Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailor peculiar to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Tortuga Island is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola. It constitutes the commune of Île de la Tortue in the Port-de-Paix arrondissement of the Nord-Ouest department of Haiti.
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. 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 Morris was an English buccaneer active in the Caribbean during the 1660s and early-1670s. His son, John Morris the Younger, held a command of his own ship during his father's later expeditions against Portobelo and Maracaibo. John Morris the Younger was one of the commanders killed in an explosion during a party on-board Henry Morgan's flagship in 1670.
Daniel Johnson (1629–1675) was an English buccaneer who, serving under buccaneers as Moyse Van Vin and Pierre le Picard, sailed against the Spanish during the late 17th century becoming known among the Spanish as "Johnson the Terror". There is little record of his career aside from a single body of work, Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography (1887), suggesting he may be a fictional character.
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).
Pierre Le Grand was a French buccaneer of the 17th century. He is known to history only from one source, Alexandre Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America, and may be imaginary.
Edward Mansvelt or Mansfield was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and buccaneer who, at one time, was acknowledged as an informal chieftain of the "Brethren of the Coast". He was the first to organise large scale raids against Spanish settlements, tactics which would be utilised to attack Spanish strongholds by later buccaneers in future years, and held considerable influence in Tortuga and Port Royal. He was widely considered one of the finest buccaneers of his day and, following his death, his position was assumed by his protégé and vice-admiral, Henry Morgan.
Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita was a 17th-century Dutch privateer. He was also an admiral in the Dutch West India Company and, in 1628, commanded a large expedition against Portuguese and Spanish interests in the Caribbean. The expedition was one of the largest of its time and included many of the great privateers of the era.
Pieter Schouten was a 17th-century Dutch corsair and privateer. He was one of the first Dutchmen to explore to the Caribbean and, while employed by the Dutch West Indies Company, was involved in extensive reconnaissance to establish Dutch bases in the West Indies.
Pierre le Picard (1624–1679?) was a 17th-century French buccaneer. He was both an officer to l'Olonnais as well as Sir Henry Morgan, most notably taking part in his raids at Maracaibo and Panama, and may have been one of the first buccaneers to raid shipping on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
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.
Jacques Tavernier or Le Lyonnais (1625–1673) was a French privateer and buccaneer supposedly active in the Caribbean during the mid-17th century. His existence has since been disputed among modern historians as little to no pre-19th century evidence exists prior to his entry in Appletons' Cyclopedia in 1889. He first arrived in the West Indies as a member of French privateering expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico and later became a buccaneer when hostilities ceased between France and Spain. Tavernier served under numerous buccaneers including Laurent van Graaf, Michel de Grandmount, Jacques Nau, Pierre le Picard and Sir Henry Morgan among others in his career, however he himself did not rise to command his own command largely due to his illiteracy.
The Western Caribbean Zone is a region consisting of the Caribbean coasts of Central America, from Yucatán in Mexico to northern Colombia, and also the islands west of Jamaica. The zone emerged in the late sixteenth century as the Spanish failed to completely conquer many sections of the coast, and northern European powers supported opposition to Spain, sometimes through alliances with local powers.
Jean Fantin was a French pirate active in the Caribbean and off the coast of Africa. He is best known for having his ship stolen by William Kidd and Robert Culliford.
