One of the most famous pirate-hunters of all time, Woodes Rogers (1679-1732) was originally a merchant, including in slaves, a highly accomplished mariner and navigator. Charismatic and charming, in 1708, during the War of Spanish Succession, Rogers was awarded command of a global expedition to retaliate against Spanish depredations against the English. He undertook a successful voyage to the Pacific on two ships called Duke and Duchess. Onboard was another soon-to-be famous man: former buccaneer and naturalist William Dampier.
On this voyage, Rogers brought home bullion, precious stones, and exotic silks taken from the Spanish as well as a marooned Englishman called Alexander Selkirk. Rogers wrote a successful book about the voyage called A Cruising Voyage around the World, using the intrigue around Selkirk as a main narrative point. Selkirk became the basis of Daniel Defoe’s story Robinson Crusoe.
Although his book was quite financially successful, by 1713, Rogers began to experience severe financial problems. His privateering expeditions had not recouped his losses and his crew had successfully sued him for failing to reimburse them their share of the proceeds he had acquired.
Forced into bankruptcy, Rogers accepted a commission to purchase slaves in Madagascar with the secondary mission of collecting intelligence on the pirates who inhabited the remote island. Most of the pirates were enjoying a life of leisure in the arms of local women and had little interest in rejoining the profession. To shore up his credentials with the powers that be back in England, he persuaded them to sign a petition asking the dying Queen Anne for clemency.
The Bahamas
From 1715-23 a new breed of buccaneer emerged in the Caribbean. These were men (and a few women) who eschewed the protections of any colonial or religious authority at all. They didn’t limit themselves to Spanish gold ships, they also raided any ship they came across. But these ships carried tobacco, sugar, cotton, timber, or furs: plunder not in a form easily distributable among the crew.
So to reap the financial benefits of this type of plunder, the pirates needed a port of their own. In 1715, they got it: New Providence in the Bahamas.
The Bahamas’ poor soils made it unsuitable for the economic mainstay of the British Caribbean colonies: cash-crops of sugar or tobacco. Whaling produced some revenue but this was dominated by Bermuda. Caribbean islands in this predicament usually became trading posts. But with little colonial oversight, the Bahamas had instead attracted pirates.
The pirate haven of New Providence began on 30 June 1715, when the annual Spanish treasure flota was hit by a terrible hurricane between Florida and Grand Bahama. Of the dozen ships, only one survived. The rest sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking their gold with them.
When news got out that gold worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was sitting on the bottom of the ocean up for grabs, fortune hunters of all nationalities across the Caribbean and American coast descended on the area like a mob of grey nurse sharks. Many were colonial authorities, such as Henry Jennings. Florida was Spanish territory so under pressure from London, the Jamaican authorities disowned the treasure seekers, denying access to Port Royal for the plunder.
Benjamin Hornigold was the first treasure hunter to trade with locals in the struggling British settlement on New Providence. It was ideally situated: close to the Florida treasure sites AND the major trade routes; home to a natural harbour capable of sheltering at least a hundred ships; and with a ready supply of food, fresh water and timber.
Within a few months, New Providence’s merchants were providing a marketplace for stolen goods to some of America’s most infamous pirates. Hornigold, Henry Jennings – now a full-blown pirate, Charles Vane, John ‘Calico Jack’ Ratham, Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, and Sam Bellamy all passed through New Providence. The merchants then smuggled their plunder into the established markets of colonial America and the Caribbean.
Woodes Rogers goes to the Bahamas
Persistent complaints to London about the pirates of New Providence brought about King George I’s proclamation offering pardons to those who turned away from piracy. Woodes Rogers decided to exploit his political connections to the new King George I and position himself as a patriotic pirate-hunter, for a price of course. He accepted George’s offer to the governorship of the Bahamas with the intention of stopping the pirates who refused to accept the pardon once and for all.
Rogers set sail with seven ships, 100 soldiers and supplies ranging from food to religious pamphlets. In July 1718, he encountered his first pirate, Charles Vane. After a short battle, Vane escaped but left New Providence. Rogers took the island quickly.
Many of the 200 pirates accepted the pardon then and there and disappeared, never to be heard of again. Others, most famously Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch, took the pardon with no intention of adhering to its term. Some sought out Charles Vane and joined up with him. Others, including Benjamin Hornigold, turned patriot and joined forced with Rogers.
Rogers set the newly pardoned pirates to work building fortifications. He retaliated brutally to anyone who defied him. After two years of struggle and borrowing money for vital supplies on credit, Rogers managed to secure New Providence from the diminishing pirate threat.
But he grew increasingly troubled by the silence from London. Before long, he was unable to secure more credit. In poor health, Rogers returned to London only to discover that King George had dissolved his position in the Bahamas and refused to honour the debts incurred in securing New Providence.
Now back to where he started from, a dejected Rogers pondered what to do next. One day, he met a man who wanted to write about the pirates of the Caribbean. With nothing to lose, Rogers told him about his exploits in New Providence trying to cast the pirates out of the British colony.
The man went on to publish the most famous book about pirates of all time: A General History of the Most Notorious Pyrates. Its financial success immediately capitulated Rogers to fame.
His reputation now restored, King George reprieved him of his debts. Rogers returned to the Bahamas as governor.
Woodes Rogers died in Nassau in 1732 of ‘mysterious causes’. His motto ‘piracy expelled, commerce restored’ remained the national motto of the Bahamas until independence in 1973.
Further reading: ‘Life aboard a British Privateer in the time of Queen Anne’, (Woodes Rogers journal); ‘A Cruising Voyage Round the World’, by Woodes Rogers (1712), 1928 edition. Both available at Hathi Trust.