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| Famous Pirates | |
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| Topic Started: 30 Sep 2007, 06:34 PM (257 Views) | |
| Nadine Brissot | 30 Sep 2007, 06:34 PM Post #1 |
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Famous Pirates Blackbeard Perhaps the most famed pirate from this period was known as “Blackbeard” but had been born Edward Drummond (also sometimes named as Edward Teach) in England in 1680 and operated off the east coast of North America in the period 1714-1718. Noted as much for his outlandish appearance as for his piratical success, in combat Blackbeard placed burning slow-match (a type of slow-burning fuse used to set off cannon) under his hat: with his face wreathed in fire and smoke, his victims claimed he resembled a fiendish apparition from Hell. Blackbeard's ship was the two hundred ton, forty gun frigate he named Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard met his end at the hands of a British fleet specifically sent out to capture him. After an extremely bloody boarding action, the British commanding officer of the fleet, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, examined Blackbeard’s body and discovered that it had taken five bullet wounds and twenty slashes with a cutlass before the pirate had finally died. Henry Morgan Henry Morgan was one of the most prolific English privateers of the seventeenth century. A bold, ruthless and daring man, Morgan fought England’s enemies for thirty years—and became a very wealthy man in the course of his adventures. Morgan’s most famous exploit came in late 1680 when he led 1700 buccaneers up the pestilential Charges River and then through the Central American jungle to attack and capture the “impregnable” city of Panama. The city’s capture was not much of a financial coup, as most of its wealth had been removed before the English attack and the remainder had been destroyed by a fire that swept the city even as Morgan had captured it. However, the sack of Panama City was a deep blow to Spanish power and pride in the Caribbean and Morgan became the hero of the hour in England (and also lent his name to a popular brand of present-day rum). At the height of his career, Morgan had been made a titled nobleman by the English Crown and lived on an enormous sugar plantation in Jamaica. Morgan died in his bed, surrounded by his family—something rarely achieved by pirates in his day or any other. William Kidd In 1695 Captain William Kidd commanded an English privateering venture in the Red Sea where he was to attack French shipping operating in the eastern Mediterranean during the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697). Unfortunately, most of the French shipping had already been dispatched by other privateers before Kidd had arrived. To keep his prize-happy crew from mutinying and probably killing him, Kidd began attacking other, less legitimate targets. On January 30, 1698, Kidd captured the Quedah Merchant. Owned by Armenians and flying the French flag when it was taken, the Merchant was one of the greatest prizes ever taken at sea, worth about 50,000 English pounds sterling. To his horror, Kidd discovered that the vessel was actually commanded by an English captain and crew who had been flying under false French colors to confuse potential pirates, which made his taking of the vessel an act of piracy against England. Kidd tried to return the merchant vessel to its owners, but his crew refused to give up their great prize. Upon his return to the English colonies at New York, Kidd (who is the only known real pirate to have actually buried his treasure, in this case on Long Island) tried to use his own new wealth to purchase a pardon for his piracy, but the English had taken a no-tolerance policy towards piracy. Kidd was taken prisoner and returned to England in chains, where he was imprisoned for a year and then duly hanged at the order of the Crown. Boysie Singh — a 20th Century Pirate John Boysie Singh, usually known as "the Rajah," "Boysie" or "Boysie Singh," was born on 5th April, 1908 in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad, and finally hanged in Port of Spain in 1957 for the murder of his niece, Thelma Hayes. He had a long and successful career as a gangster and gambler before turning to piracy and murder. For almost ten years, from 1947 until 1956 he and his gang terrorized the waters between Trinidad and Venezuela. They were responsible for the deaths of many fishermen — the number has sometimes been put as high as 400. Their technique was generally to board fishing boats, murder their crew, and steal the engine which they would later sell in nearby Venezuela after sinking the boat. Boysie was well-known to everyone in Trinidad and Tobago. He had successfully beaten two charges of murder before he was finally executed after losing his third case - for the murder of his niece. He was held in awe and dread by most of the population and was frequently seen strolling grandly about Port of Spain in the early 1950s wearing bright, stylish clothes. Mothers and nannies would warn their charges: "Behave yourself, man, or Boysie goyn getchu, oui!" Courtesy Wikipedia |
 
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4:05 AM Jul 30
