Giants, Queens and Hat Thieves: 5 Pernicious and Peculiar Pirates

Pirate films are great, but between massive fleets, buried treasure and daring hijinks, they're pretty unrealistic... or are they? Well, it turns out that many of the tropes associated with fictional buccaneers have real-life roots. Let's take a look at...

• The Hidden Treasure of Olivier Levasseur
• Captain Hornigold's Hat Raid
• Pier Gerlofs Donia, the Giant Pirate
• Bartholomew Roberts, the Classic Pirate
• Ching Shih, Pirate Queen of China

The Hidden Treasure of Olivier Levasseur

Sometimes called La Buse (The Buzzard) in reference to his piratical predations, Olivier Levasseur's story really gets strange near the end of his life.

In 1721, Levasseur took the Nossa Senhora do Cabo, a Portuguese ship laden with treasure. Despite being big and heavily armed, the ship was in poor condition after being battered by storms - and the pirates successfully captured her in this weakened state.

Levasseur would attempt to take advantage of a clemency offer from the French crown in 1724 to retire from pirating, but failed to hand over his treasure - something that voided the deal. Despite attempting to lay low, in 1729 he was recognized, arrested and subsequently hanged on Île Bourbon... but as he went to the gallows, he flung a cryptogram into the crowd that would supposedly reveal the location of his treasure - a hoard which (according to the Levasseur) could have allowed him to buy the entire island. Sounds like the classic "search for a pirate's buried treasure" doesn't it?

To date, nobody has claimed to have actually found the treasure - though plenty have tried. On the other hand, there's a fair chance that the wreck of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo has been discovered near Îlot Madame in Madagascar!

Captain Hornigold's Hat Raid

So, imagine yourself a pirate captain with a crew that have lost their hats. What would you do to resolve this unfashionable lack?

Well, we know what Captain Benjamin Hornigold did when presented with that very situation. The journal of a passenger sailing off the coast of Honduras recounts how Hornigold and his men had captured their ship... but rather than a brutal looting, all the sea-thieves had taken was their hats.

The pirates seem to have been fairly convivial - and they even furnished their victims with an explanation. It seems that they had overindulged in alcohol the night before - and as part of their merriment, flung their own hats overboard!

Curiously (given the whimsical nature of this encounter) Blackbeard served under Hornigold - and Hornigold eventually took an amnesty offer and became a pirate hunter!

Pier Gerlofs Donia, the Giant Pirate

Most people picture pirates as larger-than-life characters brandishing cutlasses and flintlocks as they terrorize the seas. Pier Gerlofs Donia was certainly large, but it seems he favored a Biedenhänder or Zweihänder (a massive two-handed sword) which folklore claims he could use to decapitate multiple foes with a single swing.

Grutte (Great) Pier was a farmer from Kimswerd in war-torn Frisia - until his property was sacked and burned by soldiers in 1515. He responded by gathering a group of similarly enraged Frisians (called the "Arumer Zwarte Hoop") and taking to piracy - or freedom fighting, depending on your perspective.

Pier and his warband operated around the Zuiderzee (a large costal bay) taking both English and Dutch ships. One particular quirk was the use of a shibboleth-style passphrase - it went "Bûter, brea en griene tsiis , wat dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Frisian" or "Butter, rye bread, and green cheese, who cannot say that is no real Frisian." Non-Frisians struggled to pronounce the phrase (and to be fair, may have been put off by the idea of green cheese - apparently the juice of green plants like spinach or parsley were used to color and flavor it!)

Bartholomew Roberts, the Classic Pirate

The Welsh Bartholomew Roberts (or "Black Bart") may be the most Hollywood-ready pirate of this motley crew. He dressed in fine clothing (sporting brightly colored coats, silks, pistols and feathered hats) had a well established code for his pirates (including a kind of medical insurance) and used two versions of the Jolly Roger (one depicting Roberts and a skeleton holding an hourglass, the other showing him standing on a pair of skulls.)

While quite capable of brutality, he also had a flair for brazen plans worthy of Jack Sparrow. For example, he once encountered a Portuguese treasure fleet off the coast of Brazil... and simply joined it, quietly figuring out which ship held the richest pickings. A swift boarding action later, he and his crew made off with a massive haul before the convoy realized what was happening!

As mentioned above, the the code used by Roberts featured a kind of medical insurance. Each pirate was required contribute 1,000 pounds into a fund before they were allowed to consider leaving the piratical life. Anyone injured would be compensated from this fund, with 800 pounds being handed out to those losing their right arm - with smaller payments to those suffering other, lesser injuries.

Eventually, Roberts became more trouble than he was worth to the British, and the Royal Navy were tasked with his capture. Captain Chaloner Ogle and the 50 gun Swallow caught up with Roberts at Cape Lopez in February 1722. Having taken a ship and drunk the liquor supplies the day before, the hung-over pirates technically outnumbered and outgunned the Swallow... but were not in a good condition to fight. Captain Roberts dressed in his usual finery and commanded on deck - but was instantly killed when the Swallow fired grapeshot and tore out his throat.

The body of Roberts was swiftly weighted and hurled overboard, thus preventing his "capture" and arguably ending the "Golden Age of Piracy." Ogle still received a great deal of prestige for the action - a silver and coconut cup celebrating the Swallow can be found at Royal Museums Greenwich in England!

Ching Shih, Pirate Queen of China

Born Shi Yang and possibly working in a floating brothel, the queen-to-be married the pirate Cheng I in 1801 who (if the stories are true) was impressed by her ruthless business acumen. Whether that's true or not, she made joint control of his Red Flag Fleet a condition of their marriage.

When Cheng I died a few years later, his adopted son Cheung Po Tsai gained command of the fleet... but "Ching Shih" ("Cheng's Widow") seduced him, putting herself back in charge.

Governed by a strict pirate's code (disobeying a superior's orders, issuing your own orders or taking liberties with a female captive - even a consenting one - were punishable by death) the fleet was able to resist the Qing dynasty's attempts to defeat it. One captured East India Company employee called Richard Glasspoole claimed that there were 80,000 pirates under her command.

Eventually rising tensions with the allied (arguably rival) Black Flag Fleet, coupled with pressure from the Portuguese navy let to a negotiated pardon for Ching Shih, Cheung Po Tsai and the majority of the remaining pirates under their command. She'd go on to run a successful gambling house until her death in 1844!

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Sources and Further Reading:

• Olivier Levasseur: on the trail of the lost treasure of the pirate La Buse
• From Goa to Sainte-Marie: An Archaeological Case for the Identification of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo
• Benjamin Hornigold in "The Pirate Wars" by Peter Earle
• Grutte Pier and His Sword
• Black Bart – Democracy and Medical Insurance in the Golden Age of Piracy
• The pirate hunter's cup
• The Chinese Female Pirate Who Commanded 80,000 Outlaws