Joseph Bannister (died 1687, first name occasionally given as George) was an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is best known for defeating two Royal Navy warships in battle.
Joseph Bannister (died 1687, first name occasionally given as George) was an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is best known for defeating two Royal Navy warships in battle.
Bannister was captain of the merchant ship Golden Fleece and was tasked with making transatlantic voyages, delivering goods on the profitable route between London and Jamaica at least as early as 1680. [1] In June 1684, Bannister ran away with the ship and its thirty to forty guns, picked up over a hundred men to serve as his crew, and began his career as a pirate. [2]
Bannister soon picked up additional crew and robbed a small Spanish vessel, but governor Thomas Lynch of Jamaica ordered HMS Ruby to give Bannister chase. Ruby was able to capture Bannister and take him to Jamaica where he awaited trial. Bannister maneuvered his way out of all the charges and was released; the sickly Lynch was so agitated by Bannister's escaping punishment that he fell ill and died within the month. [1]
Bannister then engaged in several unprofitable business ventures. Facing financial ruin, in February 1685 he again stole the Golden Fleece. As he left he was briefly questioned by a British ship but protested that he intended to cut logwood, not to enter into piracy. [3] Off Ile-a-Vache he joined a buccaneer flotilla including Laurens de Graaf, Michiel Andrieszoon, Jan Willems, Jacob Evertson, Michel de Grammont, and many others. One of the French buccaneers arranged a fake bill of sale for Golden Fleece so that Bannister, who feared English repercussions if he were caught, would not appear to have been serving under French command. [4] When HMS Ruby located the buccaneer squadron, the Captain questioned Grammont, but Grammont protected Bannister and Ruby was forced to leave. [5] That July the buccaneers sacked Campeche before parting company in September. Bannister continued raiding and capturing ships through the following spring. [1]
The British located Bannister in July 1686 when they found him careening Golden Fleece in Samaná Bay. Bannister faced two British frigates, Falcon and Drake, with a combined fifty-six cannon between them. Bannister placed two separate batteries of guns on island vantage points and battled the navy for two full days, until the warships ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat. This unlikely victory earned Bannister a place in pirate legend, despite his name being largely lost over the years. [1] Falcon and Drake rearmed and returned to finish Bannister off but found only the burned hulk of Golden Fleece, Bannister having escaped in a prize ship. [6]
The crew of Drake captured Bannister in January 1687 on the Mosquito Coast where he was living with natives. He was taken back to Port Royal, Jamaica, where, fearing another escape, new governor Hender Molesworth had him hanged from the Drake's yardarm without trial even before he could get off the boat. [2]
Joseph Bannister's ship Golden Fleece was found in early 2009 by American shipwreck hunters John Chatterton and John Mattera in the Dominican Republic, at Samaná Bay. [7]
This timeline of the history of piracy in the 1680s is a chronological list of key events involving pirates between 1680 and 1689.
Thomas Anstis was an early 18th-century pirate, who served under Captain Howell Davis and Captain Bartholomew Roberts, before setting up on his own account, raiding shipping on the eastern coast of the American colonies and in the Caribbean during what is often referred to as the "Golden Age of Piracy".
Bartholomew Sharp was an English buccaneer and privateer. His career of piracy lasted seven years (1675–1682). In the Caribbean he took several ships, and raided the Gulf of Honduras and Portobelo. He took command of an expedition into the Pacific and spent months raiding settlements on the Pacific Coast of South America including La Serena which he torched in 1680. His flagship, taken at Panama, was the Trinity.
Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf was a Dutch pirate, mercenary, and naval officer in the service of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the late 17th and early 18th century.
John Fenn was an early 18th-century English pirate who sailed with Captain Bartholomew Roberts and later had a brief partnership with Thomas Anstis.
Edward Davis or Davies was an English buccaneer active in the Caribbean during the 1680s and would lead successful raids against Leon and Panama in 1685, the latter considered one of the last major buccaneer raids against a Spanish stronghold. Much of his career was later recorded by writer William Dampier in A New Voyage Round the World (1697).
Captain John Coxon, sometimes referred to as John Coxen, was a late-seventeenth-century buccaneer who terrorized the Spanish Main. Coxon was one of the most famous of the Brethren of the Coast, a loose consortium of pirates and privateers. Coxon lived during the Buccaneering Age of Piracy.
Jan Willems, also known as Janke or Yankey Willems, was a 17th-century Dutch buccaneer. Based out of Petit-Goâve, Willems participated in a number of expeditions against the Spanish during the early to mid-1680s with other well-known privateers including Michiel Andrieszoon, Thomas Paine, Laurens de Graaf, Nicholas van Hoorn and Michel de Grammont.
The West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations refer to the United States Navy presence in the Antilles, and surrounding waters, which fought against pirates. Between 1817 and 1825, the American West Indies Squadron constantly pursued pirates on sea and land, primarily around Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the capture of Roberto Cofresi in 1825, acts of piracy became rare, and the operation was considered a success, although limited occurrences went on until slightly after the start of the 20th century.
Bartolomeu Português (1623–1670) was a Portuguese buccaneer who attacked Spanish shipping in the late 1660s. Português was responsible for the creation of the first "Pirate's Code".
Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship is a New York Times best-selling non-fiction book by Robert Kurson recounting the discovery of the pirate ship the Golden Fleece by two American divers, John Chatterton and John Mattera, in Samaná Bay off the north coast of the Dominican Republic in 2008. Until Chatterton and Mattera discovered the resting place of the Golden Fleece, Joseph Bannister's success as a pirate had little modern evidence.
Thomas Woolerly was a pirate and privateer active in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
Jean Hamlin was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He was often associated with St. Thomas's pirate-friendly Governor Adolph Esmit.
John Philip Bear, last name also spelled Beare, was a 17th-century English pirate active in the Caribbean who also served with the Spanish and French.
Jelles de Lecat was a Dutch pirate and buccaneer who sailed for and against both the English and Spanish. He served with Henry Morgan and was often called "Yellahs," "Yallahs," or “Captain Yellows.”
Jacob Evertson was a Dutch buccaneer and pirate active in the Caribbean. He escaped Henry Morgan and sailed with Jan Willems for several years.
James Browne was a Scottish pirate and privateer active in the Caribbean. He is best known for his hasty execution and its effect on colonial Jamaican government.
George Spurre was an English pirate and buccaneer. He is best known for sacking Campeche and for joining a large buccaneer force which captured Veracruz.
Jean Tristan was a French corsair (buccaneer) and pirate active in the Caribbean and against Spanish holdings in Central and South America.
Acts of grace, in the context of piracy, were state proclamations offering pardons for acts of piracy. General pardons for piracy were offered on numerous occasions and by multiple states, for instance by the Kingdom of England and its successor, the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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