Part 10

Gow being now elected captain and one Williams, a thorough rogue, mate, they renamed the vessel the _Revenge_, armed her with eighteen guns, and cruised off the coast of Spain, taking an English sloop with a cargo of fish from Newfoundland, commanded by Captain Thomas Wise of Poole. Their second prize was a Glasgow ship loaded with herrings and salmon.

They next sailed to Madeira, where Gow presented the Governor with a box of Scotch herrings. About this time Williams, the first mate, insulted Gow by accusing him of cowardice because he had refused to attack a big French ship, and snapped his pistol at him. Two seamen standing near shot Williams, wounding him severely, and to get rid of him they put him aboard one of their prizes. Discussions now took place as to where to sail, and Gow, who was in love with a lass in the Orkney Islands, suggested sailing thither, as being a good place to traffic their stolen goods.

On arriving at Carristown they sold most of their cargo, and one of the crew, going on shore, bought a horse for three pieces of eight and rode to Kirkwall and surrendered himself. Next day ten more men deserted, setting out in the long-boat for the mainland of Scotland, but were taken prisoners in the _Forth_, of Edinburgh. By now the whole countryside was alarmed. Gow's next move was to land his men and plunder the houses of the gentry. They visited a Mrs. Honnyman and her daughter, but these ladies managed to get their money and jewellery away in safety. Gow's crew marched back to their ship with a bagpiper playing at their head.

They now sailed to Calfsound, seized three girls and took them aboard. Then to the Island of Eda to plunder the house of Mr. Fea, an old schoolmate of Gow's. Arriving there on February 13th, by bad management they ran their vessel on the rocks. The bo'son and five men went ashore and met Mr. Fea, who entertained them at the local public-house. By a simple stratagem, Mr. Fea seized first the bo'son and afterwards the five men. Soon after this, Fea trapped Gow and all the rest of his crew of twenty-eight men. Help was sent for, and eventually the _Greyhound_ frigate arrived and took Gow and his crew to London, arriving off Woolwich on March 26th, 1725. The prisoners were taken to the Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, and there found their old companion, Lieutenant Williams. Four men turned King's evidence--viz., George Dobson, Job Phinnies, Tim Murphy, and William Booth.

The trial at Newgate began on May 8th, when Gow was sullen and reserved and refused to plead. He was ordered to be pressed to death, which was the only form of torture still allowed by the law. At the last moment Gow yielded, and pleaded "not guilty." Gow was found guilty, and hanged on June 11th, 1725, but "as he was turned off, he fell down from the Gibbit, the rope breaking by the weight of some that pulled his leg. Although he had been hanging for four minutes, he was able to climb up the ladder a second time, which seemed to concern him very little, and he was hanged again."

His body was then taken to Greenwich and there hanged in chains, to be a warning to others.

GRAFF, LE CAPITAINE LAURENS DE. Filibuster.

Commanded _Le Neptune_, a ship armed with fifty-four guns and a crew of 210 men, in the West Indies in the seventeenth century.

GRAHAM, CAPTAIN.

Commanded a shallop, with a crew of fourteen men, in 1685. Sailed in company with Captain Veale up and down the coast of Virginia and New England.

GRAMBO.

Was "boss" of Barataria, the smugglers' stronghold off the Island of Grande Terre, near Louisiana, until shot by Jean Lafitte in 1811.

GRAMMONT, SIEUR DE. French filibuster.

One of the great buccaneers. Born in Paris, he entered the Royal Marines, in which he distinguished himself in several naval engagements.

He commanded a frigate in the West Indies, and captured near Martinique a Dutch ship with a cargo worth £400,000, which he carried to Hispaniola, but there lost all of it through gambling, and, not daring to return to France, he joined the buccaneers.

He sailed to Curaçoa in 1678 with the Count d'Estrees' fleet, which was wrecked on a coral reef off the Isle d'Aves. De Grammont was left behind to salve what he could from the wreck. After this, with 700 men he sailed to Maracaibo, spending six months on the lake, seizing the shipping and plundering all the settlements in the neighbourhood.

In June, 1680, de Grammont, with an obsolete commission and a small party of men, made a brilliant night assault on La Guayra, the seaport of Caracas. Only forty-seven men took part in the actual attack on the town, which was guarded by two forts and by cannon upon the walls. The pirates were attacked next day by 2,000 Spaniards from Caracas, but with the greatest skill and bravery de Grammont got almost all his party away, though wounded himself in the throat. He carried away with him amongst his prisoners the Governor of the town.

He retired to the Isle d'Aves to nurse his wound, and later went to Petit Goave.

In 1683 took part in the successful English and French attack on Vera Cruz, and afterwards, when Vanhorn died of gangrene, de Grammont, his lieutenant, carried his ship back to Petit Goave. In 1685 he received a fresh commission from de Cossey, the Governor of Dominica, and joined forces with the famous buccaneer Laurens de Graff at the Isle of Vache, and sailed with 11,000 men for Campeachy. Taking the town, he reduced it to ashes and blew up the fortress, returning with the plunder to Hispaniola. Before leaving, however, to celebrate the Festival of St. Louis, they burnt a huge bonfire, using 200,000 crowns worth of logwood.

Grammont at this time commanded a fine ship, _Le Hardy_ (fifty guns and a crew of 300 men).

In 1686 de Grammont was granted a commission of "Lieutenant du Roi," in order to keep him from harassing the Spaniards, and yet not to lose his valuable services to his country.

In order to have one last fling at the old free buccaneering life before settling down to the more sedate and respectable calling of an officer in the French King's navy, de Grammont sailed off with a party of 180 desperadoes, but was never heard of again.

GRAND, PIERRE LE.

A native of Dieppe in Normandy.

Le Grand was the man who, having made one great and successful exploit, had the good sense to retire. He was the first pirate to take up his quarters at Tortuga Island, and was known amongst the English as "Peter the Great." His name will go down to posterity for his "bold and insolent" action when in a small open boat with a handful of men he seized a great Spanish galleon.

Pierre had been out on the "grand account" for a long while, meeting with no success. When almost starving and in despair, a great Spanish fleet hove in sight, and one ship, bigger than the rest, was observed sailing at some little distance behind the other vessels. The mad idea entered the head of the now desperate pirate to take this ship. The pirates all took an oath to their captain to fight without fear and never to surrender. It was dusk, and in these tropical latitudes night follows day very quickly. Before the attack, orders were given to the surgeon to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat so that it would quickly sink, thus taking away any hope of escape should the enterprise fail. This was done, and the boat was paddled quietly alongside the great warship, when the crew, armed only with a pistol and a sword a-piece, clambered up the sides and jumped aboard. Quickly and silently the sleeping helmsman was killed, while Pierre and a party of his men ran down into the great cabin, where they surprised the Spanish admiral playing cards with his officers. The admiral, suddenly confronted by a band of bearded desperadoes in his cabin with a pistol aimed at his head, ejaculated "Jesus bless us! are these devils or what are they?" While this was going on others of the pirates had hurried to the gun-room, seized the arms, killing every Spaniard who withstood them. Pierre knew, as scarcely any other successful pirate or gambler ever did, the right moment to stop. He at once put ashore all the prisoners he did not want for working the ship, and sailed straight back to France; where he lived the rest of his life in comfortable obscurity, and never again returned to piracy.

The news of this exploit spread rapidly over the West Indies, and caused the greatest excitement amongst the pirate fraternity of Tortuga and Hispaniola.

Men left their work of killing and drying beef, while others deserted their plantations to go a-pirating on the Spaniards, in much the same way as men went to a gold rush years after. Those who had no boat would venture forth in canoes looking for rich Spanish treasure ships.

It was this wild deed of Pierre le Grand that was the beginning of piracy in the West Indies, towards the latter half of the seventeenth century.

GRANGE, ROGER.

One of Captain Lowther's crew of the _Happy Delivery_. Tried for piracy at St. Kitts in 1722, but acquitted.

DE GRAVES, CAPTAIN HERBERT.

This Dutch pirate sailed as captain of his own merchant vessel during the reign of King Charles II. He took to landing his crew on the south coast of England and raiding gentlemen's houses. The first he ever pillaged was that of a Mr. Sturt, in Sussex. In those days, when banks were almost unknown, the houses of the rich often contained great sums of money. De Graves was wont to sail along the Devonshire coast, sometimes landing and robbing a house, sometimes taking a ship, which he would carry to Rotterdam and sell. He made several daring raids into Cowes and Lowestoft, getting off with valuable plunder.

In the war between England and the Dutch, Graves was given command of a fire-ship. This vessel he handled very capably, and in the action off the Downs he ran her on board the _Sandwich_, setting her on fire. James, Duke of York, escaped from the _Sandwich_ with great difficulty, while the Earl of Albemarle and most of the crew perished. At the conclusion of the war, De Graves returned to piracy, but his ship was wrecked in a storm close to Walmer Castle. The captain and a few of his crew were saved, and, being made prisoners, were hanged on a tree.

GREAVES, CAPTAIN, _alias_ "RED LEGS." West Indian pirate.

Born in Barbadoes of prisoners who had been sent there as slaves by Cromwell. Most of these slaves were natives of Scotland and Ireland, and, owing to their bare knees, generally went by the name of Red Legs. Young Greaves was left an orphan, but had a kind master and a good education. His master dying, the lad was sold to another and a cruel one. The boy ran away, swam across Carlisle Bay, but by mistake clambered on to the wrong ship, a pirate vessel, commanded by a notoriously cruel pirate called Captain Hawkins. Finding himself driven to the calling of piracy, Greaves became very efficient, and quickly rose to eminence. He was remarkable for his dislike of unnecessary bloodshed, torture of prisoners, and killing of non-combatants. These extraordinary views brought about a duel between himself and his captain, in which the former was victorious, and he was at once elected commander.

Greaves now entered a period of the highest piratical success, but always preserved very strictly his reputation for humanity and morality. He never tortured his prisoners, nor ever robbed the poor, nor maltreated women.

His greatest success of all was his capture of the Island of Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela.

On this occasion, after capturing the Spanish Fleet, he turned the guns of their warships against the forts, which he then stormed, and was rewarded by a huge booty of pearls and gold.

Red Legs then retired to the respectable life of a planter in the Island of Nevis, but was one day denounced as a pirate by an old seaman. He was cast into a dungeon to await execution, when the great earthquake came which destroyed and submerged the town in 1680, and one of the few survivors was Greaves. He was picked up by a whaler, on board of which he served with success, and later on, for his assistance in capturing a gang of pirates, he received pardon for his earlier crimes.

He again retired to a plantation, and was noted for his many acts of piety and for his generous gifts to charities and public institutions, eventually dying universally respected and sorrowed.

GREENSAIL, RICHARD.

One of Blackbeard's crew in the _Queen Ann's Revenge_. Hanged in Virginia in 1718.

GREENVILLE, HENRY.

Hanged at Boston in 1726 with Captain Fly and Samuel Cole.

GRIFFIN, JACK.

Chief mate of a Bristol vessel. One of the chief mutineers on board the _Bird_ galley in 1718, off Sierra Leone, when he befriended the captain of the _Bird_, with whom he had been at school. Took part in a feast to celebrate the success of the mutiny, the meal being cooked in a huge caldron in which the slaves' food was prepared. In this caldron were boiled, on this occasion, fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys, which were unplucked; several Westphalian hams were added, and a "large sow with young embowled." The health of King James III., the Pretender, was drunk with full honours.

GRIFFIN, JOHN.

Of Blackwall, Middlesex.

Taken out of the _Mercy_ galley and appointed carpenter on board the _Royal Fortune_ by Captain Roberts. Condemned to be hanged at Cape Coast Castle, but pardoned and sold to the Royal African Company as a slave for seven years.

GRIFFIN, RICHARD.

A gunsmith of Boston.

Sailed with Captain Pound. Wounded in a fight at Tarpaulin Cove, a bullet entering his ear and coming out through his eye.

GROGNIET, CAPTAIN.

A French buccaneer who in 1683 was in company with Captain L'Escayer, with a crew of some 200 French and 80 English freebooters. He joined Davis and Swan during the blockade of Panama in 1685, and was in the unsuccessful attempt in May, 1685, on the Spanish treasure fleet from Lima. In July of the same year Grogniet, with 340 French buccaneers, parted company from Davis at Quibo, plundered several towns, and then, foolishly, revisited Quibo, where they were discovered by a Spanish squadron in January, 1686, and their ship was burnt while the crew was on shore. They were rescued by Townley, with whom they went north to Nicaragua, and sacked Granada. In May, 1686, Grogniet and half the Frenchmen crossed the isthmus. In the January following, Grogniet reappeared, and, joining with the English, again plundered Guayaquil, where he was severely wounded, and died soon afterwards.

GULLIMILLIT, BRETI.

Taken with other South American pirates by H.M. sloop _Tyne_, and hanged at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1823.

GUTTEREZ, JUAN.

Hanged at Kingston, Jamaica, on February 7th, 1823.

GUY, CAPTAIN.

Commanded the frigate _James_ (fourteen guns, ninety men). Belonged to Tortuga Island and Jamaica in 1663.

HAINS, RICHARD.

One of Captain Low's crew. When Low took a Portuguese ship at St. Michael's in the Azores in 1723, he, with unusual kindness, simply burnt the ship and let the crew go to shore in a boat. While the prisoners were getting out the boat, Richard Hains happened to be drinking punch out of a silver tankard at one of the open ports, and took the opportunity to drop into the boat among the Portuguese and lie down in the bottom, so as to escape with them. Suddenly remembering his silver tankard, he climbed back, seized the tankard, and hid again in the boat, somehow, by great good fortune, being unobserved by those on the ship, and so escaped almost certain death both for himself and the Portuguese sailors.

HALSEY, CAPTAIN JOHN.

This famous South Sea pirate was born on March 1st, 1670, at Boston, and received a commission from the Governor of Massachusetts to cruise as a privateer on the Banks. No sooner was he out of sight of land than Halsey turned pirate. Taking a ship or two, he sailed to the Canary Islands, picking up a rich Spanish ship there. He next doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and paid a call on the "brethren" at Madagascar. He then sailed to the Red Sea, another happy hunting ground of the pirates, and met a big Dutch ship armed with sixty guns. Halsey astounded his men by announcing his sudden determination to attack only Moorish ships in the future. The indignant crew mutinied, threw Captain Halsey and his chief gunner in irons, and proceeded to attack the Dutchman. The mutinous pirates got the worst of the encounter, and released Halsey, who only just managed to get his ship away. Luck seems to have deserted Halsey for a while, for not a Moorish ship could he meet with, so much so that his scruples against taking Christian ships eased enough to permit him to bag a brace of English ships, the _Essex_ and the _Rising Eagle_.

The captain of the former proved to be a very old and dear friend of Halsey's quartermaster, and to show a friendly feeling, Halsey allowed the captain to keep all his personal belongings. Nevertheless, they took a comfortable booty, comprising some fifty thousand pounds in English gold, out of the _Essex_, and another ten thousand out of the _Rising Eagle_.

The pirates, being strict business men, produced invoices and sold the two ships back to their legal owners for cash, and having settled this affair to everybody's satisfaction, Halsey and his consort returned to Madagascar. Here they were visited by the captain of a Scotch ship, the _Neptune_, which had come to trade liquor, probably rum, but possibly whisky, with the pirates. A sudden hurricane arose, destroying both the pirate ships and damaging the _Neptune_. Halsey, ever a man of resource, thereupon seized the Scotch ship, and, with even greater enterprise, at once attacked a ship, the _Greyhound_, which lay at anchor, which was loaded with stolen merchandise which the pirates had only just sold to the captain of the _Greyhound_, and for which they had been paid.

The end was now drawing near, for in 1716 Captain Halsey was taken ill of some tropical fever and died. He was a popular commander, respected, ever loved by his men, for he was a humane man, never killing his prisoners unless necessity compelled. A contemporary eyewitness of his funeral rites leaves the following account of his burial:

"With great solemnity, the prayers of the Church of England being read over him and his sword and pistols laid on his coffin, which was covered with a ship's Jack. As many minute guns were fired as he was old--viz., 46--and three English vollies and one French volley of small arms." The chronicler continues: "His grave was made in a garden of watermelons and fenced in to prevent his being rooted up by wild pigs."

This last a truly touching thought on the part of the bereaved.

HAMAN, CAPTAIN JOHN.

He lived all alone with his wife and family on a small and otherwise uninhabited island in the Bahamas.

About the year 1720, he sailed into New Providence Harbour in his 40-ton sloop, intending to settle there. Captain Rackam and Anne Bonny stole this vessel and eloped in her.

Writing of Captain Haman, Johnson tells us "his Livelihood and constant Employment was to plunder and pillage the Spaniards, whose Sloops and Launces he had often surprised about Cuba and Hispaniola, and sometimes brought off a considerable Booty, always escaping by a good Pair of Heels, insomuch that it became a Bye-Word to say, 'There goes John Haman, catch him if you can.' His Business to Providence now was to bring his Family there, in order to live and settle, being weary, perhaps, of living in that Solitude, or else apprehensive if any of the Spaniards should discover his Habitation, they might land, and be revenged of him for all his Pranks."

HAMLIN, CAPTAIN JEAN.

A famous French filibuster who turned pirate.

Set out in 1682 from Jamaica in a sloop with 120 other desperadoes in pursuit of a French ship that was "wanted" by the Jamaican Governor. Having overtaken the ship, _La Trompeuse_, he seized her, fitted her up as a man-of-war, and then started out on a wild piratical cruise, taking eighteen Jamaican vessels, barbarously ill-treating the crews, and completely demoralizing the trade of the island. Two other ships were now sent to find and destroy the new _La Trompeuse_, but Hamlin escaped and sailed to the Virgin Islands, and was most hospitably received by the Governor of the Danish Island of St. Thomas, one Adolf Esmit, who was himself a retired pirate. Using this island as his headquarters Hamlin cruised about and took several English ships.

In May, 1683, he appeared on the West Coast of Africa disguised as an English man-of-war. Off the coast of Sierra Leone, he took seventeen Dutch and English ships, returning to Dominica in July, 1683, finally reaching the friendly St. Thomas Island, being warmly welcomed back by the pirate Governor. Three days afterwards, H.M.S. _Francis_ arrived on the lookout for pirates, and attacked and burnt Hamlin's ship. Hamlin, with the help of the Governor, managed to escape with his life.

HANDS, ISRAEL, also known as BASILICA HANDS.

Sailing-master with the famous Teach or Blackbeard. One day when Teach was entertaining a pilot and Hands in his cabin, after they had been drinking and chatting awhile seated round the cabin table, on which stood a lighted candle, Blackbeard suddenly drew his pistols, blew out the candle, and crossing his arms, fired both his pistols under the table. Hands was shot in the knee, and crippled for life. Teach's explanation to the angry demands of his guests as to the reason for this extraordinary conduct produced the reply that "if he did not shoot one or two of them now and then, they'd forget who he was." Hands after this deserted, but was captured at Bath in Carolina by Brand. Hands, probably in revenge for being wantonly shot by Teach, turned King's evidence at the inquiry held at Charleston, and brought very serious accusations against one of the most prominent men in the colony, Knight, who was secretary to the Chief Justice, and a deputy collector of Customs.

Hands was tried for piracy in Virginia in December, 1718, but pardoned. When last heard of was seen begging his bread in London.

HANSEL, CAPTAIN.

He behaved himself so courageously at the taking of Porto Bello in 1669, that a party of some 400 men, in four ships, chose Hansel to be their admiral in an attempt on the town of Comana, near Caracas. This attack was a most complete failure, the pirates being driven off "with great loss and in great confusion." When Hansel's party arrived back at Jamaica, they found the rest of Morgan's men had returned before them, who "ceased not to mock and jeer at them for their ill success at Comana, after telling them, 'Let us see what money you brought from Comana, and if it be as good silver as that which we bring from Maracaibo.'"

HARDING, CAPTAIN THOMAS.

In 1653 he captured a rich prize, a Barbadoes vessel. For this he was tried for piracy at Boston.

HARDY, RICHARD.

One of Captain Bartholomew Roberts's crew. Hanged at Cape Coast Castle, West Coast of Africa, on April 6th, 1722, at the age of 25 years.

It is recorded that, owing to the lack of expert knowledge in the niceties of carrying out executions, Hardy was led to the scaffold with his hands tied behind him. This annoyed Hardy very much, and it is mentioned in the official account of his execution that the prisoner indignantly declared "that he had seen many a Man hang'd, but this Way of the Hands being ty'd behind them, he was a Stranger to, and never saw before in his Life."

HARPER, ABRAHAM.

Born at Bristol.

He was cooper on board Captain Roberts's _Royal Fortune_. When the pirates took a prize, it was Harper's duty to see that all the casks and coopers' tools were removed from the prize to the pirate craft.

Hanged at the age of 23, with the rest of the crew, in 1722.

HARRIS, CAPTAIN.