Pirate Republic of Nassau
Nassau on New Providence became a pirate base from around 1706 and was, for about a decade, effectively self-governing. The island had been Spanish and French raiding ground and was largely abandoned by its English settlers after attacks in 1703 and 1706 destroyed the town. What was left was a superb harbour: shallow enough that no warship of the line could enter, deep enough for the sloops the pirates favoured, and positioned beside the Florida Straits through which the Spanish treasure fleets sailed home. The population that gathered there came from the War of the Spanish Succession. Privateers licensed to raid French and Spanish shipping found themselves unemployed at the peace in 1713, with the skills and the vessels and no legal market for either. The wreck of a Spanish fleet off Florida in 1715 drew hundreds of them to salvage — or steal — the silver. At its height perhaps a thousand pirates used it, and the names are the ones the period is remembered by: Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, Edward Teach, Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Their conventions were unusual for the age. Ships operated under written articles agreed by the crew, captains were elected and could be deposed except in action, plunder was divided on fixed shares, and compensation was set for the loss of an eye or a limb. Woodes Rogers arrived as royal governor in 1718 with the king's pardon and two warships, and most of them took it. Those who did not were hunted down within four years, mostly by men who had.
- Year: 1706 CE
- Category: Political
