Page 22 - The Virgin Islands

Pirates and Swashbucklers
The Golden Age of Piracy spanned from the
1650s to the 1730s and Cayman’s most notori-
ous pirate was Edward Teach, otherwise known
as Blackbeard, who frequented the area from
1713 to his death on the 1718.
O ften disputed by historians, there are many
tales of Pirates in the Cayman Islands. It is on Grand Cayman and Little Cayman, most of the
known that Caymanians were resourceful and
courageous and their lives, whether at sea or on
the islands, exemplified the theory of the survival
of the fittest. During the heyday of piracy, pirates
would use Cayman Brac as a haven and a place
to replenish their supplies as there are a number
of fresh water wells on the island and had many
sources of food included in the local flora and
fauna.
By 1660, the English had established them-
selves in Jamaica and begun treating the Cay-
man Islands as natural appendages of the larger
territory. However, apart from small settlements
three islands were left untouched. This was ideal
for pirates, since Cayman also lay astride the route America, before he was finally killed in a bloody
of treasure galleons returning to Spain, laden with
gold and silver from the New World. This promise
of capturing Spanish treasure ships on their way
home from the Caribbean soon attracted the at-
tention of a motley crowd of buccaneers, pirates
and freebooters.
The Golden Age of Piracy spanned from the
1650s to the 1730s and Cayman’s most notori-
ous pirate was Edward Teach, otherwise known as
Blackbeard, who frequented the area from 1713
to his death on the 1718. He plundered ships and
sailed throughout the West Indies (including the
Cayman Islands) and the Atlantic coast of North
battle at Ocracoke Inlet, off the coast of what is
now North Carolina by the crew of a pair of sloops
under the command of officers of the Royal Navy.
The use of the Caymans as pirate’s haven only last-
ed for about 110 years; by the 1730s, the scourge
of the buccaneers had been largely tamed, if not
discouraged by the growing population.