WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH A DRUNKEN SAILOR?

Excellent post, Aidan, and beautifully done with those images of that bleak coast. I've never seen it, but it recalls the Dingle penninsula in Ireland.

Thanks Set. I've never seen the Dingle peninsula - hope I get the chance. But if you get the chance to come to England- Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall are really breathtaking - and lots of interesting history.

My earliest introduction to those locales was in Treasure Island, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and two novels of which you may not have heard, by an American author, Kenneth Roberts. Those novels are Captain Caution and The Lively Lady, and in both, the American crews of privateers end up in Dartmoor. I think that if you enjoyed Jamaica Inn, you would enjoy anything by Roberts. He won the Pulitzer Prize, and he is highly regarded for his attention to historical detail. He has also been a bit controversial, as he has made no bones about his admiration for Benedict Arnold, the great Satan of early American history, whom he rightly portrays as a savior of our Revolution in some of its darkest days. He has also written a novel, Oliver Wiswell, about an American Tory during the Revolution--not the typical kind of American novel for that period. I'm sure Acq and our other "down east" members are familiar with him.

For a truly odd little book, which i found profoundly compelling, i suggest to you the work of a Welsh author, Robert Hughes, entitled A High Wind in Jamaica. It portrays childhood and adolescence well, and the shabby lives of the few pirates who continued to lurk in the Carribean after the glory days of the buccaneers. A thoroughly bad movie was made of the novel with James Coburn and Anthony Quinn.

Set - You are such an incredible fund of knowledge. Now that I am not working full time and every spare moment is not consumed with related issues - I'll have time to read some stuff that interests me outside of education. But hey, it's all an education, right? Thanks for the suggestions- I've written them down and will check our little library for any of them next time I go.

Ah, Treasure Island. Takes me back to pleasant memories of my boyhood. This was one of the first "big books" that I read.

Well, Setanta, I have been following this thread and find that there is no resolution to what we shall do with a drunken sailor.

I did find this bit of trivia, however:



I sailed away to Treasure Island
And my heart stood still
When I landed on the silvery shore
We met that day on Treasure Island
And the smile you gave
Was the treasure I'd been craving for.
Then came those moments of bliss
In the shade of the sheltering palms,
I still remember your kiss
As you nestled within my arms,
I looked for gold on Treasure Island
And I found that gold
When you gave your golden love to me.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Intrepid, I don't even remember learning to read...honestly

Aidan, you should check out online booksellers in the UK--used paperbacks can be had very cheaply.

Intrepid: we had so many children's books lavishly illustrated, and those images remain with me to this day--they were often as important as the text, and more memorable. Our copy of Treasure Island was illustrated by N.C. Wyeth . . .



. . . and one of those illustrations became an American postage stamp . . .



EDIT: Found the cover illustration . . .





Miss Lettybettyhettygetty, why resist, go with it . . .

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scot, as was John Paul Jones. And Alexander Selkirk. Just thought I would mention this.

Good posts here, folks, thank you all esp the excellent Setanta, to whom I doff my tricorn.

When I was a boy, my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn.

Ah, heady stuff.

After the adventures of Olivier van Noort, some info about oriental pirates.

Ever wondered where the word bogeyman came from? Look up the Bugis, a seafaring people from the south coast of Sulawasi (Celebes), with the port of Makassar as centre. The Bugis or Buginese, traded far and wide in the East Indies, from the north coast of Australia to Thailand. They were and are known as adventurous and opportunistc (trade with the strong and rob the weak) sailors and their swift Makassar schooners were much feared by merchantmen.

It was inevitable that the Bugis would come in conflict with the united Dutch East India Company (VOC) that sought to monopolise and control all trade in the region. The Dutch conquest of Makassar in 1710 drove large numbers of Bugis to settle on the Malayan peninsula, in particular around Malacca (Dutch possession since 1641) and in the sultanate of Johore, with its port of Riau. Soon the Bugis took control of Riau (1720) and even besieged Malacca (1756-57), before being beaten back by forces sent from Batavia.

During the fourth Anglo-Dutch war (caused by the support of the Republic of the Netherlands for the budding American republic), the Bugis again tried to grasp power in the Straits of Malacca, knowing that the VOC was weakened. Since the company could no longer maintain safe passage for its merchant ships in the Strait, due to the Buginese pirates, the Dutch Republic sent a naval squadron of four ships of the line and two frigates to deal with the Bugis and their leader, Rajah Hadji, once and for all. The Dutch fleet arrived in 1784 and caught the Buginese fleet in the bay of Ponger, where they were sitting ducks for the heavy artillery of the ships of the line. The Dutch proceeded to destroy Bugis settlements along the coast and completed their penal expedition with the sacking of Riau. After that the military power of the Bugis was broken although they continued to trade and plunder all over the Indonesian archipelago.

Trivia: the fictitious pirate Sandokan who resists the legendary white Radja Brooke of Sarawak (there's another adventurer for you) is presented as a Bugis in the TV series based on the novel (by Emilio Salgari).

For Paasky's excellent account of the Celebes pirates and Malacca:



The area of which he writes.




Dutch image of Malacca, printed at Amsterdam, 1726




Sunset over the Straits of Malacca




A schooner attacking a merchant ship.




Invented by the Dutch in the 16th century, and developed to their present form in the 17th century, schooners remain work-a-day vessels throughout the world

Thanks for the illustrations Setanta. (I haven't quite figured out how to do that myself)

The Straits of Malacca remain a hotbed of pirate activity even today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4350881.stm

It is good that you point out that piracy is not dead, and its murderous nature. How easy for us to look at the past and see glamor and adventure--but it was not true then, and it is not true now.

Certainly my purpose here has been to tell the tales of pirates well-known in the English-speaking world. It has also been my purpose to tell the tales of pirates well-known in their own times, forgotten now, who inspired horror and terror. The story of l'Ollonais is a good case in point. His cruelty may be explained by the cruelty of the Spaniard toward the French Protestants, but it can never be excused. Modern pirates are no better, they are thugs afloat--and the organized crime connection should surprise no one.

Thank you for posting that link, Paasky.

Trying to add some pictures of the loot from the galleon San Diego that was sunk by Olivier van Noort in 1600 (See post on page 12). The French marine archeologist Franck Goddio located the wreck in 1991 and brought up a treasure in artefacts and merchandise:
http://www.freenet.de/freenet/hobby_freizeit/hobbys/schatzsuche/san_diego/ming_porzellan1.jpeg
(Ming porcelain in mint condition, it brought in a fortune at auction)
http://www.underwater-pictures.com/documentaire/equipe.jpg
(Goddio's crew with some of the loot from another wreck)
http://www.freenet.de/freenet/hobby_freizeit/hobbys/schatzsuche/san_diego/untergang_sandiego.jpeg
(Engraving of the sinking of the SanDiego)

I did not figure out how to open these pictures inline.

Incidentally, the fate of the San Diego was almost entirely the fault of its incompetent captain, who had no nautical experience whatsoever, but who sought glory (over the backs of his unfortunate subordinates). In Spanish circles high birth and political connections were more important than skills in landing commissions in the army or the navy.

Trivia about van Noort:
With typical pirate cheek van Noort (who spoke fluent French) succeeded in convincing the Spanish during the first weeks of his visit to the Phillipines that he and his ships were French (He even had a crew member dress up as a Catholic priest) and thus was able to obtain water and other provisions as well as allow his men to go ashore to drink and make merry! The charade only ended when a prisoner from one of the previously captured Spanish ships escaped and raised the alarm.

The heyday of the pirates was in a cruel time when there was no such thing as "cruel and unusual punishment", well perhaps an exception (ever so slight) was made for women. I remember in a Dutch prison museum that they used to beat women by putting them in a barrel of water and beating the sides of the barrel (causing severe bruising), because it was considered "not done" to beat a woman.

The punishment for piracy was usually hanging if I am not mistaken, which is not the worst kind of death imaginable (I mean if you have seen the contraptions for causing pain the prisons possessed in those days).

Paasky's Images:

proper hanging was an art .

One of the fascinating things about history is how much people reveal of themselves because of the differences in what they believed and valued, and what we believe and vaule. It gives the lie to that old line about history being written by the victors. First of all, the victors can only write the news--it's not history until well after an event takes place. In the second place, people were no more credulous in the past than they are today--Napoleon would issue bulletins to advertise his glorious victories, and the expression "lies like a bulletin" became a prosaic usage in French. In the third place, the historian looks for corroboration or falsification of evidence, and this leads to a most likely explanation--historians who are true to the principles of historiography deal in probably explanations rather than assertions of truth.

Because people held different opinions on what constituted acceptable or even heroic behavior, we have a lot of information about history which would never see the light of day if there actually were the sort of paranoid coverups going on which is implied by the naïve statement that history is written by the victors. In 1564, French Protestants established a colony at Cape Canaveral in what is now Florida, calling it Fort Caroline. The colony was fairly successful, and the garrison was large and competent. With the limited military resources of the European colonies in the New World, it seemed that it could not be threatened. The Spanish wanted it gone, however, and the "heretics" destroyed. A certain Captain Nunez lead an expedition against Fort Caroline which ordinarily wouldn't have had a prayer. The French learned of his march up the coast, and about two thirds of the garrison put to sea to intercept him. At this point, a terrible storm came upon the French. Very likely, it was a hurricane, or the near miss of a hurricane. Nunez and his men suffered horribly, even more because the storm forced them inland into the coastal swamps. The French were in dire straits as well. Their vessels were all "sprung" (stressed so badly at the seams that they were taking on water), and they were forced to ground them.

Nunez eventually reached Fort Caroline, and took it in a rush, which was only possible because of a lack of leadership among the men left behind. With no decisive officer present, they believed the ships had been taken, and surrendered to a party of Spaniards they could easily have resisted. Nunez then began a march down the coast. As he came upon parties of the French, he would send one of the captives from Fort Caroline forward to say that the place was in Spanish hands, and to offer reasonable terms. He then would have the hands of the new captives bound, and take them off behind the sand dunes and scrub brush, where they would be immediately executed. Quixotically, he always left a few alive. Once again, in most cases, had the French resisted, the Spanish were not strong enough to have overcome them. We know all of this because Nunez was proud of what he had done. Even by the standards of the 16th century, what he did was considered deplorable. But he was a religious fanatic, proud of the destruction of those whom he considered heretics, and described in detail his every action, because he was certain this would make him a hero of the ages. He is, of course, largely forgotten today. So even when the "victors" do write history, they often convict themselves in the eyes of those who read their tales in later years.

Piracy today is a crime, and often a brutal one. It is often bankrolled by organized crime. But it was also a crime in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. When Governor de la Place outfitted ships for the use of the buccaneers, was that any different than organized crime bankrolling present day pirates? To my mind, the answer is no. By the end of the 17th century, European colonial powers had already begun to think better of privateering and letters of marque. They no longer casually issued letters of marque, and began to carefully scrutinize those to whom they issued the documents. This does not mean that no mistakes were ever made again--but the "anything goes" days of the 16th century were ended. The pirates of the early 18th century are often the best remembered--but they were also the last gasp of a dying era. In the 17th century, piracy flourished in the Carribean because of the lack of military power and authority of the Spanish, and the complete absence of royal authority and military power on the part of the French, English and Dutch. Today, piracy flourishes in the same types of power vacuums. Iulius Caesar began his public career by ending the piracy of the Greek Islands--little has changed in two thousand years. Where nations have a strong naval presence piracy is furtive and petty. Where such authority is lacking, piracy thrives.

One of the reasons (among many) that Britain maintained a far flung network of navel stations in the 19th century , Hong Kong, Singapore, Aden, Malta, Lagos, Kingston (Jamaica) was to suppress just the kind of activity that Paskynen posted in his BBC link. Britain no longer does that and the US refuses to. As a result protection of crucial choke points like the Malacca Striates has been left to an uncoordinated patchwork of navies of varying levels of competence , and, piracy is on the rise.

Please be aware that the following post is the work of our esteemed member, Asherman, who kindly consented to assist me by writing sketches on pirates in whom he had taken a particular interest. I have provided illustrations with his consent.[/i]

Henry Avery (b. 1665?) AKA Henry Every, "Long Ben"[/size]





After serving as a Midshipman aboard a privateer, Avery joined the Charles (45 guns) that was intended as the flagship for a small fleet charged with suppressing piracy in the Caribbean. After many delays the Charles ended up alone in West Indies harbor. The crew was dissatisfied by their Captain's inactivity, failure to take prizes and drunkenness. Avery led a mutiny on May 7, 1694. The Charles was renamed the Fancy, and sailed away to a career of piracy. Avery had set his sights on one of the great prizes of the time; the Great Mogul's pilgrim fleet that sailed between India and the entry port (Mocha) to Mecca at the head of the Red Sea.

In route, they took three English ships near the Cape Verde Islands. Sailors from the captured ships joined Avery, and the captured ships were destroyed. Reprovisioned, Avery sailed on to the West Coast of Africa. Flying the English flag, Avery posed as a legitimate trader. When the natives came out to the Fancy in their boats, Avery locked them up, stole their gold and later sold them into slavery.



Two small Danish ships were taken off Principe, and a number of the Danish sailors joined the crew. One of the ships was burned and the other converted to a second pirate ship. Trying to coordinate the two ships and control the crew on the consort proved too much trouble. Avery burned the smaller ship and added the crew to the Fancy. This gave him a crew over 150 men, and it was crowded as the Fancy sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and up to Madagascar.

Avery reprovisioned his ship, and may have careened her to clean the bottom. While getting ready to attack the pilgrim fleet, Avery was joined by other pirates also drawn to the prize of prizes. Those ships were: Portsmouth Adventure (Capt. Joseph Faro) and the Pearl (Capt. William Maze) from Rhode Island, Dolphin (Capt. Want, Philadelphia), Amity (Capt. Tew, New York), and Capt. Wake on Susannah from Boston. Each of the American ships had a crew of about 60, so the pirate fleet had a total of around 550 men on six ships to attack the pilgrim fleet. Some reports put the number of pirates at close to 700, but we can't be sure since they weren't sticklers for keeping accurate records.



Together the pirate fleet sailed north and, off Cape St. John, encountered the Fath Mahmamadi. Being a small ship it was taken without incident. The Fath Mahmamadi carried between 50,000 and 60,000 pounds of treasure, mostly gold and silver. A few days later Avery found and attacked the Ganj-i-Sawai. This was the Grand Mogul's largest ship carrying 40 guns, and a large well-armed crew under Capt. Muhammad Ibrahim who had a reputation as a savvy sailor and fierce fighter. In the first exchange of broadsides a lucky shot toppled the Gaji-i-Sawai's main mast. Even worst, one of the Gaji-i-Sawai's cannon exploded killing and wounding many of her crew. After two hours fighting the pirates were ready to board, and Capt. Ibrahim sent Turkish slave girls to augment his crew. It was a futile gesture and the Gaji-i-Sawai fell into Avery's hands. It is rumored that Capt. Ibrahim hid out below to escape danger, but that doesn't seem in character with his reputation. Another rumor has it that the Grand Mogul's daughter was one of the pilgrims on the ship, and that she ran away with Avery and married him.

I was unable to find an estimate of the treasure carried aboard the Ganji-i-Sawai, but it must have been many times greater than that on the Fath Mahamamadi. Each of the pirate's shares was said to be at least 1000 pounds, that suggests a total of nearly a million pounds and perhaps the richest single treasure taken at sea. Avery left the American ships behind and sailed back to the West Indies. There each of the pirates had to pay off the local governor for protection. Avery is said to have presented Governor Nicholas Trott a pair of ivory tusks worth a thousand pounds each, and the Fancy.

Avery then disappears from history. It is widely thought that he returned to England under an assumed name and lived out his years enjoying his immense wealth. There are also stories that he was swindled out of much of the loot and died in extreme poverty. Some members of Avery's crew drew attention to themselves by their spending, drunkenness and loose talk. They were taken, and at least six were hung by the Admiralty. Though pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd are still the stuff of legend, most of the world has forgotten Long Ben Avery. During the late 17th and 18th centuries Avery's 18 months of piracy was well known, and he was certainly one of the most successful pirates of all time.

Well, as Setanta knows, about all I know of piracy is R.L. Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND. (never could get into KIDNAPPED), but this information is a little update on the Outer Banks of North Carolina:




The Infamous History of the Brotherhood
They called themselves "the brotherhood". We called them pig cookers because they roasted wild pigs on the beach. The French term for an outdoor roast is a "boucan"; so they became know as "boucaneers". They rose from the island of Tortolla, young men released from service after Queen Anne's war.

One boucaneer said, "If life is short and brutal, it might as well be short, sweet and brutal." These ravagers of the sea raided the coast of the Eastern Seaboard and the Caribbean. The most famous of the boucaneers went by the moniker Blackbeard, AKA Edward Teach.

He rose to prominence as war chief of Her Majesty's Ship, Queen Anne's Revenge. His career included the blockading of the harbor of Charleston, the terror of the Caribbean, and dinners with the colonial governor of North Carolina. One of his 10 wives was said to be a redheaded maiden from Hatteras. He was infamous for appearing on deck with his beard smoking with fire from slow-burning matches. He could also be charming but make no mistake - the look of the devil shone in his eyes.

He flew only two banners: the red meant "strike your colors and heave to" and the black meant "no quarter", i.e. no mercy. His battle flag was not the Jolly Roger as popularized but a skeleton holding an hour glass in one hand and a bleeding heart in the other. The message was clear, whether in red or black - "Your time is finished".

He met his end off the shores of Ocracoke during a fierce battle against three other vessels disguised as French merchant prizes but actually three warships commanded by Lt. Maynard of the Royal Navy. Blackbeard grounded one of the attacking ships and disabled another. However, he and his mates were overwhelmed by 100 marines from Maynard's flagship in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

After suffering over 20 wounds during personal combat with Maynard, who sought him out for his own personal glory, Blackbeard was summarily dispatched to meet his maker. Blackbeard's massive head was severed and mounted upon the bowsprit of Maynard's vessel and carried triumphantly back to Williamsburg. The place of his final battle and death is Teach's Hole on Ocracoke Island.

If this has been posted before, my apologies, as I haven't read all the thread.