Benjamin Hornigold | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1680 |
| Died | 1719 (1720) (aged 39) |
| Piratical career | |
| Type |
|
| Allegiance |
|
| Years active | 1713–1718 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Base of operations | West Indies |
| Commands |
|
Benjamin Hornigold (c. 1680–1719)[1][verification needed] was anEnglishpirate towards the end of theGolden Age of Piracy.
Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in theBahamas. He helped to establish the "Republic of Pirates" inNassau and by 1717 was the captain of one of the most heavily armed ships in the region, called theRanger. It was at this time he appointedEdward Teach, best known in history books as "Blackbeard", as his second-in-command. Mindful not to attack British-led ships during his career, his crew eventually grew tired of the tactic and Hornigold was voted out as captain.[citation needed] In December 1718, Hornigold accepted aKing's Pardon for his crimes and became a pirate hunter, pursuing his former allies on behalf of the Governor of the Bahamas,Woodes Rogers. He was killed when his ship was wrecked on a reef nearNew Spain during the hurricane season of 1719.
Hornigold's early life is unrecorded, although sometimes people claim he was born in the English county ofNorfolk, where the surname Hornigold or Hornagold appears. If so, he might have first served at sea aboard ships whose home port was eitherKing's Lynn orGreat Yarmouth.[2] His first documented acts of piracy took place in the winter of 1713–1714, when he employedperiaguas (sailing canoes) and the sloopHappy Return, alongsideDaniel Stillwell,John Cockram, andJohn West[3] to menace merchant vessels off the coast ofNew Providence and its capitalNassau, where he had established a 'Privateers' or 'Pirates' republic.[4] Hornigold himself sailed a ship named theMarianne. After a mutiny in the summer of 1716, he and his supporters were left with a captured sloop.[citation needed] By 1717, Hornigold had at his command a thirty-gun sloop he named theRanger, which was probably the most heavily armed ship in the region, and this allowed him to seize other vessels with impunity.[5]
Hornigold's second-in-command during this period was Edward Teach, who would later be better known as the pirateBlackbeard.[5] When Hornigold took command of theRanger, he delegated the captaincy of his earlier sloop to Teach. In the spring of 1717 the two pirate captains seized three merchant ships in quick succession, aSpanish one carrying 120 barrels of flour bound for Havana, another a Bermudian sloop with a cargo of spirits and the third a Portuguese ship travelling fromMadeira with a cargo of white wine.[6][7]
In March 1717, Hornigold attacked an armed merchant vessel sent to the Bahamas by the Governor of South Carolina to hunt for pirates. The merchantman escaped by running itself aground onCat Cay, and its captain later reported that Hornigold's fleet had increased to five vessels, with a combined crew of around 350 pirates.[7] In April 1717 Hornigold is recorded as operating alongsideCaptain Napin (or Napping), looting several ships offJamaica,Puerto Bello, andCuba before being chased away by the warshipHMS Winchelsea. Hornigold had earlier forced aboard a surgeon named John Howell but released him on Nassau; when French pirateJean Bonadvis tried to force Howell aboard his ship later in April 1717, Hornigold accepted Howell back aboard to protect him.[8] After parting ways with Napin in June or July they sailed together sporadically until October 1717.[9]
Hornigold is recorded as having attacked a sloop off the coast of Honduras; one of the passengers of the captured vessel recounted, "they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard".[10] In September 1717, Hornigold and Teach met MajorStede Bonnet and his shipRevenge. Bonnet, having been wounded in battle, ceded his command to Teach. In October, another sloop was added to the fleet.[citation needed]
Despite his apparent maritime supremacy, Hornigold remained careful not to attack British-flagged ships, apparently to maintain the legal defence that he was a privateer operating against England's enemies in theWar of the Spanish Succession.[11] This scrupulous approach was not to the liking of his lieutenants, and in the summer of 1716[citation needed] a vote was taken among the combined crews to attack any vessel they chose. Hornigold opposed the decision and was replaced as captain ofMarianne bySamuel Bellamy, whose friendPaulsgrave Williams was elected quartermaster.[12] Hornigold and his supporters were left with a captured sloop which was commanded by Teach after Hornigold acquired theRanger.[citation needed] He continued piracy operations from Nassau until December 1717, when word arrived of a general pardon for pirates offered by the King. Hornigold sailed to Jamaica with theRanger and one of the other sloops in January 1718[13] and received a pardon from the governor there. He later became a pirate hunter for the new governor of the Bahamas,Woodes Rogers.[14]
On 5 September 1717, King George I Issued the Proclamation of 1717 "For Suppressing Pirates in the West Indies". This document granted a pardon to all pirates who surrendered themselves to any colonial governor or governor under the domain of the British Empire safe passage and were guaranteed a "clean slate" of their record. However, word of this did not get out to the West Indies and so in December 1718 another proclamation, or more famously known as the King's Pardon of 1718, was issued for the same purpose. In both of these documents, not only were pirates granted a clean slate on their record, but they were also offered a large sum of money for the capturing of other pirates who were guilty of piracy, murder, and treason against His Majesty. More specifically, for every captain who was captured, the person responsible would receive £100, equivalent to £20,000 in 2023, and for every lieutenant and boatswain a reward of £40 (£7,900) was offered.[15] Each level of member on a pirate ship had a reward placed on their heads from this point on.[citation needed]
Rogers commissioned Hornigold to hunt down any and all recusant pirates, including some ex-comrades such as his former lieutenant, Teach (Blackbeard). He stalked but could not apprehendCharles Vane, capturing Vane's associateNicholas Woodall instead,[16] followed byJohn Auger, both of whom had accepted the same pardon as Hornigold, but later slid back into piracy. In December 1718 Governor Rogers wrote to theBoard of Trade in London commending Hornigold's efforts to remedy his reputation as a pirate by hunting his former allies.[17]
At some point late 1719, Governor Rogers commissioned Captain Hornigold and a few other of Rogers' most trusted captains to help safeguard and facilitate the trade of valuable wares with the Spanish. During the voyage, Hornigold's ship was caught in a hurricane somewhere between New Providence and New Spain, and was wrecked on an unchartedreef. The incident is referred to in the contemporary accountA General History of the Pyrates byCaptain Charles Johnson, which states, "in one of which voyages ... Captain Hornigold, another of the famous pirates, was cast away upon rocks, a great way from land, and perished, but five of his men got into a canoe and were saved."[18][19] The specific location of the reef remains unknown.
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