![]() Blackbeard was later voted by the pirates of Nassau to be their “Magistrate” and to be in command of their “Republic” and enforce law and order as he saw fit. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they greatly outnumbered the 100 inhabitants of the city. Despite their rivalries, the pirates formed themselves into the “Flying Gang” and quickly became infamous for their exploits. Jennings was mentor to Charles Vane, “Calico” Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read. Hornigold was mentor to pirates such as the infamous Edward Teach, known as “Blackbeard”, along with Sam Bellamy and Stede Bonnet. The “Republic” was dominated by two famous pirates who were bitter rivals – Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings. This led to large numbers of unemployed privateers making their way to New Providence to join the “Republic” and swell its numbers. It was said that when pirates slept, they did not dream of going to heaven but instead of returning to their favourite port of Nassau on New Providence Island.īy 1713 the War of the Spanish Succession was over but many British privateers were slow to get the news or reluctant to accept it and so slipped into piracy. The pirates essentially established their own “Republic” with its own “governors” and their plundered booty forming the basis of a thriving community that attracted rogues, merchants and wild women from far and wide. ![]() From their snug harbour in Nassau they could employ their hit and run tactics to full effect and they devastated the merchant shipping that plied the trade routes just a short sail away. The Bahamas were well-suited as a base of operations for pirates as its waters were too shallow for a large man-of-war but deep enough for the fast, shallow draft vessels favoured by pirates. Nassau was then taken over by English privateers who became completely lawless pirates over time. The island was effectively abandoned by many of its settlers and left without any English government presence. The pirates became increasingly powerful and the era of true pirate control occurred when a combined Franco-Spanish fleet attacked Nassau in 1703 and again in 1706. This established Nassau as a base where pirates could operate safely, although various governors regularly made a show of suppressing piracy. ![]() Henry Every bribed the Governor of The Bahamas Nicholas Trott with gold, silver and with the Fancy itself which was still loaded with 50 tons of elephant tusks and 100 barrels of gunpowder. The era of piracy in the Bahamas began in 1696 when the privateer Henry Every brought his ship the Fancy loaded with loot from plundering Indian Empire trade ships into Nassau harbour. “A belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state.The Golden Age of Piracy lasted for thirty years from 1690 to 1720 and Nassau was at its heart. Maritime Piracy is a crime under international law, although in order to meet the criteria set out by UNCLOS Article 101, the attack needs to occur on the high seas, that is to say, in international waters and not in a country’s Territorial Waters (TTW) are defined by UNCLOS as: (c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b). (b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft (ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft (a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed: Maritime Piracy’ is defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Article 101, as follows: outside of the 12nm limit of Territorial Waters), whereas robbery occurring within the 12nm limit is treated as a crime of robbery under the laws of the coastal state. The definition of Piracy is subject to conventionsĮssentially piracy is any illegal act, broadly defined as robbery on the high seas (i.e.
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