The Pirates Whos Who

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The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse

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Title: The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers
Author: Philip Gosse
Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19564]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's note.
Many of the names in this book (even outside quoted passages) are inconsistently spelt. I have chosen to retain the original spelling treating these as author error rather than typographical carelessness.

THE PIRATES'
WHO'S WHO
Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths of the Pirates & Buccaneers
BY PHILIP GOSSE
ILLUSTRATED
BURT FRANKLIN: RESEARCH & SOURCE WORKS SERIES 119
Essays in History, Economics & Social Science 51
BURT FRANKLIN
NEW YORK

Published by BURT FRANKLIN 235 East 44th St., New York 10017 Originally Published: 1924 Printed in the U.S.A.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 68-56594 Burt Franklin: Research & Source Works Series 119 Essays in History, Economics & Social Science 51

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
MY FELLOW-MEMBERS OF
THE FOUNTAIN CLUB
WITH THE EARNEST HOPE THAT NOTHING IT CONTAINS MAY INCITE THEM TO EMULATE ITS HEROES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE PAGE
A PAGE FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF CAPTAIN DAMPIER 98
PRESSING A PIRATE TO PLEAD 140
A PIRATE BEING HANGED AT EXECUTION DOCK, WAPPING 182
ANNE BONNY AND MARY READ, CONVICTED OF PIRACY NOVEMBER 28TH, 1720, IN JAMAICA 256
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS 262

PREFACE
Let it be made clear at the very outset of this Preface that the pages which follow do not pretend to be a history of piracy, but are simply an attempt to gather together, from various sources, particulars of those redoubtable pirates and buccaneers whose names have been handed down to us in a desultory way.
I do not deal here with the children of fancy; I believe that every man, or woman too--since certain of the gentler sex cut no small figure at the game--mentioned in this volume actually existed.
A time has come when every form of learning, however preposterous it may seem, is made as unlaborious as possible for the would-be student. Knowledge, which is after all but a string of facts, is being arranged, sorted, distilled, and set down in compact form, ready for rapid assimilation. There is little fear that the student who may wish in the future to become master of any subject will have to delve into the original sources in his search after facts and dates.
Surely pirates, taking them in their broadest sense, are as much entitled to a biographical dictionary of their own as are clergymen, race-horses, or artists in ferro-concrete, who all, I am assured, have their own "Who's Who"? Have not the medical men their Directory, the lawyers their List, the peers their Peerage? There are books which record the names and the particulars of musicians, schoolmasters, stockbrokers, saints and bookmakers, and I dare say there is an average adjuster's almanac. A peer, a horse, dog, cat, and even a white mouse, if of blood sufficiently blue, has his pedigree recorded somewhere. Above all, there is that astounding and entertaining volume, "Who's Who," found in every club smoking-room, and which grows more bulky year by year, stuffed with information about the careers, the hobbies, and the marriages of all the most distinguished persons in every profession, including very full details about the lives and doings of all our journalists. But on the club table where these books of ready reference stand with "Whitaker," "ABC," and "Ruff's Guide to the Turf," there is just one gap that the compiler of this work has for a long while felt sorely needed filling. There has been until now no work that gives immediate and trustworthy information about the lives, and--so sadly important in their cases--the deaths of our pirates and buccaneers.
In delving in the volumes of the "Dictionary of National Biography," it has been a sad disappointment to the writer to find so little space devoted to the careers of these picturesque if, I must admit, often unseemly persons. There are, of course, to be found a few pirates with household names such as Kidd, Teach, and Avery. A few, too, of the buccaneers, headed by the great Sir Henry Morgan, come in for their share. But I compare with indignation the meagre show of pirates in that monumental work with the rich profusion of divines! Even during the years when piracy was at its height--say from 1680 until 1730--the pirates are utterly swamped by the theologians. Can it be that these two professions flourished most vigorously side