The Pirates of Chesapeake Bay

present-day Hampton Virginia the site of the annual Blackbeard pirate festival whose crowds each year are testament to our continued fascination with the bold swashbuckling picker wounds who once terrorized the high seas tourists mingle with pirate re-enactors in period dress in hopes of getting a bit of the flavor of the Golden Age of piracy adults are captivated our children 300 years ago Hampton was a key Chesapeake port serving a vast tobacco fleet and harboring a large number of sailors who sometimes became pirates the lot of a sailor was rough and with a captain who could have been dictatorial with conditions that you know we're as close to the edge as possible it's little wonder that many sailors would take the opportunity to go pirating the opportunity to become a pirate usually occurred at sea if a pirate ship captured a merchant ship the crew of the merchant ship would give be given an opportunity to join the pirate crew and in many cases they would choose to do that because it meant less work and higher rewards while many sailors were forced by their captors to join the Brotherhood many more took little persuading yeah I could sail on this merchant vessel with a captain who could beat me and it's within his rights to do so he can under feed me and work me to death or I can jump on board with pirates this pirate captain who I know his reputation is fantastic and again I may have a short life I am gonna have a good life shortly after the founding of the American colonies the Chesapeake Bay attracted pirates and found its countless coves and tributaries provided good places to hide and repair their ships after a winter of plundering into Caribbean ships from Maryland Virginia and Pennsylvania loaded with goods and mostly unprotected often provided easy prey for the Pirates of Chesapeake Bay [Music] pirates have always fascinated us from Disney's Captain Hook to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow pirate tales have captured the popular imagination and while you may know all about Pirates of the Caribbean it might surprise you to learn those very same pirates spent time here in Chesapeake Bay the peaceful waters of Chesapeake Bay provide a place to work and play today but 300 years ago the Chesapeake echoed with cannon fire as pirate ships waged fierce battles with ships of the Royal Navy and attacked lightly defended merchantman colonial governors in Virginia and Maryland waged all-out war against the picker UNS who preyed on merchant ships bound for England the first recorded act of piracy in the Chesapeake occurred in 1635 but it was hardly typical of the type of plundering that would come later it stemmed not from a quest for treasure but over a land dispute between Maryland and Virginia the first of many such land disputes that would follow William Claiborne was a most unlikely pirate politically-connected he was prominent in the Virginia Colony and a member of the Governor's Council when he was granted permission by Virginia's governor to explore and subtle land in the northern Chesapeake he laid claim to Kent Island where he quickly established a trading post but there was a problem not long after Claiborne began to settle Kent Island Lord Baltimore received a charter from the King to establish a Catholic colony in the New World and chose the region just north of Virginia it was quickly determined that clay burns can't island enterprise now fell squarely within Maryland's borders while Clayburn insisted his land was part of Virginia Maryland was just as convinced that Kent Island fell within its jurisdiction and as such should be taxed when Clayburn refused to pay Lord Baltimore ordered Claybourne jailed and his property seized in the spring of 1635 things got out of hand when a small mayor and ship loaded with supply sail south toward Kent Island clay Birds men seized the ship and took its crew prisoner Maryland retaliated by taking one of Clayburn ships on April 23rd about two weeks later it all culminated in a naval battle in the Pocomoke river between the can't Islanders and the Marylanders in which three men were killed and several wounded political skirmishing followed actual skirmishes but in the end Kent Island submitted to Maryland rule the maryland assembly charged Clayburn wants an upstanding citizen of virginia with the crimes of piracy and murder and seized all his land on Kent Island you the next act of Chesapeake piracy occurred as a direct result of a political crisis in England King Charles who is far more lenient toward Catholics than previous English monarchs face civil war with Parliament which was controlled by Protestants England was forced to choose sides and so in fact were the American colonies under pressure at home King Charles order the colonies to be on the lookout for agents of parliament to seize their ships and to hold their masters on charges of treason in a winter of 1644 Captain Richard Engel sailed his ship Reformation into the st. Marys River and squarely into this conflict unknown to Engel a man had gone to court in st. Marys filing papers accusing him of treason claiming that he had heard him make treasonous comments about the king arrested but granted bail Engel and his crew boarded their guarded ship and managed to escape in doing so angle made the Maryland authorities look foolish but he wasn't finished yet if Engel had not been an enemy of the crown before he was now returning to the Chesapeake from England in the winter of 1644 Engel had a plan for revenge on the Marylanders at st. Mary's he was on a mission he told his men to plunder the papist by now Maryland governor Calvert was willing to forget the unpleasant past and forgive Engels transgressions but the Protestant captain wasn't having any of it in early 1645 he sailed into st. Mary's Harbor capturing the fort and attacking the settlement Engel then set his sights on a large manor house taking it in several small craft at anchor there after plundering the house of all its contents Engels men burned it to the ground for months richard engel and his growing fleet waged war against the catholic colony until he grew tired of the sport were satisfied his considerable revenge and departed the Chesapeake and presumably his Buccaneer waves you the colonies surrounding Chesapeake Bay primarily Maryland and Virginia used the bay as a main source of transportation moving goods to other colonies and to England the bays waters are shallow with numerous shoals calling for small Swift boats instead of large ships the workhorse of the day was called a slough but for the most part its small a hundred tons or less it's got a single mast it's a broad boat it's designed to carry a lot of cargo but it was also designed to be quick and run by a few as few of men as possible so that it was a profitable sort of vessel you also start to see the development of the schooner which is related to the sloop the idea being there they've added another mast and they've made the lines finer it's a much skinnier ship so it can go quicker and then the larger vessels that would be hauling cargo is called a Brigantine and that's almost a full-blown sort of ship that one gets when you think of a sailing ship and again bigger more cargo designed to go pretty darn quick soon the colony's thriving tobacco trade attracted the attention of Dutch privateers now a privateer is a ship captain with authority from one government to attack ships from another country it's government sanctioned piracy if you will piracy as a tool of war in England and the Netherlands went to war in the 1660s the colonies braced for the expected invasion of the Chesapeake by Dutch privateers who would seize ships full of tobacco one of the most colorful of these privateers was Admiral Abraham Crimson or as the English called him Crimson perhaps Crimson's greatest exploit occurred at the mouth of the James River in June of 1667 after capturing two smaller ships along the Virginia capes crimson learned a British tobacco fleet was making ready to sail to England flying the British Union Jack Crimson ship sailed up the James and captured the single British guard ship allowing it then to pounce on the entire fleet cap during it along with its valuable cargo of tobacco for the next few years Dutch privateers caused havoc in the bay interrupting the tobacco trade to England despite Virginia's best efforts to mount a defense there was never enough force available to stop them by the 1680s privateers weren't the only problem sir william berkeley royal governor of virginia noted the bay was so full of pirates that it is impossible for any ships to go home safely pirates were indeed a problem Buccaneers some homegrown others from far-off lands began to rob and pillage both ships and waterfront plantations [Music] Marilyn joined with Virginia to devote more resources to apprehending freebooters and when five pirates were captured after raids on Chesapeake plantations it set up one very odd set of circumstances recounted in Donald's show Metz authoritative book pirates on the Chesapeake the five men were returned to Virginia and locked up in the Middlesex County Jail to await trial they easily escaped and after an extensive search two of the men William Harrison and John Manley were brought back tried for piracy and sentenced to hang on the evening of December eighth Harrison and manly broke out of the Middlesex County Jail and escaped into the night incredibly three nights later they returned to the jail climbed back into their cell and sent for the sheriff telling him they were ready to meet their fate Harrison and manly explained their strange actions this way they had unfinished business to attend to and now having completed it they were ready to be executed when word spread about the honest pirates leading citizens demanded that they be spared a reprieve was granted on the condition the men swear not to return to piracy and just what was the unfinished business they felt they must complete before meeting their maker it remains a mystery for the two pirates never revealed it by the late 1600s pirates in greater numbers were spending their summers in the Chesapeake they mixed easily with other sailors in the seaport villages on the eastern and western shores of the bay where sailors had come to be a dominant influence set apart by their unique characteristics in lifestyles they had their own language they had their own way of dressed their own mode of walking even so they were kind of an exceptional people who stood out particularly when they were on land sailors also stood out from others in the community in another way they were likely to bear the scars of their very dangerous profession if you think about the sailing ships at the period you'd be crawling up and down the rigging you'd be going in and out of the hold or certain parts of the hold there could be cargo shifting around there were a lots of moving parts booms lines pulleys that would be flying around a ship the image that you get of a sailor or even a pirate missing a hand missing an eye missing a leg that's a real image pirates normally spend their winters in the warm waters of the Caribbean plundering Spanish treasure when April rolled around they sailed north and attacked shipping off the Virginia capes they would often seek shelter in the bays many rivers and snug coves hiding out and making repairs to their ships they attacked colonial merchant ships in the bay not always for their cargoes but often for their rigging for pirates lines and sails were hard to come by and could best be acquired by taking them from their victims the pirate ships that prowled the waters of the Chesapeake were indistinguishable from the other merchant vessels that's because at one time they were merchant vessels carrying all manner of cargo bays smaller faster ships were prime targets actually these are the type of ships pirates preferred in particular the sloops there's a variation of this loop called the bermuda sloop and this was a particularly well designed vessel a very large mast a very small hull that meant there was a very large sail in that it could move very very quickly but because it was a kind of a small vessel it could hide in rivers and creeks and inlets where a larger warship chasing it couldn't find it the idea being the Pirates would take this sloop and convert it to their needs if there was any unnecessary decoration or unnecessary subdivisions of the ship because it was a cargo vessel they'd cut those things out and modify the vessel by putting as many guns as they could fit on it there and then providing accommodations for as many sailors as many pirates as possible the idea being that you can overwhelm any ship that you could catch but you could run away from any ship that actually could overwhelm you inferior ships were sunk or in some cases returned to their masters but really fine ships were put into pirate service spacious and comfortable ships were a plus but in most cases the Pirates prized speed and maneuverability pirating could be highly profitable as well as dangerous and while most pirates died on deck or at the end of a rope a very few were able to retire with their booty to live out their lives in comfort and leisure but it was an unusual situation in the 17th century in 1687 King James issued a new proclamation against piracy and as part of it extended an offer of clemency to Buccaneers who turned themselves in the following year or the Royal Navy boarded a tiny boat in the Chesapeake and found three men with three large chests filled with pieces of eight and silver plate concluding the men were pirates the naval officers arrested them and hauled them off to Jamestown the men were Edward Davis Lionel Delaware and Peter Henson though they proclaimed their innocence it turned out the men had indeed spent a lot of time in the Caribbean the story of how they came by their treasure was a bit fuzzy to say the least so one of the most bizarre and prolonged legal standoffs in colonial history began Davis delle way Ferrand Henson hired an able lawyer who did his best to argue for his clients freedom under the Kings clemency program it was a little tricky since Davis della way Ferrand Henson still maintained they weren't pirates finally the men were released from jail but the royal colony maneuvered to confiscate the treasure valued at more than ten thousand pounds Davis delle way Ferrand Henson filed appeal after appeal pleading for the return of their property the case dragged on for years before finally reaching king william himself after reviewing the facts the king rule the treasure did rightfully belong to Davis Dell away fur and Henson however the crown should receive a share he ruled ordering that a fourth of the treasure be used for the erection of a free school in the colony of Virginia and so it was that in 1693 the College of William and Mary was founded in Williamsburg Virginia in part with pirates booty you by 1700 officials in Virginia were in a full-scale war against pirates while the governors of some other colonies tolerated pirates and looked the other way as they sold their booty to merchants on the black market Virginia governor's regarded pirates as a menace to society and certainly a menace to Commerce there was a big fear because of the size of that bay out there and the size of the two colonies that touch that bayberry land in Virginia they the the governments couldn't be everywhere and there was a tremendous fear that the Eastern Shore was going to become a pirate you know hang out at a some extent it was but it seemed to be even more than just fear among the colony's upper crust like Virginia's governor Frances Nicholson there was also loathing I confess that I have always abhorred such sort of profligate men and their barbarous actions so they are a disgrace to mankind in general and the noble valiant generous English in particular who have the happiness of being governed by so great a King Francis Nicholson 1695 to Nicholson who represented the establishment at the turn of the 18th century Pirates were men who refused to play by the rules and who operated very much outside the system their democratic values must also have been alarming to a ruling class accustomed to a system where everyone knew and stayed in their place if proper society hated pirates the feeling was mutual the argument can be made that many Pirates of this era were motivated nearly as much by their disdain of the establishment and all it represented as they were by the lure of ill-gotten wealth from what we found out in our research the Pirates were just anti-establishment anti-government the Pirates just didn't fit into establishment society and they really didn't want to fit in they lived for the moment and followed their own rules and from that standpoint they were in a way the very first counterculture predating the 1960s Woodstock generation by nearly 300 years in a lot of ways the the crazy way they dressed we always associate him with the big hats and the you know fancy shirts and jewelry and all that was to simply make fun of the societal rules there were rules about you know what kind of shirts you could wear how big your hat could be how long your waistcoat could be was all established by your lot in life your social position so you know the Pirates just mock that by wearing whatever they wanted to the cruise of pirate ships were democratic institutions that were years ahead of their time those who served honest sailors who served in the world's Royal Navy's were under strict discipline and in the various nations of the world there was a system of deference where people looked up to their betters it was strictly adhered to but aboard the pirate ship this did not happen on a pirate ship the majority ruled with the crew often overriding the wishes of the captain who by the way was elected by the crew new Pirates signed articles which amounted to a contract there were a list of things that were expected of you and this is what you would receive in return both good and bad you know Bartholomew Roberts for example forbid drinking after a certain hour he wanted the lights out at a certain hour he had mass on deck every Sunday he was a teetotaler but you know he didn't enforce that rule on his crew on his crew that was just his decision it's also would say in there that you know every man will get one share perhaps with the captain getting to maybe the the gunner getting two rewards for if you spotted the ship that they ended up capturing you might get a bit extra therefore that if you were the first of the pirate crew to board your opponent's ship you may get an extra share for that the articles and the democratic values they enforce were truly revolutionary for the time but perhaps even more revolutionary was the pirate disability plan for example if you were on on a merchant ship you lost the use of your right arm and you'd be put ashore and you'd be a beggar the rest of your life but on a pirate ship if you lost your your left arm and this would be in the Articles you know the exact amount if you lost your left arm you may get four hundred pieces of gold if you lost your right army be eight hundred so you know they looked after their own the world of pirates was indeed very different from British and colonial society and long before the seeds of democracy would sprout in the British colonies it flourished to a great extent aboard pirate vessels and though it was far from a colorblind world minorities usually found they had much more freedom on a pirate ship than in colonial society if they came across an individual of a different race who was useful to the crew or if they came across a free man or an escaped slave odds are they weren't going to treat them differently simply because of the color of their skin some pirate captains including Blackbeard had a large number of black crew members who shared equally in the work and the treasure while pirates treated one another equally the law didn't always treat pirates the same when white pirates were captured they were usually hanged black Pirates were generally sold into slavery the revolutionary equality aboard pirate ships might help explain the contempt pirates often displayed two gentlemen who they occasionally captured pirate captain Samuel Bellamy of the widow galley is said to have exploded in rage at the master of one of the ships taken off the coast of Virginia in 1717 his rant perfectly captures the contempt these rebels felt for the establishment you are a sneakin puppy and sorrow all those who will submit to be governed by laws which Richmond have made for their own security they vilify us the scoundrels do when there is only this difference they rob the poor under the cover of law forsooth and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage Samuel Bellamy 1717 the Royal Navy usually kept a guard ship near the mouth of the Chesapeake to protect the colonies against pirates unfortunately these ships were not always an effective deterrent for the North American station unfortunately a lot of the guard ships they were sending over were older vessels therefore they were kind of tired they weren't going to be as fast as they were when they were newly constructed even when they were in good condition and fully staffed these guard ships did not always seek out battles with pirates even though their job was to protect the colonies the British had one guard ship here and they basically you know they kept an eye on where the Pirates were and then they arranged to be somewhere else because they didn't necessarily you know want to put their lives at risk on those rare occasions when a guard ship challenged a pirate ship the fighting was particularly vicious and bloody pirate battles were vicious because there was no place to go you were aboard ship you were bored nosed wooden decks there was nowhere to go except into the water some men fought for their lives and of course pirates when they were captured they were they were hanged so they had no other choice but to fight to the death one of the bloodiest and most ferocious pirate battles to take place on the Chesapeake occurred in April 1700 in Lynnhaven Bay and what is now Virginia Beach a French pirate named guitar had assembled a small fleet of ships captured just off the shore of Virginia and was anchored in the bay with 50 prisoners aboard his flagship lepay learning of the Pirates presence governor Nicholson who was in Elizabeth City County or the British Man O'War hms Shoreham under command of Captain William passenger to sail to Lynn Haven to engage the Pirates the Governor Francis Nicholson boarded the guard ship and with accompanied by militia and also the customs collector Peter Heyman ventured out of Hampton and towards Lynnhaven inlet shortly after sunrise Shoreham board down on the pirate ship and fired a shot across her bow there was a pitched battle a fierce fight the outcome was bloody guitar surrendered after losing many of his men and was taken aboard the guard ship and brought back to Hampton and eventually is sent to England where he was hanged there were fewer casualties aboard Shoreham but among them was Peter Heyman the young customs officer killed by a pistol shot devastated by the loss of his friend governor Nicholson had Heyman buried at what was then st. John's Church and provided an elaborate tombstone that told the story of his death and in this day the stone rests above his remains and the stone is intriguing as it says killed by pirates who greatly infested these waters after the defeat of guitar things were relatively quiet in the Chesapeake Virginia was well protected by two British warships lime and pearl also the King granted amnesty to pirates who would swear to become law-abiding citizens a growing number of Pirates wealthy from their days of plundering decided to cash in their chips and settle down to spend their booty but the fear of piracy remained in part because of one man Captain Edward Teach also known as Edward thatch but known to all as the notorious Blackbeard a lot of mystery surrounds him no one's really quite sure of his origin or even his name but Blackbeard was a tattwas had sanctuary in in North Carolina the governor of North Carolina was in cahoots with notorious pirate and protected him to some extent Blackbeard was in fact a larger-than-life character so much so that today it's hard to separate fact from fiction for example legend has it that he once shot a crew member in the kneecap just to make other crew members more afraid of him he was a large imposing figure and he used fear as a weapon and it was very effective after a massing of fortune from plunder in the Caribbean Blackbeard also decided to take advantage of the Kings amnesty offer however he apparently had no intention of giving up piracy by 17-18 Blackbeard was becoming a law unto himself and the fear that gripped the Carolinas began to spread into Virginia at the same time the King's pirate amnesty program had an unintended consequence soon taverns were filled with X Pirates who had little to do colonial authorities soon began to fear what might happen if they got bored and decided to resume their roving ways perhaps it was that fear that made Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood receptive to the pleas from North Carolina's traitors who in 1718 bypassed their own governor and beg Spotswood to put an end to Blackbeard it was something else as well like his predecessors Spottswoode detested pirates and was determined to prevent their return to the waters of the Chesapeake there was little doubt in his mind that teach gathering a large troop of pirates in Bath North Carolina would soon invade the bay no one would be safe Spottswoode committed the military resources of the colony to carry out a secret preemptive strike to kill the master pirate armed with accurate intelligence as to teach's whereabouts and relative strengths and weaknesses 64 Royal Navy sailors under command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard were put aboard to fast and shallow drafts loops to strike a death blow against black beer as they left the people align the shores and watch the boats depart they sailed down into Carolina's waters encountered Blackbeard's ships in shallow water one of the fiercest battles of the day ensued convinced he had the upper hand teach ordered his men to board Maynard ship only to be confronted with dozens of heavily-armed royal sailors who poured up from below decks the deck became the scene of intense and to hand fighting but Blackbeard and Maynard villain and hero locked in mortal combat pistol shots whizzed across the deck many finding their target Hollywood could not have written a more compelling script Blackbeard was eventually shot numerous times and cut as as many he finally fell dead upon the wooden deck the English cut his head off and hung it from a bow spirit of one of the ships and sailed back to Virginia and entered the hampton river upon entry cannons fired people cheered and the boat came into dock and the goods and the captured pirates his crewmen were taking off the ships and the goods were placed in their local storehouse thirteen members of Blackbeard's crew were tried for piracy and Williamsburg and hang as for Blackbeard's head and was said to have been placed on a pole at the mouth of the Hampton river as a warning to those Mariners who might consider a life of piracy the conquest of Blackbeard only increased governor's spots woods resolved to end the scourge of piracy in the Chesapeake he ordered local authorities to be on the lookout for strangers who spent money a little too freely seizing and trying several men over the next few years for piracy for pirates there were two forms of capital punishment there was hanging followed by a Christian burial for some but for the most notorious there was hanging in Chains with bodies left to rot on the gallows spots would always seem to favor hanging in Chains before long spots woods reputation extended up and down the Atlantic coast and he was a hated man among the pirate fraternity at one point captain Bartholomew Roberts who commanded an imposing flagship with 36 guns threatened to invade the Chesapeake and take revenge upon Virginia fortunately for the Virginians Roberts was killed in battle before he could make good on his threat but other Pirates nurse their own grudges against the pirate hating governor and vowed revenge when spots woods term as governor ended he was expected to return to London to make a formal report to the king however he dared not cross the Atlantic on a ship for if the vessel were to be overtaken by pirates he feared unspeakable torture at their hands so Spotswood never returned to England but lived out his life in America settling in what is now Spotsylvania County Virginia which is named in his honor by the 1770s revolutionary fervor swept the colonies and Virginia and Maryland Patriots were in the forefront in 1776 the growing discord resulted in a formal break with Britain and the declaration of a new nation many of these prominent Patriots owned plantations on the Chesapeake meanwhile the Royal Navy's role in the Chesapeake changed from chasing pirates to waging war on the Ameri Parkins privateers loyal to the crown preyed on Patriot shipping in the Chesapeake in part because they really had no use for the Revolution and in part because Patriot wealth was there for the taking among the first and most ruthless of the Tory pirates was Joseph Wayland jr. Whalen eagerly embraced the British cause in 1776 carrying out raids on Eastern Shore communities to gather supplies for British forces in June 1776 Whelan launched an assault on waterfront settlements in Somerset County Maryland carrying off anything of value that could be found waylynn also took the opportunity as a pirate to settle grudges and apparently he had a lot of them if Waylon captured a patriot planter or merchant it was usually bad news for the Patriot while some privateers sail schooners Waylon and his men favored smaller barges and whale boats that could be easily maneuvered in the central bazemore sholay waters the eastern shore and the islands in tanjur Sound harbored strong loyalist feelings so Joseph Wayland jr. never lacked for manpower or Confederates he and other privateers made life miserable for the Americans throughout the war in particular they operated in the central bay region terrorizing plantations and plundering shipping in the Patuxent and Potomac rivers it wasn't until the signing of the treaty granting American independence that Waylon finally realized he bet on the wrong horse with the end of the Revolutionary War pirating began to taper off in Chesapeake Bay the last major piracy event occurred in 1807 when the French pirate ship general Messina took the Boston merchant ship a fella anchored in the Patuxent River by then pirates were less of a concern for the young American government than the presence in the bay of the Royal Navy which impressed American sailors into its ranks at will one of the causes of the disastrous war of 1812 during that war the Royal Navy would need no help from privateers to wreak havoc on US forces and the American population living the day of the pirates of Chesapeake Bay had come to an end today Chesapeake Bay continues to draw vessels from around the world tankers and container ships move up and down the bay filled with cargo while sailboats that spend the winter in the Caribbean sail in the bay in the spring and summer only these boats aren't flying the Jolly Roger from their masts they come in peace just like the Pirates of long ago they come to make repairs to their boats relax and enjoy the bounty and treasure that can still be found in Chesapeake Bay [Music] you

Channel: Mark Huffman

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Length: 38min 21sec (2301 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020