5 Most Ruthless & Feared Pirates To Ever Set Sail

pirates are often glamorized on screen yet the truth of their exploits can be far more interesting and brutal during the Golden Age of piracy many famous names plundered and murdered their way through the New World often with the approval of their own governments essentially becoming crazed killers let loose upon the high seas were the license to kill and plunder from a heart eating psychopath to a gentleman with a taste for bizarre methods of torture here are my picks for five of the most feared and notorious pirates to ever set sail number five Edward Lo born in poverty to a family of notorious thieves it could be argued that Edward Lo had little hope of living a normal law-abiding life however his difficult background fails to account for the terrible cruelties that he would later inflict upon others as a child he soon followed in his family's footsteps engaging in theft before graduating to burglary dissatisfied with his lot in life he moved from London to the New World where he eventually married and settled in Boston his time there was marred by tragedy however losing his firstborn son as an infant before his wife later died while giving birth to his daughter while he had initially been earning an honest living on the high seas as a Ricker the events of a single day in 1722 set him on a new and darker course after an argument with the ship's captain over rations an enraged low shots at his captain with a musket missing him but hitting another crewman in the throat blow and his friends fled the boat later stealing a small ship off the coast of Rhode Island murdering another man during the process Lowe and his friends were now officially pirates there could be no going back he announced to his new crew that they would make a black flag and declare war against all the world he embarked upon a successful yet extremely brutal career of piracy that would see him operating off the coasts of North America - as far afield as the Canaries and Brazil before moving on to the Caribbean he is estimated to have captured over 100 ships usually using his favorite tactic of hoisting false colors allowing him to get close to an unsuspecting vessel before launching a surprise attack despite his considerable success as a pirate he has become best known for the numerous atrocities he committed during his raids a former prisoner described him as a man who took pleasure in the suffering of his victims and his catalogue of horrific crimes seems to reinforce this accusation on one of the first ships he captured two portuguese passengers were murdered by being dropped from the sails onto the deck multiple times before they finally succumbed to their injuries 1 another shipper cook was burnt alive and on yet another he personally murdered 53 of the crew using just his Cutlass the crew of the 100 ships he captured would rarely escape unscathed and he became notorious for using an especially grisly method of torture the victims hands would be tied behind their back with rope placed between each finger Lowe would then set fire to the rope causing the flames to slowly burn the unfortunate victims flesh down to the bone perhaps his most infamous act of cruelty occurred in 1723 when off the capturing a Portuguese ship the captain of the ship dropped a bag of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather than let it fall into the pirates hands low became enraged at this act of defiance and sliced off the captain's lips broiled them and then forced the suffering man to eat them before murdering the entire crew of 32 men this vicious act shocked even lo his own men who later described him as a maniac yet it's possible that there was a method to his madness pirates at the time would try to cultivate an intimidating reputation which would make vessels they targeted more likely to surrender to them without a fight as the crew would fear the consequences of defying the Pirates either way such enormous levels of plundering coupled with his unspeakable acts of violence earned him the attention of the British Empire the heavily armed warship HMS Greyhound was the smash to bring Lowe to heel and on the 10th of June 1723 Lowe suffered a decisive defeat during a fierce battle at the Greyhound 25 of his crew were captured and hung for their crimes while Lowe fled with a few men he had laugh hello took the defeat badly and seemed to become more unhinged the weakened band of pirates continued to ply their trade however Lowe's treatment of captives as well as his own crew became more savage the captain of a whaling vessel he captured was tortured and shot in the head by lo who then set the Whalers crew adrift with no provisions intending for them to starve in the open seas he also turned on his own crew dishing out harsh punishments for minor infractions finally the small crew hood remained by his side refused to carry out his orders to torture captives anymore and many of the men mutant heed exactly what happened to lo next is the subject of debate some reports state that lo was set adrift without provisions by his mutinous crew before being captured by the French and hung for his crimes while others believed he drowned at sea during the severe storm or simply escaped to Brazil where he lived out his days in hiding whatever his eventual fate the terror he had Unleashed during life was gone but not forgotten number four Frances sprigs the early life of Francis Briggs is shrouded in mystery however he began his rise to infamy as the quartermaster for the previously mentioned Captain Edward Lowe joining his captain in dishing out cruel and unusual punishments on those unfortunate enough to fall into his clutches sprigs had no doubt long harbored a desire to captain his own ship and free himself from the shadow of the fearsome Lo and the ideal opportunity presented itself in December of 1720 for lopat given sprigs temporary command over a British man-of-war the Pirates had captured but after an arguments between the two sprigs betrayed his captain slipping away with the ship under cover of darkness intending to strike out on his own after leaving low he headed for the West Indies unleashing a reign of terror on any merchant vessels that crossed his path however it was with the capture of a Portuguese ship in 1725 that sprigs really showed the world that he was a man to be feared in his own right after looting the ship of anything of value the terrified crew were put through bizarre torture known as the sweats candles would be placed around the main mast which was then surrounded by a group of pirates armed with swords knives forks and anything else that was sharp that they could lay their hands on one by one the captured crewman would be forced to enter the circle at which point a violin would begin playing a merry tune and the ordeal would begin the victim would be forced to run around the mast for several minutes while the Pirates viciously poked and prodded at his exposed flesh with whatever sharp instrument they were holding in the hand a slower the man moved the more deeply he would be stabbed after the ordeal had ended the exhausted and wound covered men might have thought the worst of it was behind them but sprigs was not a man known for mercy the ship was promptly set on fire with all the prisoners still on board condemned to die by being burnt alive while sprigs and his crew watched with glee from a safe distance his taste for unusual tortures was further demonstrated when in 1724 after several close run-ins with Navy warships Spriggs considered the possibility of trying to obtain a royal pardon for his crimes as a gesture of goodwill he released his latest batch of prisoners to the authorities however closer examination revealed that the prisoners were covered in a variety of wounds and injuries with the men even speaking of how they were forced to eat plates of hot wax by the unhinged sprigs needless to say the royal pardon never materialized these tortures along with his general disregard for human life would cause the mere mention of the name Frances sprigs to strike fear into the merchant crews operating in the Caribbean waters and unlike many other pirates who used fear as a weapon carefully cultivating a fearsome image so as to make capturing ships easier Frances sprigs and his men operated more like a roving band of barbarians with little subtlety or care for the suffering they were causing yet with fame came the attention of the Royal Navy which was keen to clamp down on the piracy which was proving so destructive to trade between the old and new worlds heavily armed British warships would be continually harassing sprigs throughout the Caribbean but each time he managed to evade them with his life he continued to terrorize the shipping lanes as lay to 1726 but his eventual fate remains unconfirmed although according to one newspaper article in a strange twist of fate he may have ended up marooned on the same island as Edward lo the pirate captain he had betrayed two years earlier number three Daniel Mont bars unlike most other infamous pirates Daniel minbars was born into wealth and privilege raised as an educated gentleman in southern France by a well-to-do family who catered to his every whim yet perhaps the studious background planted the seeds of hatred which would blossom into extreme violence and bloodshed according to legend his burning hatred for the Spanish which so marked his later life would in part be borne from reading tales about atrocities committed in the new world by the brutal conquistadors especially those carried out on the numerous native tribes who were so harshly treated by the invading Spanish when war broke out between france and spain in 1667 he hurriedly joined with his uncle in an listing in the french navy keen to serve his country as well as kill spaniards however the war soon brought tragedy upon the young gentleman when his ship was sunk in the West Indies sending his beloved uncle to a watery grave the loss of his uncle sealed his hatred for the Spanish and minbars made his way to the pirate haven of Tortuga where he became a Buccaneer captain however unlike his fellow pirates Mon Bars was not in this line of work for the plunder for he was already a wealthy man his only motivation was to exact revenge upon the Spanish in the battles and raids against the Spanish that would follow he would earn the nickname of Mon bars the exterminator a title which leaves little to the imagination about his conduct when a new ship was captured it was not the treasure which fixated the exterminator but the pleasure which would be had at the sight of the dead and dying Spaniards his one-man war against the Spanish saw him lead raids on settlements all over Central America and the Caribbean capturing and destroying important forts and towns in his seemingly never-ending campaign of for vengeance no quarter was given to those who stood against him and word of the terrible tortures he would inflict upon surviving Spanish soldiers spread like wildfire creating fear at the very mention of his name one of his favored yet incredibly bizarre torture techniques was to slice open a prisoner's abdomen and pull out one end of his intestine which would then be nailed to a post the suffering but still alive victim would then be beaten on the backside with a burning log effectively forcing him to dance himself to death what finally became of minbars is unknown however it's widely believed that he was lost at sea at some point during 1707 his enormous undiscovered treasure hoard still buried somewhere in the Caribbean number 2 Bartholomew Roberts born in Wales in 1680 to Bartholomew Roberts did not set out to become a pirate yet over the course of his career he would become by far the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of piracy eclipsing his rivals by capturing over 400 vessels during his lifetime he got his first taste of life on the open seas at just 13 years of age however no further records of his existence can be found until 23 years later when he took work as a third mate on a slave ship operating out of West Africa while the ship was anchored in Ghana she was captured by a pirate captain named Hal Davis a fellow Welshman and the slave ship's crew of including bartholomae robbers were forced to join the pirates captain Davis quickly grew to admire Roberts abilities as a navigator and the two men were able to converse in private in Welsh and no doubt built up something of a friendship while Roberts was reluctant to become a pirate at first he was soon seduced by the lifestyle realising that compared to his old existence of poor wages for hard labor the life of a pirate could provide freedom power wealth and pleasure in a strange twist of fate just weeks after Robert joined the pirate crew captain Davis was killed during a brazen raid in which he planned to kidnap the governor of the island of príncipe and hold him for ransom unusually bartholomae Roberts was elected by the pirate crew to be the new captain as the newly elected pirate captain his first order of business was revenge Roberts and his crew headed back to principai under cover of darkness slaughtering the majority of its male inhabitants as well as plundering any of value they could lay their hands on they fled with the loot and headed towards Brazil to look for fresh targets over the coming months Black Bart as he had now become known ruthlessly hunted down any ship he came across often capturing much larger military vessels which would then use as his new flagship increasing his potency in battle his crew were amazed by his bravery and the success he brought them and he was widely believed to be pistol proof by all those who served under him yet he wouldn't operate unopposed the inhabitants of Barbados and Martinique armed two ships which were sent out to try and bring an end to black Bart's plundering this futile effort failed however in the ensuing battle twenty of Roberts crew died enraged he swore vengeance against the people of Barbados and Martinique and even changed the pirate flag of himself and death holding an hourglass to a more sinister one of himself standing upon two skulls one labeled a bah for a Barbadians head the other a MH for a Martin Eakins head dozens more ships would fall the Black Bart and his crew before finally revenge could be served the governor of Martinique was captured aboard a French warship and was promptly hung from the yard on where he would remain hanging for several months as a stark warning to any others who might be thinking about crossing him although he was not as cruel as many of the other Pirates of his era his ability for savagery would once again be demonstrated when an African slave ship dared defy him by not surrendering when politely asked as punishment the ship was set on fire with 80 enslaved Africans still shackled on board the ship all of whom roasted in the flames of the fire or drowned while chained to the sinking ship it was not long after this event that Black Bart would also meet his end his enormous successes had earned him the attention of the Royal Navy which was now actively hunting him towards the end of 17 22 he was finally caught off guard by the HMS swallow with many of his crews still drunk from the previous night's antics the ship was hit by a devastating broadside from the HMS swallow and captain Bartholomew Roberts was hit in the throat by grapeshot while standing on the deck suffering a brutal his body was quickly weighted down and thrown overboard before it could be captured denying the HMS swallows captain his precious trophy the surviving crew would not escape justice though with many of them sold into slavery hung for their crimes or transported to serve hard labor the legendary black Bart's death is seen by many as marking the end of the Golden Age of piracy with no other pirates ever coming close to matching the sheer chaos and destruction unleashed by the humble boy from Wales who had never even intended to embark upon a life of piracy number one Francois lolani unable to support their child Francois laden a was placed into indentured servitude by his own parents which was essentially slavery with the contract they saw him relocated from his native France to the Caribbean where he eventually ended up in Haiti by 1660 his contract was fulfilled and he was once again a free man he had the no doubts harsh existence of his early life had already left its mark a normal life was never on the cars for Francois and he set out to make a name for himself as a Buccaneer which was a state-sponsored pirate who would raid the treasure Laden Spanish ships which were transporting enormous amounts of wealth from the new world back to Spain his official letter of marque on behalf of the French government technically gave him legal backing for his activities as France and Spain were fierce rivals during this period yet he quickly developed a reputation for extreme brutality that bordered on psychosis a year or two into his career an event occurred which seemingly magnified his already brutal nature and would eventually earn him the title of the bane of Spain while operating off the coast of Mexico he was shipwrecked along with his crew the desperate band of stranded men were ambushed by a group of Spanish soldiers eager to slaughter these notorious enemies of Spain in the resulting hail of musket fire most of the crew were cut down however desperate to survive the encounter lalin a covered himself in the blood of his dead comrades dragging their still-warm corpses on top of him in an effort to conceal himself from the vengeful Spaniards the ruse succeeded and lolani survived the encounter dressing himself in the clothes of a dead Spanish soldier before slipping away in Moo's with some slaves he had persuaded to help him he made his way back to the pirate haven of Tortuga where he obtained two fully crewed ships eager to exact revenge upon the Spanish for his dead friends he sailed towards Cuba intent on pillaging the coastal town of chaos however the local governor was aware he had survived and sent a heavily armed warship to endl on a once and for all but killing him would not be that easy lolani caught the warship unaware capturing it and beheading the entire crew but one the sole survivor given the task of returning with the chilling warning that la Lynnae would give no quarter to any Spaniard he encountered his fleet soon grew to eight ships and several hundred pirates which he intended to use to deadly effect he began attacking Spanish towns in modern-day Venezuela where he would torture local residents until they told him where they had hidden their valuables his favorite technique was known as Walden which involved tying a rope around a person's forehead and then slowly twisting it tighter against the victims temples until eventually their eyeballs burst out of their skull he seemed to enjoy inflicting such pain upon his victims and developed a varied set of methods including slicing off portions of flesh until the victim told him what he wanted to know as well as burning victims alive over the following months he carved a bloody path across the Venezuelan coast burning raping and pillaging in an orgy of violence and destruction yet although the expedition had made him a wealthy and famous man retiring to enjoy a life of luxury was the furthest thing from his mind he set out on yet another expedition this time to Central America however karma would soon catch up with him after some initial successes he was ambushed by a large Spanish force while heading for San Pedro during the ensuing battle he managed to evade capture escaping with his life and even taking some Spanish soldiers prisoner desperate to continue on to San Pedro despite the losses his men had suffered he questioned the prisoners about which route to the settlement was most lightly guarded what happened next would forever seal the Pirates legend as a savage and brutal killer the men refused to comply and so la Binet drew his Cutlass and cut open the chest of one of the prisoners tearing out his still-beating heart he then bit and gnawed on the man's heart like a hungry animal before warning the remaining prisoners I will serve you all alike if he show me not another way the terrified men showed him a clear route to San Pedro however the small number of pirates left under la linnaeus command was unable to take the town and the men were forced to retreat back to their ship sailing south their misfortune continued as the ship ran aground near Panama forcing them to head inland to search for food the weary starving men were quickly captured by a native tribe who just so happened to be cannibals la la la met a sordid but fittingly brutal end the natives tearing his body to pieces cooking him on an open fire and devouring every last piece of him so that the only trace of the man left were the terrible atrocities he committed in life so those are my choices for five of the most ruthless pirates to ever set sail but what do you think who would you have included in the list and do you think the brutal stories about these pirates were true or simply government propaganda to demonize them let me know in the comments below and I'll see you again on the next video

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Keywords: Pirates, buccaneer, buccaneers, pirate, privateer, golden age of piracy, pirate captains, Francois L’Olonnais, Bartholomew Roberts, Daniel Montbars, Francis Spriggs, Edward Low, unknown5, unknown 5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, history, documentaries, documentary, education, historical videos, ships, mystery, mysteries

Id: -cIE0nxFeVA

Length: 20min 31sec (1231 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 26 2016