Biographies

Benjamin Hornigold

Captain Benjamin Hornigold (died 1719) was an 18th-century English pirate. His career lasted from 1715 to 1718, after which he turned into a pirate hunter and pursued his former allies on behalf of the Governor of the Bahamas. He was killed when his ship was wrecked on a reef during the 1719 hurricane season. Hornigold’s early life is unrecorded, though [...]

May 16, 2013 admin Biographies 0

Charles François d’Angenne

Charles François d’Angennes, Marquis de Maintenon (December 5, 1648 – before April 2, 1691) was a French nobleman who became a buccaneer in the Caribbean and who sold his castle and title to Madame de Maintenon. He was the son of Louis d’Angennes de Rochefort de Salvert, Marquis de Maintenon et de Meslay, and Marie [...]

April 28, 2013 admin Biographies 0

Samuel Burgess

Captain Samuel Burgess was a member of Captain William Kidd’s crew in 1690 when the Blessed William was seized. In 1693, Edward Coates became captain and the former Captain Burgess left the ship and went to New York. He arrived in April, bought a house and took on a job with Frederick Phillips, New York’s wealthiest merchant. Over the next few years Burgess [...]

April 19, 2013 admin Biographies 0

John King The Littlest Pirate

John King (c. 1706/9 – April 26, 1717) was an 18th century pirate. He joined the crew of Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy while still a juvenile, and is the youngest known pirate on record. On November 9, 1716, Bellamy and his crew, sailing the sloop Mary Anne (or Marianne), attacked and captured the Antiguan sloopBonetta, which was then en route from Antigua to Jamaica. John King, [...]

April 19, 2013 admin Biographies 0

The Canadian Pirate by Pauline

Today’s pirate comes to us once again from the pages of Philip Gosse’s The Pirate’s Who’s Who. He seems full of vigor and a lust for life that not all the characters in Gosse’s encyclopedic compendium of freebooters’ lives share. He is a curious sort, as well, for his birthplace; although there were probably a number of [...]

February 23, 2013 admin Articles, Biographies 0

The Portuguese Poet by Pauline

In the general vernacular of piratical events, the 1660s and ’70s were the decades of Henry Morgan and his Jamaica buccaneers. Thumbing their nose at Spanish might, these men pounced on the Spanish Main whose strongholds had been weakened by the Frenchmen from Tortuga. They were a new breed of plunderer, successful, brutal, and facing [...]

October 14, 2012 admin Articles, Biographies 0

Victual Brothers

The Victual Brothers (the Vitalians or Vitalian Brotherhood) were a companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy. They were hired in 1392 by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark, because Queen Margaret I of Denmark had imprisoned Albert of Mecklenburg and his son in order to subdue the Kingdom of Sweden. Albert had been King of Sweden since 1364 and Duke of Mecklenburgsince 1383. While Queen Margaret and Albert [...]

September 17, 2012 admin Biographies 0

Michel de Grammont

Michel de Grammont (c. 1645 – 1686?) was a French pirate. He was born in Paris, France and was lost at sea, north-east Caribbean, April 1686. His pirate career was from c.1670 – 1686. His flagship was the Hardi. Chevalier de Grammont was a nobleman who came into disfavour after killing his sister’ssuitor in a duel. Forced [...]

September 11, 2012 admin Biographies 0

Nicholas van Hoorn

The pirate Nicholas van Hoorn (c. 1635 – buried 24 June 1683, Isla Mujeres) was born in Holland and died near Vera Cruz, Mexico. Nikolaas or Klaas was engaged in the Dutch merchant service from about 1655 until 1659, and then bought a vessel with his savings. With a band of reckless men whom he had enlisted, he became a terror to the commerce of the Netherlands. Later [...]

June 29, 2012 staveng42 Biographies 0

The Pirates Own Book: Captain White by Pauline

The Life, Career and Death of Captain Thomas White” is the 20th chapter in The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms. I can find very little documentation of a pirate named White in and around the waters of Madagascar during that island’s piratical heyday (the late 17th and very early 18th centuries), but the story as Ellms [...]

June 2, 2012 staveng42 Articles, Biographies 0