Jan 14, 2023
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from Denmark
seen from Singapore
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Malaysia
seen from France
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from China
Maria Lindsey & Eric Cobham Years Active: Early 1700s Country of Origin: Comments: Possibly a fictional pirate operating on the Canadian east Coast. Maria was born in Plymouth, England in the 18th century. She was the wife of the ruthless pirate Captain Eric Cobham. When they met he told her about his profession, with all the gory details; she was enchanted and married himnext day. She left her hometown and joined his pirate crew. They sailed to the Americas where they made most of their wealth. "Murder for her was not merely a business necessity in the pirate trade; it was a pleasure and a sport" (De Pauw). An example of her 'pleasure' was to tie the captain and two mates of a plundered ship to her ship's windlass and used these men for target practice. Both also followed a policy of leaving no survivors. After 20 years of plundering and murder, the Cobhams decided to retire from piracy in France. They had two sons and a daughter and settled so well into the community that Eric was asked to take the place of the late local magistrate, making him a judge! This life was hard for Maria Cobham to adjust to and she committed suicide ... by drinking poison and throwing herself into the sea. Her body washed ashore two days later. Eric Cobham was conscience-striken. He wrote out a detailed confession of his past life and frequented the local church. He gave the confession to the local pastor and made him promise to publish it after his death. The pastor agreed against the wishes of the Cobham family. The family tried to purchase every single copy of the published confession they could lay their hands on.
Alvilda
Alias: Alfhild, Aelfhild, Alwilda, Awilda Years Active: Post 850 AD. Often wrongly dated to 450 AD. Country of Origin: Swedish Viking Comments: There is some doubt of Alvilda's actual existence, in fact, the date of her reign cannot be verified. Much of what is known is based on the verbal retelling by bards in the Viking halls: The story starts with Alvilda rejecting her suitor, Prince Alf (son of King Sigarus or Sigar of Denmark). There is a difference of opinion on how her rejection took place: Some say Prince Alf successfully entered Alvilda's room by besting her 'guard snakes'. Since he was able to pass this feat, he’d win the hand of Alvilda should she agree. The other version of the rejection is that Alvilda's father set up an arranged marriage with Prince Alf, which the princess rejected. Either way, instead of marrying the prince, she fled her home with women recruits who did not want to marry. Alvilda's recruits soon ran into some mourners who had lost their captain. Alvilda took command of this crew and took up piracy. With a group double in size, she became a menace to the shipping community and her thievery alerted the law around the Danish coast. Prince Alf, who was unaware the pirates were commanded by his bethrothed, attacked the pirate ship. Eventually the prince's crew boarded the ship and killed most of the pirates. When Alvilda was taken to the prince, he recognized her and proposed marriage. She accepted, quit piracy and eventually became Queen of Denmark.
Rachel Schmid-Wall (1670-1789)
Years Active: 1780s Country of Origin: Comments: Thought to be the first American female pirate. Born in 1760 in Carlisle, PA Rachel married George Wall at the age of 16. He was a former privateer who served in the Revolutionary War. The newlyweds moved to Boston where Rachel took a job as a maid and George as a sailor on a fishing schooner. Soon after, George suggested to five sailors/friends that they take up piracy. They had all been privateers and accepted. George also asked Rachel to join them, which she did. They used a friend's fishing schooner and paid for it's use with part of the loot. Disguised as a fishing boat, they would ply the waters off Boston when a storm hit, putting out distress signals to lure ships to their doom. Once a ship stopped to help them, its crew was attacked and killed. The loot would be transferred over to the "fishing boat" and the aided ship would be sunk to make it appear it had sunk due to the storm. This scheme worked well until 1782, when George Wall made a miscalculation regarding a storm. Their schooner was caught in the storm and George and his crewmen were swept overboard and drowned. Rachel was rescued and taken to Boston where she went back to her old job as a servant. So used to robbery, Rachel continued her trade by stealing from seafarers while they slept upon their ships. She would board a ship and steal from the captain's head while the captain was sleeping. In 1789 she was arrested and convicted of a murder. She confessed to her crimes of piracy and stealing, but insisted she never murdered anyone. This did not sway the judge; Rachel was hanged October 8, 1789.
Jane de Belleville ~ alias Jeanne de Montfort, Jeanne de Clisson, Jane de Belleville, "The Flame" and "The Lionesss of Brittany" Years Active: 1343 Country of Origin: French Comments: A French noblewoman who turned against her country when her beloved husband was executed by the French as a spy. With vengeance in her heart, she sided with the English in the 1345 invasion of Brittany. Seeking to enter the fray herself, she purchased and prepared three ships with money from the sale of her possessions. She was a ruthless mistress of revenge at sea and on land, and no ship or town near the coast of Normandy was safe from her wrath. With a flaming torch in one hand and a sword in the other, she must have been a fearsome sight to behold, as she burned whole Norman villages to the ground.
(Edward Low part 3) Capsizing of the Rose Pink Forty leagues (120 nautical miles or around 220 km) to the east of Surinam, Low and his fleet of two ships (the Rose Pink and the Fancy, captained by a young Charles Harris) dropped anchor to remove growth such as seaweed and barnacles from the outside of the boats, in a process known as careening, necessary because no dry dock was available to pirates. Still relatively inexperienced, Low ordered too many men to the outside of the boat to work on the buildup, and the Rose Pink tipped over too far. The portholes had been left open, and the vessel took on water and sank, with the death of two men. The Pink had been carrying most of the provisions, and Low—by now captaining a captured schooner, the Squirrel—and his crew were forced to strictly ration their fresh water to half a pint (around 275 ml) per man, per day. Failing to reach their initial destination of Tobago due to light winds and strong currents, Low's depleted fleet made it to Grenada, a French-owned island. Hiding most of his men belowdecks, he was permitted to send men ashore for water. The following day, a French sloop was sent out to investigate, but was captured when Low's men came out from hiding. Low, now commanding the captured sloop (renamed the Ranger), gave the schooner Squirrel to his quartermaster, Spriggs, who renamed it the Delight before sailing away in the middle of the night with a small crew following a disagreement with Low over the disciplining of one of Spriggs' crew. Early 1723 “The Pyrates [were] waiting there for them, took them and Plundered them; they cut and whiped some and others they burnt with Matches between their Fingers to the bone to make them confess where their Money was, they took to the value of a Thousand Pistoles from Passengers and others, they then let them go, but coming on the Coast off of the Capes of Virginia, they were again chased by the same Pyrates who first took them, they did not trouble them again but wished them well Home, they saw at the same time his Consort, a Sloop of eight Guns, with a Ship and a Sloop which were supposed to be Prizes, they were Commanded by one Edward LOW. The Pyrates gave us an account of his taking the Bay of Hondoras from the Spaniards, which had surprised the English and taking them, and putting all the Spaniards to the Sword Excepting two boys, as also burning The King George, and a Snow belonging to New York, and sunk one of the New England Ships, and cut off one the Masters Ears and slit his Nose, all this they confessed themselves.” — The American Weekly Mercury, 6 June–13, 1723 The new fleet captured many more sloops, including one Low kept, naming it the Fortune. During a trial on 10 July 1723 for a number of Low's crew, a sailor on board the Fortunenamed John Welland recalled how Low stripped his boat, including gold to the value of £150, then beat him and cut off his ear with a cutlass. Following this, Low's fleet captured a Portuguese ship called the Nostra Signiora de Victoria on 25 January 1723. The Victoria'sPortuguese captain allowed a bag containing approximately 11,000 gold moidores (worth at the time around £15,000) to fall into the sea rather than see it captured. One of Low's most noted episodes of cruelty followed: in his rage, he slashed off the Portuguese captain's lips with a cutlass, broiled them, and forced the victim to eat them while still hot. He then murdered the remaining crew. Low's own men described him as "a maniac and a brute". A story describes Low burning a French cook alive, saying he was a "greasy fellow who would fry well", and another tells he once killed 53 Spanish captives with his cutlass. Some historians, including David Cordingly, believe this was deliberately done to cultivate a ferocious image. Historian Edward Leslie described Low as a psychopath with a history filled with "mutilations, disembowelings, decapitations, and slaughter". Low, like other pirates of the time, tried to intimidate his victims into surrendering, by threatening to kill or torture them. The crew of the targeted ship would hinder the officers from defending the ship, so afraid were they of reprisals. One failed torture session led to one of Low's crew members accidentally cutting him in the mouth. Botched surgery left Low scarred. A snow called the Unity was added to the fleet, and used as a tender, but was abandoned during an encounter with a man of war named the Mermaid. As Low's success increased in the Caribbean, so did his notoriety. Eventually, a bounty was placed on his head, and Low set out for the Azores, again teaming up with Charles Harris. As they terrorised the Azores, the pressure increased from the authorities, who by then had taken special notice of Edward Low, despite the hordes of pirates in operation at the time. A defeat Low, Harris and their ships left the Azores for the Carolinas. On 10 June 1723, they suffered a resounding defeat in a battle with HMS Greyhound, a heavily armed man of war. The Greyhound had been dispatched under the command of Peter Solgard to hunt down Low and his fleet. Low fled in the Fancy with a skeleton crew and £150,000 in gold on board and headed back to the Azores, leaving Harris and the Ranger behind. Twenty-five of the crew of the Ranger, including the ship's doctor, were tried between 10 July and 12 July, with Solgard giving evidence and recounting the battle. The men were hanged for felony, piracy and robbery, near Newport, Rhode Island, on 19 July 1723. Harris was sent back to England and hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping. When Solgard returned to New York, he was presented with the freedom of the city and a gold snuffbox for his part in bringing some of Low's crew to justice. End of Low's career Low, still captaining the Fancy, sailed north. He captured a whaling vessel 80 miles (130 km) out at sea, and in a foul mood following the encounter with the Greyhound and the loss of his right-hand man, Harris, tortured the captain before shooting him through the head. He set the whaler's crew adrift with no provisions, intending them to starve to death (they were lucky, and reached Nantucket after a difficult journey). Remaining off the coast of North America, his crew took a fishing boat near Block Island. Low decapitated the ship's master, and sent the crew ashore. When he captured two more fishing boats near Rhode Island, his actions became so savage his crew refused to carry out his orders to torture the fishermen. Heading south again, Low captured a 22-gun French ship and a large Virginian merchant vessel, the Merry Christmas, in late June 1723. Following the defeat by the Greyhound, Low became "peculiarly cruel" to his English victims. His fleet of three ships rejoined forces with George Lowther in July. In late 1723, Low and Lowther's fleet captured theDelight off the coast of Guinea, mounting fourteen guns on her, with command being given to Spriggs. Two days later, Spriggs and Lowther both abandoned Low, leaving him the Merry Christmas, by now mounted with 34 guns, as his sole ship. Fate There are conflicting reports on the circumstances of Edward Low's death. Charles Johnson—considered by some to be Daniel Defoe writing under a pseudonym—in his A General History of Pyrates, at odds with other sources, that Edward Low and the Fancy were last sighted near the Canaries and Guinea but at the time of his 1724 book, no further reports had surfaced. He noted one rumour that Low was sailing for Brazil and another that Low's ship sank in a storm with the loss of all hands. The National Maritime Museum in London states that he was never caught, ending his days in Brazil. The Pirates Own Book and Ossian both suggest that Low was set adrift without provisions by the crew of the Merry Christmas, in a mutiny brought about by Low's murdering of a sleeping subordinate following an argument. Low was subsequently rescued by a French ship; when the French authorities learned of his identity he was brought to trial, and was hanged in Martinique, in 1724.
"ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — St. Augustine was a military town for centuries. Spanish citizens lived there. Colonists lived, worked, laughed – and they were also attacked by pirates. First Coast News Re-enactors portray Sir Francis Drake and his men. The Spanish called them pirates, but they were heroes to the British. "Real honest-to-goodness pirates walked this land!" Pirate expert Pat Croce said. And these pirates didn't necessarily look like your standard, run-of-the-mill Hollywood pirate. Take Sir Francis Drake, for example. Drake was a pirate to the Spanish, but he was a hero to British. William Kunze is a re-enactor who recently portrayed Drake. "Drake was a privateer. One of Queen Elizabeth's favorites in the court," said Kunze. Drake's raid of St. Augustine in 1586 was so intense that now – nearly every year – re-enactors play out his sacking of St. Augustine in the streets and in front of tourists. Drake burned the city. "Truly, this entire city was razed to the ground," Croce noted. "Burned to the ground! The wooden fort, burned to the ground!" While under pirate attack, the Spanish colonists who lived here, ran. Chris Clark, a re-enactor said, the colonists "retreated. They ran off into the woods." Croce exclaimed, "They ran off to hide!" Drake's burning of St. Augustine left its mark, literally. In spots all over town, archaeologists now have found a layer of ash in the ground, several feet down. It's a battle scar in the dirt from Drake's burning of the town. About 80 years after Drake, another pirate attacked St. Augustine: Robert Searle. "Robert Searle sneaks in on a Spanish ship," Croce explained. That was sneaky because Searle was British. "He brought in a crew of bad pirates," Croce noted. "He murdered people right in the streets who weren't 'true blood' he called them." When Searle sacked St. Augustine, he left this town devastated. The Spanish crown could not afford to only let a wooden fort protect St. Augustine, so construction started on the Castillo de San Marcos, a strong stone fort. Other pirates attacked and attempted to sack St. Augustine, but not because it had treasure. Re-enactor Chris Clark said, "There was no gold. Nothing of value here." It was all about location, location, location. "You had the Spanish treasure fleets coming up the coastline twice a year," Clark said. Kunze added, "This was the last stop for the treasure fleet to go home." So if pirates could capture St. Augustine, "they could control the inlet and go out and attack the treasure fleets coming in," Clark explained. "It made this tiny, little, almost insignificant colony have the most important significance of Spain for a few weeks every year," Kunze said. Today, pirates fascinate people and play a role in the city's tourism industry. People want to know about these historic bad guys. Croce laughed. "And we want to tell you about them!" Pirate expert Pat Croce brought his Pirate and Treasure Museum to St. Augustine. Meanwhile, visitors also hop aboard the Black Raven Pirate Ship attraction in St. Augustine and set sail. "But we know in St. Augustine," Croce said. "These people came to murder and plunder and steal… and leave." And somehow, St. Augustine still stands. It's a testament of its people's fortitude. Croce said, "They've lived through centuries of havoc and despair and hurricanes and pirates and still, there they are, celebrating their 450th birthday!" It's a story of survival, about a place that started out as a small Spanish colony, but it grew stronger even after pirates attacks… and because of an enduring spirit." -Jessica Clark