PIRACY

See Also: NAUTICAL; PRIVATEERING; THE QUEEN & THE PIRATE QUEEN

The era 1660-1725 was the Golden Age of piracy. It coincided with the decline of the Spanish Empire, and the rise of the British, Dutch, and French ones. Pirate crews were largely democratic. They tended to elect a vessel's captain and to divide booty in an equitable manner. The pirates enjoyed a greater advantage over the Royal Navy because they careened their ships frequently, thereby making them faster. For a long time, the Admiralty orders barred the practice.

The powers that opposed the pirates developed superior naval artillery that could outgun the pirates. The naval crews had better discipline than the pirates. During the early 19^thC the Royal Navy played a leading role in the eradication of piracy in the western hemisphere.

In 2008 it was reported that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office had told the Navy not to detain pirates as such might be a breach of their human rights. At the time, the service was combating piracy in the Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast.

Execution Dock

Execution Dock on the northern shore of the Thames at Wapping was used for the execution of people who had been convicted of piracy. The individual was tied to the Dock's piles at low tide. After three tides had risen and fallen the person's corpse was untied

Whenever a pirate was executed at Execution Dock during the early 18^thC, there would be a man present who would hold a silver oar. This was a symbol of the Admiralty s authority. It was used to lead the condemned man's parade to the Dock. The Marshal of the Admiralty and a number of other officials were required to witness the execution.

On 23 May 1701 Captain Kidd was executed. The execution involved conventional 18^thC-style hanging and not immersion.

Kidd s corpse was covered in tar and suspended from a gibbet that stood at Tilbury Point as a warning to any would be pirates.

The death penalty for piracy was removed from the statute book in 1998. It is reputed that up until then the prison authorities at H.M.P. Wandsworth had been maintaining a set of gallows just in case . The punishment had been abolished for most other crimes in 1969.

Location: Wapping High Street, E1W 2PJ (red, brown)

See Also: ANIMALS The Thames, Otter; EXECUTIONS The Death Penalty; EXECUTIONS Places of Execution; THE THAMES

The Jolly Roger

There is no evidence that the Jolly Roger flag (a.k.a. the Skull & Crossbones) was ever used by pirates. In the late 17^thC and early 18^thC Britain, France, and The Netherlands were in competition with one another as naval powers. One issue upon which they were all agreed was that Austria should not use the Austrian Netherlands¹ as a means of establishing itself as a maritime power.

In a nautical context, the Austrian colours developed a notoriety through their being used privateers as a flag of convenience. The image consisted of a black double-headed eagle set against a yellow background. If these are inverted colour-wise one ends up with something that looks akin to the Jolly Roger.

Location: 1a Cavendish Square, W1G 0LD (blue, brown)

The Embassy of Belgium, 17 Grosvenor Crescent, SW1X 7EX (blue, purple)

See Also: FLAGS; SIR THOMAS GRESHAM The Cloth Trade

Website: https://unitedkingdom.diplomatie.belgium.be

¹. In 1830 most of the territories that had made up the Austrian Netherlands were to form the basis of Belgium.

From The Grave

From the 16^thC to the 19^thC Deptford was an importance centre of maritime activity. The Church St Nicholas has a pair of carved skull and cross bones at the entrance to its graveyard. It has been suggested that this sinister looking memento mori was the origin of the flag.

Location: St Nicholas Deptford Green, SE8 3DQ

See Also: GRAVEYARDS

Website: https://stnicholaschurchdeptford.org

Literary Pirates

The early 19^thC pirates of Scott and Byron were misunderstood men. Scott's one returned stolen. Washington Irving and Poe created the Gothic pirate. They devised the motif of buried treasure (Captain Kidd made claims of buried treasure). Walking the plank was a 19^thC invention.

Gilbert and Sullivan's posh pirates were very much derived from Scott and Byron.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Mark Twain was derisive about pirates.

Stevenson s work was in large part based upon Charles Johnson's (1679-1748) The General History of The Pirates (1744), which was itself largely a work of fiction.

Severndroog Castle

In 1756 Sir William James defeated the Malabar pirate Tulagee Angria at Severndroog off the coast of Goa. James's wife commemorated the victory by commissioning the construction of a Gothic building (1784) on Shooter's Hill.

Location: Castle Wood, Shooter's Hill, SE18 3RT

Website: www.severndroogcastle.org.uk

David Backhouse 2024