Pirate by Angus Konstam

Author:Angus Konstam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pirate: The Golden Age
ISBN: 9781849089418
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2011-08-09T16:00:00+00:00

The role of quartermaster was intended as a check on the authority of the captain, but it was also key to the running of the ship because he supervised the division of plunder. When Captain William Snelgrave was captured by pirates off the West African coast in 1719 he was able to describe the quartermaster’s role: ‘He has the general inspection of all affairs, and often controuls the Captain’s orders. This person is also to be the first man in boarding any ship they shall attack; or go in the boat in any desperate enterprize.’ Captain Johnson’s description was more revealing: ‘We may say the Quarter-master is an humble imitation of the Roman tribune of the people – he speaks for, and looks after the interest of the crew.’ In other words, he held a position of trust and power amongst the crew, even though he remained one of them.

He dispensed food and drink as equitably as possible, particularly if the crew were on short rations because of a lack of provisions, and organized the teams who would form boarding parties to take control of a prize. This was an important perk, as the men who first came aboard a captured vessel were allowed certain privileges, such as the first selection of captured clothing or drink. The rest of the plunder was held in a common pool, having been selected by the quartermaster, and sometimes the goods were even recorded in a ledger. He was responsible for looking after these goods, and for their division when the time came.

While some of this plunder might be money or valuable commodities such as gold dust or jewels, the rest would have been a more mundane collection of goods, which were loaded into the hold of the pirate ship for sale or division at a later date. If the captured ship contained a cargo of wine or spirits, it was more usual for this to be brought over to the pirate vessel, and the pirates would try their best to drink their way through it. Taking some of this plunder without the consent of the majority of the crew was seen as a particularly serious offence. In 1719, when Howell Davis and two other pirate officers went ashore in Sierra Leone in search of local women, they dressed themselves in captured finery from the common store. William Snelgrave described how the crew resented this, and ordered Davis and his companions to return the clothing. As Snelgrave put it: ‘If they suffered such things, the Captains would for the future assume a power, to take whatever they liked for themselves.’

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