John Halsey (privateer)
John Halsey | |
|---|---|
pirate (1705–1708) | |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of Great Britain (as privateer); none (pirate) |
| Years active | 1704–1708 |
| Base of operations | Atlantic Ocean (privateer); Madagascar (pirate) |
| Commands | Charles |
John Halsey (c. 1662–1708) was a British
Biography
Born in
As his letter of marque expired the following year, he turned to piracy and sailed to Madagascar. As he made his way around the Cape of Good Hope, putting into the Bay of Saint-Augustin for water, wood, and other provisions, Halsey picked up several castaway sailors of the lost Degrave, formerly under the command of Captain Young.[2] Leaving Saint-Augustin, he sailed for the Red Sea in search of treasure ships of the Mughal Empire operating in the Indian Ocean.
In late 1706, the Charles spotted a large Dutch ship, which Halsey declined to attack, reluctant to offend a European power. His crew condemned the captain and his gunner for cowardice and mutinied, relieving them of their posts. The crew, who presumed the ship to be a lone merchantman, pressed forward with their attack only to discover, as they approached their intended victim, that the Dutch ship was well-gunned. It fired a warning shot towards the Charles which injured a crew member manning the wheel as well as unstripping the swivel gun and severely damaging the topsail. The Dutch attack caught the crew off guard and many fled into the ship's hold. Despite the damage, the Charles escaped and Halsey was reinstated as commander shortly afterwards.
After seizing two coastal traders off the
Returning to
Following his return to Madagascar in January 1708, his flotilla was virtually destroyed in a
Further reading
- Pringle, Patrick. Jolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 2001. ISBN 0-486-41823-5
- Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
- Rogozinski, Jan. Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8117-1529-9
- Seitz, Don Carlos, Howard F. Gospel and Stephen Wood. Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates. Mineola, New York: Courier Dover Publications, 2002. ISBN 0-486-42131-7
References
- ^ Weeks, Lyman Horace; Bacon, Edwin Monroe (1911). An Historical Digest of the Provincial Press: Being a Collation of All Items of Personal and Historic Reference Relating to American Affairs Printed in the Newspapers of the Provincial Period Beginning with the Appearance of The Present State of the New-English Affairs, 1689, Publick Occurrences, 1690, and the First Issue of the Boston News-letter, 1704, and Ending with the Close of the Revolution, 1783 ... Massachusetts Series, Volume One. Boston MA: Society for Americana, Incorporated. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
- ^ The most famous of the Degrave's castaways was Robert Drury, who was taken as a slave by Malagasy natives whose territory bordered that of ex-pirate Abraham Samuel, and was not among the crewmen rescued by Halsey.
- ^ Johnson, Charles (1724). The history of the pyrates: containing the lives of Captain Mission. Captain Bowen. Captain Kidd ... and their several crews. London: T. Woodward. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
