Page 81 - The British Big Four

harles Vane worked to organize resist- the islands, Rogers worked to improve the
C ance to the anticipated arrival of Royal
authority, even appealing to the James Fran-
cis Edward Stuart, the Stuart pretender, for
aid in holding the Bahamas and capturing
Bermuda for the Stuarts. As aid from the
Stuarts failed to materialize and the date
for Rogers’ arrival approached, Vane and his
crew prepared to leave Nassau.
W oodes Rogers arrived in Nassau in late
July 1718, with his own 460-ton war-
ship, three ships belonging to his company,
and an escort of three ships of the Royal
Navy. Vane’s ship was trapped in Nassau
harbor. His crew set that ship on fire, send- deposed for cowardice and replaced as cap-
ing it towards Rogers’ ships, and escaped
in the ensuing confusion in a smaller ship
they had seized from another pirate. The re-
maining population welcomed Rogers; they
comprised about 200 settlers and 500 to
700 pirates who wanted to receive pardons.
Rogers controlled Nassau, but Charles Vane
was loose and threatening to drive the gov-
ernor and his forces out. Learning that the
King of Spain wanted to expel English from
sau Rackham became involved with Anne
defenses of Nassau. He lost nearly 100 men
of the new forces due to an unidentified
disease, and the Navy ships left for other as- Bonny. Rogers blocked the annulment, and
signments. Rogers sent four of his ships to
Havana to assure the Spanish governor that
he was suppressing piracy and to trade for
supplies. The crews of ex-pirates and men
who had come with Rogers all turned to pi-
racy. The ex-pirate Benjamin Hornigold later
caught ten men at Green Turtle Cay as part
of Rogers’ suppression effort. Eight were
found guilty and hanged in front of the fort.
V ane attacked several small settlements
in the Bahamas but, after he refused
to attack a stronger French frigate, he was
tain by “Calico Jack” Rackham. Vane never
returned to the Bahamas; he was eventually
caught, convicted and executed in Jamaica.
After nearly being captured by Jamaican
privateers, and hearing that the king had
extended the deadline for pardons for pi-
racy, Rackham and his crew returned to Nas-
sau to surrender to Woodes Rogers. In Nas-
Bonny; he tried to arrange an annulment
of her marriage to another ex-pirate, James
Rackham and Bonny left Nassau to be pi-
rates again, taking a small crew and Bonny’s
friend Mary Read with them. Within months,
Rackham, Bonny and Read were captured
and taken to Jamaica. They were convicted
of piracy, and Rackham was executed. Bonny
and Read were sent to prison, as both were
pregnant and therefore excluded from ex-
ecution. Read died in prison, while Bonny’s
fate is unknown.
W hen Britain and Spain went to war
again in 1719, many of the ex-pirates
were commissioned by the British govern-
ment as privateers. A Spanish invasion fleet
set out for the Bahamas, but was diverted to
Pensacola, Florida when it was seized by the
French. Rogers continued to improve the
defenses of Nassau, spending his personal
fortune and going heavily into debt to do so.