Pirates.
For a long time merchants and ship-masters suffered from the depredations of pirates on the southern coasts of what are now the
United States and in the
West Indies.
In 1718 King George I. ordered a naval force to suppress them.
At the same time he issued a
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proclamation promising pardon to all pirates who should surrender themselves in the space of twelve months.
Capt. Woods Rogers, with a few vessels, took the island of New Providence, the chief rendezvous of the
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Pirates on a captured ship. |
pirates, in the name of the crown of
England.
All the pirates, excepting about ninety who escaped in a sloop, took advantage of the
King's proclamation.
Rogers was made governor of the island.
He built forts, and had a military establishment.
From that time the
West Indies were fairly protected from the pirates.
They yet infested the coast of the Carolinas.
About thirty of them took possession of the mouth of the
Cape Fear River.
Governor Johnson determined to extirpate them.
He sent out an armed vessel under the command of
William Rhett, who captured a piratical sloop with its commander and about thirty men, and took then to
Charleston.
Johnson soon afterwards embarked in person, and sailed after and captured another armed sloop.
All the pirates excepting two were killed during the desperate fight that occurred, and those two were hanged.
Those first taken into
Charleston were also hanged, excepting one man. Altogether, forty-two pirates were executed at
Charleston.
Privateersmen cruising under the
Spanish-American flags degenerated into downright pirates.
In 1819
Commodore Perry was sent to the
West Indies in the frigate
John Adams to cruise against the pirates who swarmed there; but before he had accomplished much he was smitten by yellow fever, and died just as his ship was entering the port of
Trinidad.
Two other small vessels were sent to cruise against them.
Many conevictions and executions for piracy had
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taken place; but as there had been many escapes through loop-holes in the law, the act of Congress on that subject was revised and strengthened.
In one of the sections of the new act the name of piracy and the punishment of death were extended to the detention or transportation of any free negro or mulatto in any vessel as a slave.
On June 28, 1861, the steamer
St. Nicholas.
Captain Kirwan, that plied between
Baltimore and
Point Lookout, at the mouth of the
Potomac River, left the former place with forty or fifty passengers, including about twenty who passed for mechanics.
There were a few women among them—one who professed to be a young Frenchwoman.
When, on the following morning, the steamer was near
Point Lookout, the Frenchwoman was suddenly transformed into a stout young man, and the twenty mechanics into well-armed Marylanders, who demanded the surrender of the
St. Nicholas.
Kirwan had no means for resistance, and yielded.
The other passengers were landed on the
Virginia shore, and the captain and crew kept as prisoners.
Then 150 armed accomplices of the pirates went on board the steamer, which was destined for the Confederate navy.
She cruised down the
Chesapeake, captured three brigs, and, with her prizes, went up the
Rappahannock River to
Fredericksburg, where the pirates sold their plunder, divided the prize-money, and were entertained at a public dinner by the citizens.
There the young
Marylander produced much merriment by appearing in the costume of a Frenchwoman.
A few days afterwards some of
Kenly's Baltimore police were on the steamer
Mary Washington, going home from a post on the
Chesapeake.
On board were
Captain Kirwan and his crew; also
Thomas and his associates, who had captured the
St. Nicholas, evidently intending to repeat their operation on the
Mary Washington.
The captain was directed to land at
Fort McHenry.
When the pirates perceived the destination of the vessel young
Thomas remonstrated.
Finally he drew his revolver, and calling his fellow-pirates around him, he threatened to throw the officers overboard and seize the vessel.
The pirates were overcome by numbers.
General Banks sent a squad of men on board to seize
Thomas and his confederates.
The former was found concealed in a closet in the ladies' cabin of the boat.
He was taken out, and with his accomplices, lodged in
Fort McHenry.
