Documentary, Britain's Outlaws - Part: 2 - The Pirates Story
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00:00of all the renegades in britain's age of outlaws pirates were the most pursued
00:21hunted down on the high seas their bloody exploits would be followed by an appalled but enthralled
00:27public in may 1701 the corpse of a convicted pirate was brought downriver from execution dock
00:41to the lower reaches of the thames here at tilbury point
00:48the body was tarred to preserve it and then hung in chains above the shoreline
00:53the body was that of captain william kid whose exploits and downfall had so captivated the
01:00country kid's corpse was displayed here as a dire warning to all seafarers entering the great port
01:07of london to resist the temptations of piracy kid was the product of an era of feverish mercantile
01:17expansion powered by a vast network of seaborne trade by plundering this global movement of
01:24commodities and riches pirates became the most wanted outlaws in the world
01:33with flamboyant names like blackbeard calico jack and black bart pirate captains would become infamous
01:41and through ballads plays and books they would be transformed into legend
01:54and that transformation from reality to mythic outlaw is one of the most enduring historical puzzles of the
02:01period i'm going to take to the seas to explore just how this change happened
02:11and examine the devastating impact of these swashbuckling adventurers
02:16captain kid's tarred corpse would rot away here over several years until the birds had picked his carcass clean
02:25but this warning went unheeded for the golden age of piracy was only just beginning
02:43for a man who would come to be seen as heralding an age of piracy captain kid had never set out to
03:00be a pirate at all by the late 1690s with the escalation of the nine years war against france kid
03:07as a highly experienced sailor saw the opportunity to make his fortune not as a pirate but as a privateer
03:20piracy was outright robbery on the high seas but privateers were mercenaries issued with a license
03:27by the government to loot the merchant ships flying the colors of england's enemies at sea
03:32their license was issued in the form of a letter of mark and reprisal and this one dated the 11th
03:39of december 1695 is kid's own privateering commission granted and signed by no less than
03:46the king of england himself william the third
03:49but this wasn't quite as it seemed because there was a second commission this one to hunt down
04:01pirates in the indian ocean whose plundering was seriously disrupting trade with the east
04:06now this venture was cooked up by a shady syndicate of some of the most powerful men in england
04:12who would all share from the spoils of kid's enterprise and with the king himself due to
04:18get a 10 percent share in the profits the stakes were very high failure was not an option and yet
04:26kid's misfortune was to begin almost as soon as he set sail as his ship the adventure galley slipped
04:35down the thames here at greenwich kid armed with a newfound arrogance from having an actual royal
04:41commission believing himself above the law refused to dip his flag and fire a salute at a royal yacht
04:47as he passed which was against all custom and when outraged the captain of the yacht fired a shot as
04:54a reminder kid's crew responded with a surprising display of impudence they climbed the yards and slapped
05:01their backsides in distem
05:08the response was harsher than they could have ever expected because of kid's failure to salute the
05:14captain of the naval yacht retaliated by boarding his ship and press-ganging most of his carefully hand-picked
05:21men into naval service
05:31with only a skeleton crew kids set course for madagascar known to be the great pirate bolt hole of the indian
05:38ocean for its good anchorage and strategic position on important mughal trade routes from india
05:45then being exploited by europe's maritime powers
05:51we're talking about an age of tremendous colonial rivalry france spain holland and england all
05:59endeavoring to create colonies and to conquer land and so you've got a lot of merchant ships of different
06:07nations competing um to get more money out of the caribbean or india and from the far east
06:17and pirates aren't fools they gather where the trade routes are narrowing and they compounds
06:23within sight of madagascar kid suffered a major setback when a third of his crew perished with cholera
06:35and the only new recruits he could find turned out to be former pirates
06:40men who had already turned to piracy and expected kid to do the same
06:45kid's bad luck persisted after several more months without plunder or prizes and facing the very real
06:55prospect of returning home empty-handed kid made the grave decision to leave the indian ocean and head
07:03for the red sea a rich area full of mughal merchants and wealthy pilgrims traveling to and from mecca
07:11kid's presence there all but announced that he had turned to piracy
07:15after a devastating raid on an indian mughal fleet by a pirate named captain henry avery two years
07:31before the east india company whose monopoly on trade with the indian subcontinent depended on the
07:37continuing patronage of the vastly rich mughal empire was extremely wary of it happening again
07:44but kid's crew now put increasing pressure on him to take prizes no matter what flag they sailed under
07:52in desperation kid attacked a mughal merchant convoy technically his first foray into piracy
07:59but when he was repelled tensions between kid and his crew spilled over the ship's gunner william moore
08:05claimed that he had brought the crew to ruin and desolation upon which kid picked up a heavy iron
08:12hooped bucket and brought it down on moore's head with such ferocity that he fractured his skull
08:18and moore later died
08:24admiralty law allowed captains a degree of leeway in the use of violence but this was murder kid
08:31remained unrepentant though confident that his good friends in england would save him from prosecution
08:36and still feeling empowered by his letter of mark from the king he now grew more and more reckless
08:53in january 1698 after some minor successes kid took his greatest prize a 400 ton armenian ship called
09:03the quader merchant which was sailing with french passes for which kid had a license to attack
09:09however when he discovered that its cargo was owned by a mughal nobleman he tried to hand the ship back but
09:19his crew refused
09:26wishing to avoid a full mutiny kid relented and kept his new prize but when news reached london various naval
09:34commanders were sent out to pursue and seize the said kid and his accomplices for the notorious piracies
09:41that they had committed
09:45now a wanted man with several englishmen of war in pursuit and with the east india company baying
09:51for his blood kid made sail for boston where his friend lord bellamont the governor of new york
09:58had promised him safe refuge but kid was sailing into a trap that would land him in the dock
10:06this here is a letter from lord bellamont which he had sent to captain kid lord bellamont had
10:11financed all of kids expeditions and they've been friendly with each other um you can see in the
10:16language of the letter here he's saying do not be discouraged by the false reports of ill men don't
10:21believe what people are telling you okay yes you may be assured of my having interest employed to do you
10:27all the service that i can he's going to do everything he can to help him but actually he
10:32was luring captain kid to boston to get him arrested lord bellamont did not want to be associated with
10:37piracy at all whatsoever okay so he used that previous friendship to get kid but unfortunately
10:43when he arrived in boston he was then thrown in prison do we think kid was was a bit gullible here
10:48was he was he just relying on a sense of trust that existed before i think kid was desperate at this
10:53point to be honest i think he knew that unbeknownst to him somehow he had been accused of piracy when
10:58he did not believe he was a pirate and so he was going to take any means he could to try to protect
11:04himself it seems clear to me that kid hasn't been unfairly labeled as a pirate he was clearly a pirate
11:09he attacked the ships of a nation and he didn't have a license to do so i think kid was a pirate but i
11:16think above everything else he was a scapegoat and this is because just a few years before a pirate named
11:22henry avery had disrupted trade between the moguls and the east india company and then just a couple
11:27years later captain kid does the same thing the moguls then threatened to cut off all trade which
11:33would have practically bankrupted the east india company britain had to make kid an example to the
11:38moguls that yes they would take care of piracy in the most brutal fashion so they could show the
11:43world exactly what would happen to a pirate if they threatened trade and the british economy
11:47so what we have here is an indication of just how much of a show trial this was
11:54this lengthy document that i'm holding is the actual trial transcription verbatim of captain
11:59kidd's trial and this sold out because it sold so many copies at this point pretty much everybody
12:04knew who captain kidd was because his crimes had been reported in newspapers for several years on both
12:09sides of the atlantic um people were fascinated with pirates because these were maritime outlaws
12:14committing their crimes thousands of miles away they didn't declare allegiance to their formal
12:18countries they were these people who had social mobility uh that nobody else had and people wouldn't
12:24be able to see them until their execution what was the scene like at kids execution well actually i
12:35could show you that sam because there's a picture here in the newgate calendar
12:38so this here is a pirate being executed at execution dock this is how captain kidd would have been
12:45executed you can see the noose is around his neck here's the crowd of people and here we have the
12:50admiralty marshall sitting on his horse and in his hand you can see right here the silver ore of the
12:56admiralty um the silver ore was always present at these executions i've actually got the silver ore that
13:03that was used at captain kidd's trial and execution let's have a look there it is there it is as you
13:11can see it's got all the symbols that's definitely the tudor arms this is the garnet and coronet of
13:17james stewart the duke of york that and very clearly the fouled anchor which was the symbol of the admiralty
13:23yes a very powerful symbol of maritime authority it was yes uh definitely everyone who would see it
13:29would know exactly what it meant however there's one further and even more compelling artifact from
13:47kids darkest days and it's this a letter from captain kidd to sir robert harley the leader of the tories
13:56it's kids last desperate attempt to save himself from the noose and what's particularly interesting
14:02are these few lines that in my late proceedings in the indies i have lodged goods and treasure to the
14:09value of 100 000 pounds which i desire the government may have the benefit of it's a massive bribe and the
14:18promise of an enormous stash of loot this is kids real legacy the founding myth of buried pirate treasure
14:26the secret location of kidd's treasure if it ever existed has never been found even though
14:41there continue to be claims of its discovery up to this very day
14:45kidd had highlighted not only the easy seduction of piracy but also how privateers quickly became a
15:00hindrance and were shut down by the government when they ceased to serve the interests of the nation
15:06and its expanding empire the government's attitude to piracy changed because of the exploits of kidd
15:15because they damaged british trade and britain's future was going to be a great maritime nation
15:21this was accepted already this was the way that a small island could get global power um so obviously
15:28piracy which people had winked at before because it simply damaged the spanish or
15:33other people that people didn't really care about um now it was a problem and it had to be suppressed
15:45but far from suppressing the pirate menace kids very public humiliation only served to heighten the
15:51fascination with these maritime outlaws and in particular it now rekindled a feverish interest in
15:58the elusive captain henry avery the one pirate who had got away
16:08avery had made the most profitable pirate raid in history when in september 1695 he captured the gang
16:16isawai a heavily armed moogle trading ship carrying over 600 000 pounds worth of precious metal and jewels the
16:25equivalent of 52 million pounds in today's money for his actions a bounty of a thousand pounds had been put
16:33on his head leading to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history but unlike captain kidd avery slipped
16:42the net and rumors abounded for years that he had ended up in a pirate republic called libertalia
16:55as the story goes libertalia was a place where people were equal and goods were shared and laws
17:04were fair and the pirates flew a white flag as opposed to a black flag to show that you know um there was
17:11no threat and people were free under this flag and stories like that of course a great threat to society
17:18back home which is tremendously unequal and very harsh fugitive outlaws had always caught the public
17:26imagination and avery was no exception stories of his big prize his vanishing act and his pirate utopia
17:35passed between deckhands across the oceans and returned to england in the form of popular ballads
17:41and this one was purportedly penned by avery himself now this is the course i intended for to steer
17:55my false-hearted nation to you i declare if avery was indeed the author of this ballad
18:05then he was not only fueling his own infamy but spreading sedition
18:12ballads were very dangerous things they were banned in periods of political unrest
18:18because you could turn a populace like that by singing singing ballads it doesn't seem
18:23likely to us today ballads particularly appealed to the lower classes they were very accessible they
18:29were sold on the streets and they were just printed on single sheets of paper on one side and if you
18:34couldn't read very well well the ballad monger would sing the ballad in order to attract a crowd
18:39and and make their sales for the price of a few pennies or nothing at all if you remember it
18:45you were up to date with the latest news i have done thee no wrong thou must me forgive
18:54the sword shall maintain me as long as i live whilst pirates clearly had mass appeal what was now
19:08surprising was that amongst the chattering classes swashbucklers like avery and tales of his remarkable
19:14disappearance became the fashionable new topic and it was a play based on avery which did much to foster
19:21the legend of the pirate as a brave outlaw the successful pirate opened at the theater royal
19:28drury lane in 1712 set as a tragic comedy it cast avery as a self-styled king of the pirates and
19:36features a rum bunch of incompetence hotly debating the virtues of piracy come on now sir i'll oppose you
19:45with his faults is he not extremely violent and intemperate with his desires granted a hero should
19:54be though that immoderate desire for power that unquenchable appetite for rule that has long been
20:04dignified by the slaves of tyrants but he is no tyrant therefore tis virtue in him to desire power
20:18the public absolutely loved it much to the irritation of the critics one of whom was outraged by the way
20:25that it glamorized villainy in making a swabber a mere deckhand into the hero of a tragedy
20:32notwithstanding all you've said he's still only an overgrown thief why the worst you hypocrites of
20:40order can say and it is to his immortal honor is that he has leapt the pale of custom and is a royal
20:49outlaw but for one member of the audience the writer and journalist daniel defoe the play was proof enough
20:57of the pirates broad cultural appeal
21:11with his customary journalistic chutzpah defoe was to capitalize on the pirates appeal
21:17and their ambiguous morality not only in robinson crusoe but in several of his books making him in
21:24effect the first pirate novelist but there was another book published in this period which surpassed
21:32all others in chronicling the lives and exploits of the pirates of the great golden age now i was
21:38brought up on stories of real pirates and they were all inspired by this book as titles go it's pretty
21:45difficult to beat a general history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pirates
21:53this was the pirate brilliantly packaged and neatly presented and the public absolutely loved it
22:01the book tapped into a growing vogue for criminal biography but its author a captain charles johnson
22:08remains a mystery figure as elusive as many of the pirates themselves johnson displayed such a detailed
22:15knowledge of the life and language of the sea that it was thought by many that he must have been a
22:20retired sea captain that he'd perhaps attended pirate trials or even interviewed pirate crewmen
22:27but there has also been a long-standing and far more intriguing belief that johnson was merely a
22:32pseudonym for our old friend daniel defoe within uh that slim volume are the detailed lives of 20 or so
22:46celebrated pirates and it has become the sort of touchstone for piracy and it's been used as
22:53the basis really for the golden age of pirates and what i found fascinating over the years as i've done
23:00research in different areas is it all checks out the capture of ships and and what the various pirates
23:08did with the crew and did with the ships totally authentic
23:14and one of the most surprising details of johnson's book is its account of a democratic code of conduct
23:21or the pirate's code as it was generally known the pirate's code provided rules for discipline
23:28for the fair division of plundered loot and it even set aside specific sums of money for injuries
23:34sustained to different parts of the body for example in pirate currency the most highly valued part of
23:40your body was your right arm for which you received 600 of these pieces of eight your left arm was
23:47valued at 100 less and your legs at 100 less again bizarrely a finger and an eye were equally valued at 100
23:55pieces but i suspect that you had to make your own eye patch
24:02seaman had a very harsh life they worked for long hours for years for very low pay when tales came
24:10back about pirates running um their ships on more democratic lines made joint decisions and decisions in
24:17common and shared their supplies this would never have happened on a on a navy ship or a merchant ship
24:23and this is egalitarian
24:29so a pirate crew could easily find its numbers swelled by sailors desperate to escape an oppressive ship
24:36and more than happy to switch allegiance and sail under the black flag
24:40and the lure of the black flag was to become far greater following the end of the war of the spanish
24:50succession in 1713 which not only saw atlantic trade resume but also witnessed thousands of british seamen
24:59relieved of military duty the result was a large number of idle but highly trained sailors at a time
25:07of considerable seaborne trade as all of the european maritime powers sought to expand their colonial empires
25:15now a great deal of money could be made transporting goods on this network but if you knew that network you
25:21could of course just steal it which is why peacetime provided so many opportunities for the maritime outlaw
25:31this was especially so in the seas around the west indies with its lucrative trade in sugar and more
25:37notoriously slaves there were ships all over the place merchant ships waiting to be plundered so you
25:45had in the bahamas um a whole lot of unemployed seamen adventurers out of work privateers and pirates
25:54all waiting for action it became so full of people looting and raping and whatever that it became in a
26:00way what we call now a failed state
26:14so
26:29during the war of the spanish succession nassau in the bahamas had been utterly ransacked and left in
26:35ruins by 1715 still ungoverned and undefended it had become a pirate haven
26:43by the following year the pirate population outnumbered nassau's law-abiding citizens
26:48by 10 to 1. it had become in effect a pirate republic a sprawling encampment of carousing
26:55fornicating sailors funding their profligate lifestyles with plunder it seemed as though captain
27:00avery's mythical pirate kingdom had come alive
27:13so
27:21MUSIC CONTINUES
27:51was a tall, robust Englishman from Bristol named Edward Teach.
27:59By March 1717, Teach had formed a company of 70 men aboard his six-gun sloop
28:06and had begun to cultivate a formidable reputation.
28:14His flag was soon the most feared on the horizon,
28:17and with his mane of coarse dark locks, he now went by the catchy new name of Blackbeard.
28:24The skull and crossbones has been a symbol of death since the Middle Ages,
28:27and in this great period, the pirates adopted it as their own menacing symbol,
28:32with each captain having his own version.
28:35And unsurprisingly for Blackbeard, who was obsessed with his image,
28:39his flag had it all.
28:41If ever there was a symbol to strike fear into the heart of your victim,
28:45then this was it.
28:50A skeleton holds an hourglass in one hand
28:53to show you that your time is running out,
28:55and a spear in the other,
28:57threatening to draw blood from your heart if you do not surrender.
29:01And if this wasn't enough,
29:02Blackbeard added horns and cloven feet to his skeleton
29:06to signify that he was in league with the devil.
29:13Sailors during the early 18th century
29:15were almost universally superstitious,
29:19and aside from the sight of Blackbeard's flag,
29:22the sight of the man himself
29:24was enough to cause the crews of merchant ships to surrender.
29:27His reputation rests entirely on his appearance,
29:38which was vividly recorded in Captain Johnson's book.
29:41This beard was black,
29:43which he suffered to grow of an extravagant length.
29:47As to breadth, it came up to his eyes.
29:50He was accustomed to twist it with ribbons in small tails
29:53and turn them about his ears.
29:55In time of action, he wore a sling over his shoulders
29:58with three brace of pistols
29:59hanging in holsters like bandoliers
30:01and stuck lighted matches under his hat,
30:04which, appearing on each side of his face,
30:07his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild,
30:10made him altogether such a figure
30:11that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell
30:16to look more frightful.
30:22Blackbeard was ruthless.
30:23On one occasion when a victim
30:25didn't voluntarily offer up the ring on his finger,
30:29he simply cut it off, ring and all.
30:31And he wasn't above maiming his own crew.
30:34We also know that he shot his second mate, Israel Hands,
30:37in the knee just to remind him who was boss.
30:43If Blackbeard looked like a walking arsenal,
30:45then it was for a very good reason.
30:47Flintlock pistols like this only fired a single shot.
30:50And they were also notoriously unreliable at sea.
30:55So if your pistol failed to fire because of a damp charge,
30:57you could go straight on to the next one.
31:00And then when both were used up,
31:01you still had your cutlass.
31:03One of the most important articles of the Pirates Code
31:07was to keep your pistols and cutlass clean and fit for service,
31:11especially in the run-up to an attack.
31:13They would all be on deck, waving cutlasses, firing in the air,
31:18and as they came alongside,
31:20they would also throw a primitive form of hand grenade
31:23onto the deck of the merchant ship, which caused chaos,
31:26and send over a grapnel rope and haul themselves alongside,
31:32by which stage normally the petrified crew,
31:35not used to battle, just said,
31:38we surrender.
31:39Blackbeard's reign of terror lasted two years.
31:48Tormenting the American eastern seaboard
31:50from the Caribbean to North Carolina,
31:53he plundered sugar, rum, and loot
31:55from a series of English merchant vessels.
31:58But following his ruthless blockade of Charlestown Harbour in May 1718,
32:21the governor of Virginia issued a warrant for Blackbeard's arrest
32:24with a reward of £100 for his capture, dead or alive.
32:33Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl
32:36was dispatched to hunt him down
32:38and eventually tracked him to the shallows of Ocracoke Inlet.
32:42Blackbeard raised a bottle of liquor in salutation
32:57and declared that Maynard and his crew were cowardly puppies
33:00before calling out to them,
33:02Damnation seize my soul!
33:04If I give you quarters or take any from you!
33:07Blackbeard was ready for a fight.
33:09The ensuing battle was brief and bloodthirsty.
33:14As the ships closed in, Blackbeard's men hurled bottle grenades
33:17and using grappling hooks and boarding axes,
33:20they clambered on board.
33:22But Maynard had hidden most of his crew below deck
33:25and they now took the pirates by surprise,
33:28engaging in furious hand-to-hand combat
33:30with Blackbeard coming up against Maynard himself.
33:35Holding his cutlass aloft,
33:36Blackbeard lunged with such ferocity
33:38that he sheared off Maynard's blade near the hilt.
33:42But coming for him again,
33:44Blackbeard was surrounded and hit from all sides.
33:48Riddled with shock and cut to ribbons,
33:51Blackbeard then suffered a terrible wound to his neck
33:53from a Scotsman wielding a broadsword.
33:56Well done, lads, said Blackbeard,
33:58before staggering but cocking his pistol again.
34:01I'll do better, said the Scotsman,
34:03before hacking away at his neck again deeply,
34:06killing that great man dead on his own deck.
34:14With their captain's fighting spirit,
34:17Blackbeard's men fought on but were soon overcome.
34:20As proof of Blackbeard's death
34:22and in order to collect the reward of £100,
34:26Maynard called for Blackbeard's head to be severed
34:29and hung up on the bowsprit.
34:37The rest of Blackbeard's corpse was then thrown overboard,
34:42whereupon hitting the water, according to legend,
34:44it then swam several times around the sloop,
34:48searching for its own severed head
34:50before sinking without trace.
35:00Because of his fearsome reputation,
35:03Blackbeard's death was seen as a major coup
35:06in the war against piracy
35:07and, in propaganda terms,
35:09as significant as the trial and hanging of Captain Kidd.
35:14But even with Blackbeard gone,
35:21there were still some 2,000 pirates roving the seas.
35:25The colonies were facing what amounted to an imperial crisis.
35:33We've got the Golden Age pirates rampaging across the Caribbean.
35:38They're disrupting trade.
35:39The colonial governors are complaining to London,
35:42and you've got to do something about it.
35:44The governor of Jamaica is saying,
35:46I can't send a ship in or out without it being captured by pirates.
35:50And one of the things the authorities do,
35:52they get onto the Admiralty and they say,
35:55send more ships to the Caribbean.
35:58So it actually becomes part of the brief of the Navy
36:01to suppress the pirates.
36:04The naval ships that were sent out
36:05tended to be what are called sixth-rate ships.
36:08They were 40 guns or so,
36:11and they were powerful vessels,
36:13but they were quite big.
36:14They weren't able to go into shallow estuaries and bays.
36:18The pirates selected mostly what are called slutes.
36:23They were relatively shallow draft compared with the naval ships,
36:27so they could sneak in and out of estuaries and bays and channels
36:32that the naval ships couldn't get into.
36:36The naval ships,
36:38if there were only four to cover the entire Caribbean,
36:41and there were, what,
36:42two to three hundred pirate ships operating in that same area,
36:47the naval ships couldn't be everywhere at once.
36:49So the Navy had a difficult job,
36:51and in a way, the pirates had the advantage.
36:58But as the government soon realised,
37:01it would take more than deploying a few more naval ships.
37:05In 1717, under the new King George I,
37:09one of the measures taken to quell the pirate menace
37:11was the issue of a royal proclamation,
37:14an act of grace,
37:15in which the king promised that any pirate
37:17who voluntarily surrendered himself
37:19to British authorities within a year
37:21would receive his most gracious pardon.
37:26One of the pirates who took advantage of this amnesty,
37:30albeit briefly,
37:31was Captain John Rackham,
37:33whose colourful cotton clothes
37:35earned him the equally colourful nickname of Calico Jack.
37:39Calico Jack achieved lasting fame,
37:41not for his actions,
37:43which amounted to seizing a handful of vessels
37:45in the seas of Jamaica,
37:46but for his association with two of his crew members,
37:51which became one of the most beguiling
37:53and frankly suspect episodes
37:55of the entire golden age of piracy.
38:01It was whilst taking advantage of the pirate amnesty
38:04and frequenting the taverns of Nassau
38:06that Calico Jack met and courted a bold young Irish woman
38:10named Anne Bonney.
38:11And with his return to piracy soon after,
38:14he took her to sea
38:15and she joined his crew,
38:17dressing in men's clothes.
38:19Now here, the story takes a rather brilliant turn.
38:22When Calico Jack's sloop revenge captured a merchant ship,
38:26he acquired a young sailor by the name of Mark Reed.
38:29Now, Anne Bonney,
38:30who was serving on Jack's crew dressed in men's clothes,
38:33took a bit of a fancy to this young sailor
38:35and in a quiet moment alone revealed to him
38:38that she was, in fact, a woman,
38:40upon which Mark Reed revealed
38:42that he was also a woman named Mary.
38:50In late 1720,
38:52a merchant sea captain named Jonathan Barnett,
38:55with a commission to hunt down pirates,
38:57took Calico Jack and his crew by surprise
39:00whilst they enjoyed a rum party anchored off Jamaica.
39:03Jack and his men were too drunk to fight
39:06and fled to the hold,
39:08leaving only Bonney and Reed to resist.
39:11The two women flew at Barnett's men like furies,
39:14firing their pistols,
39:15wielding their cutlasses and axes
39:17and shouting obscenities as they went.
39:20But they were unable to rouse their crew,
39:22who tamely gave up,
39:24with Calico Jack himself calling for quarter.
39:27Calico Jack's female crew members would end up behind bars,
39:35but their exploits have posed questions ever since,
39:38and for leading folk musician Martha Tilston,
39:41their story has provided the inspiration for a new composition,
39:45which she has asked me to perform with her.
39:47Martha, it's really exciting
39:48that you've written a ballad about pirates,
39:51because ballads were the way that the activities of the pirates,
39:54which happened thousands of miles away,
39:55were brought home and sold to the masses.
39:57You're part of a long tradition.
39:59Well, I imagine it was totally fascinating for people to hear this,
40:02especially for women who maybe were not in a situation
40:04where they're having a particularly adventurous life
40:06or living a life that was very sort of stuck at home.
40:09To read about that is a way of escaping or to hear about it,
40:12so you'd pass the story around.
40:13But it would have spread.
40:14I think the news and the story would have spread,
40:16because a good story spread through music and storytelling at that time.
40:20You've written a duet, so there's a male voice,
40:23the voice of the jailer who's taking Anne Bonny off to her cell,
40:26and then Anne Bonny and Mary Reid singing.
40:28Well, I wanted to get the male and the female.
40:29I think what was beautiful about the lady pirates
40:31is they were out in this fairly male world,
40:33but there was a good female presence there,
40:35and it's nice to put that across,
40:37and also the voice of the law and the outlaw, I guess.
40:40Let's give it a go.
40:41OK.
40:41OK.
40:41OK.
40:46Oh, step aside, I'm Anne Bonny,
40:54I am a lady pirate,
40:57and there's more beside me out on the sea,
41:01all dressed in manly fets,
41:04climbing up the rigging,
41:07leaping down with the moon on our blades,
41:11on the edge of life we're living,
41:14and we'll take if you're not giving,
41:17then we'll slip away into the velvet night.
41:26Oh, come with me, Anne Bonny,
41:30I'll show you to your cell.
41:33An outlaw is an outlaw,
41:36and you all hang just as well,
41:39and you all hang just as well,
41:41but you thought that we never could tell,
41:45but you didn't hide your shape so well.
41:51Throwing like a barrel over the ocean,
41:54and we had you pinned,
41:56no, you never knew.
41:57Throwing like a barrel over the ocean,
42:00and you fought us well,
42:02like a man downwind calico,
42:05and merry-o,
42:06but hang it, I will never be free,
42:09as a herring goal on the ocean,
42:12oh, you'll sing my name through history.
42:18There's something really romantic and very attractive
42:20about the idea of these female pirates out,
42:23and were they dressed up as men or not,
42:25and why were they dressed up as men,
42:26and for me, my instinct when I sort of read about it,
42:29or heard about it,
42:29was that that's just going to be easier to climb the rigging
42:32if they haven't got skirts.
42:33I can imagine that when they were taking over other ships,
42:36or when they were in battle,
42:38that to sort of,
42:39to not obviously be a woman might be advantageous,
42:42but I can't imagine they hid the fact that they were women
42:45for that amount of time on a ship with loads of men.
42:47No, I mean, that's the thing I think that really stands out for me.
42:50I mean, I like to think that all of the men knew they were women,
42:53Yeah, for sure they would.
42:54I can't imagine how you'd do it,
42:55but also, why would you do it?
42:57Calico Jack was her lover,
42:58so, I mean, how would she keep that from the whole ship?
43:01We commandeered a ship one day
43:04Out on the stormy seas
43:07And of the men that joined us
43:09There was one young Mary Rie
43:12She was dressed in manly fare
43:15We became a savage pair
43:18We rode the waves with the moon in our hands
43:24Thrown like a barrel over the ocean
43:28And we had your pens
43:30No, you never knew
43:31Thrown like a barrel over the ocean
43:33And you fought us well
43:35Like a man downwind
43:37Calico and Mary-oh
43:40But I will never be hanged
43:42Free as a herring goal
43:44On the ocean
43:45To sing my name's of history
43:49Legislation passed since Captain Kidd's trial
44:05meant that Admiralty Law could now be administered in the colonies,
44:09that the accused did not need to be sent back to England.
44:12Unsurprisingly, Jack and his men were found guilty at the ensuing trial
44:17and were sentenced to death
44:19Now, in prison, Jack was allowed to see Anne one last time
44:22But, far from pitying him, she brazenly reprimanded him for their capture
44:27Had you fought like a man, she scowled
44:31You need not have been hanged like a dog
44:33It was at the point of their sentencing
44:36that Bonnie and Reid's story took its last and most dramatic twist
44:41When the judge passed sentence, he asked them if they had anything to say
44:47The ladies replied
44:48My lord, we plead our bellies
44:51They claimed that they were pregnant
44:53The judge ordered a physical examination to be undertaken
44:56and both women were indeed found to be pregnant
44:59and both were granted a stay of execution
45:02For Mary Reid, however, this was no happy resolution
45:14as she contracted a fever soon after the trial
45:18and died in prison
45:20As for Anne Bonny, there's no historical evidence that she was executed or released
45:33Like Captain Henry Avery, she simply vanished
45:37Following his execution, Calico Jack's body, like that of Captain Kidd
45:56was hanged in chains as a warning to others
45:59on a sandy spit of Port Royal in Jamaica
46:03now known as Rackham's Quay
46:05But plenty of others would follow him to the gibbet
46:09Nassau in the Bahamas, which had been a pirate republic of lawless riot and drunken revelry
46:33had been brought under control with the appointment of Captain Woods Rogers
46:36as the island's governor
46:38He continued to offer that royal pardon
46:41and set about rebuilding the island's defences
46:44Captain Woods Rogers is a key figure in the war against the pirates
46:54He was a tough and resolute sea captain
46:57He had orders to drive the pirates from their lodgment
47:01and he goes out there with a fleet of ships
47:04gets a hostile reception, but he establishes order
47:07He captures some pirates
47:09and he then sets up a show trial
47:12which he presides over
47:14Nine of them are hanged on the beach in front of the fort of Nassau
47:18And this sent a signal, really, across the Caribbean
47:23that there's a man in Nassau now who's in charge
47:27who's restoring order
47:29And in effect, it was an example to other colonial governors
47:34that if you're tough with the pirates, you can get rid of them
47:38Following the clampdown in the Caribbean
47:44many of the pirates set off across the Atlantic
47:47for other less well-patrolled waters
47:49And it was to the slave coast of West Africa that they headed
48:02It was in these waters, just two years before
48:05that one sailor had risen to prominence
48:08a pirate captain to eclipse all others
48:12in what was to be the final flourish of this age of plunder
48:16His name was Bartholomew Roberts
48:22an outspoken and disciplined man
48:24whose swarthy Welsh complexion
48:26would lead to him being remembered as Black Bart
48:29Like many sailors of his generation
48:32Bart had faced a dilemma
48:33when his ship had been captured by pirates
48:35and he had reluctantly turned pirate
48:38But that reluctance was then blown out of the water
48:41when his crew elected him captain
48:44Since I have dipped my hands in muddy water
48:48he surmised
48:48It's better to be a commander than a common man
48:52Over the course of three years, from 1719
49:07Black Bart had wrought havoc among merchant shipping
49:10on both sides of the Atlantic
49:12And by the time he reached the shores of Africa
49:15in June 1721
49:17he was in command of a flotilla of three vessels
49:21in addition to his flagship, the Royal Fortune
49:24Such was the size and loyalty of his combined crew
49:35that Black Bart's little fleet seemed like a proper navy
49:38especially when you consider the way
49:41that he further formalised the pirate's code
49:43Amongst his articles or rules
49:46he stipulated that no one was to game at cards or dice for money
49:49Anyone found seducing women
49:52or bringing them on board disguised
49:54would suffer death
49:55Oh, and the lights and candles had to be out by 8pm
49:58So that's no fun, no women
50:01and you all had to be tucked up early
50:02Bartholomew Roberts was, in a way, the most resolute
50:08and unbending of all pirates
50:10He was a rather puritanical character
50:12I should think, completely terrifying to meet
50:14Those who did put up a fight with Bartholomew Roberts
50:18had a really bad time
50:20and were usually eliminated in horrible ways
50:23I mean, not just cutting off ears and noses
50:25but he would hang them up in the rigging
50:29and use them for target practice
50:30and this was simply
50:32in order that the word would get around
50:34you don't mess around with Bartholomew Roberts
50:36Black Bart proved so elusive
50:45that those in pursuit
50:47began to think he was invincible
50:49beyond capture
50:50even pistol-proofed
50:52as his own crew described him
50:54However, there was one man
50:56Captain Chaloner Ogle of HMS Swallow
50:59who had been tracking Bartholomew Roberts
51:00for some eight months
51:01and he was soon to find his quarry in his sights
51:04Sail ahoy! Sail ahoy!
51:10When the cry came for sail ahoy
51:12Black Bart was enjoying a breakfast of strong tea
51:15because he abhorred liquor
51:16and Salma Gundy
51:18a pirate speciality of pickled herring
51:20boiled eggs
51:21meat and vegetables
51:23But for a man normally so disciplined and astute
51:27Black Bart had finally been caught out
51:30Looking through his telescope
51:36he saw that the approaching ship
51:39was using the old ruse de guerre
51:41of flying false flags
51:42and he quickly ordered his men
51:44to ready themselves for battle
51:46Black Bart, perhaps sensing that the fatal hour was upon him
51:57decided to go out in style
51:59and dressed gallantly for the engagement
52:01As Captain Johnson's general history of the pirates records
52:06Roberts himself made a gallant figure
52:09being dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches
52:14a red feather in his hat
52:16a gold chain round his neck with a cross hanging to it
52:19a sword in his hand
52:21and two pairs of pistols hanging at the end of a silk sling
52:25flung over his shoulders
52:27according to the fashion of pirates
52:29Bart's plan was a characteristically bold one
52:34If he was to stand any chance of escape
52:36he would need to force that naval ship onto a new course
52:39but that involved sailing directly towards her
52:42which would expose his ship to cannon fire
52:45The two ships closed on each other
52:51and exchanged broadsides
52:53Captain Ogle's ship, the Swallow, remained unscathed
52:57but Black Bart lost its mizzenmast
53:00though on it sailed
53:01heading out into open sea
53:03However, as the noise subsided
53:06and the smoke cleared after that first broadside
53:09the helmsman noticed Bart slumped on deck
53:11on a pile of rigging
53:13Not realising he was injured
53:14he swore at him to get up
53:16and fight like a man
53:17But Bartholomew Roberts was dead
53:20his throat had been ripped out by grapeshot
53:23and before his body could be seized and taken as a trophy
53:26his faithful crew wrapped it in a sail
53:28weighed it down with shot
53:29and consigned it to the deep
53:31A second broadside brought the Royal Fortune's mainmast down
53:41upon which Black Bart's crew
53:43with their spirits sunk and their captain gone
53:46called for quarter
53:47For his success
54:00Captain Ogle was awarded a knighthood
54:03the only British naval officer
54:05to be honoured specifically
54:06for his actions against pirates
54:08The battle, Black Bart's death
54:14and the subsequent trial
54:16of his remaining crewmen
54:17at Cape Coast Castle
54:19on the coast of Ghana
54:20was to prove the turning point
54:22in the war against pirates
54:24And this is their death warrant
54:37A small piece of paper
54:39that would herald the end of an era
54:41Ye and each of you
54:44are adjudged and sentenced
54:45to be carried back to the place
54:47from whence you came
54:48from thence to the place of execution
54:51without the gates of this castle
54:53and there within the flood marks
54:57to be hanged by the neck
54:58until you are dead
55:00dead
55:01dead
55:02Like Captain Kidd some 20 years before
55:17these 52 dead pirates
55:20swaying out across the Atlantic
55:21were a stark reminder
55:23of the perils of piracy
55:25It was the greatest slaughter of pirates
55:29ever carried out
55:30by the Admiralty
55:30and in a stroke
55:32it brought this brief
55:33and bloody age
55:34to a dramatic finale
55:35Black Bart's short career
55:51had amounted to capturing
55:53over 470 vessels
55:55and plundering riches
55:57worth a total
55:58of around 20 million pounds
56:00in today's money
56:01When the rewards
56:02so greatly outweighed the risks
56:04it's no wonder
56:05that so many sailors
56:07embraced a life of piracy
56:09In his book
56:12Captain Johnson
56:12devotes more space
56:14to Black Bart
56:15than to any of his contemporaries
56:17and it includes a quote
56:18from Bart himself
56:20that for me
56:21serves as a mantra
56:22for all pirates
56:23In an honest service
56:26says he
56:26There is low wages
56:28and hard labour
56:29In this
56:30plenty and satiety
56:32pleasure and ease
56:33liberty and power
56:35A merry life
56:36and a short one
56:37shall be my motto
56:38Now what's that
56:40if not the Faustian pact
56:42of all outlaws?
56:45As Georgian Britain's
56:47imperial
56:48and mercantile ambitions
56:50marched on
56:51so its navy grew
56:52in size and strength
56:53bolstered by vast numbers
56:55of sailors
56:56who only a few years earlier
56:58might have easily joined
57:00the ranks of the pirates
57:01They may have been a bunch
57:05of common outlaws
57:06but these pirates
57:07had shaken the very foundations
57:09of a fledgling empire
57:11that would spread across the world
57:13once their lawless reign
57:14over the seas was ended
57:15And these maritime renegades
57:25left a powerful legacy
57:27Ordinary men
57:30and women
57:30forging new identities
57:32and a dangerous vision
57:34of freedom
57:34far removed
57:35from the authoritarian
57:36social order
57:38of Georgian Britain
57:39To the establishment
57:41they were enemies
57:42of mankind
57:43but to the public
57:45they became folk heroes
57:47and have remained so
57:49ever since
57:49It would seem
57:51that in this short
57:52but sensational period
57:53in our history
57:54it was the pirates
57:55and not Britannia
57:57who really ruled the waves
57:58Next time
58:07outlaws come closer
58:09to home
58:10in the teeming cities
58:11of Georgian Britain
58:12and with no established
58:13police force
58:14the thief
58:15the robber
58:16and the cheat
58:16could live beyond the law
58:17Rogues like Jack Shepard
58:20who no prison would hold
58:22and Deacon Brody
58:24the original
58:25Jekyll and Hyde
58:27Our brand new series
58:33behind the scenes
58:34at one of the big six
58:35continues tomorrow
58:36here on BBC4
58:37Don't miss the final part
58:38of Power to the People
58:39at 9
58:40where the customer
58:41is always right
58:43Next tonight though
58:44we're in the field
58:45with the counter-terrorism unit
58:46at the FBI
58:47Brand new Storyville
58:48in a moment
58:49Foundation
58:51Let's have a look here
58:54now
58:55and
58:55for this
58:58week
59:07the
59:07The
59:11geography
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