the_life_and_tryals_of_gentleman_pirate

With the installation of Richards as the captain of the Revenge, and the taking of the Adventure at Turneffe, Blackbeard’s pirate fleet had grown into a sizable force, and Blackbeard had taken on the title of commodore.

At a later piracy trial in Charles Town, David Herriot was able to identify a number of pirates who were on board the Revenge and the Queen Anne’s Revenge, “but by reason of their frequent shifting from the said Ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge to the said Sloop Revenge” could not “say properly to which of them they belonged.”89

Among those pirates were “Edward Robinson[,] Gunner, Neal Paterson, John Lopez, Job Beely alias Bayley, William Scot, Thomas Nichols, Zachariah Long, Matthew King, William Livers alias Evis, Daniel Perry, Henry Virgin, William Eddy alias Nedy, James Mullet alias Millet, Thomas Price, and James Wilson.”90

Others too had given the expanding fleet additional attention. In a letter dated May 31, 1718, Lt. Governor Bennett of Bermuda expressed concern to the Council of Trade and Plantations about increasing collections of pirates coming out of New Providence in the Bahamas, among them “one Tatch [Blackbeard] with whom [was] Major Bonnett of Barbados in a ship of 36 guns and 300 men, also in company with them a sloop of 12 guns and 115 men, and two other ships, in all which, it [was] computed there [were] 700 men or thereabout.”91

Among the now more than 400 crew members were various levels of commitment to Bonnet and Thatch. From later trial transcripts, for example, we know that Thomas Nichols “was very much discontented,” but that Bonnet “said he would force him to go.”92 Nonetheless, Nichols “always separated himself from the Company,” and “behaved himself different from the rest, and did not join with them.”93 Nichols typically “looked very melancholy, and never joined with the rest their Cabals when they were drinking,” later saying “he would die before he would fight.”94

Lt. Governor Bennett identified other pirates from New Providence as well, including “one Coudon [Christopher Condent, more commonly known as ‘Billy One-Hand’] in a sloop of 12 guns, 6 pattireroes, 12 brass bases and 130 men, a French ship of 30 guns and 350 men most of that Nation, a French sloop of 6 guns and 40 men, one Vaine [Charles Vane] in a sloop of 6 guns and 60 men,” adding, “Several others may be out that I have not been informed off.”95

Lt. Governor Bennett’s letter was more than a mere roll call of reported pirates, for in it he requested that help be sent to the colony: “If what is known should join together they will be much superior to what force we can make to oppose them.”

The threat of pirate attack, along with Bennett’s observation that the “negro men” were grown “soe very impudent and insulting of late” that he had “reason to suspect their riseing,” prompted the lieutenant governor to request “another company consisting of the like number with officers [100 men, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, and 2 drummers] be sent over,” adding, “Also with submission it would be absolutely necessary that one fourth rate man of war or two fifth rates be ordered here.”96

The fact that Bonnet is mentioned along with the names of Blackbeard, Condent, and Vane is significant. In just over a year, and despite his inadequacies at sea, Bonnet’s status had elevated among the most famous captains of the Golden Age of Piracy.

89 The Information of David Herriot and Ignatius Pell

91 “America and West Indies: May 1718,” in Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 30, 1717-1718, ed. Cecil Headlam (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1930), 242-264. British History Online, accessed May 22, 2019, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol30/pp242-264.

95 Letter from Lt. Gov. Bennet to Council of Trade, May 1718. Available online.

96 Letter from Lt. Gov. Bennet to Council of Trade, May 1718. Available online.