PIRATE NATION
For George and Samuel
Hoping pirates provide you with pleasure
Copyright © David Childs 2014
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Seaforth Publishing,
Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley S70 2AS
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.
First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-936-4 (eBook)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP data record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.
The rights of David Childs to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset by MATSTypesetting, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 5EB
Print edition by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Contents
Exchange Rates
1 Protestants in Pursuit of Profit
2 Apprentice to a Pirate
3 Pirate Ships of War at Sea
4 Arms and Actions
5 Piracy in the Pacific
6 The American Dream
7 The Azores and the First Battle of the Atlantic
8 A Preference for Pirates – The Failure of the Spanish Armada
Peculation and the Piratocracy
9 The Land Rats
10 The Duke’s Denial
11 Disturbing the World
12 Low Water
Appendices
1 Letters of Reprisal and Bonds for Good Behaviour, 1591–95
2 Commission issued by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Cumberland, 28 March 1595
3 John Donne, ‘The Storm’ and ‘The Calm’, 1600
4 Inventory of Malice Scourge, 1600
5 Estimated Costs of Equipping a Pirate Vessel
6 Authorisation to Equip a Vessel of War under the Admiralty of Zealand, 1582
7 Tennyson, ‘The Little Revenge, A Ballad of the Fleet’
8 Cargo Unloaded at Seville, 1593
9 The Appraisement of Prizes
10 Notes from State Papers Concerning Piracy, 1578
11 Complaints of the Dutch Concerning English Piracy, 1589
References and Bibliography
Notes
Maps
Index
£1 in 1600 would be worth about £130 in 2014.
***
There were 20 shillings to the pound and twelve pennies to the shilling.
One crown was worth five shillings.
***
(approximate for the period)
One gold ducat was worth seven shillings.
One silver ducat was worth 5s 6d.
One pesos de oro was worth 8s 3d.
One real was worth six pennies.
***
34 maravedis = one real.
8 reals = one peso.
One pound weight (lb) = 0.45 kilograms.
One hundredweight (cwt) = 50.8 kilograms.
One foot = 30 centimetres.
Protestants in Pursuit of Profit
I write not this in favour of piracies, for I hate all pirates mortally.1
Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, November 1590
For two hundred years, the least safe track along which an Englishman could travel upon his lawful occasion was the sea lane that lay between Ushant and London Bridge, along which, as if in sea-thickets, pirates waited to snag in their barbs all whom appeared weaker than themselves.
This barbed infestation arose because exploitable gaps existed in the surveillance of the sea by the forces of law and order. Such piracy took root because it was nurtured by sections of society ashore, including many in the magistracy who, charged with its eradication, dealt in maritime malfeasance and took an active role in its ordering and establishment while protecting those engaged in the trade. It grew stoutly during the last two decades of the sixteenth century because Queen Elizabeth I, her Lord Admiral and most of her Privy Council, with the
