“Great Pirate Roberts”, or Bartholomew Roberts as his friends knew him, was a pirate of the 18th century.

Trawling up and down the coasts of North and South America, he built such a reputation for himself that guard ships in the West indies would sail away as soon as they spotted him rather than risk a confrontation.

Bartholomew Roberts was known to be tall, dark and handsome and he had a penchant for the outrageous - he could usually be found wearing a rich crimson waistcoat along with a hat with a red feather in it. He also wore a heavy gold chain from which hung a large diamond cross. most strikingly, perhaps, he wore a silk sling over his shoulder from which he hung two pairs of pistols.

Roberts employed variable tactics to his advantage, ranging from the bold to the clever or even to the downright unusual. On one occassion he sailed straight into the harbour of Trepassey in Newfoundland with his men playing trumpets and drums. He also boldly flew his black colours whilst on approach. In response, the twenty-two ships anchored there promptly fled!

The black flag that Bartholomew flew was quite unique - it depicted him standing on two human skulls, one initialled A.S.H. and the other A.M.H, This stood for ‘A Barbadian’s Head’ and ‘A Marinician’s Head’ and reflected upon the hatred that Roberts had for these two sets of people. Also on his flag, he was depicted with a dagger in one hand and a flaming sword in the other.

Robert’s pirate days came to an end off the coast of Africa when he perished in a sea conflict.

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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Samuel Bellamy was believed to have been an English sailor who travelled to the New World to seek his fortune.

After arriving there he somehow secured some financial backing from a wealthy merchant in order to persue sunken Spanish treasure to the south. This expedition, however, proved to be totally fruitless.

Returning penniless, Bellamy married for a short time before leaving his wife and children in order to set sail once again in order to try and find his fortune.

Bellamy fell in with Benjamin Hornigold, a well known pirate who had enough honour to treat his prisoners well and refrain from attacking English shipping. After a short while Harigold was deposed and Bellamy was voted into the position of captain.

He took the crew to the West Indies where he had great success as a pirate. Like Hornigold, Bellamy looked after his prisoners but also knew how to take care of his men too.

In April 1717 Bellamy’s fleet became engulfed in an intense storm during which his flagship, the Whydah, capsized and was destroyed. Only two men survived the incident, one of which went into obscurity, the other, Thomas Davis, would go on to tell the story until it entered folklore.

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)

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Baron Maurice de Bentowski, also known as the Count Maurycy Beniowski, was a native of Poland, born into nobility. At the time of his birth Poland was occupied, in part, by Russia. Beniowski became involved in the struggle to rid his country of these Russians and during this time he was taken captive.

Sent to the mines in Serbia, he somehow managed to escape and then went on to establish a stronghold in what is now known as Madagascar.

Beniowski appears here as a pirate because it was well known that he would attack any and all shipping around his base if Madagascar, the land over which he had by then pronounced himself king of.

Considering himself head of a nation state, Beniowski answered to no-one and obeyed no flag but his own. Though his legacy in Madagascar was not that strong, Maurycy Beniowski was well remembered in the region with a nearby island naming themselves Mauritius in his honour.

(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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‘Calico’ Jack Rackham is probably more famous than he should be, due to his association with the female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed.

Jack Rackham was a fairly insignificant pirate who attacked shipping around the coastal regions of the Caribbean. He was caught in May of 1719 but somehow managed to gain a pardon. Taking some time off from piracy, he met Anne Bonny and Mary Reed.

Jack took the two women on as crew members and, having not learned from his close encounter with the gallows, began terrorising the Caribbean. After just a year his ship was attacked by a British captain. jack and his men were either drunk or scared and were easily captured.

All were taken to Port Royal were they were put on trial. With the exception of Anne Bonny who was pardoned and Mary Reed who died in jail, all were hanged.

Whilst not a proveable fact, Rackham is said to have been the original adopter of the ‘Jolly Roger’, or skull and crossbones, as his flag, designed to incite fear in the ships he attacked.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Mary Reed was born in England in 1685. In order to retain favour with her grandmother she is known to have dressed as her elder brother who was ravaged with disease.

Until her death, Mary Reed’s grandmother supported her and her mother. Ater that time Mary had to work herself in order to support her family. She joined the British army for a time but soon left when she met and married another soldier. Together they ran an inn until his early death forced Mary to look for alternative forms of employment.

Remembering her youth, no doubt, Mary dressed as a man and joined a Dutch merchant vessel that was heading for the Caribbean. On her arrival she met the famous pirate Calico Jack Rackham and joined his crew.

Whilst on board she met another woman in disguise, Anne Bonny, and the two became good friends. After a year of relentless pirating they were captured by Captain jonathan Barnet. With the men drunk or scared in the hold the women were the only ones who put up any resistance.

Unlike Anne Bonny, Mary Reed was sentenced to hang. However, she never made it to the gallows as she died from fever whilst still in prison.

(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, everyone knows that the Black Pearl is captained by Jack Sparrow. However, at the beginning of the first movie the ship is under the control of Captain Barbossa, played by Geoffrey Rush.

Prior to the events in the first movie Barbossa was first mate to Captain Jack aboard the Black Pearl. He led a mutiny amongst the crew in order to remove Jack Sparrow from command.

After they had marooned Jack on a Caribbean island Barbossa and his crew went on to discover the treasure of Cortez that would ultimately leave them cursed. They became destined to walk the earth as the undead until all the pieces of treasure had been returned and each crew member had spilled their blood onto it.

Not realising this at the time, Barbossa had ‘Bootstap’ Bill turner tossed overboard, chained to a cannon. This is why the story opens with the crew of the Black Pearl not only looking for the treasure in Elizabeth’s posession, but also Will Turner’s blood.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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