Crimson Waters by Don Mann

Author:Don Mann [Mann, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510760417
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2022-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

A British ship battles pirates.

When King George I of England appointed a former privateer by the name of Woodes Rogers as governor of the Bahamas, he charged him with stamping out piracy there. To that end, in 1718 Rogers sailed to Nassau with seven ships and a royal pardon for anyone who turned themselves in, renouncing their outlaw ways. Many of the city’s inhabitants accepted the offer and gave up their life of piracy for good. Others fled the town and continued their marauding ways, although now they were being hunted by the Royal Navy.

By reasserting control over the city, the British not only dropped the curtain on the pirate republic, but hastened the conclusion of the Golden Age of Piracy as well. By the 1720s, the Royal Navy was growing into the greatest military force to ever set sail and its considerable might was routinely being directed to stamp out piracy wherever it could be found. All acts of piracy were outlawed in nearly every corner of the British Empire, with convicted pirates typically being hanged for their crimes.

It was about this time that the use of privateers was also quickly falling out favor. For centuries, private individuals who owned ships were given permission to strike enemy vessels and settlements without fear of legal reprisal from the country that commissioned them. But many of those privateers ended up turning to piracy over time, making them a threat to any ships they encountered out on the water. With established professional navies quickly becoming the norm for the European powers, the need for privateers had diminished greatly. This meant fewer letters of marque were being issued, which in turn led to fewer opportunities for independent sailors to transition to a life of piracy.

Piracy and the Slave Trade

Just as the Golden Age of Piracy was coming to an end in the Caribbean, an economic shift was starting to take place in the region. The demand for sugar was on the rise in Europe, particularly in Great Britain. In order to meet that need, sugar plantations popped up on a number of islands, as the climate there was perfect for growing the sugarcane plant. Sugar production was extremely labor intensive however, so in order for the business to be viable, slave labor was needed to work the fields. Slave ships began arriving in large numbers, bringing thousands of Africans to provide the workers that were necessary to keep the supply of sugar flowing.

Throughout history, the slave trade and piracy have always been linked closely with one another, and the Caribbean was no different. While most of the slave ships sailing out of Africa were owned and operated by legitimate merchants, those vessels often made tempting targets for buccaneers. Built to hold cargo rather than for speed, the slave ships often had small crews and were easily outgunned by the other ships that they encountered while at sea. This made them easy to capture, and since the slave markets of the New World did

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