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ThePirate Round was a sailing route followed by certain, mainly English,pirates, during the late 17th century and early 18th century. The course led from the western Atlantic, parallel to theCape Route around the southern tip of Africa, stopping at Madagascar, then on to targets such as the coast ofYemen andIndia. The Pirate Round was briefly used again during the early 1720s. Pirates who followed the route are sometimes referred to as Roundsmen. The Pirate Round was largely co-extensive with the routes of theEast India Company ships of Britain and other nations.
The Pirate Round started from a variety of Atlantic ports, includingBermuda,Nassau,London,New York City, andA Coruña, depending on where the pirate crew initially assembled. The course then lay roughly south by southeast along the coast of Africa, frequently by way of theMadeira Islands. The pirates would then double theCape of Good Hope, and sail through theMozambique Channel to northernMadagascar. Pirates would frequentlycareen and refit their ships on Madagascar and take on fresh provisions before proceeding onward toward their targets further north. Particularly important pirate bases on Madagascar included the island ofSt. Mary's (often called by its French name,Île Sainte-Marie) andRanter Bay, both on the northeastern side of the island. Pirates also utilized the nearbyComoros islands in preparation for the final leg of their cruise.
From Madagascar or the Comoros, a number of profitable destinations were available to pirates. Most important werePerim (a.k.a.Bab's Key) orMocha at the mouth of theRed Sea. This was the ideal position for intercepting and robbingMughal shipping, especially the lucrative traffic betweenSurat andMecca, carryingMuslim voyagers on theHajj pilgrimage. Other pirates struck toward theMalabar andCoromandel coasts to rob Mughal merchants or richly ladenEast Indiamen. Pirates also might find East Indiamen atRéunion Island.
If the cruise were successful, pirates might then return to the Atlantic by a similar route. Usually there would be a stop again at Madagascar to reprovision, careen, and in some cases await the turning of themonsoon wind.
The Pirate Round was most active from about 1693 to 1700 and then again from about 1719 to 1721. It is described as follows by David Cordingly: "Some pirates made the additional journey around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean and attacked ships loaded with the exotic products of India. … which came to be known as the Pirate Round."[1] Jenifer G. Marx writes that "Ambitious sea outlaws began to leave for the East on what became known as the Pirate Round: a route that, for some thirty years beginning in 1690, linked ports in the Caribbean and the North American colonies with Madagascar."[2] Kevin P. McDonald has referred to the piracy as occurring in an "Indo-Atlantic World".[3]
English piracy in the Indian Ocean goes back at least to KingJames I, but for most of the 17th century theSpanish Empire was the principal target of English pirates. The Pirate Round proper as the main route of English pirates begins in 1693 withThomas Tew. Tew's enormously successful cruise and low casualties attracted the attention of others and led to a flood of pirates following his route.
Key to the initial success of the Pirate Round was the trade route betweenAdam Baldridge on Île Sainte-Marie and merchantFrederick Philipse in New York City. Baldridge bought naval stores, clothing, alcohol, and other necessaries from Philipse and supplied them to pirates in Madagascar. Baldridge's flight from Madagascar in 1697 contributed to the subsequent decline of the Pirate Round.
One of the most successful Roundsmen wasHenry Every, who captured a ship personally owned by the emperorAurangzeb of India, looting more than £325,000.[citation needed] Aurangzeb's enraged reaction against theBritish East India Company, and the Company's consequent appeals toParliament for suppression of pirates, led to the disastrous decision to fund a privateer to hunt down the pirates. The privateer chosen, CaptainWilliam Kidd, turned Roundsman himself, unsuccessfully attacking Mughal ships and their British East Indiaman escorts, and capturing the unoffending neutral merchant vesselQuedagh Merchant, which Kidd seized on the basis of its French passes.
Another notable rover on the Pirate Round wasRobert Culliford, a longtime associate of Kidd, to whom most of Kidd's crew eventually deserted. The pirate cruises ofJohn Bowen,Thomas Howard,Abraham Samuel andThomas White in 1700 ended the Pirate Round's first period of popularity.
From 1700 to 1718, the Pirate Round went into decline. The causes included the aforementioned loss of Baldridge's base on Madagascar, increased convoying and protection of Indian and Arab shipping in cooperation with heavily armed BritishEast Indiamen, and theWar of the Spanish Succession, which from 1701 to 1713 provided English seamen with legally sanctioned, less arduous opportunities for plunder in the naval and privateer services.
The end of British participation in the war in 1713 led to an explosive increase in piracy in theCaribbean, but did not yet revive the Pirate Round. However, in 1718Woodes Rogers pacified Nassau, while colonialVirginia andSouth Carolina prosecuted aggressive anti-pirate campaigns, destroyingBlackbeard,Stede Bonnet andRichard Worley. Caribbean and Atlantic pirates began to seek safer hunting grounds, leading to a brief resurgence in the Pirate Round. Meanwhile,James Plaintain founded a new pirate base atRanter Bay in Madagascar.
Among the last pirates to frequent Madagascar waters from 1719 to 1721 wereEdward England,John Taylor,Oliver La Buse andChristopher Condent. Taylor and La Buse reaped the greatest prize in the history of the Pirate Round, the plunder of the Portuguese East IndiamanNossa Senhora Do Cabo at Réunion in 1721, netting diamonds and other treasures worth a total of about £800,000. Condent was also successful, although Edward England wasmarooned on the Comoros by Taylor and La Buse and died not long after.
Despite the successes of Taylor, La Buse, and Condent, the Pirate Round quickly declined again. The last great robber captains,Edward Low,George Lowther andBartholomew Roberts, ignored the route. Plaintain left Madagascar in 1728. The ever-tightening grip of the British East India Company, competition from native Indian pirates, the breakup of theMughal Empire, and the descent of India into civil war may have contributed to this second, and final, abandonment of the Pirate Round.
