John Black (privateer)

John Black (privateer)

Captain John Black (1778–1802), the son of a clergyman, was a ship's officer who had many adventures in his short career. His best remembered adventure concerned the mutiny on the Lady Shore of August 1797, a ship that had been sailing with a cargo of soldiers and female convicts to Sydney, Australia. In 1798 his father, the Reverend John Black (1753–1813), a prolific writer of prose and poetry, published his son's letters which gave an account of the mutiny on board the ship, when his son had been put into a small boat and left to find his way to safety with several other members of the crew. The book was dedicated as a “small testimony of gratitude to the Portuguese nation” for the “unequalled hospitality” extended to his son and his fellows in the Portuguese colonies that are now part of Brazil.

John Black was also privateer (state-sanctioned pirate) for part of his naval career. He was engaged twice on privateers, once as the ship’s captain. That is, during the time of the English-Spanish war of 1795-1801, he was twice engaged on private warships authorized by the English government to attack and rob the enemy’s shipping. During both engagements he was involved in the successful capture of a Spanish vessel.

In 1798 the 19 year-old sailed into Sydney Harbour, where, after meeting the convict girl Mary Hyde (1779–1864), he made Sydney his base of operations. In between his whaling operations, voyages of exploration, and capturing Spanish vessels, he and Mary had two children. In 1802, in what became his final voyage, the then 23 year-old ship's captain sailed from Sydney to India: to Mumbai (then Bombay) and then onto Kolkata (then Calcutta) before being lost at sea as he sailed for home.