Cutthroat. According to Dictionary entries, it's someone so ruthless they would cut the throat of another, a murderer, a person of a vicious nature. And believe me, in the world of piracy, there were plenty of cutthroats. Sure, pirates lived on the fringes of the societal boundaries. Many stole without conscience, justified murder, and weren't exactly the nicest people in the world. But to most of them, there were rules and behavioral expectations,
even among pirates. Edward Lowe, however, didn't subscribe to any of that. If a fraction of the stories about his cruelty are true, then it's a small wonder his crew didn't hang him. His meanness and depravity, according to the tales, at least could shame the devil. Low was born sometime in the sixteen nineties in Westminster, London. As a teen, he found work as a sailor on a ship heading to Boston in the New World. There he secured job at a rigging house. Accounts say that low married in
seventeen fourteen. Tragedy struck when his son died in infancy and his wife died from complications during the birth of their second child, a daughter. Low then lost his job and spiraled into a manic a bout of depression, he returned to the sea, abandoning whatever kindness and solace he possessed, along with his baby daughter. During the ship's voyage, Low
ended up in a brawl with a captain. Some of the crew said Low insisted on more breaks, while others claimed that he had grown tired of manual labor altogether. When life aboard the ship did not improve to his liking, Low convinced a handful of the crew to attempt a mutiny. He killed a crewman while trying to shoot the captain. The coup failed, and Low and his collaborators fled in a rowboat. The group joined forces with another pirate, George Lowther.
While in Honduras, the crew attacked the Greyhound. Lowther and Low ordered their crew to beat the men aboard the merchant ship violently. Afterward, they joyfully set the Greyhound on fire. With additional raids came upgrades to their ships. Lowther took a vessel of his own, christening it the Ranger. Any ship the men didn't take for their fleet was set ablaze simply for having new Englanders on board, but things weren't perfect in Paradise. Lowther and Low fought constantly and
finally parted ways. In seventeen twenty two, Low sailed for Block Island. He flew various flags designed to instill a sense of false security in his victims. His other ships helped corral the unsuspecting vessel. If the captain refused to surrender, Low open fire on the ship. Not that there was anything out of the ordinary about that. No, it was
Lowe's cruelty that made him stand out. This was a man who was amused by the thought of a human being sizzling in flames, and so one time he ordered his men to tie one ship's cook to the mast and then set the whole vessel ablaze. He strung up friars, jerking them from their feet, and how they died. He cut another man to pieces for pitying the victims. Word of Low's rampages, murder and the removal and roasting of
body parts reached the Boston papers. He had earned a reputation as the most barbaric pirate to sail the Caribbean. He was a cutthroat in the end, though his deeds proved too much even for his own crew. After Low killed his quartermaster, his men marooned him, and no one ever saw him again. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates. Pirates, the rogues of the sea, with reputations for giving no quarter,
meaning to grant to no mercy. The sight of a pirate ship instilled fear in many sailors, and for good reason. Codes and rules regarding the pirates crews treatment did not extend to those aboard targeted ships. A rare few, like Steve Bonnet, had the reputation of being kinder than most. He wasn't known as the gentleman pirate for nothing. Others, though, like Blackbeard, struck fear in all who crossed their paths, yet treated their crewman well. But some pirate captains treated
their crew poorly or worse than their intended victims. John Phillips had taken to pirate life aboard the Good Fortune with Gusto. In April of seventeen twenty two, he and the other crewmates were busily working on a frigate to add to their fleet when a British man of war captained by Sir John Flowers approached Phillips and the others ran into the woods to hide. Flowers captured most of the pirates, although Phillips and a handful of others remained undetected.
With most of the crew gone, they returned to England to take the King's pardon while visiting family, though Phillips heard that authorities imprisoned a few anyway, and he quickly hopped on a ship heading to Newfoundland. He deserted that ship when it arrived on an island off Newfoundland's coast, and convinced others to join him. Intent on returning to piracy, the group stole a schooner from Austin Harbor and named
it the Revenge. With Phillips as captain, the pirates raided ships along the coast, growing their numbers with each attack. While some went willingly, others, like John Fillmore, great grandfather of US President Millard Fillmore, did not. For the crew leaving was not an option. While some captains had would be deserters maroon, Phillips was deadly serious about keeping his crew. He killed two men who tried to escape, violating the
agreed upon rules of punishment. Phillips continued to raid ships and take on the crew as his own. By now much of the crew aboard there were against their will, and by April eighteenth of seventeen twenty four, they'd had enough. Fillmore and three more took action. While repairing the ship, one of the men grabbed an axe like weapon and killed Phillips. Before long, the rest of the crew joined
the fray, defeating the pirates. They steered the ship to Boston, where they handed over the pirates and Philip's head to the authorities. About as happy and ending as we can expect for their story. While most captains treated their crew fairly, others went too far, even for the most ruthless legends of pirate lore. Like many pirates, there's not a lot of information about Charles Vane's early life, although there are some assertions. Notably, he was likely born in London around
sixteen eighty, and his surname suggests French ancestry. As a child and teen Vain most likely witnessed a pirate hanging in public. Public hangings gathered quite a crowd back then, and entire families would make their way to the gallows to watch. Of course, that's assuming that he grew up in England at some point. We do know that he found his way to Port Royal. There he met privateer
Henry Jennings and joined his crew. Vain discovered that they were both well educated, which was the exception rather than the norm among sailors. Vain looked up to his mentor. Jennings was a devout patriot and wealthy landowner with a couple of island estates. If you remember, it was Jennings who was sent by Jamaica's governor, Lord Archibald Hamilton's to retrieve treasure from a fleet of wrecked Spanish ships off
Florida's coast in seventeen fifteen. While the crew recovered treasure, they also attacked the Spanish camps and made off with the hefty bounty. When Hamilton's lost his power in Jamaica, though, jennings unwillingness to give up raids made him a pirate, and to complicate matters further, the authorities in England had tied the governor and Jennings and Vain to a conspiracy to fund an army to overthrow King George the First. But Jennings hadn't started out intending to become a pirate.
The king would soon offer him and others away out much to their relief. Pirates in the Caribbean cross paths regularly, and many knew each other from their privateering days. Vain took note of Jenning's dislike of Benjamin Hornegald, and following his lead, also looked down on the man Hornegold was beneath them due to his lack of formal education and his origins in a much lower class. Vain despise as to Hornegold as much as his mentor, and like Jennings,
he clashed with pirates and privateers a lake. In fact, Vain spent much of his time in Nassau drinking, fighting and harassing the residents, and the more his brethren talked of taking the pardon, the more he saw the offer as an act of war on the pirate republic, and Charles Vane was ready for a fight. Unlike Jennings, Vain had no such loyalty to England, the Stewart line of heirs or King George the First. His loyalties were to piracy and himself. Vain took over those under jennings command
who refused to sign the pardon. He continued to cause trouble in Nassau, putting himself in Britain's crosshairs. While making his displeasure well heard, Vain also knew that it was just a matter of time before someone came looking for him. Ambitious and young British captain Vincent Pierce set out to capture Vane with the help of a few pirates. He found the rebel pirate aboard the sloop called the Lark. Pierce's own ship, the Phoenix, greatly outmatched the Lark, leaving
Vain no choice but to surrender. Pierce returned to Nassa with the pirates instead of jailing them. Though authorities thought releasing Vain and his crew might be a gesture of good faith to the rest of the pirate community, still considering a pardon, Vain and his crew immediately returned to piracy, though collecting forty of the most cutthroat pirates on the island, including Jack Rackham. As he sailed out of port, Vain
passed Pierce's ship. The pirates hailed him, waving and laughing as they ventured back out to see By spring, Vain and his men had attacked twelve ships. Some of their targets fought back, others did not. Either way, they were treated with absolute cruelty. Vain and his men bound one sailor to the bowsprit and threatened to shoot him. The word of Vein's brutality and acts of violence spread far and wide, and as his reputation grew, so too did
his ego. In mid April of seventeen eighteen, Vein spotted the sloop William and Mary near rum K and gave chase. Captain Edward North surrendered without a fight. Despite this, Vein's men savagely beat North's crew. After that, Vain randomly selected one of North's men's and had his hands and feet bound and tied the sailor to the top side. One pirate rammed the end of a loaded musket into his mouth. Another pirate placed the ends of matches in the sailor's eyelids.
Vain threatened to like them if the sailor did not tell him where The crew hit the valuables, but the William and Mary had nothing of real value on board, so Vein took what cargo they had anyway, and then also took the black sailors on board for enslavement. Aboard the Lark, Vein captured another ship, the Diamond, and viciously beat their crew as well. After taking whatever valuables they found, he and his crew committed their final acts of cruelty.
The pirates put a noose around a sail ER's neck and repeatedly hoisted him up and down until he lost consciousness. Then they set the diamond ablaze. Later, they celebrated into the night, drinking and cursing King George the first. The raids continued in the same manner. Vain promised their victims quarter, then unleashed his men to beat and torture anyone on board. The violence caused tensions among other pirates, who relied on their victims easy surrender as part of a promise to
give them quarter. Vain, however, genuinely seemed to delight in each torture and saved his most violent acts of terror for ships originating from Bermuda. For Vain, these acts were in retaliation for the governor arresting a pirate. There was one calendar month where Vain and his pirates raided a dozen ships, terrorizing the crew each time. Survivors gave accounts of Vein's cruelty and delight in delivering the most brutal assaults.
A few pirates in Nassau admitted that the atrocities the Vein and his crew committed were dark even by their own standards. In Bermuda, mariner Nathaniel Katling, a survivor of the ill fated Diamond, testified before Governor Bennett. He'd been slashed with a cutlass, strung up and left for dead, but miraculously he had somehow survived. The sights of Vein's ship flying the black flag alongside a Union jack struck fear and terror into merchant captains and crew. Trade in
the Caribbean suffered, nearly coming to a halt. By now, Pierce had left Nassa, but Vain had another problem. Woods Rogers, the new governor, had larger ships and more firepower. Undeterred when Vain returned in April, he doubled down on his efforts, recruiting even more men, and then their spree of violence continued. Vain captured a two d ton French vessel he took for his new flagship. By mid June. He christened the ship the Ranger and promoted Jack Rackham as his quartermaster. Later,
Rackham would go on to captain the ship himself. In July of seventeen eighteen woods, Rogers and his landing party arrived in Nassau. The early arrival took Vain and his crew by surprise. Watching his brethren, including former mentor Henry Jennings, signed the letter of pardon was bad enough, but when many of them flew the British flag atop the forts and celebrated, Vain flew into a rage. The community split into two pieces, those who took the pardon and those
who refused it. Jennings and Hornegal, although still enemies, both took the pardon. Defiant, Vain led a band of men determined to remain free from Britain's control, and stormed the fort, replacing the Union jack with a Pirate flag. Still furious, Vain fired upon the HMS Rose. When the ship entered the port, Captain Thomas Whitney pulled alongside the Ranger and confronted the pirates. Vain handed the captain a letter of refusal to take the pardon and shouted that he would
see Rogers burned on the harbor. Now, Charles Vaine's bravado was one thing, but managing to get out of the harbor safely was quite another. The HMS Rose had not arrived alone. The HMS Milford Shark, willing mine Buck, Samuel and Alicia had blocked his escape. Altogether, the British fleet carried a hundred and thirty one guns, a hundred soldiers and one d thirty colonists, making the deployment the largest ever since the Treaty of You trect in seventeen thirteen.
It goes without saying Vain was vastly outnumbered. For hours, he considered his options. I can imagine his fellow pirates betting on Vain's next move. The odds seemed evenly split between surrender followed by capture or a short battle followed by going to Davy Jones Locker. In a blaze of glory. At two o'clock in the morning, the sound of an explosion pulled residents and pirates from their beds. Vain had set a ship full of gunpowder and ammo on fire and sailed it directly at the h MS Rose and
HMS Shark. Both British ships were anchored. When the sight of the flaming ship alerted a guard, Captains and crew scrambled to pull anchor and maneuver out of harm's way. The pirates abandoned the fiery vessel and made their way to another of Veins ships. The stolen sloop exploded rather spectacularly, barely missing the two naval ships. With the crew aboard the Rose and Shark preoccupied, Vain and his small but fast sloop sailed out of the harbor before anyone else
pulled anchor to give chase. Vain laughed and fired one last shot as he sailed out to sea. Humiliated and angry, woods rogers vowed to catch Vain, and he knew just who to turn to to help, and as we've learned, that was his nemesis, Benjamin Hornegal. Meanwhile, Vain set out to gather forces. If he was to stand a chance at ridding the Pirate Republic of British rule, he needed a formidable fleet, so he set sail for North Carolina in search of the most powerful remaining pirate of all, Blackbeard.
Edward Teach had left Nassau and took over the port of Charleston to get medicine for his ailing men. Afterward, he met with North Carolina's governor to accept the pardon. Vain met back up with Blackbeard on Ocracoke Island. The two men talked, although some say they partied for nearly a week. In the end, Blackbeard wished Vain all the best of luck, but he remained determined to take the pardon and retire, an attempt we now know didn't work
out so well thanks to Virginia's Lieutenant governor. Undaunted, Vain continued his merciless raids, although his men became increasingly worried their captain was less than predictable. He had a temper, and their raids and brutality had placed them as a high priority on the capture list. One of Vain's captain's even betrayed him. After raiding a ship in Charleston. He set off with a cargo, intent on turning himself in
and taking the pardon. Yet it wouldn't be the loss of valuables, a ship or the captain that did Vain in. Jack Rackam called for a vote to oust Vain, and they overwhelmingly agreed his abuse and violence had been too much even for pirates. They set him and a handful of supporters adrift in a small boat. Then they voted Calico Jack Rackham as their new captain and returned to
NASA to take the King's pardon temporarily. Of course, Charles Vane never treated his crew well, and then again, he did cheat them on raids and had been less than civil, often punishing them for the smallest of transgressions. Known for cruelty to men on the ships they plundered, Vain also had a reputation for brutality with his own crew, and NASA rumors floated that he kneel halled a few men
who displeased him. Part of the problem was that Vain dealt up punishments that were far more severe than required by the crime or the agreed upon rules of discipline, and the way he treated the sailors aboard the ships they rated built distrust in his men. It's no wonder that before voting him out, the crew had begun plotting revenge. Luckily for him, Rackham's call for a vote ended, this time on the ship more amicably. Vain and a few of his supporters were sent adrift in a hunting trip
in November of seventeen eighteen. Vain realized the large merchant vessel they'd been tracking was a French warship and stopped the attack. That's when Quartermaster Jack Rackham called for a vote to replace him. Surprisingly, Vain's career didn't end there, though, He and his handful of men began to raid ships and rebuild a fleet. By February of seventeen nineteen, Vain commanded five ships. They set sail for the Bay Islands of Honduras, when Vain met a force stronger and meaner
than even him, a hurricane. The storm tore through the ships, smashing them and scattering men into the sea. Vain and one other pirates survived, finding shelter on a nearby uninhabited island that pirates used for marooning crewmate. The two hunted turtles and other wildlife, and then waited for passing ships. Captain Holford spotted the men and stopped to help. He had once been a pirate himself under Vain and recognized
the man immediately. Holford ordered the crew to take Vain's companion, but leave the notorious pirate behind, promising to return in a month. He would personally escort Vain to Jamaica and see him hanged if Vain survived. Sometime later, another ship arrived. This time Vain pretended to be a marooned sailor. The captain took him on board and even provided work. Unfortunately for Vain, though the ship connected with Holford's and a
crewman pointed out the infamous pirate. Holford had Vain placed in shackles and took him to Port Royal, where he made good on his promise. In March of seventeen twenty one, Vain found himself before the court. Survivors testified against him, were laying the horrors they'd seen and suffered, and Captain Pierce returned to testify as well. Vain was hanged at Gallows Points on March twenty nine, seventy one. Officials displayed
his corpse in a cage at the harbor entrance. We're all to see and of course for the birds the slowly devour. The legends tell us that all pirates were violent cutthroats, but hopefully you've seen the error in that notion demonstrated throughout this season. Still, there were, of course exceptions to the rule, and Charles Vane was one of the worst, but there were others. And if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, my croommate Alie Steed
will tell you all about another pirate cutthroat. The records are not exact. Still, it's believed that Joan Davignon was born between sixteen thirty and sixteen thirty five in the French coastal town of However, most people never called him by his birth name and head. He went by Flacois and used the surname Lulnay as a nod to his birthplace. Records put him in the Caribbean in the sixteen fifties, where he worked as an indentured servant for about ten years.
After paying his debt, he ventured to Hispaniola, where he joined hunters the locals called buccaneers due to their preference for smoking meat on grills. The Spanish tried to rid Hispaniola of the buccaneers, to no avail. In retaliation, the hunters attacked the Spanish before retreating into dense forests. When the hunters set out to see for a life of piracy, Lelnay gladly joined them. The buccaneers focused mainly on Spanish vessels, not just because of their vast wealth, but partly in
retaliation for slaughtering other buccaneers. Lelnai and the others held little back in their attacks, and they were brutal to the Spanish Towarduca's French governor had once been a buccaneer himself, and the Lini must have impressed him, because he offered Francois and a few of his former brethren a deal they couldn't pass up. He would supply a ship in exchange for continued raids on the Spanish. All governments sanctioned, of course, and all Lolnais and the others had to
do was share a portion of the bounty. Branson Spain were hereditary enemies, and in sixteen sixty seven and sixty eight the two were at war again. The governor selected a crew that hated the Spanish and were almost as bloodthirsty as Lolnai. Delighted with his new position, the buccaneer eagerly threw himself into his work. Before long, his reputation grew as the most vicious and deviant buccaneer in the Caribbean, which was a pretty impressive claim given his brethren's animosity
towards the Spanish. Lolani sailed on ships owned by private parties for the first two or three hunts. The raids were wildly successful, bringing in a hefty fortune and a heftier body count. With all the new found wealth, the buccaneer captain bought his own ship. There's no record of how he treated his crew, but his victims, they were another story. Lolani took no prisoners, and he gave no quarter. It said he killed and in tire crew aboard a
Spanish ship. He personally took the role of executioner, beheading ninety men. Other times you chose to have the Spanish thrown overboard to drown or set them on fire. And more grotesquely, it said he had a fondness for removing men's hearts and eating them. His brutality and depravity knew no bounds, which ultimately became his downfall. Without quarter, the Spanish had no choice but to fight to stay alive. Torture and horrific death motivated the Spanish to fight harder,
more fiercely, and dirtier than they ever had before. At best, they died in battle. At worst, well we already know what happened. Still, all that fighting costs the line men. In sixteen sixty seven, his ships sank off the Yucatan coast. Fortunately for Loolani and his crew, most of them survived and swam ashore. Unfortunately, Yucatan's population consisted of indigenous tribes and the Spaniards that were trying to conquer them. The Spanish found them first. The two groups engaged in an
intense battle. Outnumbered and at a disadvantage, Loloni knew he had to act quickly if he wanted to survive. He covered himself in the blood of his fallen men, then rolled in sand to resemble a corpse. Finally, he hid beneath a few bodies and lay still and quiet until the Spanish stopped looking for survivors and left. When Loloni felt safe enough to emerge, he took the clothing of one of the dead Spanish men. While trying to find a safe place to hide for the night, he stumbled
across the Spanish soldier's campsite. The fighters were celebrating, toasting each other for killing the hated buccaneers. Loloni quietly left. Survival meant making it to neutral territory. Luckily, he found assistance from some enslaved indigenous people, and the group stole a canoe and made it safely to French rule. Tortuga. Determined to destroy the Spaniards for killing his men, Lolnais assembled another crew and set a course for Cuba. Havannah's
governor sent a warship to confront the Buccaneers. Head to head battle would be two day dangerous, so Lolini decided on a surprise attack. The Buccaneers won the battle, intentionally, leaving one sole survivor to deliver a message they would give the Spaniards no quarter. During their next cruise in Venezuela, Lolnai had a fleet of six hundred men and eight ships. Again they prevailed, killing the Spanish and taking enormous riches,
gold gems, gunpowder, and other valuables. Bent on a reign of terror, they sailed to marri Gaibo, at the site of Lolonese ships. The four thousand residents panicked, men, women and children, packed up valuables and fled into the woods. When the lane stormed the town, he found it empty and relatively void of treasure. Ultimately, and his crew found and killed twenty people before taking two hundred and sixty thousand pieces of eight and heading towards their next port.
Gibraltar put up a fight, managing to kill seventy Buccaneers, but it wouldn't be enough, and the Lenaie his men spent four weeks, raiding and brutalizing the town. In the end, they killed two hundred people and took another hundred and fifty hostage for a hefty ransom. Then they returned to Maricaibo, whose residence had just begun, to creep out of the woods, only to find the buccaneers had returned. They looted and pillaged them before returning to Tortuga with another thirty thousand
pieces of eight. Lolani and the crew met disaster once more on the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua. During a losing battle with the Spanish, Lolani and a few of his men fled on a makeshift raft. The indigenous tribe they met this time was not as friendly and captured the buccaneers. One of Loloni's men managed to escape and eventually returned to safety. He reported that the tribe had been cannibals,
that they cut Lolany to bits and ate him. Pirates was executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron Manky and Alexander Steid. Writing for this season was provid fended by Michelle Muto, with research by Alexander Steide and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided by Josh Thain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm and Mild and I Heart Radio, visit grim and Mild dot com