The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors — John Shaqi
The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and SailorsPaine, Ralph Delahaye
History
The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors
Paine, Ralph Delahaye
Merchant marine -- United States -- History
A more satisfying figure was Thomas Pounds, who was taken by the sloop
Mary, sent after him from Boston in 1689. He was discovered in Vineyard
Sound, and the two vessels fought a gallant action, the pirate flying
a red flag and refusing to strike. Captain Samuel Pease of the Mary
was mortally wounded, while Pounds, this proper pirate, strode his
quarter-deck and waved his naked sword, crying, "Come on board, ye dogs,
and I will strike YOU presently." This invitation was promptly accepted
by the stout seamen from Boston, who thereupon swarmed over the bulwark
and drove all hands below, preserving Thomas Pounds to be hanged in
public.
In 1703 John Quelch, a man of resource, hoisted what he called "Old
Roger" over the Charles--a brigantine which had been equipped as a
privateer to cruise against the French of Acadia. This curious flag of
his was described as displaying a skeleton with an hour-glass in one
hand and "a dart in the heart with three drops of blood proceeding from
it in the other." Quelch led a mutiny, tossed the skipper overboard, and
sailed for Brazil, capturing several merchantmen on the way and looting
them of rum, silks, sugar, gold dust, and munitions. Rashly he came
sailing back to Marblehead, primed with a plausible yarn, but his men
talked too much when drunk and all hands were jailed. Upon the gallows
Quelch behaved exceedingly well, "pulling off his hat and bowing to the
spectators," while the somber Puritan merchants in the crowd were, many
of them, quietly dealing in the merchandise fetched home by pirates who
were lucky enough to steer clear of the law.
This was a shady industry in which New York took the more active part,
sending out supplies to the horde of pirates who ravaged the waters of
the Far East and made their haven at Madagascar, and disposing of the
booty received in exchange. Governor Fletcher had dirtied his hands by
protecting this commerce and, as a result, Lord Bellomont was named
to succeed him. Said William III, "I send you, my Lord, to New York,
because an honest and intrepid man is wanted to put these abuses down,
and because I believe you to be such a man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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