The Quartermaster | Pirate Jobs

piracy is a dangerous job you have lots of angry guys put close together on a small ship fights are imminent as are accidents and every guy needs to get his fair pay the captain can lead the boys into battle but to ensure discipline law and order they needed the quartermaster on navy vessels quartermasters were petty officers who undertook a few duties related to navigation and the management of cargo on pirate vessels however the quartermaster was uplifted to what charles johnson described rather aptly as a civil magistrate and just like a magistrate the quartermaster had the articles the articles of agreement aka the pirate code was a collection of laws and statutes written and agreed upon by the sea rover crew and it was the quartermaster's duty to see it upheld if a crewman committed a crime it was the quartermaster's duty to take him to court this wasn't the big and fancy law court you might see in london but consisted of the quartermaster's prosecutor and the jury of crewmen sometimes the jury was just a dozen men sometimes it was every crewman eligible to vote it was up to the jury to conceive a punishment and a quartermaster had to dole it out best case the perpetrator had his share money taken away in other cases he was whipped marooned or even executed sea rovers avoided personal disputes at all costs for example john taylor's article stated that arguments insults gambling and discussion of religion are prohibited even then conflicts were inevitable should a conflict break out between two or more crewmen it was up to the quartermaster to settle it minor disputes could be resolved with a silver tongue or shaking hands whereas major disputes were assaulted by duels but a quartermaster's duty wasn't just blood and beatings his most important duty was the economical when a ship was taken the quartermaster oversaw the plundering process he decided what to keep and what to leave all plundered items had to be surrendered to him and his scrutiny keeping items for yourself was a serious offense personal items like weapons clothes and trinkets were stored by the quartermaster in the so-called common chest these items would then be auctioned out by the quartermaster at the main mast giving every sea rat aboard the chance to buy a fancy whey gray nice pair of shoes all the liquid currency that the pirates acquired was added to the treasury which the quartermaster oversaw c-rowers were paid in shares of the plunder rather than set wages and it was the quartermaster's vital duty to calculate each man's share before paying them out the quartermaster's distribution of plunder was typically overseen by a party of four other crewmen to ensure that he didn't miscalculate the money that wasn't used for paying the crew was to spend at maintaining the ship and the company the quartermaster used that money to buy supplies and provisions and in some cases he was responsible for issuing rations to the crew one universal law to see rover articles was the compensation for injuries the quartermaster took this money out of the treasury too samir bellamy's quartermaster even instituted a pirate's trust fund where any pirate could receive a sum of money whenever he pleased this somewhat undeducted from the pirates share of the plunder the word quartermaster possibly comes from the fact that naval quartermasters would be positioned on the quarter net during battle and the same applied for pirate ships in many zero recruits the quartermaster was expected to lead a charge into battle as you might imagine being a quartermaster was a very intellectually demanding assignment there is a stereotype that sailors were illiterate scum but litter was quite high amongst them and was guaranteed for the quartermaster for carrying out all of his demanding tasks quartermasters commanded a lot of respect and in many cases authority just like the captain the quartermaster's duties were vital for keeping the pirate's shipshape just like the captain the quartermaster was typically elected by the crew it's not hard to presume that most quartermasters had a silver tongue they were expected to sell disputes as previously mentioned and would sometimes act as diplomats to exterior parties like other pirate crews he was likewise expected to act as a mediator between the crew and the captain and to ensure that the captain's authority was kept in check and within the boundaries given to him by the crew and the code the quartermaster was expected to control the captain's decisions and even vetoed them if they went against the interests of the crew the most famous incident of this happening was when captain charles vane opted to disengage from battle only to be vetoed and opposed by his quartermaster jack rackham rackham then succeeded vayne's captain the quartermaster will often succeed the captain if he died and if the captain decided to add a new ship to his fleet the quartermaster was typically given command of it indeed the quartermaster was the very face of practical democracy aside from upholding their code and seeing to their economical security he would be the one to instigate general meetings where the voting crewmen would gather to decide on important matters such as where the ship should sail or if they should engage a target as the mediator between the crew and captain he presented their issues to him and likewise dictated the captain's instructions to them pirates their system and the quartermaster was truly ahead of its time or was it much of what i previously described as the quartermaster's authority is commonly taken as a general rule aboard pirate ships rather than something circumstantial whilst the quartermaster always acted as a disciplinarian and custodian aboard a sea rover ship his authority and role in the pirate democracy varied greatly and we'll discuss that in this part of the video for one none of the systems instituted by pirates were really revolutionary charles johnson's description of the quartermaster as a civil magistrate is very apt because the quartermaster closely resembles the older men found in rural european communities they were council members elected by villagers to oversee the community trade guilds also elected their officials most sea rovers in the caribbean sphere would have some sort of roots in these communities as for ceremony this was something practiced in merchant ventures compensation for injured sailors had been instituted by the english navy as far back as the 1500s and charity to the disabled was huge in this period pirate systems and society was an imitation rather than opposition to the institutions of the time however not all quartermasters were even elected by the crew henry jennings appointed his quartermaster alan bernard on no authority about his own simo bellamy often recognized for his alleged delecaritarianism appointed his quartermaster paulsgrade williams in a similar fashion williams was a goldsmith and aristocrat by birth in other cases quartermasters were forced into service while some pirates upheld lofty ideals others prioritized an effective business if that meant they had to force a doctor or navigator into serving them they would do it pirate captain anstis forced a man named bridstock weaver as commander of a consort vessel whereas another kidnapped man william welks was made quartermaster welk's role as quartermaster was purely functional they needed an accountant to calculate their payment and the same beautiful guy to issue law in order elected sure but against their will that doesn't sound very democratic to me but of course most quartermasters would have been elected by zeroers provided they even had one sea rover companies always had a captain but not every company had a quarter master the pirates under john phillips didn't have a quartermaster until they encountered their pirates sufficiently experienced to fulfill that role the duties of a quartermaster could also be fulfilled by a myriad of other officers aboard the pirate ship the captain or boson who could serve as disciplinarian for example captain john taylor would often go himself and beat up and rule the pirates if the captain overstepped his rule well any man could instigate immunity olivia alabasa didn't need to be quartermastered to lead a mutiny against william moody as for punishments most pirate codes describe these as being decided by the captain and crew in council many pirate codes don't even mention the quartermaster and in those codes where he is mentioned he rarely gets paid more than the average crewman bartolome robert's code is the only one that gave the quartermaster an equal share to the captain john taylor was part of a group of pirates whose quartermasters arguably exercised the most authority throughout sea rover history even then taylor's code says that quartermaster only received an equal share to the crew however taylor's quartermaster was often granted tribute by the crewmen for his troubles indeed most quartermasters were probably as dutiful math nerds disciplinarian custodian the quartermaster at her core the quartermaster was a disciplinarian and manager of plunder his role along with the idea of pirate democracy has been seriously overblown whilst many pirate crews had a powerful quartermaster that presented their interests other crews lacked a quartermaster and had his duties fulfilled by other officers or a jury of crewmates in other cases the quartermasters were pressed into service the role of quartermaster was first and foremost a functional assignment what an analysis of the pirate quartermaster really teaches us is just how complicated pirate history is one incident is taken for fact and accepted and the details swept under the rug however this is exactly why i love pirate history it is some of the most nuanced personal and emotional history you'll find out there let's take a look at a comment from last week speedos pagatis asked me to do a video on various 16th century pirates i don't know much about the 16th century but i am very interested in it so you can expect videos on that period in maybe one or two years finally i wish to thank my generous patrons cole freer and radrey288 you guys are awesome thank you so much for your support if you want to support my channel links to my patreon paypal can be found in the description below i use the money to buy books for video research cheers [Music] the golden gunpowder youtube channel

Channel: Gold and Gunpowder

Views: 32,759

Keywords: pirates, pirate, history, quartermaster, pirate quartermaster, pirate code, code of conduct

Id: p3JW7wzqlw8

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021