Golden Age of Piracy - Pirates of The Era

Pirates of The Era

Many of the most well known pirates in historical lore originate from this Golden Age of Piracy.

• Henry Morgan, a buccaneer who raided the Spaniards and took the city of Panama. He was to be executed in England but was instead knighted and made governor of Jamaica. He died a natural death in 1688.
• Henry Every, who is most famous for being one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and also for capturing the fabulously wealthy Mogul ship Ganj-i-Sawai in 1694.
• William "Captain" Kidd, who was executed for piracy at Execution Dock, London in 1701, is famous for the 'buried treasure' he is supposed to have left behind.
• "Black Sam" Bellamy, captain of the Whydah Gally, who was lost in a storm in 1717.
• Stede Bonnet, a rich Barbadian land owner, turned pirate solely in search of adventure. Bonnet captained a 10-gun sloop, named the Revenge, raiding ships off the Virginia coast in 1717. He was caught and hanged in 1718.
• Edward Teach (Thatch), more commonly known as Blackbeard, was active from 1716 to 1718 as perhaps the most notorious pirate among English-speaking nations. Blackbeard's most famous ship was the Queen Anne's Revenge, named in response to the end of Queen Anne's War. Blackbeard was killed by one of Lieutenant Robert Maynard's crewmen in 1718.
• Calico Jack Rackham was captured, then hanged and gibbeted outside Port Royal, Jamaica in 1720.
• Bartholomew Roberts, sometimes called "Black Bart", has been considered by many as the most successful pirate of all time. He was killed off the coast of Africa in 1722.
• Edward Low, active 1721–1724, who was notorious for torturing his victims before killing them.
• William Fly, whose execution in 1726 is used by historian Marcus Rediker to mark the end of the Golden Age of Pirates.