If a Pirate I Must Be...: The True Story of Black Bart, King of the Caribbean Pirates

288 Pages·2007·1.5 MB·English

by  Richard Sanders

P irate
If a
I must be...
P irate
If a
I must be...
THE TRUE STORY OF “BLACK BART,”
KING OF THE CARIBBEAN PIRATES
RICHARD SANDERS
Skyhorse Publishing
Copyright © 2007 by Richard Sanders
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief
excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to:
Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018.
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
First published by Aurum Press Limited, 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-10: 1-60239-019-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-60239-019-5
Picture credits:
Page 1 © British Library Board. All rights reserved.
Page 2 top © private collection/The Stapleton Collection/The Bridgeman
Art Library
Page 2 – 3 bottom: artwork by Tony Bryan from NVG70, The Pirate Ship
1660 – 1730
© Osprey Publishing Ltd, www.ospreypublishing.com
Page 3 top, page 5 top, page 6 bottom: Mary Evans Picture Library
Page 4: The Buccaneers by Frederick Judd Waugh (1861 – 1940) © private
collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
Page 6 bottom: artwork by Christian Friedrich Zincke, National Maritime
Museum image no. PW3381
Page 8: © private collection/Peter Newark Pictures/The Bridgeman Art
Library
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of all material used
in this book. In the case of any omission, please contact the publisher, who
will make suitable acknowledgment in subsequent editions.
Text design by www.bluegumdesigners.com
Typeset by SX Composing DTP, Rayleigh, Essex
Maps created by Martin Lubikowski
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data is available on file.
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Map:
THE WORLD OF BARTHOLOMEW
viii
ROBERTS
Prologue 1
CAPTURE
1 15
THE BAPTIST AND THE PIRATE
2 33
BLADES OF FORTUNE
3 47
LEADERSHIP
4 67
TRIUMPH AND DISASTER
5 91
IN THE WILDERNESS
6 105
FISHERS OF MEN
7 125
‘TO CREOLES WE ARE A FOE’
8 145
THE GREAT PIRATE ROBERTS
9 163
AFRICA AGAIN
10 181
KNIGHTS ERRANT
11 201
DEFIANCE OF DEATH ITSELF
12 223
COMMON ENEMIES OF MANKIND
237
POSTSCRIPT
Appendix 1: 251
ROBERTS’ SHIPS, CREW AND PRIZES
Appendix 2: 262
THOMAS ANSTIS’S ARTICLES
Selected Sources 264
Index 270
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost I should like to thank my father for his help with
French and Latin sources, for his advice and thoughts on the book and
for instilling a love of history in me. I should also like to thank Phoebe
Clapham and Natasha Martin, my two editors at Aurum, for their
invaluable comments and suggestions; Celia Hayley at my agents, Lucas
Alexander Whitley, for her help in the early stages of the project and
Julian Alexander for his advice in the latter stages; the ever-helpful and
efficient staff at the National Archive in Kew, as well as the staff at the
British Library, the National Library of Wales, the National Archives
of Scotland and the National Maritime Museum. Finally I would like to
thank my wife Mary, without whose love and support this book would
have been impossible, for reading and re-reading countless drafts, and my
sons, Louis and Charlie, for indulging my endless pirate stories.
For Louis and Charlie, my own pirates

‘IN AN HONEST SERVICE THERE IS THIN COMMONS,
LOW WAGES, AND HARD LABOUR; IN THIS,
PLENTY AND SATIETY, PLEASURE AND EASE,
LIBERTY AND POWER. NO, A MERRY LIFE AND A
SHORT ONE SHALL BE MY MOTTO.’
BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS