Louis Guittar | |
---|---|
Died | London | November 13, 1700
Cause of death | Hanged |
Nationality | French |
Other names | Lewis |
Occupation | Pirate |
Years active | Late 1690s and early 18th century |
Criminal charge | Piracy |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Piratical career | |
Base of operations | Caribbean, the West Indies, and New England |
Commands | La Paix |
Louis Guittar (alternatively spelled Lewis Gittar, died 13 November 1700) [1] was a French pirate active in the Caribbean, the West Indies, and New England during the late 1690s and 1700s.
Based in St. Malo in the late 1690s, Guittar commanded the 28-gun sloop La Paix attacked merchant shipping in the Caribbean and Mid-Atlantic area. [2]
In early 1700, after plundering and sinking five merchant ships in Chesapeake Bay, he was expecting only the elderly Essex Prize guardship, but was surprised to find instead the fifth-rate frigate HMS Shoreham under Captain William Passenger. The Shoreham had arrived in April 1700 in response to pirate John James looting a number of vessels in the area and forcing the outgunned Essex Prize to retreat. [3] After Guittar chased the remaining merchantman into Lynnhaven Bay, Virginia on May 3, 1700, Virginia Governor General Francis Nicholson accompanied Passenger aboard the Shoreham, reportedly standing on the foredeck throughout the fight. [4]
Although evenly matched, with Passenger's 115 crew and 28 guns to the Guittar's crew consisting of between 150 and 160 sailors and 20 mounted guns (with eight more in the hold), Guittar was forced to surrender after a 12-hour battle. [5] Guittar threatened to blow up La Paix's powder magazine, killing almost 50 prisoners, if he didn't receive quarter and a pardon. Nicholson granted the pirates quarter but referred them to King William of England for trial. With 26 men killed, HMS Shoreham took on the surviving crew members, of which more than half were wounded. Transferred to England, Guittar and 23 of his crew were tried for piracy and hanged in London several months later.
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him.
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Robert Culliford was a pirate from Cornwall who is best remembered for repeatedly checking the designs of Captain William Kidd.
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Edward England was an Irish pirate. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl and later the Fancy, for which England exchanged the Pearl in 1720. His flag was the classic Jolly Roger — almost exactly as the one "Black Sam" Bellamy used — with a human skull above two crossed bones on a black background. Like Bellamy, England was known for his kindness and compassion as a leader, unlike many other pirates of the time.
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Edward Low was a pirate of English origin during the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century. Low was born into poverty in Westminster, London, and was a thief from an early age. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man. His wife died in childbirth in late 1719. Two years later, he became a pirate, operating off the coasts of New England and the Azores, and in the Caribbean.
The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the United States, and flows into the Chesapeake Bay west of Cape Henry at Lynnhaven Inlet, beyond which is Lynnhaven Roads. It has a small, developed watershed covering 64 square miles (170 km2), terminating at Lynnhaven Bay. It was once famous along the East Coast of the United States for its oysters, which declined through pollution and runoff. It is now being restored by the Lynnhaven River Now restoration project based out of the Brock Environmental Center. A proposed comprehensive project for ecosystem restoration of the Lynnhaven River Basin is currently under consideration by the United States Congress.
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".
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Charles Gibbs was the pseudonym of an American pirate, born James D. Jeffers. Jeffers was one of the last active pirates in the Caribbean during the early 19th century, and was among the last persons to be executed for piracy by the United States.
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.
The West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations were a series of military operations and engagements undertaken by the United States Navy against pirates in and around the Antilles. Between 1814 and 1825, the American West Indies Squadron hunted pirates on both 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.
Richard Glover was a pirate and slave-trader active in the Caribbean and the Red Sea in the late 1690s.
The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas after the destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. The gang consisted of the most notorious and cunning pirates of the time, and they terrorized and pillaged the Caribbean until the Royal Navy and infighting brought them to justice. They achieved great fame and wealth by raiding salvagers attempting to recover gold from the sunken Spanish treasure fleet. They established their own codes and governed themselves independent from any of the colonial powers of the time. Nassau was deemed the Republic of Pirates as it attracted many former privateers looking for work to its shores. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants in the town.
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John James was a Welsh pirate active near Madagascar, Nassau, and the American east coast.
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