Sea dogs & privateers and Pirates & buccaneers

[Hethwill]

Sea dogs & privateers and Pirates & buccaneers
the Black in history and the relation to Naval Action[/size]
 
 
Introduction
 
The Black flag "brotherhood" as a subject of study is one of the most complex to look into due to:

• Rapid social change and adaptation of the populations engaged in activities now generally known as piracy

• Closely entwined with National interests and political landscape during the period, especially wars and peace treaties
• Old issue of oral tradition / tell tale versus written word, most notably the trials and printed news and not the least books like the Capt. Johnson (Daniel Dafoe) works on the notable pirates and sea robbers (albeit with supposedly fictional ones added).
• Modern age academic studies conflict in some areas, especially in light with the new-age of political correctness and personal freedom which resurged the pirates as a myth and a beacon of freedom.
• Due to all of this constraints during a period of time that might be established correctly from 1650 to 1730. Less than a century long and one century less duration when compared to the upper limit of Naval Action timeframe ( c. 1820 ).
   
  When comparing Naval Action to the historical background that supports the whole game setting we must remember that it covers almost two centuries of naval history in the age of sail which includes all from the start of the multinational Caribbean ( Cromwell Expedition ) to the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
  During this time a new country was formed, the United States, which has representation in Naval Action.
   
  If we compare the amount of years of piracy, in the timeframe covered, to the United States years of existence there is no doubts that the former is comparable to say the least.
   
  Next we will deal with the chronology dealing with the Black, from its epic beginnings with the Queen's Pirate to the last pirate executed "before a cheering crowd". 
   
  Note: Given we are dealing with the Jolly Roger in a game we might overlook many of the aspects although it is my intention to give a light on them especially particular terms and specific aspects of the life at sea which have been robbed for other purposes other than the ones that were originally intended
   
  So let’s look a bit to the chronology of the Black brotherhoods.
  • Pre-1600,  the age of sea dogs. Not only English but also French and Dutch although the Francis Drake exploits represent the height of this era. Pirate term is first used both as a condemnable act, from the Spanish, or as appreciation as Queen Elizabeth shows calling Drake “my pirate” ( quite legendary ).
• Up to 1635, a period of strongest privateering under the Dutch. Was a direct legacy of the previous exploits by English and French. It is notable given it gave way to the Dutch trade representation in decades to come. Basically imposing trade rights in the Caribbean by violent coercion of the competition.
• Also in the same period, roughly, of 1600 to 1635, the establishment of the buccaneer camps in the western reaches of Hispaniola ( Haiti). It is important to note that although this specific group was multinational, French, English and Dutch, the camps themselves kept their national identities and even, in some cases, regional identity in case of Irish, Scottish, and others. Most of the buccaneers were, for many reasons, outcasts that make way to their own way of living - this is where the sense of not being subject to a “power” takes off as opposite to the previous sea dog national heroes.
• 1630 to 1650, there’s a massive increase in the population of the sparse buccaneer camps. I would say the multinational origins held true while having their identities kept in check and camps growing due to the influx of newcomers. The term “brethren of the coast” makes its debut. Spanish Empire goes across and tries to end the buccaneer activities by destroying their way of life, mainly the wild hunt and supply of food to maritime crews that made port. This resulted in the buccaneers turning into robbery and raiding Spanish galleons during the night using canoes and flyboats.
• In 1630 the term buccaneer is “officially” coined as meaning of maritime raiders.
• Also at this time the island of Tortuga ( in game La Tortue ) is turned into a buccaneer center and will remain highly contested for decades and will prove as one of the most influential points in the life of the West Indies.
• 1655 to 1660, the Cromwell Expedition takes Jamaica in ‘55 and thus the majority of the English origin buccaneers from Hispaniola leave for Jamaica. By 1660 buccaneering ( maritime raiding ) is the main revenue in the island.

Let’s stop here for a moment before we continue down the line.
 
What happens in those five years is that the buccaneer population splits between Jamaica and Haiti and Tortuga along their original national lines, Jamaica becoming predominantly english and their french “brethren” staying back in Hispaniola. Tortuga remains mostly multinational, a meeting point for buccaneers from all over albeit under the french brethren sphere of influence.
 
This specific event has a profound impact on the Black Flag history and can be linked back to Naval Action freedom of movement and perceived allegiance of many pirates which prefer to fly a black flag of independence but still retain a taint of national pride and most probably work together, when it is profitable, with that nation captains.(...) The governors of Jamaica and Tortuga for their part believed that privateering had many advantages, providing as it did employment for some very rough men, profits from fitting out and victualling the privateers’ ships, a stream of prizes to be sold cheaply in their markets and an effective and costless naval defence against counter-attack by the Spaniards. As for the governments at home in London and Paris, they were normally happy to condone or even actively encourage the issue of commissions in the West Indies. They believed that this continued pressure was the best method of encouraging Spain to recognise their de facto colonies in the Indies and ideally allow their traders to break into the lucrative Spanish colonial markets (...)
 
It is of importance, and this might be a guideline to any further Naval Action map work, that at the 1700 mark the buccaneer presence was no longer limited to Jamaica or West Haiti / La Tortue. It had expanded to many other territories including New Providence, Curaçao, Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Campeche bay and Honduras bay.
 
Their representation in Naval Action is not hard to spot if we take only 1 port per area as being, in my opinion, respectively - Nassau, Willemstad twin on the north coast ( there were 2 settlements back then ), Christiansted/Frederiksted, Amalienburg/Coral Bay, Campeche and Utila.

• 1660 to 1697, Henry Morgan legacy. What started with small scale action raids turned into full fledged massive land raids. Technically what started with catching a freighter unaware at port during the night and using canoes and small cutters turned into a very profitable “career” using bigger ships hosting hundred men and these, working together, would go out in fleets.
• The ransack of Panama in 1671 represents the maximum effect of this stage but by no means the single one in which all buccaneers took part, nearer or further from their stage areas,  to the full delight of the English and French authorities.
• 1673 - Netherlands officially suspends any privateering activities following the pact signed at The Hague. Dutch escorts start providing assistance to Spanish trade. It takes time until it comes into effect in the West Indies but eventually it does.
• 1680 - Treaty of Windsor, as a confirmation of the previous treaties of 1667 and 1670. England officially suspends any privateering activities.
• 1683 - Raid on Cartagena under de Graaf ahead of a privateer fleet. Spanish also use privateers to aid in the defense.
• 1697 - Raid on Cartagena conducted by the French. Six hundred “pirates” join the French expedition.
• 1697 - Treaty of Ryswick - the end for French privateering following the end of the Nine Years war. The island of Hispaniola is effectively split in two commanding powers, french in the west and spanish in the east. Tortuga remains fiercely rooted as a free port under the french sphere of influence.
• 1700 - The Jolly Roger. Reported as first hoisted, in black color, under orders of a French privateer turned pirate, Emanuel Wynn(e), while being chased by a English navy vessel.  ( it is the flag all pirates in Naval Action fly on their ships )

It is of note that the 1680 - 1700 decades represents the transition from the remnants of the former buccaneering to proper piracy. The interest in a settled existence wanes away and given that privateering licenses become harder to be issued, due mainly to the rapid succession of Maritime treaties and Peace, resort to non-sanctioned raiding. The transition from the grey zone of independent allegiance to a Power to the black zone of outlaw by all nations becomes a reality and as thus the “true pirate” comes into effect.
 
This is also the decade when Henry Every ( Avery ) and Thomas Tew raid into the Indian Ocean. Their exploits, which are superb in the amount of prizes taken, serve as a boom to the already encroaching pirate culture of self-made rich men out of illegal raid of any nation possessions. It is of note, especially on the local political level, that Governors didn't always follow the conventions of the Nations. Independent towns had their governors, as well as supposedly crown ports conducted their business in the fringes of the law as established by the ruling Powers.
 
For Naval Action this could represent Lords conducting their own personal deal with individuals. These "agreements" could be made under the table and reflect on the OW pirate as showing "friendly" for a time.
 
Also the continuous use of buccaneers and privateers by the warring Nations provides a overlook at how these independent crews still retained in the big part a strong sense of nationality and, to an extent, kept their "mercenary" work alongside the illegal outlaw activities.
 
This can also be a way of weaving the reality of piracy into the game politics.
 

---

 

• 1660 to 1697, Henry Morgan legacy. What started with small scale action raids turned into full fledged massive land raids. Technically what started with catching a freighter unaware at port during the night and using canoes and small cutters turned into a very profitable “career” using bigger ships hosting hundred men and these, working together, would go out in fleets.
  The ransack of Panama in 1671 represents the maximum effect of this stage but by no means the single one in which all buccaneers took part, nearer or further from their stage areas,  to the full delight of the English and French authorities.
  
  Quote from “the Pirate Wars”, Peter Earle

 

Quote

(...) The governors of Jamaica and Tortuga for their part believed that privateering had many advantages, providing as it did employment for some very rough men, profits from fitting out and victualling the privateers’ ships, a stream of prizes to be sold cheaply in their markets and an effective and costless naval defence against counter-attack by the Spaniards. As for the governments at home in London and Paris, they were normally happy to condone or even actively encourage the issue of commissions in the West Indies. They believed that this continued pressure was the best method of encouraging Spain to recognise their de facto colonies in the Indies and ideally allow their traders to break into the lucrative Spanish colonial markets (...)

 

 

It is of importance, and this might be a guideline to any further Naval Action map work, that at the 1700 mark the buccaneer presence was no longer limited to Jamaica or West Haiti / La Tortue. It had expanded to many other territories including New Providence, Curaçao, Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Campeche bay and Honduras bay.
 

Their representation in Naval Action is not hard to spot if we take only 1 port per area as being, in my opinion, respectively - Nassau, Willemstad twin on the north coast ( there were 2 settlements back then ), Christiansted/Frederiksted, Amalienburg/Coral Bay, Campeche and Utila.

 

• 1673 - Netherlands officially suspends any privateering activities following the pact signed at The Hague. Dutch escorts start providing assistance to Spanish trade. It takes time until it comes into effect in the West Indies but eventually it does.

• 1680 - Treaty of Windsor, as a confirmation of the previous treaties of 1667 and 1670. England officially suspends any privateering activities.

• 1683 - Raid on Cartagena under de Graaf ahead of a privateer fleet. Spanish also use private ships to aid on the defense.

• 1697 - Raid on Cartagena conducted by the French. Six hundred “pirates” join the french expedition.

• 1697 - Treaty of Ryswick - the end for French privateering following the end of the Nine Years war. The island of Hispaniola is effectively split in two commanding powers, french in the west and spanish in the east. Tortuga remains fiercely rooted as a free port under the french sphere of influence.

 

It is of note that the 1680 - 1700 decades represents the transition from the remnants of the former buccaneering to proper piracy. The interest in a settled existence wanes away and given that privateering licenses become harder to be issued, due mainly to the rapid succession of Maritime treaties and Peaces, resort to non-sanctioned raiding. The transition from the grey zone of independent allegiance to a Power to the black zone of outlaw by all nations becomes a reality and as thus the “true pirate” comes into effect.

 

This is also the decade when Henry Every ( Avery ) and Thomas Tew raid into the Indian Ocean. Their exploits, which are superb in the amount of prizes taken, serve as a boom to the already encroaching pirate culture of self-made rich men out of illegal raid of any nation possessions.

 

• 1700 - The Jolly Roger. Reported as first hoisted, in black colour, under orders of a french privateer turned pirate, Emanuel Wynn, while being chased by a English navy vessel.

 

 

It is of note, especially on the local political level, that Governors didn't always follow the conventions of the Nations. Independent towns had their governors, as well as supposedly crown ports conducted their business in the fringes of the law as established by the ruling Powers.

 

For Naval Action this could represent Lords conducting their own personal deal with individuals. These "agreements" could be made under the table and reflect on the OW pirate as showing "friendly" for a time.

__________________________________________________________

[interlude]

The Pirate Act.
 
Although laws for these offenses existed since 1340, specific legislation, in England, aimed at containing and forceful eradication of piracy and sea robbery came about, in a modern form, in the 16th century, 1536 Offence at Sea Act, due to specific conditions involving both continental and isles smugglers and sea robbers on occasional high seas plunder more than a constant threat. 
 
The 1536 Act wasn’t  adapted to the conditions that would develop in a new world, far from the center of power. It specified that “acts of piracy be tried according to common law procedure” and that it would be conducted by “Admiralty Sessions” in court of law and supervised by twelve “twelve good and lawful inhabitants in the Shire” ( by decree of Henry VIII ).
 
It is a legacy of local influence, of specific regional character and wasn’t coded for a more global scale. It became impossible to transpose these old Acts to the New World and the relations between the “colonial powers” would define both piracy and the legislation which would, more than naval guns and boarding melee, help bring a close to the black flag chapter in the New World.
 
According to the law and until 1684 it was impossible to trial anyone accused of piracy unless they would be deported back to England. This was atrocious to the communities for one reason. They had to pay all expenses due to the process of court and deportation, including the hiring of suitable “prison” ships, victuals for crew and prisoners and all that can be expected of such a enterprise. No wonder that most buccaneers and pirates were released after serving time. Many were reformed during this time and many pardons were issued, but we won’t cover that yet.

Quote

t hath been found by Experience, that Persons committing Piracies, Robberies and Felonies on the Seas, in or near the East and West Indies, and in Places very remote, cannot be brought to condign Punishment without great Trouble and Charges in sending them into England to be tried within the Realm, as the said Statute directs, insomuch that many idle and profligate Persons have been thereby encouraged to turn Pirates, and betake themselves to that sort of wicked Life, trusting that they shall not, or at least cannot easily, be questioned for such their Piracies and Robberies, by reason of the great Trouble and Expence that will necessarily fall upon such as shall attempt to apprehend and prosecute them for the same (...)

 
It is not a surprise that, give or take, from 1670 to 1713 the Act suffered some specific changes towards high sea robbery  but never covered in its entire scope, maybe and adding my personal speculation, due to Power struggles and that both England and France relied heavily on the sea rovers in the West Indies.
 
It is of high importance to call to attention that the most robust force to lobby for a more “deadly” Pirate Act were both the East India Company and the West India Company following suit. The Red Sea Mean represented a real and very serious threat to the EIC as much as the future pirates will do in the West African coast and Madagascar and felt until the end of the Napoleonic Wars by the hand of french corsairs like Sourcouf.
 

• 1713 marked the end of the the War of Spanish Succession and the spectacular return of the “true pirate”. This is the year which also marks the start of the end.

 
The Pirate Act reforms after 1713 would be the most effective weapon against piracy. More than all the guns of the navies combined and all because of the simple “total war” versus pirates, those that supported pirates, those that helped those that supported pirates, and basically anyone that could or would, at any given time contacted with pirates and kept the Law ignorant. This is no myth and we'll see how, by the end, piracy was nothing more than a constant desperate fight to survive rather than the glamourous days of the sea dogs and buccaneers.

 Addendum (30.8.16)

 The Pirate Act reforms also extended beyond and into the Maritime Commerce in which the sailors that impeded or refused to resist pirates during an attack would also be considered as taking "a pyracy" under the Law.
 
Rationality, Pirates, and The Law, Peter T. Leeson
Pirates of the British Isles,  Joel H. Baer
An Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy, 1700

[Hethwill]

I focus on the timeline I always got "taught" for NA, which is roughly the 1670 - 1820.

 

About the names, well, they didn't show up out of nothing. They were a product of an era, with specific conditions and a way of living which we could try to emulate in the game, by playstyle OR by developed mechanics. ( who knows what comes down the road ! )

 

What is incorrect is a lot of myths going on taken as truth, hence the points at the start where some modern takes on piracy deliver a more glamorous and freedom wanting democratic ways. They can dilute a lot of the true violence that marked piracy as a whole.

 

But we will get there. The last stage of piracy, usually what captivates the imagination is exactly what is missing in the chronology posted and for good reason is not ready to post.

 

I want to be able to link it all to possibilitis in game or in game references wherever possible. After all, half the fun of playing history is to discover and learn more about the era, the subjects and something specific to focus and investigate.

[maturin]

What are the main sources for the French buccaneers?

[Hethwill]

Using these but still a lot to go through. If you have more to suggest please do share.

 

- Captain Johnson/Daniel Dafoe - General History of Pyrates and Sea Robbers

- Benerson Little - the Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730

​- Markus Rediker - Villains of all Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age

​- Gabriel Kuhn - Life under the Jolly Roger

​- Peter Earle - the Pirate wars

[Anne Wildcat]

Most of the books you can probably find on Gutenberg.org for free.

I know for sure a General History of Pyrates can be found there.

[Hethwill]

Another one will be arriving soon at the office - The Buccaneers of America - By Alexander O. Exquemelin

It is present in every other bibliography and it seems as "big" as the Daniel Dafoe one.

[LeBoiteux]

What are the main sources for the French buccaneers?

 

If you have more to suggest please do share.

 

Not especially about buccaneers nor French ppl, but with some information from Archives on French pirates, buccaneers, freebooters, privateers, shipowners, ports...

In French. By an Archaeologist :

J-. P. Moreau, Une histoire des pirates : Des mers du Sud à Hollywood

[Vernon Merrill]

Another one will be arriving soon at the office - The Buccaneers of America - By Alexander O. Exquemelin

It is present in every other bibliography and it seems as "big" as the Daniel Dafoe one.

The Exquemelin book is a phenomenal piece of history...  Cant tell you how many times I've read that.

[Hethwill]

update in blue on the opening post.

post-1700 being composed. It is the most intricate and complex part given all the sea rovers get stuffed in the same bag while they really shouldn't.

Also the rift between anglo-saxon, gallic and latin sea roving attitude in the west indies after 1700 is the most interesting in my opinion.

[Hethwill]

Going through

'the Corsairs of France' C.B.Norman

 

[maturin]

On 3/7/2017 at 6:01 PM, Hethwill said:

Going through

'the Corsairs of France' C.B.Norman

 

Neat. Skip ahead to page 378 to a list of RN vessels taken by privateers.

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard]

Thanks for the post and the sources.