If a Pirate I Must Be by Richard Sanders

Author:Richard Sanders
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2011-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

Only through such terror did the planters believe they could find security.

But for the governments in London and Paris these were dream colonies. They complemented but did not compete with the home economies - satisfying the demand for sugar, yet relying entirely on imports for all their needs. For Roberts the significance of this was simple - almost everything produced or consumed in the islands had to be transported by ship. Where Drake and the Buccaneers who followed him were the maritime equivalent of bank robbers, aiming for the occasional, spectacular bullion heist, Roberts and his contemporaries were muggers, preying on the everyday activity - the steady, vibrant hum - of an ultimately far wealthier mercantile empire.

But before he could begin his assault Roberts had to deal with unrest in the crew. While at Carriacou seven men escaped in a captured sloop, taking £800 in gold with them. Then, a few days later, Henry Glasby, the new sailing master, disappeared, along with two other men, one white and one black. A search party was immediately dispatched. Trying to hide on Carriacou would be futile - the island was only a few miles across. More likely they were frantically paddling to one of the nearby islands in a makeshift canoe when the pirate long boat drew effortlessly level and the search party silently levelled their muskets. They were dragged back and the machinery of pirate justice quickly swung into motion.

By the time their trial began the pirates had left Carriacou, sailing northwards towards the island of Dominica. There they watered and, on 19 September, seized a French sloop ‘laded with claret, white wine and brandy’, according to Captain Dunne of the Relief, who was still with them. The trial took place immediately afterwards and was well lubricated with alcohol.

The pirates crowded round, grim faced, in the dark, humid steerage. Judges were appointed and a jury of twelve men was formed. Bowls of punch were filled, pipes prepared, and then the three terrified men were dragged out. Articles of indictment against them were read. The men begged and pleaded for mercy. But the case was clear cut and the judges were about to pronounce sentence of death when there was a dramatic intervention from Valentine Ashplant, one of the senior men. Johnson described the scene:

Taking his pipe out of his mouth [he] said he had something to offer to the court in behalf of one of the prisoners, and spoke to this effect. ‘By God, Glasby shall not die; damn me if he shall.’ After this learned speech he sat down in his place, and resumed his pipe. This motion was loudly opposed by all the rest of the judges in equivalent terms, but Ashplant, who was resolute in his opinion, made another pathetical speech in the following manner. ‘God damn ye

Gentlemen, I am as good a man as the best of you; damn my soul if ever I turned my back to any man in my life, or ever will by God.

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