4/18/2023 0 Comments Calico jack![]() And captains? Captains were a whole different story: any pirate who turned their captain in to authorities would receive a hefty reward of 200 pounds - today, that’s the equivalent of more than $40,000. Bakhuizen, Battle of Vigo BayĪfter September 5, 1718, any pirate who didn’t turn themselves in automatically had a bounty on their heads. Life as a fugitive was exhausting, and clemency wasn’t all the king was offering. It was actually a pretty good deal: there’s no retirement plan for pirates, after all, and many were suddenly starting to realise that while it may have been a great idea when they were young, the brilliant idea of turning to piracy became less brilliant as the years went on. So On September 5, 1717, King George took official action and issued the “Proclamation for the Suppressing of Pirates.” It gave all pirates precisely one year to turn themselves in and receive a complete pardon. The governments of Europe cared very little about pirate politics after decades of piracy, robbing merchants of their goods, their ships, and their lives, they had had enough. Pirates robbed channelways and stole millions of pounds worth of goods, to be sure, but they were also strangely Democratic - many ships and strongholds were surprisingly libertarian, with every man (and even a few women!) having a voice in the direction of events. It was a time known as the Golden Age of Piracy, and between 16, an estimated 5,000 pirates trolled the world’s oceans. As a bonus, there was also the Old Fort of Nassau, an ideal - and fortified - location to carry on all sorts of piratey business. Nassau quickly grew from a town of about 100 civilians to more than a thousand pirates. It was a perfect pirate paradise: a shallow eastern harbor that made an ideal escape route sandbars that made it impossible for large ships to easily navigate surrounding waters nearby islands that afforded them countless places to hide another island that sheltered it from the worst of the ocean storms a harbor full of shipwrecks that made surprise attacks next to impossible. By 1718, he had risen through the ranks of the crew and was acting as the quartermaster for the much more infamous (and successful) Charles Vane.Īt the time, pirates like Vane and Blackbeard were using the island of Nassau as a home base. The first time he really shows up is as a supporting player in another tale. There are no records of what kind of family he was born into, how he ended up setting off to the New World, or how he ended up on a pirate ship. ![]() Aside from that, there really isn’t much. Very little is known about John Rackham’s early life, save for the fact that he was born in England on December 26, 1682. He may not have been as successful as some of his contemporaries, but he certainly knew how to market himself. It doesn’t hurt that he was surrounded by characters as colorful as his famous coat. Instead, history remembers Calico Jack because of the conflict he found himself at the center of - the fascinating tale that spelled the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. In fact, there were some members of his crew that came to view him as a piss-poor pirate, unfit for any title, unworthy of any ship. When it comes to Caribbean swashbucklers, we might mention him in the same breath as Blackbeard, but he definitely wasn’t a pirate of that caliber. He’s better known by his rather catchy pirate name - Calico Jack - but we don’t wistfully recall his name because he was some wildly successful pirate. One fascinating exception is John Rackham.
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