Pirates On The Bay

Pirates and privateers (thieves who had the blessings of their home countries) were major players in Chesapeake Bay history. They once roamed the waters of the Bay, looking for prey or outfitting themselves to search for quarry elsewhere.

The Pirate Lifestyle

In the early 17th century, pirates established settlements near the southern end of the Bay, increasing the possibility of attacks by pirates or ships from countries in an uneasy peace with England. As the young Virginia colony flourished and commerce with Europe expanded, pirates and privateers found plenty of opportunities to prey upon vessels voyaging across the Atlantic.

Despite early efforts to keep piracy out of Chesapeake waters, pirates could not long be confined to the high seas. By 1635, the first act of piracy had been committed on the Chesapeake.

• William Claiborne, owner of a plantation on Kent Island, Maryland, sent his agent to capture a small pinnace (boat) as it approached Palmer's Island at the head of the Bay.
• Fueled by growing tensions between Maryland and Virginia, Claiborne (a Virginian) was likely angry that the Maryland pinnace had invaded the territory of his Kent Island plantation.
• This event sounded the starting gun for almost 200 years of piracy on the Bay.

Despite continual victimization of colonial ships, pirates were often tolerated and even courted by governors, merchants and citizens of the colonies. In some ways, support of piracy marked their growing restlessness to become independent from England. Colonial merchants purchased from pirates the black market goods that they could not get from England.

Despite their apparent prosperity, most pirates led hard lives and died early. Life aboard the vessels was miserable; the wooden ships were dank and moldy, and stank of rotted meat, waste and unwashed bodies. The work was unending and disease ran rampant. Half of a crew could be lost to disease on a single voyage. If the men did not succumb to disease, they could easily lose their life or limbs in battle; and, on occasion, punishment awaited them when they returned to shore.

The brutal life onboard and the likelihood of injury or death did not dissuade all seamen from joining the ranks of the picaroons. The slim possibility of financial reward was a strong incentive. Although many died with little to their names, others somehow managed to thwart authority and see reward for their efforts.

A Few Bay Pirate Tales

One particularly clever threesome, Davis, Wafer and Hinson, decided to settle in Virginia with the spoils from five years of piracy in the south seas.

• After traveling over land from Delaware Bay to the head of the Chesapeake, they headed down the Bay in a shallop.
• During their trip, they were captured by Captain Rowe of the Dumbarton and thrown in the Jamestown jail for a year.
• The three petitioned the Virginia council several times for return of their confiscated treasures.
• Finally, in 1692, a deal was arranged in which the King of England proclaimed that their loot be returned, minus 300 pounds, which would go towards the founding of the College of William and Mary.

William Kidd was a reputable and successful man who owned several properties in Manhattan before taking to piracy.

• Kidd commandeered the Adventure Galley, capturing several European ships near Madagascar and in the Red Sea.
• In 1699, following an order from England, proclamations were distributed authorizing the capture of Kidd and his cronies.
• Kidd soon arrived on the Delaware coast, where some of his crew left the ship.
• Shortly after, he sailed for Boston where he was arrested and deported to England.
• On May 23, 1701, the infamous Captain Kidd was hanged.

Theophilus Turner, one of the men who left Kidd's ship in Delaware, boarded Andrew Gravenrod's sloop as she headed up the Bay. Turner had plans to take his treasure and settle quietly in the tidewater area. Anchored in the Severn River, Gravenrod's sloop was soon visited by an agent of the Maryland governer. Turner was arrested, his treasure confiscated, and he was sent off to England for trial.

Of all pirates, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was probably the most legendary. His untrimmed beard extended from his eyes down to his chest and was braided into ribboned tails. A master at creating terror, Teach would stick long-burning fuses under his hat before going into battle, making him appear all the more demonic.

Like other pirates, he sometimes used the seclusion of the Eastern Shore to prepare his ship for sea. Though his travels were far-ranging, the area off the Virginia capes also proved fertile pirating grounds. In the fall of 1717, he and Captain Hornigold captured the sloop Betty off Cape Charles and plundered Madeira wine and other valuables.

By the summer of 1718, Teach decided to live the life of a "gentleman," settling in Bath, North Carolina and marrying his 14th bride. His gentlemanly life was cut short when his nemesis, Governor Spotswood of Virginia, sent Captain Maynard to North Carolina to challenge Teach. After a bloody fight, Maynard prevailed and carried his prize—Blackbeard's head—back to Hampton, Virginia on the bowsprit of his ship.

Although it would be easy to dismiss these aquatic bandits as mere novelties, they helped shape the patterns of settlement on the Bay's shores and the consequent use of its waters. To Blackbeard, the Davis trio and other pirates who frequented the Bay, we owe a colorful—yet barbaric—slice of Bay history.