When Jose de Espronceda wrote the famous line " With ten guns on each side, the wind aft at full sail... ”With which he opened his pirate song in 1835, the criminals of the sea had been in the doldrums for more than a hundred years. Yet here we are, almost another two hundred years after Espronceda, and we are still dreaming of eye patches, parrots on the shoulder and black flags waving against the wind . Pirates were, already in the 17th century, a symbol of liberty : one that has not lost its strength today.
The pirates They had been terrorizing the merchants and soldiers of the navies of great empires such as the British, the French or the Spanish since the year 1620 , about. Despite their criminal acts, almost from the beginning they were viewed with sympathy, as the naval wars between those colonial powers pushed many honest corsairs to embark on a life outside the law , with what was seen as a kind of Robin Hood of the seas and stimulated the imagination of the writers and artists of the time.
Their figures were so legendary, so wrapped in a halo of mystery and emotion that they were included as characters in their stories. Many of the book and movie pirates you think are fictional are real ; many that you may believe to be real are fictional, and their dens and hiding places They shared that air of mystery.
To commemorate these legendary figures and the places they called home, today we take a look at famous pirate lairs that went down in history . Do you dare to visit these pirate hideouts in search of treasure and adventure?
JACK SPARROW: TORTUGA ISLAND AND PORT ROYAL
A modern classic of buccaneer stories, the best worst pirate in history, played by Johnny Depp , it is unfortunately fictional . However, his favorite port to find a crew, rest from the swell and, yes, kick the air cooling his throat with a glass of rum is real: Isla de la Tortuga, currently territory of the Republic of Haiti, was one of the favorite ports of pirates in the 17th century, especially during their incursions against the Spanish in the Caribbean.
Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), star of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie saga, has become one of the most famous pirates in popular culture.
Another of the places that appear in the film saga is port-royal, on whose lands they were Will Turner (Orlando Bloom ) Y Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley ), who is also the daughter of the governor. Located on the island of Jamaica , which was originally the base of the British government on the island became, de facto, a pirate colony . In the first half of the eighteenth century, however, British forces redoubled their efforts against them, and by 1722 Port Royal had become the place of execution for renowned pirates such as Charles Vane and Calico Jack.
HENRY AVERY AND MADAGASCAR
decades before blackbeard either vane sailed the seas, one man stood out above all the pirates that were beginning to emerge during that time and earned the nickname of "Pirate king" . The story of Henry Avery it is one wrapped in a halo of mystery, but it well represented the hard life and the injustices that honest sailors suffered during this time and we probably owe him that image of the pirate as maritime Robin Hood , despite having been active as a ruffian of the seas for only two years.
Avery's career in piracy began when the English warship Charles II, on which Avery was first officer, was stuck in the port of Coruña for months on administrative grounds. Desperate for the situation, trapped on the ship with no sign that the situation was going to change and with their salaries withheld by the owners of the ship, Avery and other companions staged a mutiny and took control of the Charles II, which they renamed the Fancy, with the crew choosing Avery as their captain.
18th century drawing by Henry Avery.
His most famous attack was the attack he organized on September 7, 1695, in which he attacked the 25-ship convoy of the Mongol Empire that was headed for Mecca on its annual pilgrimage. Captaining a small army of pirates, they managed to a loot of about 600,000 pounds , the equivalent today to more than 111 million euros . A real wealth! With such gravity the British government put a price on his head of 1,000 pounds (at that time, a real fortune), which led to the first worldwide search and capture campaign in history.
The truth is that despite the efforts they put into capturing him, it was never known what became of the pirate king: although many of his crewmates were captured and executed, avery vanished . Although there is speculation that he may have been living under a false identity in new providence or even in Devon (United Kingdom), is one of those mysteries for which unfortunately we will never have an answer. What we do know is that the later generation of pirates who became the ringleaders of the golden age of piracy considered him an inspiration and felt they were directly following his example.
Although it is difficult to draw the line between reality and legend, one of Avery's possible fates (albeit with little historical basis) was for him to retire to the Island of Madagascar , where it is known that he landed some time before his great boarding of the Mongol convoy, and that he became a true king by leading a pirate utopia thanks to his wealth. Another version of this legend of a pirate utopia in Madagascar identifies it as libertalia , under the command of Captain James Misson , although both pirate kingdoms, both Avery's and Misson's, are controversial among historians. Although, who knows, perhaps it is worth organizing a trip to Madagascar and looking for the ruins of the settlements or (even better) some buried chest that the researchers and the locals could have missed.
LONG JOHN SILVER, CAPTAIN FLINT AND THE BAHAMAS
It is impossible to talk about pirates without mentioning The island of the treasureby Robert Louis Stevenson 1883. The novel tells the story of Jim Hawkin , a young man who becomes involved with the search for the Treasure of the dreaded Captain Flint , finding a map that seems to lead to it. From this novel came some of the pirate clichés that are still in our imagination today: the wooden legs, the parrots, the patches . Similarly, names like flint, Long John Silver either Billy Bones they became part of our image of pirates.
Long John Silver and Captain Flint in the series 'Black Sails'.
Although it has not been confirmed which was the real "treasure island", it is speculated that the norman island , south of the archipelago of the British Virgin Islands, or the nearby Dead Man's Chest Island , could have been the inspiration to create this corsair adventure that has become a classic of adventure literature.
In 2014 the series premiered Black Sails , which served as a prequel to Stevenson's novel and followed the story of Long John Silver, Captain Flint and Billy Bones, among other characters, until they became the mythical figures we know in the pages of the novel. In her, the characters end up uniting to defend their way of life on the island of New Providence (Bahamas ). The series, which lasted for four seasons and with enormous popular acclaim, included the appearance of historical figures such as anne bonny, Charles Vane and Blackbeard , creating a story of adventure, drama and betrayal that mixes the historical with the fictional.
BLACKBEARD AND NORTH CAROLINA
Edward Teach he is probably one of the most famous pirates, if not the most. Little is known of his early years, although it is believed that he may have been born in Bristol, UK, and that he joined the crew of the pirate captain Benjamin Hornigold around 1716, gaining fame for his acts of piracy and establishing his habitual residence (outside the Queen Anne's Revenge , his warship) in New Providence, which, as we see, was one of the hideouts of the most common pirates.
Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris from 1920.
In recent times Blackbeard has seen a rebound in his popularity thanks to the series Our Flag Means Death of HBO , in which he is played by the actor and director Taika Waititi . The facts of the series are surprisingly faithful to the historical ones: in 1717 the ship of Stede Bonnet, the so-called pirate gentleman , was under the orders of Blackbeard and both established a close relationship (if as close as in the series, there is no way of knowing).
Although several ports frequented by pirates are mentioned in the itinerary of Blackbeard's adventures ( New Providence, Jamaica, Hispaniola, etc. ), his most permanent residence was, in fact, North Carolina , where he established a cordial relationship with the governor eden , which turned a blind eye to his gossip (and his apparently legendary parties) and which was in turn a strategic location in which to embark and disembark. Some of his favorite points were bathroom , the estuary of Ocreacoke Inlet and the ocreacoke island , which was the place where it took place the last battle of the pirate blackbeard : the one he lost to him Lieutenant Robert Maynard on September 22, 1718.
WILLIAM KIDD AND ISLAND GARDINERS
One of the oldest pirates on this list, the captain william kidd (also known simply as captain kid) he might not even have been a pirate. As we have already mentioned, the 16th and 17th centuries were times of war between countries on the seas. This Scottish captain was what was called a privateer , that is, a sailor with permission from his government to board and plunder ships of enemy countries . This would have been Kidd's profession: privateer in the service of the british army , and indeed made a foray into Madagascar looking for pirates to bring to justice. How, then, does an honest corsair manage to go down in history as a pirate?
In 1698, Kidd captured an Indian ship laden with riches...whose captain turned out to be an Englishman who had purchased safe-conduct, which gave him the protection of the french crown . Although it was customary for the British authorities to turn a blind eye to privateers' flirtations with piracy, In this case, Kidd was identified as a pirate and a search and arrest warrant was placed on him and his crew..
William Kidd burying his treasure (Illustration by Howard Pyle from 1920).
At that point, he set sail for Madagascar again, where, apparently, most of his crew abandoned him in favor of Robert Culliford . Knowing that his days were numbered, on his way to New York City he made a stop at the Gardeners Island , to the east of long Island , where he hid part of his treasure . After being arrested in Boston, he was sent to the UK for interrogation and, in 1701, executed.
Many experts believe that the execution of Kidd and the accusations against him were due more to political issues of the time than to his actions (Although they were, on many occasions, violent and outside the strict limits of the law). The history of Kidd's Buried Treasure , however, aroused the interest of the society of the time and increased the legend of him, in addition to being the germ of stories like The island of the treasure, awakening our imagination and our desire for adventure.
If you are thinking of booking a ticket to Gardiners Island for a treasure hunt, you should know that was handed over to British authorities for use as evidence during Kidd's trial , although the owners of the island at the time, the Gardiners, kept one of the diamonds as a gift for his daughter, and today a plaque marks the place where the treasure was buried.
NASSAU: THE PIRATE REPUBLIC
Throughout this list there has been a concept that has been repeated several times: the pirate utopia, the pirate republic . For those people who they would always have enemies, whether on land or in water, the idea of a place where they could carry out their illegal business and rest among equals, as well as be governed not by the laws of the countries but by their own codes She was understandably attractive. Although various points in the Caribbean were de facto pirate settlements, in theory power still belonged to the governors; for their part, there are also the legends of pirate utopias in Madagascar, which are, in all probability, just that, legends. The exception to this rule would be Nassau, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas.
Abandoned by the English government from 1706, the port of Nassau , which had already acquired a reputation as a safe place for pirates, became a resting place for several English corsairs that, over time, they ended up becoming pirates With all the letters. With the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 , many of these corsairs operating under the law (or more or less under the law) continued to act as in wartime, thus his actions went from being legal acts of privateering to crimes of piracy.
Suddenly jobless privateers rushed to this new republic that congregated in New Providence to join the ranks of the pirates, ruled by two rival pirates: Benjamin Hornigold , mentor of blackbeard Y Stede Bonnet , Y Henry Jennings , which was in turn of charles vane, calico jack, anne bonny Y Mary Read . Despite their rivalry, they managed to run the community in a surprisingly successful way, going by the pirates Code, a series of more or less general guidelines that governed their way of life.
The pirates congregated in Nassau, therefore, they had become a real threat. Since the British Crown was offered a royal pardon for pirates in 1718 . Although less than half accepted it, one of those who accepted it was precisely the Captain Hornigold , one of the leaders of the pirate republic, who would later receive precisely the commissioned to capture the pirates who were still outlaws …And thanks to his experience as a pirate captain, he knew exactly how to do it.
The port of Nassau (capital of The Bahamas), which was once the cradle of the pirate republic.
Although many of the most famous managed to flee, such as Blackbeard or Vane, and would meet their end in other places and in other circumstances, those that were captured and executed were enough to allow the English to regain control of the island, effectively ending the dream of the pirate republic in 1718 . From there, the English in particular were capturing and executing the great pirate captains of the Caribbean, and by 1722 all those legends of the sea had passed through the scaffold or the edge of the sword , putting an end forever to the golden age of piracy.
The capital of The Bahamas still remembers its pirate past with some monuments They are a must stop for any pirate lover. The call Blackbeard's Tower It is a stone tower that was considered the personal watchtower of the terrible Edward Teach , which you can upload for enjoy privileged views of New Providence.
For his part, the Pirates Museum contains documentation, images, wax recreations of historical moments and even a very faithful reconstruction of the revenge , Stede Bonnet's ship that was part of Blackbeard's fleet. Their Theatrical and immersive activities are perfect for the little ones to learn about history and, at the same time, live an unforgettable adventure. And we grown-ups can also imagine, for a while, how those men (and women) who took to the sea must have felt, leaving in their wake a trail of boarded ships, stolen treasures and unforgettable legends.