was a notable sea-captain and pilot. For a number of years he
commanded the naval vessel of Massachusetts, so that it was the
natural course for the governor to send him in pursuit of pirates who
suddenly appeared on the Massachusetts coast. In 1711 he had commanded
a vessel in the unfortunate expedition against Quebec under Sir
Hovenden Walker, and the admiral had stayed at his house during his
long detention in Boston. He was also the most noted map-maker of his
time in New England; in 1694 King William had admitted him to kiss his
hands and had given him a gold chain of L50 for his map of
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the St. Lawrence region (_Acts. P.C.
Col._, II. 264). The governor whom he addresses was Samuel Shute,
governor 1716-1727. The ending of the War of the Spanish Succession
(1713) had as usual caused a large revival of piracy, many privateers
turning to that trade. The career of the _Whidah_ and of Capt. Samuel
Bellamy can be made out from the depositions which follow. On April
26, in a heavy gale, she had come ashore on the sands of Cape Cod, in
what is now Wellfleet, and all on board but two men (see doc. no. 114)
were drowned. More than a hundred of the pirates thus perished. Of
those who escaped wreck, in the smaller vessels, several, who had
constituted the prize crew of the _Mary Anne_ (doc. no. 109), were
captured, tried, and executed (doc. no. 112). The story is told in
_The Trials of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy_, etc. (Boston, 1718),
and by Mr. John H. Edmonds in the _Boston Sunday Globe_ for Oct. 22,
1916.]
CAPE COD HARBOUR[2] May [5?] 1717
[Footnote 2: Southack had come across from Boston into the inner side
of the Cape.]
_Maye itt Pleass Your Excellency_
_Sir_, may 2 at 1 After noon I Came to Anchor here, finding Serveral
Vessells, Visseted them and on board one of them found a Yung man
boling[3] to the Ship the Pirritt[4] Took 26 April in South Channell,
Saileing from Nantaskett the Day before at 3 After noon. April 26
Pirritt Ship Took a Sloop in South Channell, Lading with West India
Goods, Sloop or Master I no not as Yett.[5] at 7 After noon the
Pirrett Ship with her Tender, being a Snow a bout Ninty Tuns they Took
in Latitude 26 deg., 15 Days agoe,[6] maned with 15 of Pirritts men, wine
Ship and Sloop all to Gather Standing to the Northward. at 12 Night
the Pirritt Ship and wine Ship Run a Shore, the Snow and Sloop Gott
Off Shore, being Sen the Next morning in the Offen.[7]
[Footnote 3: Belonging. Spelling was not one of the captain's many
accomplishments. For facsimiles of his handwriting, see _Memorial
History of Boston_, II. liv, 98.]
[Footnote 4: Pirate. The South Channel lies in the southern portion of
Nantucket Sound, south of the great shoal known as the Horse-shoe. The
ship here alluded to was the pink _Mary Anne_; see doc. no. 109.]
[Footnote 5: The _Fisher_; see doc. no. 111.]
[Footnote 6: See the last part of doc. no. 108. A snow was a small
vessel like a brig except for having a supplementary third, or
trysail, mast.]
[Footnote 7: Seen; offing. The local legend, as recounted by the
minister of Wellfleet in 1793, was that the captain of the snow,
ordered by Bellamy to precede the _Whidah_ with a light at his stern,
under promise of receiving the snow as a present if he should pilot
him safely into Cape Cod Harbor, purposely "approached so near the
land, that the pirate's large ship which followed him struck on the
outer bar: the snow being less [in draft] struck much nearer the
shore". Rev. Levi Whitman, in Mass. Hist. Soc., _Coll._, III. 120. But
the evidence in doc. no. 111 is to the contrary.]
Sir, 29 April Came to Anchor sum Distance from the Pirritt Rack[8]
Ship, a Very Great Sloop. After Sending his boat to the Pirrit Rack
Thay Came to Saile and Chassed serveral of Our fishing Vessells, then
stod in to Sea which I belive to be his Cunsatte.[9]
[Footnote 8: Wreck.]
[Footnote 9: Consort.]
May 2 at 2 After noon I sent Mr. Little and Mr. Cuttler to the Rack.
they Got their that Night and Capt[10] watch till I Came the Next
morning. at my Coming their I found the Rack all to Pices, North and
South, Distance from one a Nother 4 Miles. Sir, whear shee Strock
first I se one Anchor at Low water, sea being so Great Ever sence I
have ben here, Can not Come to se what maye be their for Riches, nor
aney of her Guns. she is a ship a bout Three hundred tuns. she was
very fine ship. all that I Can find saved Out of her, is her Cables
and som of her sailes, Cut all to Pices by the Inhabitances here.
their has ben at this Rack Two hundred men at Least Plundring of
her.[11] sum saye they Gott Riches Out of the sand but I Can not find
them as yett. Sir, what I shall Gett to Gather will be to the Value of
Two hundred Pounds. If Your Excellency Pleass to send the sloop to
Billingsgatt[12] for itt, is Carted Over Land to that Place. Sir, here
has been 54 whit men and 4 Negros Come a shore Ded from the Rack. If
their be aney News by the Pirritts at boston[13] whear the money is, I
humbley Desier Your Excelleny menets[14] of what Place in the ship itt
was in, for I am in Great hops. whare the Anchors are the money is I
fancy, and weather Per mett I have Got a whale boat to fish for itt
and Things for that service.[15]
[Footnote 10: Kept.]
[Footnote 11: "Wrecking" was still an important industry in the world.
Indeed, as late as 1853, in this very neighborhood (Nauset Light),
Emerson records in his _Journal_, VIII. 399, "Collins, the keeper,
told us he found obstinate resistance on Cape Cod to the project of
building a lighthouse on this coast, as it would injure the wrecking
business".]
[Footnote 12: Wellfleet Bay.]
[Footnote 13: Those already in prison.]
[Footnote 14: Minutes.]
[Footnote 15: Rev. Mr. Whitman says (1793), "At times to this day,
there are King William and Queen Mary's coppers picked up, and pieces
of silver, called cob money [see doc. no. 62, note 15]. The violence
of the seas moves the sands upon the outer bar so that at times the
iron caboose of the ship, at low ebbs, has been seen." _Ubi sup._ In
1863 she was quite visible. Another reporter tells us that "For many
years after this shipwreck, a man of a very singular and frightful
aspect used every spring and autumn to be seen travelling on the Cape,
who was supposed to have been one of Bellamy's crew. The presumption
is that he went to some place where money had been secreted by the
pirates, to get such a supply as his exigencies required. When he
died, many pieces of gold were found in a girdle which he constantly
wore." Thoreau, _Cape Cod_, ed. 1914, p. 192. On one of Southack's
maps, a narrow waterway across Cape Cod is marked with the legend,
"The Place where I came through with a Whale Boat, being ordered by
the Governm't to look after the Pirate Ship _Whido_, Bellame
Command'r, cast away the 26 of April, 1717, where I buried One Hundred
and Two Men Drowned". This map, with this legend, is reproduced at the
back of Miss Mary R. Bangs's _Old Cape Cod_ (Boston, 1920). The
western initial portion of this waterway still exists, in the town of
Orleans, and is known as "Jeremiah's Gutter". See A.P. Brigham, _Cape
Cod and the Old Colony_, pp. 80-82.]
Sir, here is One Caleb Hopkines, Senr., of freetown, which has Dun a
Great Dell of Damage to Your Excellency Officers in Doeing their Duty.
I Pray Your Excellency would send a Order for his Coming to boston in
Order to Answare what I shall Aledge aganst him.
Sir, Yr Excellency Most
Obed. serv'tt
CYPRIAN SOUTHACK.
_108. Examination of John Brown. May 6, 1717._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 11945, paper 5; a fragment.]
The Substance of the Examinations of John Brown, etc. Taken by order
of His Excellency the Governour on Munday the 6th of May 1717.
John Brown being interrogated saith, that he was born in the Island of
Jamaica, is 25 years old and unmarried. About a year agoe he belonged
to a Ship commanded by Captain Kingston, which in her voyage with
Logwood to Holland was taken to the Leeward of the Havana by two
Piratical Sloops, one commanded by Hornygold[2] and the other by a
Frenchman called Leboose,[3] each having 70 men on board. The pirats
kept the Ship about 8 or 10 daies, and then having taken out off her
what they thought proper delivered her back to some of the men, who
belonged to her. Leboose kept the Examinate on board his Sloop about 4
months, the English Sloop under Hornigolds command keeping company
with them all that time. Off Cape Corante[4] they took two Spanish
Briganteens without any resistance, laden with cocoa from Ma[l]aca.
The Spaniards, not coming up to the pirats demand about the ransom,
were put ashoar and their Briganteens burn'd. They sailled next to the
Isle of Pines, where meeting with three or four English Sloops empty,
they made use of them in cleaning their own, and gave them back. From
thence they sailled in the latter end of May to Hispaniola, where they
tarried about 3 months. The Examinate then left Leboose and went on
board the Sloop commanded formerly by Hornygold, but at that time by
one Bellamy, who upon a difference arising amongst the English Pirats
because Hornygold refused to take and plunder English Vessels, was
chosen by a great majority their Captain, and Hornygold departed with
26 hands in a Prize Sloop, Bellamy having then on board about 90 men,
most of them English. Bellamy and Leboose sailled to the Virgin
Islands and took several small fishing boats, and off St. Croix a
French Ship laden with flower and fish from Canada, and having taken
out some of the flower gave back the Ship. Plying to the Windward the
morning they made Saba[5] they spy'd two Ships, which they chased and
came up with, the one was commanded by Captain Richards,[6] the other
by Capt. Tosor, both bound to the bay. Having plunder'd the Ships and
taken out some young men, they dismist the rest and Tosors Ship and
made a man of War of Richards's, which they put under the command of
Bellamy, and appointed Paull Williams Captain of the Sloop. Next day
they took a Bristol Ship[7] commanded by James Williams from Ireland
laden with provisions, and having taken out what provisions they
wanted and two or three of the Crew let her goe. Then they parted with
their French consort at the Island of Blanco[8] and stood away with
their Ship and Sloop to the windward passage, where in the latter end
of February last they met with Captain Laurence Prince in a ship of
300 Ton called the _Whido_, with 18 guns mounted, and fifty men, bound
from Jamaica to London, laden with Sugar, Indico, Jesuits bark and
some silver and gold, and having given chase thre daies took him
without any other resistance than his firing two chase guns at the
Sloop, and came to an anchor at Long Island.[9] Bellamy's crew and
Williams's consisted then of 120 men. They gave the Ship taken from
Captain Richards to Captain Prince, and loaded her with as much of the
best and finest goods as she could carry, and gave Captain Prince
above twenty pounds in Silver and gold to bear his charges. They took
8 or 10 men belonging to Captain Prince; the Boatswain and two more
were forced, the rest being volunteers. off Petteguavis[10] they took
an English Ship hired by the French, laden with Sugar and Indico, and
having taken out what they had occasion for, and some of the men,
dismist her. Then they stood away for the Capes of Virginia, being 130
men in Company, and having lost sight of the Sloop the day before they
made the land, they cruised ten daies, according to agreement between
Bellamy and Williams, in which time they seized three ships and one
Snow, Two of them from Scotland, one from Bristol, and the fourth a
Scotch Ship, last from Barbadoes, with a little Rum and Sugar on
board, so leaky that the men refused to proceed further. The Pirats
sunk her. Having lost the Sloop they kept the Snow, which was taken
from one Montgomery, being about 100 Ton, and manned her with 18
hands, which with her own Crew made up the number of 28 men; the other
two Ships were discharged being first plundered. They made[11]
[Footnote 2: Benjamin Hornigold was a pirate captain of some fame; he
soon after this surrendered to the governor of Bermuda, and "came in"
under the king's proclamation of Sept. 5, 1717, which offered pardon
to those pirates who should surrender within a given time. Charles
Johnson, _General History of the Pyrates_ (second ed., London, 1724),
I. 35, 70, 71; II. 274-276.]
[Footnote 3: _Id._, I. 35, 184.]
[Footnote 4: Cape Corrientes, near the southwestern point of Cuba.]
[Footnote 5: A small Dutch island, east of St. Croix, and between St.
Martin and St. Eustatius.]
[Footnote 6: The _Sultana_, James Richards. "The bay" means the Bay of
Honduras.]
[Footnote 7: The _St. Michael_.]
[Footnote 8: An islet among the Virgin Islands, east of St. John, and
not far from the Dead Man's Chest. The Windward Passage lies between
Haiti and Cuba. Jesuits' bark is cinchona, from which quinine is
made.]
[Footnote 9: One of the Bahamas.]
[Footnote 10: Petit Goave, a port in the southern part of Haiti.]
[Footnote 11: Here the fragment ends.]
_109. Deposition of Thomas FitzGerald and Alexander Mackonochie. May
6, 1717._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 11945, paper 9.]
The Deposition of Thomas Fitz Gerald, Marriner, aged about nineteen
years, and late Mate of the Pink _Mary Anne_, belonging to Dublin
(whereof Andrew Crumsty was lately Commander) and Alexander
Mackconothy late Cook of the said Pink, aged fifty five years.
These Depon'ts Testify and say That on the twenty fourth day of April
last past, they sailed from Nantasket harbour bound for New York, and
on the twenty sixth day of the said month, being friday, in the
morning about nine of the clock, they discovered a large Ship, and her
Prize, which was a Snow, astern, and the large Ship came up with the
said Pink _Mary Ann_, between nine and ten, and ordered us to strike
our Colours, which accordingly we did, and then they shot ahead of us,
and braced too, and hoisted out her boat and sent seven Men on board,
Armed with their Musquets, pistols and Cutlashes (which Men are now in
Boston Goal) and they commanded the said Capt. Crumpsty to take his
Papers, and go aboard the said Ship with five of his hands and
accordingly the said Crumpsty with five of his Men rowed aboard the
said Pyrates Ship, and the seven Men tarryed aboard the Pink, and soon
after the Pyrates sent their boat on board the said pink with four
hands to get some of the Wine which they were Informed was on board
the Pink, and accordingly they hoisted the pinks boat off of the
hatches and opened the hatches and then went into the hold, but the
Cable being Quoiled in the hatchway, they found it difficult to Come
to the Wines in the hold, and so returned to their own Ship without
any wine, Except five bottles of green wine which the found in the
pinks Cabbin and carryed away, with some of the Cloaths which belonged
to the pinks Company, and presently after the pyrates had hoisted
their boat on board the great Ship, they gave Orders to the Pyrates on
board the pink to steer North Northwest after them, which Course they
followed till about four a Clock in the afternoon, and then the large
Ship whereof Capt. Samuel Bellame was Commander, and the snow and pink
lay too,[2] it being very thick foggy weather, And about half an hour
after four a Clock a sloop came up with Capt. Bellames Ship and he
hoisted out his boat and sent several men on board the Sloop and soon
afterwards, Vizt. about five a Clock, the Commander of the snow bore
away, and came under the stern of Capt. Bellames Ship and told him
that they saw the Land; And thereupon Capt. Bellame Ordered the
Pyrates on board the Pink to steer away North, which they did, and as
soon as it began to be dark the sd Capt. Bellames Ship put out a light
astern and also the snow and the sloop and the pink had their lights
out; and about ten a Clock the weather grew thick and it lightned and
rained hard and was so dark, that the pinks Comp. Could not see the
shore till they were among the Breakers, when the Depon't Fitz Gerald
was at helm, and had lost sight of the Great Ship, Snow and Sloop; and
being among the breakers we thought it most proper and necessary to
weere[3] the Pink, and before we could trim the head sails we run
ashoar opposite to Sluts bush at the back of Stage harbour to the
southward of Cape Codd[4] between ten and Eleven a Clock at night, And
the seven Pyrates together with the Depon't and a young man named
James Donovan tarryed on board the said Pink till break of day[5] and
then found the shoar side of the Pink dry and so all of them went on
shoar upon the Island called Poachy[6] beach, and there tarryed till
about ten a Clock, when two Men came over in a Canno, Namely John
Cole[7] and William Smith, who Carryed the seven pyrates over to the
Main land, and then Cole came again to the Depon't and Inquired who
they (meaning the pyrates) were, and the Depon't Mackconothy Answered
they were pyrates and had taken the said pink, and soon after the said
John Cole Informed Mr. Justice Done of Barnstable[8] thereof, by
virtue of whose Warrant the said seven Pyrates were Apprehended, and
the Depon'ts Journeyed with them to Boston, where they are now in
Custody of the Keeper of His Maj'ties Goal as is aforesaid. And
further the Depon'ts say not; but that the said Pink is Bilged on
shoare, so that it is impossible to get her off.
THOS. FITZ GERALD
signum
ALEXANDER [X] MACKCONOTHY
BOSTON May 6th 1717
Jurat May 8th, 1717
[Footnote 2: To.]
[Footnote 3: Wear, to come about before the wind.]
[Footnote 4: Slut's Bush was a rocky, swampy piece of land, well grown
with berry-bushes, in the midst of the large isle of Nauset, that lay
outside of the smaller Pochet Island and outside Stage or Nauset
Harbor, the harbor of Eastham. Now, Slut's Bush ledge and Nauset
Island are far out from the present shore and under deep water. On
this mostly sandy coast wind and wave have made extraordinary changes.
They are described, down to 1864, in an article by Amos Otis on "The
Discovery of an Ancient Ship", in _N.E. Hist. Gen. Register_, XVIII.
37-44. Much of his information came from the grandson of John Doane,
mentioned below, a grandson born not much later than 1717.]
[Footnote 5: In another deposition of Thomas Fitzgerald, reproduced in
_Trials of Eight Persons_, he gives us a quaint glimpse of the
pirates' psychology during this night of peril: "And in their Distress
the [Pirates] ask'd the Deponent to Read to them the Common-Prayer
Book, which he did about an Hour; And at break of Day they found the
Shoar-side of the Pink dry."]
[Footnote 6: Pochet.]
[Footnote 7: See his testimony in doc. no. 112.]
[Footnote 8: Either John Doane, Esq., or his cousin Joseph. Both were
justices of the peace for Barnstable County, but neither lived in
Barnstable town; they were the leading residents of Eastham.]
James Donovan, within named, made oath to the truth of the within
written Deposition, and further saieth that being upon deck on Friday
in the afternoon, on which day the Pink was taken, Alexand'r
Mackonothy being at the Helmn steering to windward of her Course, this
Declar't heard John Brown, one of the Pirates now in Goal, say that
for a small matter he would shute Mackonothy thro the head as soon as
he would a Dog and he should never tell his story.
JAMES DONOVAN
Jurat Cor. May 8th 1717
Coram[9] PENN TOWNSEND } Justices of the
JOHN CLARK } Peace
OLIVER NOYES }
Attest. JOS MARION D. Secr'y.[10]
[Footnote 9: In the presence of.]
[Footnote 10: Deputy secretary of the province. Josiah Willard was
secretary.]
_110. Cyprian Southack to Governor Samuel Shute. May 8, 1717._[1]
[Footnote 1: Mass. Archives, vol. 51, pp. 289, 289a.]
EASTHAM May the 8, 1717
_Maye itt Pleass Your Excellency_
_Sir_, Captt. Gorham, Mr. Little, Mr. Cuttler and Mr. Russell,
Gentt'men that I have Deputed, have Rid at Least Thirty miles a moung
the Inhabtances, whome I have had Information of ther being at the
Pirate Rack, and have Gott Concernable Riches out of her. the first
men that want Doun to the Rack with the English man that was Saved out
of the Rack, I shall Mention their Names to Your Excellency in Order
for a Warrant to me for bringing them for boston before Your
Excellency, or as You Pleass, Sir, for all thes Pepol are very stife
and will not one[2] Nothing of what they Gott, on the Rack. Sir,
Fryday 26 April, at 12 night, Pirate Ship Came a shoare. Saturday 27
Instant, at 5 morning, Came the English man that was Saved out of
Pirate Ship,[3] Came to the house of Samuell harding, Two miles from
the Rack. After a smalle time the saide harding took the English man
on his Horse and Carred him to the Rack. thes Two made Serverall
Turnes from the Rack to harding house, so they most Gett much Riches.
by 10 Clock the same morning their Gott to the Rack a bout 10 men
more, and Gott a Great Dell of Riches. Sunday morning, Joseph[4]
Doane, Esqr., gott to the Rack but all was Gon of Vallue. Sir, he
Comanded the Inhabtances to save what they Could for the King, which
was them Things I Rett[5] to Your Excellency before of. Sir, the
Curner[6] and his Jurey Putt a stop to serverall Things beloning to
the Rack in Part for buering[7] Sixty Two men Came a shoare Dead from
the Pirate Rack, the Curner and his Jurey says their Due is Eight
Three Pounds. Sir, I am of the mind that the Curner and Jurey should
have nothing for buering aney of thes men After they New them to be
Pirats, and they had bured but Thirteen before they new them to be
Pirats. as Your Excellency Pleass, I humbley Desier Your Excellency
Orders to this Afare. the Curner name is Samuell freeman, for his
stoping aney of the Rack Goods for Paye is very hard. Sir, the weather
has ben very bad, and Great Sea, so we Can Due Nothing as yett on the
Rack with my Whale boat and men, but se the Anchor Every Low Watter.
Sir, If some Gentt'men ware Commissined here to Give Serverall of them
their Oath Concerning the Rack, itt will be of Great Service. Sir,
Coll. Ottis[8] and Joseph Doane, Esqr., are Very Good men.
[Footnote 2: Own.]
[Footnote 3: Thomas Davis; see his memorial, doc. no. 114.]
[Footnote 4: See doc. no. 109, note 8.]
[Footnote 5: Writ. The money on board the _Whidah_ was claimed by the
crown because of its being the product of piracy, not because of the
shipwreck, for if man or cat or dog escaped alive from any shipwrecked
vessel, its contents were technically not "wreck of the sea",
belonging as such to the crown, but were reserved for the owners, with
reasonable salvage to the preservers. A recent act, 12 Anne, II., ch.
18, provided that any who secreted goods saved from a wreck should be
punished with a fine of treble value; but this act did not run in
Massachusetts.]
[Footnote 6: Coroner. Investigation in cases of wreck and
treasure-trove was part of the duties of his office.]
[Footnote 7: Burying.]
[Footnote 8: Col. John Otis, the chief magnate of Barnstable County,
colonel of its militia, judge, member of the governor's council, and
grandfather of James Otis the revolutionary orator.]
Sir, 72 Dead men are Come a shoare out Pirate ship to this Time.
The men that were Down first at the rack
Samuell Harding Jonathan Cole
Joseph Collins Senr. Edward Knowles
Abiel Harding Thomas Wood
Samuell Horton Samuell Airy
Sir, Yr Excellency Most
Obd. Servant
CYPRIAN SOUTHACK.
_111. Deposition of Ralph Merry and Samuel Roberts. May 11, 16,
1717._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 11945, paper 3.]