung until dead over two days, 19th and 20th November at Gallows Point, Port Royal, Jamaica.
This song tells his story as if remembered fondly by a crew mate and asks the listener to “…. raise a glass for times gone past and Calico”.
Ann, born in County Cork, Ireland, sometime between 1697 and 1700, was the illegitimate daughter of her father, William Cormack, and his house maid, Mary Brennan. The scandal forced her father to start a new life and all three emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina where the wilful Ann later met and married a poor sailor by the name of Bonny, her father cutting her off from her inheritance. The couple moved to New Providence (present day Nassau) but eventually Ann became restless and fell in love with a dashing Captain, Calico Jack Rackham. An offer to divorce her husband was refused so dressed as a man she signed on as a member of Calico Jack’s pirating crew. It is not known whether the crew knew her sex but it is possible she masqueraded as a young lad. When she fell pregnant Rackham set her ashore at his ‘home’ in Cuba and she returned to him once the child was born.
When finally cornered at Point Negril, Jamaica, in October 1720 Rackham and his crew hid below deck either in an attempt to avoid the fight or surrender without one – only Ann Bonny, Mary Read and one other sailor stood their ground and resisted their attacker, one Captain Bonnet, but were captured after firing down into the hold in an effort to get the rest to fight.
Sentenced to death for piracy, Ann Bonny was found again to be pregnant and could not therefore hang (See Mary Read below). She was released from prison and was never heard of again. It is certain she did not hang and some believe she escaped or that her wealthy father took her and the child away in secret.
Before leaving prison she was allowed to visit Rackham in his cell and she said to him “I’m sorry, Jack, but if you had fought like a man you would not now be about to die like a dog” – nice.
Mary Read was someone you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley!
She was raised as a boy in order for her mother to fraudulently obtain support of a crown a week from her own mother. Mary fought in Flanders in a foot and horse regiment disguised as a man eventually marrying a soldier much to the surprise of her ‘fellow’ men. The couple then owned a tavern in Breda called ‘The Three Horseshoes’ until the coming of the Peace of Ryswick and the death of her husband.
On the journey to the Caribbean and a new life her ship was attacked by pirates and once again disguised as an English ‘man’ she was inducted into the pirating crew led by Calico Jack Rackham and thus became a pirate herself – with some pirate Captains it was either that or death. She was said to act, swear and fight as any man and took full part in the pirate way of life.
She eventually fell for a sailor who had also been taken by the pirates and pressed into service. Having revealed her sex to him they became lovers. He later argued with a fellow pirate and agreed to fight a duel on shore as was the custom. Mary, fearing for her lover’s life picked her own quarrel with the challenger and set the time of their encounter 2 hours earlier. She fought with sword and pistol and won the duel, killing her opponent.
Captured with her friend Ann Bonny, Mary Read was also sentenced to death in 1721 but, like Ann “pleaded her belly” as she was pregnant. English law forbade the taking of an unborn life and the normal course of events would have the women confined in prison until they came to term at which point the mother would be hanged and the child sent to an orphanage. The authorities chose to let them go but Mary caught a fever, possibly yellow fever, in prison and she and the unborn child died before they could be released.
Loosely based on the mutinous uprising of the pirate Captain Gibbs of Boston and the unrelated marooning of the sailor Phillip Ashton this song tells of a sailor taken on the high seas and pressed into service on a pirate ship, not an uncommon action if the if the pirates were in need of the services the sailor could offer.
The song tells of the sailor's refusal to take part in murder and his punishment before being marooned on a deserted island to await his fate.
Marooning could be the fate of any sailor on a pirate ship refusing to accept orders or, as in this case, refusing to become part of a mutiny even though the Captain and officers had been killed.
Until its destruction by an earthquake sometime before noon on June 7th 1692 Port Royal was a notorious haven for pirate crews whilst also being a base for ships of the Royal Navy and privateers. It’s location in the middle of the Caribbean made Jamaica the perfect location for trade, legitimate or otherwise. Pirates would gather here to trade their booty and spend their ill-gotten gains on wine, women, song and whatever else took their fancy. Few nights went by without a knifing somewhere in the town’s bars and brothels.
The song imagines the excitement of returning to Port Royal after a long and dangerous voyage and the anticipation of the delights on offer.
Initially an every day seaman Bartholomew Roberts was a Welshman who went to sea when only 13 years of age. He served on British merchant vessels before fighting in the 1702-1713 War of the Spanish Succession. Later, his ship was one of those taken by pirates and he was forced to become one of the crew, taking to the life so quickly that within months he was voted Captain. In a career that took in Newfoundland, the Barbary Coast of North Africa and the Caribbean Black Bart, as he became known, was said to have attacked 400 ships and amassed a fortune.
His nickname Black Bart can be applied to his dark hair and his disposition. Following a tough fight with a Dutch vessel those Dutchmen who had not been killed were stripped of their clothing and lashed severely until comatose and were then mutilated. The Dutch captain had his ears cut off and presented to him as a reminder to listen harder next time. The remaining crewmen were dragged out and suffered similar depredations.
His arch enemy was the governor of Martinique who had caused the death by hanging of some pirates – when discovered a passenger on one of the ships he had taken Bart had him hung in revenge. One of Bart’s flags showed him standing on two skulls, that of Martinique and Barbados, representing his dominance over those islands.
Like many pirates Black Bart adopted names at will. This song refers to that fact and tells of Black Bart’s career and ultimate demise in an engagement at the hands of Captain Challoner Ogle in the Swallow at Cape Lopez off the North African coast of Gabon.
His crew threw Roberts’ body overboard so it could not be taken by Ogle and displayed on a gibbet. The outcome of the crew’s subsequent trial was 74 acquitted, 54 hanged, 37 received other sentences and 70 slave prisoners were returned to slavery.
Now the territory of Haiti and north of present day San Domingo, once named Hispaniola, lies a small hunched island called Tortuga de Mar, or literally, ‘Sea Turtle’, due to its resemblance to that creature. Strategically placed on the main shipping route between the West Indies and Spain the island became the perfect place for victualling ships with beef and pork for the homeward journey.
French settlers on this Spanish island made great profit from reaping the wild cattle and “Buccanning”, or butchering, the meat and this came to be called “Buccaneering”. These men also provided defence for the island and were known as the Brethren of the Coast.
Pierre le Grand can be credited with turning the Brethren into freebooters as his was the first ship to sail from Tortuga to attack and plunder ships on the high seas. In a short time this “Buccaneering” was to become the main business of the island and would give its name to the pirating trade of that time.
Its use as a pirate base began to decline in the 1670’s.
William Kidd is believed to have been born around 1645 in Greenock, Scotland, and sailed as a privateer licensed by the British government to attack French shipping in the West Indies and the coast of North America. Based in New York City, Kidd was a respectable ship owner, owned property and was an reputable sea Captain.
Turning pirate, he took his first ship, the Quedagh Merchant, in 1698 having first buried his bible in the sand. He travelled to New York to plead his innocence to the Colonial governor but was transported to England to face five charges of piracy and the killing of his gunner, William Moore, which he had done by violently hitting him over the head with a bucket. He was hung on May 23rd 1701 at Execution Dock, Wapping, London – he was, in fact hung twice as the rope used in the first attempt broke and a substitute used in its place.
This song evokes the bleakness of Tilbury Point where Captain Kidd’s body, having been dipped in tar to act as a preservative and hung for a number of years in an iron cage as a warning to others not to follow his trade.
Hung in a specially constructed iron cage his body would have been seen by all shipping entering and leaving London by the River Thames for around 20 minutes as they rounded the Point. The hanging and displaying of pirates in this manner was common practice: the bodies of Kidd’s crewmates being displayed at intervals along the Thames at prominent places.
The traditional ensign to be interpreted as “No quarter expected or given” had a red background and was adopted by the pirating community in the 15th century to advertise their intent and win the first battle in the psychological warfare of the chase.
Some privateers adorned their red flag with personal emblems for added effect. These flags became collectively known as the “Jolly Roger”, a euphemism derived from the French expression jolie rouge (pretty red).
The use of a black background dates from the 18th century and such flags were often accompanied by red battle flags. Devices used to announce the pirate intent included the death’s head or skull, an hourglass to signify time running out, spears, blood and skeletons dancing with fate or death to illustrate the attacker had no fear of the living.
Not a true story as far as I am aware although Parrots do learn and repeat words and phrases so who really knows?
Disclaimer: No Parrots were harmed in the making of this album and any that says so are lying through their beaks!
A sailor on a slaving ship, the Defense de Pedro in 1827, De Soto planned and led a mutiny once a cargo of slaves had been collected from the African coast and the ship was in deep water on its return journey. He threw the Captain and those loyal to him overboard to drown.
Renaming the ship The Black Joke De Soto’s pirating career took off with a vengeance terrorising Caribbean shipping to such an extent that ships refused to sail alone and gathered in St Helena to form convoys in order to effect safe passage.
In 1832 De Soto was identified in Cadiz, Spain, when his ship was caught in a storm and foundered on the coast. A ship he had previously attacked, the Morning Star put into port telling tales of murder and piracy and De Soto was recognised. The plunder piled on deck made his true business all too plain and his crew were captured. De Soto escaped to Gibraltar but was himself captured whilst awaiting passage and was transported back to Cadiz to face trial and subsequent execution.
De Soto, standing on his coffin as was the custom of the day, cheated the hangman by calmly adjusting the noose around his neck, smiling at the crowd and exclaiming “Adios todos (so long, everybody) before jumping to his own death.
Jean Lafitte
U.S. Presidents have three times condemned, exonerated and again condemned Jean Lafitte, the gentleman pirate. He supplied the Mississippi Delta with goods and provisions when it became part of the Union in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and was largely neglected by the government. Refusing to admit he was a pirate Lafitte insisted he was providing a patriotic service to the people of that area by whatever means he could. This unfortunately included piracy in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. The government eventually concluded, having pardoned Lafitte and his men in return for their help in the Battle of New Orleans, that his was not the type of America they wanted and told him to leave, hero or not. He took to waging an indiscriminate war against any shipping that strayed into his path especially Spanish ships bound for Mexico but did not attack any American vessels.
In the early 19th Century, a price of $5,000 was placed on Jean Lafitte's head by the Louisiana Governor, William C. C. Claiborne. In response, Jean Lafitte put the same bounty on the Governor.
Lafitte is known to have left his treasure ashore when he burned his house, Maison Rouge, and his compound at Campeche, now Galveston, when forced to leave by the American Navy on 3rd March 1821. He directed his ships to Galveston and West Bays where the treasure alledgedly lies to this day. The rules of safe passage only allowed for men and supplies so the treasure had to be buried. Listeners are asked to make up their own minds whether he was indeed a pirate, gentleman, hero or mix of all.
Sir Henry Morgan
Starting with his birth at Newport, Gwent, in 1635 Henry Morgan’s is one big story!
The song here only deals with his taking and burning of Panama but consider: he was a privateer, a pirate, used unorthodox and violent methods to achieve his aims, won untold riches for his country, sacked cities, was transported back to England in chains, was later knighted, became governor of Jamaica, retired peaceably and still died in his early to mid 40’s – whew!
His expedition to Panama was sanctioned by the authorities in Jamaica and he was therefore acting as a privateer, not a pirate. It was unfortunate that a peace treaty was signed between Britain and Spain after Morgan had sailed but before the attack was made. He was almost certainly unaware of the treaty and went ahead with the action that was later to be called piracy.
Setting off with approximately 1200 men Morgan lost 300 at his base at Cow Island when drunken revelry was responsible for a spark being allowed to float into the powder magazine and the ship blew up. Morgan and his officers were on board but survived as they were at the rear of they ship and the powder store was at the front.
Panama at that time was the largest Spanish city in the Americas after Cartagena. Morgan captured it in 1671 having first taken the island of Saint Catherine and the castle of Chagres, or San Lorenzo. Using canoes to travel along the Chagres River Morgan came to a place called Cruz de San Juan Callego where his journey continued on foot through the tropical jungle until at last the remainder of his force reached Panama City, having resorted to eating the leather bags that had previously held their provisions.
Morgan stayed three weeks in the city destroying it by fire rather than holding it for ransom as may have been expected at that time. He tortured anyone who might have had information where treasure could be hidden eventually carrying away on 175 beasts of burden gold, silver and jewels besides great quantities of merchandise. When it came to sharing out the plunder however, each man’s share amounted to a mere 200 pieces of eight. Morgan escaped to sea that night presumably with the rest of it.
Morgan died in retirement on 25th August 1688 “…. at the age of 45 of dropsy from drinking and sitting up late” and was buried in Palisadoes cemetery, Port Royal, Jamaica, which was later submerged and lost in the earthquake of 1692.
Eleaser Cooper was a prominent member of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia who amassed a fortune trading in the French, Spanish, Dutch and Danish islands that were otherwise cut of by the British blockade of the war of 1812. His alter-ego however was Captain Scarfield whose trading was no less daring but a lot less legal. Whether suffering some personality disorder or whether choosing to adopt a different persona Cooper and Scarfield were the same man with vastly different characters. His daughter’s suitor was a naval captain who had been commissioned to hunt Scarfield down and he eventually did come across his ship but found Friend Cooper its master. Cooper’s disposition changed during the course of their discourse until, growing more agitated, Cooper/Scarfield attacked the officer who barely escaped with his life: warning his crew of the deception just in time.
The song here tells the story but can offer no insight into the mind of this disturbed individual. The daughter and suitor did later marry and had the benefit of the fortune Cooper/Scarfield had gathered. Whether it was theirs to keep, however is another story….
Charles Vane was born in 1680 whose pirating career lasted 4 years. Attacked at New Providence in the Bahamas by governor Woodes Roger’s forces he fought his way out of the harbour and made his escape, firing on the governor’s ship as he passed by and threatening to return.
He met up with Black Beard at Ocracoke Island and had a week long celebration before moving off unwittingly leaving Black Beard to his fate. He was a cruel man seizing vessels, murdering crewmen and plundering ships along the coast from New York to the Caribbean. Refusing to battle a French warship superior in size and armament to that of his own, he was voted out of office by the crew who elected Vane’s quartermaster, Calico Jack Rackham to be their Captain in his place.
Set adrift in a small boat he went about rebuilding his career taking ever larger ships until his was wrecked in a storm in the Bay of Honduras he and one other crew member being washed up on an uninhabited island where they were obliged to stay for a number of months.
Eventually rescued, he was recognised for who he was and was placed in irons and taken to Jamaica to stand trial. The sentence of hanging was carried out at Gallows Point, Jamaica, on 22nd March 1720. His body was suspended in irons at Gun Cay as a warning to others.
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