Geoff Brookes takes an insight into ‘Black Bart’ our very own Welsh legend and pirate of the Caribbean
I would like to show you his grave but I cannot, for his body was thrown overboard wrapped in a sail. Others would have liked to have seen it too, just to prove that he was actually dead, because there are those who said it was part of an elaborate plan to escape justice. But whatever you decide, you are bound to agree that he does not represent one of Wales’ finest exports.
In fact, you may say that he was most unpleasant, a psychotic killer. That is a matter of opinion. But for a few short years he was the most feared man in the Caribbean.
I cannot show you the end, but I can show you the beginning; A commemorative stone on a village green, opposite a church, carrying a plaque in his honour.
His career started off very modestly, he was born, we believe, in Casnewydd Bach in the very west of Pembrokeshire in 1682, his real name was John Roberts and he went to sea when he was 13.
By 1719, he was mate of a slave ship called Princess which was captured by the pirate Howell Davis – from Milford Haven – off the coast of Ghana – and we all know how the Welsh like to stick together…
Roberts was a valuable recruit to the pirate crew, he was an extremely able navigator, but most importantly he was Welsh speaking, so he very quickly became Davis’ confidante.
A few weeks later, Davis was shot and killed on the island of Principe, the pirates suddenly needed a new captain and an election was held and from nowhere Roberts was elected. He had only been one of the crew for six weeks but his exceptional navigational knowledge was probably regarded as more important than his lack of experience. His personality helped too, for he was outspoken and opinionated.
His first act as captain was to lead the crew back to Príncipe to avenge Captain Davis, they killed most of the male population and stole everything that was not nailed down. This triumph ensured the crew’s loyalty to Roberts, they soon believed that he was “pistol proof” and that he alone could ensure their success, health and wealth. He embraced his new career path with enormous enthusiasm, he seemed to have found the role in life that he was intended to fulfil – that of a vicious murderer. He changed his name to Bartholomew and a short but brutal career began.
They crossed the Atlantic in their ship the Rover and eventually came across a fleet of 42 Portuguese ships off Brazil waiting for two men-of-war to escort them to Lisbon. Black Bart and his men boarded and captured the richest ship in the fleet, It was carrying 40,000 gold coins and jewellery designed for the Portuguese royal family, some of which he gave to the Governor of Guinea, which may later have proved to be a very significant detail.
They celebrated their triumph at Devil’s Island off the coast of Guiana. Then they captured a sloop. When a ship smelling of plunder was sighted, Black Bart took forty men and pursued it in the sloop, leaving Walter Kennedy in command of the Rover. It was a fruitless adventure, for the sloop was becalmed for eight days. When Black Bart and his men finally returned they discovered that Kennedy had sailed off with the Rover, taking everything with him.
This act of betrayal did little for Kennedy, he headed home for Ireland but his navigation was poor and he ended up in Scotland. Most of his crew were arrested and hanged but Kennedy escaped to London, where he started a new career as a brothel keeper but was imprisoned for stealing from one of his girls. In prison he was recognised by a past victim and was subsequently executed for piracy. The judge said later “He was a sad dog and deserved the fate he met with” and no doubt Black Bart would have agreed. It is another story but he did have an unexpected influence on the history of piracy.
It was such a dishonorable act, Where was the trust? The loyalty?
Bart set about drawing up a code of conduct for pirate ships, presumably to instil more decency and honesty – All crew members should be treated fairly, there would be no gambling, no fighting on board and lights out by eight…Perfect rules for a school trip.
We should never forget that this was piracy – It was vicious, murderous and brutal. If they threw you overboard they did it so they could watch you drown. Once they had agreed these new articles and sworn on the Bible to uphold them, they renamed the sloop the Fortune and started all over again.
By late February 1720, they were in the West Indies just in time to meet two ships; the Summerset and the Philipa from Barbados, which had been dispatched to try to put an end to the pirate menace. They found the Fortune and engaged with it and after sustaining considerable damage, Bart broke off the engagement and was able to escape. He headed for Dominica to repair the sloop, with twenty of his crew dying of their wounds on the voyage – It was the first time he had come under fire himself at sea and he didn’t like it.
Dominica was a well-known pirate refuge and it was here that they repaired the sloop and recruited replacement crew members before sailing north to Grenada. The governor of Dominica sent word to Martinique that pirates were at sea, so now two sloops from Martinique were searching for them causing Bart to swear vengeance against the inhabitants of Barbados and Martinique. He was especially cruel whenever he came across a ship from either island, he had a new flag made with a drawing of himself standing upon 2 skulls, one labelled ABH (A Barbadian Head) and the other AMH (A Martiniquian Head). You always knew where you stood with Bart – This was a fore – runner of the famous Jolly Roger flag.
He changed his plans and sailed on to the coast of Newfoundland, In June 1720, they came to a port called Trepassy where they engaged in one of the most infamous pirate assaults of its age.
They entered Trepassy harbour with their black flags flying, where over twenty ships lay at anchor and destroyed all of them except one, which they kept for themselves. They then went ashore and set fire to the harbour side which was burnt to the ground. With their new ship they returned to the warmer seas of the Caribbean where they struck lucky.
The pirates captured a French man-of-war and discovered that one of the passengers was the Governor of Martinique-Time for revenge – He was hanged from the yardarm. They sailed on, spreading fear and destruction wherever they went.
By the spring of 1721, Black Bart had almost brought sea-borne trade in the West Indies to a standstill. However, their success brought problems, the more they achieved, the less business there was for them. They had to relocate to the coast of West Africa in their ship The Royal Fortune- New business opportunities in an emerging market.
They sailed up and down the coast, raiding ships as they went, their base for a while was a small settlement run by a retired pirate called Jack Crackers.
In Porto-Nova in Benin they took eleven ships which were either ransomed or plundered. Ransom meant that their goods were no good for the pirates and so the ships would be sunk unless they were ransomed with a suitable cash payment. In a most bizarre development, the captains of the ships asked for a receipt for the goods stolen and the ransom money paid so that they could explain things to the owners. It is hard to believe and even harder to realise that Black Bart obliged- such generosity. However, it was also here that he set fire to a slave ship and watched it burn, whilst those who could escape jumped into the shark infested waters and were torn to pieces in a feeding frenzy.
Black Bart was a hunted man and there were two British Warships in the area, looking for him; The Swallow and The Weymouth, under Captain Ogle who tracked Bart down and trapped him against the shore on 10 February 1722.
The Royal Fortune dashed for open water, but passed far too close to The Swallow and allowed Ogle to fire a broadside. Roberts fell, fatally injured with a huge grapeshot wound to his throat. The crew wrapped his body in a sail and threw it over-board before surrendering. Bartholomew Robert’s body was not recovered and the crew were executed.
However, there is a conspiracy theory; Bart didn’t die at all, It was all a sham, he had tired of piracy and all he could see before him was certain death. So he engineered the encounter with The Swallow and carefully planned his own escape. This version of his death is certainly an attractive one and goes some way to explaining some of the odd behaviour that surrounded that fateful morning.
First of all, the pirates could have escaped but Bart preferred to eat his breakfast of Salamungrundy (pickled fish), thus allowing The Swallow to get so close that an engagement was inevitable. The crew were also still drunk from their excesses the night before, yet instead of out-running them Bart seemed to want to fight the superior vessel.
It was also believed that he had an unexpected visitor on board, Captain Hill from a ship called The Neptune that was anchored close by and The Neptune was neither stopped or searched by Ogle and made an untroubled getaway.
Perhaps Bart used his relationship with the governor of Guinea who he had previously bribed, to organise protection for himself by delivering his crew to Ogle. There was indeed a body thrown over the side, but it was not Bartholomew Roberts, it was just a sailor in red. Black Bart had escaped with Captain Hill, rowing to The Neptune disguised as an ordinary crewman.
Captain Hill arrived in Barbados some time later, offering fifty ounces of gold dust to the governor for the safe passage of an anonymous passenger to Florida. At this point both Black Bart and Captain Hill disappear from history.
So in this version Black Bart escapes the gallows whilst condemning his own crew to justice – the final act of the honourable pirate who drew up such a thoughtful code of behaviour.
You can make a choice about what you think may have happened to him, maybe too you can also decide whether or not we should celebrate his origins.
