1. Blackbeard
Blackbeard is perhaps the most famous pirate in history, yet his life is shrouded in mystery. Much of what we know about him is taken from the 1724 book «A General History of the Pyrates», published under the name of Captain Charles Johnson. Some parts of the book are backed by documents of the time, while others are simply a fine fabrication.
The book states that Blackbeard's real name was Edward Teach. He was born in Bristol, England, and served as a privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). In 1716 he took up piracy in the Caribbean Sea and off the coasts of South Carolina and Virginia aboard his ship the «Queen Anne's Revenge».
He earned a fearsome reputation, which, according to historian and journalist Colin Woodard, he used to his advantage. Mere rumors of him prompted opponents to surrender without a fight.
In «A General History of the Pyrates» it is said that Teach's enormous beard «came up to his eyes», and during battle he carried «three brace of pistols, hanging in holsters like bandoliers».
According to official accounts, Blackbeard was killed in November 1718 after his ship was ambushed by the British navy near Ocracoke Island in North Carolina.
2. Ching Shih
One of the most successful pirates in history was… a woman named Ching Shih, sometimes called Cheng I Sao or Zheng Yi Sao.
Born into poverty, she married a pirate named Ching I in 1801 and took the name Ching Shih, which means «wife of Ching».
This couple quickly took control of the region's rival pirate gangs. Ching died in 1807, and Shih seized sole power over the confederation of pirates. According to historians, she maintained control over the pirates with the help of a strict code of laws. «The code was severe. Anyone caught acting on their own initiative or disobeying a superior's order was immediately beheaded», the historians write.
At the height of her power, Shih, who was nicknamed the «Queen of the Pirates», commanded a fleet of 1,200 ships with a crew of about 70,000 pirates. In 1810 Shih disbanded the confederation and struck a deal with the Chinese government for a generous surrender. Not only were the pirates pardoned for their crimes, some were even allowed to keep their vessels and join the Chinese navy.
3. Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake was a nobleman to some and an outlaw pirate to others. Born in Devon, England, around 1540, Drake became the first man from England to sail around the world. Although this feat was not a planned exploration, but merely served his goal of raiding Spanish ships in the Americas.
Drake's exploits were lawful from the English point of view, because the Spanish claimed all the territory of the New World, and the English had no intention of yielding it to them. But to the Spanish, Drake was a formidable pirate whom they nicknamed «El Draque» or «the Dragon». Drake brought back much treasure from his voyage around the world and generously shared these riches with Queen Elizabeth I.
Drake's reputation is further clouded by his involvement in slavery. According to researchers, it was he who helped launch the English slave trade in Africa, making several trips to Guinea and Sierra Leone with his cousin and fleet commander Sir John Hawkins, and enslaving roughly 1,400 Africans.
Drake died of dysentery off the coast of Panama in 1596.
4. Sam Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy lived only to the age of 28, but in his short life he made a big name for himself. Born in Devon in the late 17th century, Bellamy began working on the open sea at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession, when he was 13 years old.
He soon became a pirate, and over the course of his «career» in this field he captured 53 ships, including the «Whydah Gally», a slave ship carrying a fortune in gold and silver.
He was probably the highest-paid pirate of all time, Forbes reported in 2008. According to Forbes estimates, he captured booty worth about $120 million in 2008 dollars. Bellamy made the «Whydah Gally» his flagship in 1717, but that same year he went down with it during a storm.
Bellamy was nicknamed «Black Sam» because he wore black wigs tied at the back with a black bow as well. The pirate himself called himself «a Robin Hood of the sea», because he stole from the rich. True, he was in no hurry to give away the treasures he obtained to the poor. Nevertheless, according to the New England Historical Society, he ran his ship rather democratically, treated the members of his crew as equals and spared his prisoners.
5. Black Bart
Bartholomew Roberts, nicknamed «Black Bart», was a tall, handsome and dapper pirate from Wales. He once worked on merchant ships, but then became a pirate and was soon elected captain of his own vessel.
Roberts captured more than 400 ships in his lifetime, including in the Caribbean Sea and off the coast of Africa. He often captured slave ships and then demanded gold in exchange for their return. When the owners of these ships refused to pay, Bart simply burned the vessels along with the prisoners.
According to the Royal Museums Greenwich, Black Bart was killed by soldiers of the British navy off the coast of Gabon in West Central Africa. 52 members of his crew were hanged – and this became the largest trial of pirates in history.
6. Captain Kidd
William Kidd was hired by the British government as a privateer in 1689, and he was even tasked with arresting pirates. However, he was ultimately hanged for murder and piracy.
The thing is that Kidd captured the merchant ship Quedagh Merchant off the west coast of India in 1698. The ship was filled with gold, silver, silks and other valuables. After this he was branded a pirate. Upon learning of this, Kidd set off for New York to clear his name, and was seized.
Historians differ in their opinions as to whether Kidd was actually guilty of piracy. Nevertheless, he was executed in London in 1701.
7. Sir Henry Morgan
Morgan was born in Wales around 1635. At the age of 20 he set off for the Caribbean as a laborer. Having completed his contract work on Barbados, Morgan went seeking his fortune in Jamaica and ultimately turned to piracy.
Morgan married his cousin Elizabeth, who was also the daughter of the deputy governor of Jamaica. From 1666 he commanded his own ship. Morgan fought both on land and at sea. He carried out raids on towns along the coasts of Mexico, Panama and Cuba.
For his plundering and piracy he was thrown into prison. But after a few years he was released. And not just released – he was knighted by King Charles II of England in 1674. That is how quickly the fate of captains could change in the Golden Age of piracy.
Morgan died a natural death in 1688, by that point living for a decade already as a respectable owner of three plantations.
8 and 9. Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Anne Bonny (or simply Bonny) was a female pirate reckoned with by all the men around her. The daughter of a plantation owner, Bonny was born in Ireland in 1698, and then moved to South Carolina. In the early 1700s she left her former life and began engaging in piracy, dressed as a man, aboard the ship of Calico Jack Rackham, a pardoned pirate.
Anne Bonny had a partner, Mary Read, who was also considered part of Rackham's crew.
Bonny and Read became friends, plundering ships on the open sea together.
Rackham's ship and crew were captured off the coast of Jamaica in 1720 and brought to trial, but Bonny and Read escaped the gallows because at that time both were pregnant. Read died in prison of a fever, while Bonny survived. Her father secured her release from prison and took the young woman back to South Carolina, where she lived peacefully to the age of 84.
10. Charles Vane
Charles Vane is an enigmatic figure of the Golden Age of piracy. The date and place of his birth are unknown, but historical accounts depict him as a bold and ruthless pirate. The first mention of him dates to the early 18th century – Vane robbed the Spanish who were collecting silver from the wrecks of the Spanish fleet in the Bay of Florida.
It is known that once, when the British navy cornered him, Vane set fire to his flagship and steered it straight at the English. And he himself managed to escape.
In the end Vane's crew removed him from his command over the pirate ships. He ended up on a deserted island in the Caribbean Sea after a storm destroyed his only remaining vessel. The pirate was eventually rescued, but in 1721 he was arrested and hanged for his crimes.
