Edward Davis (buccaneer)
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Early career
Possibly of
Briefly serving as a navigator, he and several others including James Kelly left the expedition within a year and returned overland through Panama with John Cook.
Davis & Cook
On 23 August 1683, while selling captured prizes in Virginia, he agreed to join a privateering expedition as a quartermaster under the pirate John Cook. Sailing eastward, they soon captured the 36-gun Delight (or Bachelor's Delight) shortly after arriving off West Africa at Guinea. Sailing to the Pacific in November 1683 by way of Cape Horn, Davis and the others were joined by the buccaneer John Eaton before raiding Spanish cities along the coast of South America.
In March 1684, Bachelor's Delight met Nicholas, Capt John Eaton's ship off
Following the death of Cook on 19 July 1684, the crew of the Bachelor's Delight elected Davis Captain to succeed him. However, the expedition ran into some difficulty as a failed attack on
turning up little of value, although the capture of several slave ships resulted in 15 slaves joining the crew.Turning back towards Panama, he raided Spanish shipping carrying silver from Peru to Spain before joining forces with a fleet under the command of Francois Grogniet, Pierre le Picard and Francis Townley. Davis sailed for Port St Helena. Sailing back towards Ecuador, he encountered the Cygnet on 2 October under Captain Charles Swan and Peter Harris (the nephew of privateer Peter Harris killed in the Pacific Adventure only four years before) and persuaded them to join the expedition.
With the Bachelor's Delight, the Cygnet and various smaller captured Spanish vessels, he would successfully lead an attack with Charles Swan and others on against Panama. Although they planned to attack the Peruvian silver fleet, Spanish officials managed to transfer over 500,000 pesos in two galleons and escorted by three smaller warships which was able to evade the awaiting pirate fleet by sailing in an outwardly westward course. While awaiting the treasure fleet, Davis and the others encountered a Spanish patrol off the coast of Peru on 8 June and were eventually chased by a Spanish fleet to Corba Island. At this time Davis' ship was not flying English flags: "as he was furnished with a French commission, and France was still at war with Spain, he carried aloft a white flag, in which was painted a hand and sword."[1]
Breakaway from Grogniet
Quarreling amongst themselves following their defeat, with many pirates blaming the Frenchman Francois Grogniet, Davis left the expedition along with Swan on 3 September, Townley, Harris, William Knight and sailed north with eight ships and 640 buccaneers.
On 1 January 1685, Davis seized a Packet-boat bound for Lima with orders captured on the Plate silver fleet for Panama. On 7 January Davis and Swan sailed for Pear Island to intercept the silver fleet. By 15 February, it had still not arrived. About to abandon all hope, they sighted the fleet on 28 May. It had already ditched its cargo at La Villa, as they redeployed buccaneer vessels in Panama Bay. The pirates had foregathered, but in the Battle of Panama they were outnumbered by the Spaniards by at least ten to one. The outcome was indecisive. Davis and Swan and two other ships split from the alliance - raids against Leon and Realejo met with little success resulting in the departures of Swan and Townley who left for Mexico and, Harris left after much of his crew died from yellow fever in Honduras: the group splitting on 25 August 1685. Dampier sailed westwards across the Pacific to East Indies. With William Knight, the 'cruising' buccaneers raided coastal settlements of Peru and Chile, but food was scarce. Knight departed for the West Indies. After arriving at the Juan Fernández Islands in November, Davis and Knight decided to divide the spoils with each crew member receiving £1,150 according to Raveneau de Lussan with Knight leaving for the Caribbean. Davis spent Christmas 1685 at Juan Fernandez Island - the crew felt an earthquake at Callao and Lima 450 miles offshore at 4 am.
Davis raided and stole £25,000 in jewels and silver from the city of
Davis and the Delight arrived in the
Davis was pardoned under the
In August 1689, the Council of Virginia ordered the buccaneers to return to England. By November they had arrived, but without their possessions. In December 1687, Davis's expedition had found a land mass 500 leagues south of the Galapagos at 27°20′S; named
Later years
Davis would eventually return to England in 1690 and successfully managed to have most of his former property and estates returned to him within two years.
The Batchelor's Delight itself was sold to some of its former crew, and sailed for the Indian Ocean under Captain George Raynor.[4]
He is claimed as one of the earliest buccaneers to have buried treasure on
References
- ^ Burney, James (1816). History of the Buccaneers of America. London: Payne and Foss. p. 177. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
- ^ Grey, Charles (1933). Pirates of the Eastern Seas. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. p. 111.
- ^ "ARTICLE: Out of the Sea! Virginia's earliest pirates (The Virginian-Pilot - HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com)". Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
- ^ "Ship Rigged". www.colonialnavy.org. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
- ^ "The Buried Treasure of Cocos Island by Reagen Smith". Bc-alter.net. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
Bibliography
- Notable Voyagers, W.H.G. Kingston and Henry Frith - Chapter XXI: Voyages and adventures of William Dampier — from A.D. 1674
- Rogozinski, Jan. (1996) Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press ISBN 0-306-80722-X