Pirates' Articles Many of the pirates used to have strict rules of conduct. Usually such rules were written down in articles and signed by every member of the crew. These rules usually included a description of how the spoils from a successful attack were to be divided. In the articles the punishment for breaking one or more of these rules was also laid down. These were usually very harsh punishments.
(Source: A general history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pyrates and also their policies, discipline and government, from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, in 1717, to the present year 1724. With the remarkable actions and adventures of the two female pyrates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. To which is prefix'd an account of the famous Captain Avery and his companions ; with the manner of his death in England. The whole digested into the following chapters ..., to which is added, a short abstract of the statute and civil law in relation to pyracy. By Captain Charles Johnson, 1724): Every Man has a Vote in Affairs of Moment; has equal title to the fresh Provifions, or ftrong Liquors, at any Time feized, and ufe of them at Pleafure, unlefs a Scarcity make it neceffary, for the good of all, to Vote a Retrenchment. Every Man to be called fairly in turn, by Lift, on Board of Prizes, becaufe, they were on thefe Occafions allowed a Shift of Cloaths: But if they defrauded the Company to the Value of a Dollar, in Plate, Jewels, or Money, Marooning was their Punishment. No Perfon to Game at Cards or Dice, for Money. The Lights and Candles to be put out at eight o'Clock at Night: If any of the Crew, after that Hour, ftill remained inclin'd for Drinking, they were to do it on the open Deck To keep their Piece, Piftols, and Cutlafh clean, and fit for Service No Boy or Woman to be allowed amongft them. If any Man were found feducing any of the latter Sex, and carried her to Sea, difguifed, he was to fuffer Death. To Defert the Ship, or their Quarters in Battle, was punifhed with Death, or Marooning. No ftriking one another on Board, but every Man's Quarrels to be ended on Shore, at Sword and Piftol. No Man to talk of breaking up their Way of Living, till each had fhared a 1000! If in order to this, any Man fhould lofe a Limb, or become a Cripple in their Service, he was to have 800 Dollars, out of the publick Stock, and for leffer Hurts, proportionably.

The Captain and Quarter-Mafter to receive two Shares of a Prize; the Mafter, Boatfwain, and Gunner, one Share and a half, and other Officers, one and a Quarter.

[Defoe, Daniel, 1661(?)-1731] Johnson, Charles
A general history of the robberies & murders of the most notorious pirates
New York: Lyons Press, 1998

In 1724, the first volume of ‘A General History...’ was published, purportedly written by a Captain Charles Johnson. Through court records and trial testimony, he brought together the stories of seafaring larceny, ruthless captains and rascally crewmen. It was not until 1932 that its authorship was correctly attributed to Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. It remains today a major source of information about piracy in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, a period during which the heirs of the epic privateers of Elizabethan England descended to indiscriminate and often brutal raiding of any and all merchant ships. Defoe’s background and his wide ranging contacts, as well as his literary talents, made him the ideal person to chronicle their rise and downfall.

Defoe, Daniel, 1661(?)-1731
The Life & Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900
Illustrated by Louis and Frederick RheadDaniel Defoe’s most famous novel was published in 1719 with the full title, The Life and strange and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. It is based, in fact, upon the experiences of Alexander Selkirk who had run away to sea in 1704 and requested to be left on an uninhabited island to be rescued five years later. Defoe himself was in his late fifties when he wrote the book, which is often considered to be the first English novel. Crusoe ends up on a desert island in the manner of Selkirk. With only a few supplies from the ship he builds a house, a boat and a new life. His island is not wholly uninhabited, though, and there is the exciting but ominous presence of cannibals who Crusoe occasionally encounters and saves a native from. The latter becomes his servant, Man Friday. The crew of a mutinying ship finally rescues our hero, but it is his adventure on the island that interests us.

The story has remained popular ever since its publication and it spawned two sequels: later in 1719 with The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and a third part, The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, in 1720 which consisted of moral essays. The first novel, though, is particularly notable for its detailed verisimilitude allowing us to believe in the situation - something assisted by the uncomplicated language used by the author.

Ordonnance Du Roy Portant Amnistie pour les Forbans [Broadside]
14 January 1719
ParisAs the West Indies gradually developed a population of settlers, the buccaneers and filibusters disappeared. Letters of marque (commissions to attack enemy ships) were more difficult to obtain and the buccaneers developed into independent fighting units that attacked French, English, Spanish or Dutch vessels without distinction. By 1720, filibustering had become piracy on the high seas; its heroic days were over. In this document the royal French authority offered amnesty to those pirates who voluntarily gave up their pursuits.

The “Golden Age of Piracy” lasted only about 40 years. The prey were not the gold and silver bearing galleons of the Spanish treasure fleets, but rather merchant ships hat brought slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean and returned to Europe carrying rum, sugar and other trade goods. This is the era that has been portrayed by writers like Robert Louis Stevenson and J.M. Barrie, artists such as Howard Pyle and Hollywood films.

[Anonymous]
Journal of the expedition to La Guira and Porto Cavallos in the West-Indies.
London, 1744.

The War of Jenkins’ Ear between Great Britain and Spain began in October 1739 and eventually merged into the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48). It was precipitated by an incident that took place in 1738 when Captain Robert Jenkins appeared before a committee of the House of Commons and exhibited what he alleged to be his own amputated ear, cut off in April 1731 in the West Indies by Spanish coast guards who had boarded his ship, pillaged it, and then set it adrift. Public opinion had already been aroused by other Spanish outrages on British ships, and the Jenkins episode was swiftly exploited by members of Parliament who were in opposition to the government of Robert Walpole.

George III, 1760-1820
Original Grant by His Majesty King George the Third of land in the parish of St. Patrick Island of St. Vincent to Archibald Ingram.
Grenada, 1773.Printed on five large folio sheets, the typography being the work of a Grenada printer, with the blanks filled in manuscript.The “isle of spice” is the southernmost island of the Lesser Antilles, lying in the eastern Caribbean Sea about 100 miles north of the coast of Venezuela. Oval in shape, the island is approximately 21 miles long and 12 miles wide, with an area of 120 square miles. The origin of the name “Grenada” is obscure. It was sighted by Christopher Columbus during this third voyage on August 15, 1498, when he sailed past the island without landing and gave it the name of Concepción. The warlike Carib Indians, who had earlier killed off the more peaceful Arawak, dominated Grenada for 150 years. In 1609 British merchants attempted to form a settlement but the Caribs forced them to leave.The French governor of Martinique, Jacques-Dyel du Parquet, purchased Grenada from a French company in 1650 and established a settlement at St. George’s. Grenada remained French until 1762, when it capitulated to the British. It was formally ceded to Britain in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris. In 1779, it was recaptured by the French, but it was restored to Britain in 1783.
Lord Horatio Nelson by Lemuel AbbottHoratio Nelson, Viscount Nelson,1758-1805
Manuscript. Account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson of His Majesty’s Ship Boreas relative to the Illegal Trade carried on between the Americas & the British West India Islands
No date. No place, but probably 1787.Horatio Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England to the Reverend Edmund Nelson and Catherine Suckling Nelson. His mother died when Nelson was nine, and by the time he was twelve, he had enrolled in the Royal Navy. On January 1, 1771, at the age of 12 years, Nelson joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman aboard the Raisonnable commanded by his uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling. At the age of 20 years, Lt. Nelson became Captain Nelson and took command of the frigate Hitchinbroke in 1779, at Port Royal, Jamaica. In the spring of 1784, Nelson was given command of the Boreas, a 28-gun frigate, with orders to enforce the British Navigation Acts that were designed to increase England’s share of overseas trade by declaring that all imports had to be carried in English ships. The Acts had become a major problem with the end of the American Revolution, as American vessels, now foreign, continued to dominate trade between the West Indies and the former colonies. Moreover, the West Indian merchants and planters, who were interested in maintaining a very profitable part of their trade, quietly encouraged such pernicious practices. The arrival of Captain Nelson was not greeted with exceptional joy. For the next three years, Nelson was constantly at odds with the local government and with his superior officers, who encouraged him to turn a blind eye to the illegal trade. Nelson refused to shirk his duty and consequently found himself insulted and slandered by the islanders.

The situation came to a head the zealous young commander seized four illegally laden American ships. Although the ships had obviously violated the Navigation Acts, their captains sued him for illegal seizure in the amount of 40,000 pounds. In the ensuing trial, the judge eventually upheld the British navy's right to seize the American ships. However, to avoid arrest and imprisonment in the interim, Nelson spent nearly eight straight months aboard his frigate--a situation that he did not find at all amusing.

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
Cup of gold: a life of Sir Henry Morgan, buccaneer, with occasional reference to history.
New York: Covici-Friede, 1936.

First edition, second issue. This 1936 issue of Steinbeck’s first book was printed with remaining sheets of the 1929 first edition but bound with new cloth. The 1929 edition consisted of 1,537 copies while this edition was comprised of no more than 939 copies.

Seitz, Don C. (ed.), 1862-1935
The Tryal of Capt. William Kidd for murther & piracy...
New York: Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Inc., 1936.William Kidd (d. 1701) was a British privateer and semi-legendary pirate who became celebrated in English literature as one of the most colorful outlaws of all time.

Kidd took his most valuable prize, the Armenian ship Quedagh Merchant, in January 1698 and scuttled his own un-seaworthy Adventure Galley. When he reached Anguilla, in the West Indies (April 1699), he learned that he had been denounced as a pirate. He sailed in to New York City where he tried to persuade the colonial governor of New York of his innocence. Instead, he was sent to England for trial and was found guilty of murder and piracy. Kidd was hanged, and some of his treasure was recovered from Gardiners Island off Long Island. In years that followed, the name of Captain Kidd has become inseparable from the romanticized concept of the swashbuckling pirate of Western fiction. Among other stories concerning caches of treasure he supposedly buried is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug.”

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
Gildemeister, Theda, ed.
The gold bug.
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1902The Canterbury Classics series. Illustrated by G.C. Widney. A mystery story of the treasure of Captain Kidd buried off the South Carolina coast.“...there was a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments –
nearly two massive finger and ear rings, rich chains -
thirty of these, if I remember - eighty three very large
and heavy crucifixes; five golden censors of great value;
a prodigious golden punch bowl, ornamented with richly
chased vineleaves and Bacchanalian figures; with two
sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other
smaller articles which I can not recollect.”

Ratiocination, cryptography, and attempted comedy combine in The Gold Bug, a tale that won Poe first prize of one hundred dollars in a story contest sponsored by The Dollar Newspaper in 1843. One newspaper reviewer called The Golden Bug “the most remarkable American work of fiction in the past fifteen years.” The publishers of the Dollar ran extra printings to meet audience demand and took out a copyright on the story, although smaller newspapers pirated it just the same. Poe estimated that in less than a year after publication three hundred thousand copies had been circulated.

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
The gold bug.
New York: Comet Press, 1945.

Illustrated by Howard Morris. Limited edition, 1200 copies.

Smith, Aaron, fl. 1823-1852
The atrocities of the pirates; being a faithful narrative of the unparalleled sufferings endured by the author during his captivity among the pirates of the island of Cuba.
The Cockerel Press, 1929.Illustrated with engravings by Eric Ravilious.

The text is that of the original edition of 1824. Smith left Jamaica in 1822 to return to England. He fell in with pirates and was forced to play their game in order to remain alive. When he was finally released by the Spaniards, he was handed over to the British Admiralty, and was prosecuted as a pirate in the Old Bailey. He was found innocent and was released.

Lincoln, Barnabas
Narrative of the capture, suffering and escape of Capt. Barnabas Lincoln and his crew, who were taken by a piratical schooner, December 1821…
Boston: Ezra Lincoln, 1821

An account of piracy in the Florida Keys. Captain Lincoln and his men left Boston in the winter of 1821 headed for the southern Cuban port of Trinidad. Before reaching Cuba their schooner, Exertion, was taken by pirates off Cape Cruz near Key Largo. The pirate captain claimed to be a Mexican patriot with a commission. Lincoln described his captors in no uncertain terms, “In their appearance they were terrific, wearing black whiskers and long beards, the receptacles of dirt and vermin. They used continually the most profane language…and so great was their love of gambling that the captain would play cards with the meanest man on board.” After enduring the violent, drunken outrages of the pirates, Lincoln and his crew were left to die on a desolate island, apparently one of the smaller keys.

[Howison, John]
The Florida Pirate: or, an account of a cruise on the schooner Esperanza, with sketch of the life of her commander.
New York, 1823.

In this apparently truthful narrative, the destitute author finds passage as ship’s surgeon of the Esperanza. Manuel, the black captain of the vessel, turns pirate and captures several prizes. Eventually, the crew mutinies and the author barely escapes with his life.

Ellms, Charles
The pirates own book, or authentic narratives of the lives, exploits, and executions of the most celebrated sea robbers.
Portland: Sanborn & Carter, 1837.

This book brings together authentic documents and published narratives from the time of the pirates and buccaneers and includes accounts of Captain Kidd, Captain Avery, La Fitte, and numerous others performing perfidious deeds in the Indies, Texas, New Orleans, and Africa. Of particular note is La Fitte’s interview with General Andrew Jackson in 1814, prior to the battle of New Orleans.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894
Treasure Island.
New York: Scribners, 1939
[reprint of the 1911 edition].Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. “Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17 - , and go back to the time when my father kept the `Admiral Benbow' inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof. I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a handbarrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
`Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!'
in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars.”So begins Treasure Island, an adventure tale of pirates, treasure and intrigue presented with consummate skill. Atmosphere, character, and action are superbly geared to one another; the book is at once a gripping adventure and a wry comment on the ambiguity of human motives.

Treasure Island was published in 1881 and quickly established itself as a classic, drawing praise from a wide range of literary tastes. In 1890, W.B. Yeats wrote to tell Stevenson that the book was the only one in which his seafaring grandfather had ever taken any pleasure and that he re-read it on his deathbed with infinite satisfaction. Jack London declared “Treasure Island will be a classic to go down with Robinson Crusoe, Through the Looking Glass and The Jungle Books.”

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894
Treasure Island.
Classics Illustrated 64
New York: Gilberton Company, 1949

Robert Louis Stevenson
La Isla del Tesoro (Treasure Island)
(Spanish release)
Metro - Goldwyn – Mayer, 1934
Directed by: Victor Fleming
Writing :John Lee Mahin
Wallace Beery: Long John Silver
Jackie Cooper: Jim Hawkins
Lionel Barrymore: Billy Bones
Runtime: 105 minutesCountry: USA
Black and White

Wyeth, N.C. (1882-1945)
Captain Billy Bones
American Illustrators Commemorative Stamp issue
Washington: United States Post Office

On February 7, 2001 the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of 20 thirty-four cent stamps on American illustrators. One of the stamps depicts the pirate Captain Bill Bones from the 1911 edition of Treasure Island.

Henty, G.A.
Under Drake’s Flag:
A Tale of the Spanish Main
New York: F.M. Lupton Company, n.d. (late 1800’s)
Illustrator unknown

Thulstrup, T. de, 1848-
A Charge of Cuban Cavalry Armed with Machetes.
No place; No date.

Spain’s control of Cuba lasted 388 years, from the time of Diego Velázquez de Cuellar, who conquered Cuba in 1511 until January 1, 1899, when Spain’s flag flew for the last time. During the 16th and 17th centuries Havana was the port for the treasure fleets that sailed for Spain. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of ships sank in Cuban waters, the victims of storms, war, faulty navigation, or pirates.

[West Indies]
Tourist Guide
London: Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, 1902.

In 1902 a 65-day trip to the West Indies by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company cost just £65. This book contains details of the various itineraries available, with exhaustive notes about the respective islands.

Gollomb, Joseph, 1881-
Pirates, old and new.
New York: Macaulay, 1928.

Sabatini, Raphael
Captain Blood, His Odyssey
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1922
Illustrated with Scenes from the Photoplay, a Vitagraph Production

In his great galley, the Arabella, Peter Blood, driven by treachery from his quiet home, sailed the romantic waters of the Caribbean Sea, Admiral of a fleet of pirate ships. Superb, even beyond Morgan, he is a figure of romance such as you have not imaged even in the most colorful of your dreams.

Captain Blood: His Odyssey is a well-rounded tale, beginning with Blood's settled domestic life and ending along with his career as a pirate. Along the way we learn how oppression drives men to desperate actions, how fate plays a hand in everyone's life and that love is possibly the greatest power of all.