the_life_and_tryals_of_gentleman_pirate

By mid-November 1717, the consort was near the islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Martinique (not far from Bonnet’s original home) when they came upon a French ship, La Concorde, commanded by Captain Pierre D’Ocier (Dosset). La Concorde was nearing the end of an arduous and perilous journey from Nantes, France, to Martinique, by way of the West African trading center of Whydah.

La Concorde left Nantes on March 22, 1717, sailing toward Whydah (Ouidah) on the African slave coast in what is now Benin. In Whydah, La Concorde was loaded with 516 slaves and then set sail toward Martinique. On November 17, 1717, eight months after leaving France and only sixty miles away from their destination, the crew of La Concorde must have been feeling some relief that their journey was almost over. By that time, La Concorde had lost fifteen crew members to illness or other accidents at sea, and had another thirty-six crew members who, although alive, had been incapacitated by scurvy and “blood flow.”

Only thirty-one healthy sailors were available to operate the large ship. And those sailors must have felt sick to their stomachs when, at about eight in the morning, two sails were spotted through the morning mist headed east against the prevailing winds. Unless lost or hapless, no merchant or trading vessel would be sailing in this direction and at this location.

The pirates fired two volleys of cannon and musketry at La Concorde, and shouted for La Concorde’s crew to put their canoe in the sea. Offering no resistance, the La Concord succumbed to the Revenge, and the pirates “Feloniously Spoil’d the said Subjects of the French King of their Merchandize and Effects consisting of Negros, Gold dust[,] money, Plates, and Jewels.”

Ten crewmen from La Concorde were impressed into the pirates’ ranks, including the French crew’s second cook, three doctors, two carpenters, a caulker, a navigator and a gunsmith. These men were selected because of their specific skill sets, providing a glimpse of the challenges Blackbeard and Bonnet faced at the time.

Louis Arot, a fifteen-year-old cabin boy from La Concorde, and three others voluntarily joined the pirates. Arot proved his allegiance to the pirates quickly, advising Thatch that D’Ocier and other officers had hidden bags of gold dust throughout La Concorde, which were soon given up and turned over to the pirates.

The remainder of La Concorde’s crew, including 66 of the French crew and 455 slaves, were put ashore on the small island of Bequia, just south of St. Vincent, with two or three barrels of beans for sustenance. Blackbeard left the New York sloop with D’Ocier and his men, which they somewhat humorously renamed Mauvaise Recontre, or, in English, “Bad Encounter.”

With the addition of La Concorde, a 200-ton Dutch-built, square-sailed slave ship, Thatch had a true flagship. After the pirates loaded twenty-two additional cannons to complement the existing fourteen, the pirates now sported significant firepower.

Blackbeard left the Revenge, boarding La Concorde and rechristening her Queen Anne’s Revenge. Major Stede Bonnet had fully recovered from his wounds and was placed back in charge of the Revenge. The pirates soon took advantage of the larger flagship and her increased number of guns.

Among those taken by the pirates with the Queen Anne’s Revenge was likely the New Division of Antigua, with Captain Richard Joy as master, although the ship was not burned. Joy testified in his deposition of November 30, 1717, that

this morning he was taken by two pirate ships and a sloop who said they belonged to Barbados and enquired what vessels were along shoar. They restored him to his sloop etc., keeping one of his men.77

Other contemporary accounts likely refer to Blackbeard and Bonnet’s pirate gang. On November 29, 1717, the day before the New Division was taken, Commander Benjamin Hobhouse was sailing aboard the Mountserrat Merchant when he saw two ships and a sloop in the distance.

Hobhouse mistook one of the ships as belonging to Bristol, and the other two as out of Guinea, and sent Thomas Knight and others toward the ships in a longboat “to enquire for letters.”78

The unknown ships hailed Knight and the longboat crew to come on board, but after seeing a “Death Head in the stern,” Knight refused to board.79 The pirates told Knight that they were bound from Barbados to Jamaica and ultimately compelled Knight aboard the ship to interrogate them about local defenses. In a deposition taken the next day, Knight reported the captain of the sloop was “Captain Edwards,” using again the alias adopted previously by Bonnet.80

At daybreak on December 5, 1717, Captain Henry Bostock turned his sloop Margaret up from Puerto Rico and met the Queen Anne’s Revenge and the Revenge about ten leagues westward of Crab Island (Bequia, where D’Ocier and his men had previously been deposited).

The Queen Anne’s Revenge fired a small cannon at the Margaret, and then Thatch hailed Captain Bostock and ordered him to come aboard, which he did. When on board the Queen Anne’s Revenge’s quarterdeck, Bostock came face-to-face with “the person that was called the Captain by the name (as he thinks) of Capt Tach.”81 As described previously, Bostock’s account is one of the few firsthand accounts of Thatch’s appearance, providing that “the Captain was a tall Spare Man With a very black beard which he wore very long.”

The Margaret was loaded with four cows and thirty-five hogs, which the pirates took, along with two-thirds of a bail of gunpowder, five pistols, two cutlasses, some linens, and all of Bostock’s books and instruments.

Bostock spent eight hours on board the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and provided a rare, firsthand account of the ship, her crew, and her recent whereabouts. Bostock was treated relatively well, and the pirates “did not abuse him or any of his men,” although the pirates did force two men, Edward Salter (a cooper) and Martin Towler, to join their crew. Another member of the Margaret’s crew, Robert Bibby of Liverpool, voluntarily joined the pirates.

Bostock described the Queen Anne’s Revenge as a Dutch-built, French Guineaman (information he had overheard on board) with thirty-six mounted guns and 300 men. Bostock “Saw a great deal of plate on board,” and “one of his men took Notice of a very fine Cup which they told him they had taken out of one Capt Taylor,” and suspected that other riches, including gold dust, were being kept on the ship.

Captain Taylor had recently been traveling from Barbados to Jamaica when he and his ship were captured by the pirates. Bostock had heard that Captain Taylor had been “much abused,” and that the pirates had burned his ship, consistent with Bonnet’s prior interactions with Barbadian ships.

Henry Bostock also heard that the pirates had burned several other vessels, including a sloop out of Antigua, owned by Robert McGill, the day prior. The pirates had also recently encountered “Man of War on this Station,” the HMS Scarborough, “but said they had no business with her.”82

While on board, Bostock remained attentive to the conversations around him, and exchanged information about recent events with the pirates. Bostock advised the pirates that an act of grace had been issued, but the pirates “Seemed to Slight it.” Bostock was asked about family members and acquaintances of the crew, including a Dr. Rowland (by Rowland’s nephew) and a Captain Pinkethman.

Although Bostock refused to provide information to the pirates about whether other traders were sailing along the Puerto Rico coast, Bostock’s men advised the pirates of two other traders, a French sloop and Dutch ship from St. Thomas, that had sailed nearby. A consort sloop, perhaps the Revenge, was sent out to look for the ships.

From conversations about the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Bostock guessed that the pirates intended to sail next for the Samana Bay in Hispaniola to careen, and from there to lie in wait for the Spanish Armada to sail out of Havana.

A few days prior, Bonnet and Thatch spotted a mast along the horizon. Both the Revenge and Queen Anne’s Revenge fired warning shots by cannon and musket.

Loaded with sugar, barrel staves, lumber, windmill fittings, and a significant amount of silver and plate en route from Barbados to Jamaica, the Great Alleyn was a significant prize. As the pirates approached, however, the ship’s captain, Christopher Taylor, ordered his crew ashore with the silver plate. The crew entrusted the silver with a young English girl. Taylor’s encounter was memorialized later in a deposition taken at Martinique on January 12, 1718.

When the pirates caught up with the Great Alleyn, they were enraged to find only Captain Taylor and a skeleton crew. Upon interrogation, the pirates bound Taylor’s hands and threatened to hang him unless the silver plate was returned. Taylor called for the silver plate, which was eventually returned to the ship with the young English girl. Twice throughout the next day, Taylor, the girl, and six others were detained and locked up.

Eventually, Taylor, the girl, and his crew were released, and the Great Alleyn, like other ships bound from Barbados, was set ablaze. Bonnet and Blackbeard, however, had captured one of their most significant and bountiful prizes. According to Colin Woodard, author of The Republic of Pirates, in addition to the silver and plate taken from the Great Alleyn, Blackbeard also took “a cup of such exquisite value and workmanship that future captives would remember it above all the riches they saw aboard Blackbeard’s ships.”83

According to Taylor, the pirates intended to careen at Providence (in the Bahamas), and from there head toward Brazil “in order to make a complete fortune,” before returning back to Providence.

77 “America and West Indies: January 1718, 1-13,” in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 30, 1717-1718, ed. Cecil Headlam (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1930), 142-155. British History Online, accessed May 22, 2019, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol30/pp142-155.