The slightest trace of gold and red flickered in the trees, marking the end of summer and the impending close of another year. Richard Worley and eight other men loaded a handful of meager provisions of biscuits, water, and dried tongue onto the small open boat. They had six aging muskets and whatever ammunition they could find between them. What they lacked in food and weapons that day, though in late September of seventeen seventeen, the would be pirates made up
for in spirit. Inspired by Blackbeard's raid on ships to the south a year earlier, the men set sail one fifty miles to the Delaware River. If the legendary pirate found the hunting grounds they're good enough, well, then so would they. Lofty aspirations aside, they were well aware their meager ship never stood a chance at plundering ships on the high seas. Instead, they hugged the coastline, searching for more suitable prey. When they reached the Delaware River without
a single raid, Warley suggested hunting upriver. Seventy five miles later, near Newcastle, they happened upon a shell light sail boat belonging to George Grant. After taking what they wanted, the pirates set Grant and his boat free. The men might have felt proud of their first act of piracy, although technically, since the theft occurred on a river instead of the high seas, most considered the raid more simple robbery. The crew headed down river to hunt again, capturing a sloop.
Warley kept the ship along with half the crew, and gave the rest his small boat in exchange. He upgraded ships once more on the next raid. Now with a worthy vessel, the pirates headed out to see Meanwhile, Grant had raised the alarm. New York's governor sent out the h MS Phoenix to search for the crew's original small boat along the coastline, leaving Worley to slip out to sea and head south. By late October, the crew of
nine had grown to twenty five. They had a ship with six guns aboard and ashened a black flag with a white death's head. With Worly as captain, the men signed an oath agreeing to stand by the crew and take no quarter. The pirates looked forward to a bright and successful run, but they had no idea. Two forces were working against them in nearby Charleston, South Carolina Governor Robert Johnson, heard that another pirate, captain Moody, had anchored
just south of Charleston Bar. The news worried him. Blackbeard Vane and Steve Bonnet had disrupted the port's trade, and Johnson remained adamant it would never happen again. Knowing the pirate had a formidable fleet and plenty of firepower, Johnson assembled an even larger and more powerful fleet, intent on capturing Moody. Unaware of the Governor's plans or Moody's whereabouts, Warley and his crew set off to South Carolina's coast. Nearly out of fresh water and provisions, they waited for
a passing ship. Moody caught wind of Johnson's plan and headed out to sea, leaving the governor's men to find only one pirate in the area. They mistook Worley for Moody and ventured close enough to entice the pirates to give chase. Worley took the baits and raised the flag. When he drew close enough to engage, the governor's men hoisted their flag and unleashed a barrage of fire into Worly ship. Although the gunfire killed some of the pirates aboard,
Worley survived and stood trial. He died by hanging at White Point Garden, where Blackbeards protege Steve Barnett had met his own end just a few months earlier. Warley had dreamed of the pirate life, and that's exactly what he got. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates, three booters, buccaneers, rovers, privateers, whatever you called them. Sometimes the lines between government sanctioned
and unsanctioned piracy were a bit blurry. The acts and the names caused plenty of headaches for governments and the lead goal system, where sentencing depended on clear cut definitions of legal versus illegal piracy. In short, piracy was complicated. Now letters of mark could be forged, a few privateers rated ships with revoked letters. Those on the receiving end of sanctioned raids saw little to no difference between pirates
and privateers. Savvy lawyers probably found no shortage of loopholes in the wording, forcing the prosecution to include a wide array of terms when charging anyone with piracy. Author Captain Johnson, who some scholars believed to be Daniel Dafoe pointed out numerous instances of what courts of law considered to be a pirate, sparing you the verbose wording and pages of explanation that made my head hurt. Let's just say that attacking the Majesty's ships or rating a fellow countryman's vessel
are two basic examples of piracy. Also, anyone who aided a pirate, purchased plunder goods from one, or concealed a pirate risk being tried as an accomplice, complicating matters. Further, colonies found the profitability and the protection gained from piracy made reigning in the act difficult. Small colonies made a good location for pirate operations. Small settlements also made them
vulnerable to attack. History tells us that England and other European countries were often at war, Reducing available military might and funding pirates on the side of the colonists often proved a safer choice. Now, if you'll pardon the pun, the Treaty of You treked in seventeen thirteen, uh turned the tide, so to speak. With an agreement in place,
Britain had the resources to fight piracy. In seventeen eighteen, the British Navy had a host of warships, sloops and a few thousand men in the Caribbean, and each of the ships housed a minimum of fifty guns, making even the smallest vessel as powerful as the most formidable pirate ship, Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. Still, curtailing the problem would take more than a single approach. Pirate ships far outnumbered the British Navy. Aside from sending extra naval ships to hunt pirates,
Britain introduced a few legislations. Governments often pardons to those willing to give up piracy, as we've discussed before, and while not effective on its own, they hoped that pardons might weaken pirate cruise. We learned that the Flying Gang, consisting of approximately three hundred pirates, gladly accepted the pardon
well initially. While that sounds significant, the pardons only helped reduce attacks near the Bahamas, and of course, pirates risked execution and governors hired informants and offered rewards to private ships that captured pirate vessels. King George made a reward structure for the capture of pirates based on hierarchy. Commanders fetched two hundred pounds. Principal officers earned the pirate hunter forty pounds, while others brought in twenty to thirty, depending
on their rank. In seventeen twenty one, authorities required crews armed aboard merchant ships to fight attacks from pirates. Failure to resist piracy resulted in the loss of wages and a six month jail sentence gone to where the days when pirates had to be returned to England for trial before the High Court, as stated in an Act of Parliament originally put in place in fifteen thirty six. Instead, a new act allowed local vice admirals to put pirates
on trial. The Act also granted executions as long as they occurred on or nearby the sea. Trials rarely lasted more than a couple of days and almost always favored the court. Some pirates died awaiting execution, though, while others were sent to the gallows to hang immediately after sentencing. Typically, those bodies would remain on the gallows for three days the tides came and went washing over the corpses. In England,
hanging several pirates simultaneously was not uncommon. Between seventeen sixteen and seventeen twenty six, four hundred pirates met their fate at the gallows. Forty one of Steve Bonnet's crew hanged in seventeen eighteen, and in seventeen twenty two, over fifty of Bartholomew Robert's crew are hanged in a group execution. Often, the bodies of the most notorious pirates were tarred and placed in a cage two rots in full public view.
The tar kept the body intact longer from the elements and the seagulls, although I imagine it might also have been a solid anti piracy campaign. Captain Kidd's body remained on display for two years in England. In seventeen twenty one, Calico Jack's corpse was displayed in the cage for all to see upon entering the harbor. A year later, Charles Vane's body followed suit. Local authorities prominently displayed both pirates on what is appropriately called dead Man's k in Port Royal.
But the Crown and the colonies had one more weapon against piracy, the pirates themselves. The War of Spanish Secession, otherwise known as Queen Ann's War, lasted from seventeen o one until the Treaty of You tracked in seventeen thirteen. British privateers roam the Caribbean during the war, making an immense wealth for themselves. With nearly an unlimited supply of ships to hunt, A good share of the crew spent
their fortunes as fast as they earned them. Too. Those who operated out of places like Port Royal found themselves abruptly unemployed with the treaty declared. For many, returning to the Royal Navy wasn't an option. Even if the low pay and abuse didn't deter them. The available job opportunities had dried up. The long end drawn out war left the Royal Navy bankrupt. Merchant ships became the only alternative, well,
the only legal one, that is. But life and work aboard these vessels offered very little grueling work, poor living conditions, and a pittance of pay did little to entice anyone. Still, for the hungry and unemployed, something was better than nothing. With an abundance of applicants, captains and shipowners cut the already low wages in half, encouraging the rest to seek employment elsewhere. Sailors chose another more lucrative option that offered
better pay, better living conditions, and humane treatment. Piracy for those sailors, Continuing to raid French and Spanish vessels became the most reasonable and justifiable path. The Spanish continued to attack English ships, claiming that they were smugglers if they found a single Spanish coin on board, an easy task since that was the main currency of the Caribbean. The Spanish killed or jailed any English captain or crew members who dared to resist, and of course they would seize
their ship and the cargo. For British privateers, piracy provided them with a living. For the colonies, the pirates served as payback for Spanish harassment. Pirates posed little threat, especially since most English pirates refrained from attacking British ships. Piracy became the perfect solution for a man named Benjamin hornegal Before the treaty, he had been one of England's most
dedicated privateers. In seventeen, the crown no longer needed his services, and he found himself among the plethora of unemployed sailors. In early summer, Hornegald and other sailors drank and commiserated about their impending poverty and the constant harassment from the Spanish. The more he thought about their predicament, the more he felt confident his idea could work. They would retaliate against the Spanish and earn a healthy living. Later that summer,
Hornegald managed to secure a crew and a ship. He'd also plotted a course for the perfect hunting location. The band of pirates left port and headed four fifty miles north to a spot between Cuba and Hispaniola. Earlier we learned that Hornegald found New Providence burned out and deserted, and that his crew set to work rebuilding the port.
Nasa provided the perfect setup for small time piracy. At first, the pirates hunted from periaguas, essentially large canoes that were big enough to carry approximately thirty men and some cargo. The canoes bank of oars made them fast to the halls, allowed them to sail across shoals and areas too dangerous for larger, deeper vessels. Hornegal divided the crew among the three boats he captained one, assigning John West and John Cockram to lead the other two. For six months, they
prayed on small Spanish ships. Not once did they attack an English vessel. Hornegald insisted that this made them privateers, not pirates. Of course, we can call this a matter of self deception, deflection, or even an outright lie. England, France, and Spain were at peace, and Hornegald had no authority or letter of mark. The crew sold their plunder on Harbor Island, just sort of Nassau. Hornegald and Cockrhum worked
closely with Richard Thompson, a wealthy landowner and merchant. There, the three created one of the most profitable black market and smuggling businesses in the golden Age of piracy. The bond between the three grew close enough that Cockrum married one of Thompson's daughters. It didn't take long for the Spanish to notice Hornegold's raids, and rumors of an attack against the pirates began to spread West and a few others decided to quit piracy after that and left Nassau.
Cockrum and Hornegold remained. The attack never materialized, and the band of pirates returned to hunting Spanish ships, this time on a sloop borrowed from retired seaman Jonathan Darvill, and at this point scholars believe Edward Teach joined the crew. A larger ship meant larger bounties. When the crew returned to port. They paid Darville four times the ship's worth.
Raids in late seventeen fourteen brought the crew sizeable bounties, making Hornigold one of the most respected pirates in the Caribbean. He had been penniless, but now he had reinvented himself and he was about to do it again. Unfortunately, those raids drew unwanted attention. Bahamas Governor Thomas Walker vowed to rid the island of pirates. Nearby, in Bermuda, Governor Henry Pouline offered to annex the Bahamas to eliminate the pirates.
Den Despite opposition against them, Hornegold and Black Bear continued to plunder. Neither the Dutch nor English worried much about the pair, believing the pirates prayed solely on the French and the Spanish. But that changed in the fall of seventeen fifteen when the crew raided the mary An English sloop with six cannons and large enough for one and forty men. When the crew sailed into New Providence instead of Harbor Island, Hornegald promised the pirates and others who
worked in the trade his protection. Now calling themselves the Flying Gang, the pirates nearly outnumbered law abiding citizens. Before long, Hornegal had captured a Spanish sloop and christened it the Benjamin. In a surprise move, he promoted new pirates Sam Bellamy as the captain of another ship instead of Teach. Now, as we've learned earlier, Bellamy later formed a coup and went his own way. Hornegald continued to grow his fleet, and in seventeen sixteen he and the crew voted to
give a thirty ton sloop to Blackbeard. Teach continued to sail with Hornegal on many more profitable raids through late seventeen seventeen. But all good things must come to an end. Right. With increasing pressure from England, Hornegald accepted a pardon in early seventeen eighteen. Although no longer a pirate, Hornegal never gave up hunting. He had been at sea when the governor of Jamaica sent ships to find him and deliver the King's offer. Hornegold returned to NASA and joined former
crewmate Walker in welcoming a man named Woods Rogers. Though many accepted a pardon, piracy itself remained a serious problem. Worse, England pulled naval support, leaving Rogers and the colony vulnerable to the Spanish and pirates like Charles Vane, who had threatened to attack. Rogers had only one choice left asked the former pirates for help. Hornegald and Cockrum stepped up, offering their services as pirate hunters. Rogers gave them a sloop and the two sailed out in search of Charles Vane.
They found him one d twenty miles north of Nassau on Green Turtle k Vaine and his men had taken four merchant ships and their crew to the island to plunder. After anchoring off shore, Horn of Goold and Cockram assessed the situation. Vain and his men far outnumbered them. They could turn back or wait for Vain to split from his crew on a hunt. So they waited for three long weeks. Just as Vain headed out, Captain Nichols would all aboard the Wolf arrived. The former pirates had also
taken the King's pardon Wood all in. Vain talked while the crew's unloaded supplies and ammunition from the Wolf, Horn of Goold and Cockroam. New Vein had spies and sympathizers and NASA, but Wood All's allegiance might have surprised them, but Charles Vane did not seem pleased with the news that would all brought. In a fit of anger, he marooned the merchant ship's crew and headed out to see after the pirates left. Horn of Goold and Cockram arrived
to give the hostages supplies. Late that night, Hornegald set out alone to hunt down the pirates. Five days later, he and his crew captured the Wolf. Back in Nassa, Rogers grew nervous, fearing that Hornegold had returned to piracy. Three weeks later, Hornegal returned with the Wolf, including its captain and crew, which removed all doubt about his integrity. The hunter has continued their quest, capturing more pirates along the way. Rogers became so pleased that he wrote England
to sing Hornegal's praises. Vain, however, continued to remain elusive. Woods Rogers barely had enough men to guard his prisoners, and his men fell victim to disease. All this stood between Nassau and Vain Or the Spanish was a dilapidated and poorly manned fort, a thirty gun sloop and three trusted pirate hunters Josiah Burgess, Cockrum and Hornegal. In December of seventeen eighteen, nine of ten recently captured pirates were found guilty of piracy after signing the pardon, while the
court sentenced the nine to hang. The tenth prisoner had been forced into piracy and was acquitted. Over twelve thousand people, mostly pirates or former pirates, gathered at the shoreline gallows to watch as the condemned men walked by. Men who had signed the part and cheered while they're still pirate counterparts gave the one armed guards a wary eye. A few of the condemned smiled back at the crowd, unrepentant and defiant. As they stood before the crowd with a
noose around their necks. Rogers pardoned one of the men, then, with the crowd looking up, he signaled to the executioner. Eight men dropped their corpses, swaying against a background of clear blue water. The pirates life in Paradise had come to an end. Those eight hangings symbolized a change. Pirates no longer ruled NASA. Rogers had regained control despite the lack of sufficient support or funding from England. After that, pirates became less of a problem. Over two thousand of
them roamed the season seventeen one. Just three years later that number dropped by half, and by seventeen twenty six only two hundred pirates remained. The hangings on that December morning became infamous among historians. Some speculate that Roger's choice and manner of execution had been the pivotal moment in the Golden Age. And yet we can't talk about the end of the Golden Age of piracy without discussing Benjamin Hornegald. Without his help, Woods, Rogers could not have taken control
of NASA. Was he a pirate, yes, despite his insistence otherwise. But as Rogers found out, Hornegald was a man of his word, and in his own way, matched his own devotion to king and country. There were different accounts as to what happened to Hornegal, whichever is accurate, we know that in the spring of seventeen nineteen, Benjamin Hornegal left NASA and sailed into the sunset, never to be seen again. Some say that he came to Rogers aid once more.
In the War of the Quadruple Alliance against the Spanish. In this telling, the Spanish captured him and tossed him into a Cuban prison, where he later died. Another telling is that Rogers sent him on a trading voyage to Mexico. Hornigold's ship struck a reef, deserting him and a handful of survivors on an isolated island. The men went to work constructing a canoe, just as they had in the early days of New Providence. Everyone escaped except Hornegald, who
died there on the island. And in yet another version, none of Hornigold's crew survived the shipwreck, drowning instead at sea. If this retelling is accurates, I can't help but wonder if his brethren believed that Hornegald ended up in Davy Jones Locker, that mythical place at the bottom of the sea where all drowned sailors go. However he met his end,
he certainly left behind a legacy. Those who knew him said he was a devout patriot, a highly skilled captain, and showed more kindness to his prisoners than the men who served under him. Yes, he was a pirate, but despite that, Benjamin Hornegald, the mentor of Blackbeard and the leader of the Nassau pirate community, and the Flying Gang did more to bring about the own fall of piracy
than anyone else. Pirate execution seems like one of the plot points we can always count on in the Hollywood films about them, and as we've seen today, history backs that up. So thanks for um hanging around for this thrilling chapter in our exploration of that world. But of course we're not done just yet. My crewmates Alie Steed has one more tail from the gallows to share. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.
In the spring of seventy six, William Fly found work as a boast in a board a ship called the Elizabeth. The captain, a man named Green, set course from Jamaica to Guinea in West Africa. Somewhere along the way, Fly got to thinking maybe he should be the captain and convinced several of his shipmates to join him in mutiny. First, they need to murder both the captain and the first mate. Afterward they'd turned from a sailor's life to one of piracy.
On seventy six, Flying his conspirators carried out their planet around one am, Fly burst into the captain's cabin and told Green that he had two choices to die right there or join them on deck. Fly preferred the ladder to save him the trouble of cleaning blood off the floor and walls of the cabin that would soon be his. A few buckets of water and a scraper would do the job quicker. On deck, the captain promised not to impede any of their plans. They could lock him in
chains if they wanted anything, just spare his life. Fly had Green hauled on deck while the captain continued to beg Fly sliced him with his cutlass. Still alive, Green clung to the main sheet, the line that connected to the boom to stop himself from being tossed overboard. Another conspirator grabbed an axe and cleaved off the captain's hand. Then, flying the other's tossed Green overboard and watch until the sea swallowed him. Then they repeated the process with the
first mate. Fly renamed the ship the Fameous Revenge. His first act as captain was to have every man who sympathized with the previous captain and first mate put into chains, and then he threw a party. On June third, the newly minted pirates arrived off the coast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The crew spotted a sloop, the John and Hannah, anchored nearby and pulled close. The captain Falker wrongly assumed that Fly needed help navigating around a tricky sandbar.
He and a few of his crew rode a small boat out to the Fameous Revenge to offer their assistance. Fly greeted his guests and showed them into his cabin. Then he informed Falker that he'd cut right to the chase. He and his crew were gentlemen of fortune, a fancy way of saying pirates, and he informed the good captain that he intended to relieve him of his ship. However, high winds prevented the pirates from bringing the larger ship alongside the Fameus Revenge, which sent Fly into a fit
of rage. He stripped and brutally whipped Captain Fulker and took him and a handful of his crew prisoners. Then, sheerly, out of spite, he sank the John and Hannah. Later, the crew captured two additional ships, neither of which contained anything of value. But Fly put Falker and some of the other prisoners aboard one of the ships and let it go, although he kept a sailor named Atkinson. Fly ordered the sailor to pilot the ship to Martha's Vineyard,
which Atkinson intentionally sailed past. When he discovered the disobedience, Fly tried to kill Atkinson. Fortunately for the young prisoner, the crew liked him and intervened. At this point, the crew began to plot against their captain. They'd had enough of Fly's temper, abuse and lack of maritime experience getting them into trouble. A few suggest that they throw Fly overboard and made Atkinson the new captain. Meanwhile, they continued
up the coast to Nova Scotia. Shortly after capturing a small fishing schooner, Fly spotted a larger ship and ordered much of his crew to give chase, leaving him with three of his crewmates and a handful of prisoners aboard the famous revenge Atkinson seized his moment and gathered the other prisoners and overtook the small crew and Fly. With the pirates secured, the crew headed towards Boston. Fly berated them and shouted that he wished for demons to fly
away with the ship. He cursed everyone, including the heavens above. Atkinson steered the ship into Boston Harbor on June twenty nine, seventy six. After trials on July fourth and fifth, the judge and committee found Flying his men guilty of piracy. They also found them guilty of murdering Captain Green and his first mate. Fly put the blame squarely on his men, and on Sunday, Reverend Cotton Mather preached to the pirates in front of the crowd, and Fly refused to repent
the murders were justified. Fly insisted Green and his first mate had treated the crew abominably and deserved their fate. Once loaded into the cart headed to the gallows, Fly smiled and paid comp elaments to people in the crowd. At the gallows, he ridiculed the executioner for a sloppy job. He retied the knot on his own news, telling everyone the executioner didn't know his own trade. Finally, he addressed the crowd, saying that captains who failed to treat their
crews better risked mutiny. Unimpressed and potentially seeing the irony in Fly's grand statement, the crowd watched him hang and then returned to their homes. Flies corpse was hung in irons to serve as a warning to other would be pirates. The warning was largely unnecessary, though, by the time Autumn said in a couple of months later, the golden age of piracy had come to an end. Pirates was executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and
Alexandra Steid. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo, with research by Alexandra Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided by Josh Thayne, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt fred Rick. To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm and Mild and I Heart Radio, visit Grimm and Mild dot com MHM