Howell Davis

Howell Davis was a pirate for eleven months, took ships mostly by impersonation rather than by fighting, and recruited Bartholomew Roberts, who became the most successful pirate of the age. He was from Milford Haven and was serving as chief mate on a slave ship when it was taken by Edward England off Sierra Leone in 1718; he refused to join, was set adrift with the vessel, and was then jailed briefly in Barbados on suspicion of piracy. He went to New Providence, joined a crew, seized a sloop and was elected captain. His method was theatrical. He would sail in flying friendly colours, pose as a legitimate trader or as a Royal Navy officer hunting pirates, and take vessels without a shot; at the Cape Verde island of Maio he persuaded the Portuguese governor he was an English man-of-war and was entertained ashore for five days. At Gambia Castle he went in as a merchant, dined with the commander, produced pistols at the table and took the fort. He took the ship in which Bartholomew Roberts was third mate off the Guinea coast in June 1719 and pressed him; Roberts was elected captain six weeks later when the same trick failed. At Principe, having invited the Portuguese governor aboard intending to ransom him, Davis was ambushed walking up to the fort and shot dead. Roberts went on to take perhaps four hundred vessels before he was killed in 1722, which is generally treated as the end of the golden age of piracy. Charles Johnson s General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724, is the main source for him and for most of the period. Roberts imposed written articles on his crews and did not drink. Davis is thought to have been about twenty-nine.

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