Michael Geare
Sir Michael Geare | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1565 Anglo–Spanish War |
| Later work | Merchant |
Sir Michael Geare (b. 1565-?) was a 16th-century English sailor, privateer and merchant. One of the many
Elizabethan age, Geare was well known to the Spaniards of the West Indies and the Spanish Main
as commander of the Little John. He remained one of the most active in the region throughout the 1590s and up until his retirement in 1603.
Biography
Michael Geare was born in
Sir Francis Drake
among others. Lane gave glowing accounts of Geare's bravery in battle and with whom he began to earn a small fortune from privateering and smuggling activities. Lane eventually began personally financing the Little John which was later renamed the Michael & John when he became a partner with Geare in 1592.
During the next three years, Geare would complete four successful voyages in the West Indies with the Michael & John. In 1595, an encounter with a Spanish galleon near
Havana, Cuba resulted in the loss of fifty of his crew and a Spanish pinnace
he had previously captured. After making his escape, Geare was able to recoup his losses by capturing another Spanish prize before returning to England.
Commanding the Neptune the following year, he was accompanied to the Caribbean by a pinnace sailed by
Puerto Caballos and successfully captured the city. Finding little of value however, Geare decided to part company with Shirey and Parker who continued overland across the mountains of Guatemala
and to the Pacific coast.
In May 1601, while in the West Indies with David Middleton with the pinnace James, he captured three ships while in command of the Archangel. Although he managed to bring back two of the captured ships, he lost contact with the third. Its crew eventually sailed to
knighthood by Queen Elizabeth I. Upon his death, he left an annual allowance of five pounds to be shared among the families of those lost at sea and the indigent sailors of his native Limehouse.[3]
References
- ISBN 0-313-31948-0
- ISBN 1-57607-027-1
- ISBN 0-312-30737-3
Further reading
- Andrews, Kenneth R. English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies, 1588–1595. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1959.
- Bevan, Bryan. The Great Seamen of Elizabeth I. London: R. Hale, 1971.
- Davies, D.W. Elizabethans Errant: The Strange Fortunes of Sir Thomas Sherley and His Three Sons As Well As in the Dutch Wars As in Moscovy, Morocco, Spain, and the Indies. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1967.
- Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1998. ISBN 0-87436-837-5
- Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X