Bartholomew Roberts
Before His Pirating Days
Bartholomew Roberts was born John Roberts in Little Newcastle, Pembrokeshire, in 1682. Most accounts point to his father being George Roberts who was included in the Pembrokeshire Hearth Tax list in 1670.
In 1695, John Roberts went to sea at the age of 13. The next time we see him in history is in 1718 when he is working as mate on a sloop from Barbados. Roberts sailed to the Guinea Coast of West Africa on the Princess of London as third mate under Captain Abraham Plumb in the Spring of 1719. The ship finished trading in Anomabu in the Gulf of Guinea, the slaving hub of the Royal Africa Company. Captain Plumb and Roberts were in the harbour with two other ships taking on slaves destined for the West Indies when two pirate ships moved in with their Jolly Rogers flying.
Taking Roberts
Captain Howell Davis, a Welshman from Milford Haven, led theses pirates in the King James. The other ship was a Dutch ship renamed the Royal Rover that the pirates had taken as a prize. After looting the slave ships, Davis gave one to the Dutch captain and went to sea with The Princess of London and the remaining slave ship.
Davis captured an exceedingly rich Dutch ship the next day. He then sold off three captured ships gave their men a chance to join up with him. Davis wanted another Welshman onboard, and although they were very unlike one another in personality, Roberts eventually joined ranks with the pirates. Roberts’ initial hesitation may have been to give the appearance of being forced, although Davis boasted of never forcing a man to join him.
Captain Davis’s Death
The pirates abandoned the King James, as it was badly damaged, and transferred onto the Royal Rover. Soon afterward, they arrived at Prince’s Island off the coast of Africa and were greeted personally by the governor.
Davis schemed to capture the governor and subdue the island, but the plan was leaked to the residents of the island. When Davis went ashore with a handful of his crew, the pirates were ambushed. Davis was killed in the ensuing scuffle, but two pirates managed to escape and warn the crew of the Royal Rover.
Roberts Made Captain
With Davis dead, the pirates had to elect a new captain. Along with Bartholomew Roberts, the candidates were Walter Kennedy, Thomas Anstis, Valentine Ashplant, and David Simpson. Roberts seemed a strange choice, having been reluctant to join with the pirates as well as having been on the ship a mere six weeks at his election. According to Defoe’s account of the situation, John Dennis, one of the senior pirates, pitches in with a speech in Roberts’ favor.
“It is my advice that, while we are sober, we pitch upon a man of courage and skilled in navigation, one who, by his council and bravery, seems best able to defend this commonwealth and ward us from the dangers and tempests of an unstable element, and the fatal consequences of anarchy: and such a one I take Roberts to be. A Fellow, I think, in all respects, worthy your esteem and favour.” (Defoe 195)
Walter Kennedy’s account of the decision explains more explicitly that Roberts was chosen largely because of his knowledge of the seas and ability to guess quickly the bulk and force of any ships they came across.
Roberts accepted his captaincy, stating, ‘Since I have dipped my hands in muddy water and must be a pirate, it is better to be a commander than a common man.’
On the Account
The first item of business under Roberts was to revenge the death of Captain Davis and the pirates killed with him at Prince’s Island. Walter Kennedy led a group of around thirty pirates in an attack under the cover of cannon fire from the Royal Rover. Many of the pirates wanted to burn St. Antonio, but Roberts exerted authority and sensibly argued that the geography –particularly thick forests and shallow inner harbor – would provide the defenders with natural cover. After satisfying themselves with the destruction of several houses, they set fire to two ships and sailed off.
Roberts and his crew captured several ships between Prince’s Island and their next destination, Anomabu. After they refitted their ship and renewed their water supply, they made out to sea again. The pirates reached their next destination, the Bay of Bahia on the shores of South America, only to be met with bad luck. Roberts and his crew went for nine weeks without spotting a ship. Finally, a huge fleet of Portuguese ships appeared off the Bay of Los Todos Santos. These vessels were anchored off shore waiting for two men-of-war to join them on their journey to Lisbon.
The pirates sailed into the fleet, acted as the 43rd vessel, and sought out the captain of a ship they had plans to loot. Roberts told the captain that all he needed was for him to point Roberts and his men toward the richest ship amongst them. If the Portuguese captain cooperated, he would be given his ship back. If he did not, he would be executed. In compliance with Roberts’ wishes, the captain pointed the pirates toward a ship bearing forty guns and carrying 150 men. Using the Portuguese captain as a decoy, Roberts attempted to trick the other captain into joining them on board the pirate ship. Apparently, the men of the treasure ship had been alerted to the situation, as there was an unusual amount of rushing around taking place on its decks. Roberts ordered his men to open fire and board the rich vessel, and in a short time captured an exceedingly rich prize.
After this successful endeavor, Captain Roberts and his crew chose Devil’s Island on the Surinam river to relax for awhile. After some time, the pirates needed provisions so Roberts sent the Royal Rover to an islet nearby to be cleaned, and took off with forty of his best men in a prize sloop he named the Royal Fortune after a brigantine his new ship’s captain told him would have useful cargo. Unfortunately, Roberts and the pirates lost sight of their quarry and were stranded for eight days ninety miles off shore due to calms. Having no provisions and being in such a bind, Roberts sent the Fortune’s only boat to the Royal Rover for help. The men returned a few days later with the bad news that Walter Kennedy had vanished with the Royal Rover, a second rich prize ship, and all of the pirates’ plunder. After returning safely to the coast of Guiana, Bartholomew Roberts decided that a set of Ship’s Articles must be agreed upon and signed by the pirate crew.
The Articles of the Pirates
To distinguish his captaincy from Davis's, Bartholomew Roberts had his crew agree to a new set of articles. Roberts's articles seem particularly strict for a pirate crew, forbidding gambling and making smuggling women aboard the ship punishable by death. It is said that Roberts himself drank nothing stronger than tea. Speculators suggest that these articles were meant to cut back on the drunkenness aboard Roberts's pirate ships and help the operations run more smoothly by forbidding those things that caused dissention among the crew. It could be said that the articles lent themselves to the pirates' success, as Roberts and his crew captured over 400 ships during their pirating career.
| Article I |
Every Man has a Vote in Affairs of Moment; has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized, and may use them at Pleasure, unless a Scarcity make it necessary, for the Good of all, to vote a Retrenchment. |
| Article II |
Every Man to be called fairly in Turn, by List, on board of Prizes, because (over and above their proper Share) they were on these Occasions allowed a Shift of Cloaths: but if they defrauded the Company to the Value of a Dollar, in Plate, Jewels or Money, MAROONING was their Punishment.
If the Robbery was only betwixt one another, they contented themselves with slitting the Ears and Nose of him that was Guilty and set him on Shore, not in an uninhabited Place, but somewhere, where he was sure to encounter hardships.
|
| Article III |
No Person to Game at Cards or Dice for Money. |
| Article IV |
The Lights and Candles to be put out at eight a-Clock at Night: If any of the Crew, after that Hour, still remained enclined for Drinking, they were to do it on the open Deck. |
| Article V |
To keep their Piece, Pistols, and Cutlash clean, and fit for service. |
| Article VI |
No Boy or Woman to be allowed amongst them. If any Man were found seducing any of the latter Sex, and carry’d her to Sea, disguised, he was to suffer Death.
|
| Article VII |
To Desert the Ship, or their Quarters in Battle, was punished with Death or Marooning. |
| Article VIII |
No striking one another on board, but every Man’s Quarrels to be ended on Shore, at Sword and Pistol. |
| Article IX |
No Man to talk of breaking up their Way of Living, till each had shared £1000. If in order to do this, any Man should lose a Limb, or become a Cripple in their Service, he was to have 800 Dollars, out of the publick Stock, and for lesser Hurts, proportionably.
|
| Article X |
The Captain and Quarter-Master to receive two Shares of a Prize; the Master, Boatswain, and Gunner, one Share and a half, and other Officers one and a Quarter.
|
| Article XI |
The Musicians to have Rest on the Sabbath Day, but the other six Days and Nights, none without special Favour. |
At it Again
As his two largest vessels were gone with Kennedy, Roberts captured two sloops that had enough provisions aboard to supply a long voyage. The pirates plundered another vessel from Bristol, England and went on their way. Shortly afterwards, Captain Woodes Rogers of Barbados caught up with Roberts. When the pirate crew moved in to take the ship, thinking it was a merchantman, Rogers and his men fired their cannons and took the pirates by surprise. Deciding not to pursue them further, Captain Roberts and shook off pursuit and escaped.
Upon deciding that the West Indies had become too infested, Roberts steered northward to Newfoundland. After a summer voyage, Roberts finally arrived at Trepassy Harbor. Noticing twenty-two ships in the harbor, he sailed directly amongst them and awed the seamen with the Jolly Roger. When the pirates stopped firing, only one vessel was unscathed. Roberts took the ship, which was from Bristol, England, and exchanged it with a Frenchman he had captured.
After the raid of Trepassey in late June 1720, Roberts sailed again toward the West Indies, capturing and destroying many ships on his way. He commandeered one French ship and renamed her the Royal Fortune. With this new vessel, the pirates took even more vessels en route to St. Christopher’s. Again, they sailed into the harbor and took the ships easily. The next top was St. Bartholomew, where the pirates were allowed by the French governor to stay for weeks. In October, they were off again to St. Lucia, capturing many ships, including the Greyhound with James Skyrme who joined them.
April 1721 brought them a French ship carrying the Governor of Martinique, whom Captain Roberts had hanged. Roberts and his pirate crew had brought much terror to the West Indies and trade was suffering greatly as a result. They decided to head toward West Africa, but Thomas Anstis decided he would rather stay in the Caribbean and left in the Good Fortune on the night of April 20th.
Roberts and his remaining crew arrived in Sierra Leone in June 1721. It was made known to him here that two Royal Navy ships, the H.M.S Swallow and H.M.S. Weymouth had been prowling the coasts and planned to return. In August, Roberts and his men captured two ships in Liberia. One of the ships became the new Royal Fortune and Skyrme was made the new captain of the Ranger.
In January 1722, the pirates heard that H.M.S. Swallow was sailing again and Roberts and his men decided to head for Whydah. Here, the Portuguese paid in gold for slaves. They sailed in on January 11th and took twelve slave ships right away. The vessels had little left aboard to plunder, as they had been cleared for a maximum cargo of slaves. Instead of staying to finish the dealings at Whydah, the pirates fled upon hearing the Swallow was on its way.
The End of “The Greatest Pirate of them All”
The Swallow missed Captain Roberts and his crew in the Royal Fortune and the Ranger by two days at Whydah, but caught up with him on February 5th, 1722. Captain Chaloner Ogle met up with the pirates off the coast of Cape Lopez, which is now known as Gabon. The Swallow appeared to be fleeing the pirates when it swerved to miss a sandbank. Thinking that she was a merchant ship, the Ranger headed by James Skyrm, set off in pursuit. When the Swallow and the Ranger were far enough away from the other two pirate ships, Ogle opened fire. Eventually, the pirates were defeated and the survivors captured.
On February 10th, 1722, the Swallow came back to find the Royal Fortune remaining at Cape Lopez. At first, the pirates mistook the enemy ship for the Ranger, but a former member of the Swallow’s crew recognized the ship and alerted Roberts. Pirates from the Little Ranger were ordered aboard the Royal Fortune. Even though they were going to attempt to make a run for the open seas, Roberts dressed himself in his battle attire of a crimson coat and breeches with gold damask, a ruffled white shirt, a red silk strap for his pistols, a gold and diamond cross, and a red feather for his hat.
The pirates planned on sailing past the Swallow. Though they would be exposing themselves to broadside fire, they felt they would have a chance of escaping once they slipped past. Unfortunately for Roberts and his men, the Swallow managed to fire two damaging broadsides. Unable to get away, the pirates engaged themselves in a battle they would not win. Captain Roberts was hit in the throat by grapeshot and died. Following their great Captain's wishes to be buried at sea, Roberts' men weighed down his lifeless body and threw it overboard.
During the years he spent as a pirate between 1719 and 1722, it is estimated that Bartholomew Roberts captured over 470 ships. Roberts captured more vessels than such well-known pirates as Blackbeard. The atypical characteristics Roberts's possessed, such as his penchant for tea rather than rum and the lack of violence in his treatment of his fellow pirates likely lent themselves to a successful pirating career. Despite his death, Roberts lives on through his legend.
Sources:
Bishop, Morris. A Gallery of Eccentrics. New York: Minton, Balch, & Co., 1928.
Breverton, Terry. Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All. Gretna: Pelican, 2004
Burl, Aubrey. Black Barty: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean. Phoenix Mill: Sutton, 2006.
Defoe, Daniel. “Of Captain Bartho. Roberts and His Crew.” A General History of the Pyrates. Ed. Manuel Schonhorn. New York: Dover, 1999.
Marine Research Society. The Pirates Own Book: Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers. New York: Dover, 1837.
Sanders, Richard. If a Pirate I must be… The True Story of “Black Bart,” King of the Caribbean Pirates. New York: Skyhorse, 2007.
Snow, Edward Rowe. Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast. Boston: Yankee, 1944.
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