In a piratical career spanning only three years, this tall dark haired, dark eyed Welshman captured a least 470 vessels, making him the most successful pirate in the history of piracy. A well read, cunning man, he was a knowledgeable navigator, and could be pleasant and even reasonable when he needed to be—unlike others, he never forced any man to become a pirate—and yet in the pursuit of his piratical career he could be ruthlessly cruel to the crew members of captured vessels. A complex character who had a perchance for finery and would dress for battle like a dandy. Typically he wore a pleated shirt with ruffs and jewellery, velvet breeches, buckled shoes and colourful jacket of silk. Even on the day of his final engagement against the swallow, he was dressed for battle in a crimson damask jacket and breeches, had a red feather in his hat, a gold chain with a jewelled cross around his neck, a sword in his hand and a silk sash crossing his chest with two pair of pistols attached.
Bartholomew Roberts was born John Roberts in Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1682. Was said to have gone to sea at the age of Thirteen and somewhere along the way changed his first name from John to Bartholomew. However, the first record of him in the Caribbean was in 1718 when he was mate on a sloop out of Barbados.
In 1719 Roberts was third mate on the slave ship Princess captained by Abraham Plumb, when they were captured by pirates while anchored off the Gold Coast of Africa. The pirates were aboard two ships, the Royal Rover and the Royal James and were commanded by Howell Davis. On boarding the Princess Davis first stripped the ship of supplies and then forced some of the crew including Roberts to join him.
The youthful Roberts made it plain that he was a reluctant crewman and would, given the chance, do his best to escape. Despite his show of defiance and possibly because he was a navigator and fellow Welshman, Davis was prompted to take him under his wing and would converse with him in Welsh when he didn't want the others to know what they were saying.
After cruising for while, the Royal James, which was riddled with worm, was abandoned and the crew transferred to the Royal Rover. With one ship gone and the other in need of repairs Davis sailed to the Isles of Princes and entered the harbour flying British colours. After explaining that they were pirate hunters, the suitably impressed Portuguese Governor gave them permission to carry out their repairs, and was even more impressed when Davis arrested a French ship as she entered the harbour, claiming that she was known to have had dealings with pirates. With the governor now convinced that they were genuine pirate hunters, Davis began to develop a plot.
The plan was to invite the Governor to dine onboard the Rover and then capture and hold him to ransom. On receiving the invitation the Governor, a courteous man, invited Captain Davis to the fort for pre dinner drinks. So far so good, all was going well and Davis set off for the fort looking forward to a pleasant and profitable evening.
Unfortunately for him one of the forced crewmen was Portuguese and he slipped ashore to warn his countrymen. The governor, having discovered the plot set up an ambush. The trap was sprung, Davis was shot dead and Walter Kennedy, the only one to escape the attack, fled back to the ship. On hearing of the captain's death the first order of business was to elect a new captain and after a vote the crew chose the relative newcomer Roberts as their new leader. Roberts on his part accepted saying, "that since he had dipped his hands in muddy water, and must be a pirate, it was better to be a commander than a private man."
With a commander and new officers elected, the crew wanted revenge and while Roberts set up a covering bombardment, Walter Kennedy with thirty men went ashore to destroy the fort. As the pirates climbed the hill up towards them the Portuguese instead of firing down at them, fled to the town allowing them to take the fort unopposed and after destroying the guns and firing the fort the men returned to the ship.
Despite the destruction they had wrought the crew were all for attacking the town, killing the inhabitants and razing the place to the ground. Roberts however was against the idea and pointed out the losses that would occur with nothing to gain when the residents fought back to defend their homes. In the end reason prevailed and after demolishing a few house with their guns and stripping the French ship, they left the harbour behind.
Sailing to the south Roberts took a Dutch Guineaman and taking what he wanted let her go. Two days later he captured an English ship and since the crew were willing to join them, they emptied and burned her. Roberts then sailed to St Thomas, but finding no ships, sailed to Anamaboa, where he watered and carried out repairs.
After putting out to sea a vote was taken as to whether they should head for the West Indies or Brazil and twenty-eight days later they were cruising the waters off the Brazilian coast. After six weeks with no sign of any vessels, they decided to move on and as they stood in to make land, came upon a fleet of forty-two Portuguese merchantmen that were waiting off the Bay of Los Todos Santos for two heavily armed Men of War that were on the way to escort them to Lisbon.
This was an opportunity too good to miss and Rodgers sailed close to one of the vessels, ordered the captain to come on board quietly and quickly, or else. The captain obeyed and was relieved to find that Rodgers only wanted him to take him to the ship that carried the richest cargo. The vessel concerned carried forty guns and had a far superior firepower to Roberts' ship, yet he sail over and when he was alongside her had his prisoner hail the captain inviting him over for an important meeting, the captain answered, "That he would wait upon him presently." Not happy with the delay and suspecting that the vessel was preparing to attack him, Roberts order a broadside fired then grappled, boarded and took her. On board they found her loaded with sugar, skins, tobacco and four thousand gold moidores, (18th century Portuguese gold coins).
With such a rich prize in hand the pirates decided it was time to relax and celebrate, so they set off for Devils Island in a river of Surinam, where they where the were sure of a warm welcome from the Governor. While in the river they captured a sloop probably hoping for provisions as they were running low on supplies. On boarding her they were informed that she had sailed along with a brigantine laden with provisions. Leaving Walter Kennedy in charge of the other two ships, Roberts took forty men in the sloop and set off after the brigantine. He chased her for eight days without getting near and on returning found that Kennedy and the rest of the crew had gone off with the other ships and the gold.
After cursing his own stupidity and Kennedy's treachery, Roberts knew they had no choice but to try and get themselves out of their predicament, so he set sail for the West Indies and as luck would have it they soon captured two sloops and were able to re-provision. A few days later they took a brigantine and then continued on towards Barbados. As they neared the island they also took a vessel out of Bristol and after plundering her, let her go, which was a bad move, as the vessel sailed straight to the Island and informed the Governor of the atrocity.
Naturally the governor was alarmed at the idea of dangerous pirates prowling the seas around the Island and he ordered a ship of twenty guns with a crew of eighty men commanded by a Captain Rodgers out in pursuit, and he caught up with the pirates on his second day at sea. As he sailed towards the other vessel Roberts, who had no idea that the other ship had been sent after him, fired a shot for her to heave to and was more than surprised to receive a full broadside in return. The two ships exchanged broadsides until the outgunned Roberts cut and ran, lightening the ship as he went. After losing their pursuer the pirates sailed to the Island of Dominica, where they exchanged goods for water and provisions and also took on as extra crew fifteen Englishmen who had been abandoned on the Island when a French pirate took their ship.
From there they set a course for the Granada Islands where they carried a swift much needed cleaning of the ship. It was as well that they carried out the work quickly, as the Governor of Martinique had fitted out two sloops and sent them out after him. Luckily for Roberts they didn't arrive until the day after he had left.
Leaving the ships from Martinique to their fruitless search, Roberts set off for Newfoundland where they made a noisy entrance to the harbour of Trepassi in the early part of 1720 with their black flag flying and began a rampage of destruction. After destroying the plantations and pillaging the houses they proceeded to sink or burn all twenty two ships in the harbour bar one. The exception to the rule was a Bristol schooner that Roberts took for himself.
Leaving the destroyed harbour behind Roberts, accompanied by his former schooner crewed by the rest of the pirates, sailed out to the banks, where coming across ten French ships, he once again he destroy all, bar a twenty six gunner that he swapped the Bristol schooner for. Naming his new flagship the Fortune, Roberts sailed on, taking several prizes, increased his crew numbers with each capture. One of the vessels was the Samuel, a merchantman out off London, commanded by Captain Cary and on board was several passengers. After stripping the vessel of all that they needed including a couple of guns and a large amount of gunpowder, they took by force valuables to the tune of eight or nine thousand pounds from the passengers. Having got what they wanted including the crew, they were busy discussing whether to sink of burn the Samuel, when they spotted a sail. All thoughts burning or sinking forgotten they took off, leaving Captain Cary and his passengers on their own to sail the Samuel to the nearest port.
By midnight the pirates had caught up and taken the other ship, which was a Snow out of Bristol and they tortured and mutilated the captain simply because he had the misfortune to be English. Two days later they captured a vessel out Liverpool and one out of Virginia, plundering them both then letting them go. These were closely followed by three more vessels, which they stripped of their goods, one they sank, the other two they set free.
Next they set off for the West Indies, but being short on supplies, put into St Christopher's and when the governor refused them supplies, they bombarded the town and left two burning hulks in the roads. They had better luck at the Island of St Bartholomew where the governor supplied all that they needed. Being fully provisioned they then voted to head for the Guinea coast. On the way they met a French sloop and since it was in better condition than their own, forced an exchange of vessels on the French captain. After this they would have continued their journey but having lost the trade winds by mistake they were forced to return to the West Indies.
From there they set off for Surinam, however before they reached their destination the water and supplies ran out and the situation became so desperate that many of their number died of thirst and starvation. Luckily for them they eventually managed to find water and shortly afterwards resupplied from a captured vessel. Abandoning the cruise they were on, they set course for Barbados, on the way they captured a brigantine, gaining more supplies. At this point they again changed course to take on water at Tobago, while there they were informed of the two ships sent out after them by the Governor of Martinique.
With the water on board they set off to teach the Governor a lesson. As he neared the Island Roberts hoisted his jack—the signal that he had goods to barter—and the merchant in the harbour raced out vying with each other to be the first to the trade. Roberts captured them one by one and then after sending the men back to port in one burnt the other twenty.
Pride satisfied, they cruised on and taking several vessels full of liquor they decided to spend some time in consuming some of the bounty. After a while despite still having plenty liquor they were forced by lack of other supplies to go cruising again. Around about this time they deceived and capture a Man-Of-War and to their delight found the governor of Martinique was on board, they promptly hanged him from the yardarm. After this bit of excitement however, they soon grew tired of capturing vessels only for supplies and voted to head in search of gold on the Guinea coast. During the journey the drunken crewmen commanded by Thomas Anstis decided to take off with the brigantine under cover of the night. Unfazed by the desertion Roberts continued his journey to Africa and on making landfall near the mouth of the Senegal River was chased by two French ships, which, after raising the black flag, he captured without a fight. One he renamed the Ranger and the other, which he used as a supply ship, he called the Little Ranger.
They next sailed to the busy merchant port of Sierra Leone and remained there six weeks enjoying the benefits of the grog shops. Eventually they continued the cruise taking several ships on the way and ended up making harbour in Old Calabar where they cleaned and refitted the ships and after sharing out their loot, once again spent some time in the taverns and whorehouses. On tiring of this they again set off to ply their piratical trade of looting and burning the vessels of others.
But two warships HMS Swallow and HMS Weymouth were on their trail and it was HMS Swallow commanded by Captain Chaloner Ogle who came across them as they lay off Cape Lopez. As the swallow approached she had to veer away to avoid a shoal and Roberts thinking she was a merchantman sent the Ranger out after her. As the Ranger came out, captain Ogle moved off drawing her after him and when they out of sight and sound of her companions, turned his guns on the Ranger killing ten and wounding twenty of the crew so swiftly that all fight went out of the pirates and they surrendered.
Five days later captain Ogle reached Cape Lopez again and the pirate crews who were celebrating the capture of the Neptune the day before, and were drunk, assumed that it was the Ranger returning. Even Roberts, who was sober and was having breakfast with Captain Hill of the Neptune, took no notice of the approaching vessel. However, as the Swallow drew near, she opened her gun ports, hoisted her true colours and Roberts realising his mistake ordered the cables slipped and putting on sails, made way.
Since he couldn't escape to sea without passing close to the Swallow, his plan was cram on as much sail as he could, take one broadside and race off. And so it came to pass that he received the Swallow's broadside and raising his black flag fired back, but at this point his plan went astray. Maybe the wind changed or the steerage went adrift and he lost way, which allowed the Swallow to come again and blast him with a second broadside. With no choice but to commit to the fight Roberts, dressed in his finery with sword in hand and pistols tied to his tassels, fearlessly stood his ground until he was killed by being hit in the throat with grapeshot. The crew wrapped him in sailcloth weighed his body, threw him overboard, as had been his request, and continued the fight, one of them even tried to reach the magazine with a lighted match and blow the ship, as Roberts himself had threatened to do, if ever he felt they were in danger of being captured.
The fight went on for some time but in the end the pirates surrendered and were taken into captivity. 272 pirates were captured in total. Of those, 75 who were black, were sold into slavery, some died on the voyage to Cape Coast Castle, 54 were condemned to death, 52 of those were hanged and 2 granted a reprieve. 20 avoided the death penalty by signing indentures with the Royal African Company, 17 were sent to London for trial and the remainder were released after being acquitted.
