The Pirates Whos Who | Page 8

every pirate vessel.
The end of most of the pirates and a large proportion of the buccaneers

was a sudden and violent one, and few of them died in their beds. Many
were killed in battle, numbers of them were drowned. Not a few drank
themselves to death with strong Jamaica rum, while many of the
buccaneers died of malaria and yellow fever contracted in the jungles
of Central America, and most of the pirates who survived these perils
lived only to be hanged.
It is recorded of a certain ex-prizefighter and pirate, Dennis McCarthy,
who was about to be hanged at New Providence Island in 1718, that, as
he stood on the gallows, all bedecked with coloured ribbons, as became
a boxer, he told his admiring audience that his friends had often, in joke,
told him he would die in his shoes; and so, to prove them liars, he
kicked off his shoes amongst the crowd, and so died without them.
The trial of a pirate was usually a rough and ready business, and the
culprit seldom received the benefit of any doubt that might exist.
If he made any defence at all, it was usually to plead that he had been
forced to join the pirates against his wish, and that he had long been
waiting for an opportunity to escape.
Once condemned to death, and the date of execution decided, the
prisoner, if at Newgate, was handed over to the good offices of the
prison Ordinary; or, if in New England, to such vigorous apostles of
Christianity as the Rev. Cotton or the Rev. Increase Mather. The former
of these two famous theologians was pastor of the North Church in
Boston, and the author of a very rare work published in 1695, called
"An History of Some Criminals Executed in This Land." Cotton Mather
preached many a "hanging" sermon to condemned pirates, a few of
which can still be read. One of these, preached in 1704, is called "A
Brief Discourse occasioned by a Tragical Spectacle of a Number of
Miserables under Sentence of Death for Piracy."
The Reverend Doctor made a speciality of these "hanging" sermons,
and was a thorough master of his subject, as is shown by the following
passage taken from the above "Brief Discourse":
"The Privateering Stroke so easily degenerates into the Piratical; and

the Privateering Trade is usually carried on with an Unchristian Temper,
and proves an Inlet unto so much Debauchery and Iniquity."
On the Sunday previous to an execution the condemned pirates were
taken to church to listen to a sermon while they were "exhibited" to the
crowded and gaping congregation. On the day of the execution a
procession was formed, which marched from the gaol to the gallows.
At the head was carried a silver oar, the emblem from very early days
of a pirate execution. Arrived at the gibbet, the prisoner, who always
dressed himself in his, or someone else's, best clothes, would doff his
hat and make a speech.
Sometimes the bolder spirits would speak in a defiant and unrepentant
way; but most of them professed a deep repentance for their sins and
warned their listeners to guard against the temptation of drink and
avarice. After the prisoner's death the bodies of the more notorious
pirates were taken down and hanged in chains at some prominent spot
where ships passed, in order to be a warning to any mariners who had
piratical leanings.
The number of pirates or buccaneers who died in their beds must have
been very small, particularly amongst the former; and I have been able
to trace but a single example of a tombstone marking the burial-place
of a pirate. This is, or was until recently, to be found in the graveyard at
Dartmouth, and records the resting-place of the late Captain Thomas
Goldsmith, who commanded the Snap Dragon, of Dartmouth, in which
vessel he amassed much riches during the reign of Queen Anne, and
died, apparently not regretted, in 1714. Engraved upon his headstone
are the following lines:
Men that are virtuous serve the Lord; And the Devil's by his friends
ador'd; And as they merit get a place Amidst the bless'd or hellish race;
Pray then ye learned clergy show Where can this brute, Tom Goldsmith,
go? Whose life was one continual evil Striving to cheat God, Man and
Devil.

THE PIRATES' WHO'S WHO
AISA. Barbary corsair.
A famous Mediterranean pirate, and one of Dragut's admirals in the
sixteenth century.
ALCANTRA, CAPTAIN MANSEL.
A Spaniard. Commanded a pirate brig, the Macrinarian. Committed
many outrages. Took the Liverpool packet Topaz, from Calcutta to
Boston, in 1829, near St. Helena, murdering the whole crew. In the
same year he took the Candace, from Marblehead, and plundered her.
The supercargo of the Candace was an amateur actor, and