Events

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Caribbean Sea

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  • January – HMS Scarborough bombards and destroys several pirate vessels careening on St. Croix, stranding the pirate crew.
  • Late February – Black Sam Bellamy in the Sultana takes the Whydah Gally near Jamaica and keeps it for his own use.
  • April 1 – Benjamin Hornigold and a pirate named Napping capture a large armed sloop, the Bennet, out of Jamaica.[1]
  • April 4 – At Bluefield's Bay in Jamaica, Hornigold and Napping capture the sloop Revenge carrying a load of Spanish gold.
  • September 29 – "Gentleman Pirate" Stede Bonnet, who has traded plantation life for a pirate ship, transfers command of his sloop, the Revenge, to Blackbeard.
  • November 28 – Blackbeard captures the French slave ship La Concorde near Martinique, equips her with 40 guns, and renames her the Queen Anne's Revenge.
  • December 10 – Blackbeard overtakes and ransacks the merchant sloop Margaret off the coast of Anguilla near Crab Island.[2]

North America

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  • Spring – Edward Teach and Benjamin Hornigold take two sloops to Virginia, robbing three vessels en route, then return to Nassau, Bahamas.
  • April – Bellamy seizes a merchant vessel off South Carolina.
  • April 26 – The Whydah Gally wrecks in a nor'easter off Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Bellamy and 143 men are drowned. Over 4 tons of treasure is lost under just 14 feet (4.3 m) of water – it would elude discovery for over 260 years.
  • July – Stede Bonnet's pirates in the Revenge plunder the Anne, Turbet, Endeavour, and Young off the coast of Virginia, burning the Turbet.
  • August – Bonnet raids two vessels off South Carolina, firing one.
  • October – Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet raid shipping in the mouth of Delaware Bay.
  • October 12 – Blackbeard captures a Captain Codd and his vessel off the Delaware capes. He later captures and loots the Spofford and Sea Nymph.
  • October 22 – Blackbeard, on the Revenge, stops and plunders the Robert and Good Intent of their cargo.

Europe

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Deaths

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  • April 27 – Black Sam Bellamy, pirate commander captain (born February 23, 1689, aged 28), along with 143 of his crew.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Wombwell, James (2010). The Long War Against Piracy: historical trends. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, US Army Combined Arms Center. p. 42.
  2. ^ Bialuschewski, Arne (2012). "Blackbeard: The Creation of a Legend". Topic: The Washington & Jefferson College Review. 58: 39–54 – via EBSCO.
  3. ^ "No. 5573". The London Gazette. 14 September 1717.
  4. ^ Gosse, Philip (1924). The Pirates' Who's Who: Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths of the Pirates & Buccaneers. New York: Burt Franklin. p. 49.