What Is a Pirate Republic?
“Pirates Shout Defiance at Royal Navy Ship.” Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo.
Limited License September 18, 2022.
As I was writing Captain Hornigold and the Pirate Republic, one of my editors kept asking me “What is a Pirate Republic?” My answers never seemed to satisfy her. The following is my attempt to provide a more definitive answer.
A pirate republic is a pirate base, a loose affiliation of pirate captains, their vessels, and crews in a safe haven run by the pirates themselves with a leader. The government that had jurisdiction may have abandoned the area, may still have jurisdiction but may be ineffective in controlling the pirates, or may even have welcomed the pirates. The pirates are free from governmental restraints except for those rules or practices they impose upon themselves.
What Defines a Safe Haven?
A safe haven may be defined by what it provides:
relative safety in a harbor or another secluded setting for the vessels and their crews
access to supplies such as timber, tar, sails, cables and lines, armament, black powder
an opportunity to offload plunder to agents (fences) who convert the plunder into pieces of eight for the quartermasters to distribute
an opportunity to careen their vessels and perform any necessary repairs
access to provisions for the next cruise including fresh water, fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat including live animals, and the where-with-all for the “kitchen” to function
access to entertainment for the crew, whether it be a tavern or two or the women who flock to the harbar so the pirates can relax and spend their pieces of eight
a welcome to non-pirate merchant vessels so they may resupply the local merchants, trade with the pirates, and trade with one another
easy sailing distance to one of the narrows of the shipping lanes—the Florida Straits between Florida and Cuba, the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola or the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
shelter from hurricanes and other storms.
When Does a Safe Haven Become a Pirate Republic?
A safe haven becomes a pirate republic when there is a lack of government and when an individual steps forward to declare himself their governor. The ”governor,” if one calls this person a governor, is accepted as the leader by the pirates in this pirate community.
If the leader is a pirate, he may not always be present in the safe haven. Pirates are transient. “No prey, no pay.” Staying in a safe harbor does not produce prey and therefore not the pay to keep the crew happy. Except for being wary during hurricane season—June through November—pirates need to be sailing. December through March are the best sailing months in the Caribbean. The weather is near perfect—dry, sunny, and clear skies. There are times when the “governor” will be sailing rather than in port.
The Rules of a Pirate Republic—The Pirate Code
Pirates, whether they were in a safe haven or aboard a vessel, were subject to what they called “The Pirate Code.” According to the code, pirate vessels were democratically run. Every member of the crew had an equal vote, including the captain and quartermaster. When the crew of a vessel captured plunder, generally, one-third after provisions and the needs for the vessel went to the owner of the vessel. The remaining two-thirds was divided equally, one share for each member of the crew. Often the captain received two shares, the quartermaster a share and a half, and the other officers a share and a quarter. Shares were also allotted to the family of a deceased crew member and a partial share was allotted to an injured crew member depending on his injury.
The captain and the quartermaster were selected by a vote of the crew. They could also be deposed by a vote of the crew.
The following are the articles of Bartholomew Roberts. [See Wikipedia, Pirate code] Bartholomew Roberts' Articles were similar (but not identical) to those of his former Captain, Howell Davis. In turn, Roberts' Articles influenced those of pirates such as Thomas Anstis who served under him and later went their own way.
I. Every man has a vote in affairs of moment; has equal title to the fresh provisions, or strong liquors, at any time seized, and may use them at pleasure, unless a scarcity (not an uncommon thing among them) makes it necessary, for the good of all, to vote a retrenchment.
II. Every man to be called fairly in turn, by list, on board of prizes because, (over and above their proper share) they were on these occasions allowed a shift of clothes: but if they defrauded the company to the value of a dollar in plate, jewels, or money, marooning was their punishment. If the robbery was only betwixt one another, they contented themselves with slitting the ears and nose of him that was guilty, and set him on shore, not in an uninhabited place, but somewhere, where he was sure to encounter hardships.
III. No person to game at cards or dice for money.
IV. The lights and candles to be put out at eight o'clock at night: if any of the crew, after that hour still remained inclined for drinking, they were to do it on the open deck.
V. To keep their piece, pistols, and cutlass clean and fit for service.
VI. No boy or woman to be allowed amongst them. If any man were to be found seducing any of the latter sex, and carried her to sea, disguised, he was to suffer death; (so that when any fell into their hands, as it chanced in the Onslow, they put a sentinel immediately over her to prevent ill consequences from so dangerous an instrument of division and quarrel; but then here lies the roguery; they contend who shall be sentinel, which happens generally to one of the greatest bullies, who, to secure the lady's virtue, will let none lie with her but himself.)
VII. To desert the ship or their quarters in battle, was punished with death or marooning.
VIII. No striking one another on board, but every man's quarrels to be ended on shore, at sword and pistol. (The quartermaster of the ship, when the parties will not come to any reconciliation, accompanies them on shore with what assistance he thinks proper, and turns the disputant back to back, at so many paces distance; at the word of command, they turn and fire immediately (or else the piece is knocked out of their hands). If both miss, they come to their cutlasses, and then he is declared the victor who draws the first blood.)
IX. No man to talk of breaking up their way of living, till each had shared one thousand pounds. If in order to this, any man should lose a limb, or become a cripple in their service, he was to have eight hundred dollars, out of the public stock, and for lesser hurts, proportionately.
X. The Captain and Quartermaster to receive two shares of a prize: the master, boatswain, and gunner, one share and a half, and other officers one and quarter.
XI. The musicians to have rest on the Sabbath Day, but the other six days and nights, none without special favour.
The Practices of a Pirate Republic—The Unwritten Code
An example of an unwritten code is the practice of not attacking merchant vessels while they were in the harbor. These vessels brought necessary supplies to the harbor, both for those merchants and residents ashore, and for those on a vessel.
Safe Havens During the Golden Age of Piracy: 1650s to 1730
The Caribbean was ideal for pirates because it was dotted with safe havens. Three of the most notorious are: Basse-Terre on Tortuga, Port Royal in Jamaica, and Nassau on New Providence Island, Bahamas.
Basse-Terre on the Island of Tortuga, Hispaniola
A Map of the Island of Hispaniola or St. Domingo by Thomas Kitchin, 1784. Reproduced from an original in the collections of the Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://lccn.loc.gov/2010593343.
Tortuga is a rocky, mountainous island north, northwest of the main island of Hispaniola. It is 23 miles long, 4 miles wide, 75 square miles. The north coast of Tortuga faces the Atlantic Ocean and was considered inaccessible by land and sea. The west corner of the island is adjacent to the Windward Passage. Basse-Terre, on the southeast corner of the island, with its natural harbor, was an early pirate safe haven.
Christopher Columbus thought the island, with its high east-west ridge line, had the shape of a turtle shell so he named it Tortuga. The island was originally settled in 1625 by a few Spanish and then by the French and the English from Saint Kitts. They were evicted by the Spanish army in 1629 who fortified the island. The Spanish left within a year and the French returned to occupy the fort and expand the Spanish-built fortifications.
The island was then divided into French and English colonies but the Spanish came back in 1635 and evicted both colonies. The Spanish left again and the French and English returned. By now, Dutch settlers were also establishing a presence. The Spanish reappeared in 1638 and evicted the French and Dutch but they returned.
In 1642, French authorities appointed Jean Le Vasseur, a military engineer, as governor with instructions to remove the English. Le Vasseur had his own ideas and set up a mini-state, independent from France. He and his 100 men cleared a plateau, 30 feet above the natural harbor at Basse-Terre, a small fishing village. There they constructed a fort, Fort de Rocher, and took command of the harbor with their forty guns. When the Spanish returned, the French drove them away.
With Le Vasseur and his men in control of the harbor, the town welcomed French, English and Dutch buccaneers who called themselves Brethren of the Coast. The term buccaneer comes from the French boucan, a grill for the smoking of viande boucaneée, or dried meat, for use in vessels at sea. Brethren of the Coast were a loose coalition of privateer captains and their men.
The location of Basse-Terre was perfect with its close proximity to the Windward Passage and Le Vasseur provided safety in exchange for a share of their plunder.
In 1652, Le Vasseur was assassinated by two of his close lieutenants. He had taken a mistress from one of the lieutenants and had abused her.
Two years after Le Vasseur’s death, the Spanish destroyed the fort and recaptured Terre-Basse and its harbor. A year later, 1655, Tortuga was reoccupied by English and French.
By 1670, the buccaneer era was in decline. During this time, Henry Morgan, a Welsh privateer, came to Tortuga and invited the pirates to sail with him. They were hired by France to give the French more of a presence in the Caribbean. As a result, the pirates never really controlled Tortuga and the Basse-Terre harbor was kept as their neutral hideout.
In 1680, the English Parliament enacted a law that forbade sailing under a foreign flag, a common practice in the Caribbean. This was a major setback for the pirates. The Truce of Ratisbon in 1684, signed by the European powers, in effect put an end to piracy, per se. Many former pirates were hired into the Royal services to suppress pirate activities.
The harbor at Basse-Terre remained an out of the way place where pirates had some degree of safety.
During the ten years that Jean Le Vasseur was the “governor” of Tortuga, Terra-Basse demonstrated the attributes to be considered the capital of a pirate republic.
Port Royal on the Island of Jamaica
A New & Accurate Map of the Island of Jamaica, Divided into its Principal Parishes, by Emanuel Bowen, 1767. Reproduced from an original in the collections of the Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4960.ar191300. Note Port Royal at the tip of the spit (landform) in the right insert.
Jamaica is approximately 146 miles long, 51 miles wide, 4,411 square miles and is located about 90 miles south of Cuba and 119 miles west of Hispaniola. Jamaica is close to the shipping lanes that use the Florida Straits or the Windward Passage.
The early inhabitants of Jamaica, the Taíno, named the island “Xaymaca,” the land of wood and water. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain in 1494 and named the island Santiago. Jamaica was the third largest of the four Caribbean islands Spain claimed. In 1534, Spanish Town (Jago de la Vega) (present day St. Catherine) became the capital.
In 1649, King Charles I was executed and the English government changed to a Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector in 1653 and the Anglo-Spanish War began a year later. English forces began their invasion of Jamaica in May 1655. This was a part of Cromwell’s plan to acquire new colonies in America.
The English drove out the Spanish and renamed the island Jamaica. As the Spanish left, they freed their slaves who fled into the mountains, joining the Maroons, those who had previously escaped to live with the Taíno native people. During the centuries of slavery, the Maroons established communities in the mountains where they maintain their independence and freedom. When the English arrived, they needed to contend with an environment that was a health threat to these newly arriving Europeans and also the Maroons who were constantly on the attack.
England continued to import settlers and soon developed sugar plantations. At first, the English enslaved the indigious population as a source for their labor needs. After exhausting that supply due to European disease, over work, and armed conflict, they turned to the African slave markets. By 1660, the Jamaican population was about 4,500 white and 1,500 black. In ten years, the Jamaican population was more black than white. In 1660, the Anglo-Spanish War came to a close.
In 1492, Spain and Portugal expelled their Jewish population. Some moved to the Netherlands and England while others overtly converted to Catholicism. As early as 1510, soon after Columbus’s son arrived on the island, some Jews began to settle in Jamaica, They were primarily merchants and traders. Once the Spanish were driven from Jamaica, the Jews were able to live a more open life. By 1660, Jamaica had become a refuge for Jews.
They suggested to the English that the best defense against the Spanish was to build up the island’s defenses by making the colony a base for Caribbean pirates and what better place than Port Royal. With the pirates making Port Royal their safe haven, the Spanish would be deterred from attacking.
Port Royal was founded in 1494 and is located at the mouth of Kingston Harbor, in southeastern Jamaica. Port Royal was once the largest city in the Caribbean. During the latter half of the 1600s, Port Royal functioned as the center for shipping and commerce in the Caribbean, even though Spanish Town was Jamaica’s official capital.
In 1657, two years after the death of Jean Le Vasseur, Edward D’Oyley, the governor of Jamaica, invited the Brethren of the Coast to come to Port Royal and to make it their home port.
By 1659, five forts had been built to defend the harbor and 200 houses, shops and warehouses had been built around the forts.
In 1664, hostilities between the English and the Dutch led to the English to issue letters of marque (commissions) for the capture of Dutch vessels. Pirates could become privateers.
In 1667, diplomatic relations between England and Spain worsened and the rumors were that Spain was preparing to attack Jamaica. Henry Morgan assembled ten ships and 500 men to protect Jamaica. They were joined by two ships and 200 men from Tortuga. Morgan received a letter of marque to attack Spanish ships at sea and any plunder from these attacks would be shared between the government and the owners of the vessels who owned the pirateers vessels. Morgan went beyond the letter of marque and attacked settlements and thereby keep all of the plunder. Morgan raided Puerto Principe (now Camaguey in Cuba), Porto Bello (Panama), Maracaibo and San Antonio de Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela.
In 1670, England and Spain signed the Treaty of Madrid whereby the parties agreed for the settlement of disputes in America. The treaty officially ended the war begun in 1654 in the Caribbean in which England had conquered Jamaica. This treaty changed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, a Treaty that had confirmed Columbus’s claim of the new world for Spain except for Brazil. By The Treaty of Madrid, confirmed for England the land they held by adverse possession, including Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas and the English colonies in North America.
In 1671, Morgan raided Panama City and his raid enraged the Spanish so the English sent him back to England where he spent three years, and returned as acting lieutenant governor of Jamaica from 1674-75, 1678, and 1680-82.
By 1687, Port Royal was able to defend itself and Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws and Port Royal began to change and Port Royal was no longer a safe haven.
In 1688, William of Orange was invited to land an army in England to drive out King James II and VII. After William landed, James fled to France and so began the Glorious Revolution. Mary, James’s daughter, and her husband, William, became the co-sovereigns William III and Mary II. The English islands in the Caribbean became a convenient destination for exiled Jacobite supporters.
On June 7, 1692, an earthquake and tsunami struck the Kingston Harbor and two-thirds of Port Royal sank into the sea. Of the population of 6,500, about 2,000 perished in the earthquake and tsunami and another 3,000 in the days following due to injuries and disease. Many of those who survived moved the fishing village of Kingston, across the harbor. Most of the trade moved to Kingston and Port Royal never regained its prominence.
Prior to 1693, Jamaica had a series of short serving lieutenant governors. This changed in 1693 when the governors began serving for extended periods of time: Sir William Beeston (1693-1702), Thomas Handasyde (1702-11), Lord Archibald Hamilton (1711-16) and Peter Haywood (1716-18).
From 1702-13, the Queen Anne’s War was taking place in North America and pirates were being issued letters of marque (commissions) by the governor of Jamaica and were becoming privateers and supplementing the Royal Navy. This practice of issuing commissions extended beyond the war. For example, in November 1715, toward the last years of Lord Hamilton’s governorship, he issued ten letters of marque including letters to Henry Jennings (Barsheba) and John Wills (Eagle). Jennings and Wills used these letters to attack the Spanish storehorse at San Sebastian Inlet on December 26, 1715, and seize the salvage from the Spanish Plate Fleet that had wrecked in July.
Port Royal was known as the storehouse and treasury of the West Indies and one of the wickedest place on Earth. At the time of the earthquake, it was one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the West Indies. In its day, Port Royal was home to privateers and pirates operating within the Caribbean.
Curiously, at the same time that Port Royal was hosting pirates, it was the Jamaica Station for the Royal Navy.
Port Royal had an effective government although pirates were free to come and go. It did not have a designated leader and therefore was not a pirate republic.
Nassau on New Providence Island, Bahamas
An Exact Draught of the Island of New Providence One of the Bahama Islands in the West Indies (17–). Reproduced from an Original in the collections of the Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4982n.ar175100.
Note: Oriented is north on the bottom.
New Providence Island, located in the Atlantic Ocean in the Lucayan Archipelago, is the major island in the Bahamas. The island is 21 miles long, 7 miles wide with an area of 80 square miles.
The island was discovered by Christopher Columbus and claimed by the Spanish but left undeveloped. In 1663 and 1665, King Charles II granted eight Englishmen a proprietorship over the lands south of Virginia and north of the Spanish claim of Florida. These eight were called The Lords Proprietors and they had rights to the land short of ownership. The king’s grant extended into the Atlantic Ocean and included the Bahamas. The Lords Proprietors had little economic interest in the Bahamas so they were virtually abandoned and left to tend to their own needs. Nassau on New Providence Island was the capital of the Bahamas.
The name Providence was given to the island by an early governor of the Bahamas who after surviving a shipwreck, gave thanks to Divine Providence for his survival. The word New was added later to distinguish it from Providencia off the Nicaragua coast.
In 1666, Europeans began their settlement of the island. By 1670, 900 people lived in the settlement of Charles Town, named after Charles II of England and Ireland.
In 1684, The Spanish destroyed the settlement and most of its residence flet to Jamaica. Two years later, in 1686, English settlers came up from Jamaica to repopulate the settlement.
In 1694, the Lords Proprietors appointed Nicholas Trott the governor of New Providence Island. [This Nicholas Trott should not be confused with his nephew, Nicholas Trott, from South Carolina.]
In 1695, Governor Trott had the town rebuilt and added a fort. The name of the settlement was changed to Nassau in honor of King William III, the Prince of Orange-Nassau. During Trott’s governorship, pirates and privateers found Nassau welcoming.
In 1697, Trott welcomed the pirate Henry Every, (aka Henry Avery and whose alias was Benjamin Bridgeman), his ship Fancy, and his 113 crew, to Nassau in exchange for £860 and the Fancy. Trott was happy to have Every and his crew because the French were planning an attack and Trott did not have the men to defend the town. The presence of the highly armed Fancy would help to protect the harbor as well. Trott chose to turn a blind eye to the fact that Every and his crew were wanted internationally for their seizure of Emperor Aiurangzeb’s treasure ship in the Indian Ocean and their abuse of its passengers who were on pilgrimage, an unforgivable violation of the Hajj. Every and his crew stayed in Nassau for a few months before leaving the Fancy with Trott and dispersing with their treasure.
In 1697, the Lords Proprietors replaced Trott with Nicholas Webb. By this time, pirates and privateers were a stantial presence in Nassau. Governor Webb was replaced in 1699 and his governorship was followed by a series of one year governors until 1704 when it became without an established government.
In 1700, the Spanish attacked again, destroying the fort.
In 1702, King William III died and his sister-in-law, Anne, became queen. During this period, the War of the Spanish Succession was taking place in Europe as to who would succeed to the Spanish throne and the Queen Anne’s War (Second French and Indian War), a territorial war, began in North America. Around this date, Thomas Walker became a judge for the Vice Admiralty Court of the Bahamas.
In 1703, the Spanish and French attacked Nassau and Fort Nassau was abandoned. The last governor for the Bahamas was Edward Birch in 1704. When he arrived in Nassau, he saw that the town had been destroyed so he went back to England. From that date, the Bahamas, including Nassau and New Providence Island, had no governor nor a government.
In 1713, Benjamin Hornigold, John Cockram and John West, arrived from Port Royal, acquired periaugas and began pirating. Around Christmas of 1714, Thomas Walker sailed to Harbour Island, captured Daniel Stillwell, seized the Happy Return, and brought Stillwell back to Nassau. Walker made arrangements for Stillwell to be taken to Jamaica for trial as a pirate. Hornigold interceded, saving Stillwell. Hornigold then claimed that all the pirates in Nassau were under his protection.
Nassau was a pirate base where pirates could find a safe harbor. With the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the appointment of Thomas Walker, a judge of the Vice Admiralty Court in the Bahamas expired leaving the Bahamas with no English government presence. Meanwhile, Jamaica was being overrun by out of work sailors and privateers. Hearing that Nassau had a wonderful harbor and the island was sparsely inhabited, some of these sailors and ex-privateers began to investigate Nassau.
On September 5, 1717, King George issued his proclamation offering a pardon to any pirate for his acts of piracy before January 5, 1718, provided the pirate surrendered to an appropriate British authority before September 5, 1718.
On February 23, 1718, Captain Vincent Pearse sailed into Nassau Harbor in the Royal Navy frigate Phoenix. He issued certificates of safe passage to any pirate who would take the king’s pirate. Over 200 pirates received certificates from Captain Pearse before he sailed in April for his home port in New York.
Benjamin Hornigold was the self-proclaimed leader of the pirate community in Nassau from 1713 until 1718. In 1718, Charles Vane declared himself to the governor of Nassau. Hornigold did not contest who was leader because Woodes Rogers, the newly appointed governor of the Bahamas, was due to arrive in August and Nassau would no longer be a safe haven for pirates.
Nassau was totally controlled by pirates and did have a self-proclaimed pirate leader who was acceptable by the other pirates, therefore, it should be considered a pirate republic.