A World of Pirates

Mary Read

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Mary Read was born in the late 17^th century. She joined the British military as soon as she could.  While in the military her ship was attacked and forced with the decision to become a pirate or death by her captors.  She choose to join the pirates to avoid death.  Read hid the fact that she was a woman from the other pirates on the ship by wearing men’s clothing.  While aboard the ship Read fell in love with another pirate that like her was forced to join the ship.  Her lover was supposed to fight in a duel with another experienced fighter.  However Read convinced the fighter to fight her instead.  During the battle Read ripped opened her shirt revealing she was a woman which stunned the fighter and she was able to quickly grab his knife and kill him.  During a party on the ship Read and her crew were attacked and were unable to defend themselves because they had been drinking.  She was thrown in jail were she later died in April 1721.

Henry Morgan

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Henry Morgan of Whales was one of the most notorious pirates, as well as one of the most successful.  Morgan started off working on a ship run by Edward Mansfield but shortly after Morgan joined him he was captured and killed.  Morgan was the next in command so he took over as the commander.  After returning home he was assigned to capture the town of Portobello, Panama.  He easily accomplished that task and was given a new ship to command the HMS Oxford which was accidentally blown up when an ammunition depot caught on fire during a party.  Morgan and most of his men were able to escape unharmed.  Morgan was knighted in 1674 and because of his massive success as a pirate he was able to retire but unfortunately died shortly after.

Francis Drake

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Francis Drake was an English pirate during the 16^th century.  During the Spanish Armada Drake was second in command of the English fleet.  In 1577 Queen Elizabeth sent Drake to attack the Spanish; but bad weather forced him to delay his mission.  After the bad weather passed Drake and his men captured a Spanish ship containing 25,000 pesos of Persian gold.  The total value of the gold today would be around 9 million dollars. Because of his success he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1581.  In 1595 he attempted to attack San Juan, Puerto Rico but the Spanish soldiers shoot a cannonball through the cabin of the ship. He was able to narrowly escape with his life.  However Drake died of dysentery just one year later.

Christopher Newport

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Christopher Newport was born in 1561 and is best known for commanding the pirate ship known as the Susan Constant.  He also commanded Little John, Margaret, and The Golden Dragon.  He was part of one of the biggest plunders of the 16^th century when he captured the Madre de Dios.  On board the ship were 500 tons of Spices, Silk, Gemstones and other treasures.  In 1609 he was captain of the supply ship Sea Venture and made many voyages between England and Jamestown.  He died on a voyage to the East Indies.  The city of Newport Virginia was named in honor of Newport.

Stede Bonnet

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Stede Bonnet was moderately wealth when he was born in 1688.  Mainly due to marital problems he decided to get into piracy in the summer 1717.  He purchased a vessel and named it Revenge and began capturing ships along the coast of the eastern United States.  On a trip to the Bahamas Bonnet was seriously injured and had to give command of his ship to a pirate named Blackbeard.  After recovering from his injuries Bonnet decided to try to capture the Protestants Caesar but was unsuccessful.  His crew left him to join Blackbeard’s crew aboard Queen’s Anne’s Revenge.  Bonnet then got another ship Royal James and began amassing a new force.  However Bonnet and his men were attacked and hung in 1718.