By: Rhea Cortado
The last time Santa Teresa resident Thomas Ritchie launched his extraordinary wooden boat, Aurora Delfin, from the Pochoto rivermouth during the summer of 2009, he was a pirate in the open seas without any registered tags. The coast guard flagged him down numerous times and each time the officials boarded the vessel to inspect, the crew grew nervous.
“Three times we were boarded. They were pretty cool. They came up and grabbed the paddles. They’d start singing these songs, making video, taking pictures,” said Ritchie, relieved. “We were so scared.”
Ritchie’s friend, Angel Garcia, who was also on board added, “Imagine the coast guard boarding and saying, ‘You guys are cool. I know you don’t have drugs. This boat is so cool!’”

Ritchie plans to launch the boat for the first time this summer season in January in Playa Tambor—and this time he will start the journey with registered tags. He envisions that the Aurora Delfin will host small groups of surfers looking for remote waves only accessible by boat and offer educational tours when the ship drops anchor.
Amongst the seascape of white sailboats, the captivating watercraft that resembles something out of a Hollywood movie or fantasy causes a ripple of excitement wherever it’s spotted. During its last voyage, Ritchie gave tours to students from three different schools along the coast. In Puerto Jimenez, the kids dressed up for the field trip to the “pirate ship” with homemade eye patches, fake birds, and pirate flags.

“Later on, I’ll be in some supermarket far away and some Tico [will tap] me on the shoulder, whip out his cell phone [photo] and go, ‘my kid was on your boat.’ I’d be like, ‘this is crazy.’ I want to do more of that. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a good reward to give someone the opportunity,” Richie said.
Building the Aurora Delfin with dark hued teak wood planks, bamboo  (most of which was grown on his property) and epoxy coating, was a process that spanned 10 years. For seven of those years, the boat sat dormant in a garage, half-built and mostly untouched. As a surfer, Ritchie describes designing the graceful shape and smooth glide of the boat in surfboard terms like tail rocker, tapered sides and tapered nose. The double outrigger form, partly inspired by ancient Polynesian design, was made especially for surf conditions.
“The hull was designed to go for shallow areas, for bays and reefs for surfing. The double pontoons make it very stable. It is like a floating camping trip,” Ritchie said.
The final building sprint to the finish line was littered with hurdles and false starts. On one attempt, it didn’t make it out to sea because the glass bottom for viewing sea life cracked on a rock on the beach. For the next attempt, he got it out cruising in the water for seven weeks, but found the hull sat too low in the water and decided to truck it back home by land for a major redesign. After finally working out the kinks through trial and error, the Aurora Delfin II, in its current new and improved incarnation, made it’s first trip up the coast of Nicaragua and down to the border of Panama in January 2009.
Though the Aurora Delfin is Ritchie’s current, most time-consuming creative venture, it is one in a long line of his artistic building projects as a resident of Santa Teresa for 20 years. Ritchie first moved from Vancouver, Canada to Santa Teresa in 1991 after seeing and experiencing the beach’s prime surfable waves
“It was pretty underground,” Ritchie said of surfer tourism to Costa Rica. “Witches Rock [Roca Bruja] was just being discovered. Pavones had been around for 20 years, but no one had talked about it. It was just starting to hit the magazines. Salsa Brava on the Caribbean side—those were the three main waves. It wasn’t a destination spot. People didn’t just flock to Costa Rica.”
Ritchie claims to be the first foreigner to live in Santa Teresa through the rainy season. He camped with no electricity during the four years it took to build his two-story, circular house out of wood and concrete. His past ventures include renting cabinas, a bike store and a surf shop (which he sold and is now called Kina Surf Shop). He also built wood furniture and made art from driftwood and rock, which he continues to do to this day. But now that the fun summer surf season has arrived, he’s ready to escape the bustle of downtown Santa Teresa and live partly off the grid again, on a camping adventure out in the ocean.
“You stand up, paddle, you scuba dive, you’re out in the water,” said Ritchie of life on the boat. “It’s all about getting food, gas, supplies, water, staying on the boat, surfing, living, resting, cooking. It’s a whole different type of camping and living. It’s not for everybody.”
To find out more, visit www.reefrider.net.

A team of Connecticut scuba divers say they’ve discovered off the Westerly coast the wreck of a ship once commanded by Rhode Island naval war hero Oliver Hazard Perry, whose actions helped the United States defeat the British during the War of 1812.
It was after the naval victory at Lake Erie in September 1813 — during which Perry had one ship founder beneath him before transferring to another and continuing the battle — that his message to his commanders would become immortalized: “We have met the enemy and they are ours ...”

Now, divers Charles Buffum and Craig Harger say Perry would have never been at the Battle of Lake Erie had his schooner not sunk off the reefs of Watch Hill.
Buffum, the owner of a Pawcatuck brewery, declined to name the ship they’ve discovered until a planned announcement Friday afternoon in Westerly. But local marine archeologists, who have heard of the find, identified the vessel as the Revenge, a schooner that sank on Jan. 8, 1811 –– exactly 200 years ago Saturday.
Rhode Island marine archaeologist D.K. “Kathy” Abbass wrote a history of Rhode Island’s early navy for the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., and is leading much of the underwater mapping of sunken ships in Rhode Island waters. She is familiar with the Revenge.

She says it’s a “long stretch” to say, as the divers have, that the vessel’s sinking “changed the course of U.S. history” merely because Perry ended up on Lake Erie two years later.

Further, because of how the Revenge sank –– and the likelihood that hundreds of other wooden vessels have fallen victim to the rocks and rip currents in the area known as The Race — she wonders if the divers have definitive proof they’ve found the Revenge.
According to Abbass, the Revenge, which was conducting the all-important task of charting coastal waters — went aground in fog off Watch Hill. Sailors transferred much of her cargo to other vessels before starting to tow her off the rocks. During the towing, the cable parted and the Revenge began drifting and, eventually, went down.
“If you knew the direction of the wind that day and the tide, you might get a trajectory of where she might be” now, said Abbass. “But it’s a very complicated thing. So, if [the divers] haven’t done the analysis, I’d question if that is really her.”

Buffum said Thursday the divers did not find anything at the wreck that positively identified the ship as the Revenge. Still he said they were confident of their findings.
If the ship is the Revenge, it remains the property of the Navy, said Abbass, and cannot be salvaged by treasure hunters. Buffum said there was little of the ship left. The divers hope a government-funded archeological excavation might mine some historic value.
Perry was born in South Kingstown on Aug. 23, 1785. A biography written by the National Parks Service says that a court-martial proceeding exonerated Perry of the sinking, blaming the Revenge’s loss on the ship’s pilot who had assured Perry he could navigate Block Island Sound.

Still, the sinking blemished Perry’s career. He ended up cooling his heels in Newport for a time, unemployed, until the threat of war in 1812 earned him an assignment of leading a squadron of small gunboats in Newport Harbor.

Dissatisfied that he did not have a high-seas sloop-of-war at his command, he petitioned the Navy Department several times for postings at sea. Finally, as a last resort, he called upon a friend who commanded warships on Lake Erie for a command.
On Sept. 10, 1813, the American and British fleets prepared to do battle. Perry began the fight aboard his flagship, the Lawrence. Just before its sinking, he boarded a lifeboat and rowed with a few remaining sailors to the Niagara, considered an extremely brave action, and carried on the fight to victory.

By Tom Mooney

Journal Staff Writer

http://www.projo.com/news/content/OLIVER_PERRYS_SHIP_01-07-11_4QLR7P8_v9.b14fb.html

Jacob Collaart or Collaert (floruit ca. 1625-1637) was a Flemish admiral who served as privateer and one of the Dunkirkers in Spanish Habsburg service during the Dutch Revolt. He was responsible for the capture of destruction of at least 150 fishing vessels, bringing 945 captured sailors back to his base in Dunkirk for ransom. A leading admiral over the next decade, he would have later encounters with other Dutch corsairs of the period including Captain Claes Compaan who escaped from him after sighting the corsair off the Spanish coast.

From 1633 until 1637, Collaart served as Vice Admiral with the Royal Squadron operating out of Dunkirk and, in 1635, his attacks against Dutch herring redders would cost the city of Flushing over two million guilders in income.

Although the city of Dunkirk was under a Dutch blockade during early 1635, the blockade was temporarily weakened as several warships under Lieutenant-Admiral Philips van Dorp were supporting French naval forces in the Gulf of Biscay and, on 14 August, Collaert sailing out of Dunkirk successfully broke through the Dutch blockade with a fleet of twenty-one vessels.

Within three days, Collaart's fleet located a herring fleet numbering 160 under the guard of a single man-of-war, armed with 39 guns and an 85-men crew. Easily disabling the escort, 74 vessels were either sunk or set afire with the surviving vessels escaping to the Vlie.

On 19 August, after chasing off the six men-of-war escorts, Collaart's forces destroyed around 50 herring boats near Doggersbank. Of the surviving fishermen, 150 sailors including wounded as well as the young and the elderly were put on a merchant vessel from Hamburg and returned to the Dutch Republic while the remaining 775 were held captive for ransom.

After this latest attack, a Dutch fleet was soon raised by the States-General of the Netherlands who ordered all available vessels to set out after the Collaart's fleet. Sailing from Rotterdam, its commander Willem Codde van der Burch was ordered to rendez-vous at the Texel with Philips van Dorp, recently returning from La Rochelle, and Vice Admiral Quast.

Collaart soon encountered the Dutch fleet of Van der Burch and Van Dorp, consisting of a combined twenty warships, and managed to damage four before the arrival of Quast's fleet forced Collaart to abandon the fight. In part due to bad weather, Collaart was able to escape to Dunkirk, arriving with 975 captive fisherman on 8 September 1635.

The following year, while sailing with two other privateers, Collaart and Mathieu Romboutsen were captured (the third captain managing to escape to an English port) near Dieppe after a five hour battle against Captain Johan Evertsen on 29 February 1636.

Collaart died of an illness at La Coruña in August 1637. He had a son who was also a privateer, Jacques Collaert the Younger, and was the father-in-law of the later English Vice-Admiral Edward Spragge.

Claes Gerritszoon Compaen (1587, Oostzaan, North Holland - February 25, 1660, Oostzaan), also called Claas Compaan or Klaas Kompaan, was a 17th century Dutch corsair and merchant. Dissatisfied as a privateer for the Dutch Republic, he later turned to piracy capturing hundreds of ships operating in Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa during the 1620s.

Born in Oostzaan, his father was an alleged member of the Geuzen of Dirck Duyvel housed in Zaanstreek allied other nobleman in opposition of Spanish rule. Compaen went to sea at an early age and eventually became a successful merchant as a trader along the coast of Guinea. He later used the profits from these voyages to refit his ships for privateering activities against the Spanish. Based from Oostende and Duinkerken, he was initially successful capturing several Spanish prizes within a short period of time, however, several of the ships were later released by Dutch authorities. One of these captured ships was over 200 tons, fitted with 17 guns and manned by a crew of 80 men.

Sometime around 1621, he left port with a letter of marque from the Dutch Admiralty leaving them to pay his debt of 8,000 gilders to the widow of Medemblik ship owner Captain Pieter Gerritszoon, from whom he had purchased his ship. He soon stopped a fishing boat, taking its cargo of herring and salted fish, and used letter of credit issued by Dutch authorities although the Admiralty refused to compensate the fishermen. He seized the cargo of another ship before taking shelter in Vlissingen from an approaching storm. While in port, he took on 50 additional crew members. Shortly after leaving Vlissingen, he resorted to open and indiscriminate piracy selling his cargo in England and the Barbary coast.

In 1625, he began operating from the Duchy of Clare. He was a close friend of the local governor as well as the Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford and freely operated in the Irish Sea and the English Channel under their protection for some time. Compaen later turned up in the Mediterranean, selling captured ships and their cargo at the Moroccan ports of Saffi, Mogador and Salé.

While at Salé, he sold most of his prizes to Simon the Dancer, Jr., son of the famed Dutch privateer Simon the Dancer who had been active in the area during the previous decade. The heavy costs of dealing with him eventually caused Compaen to do business with his chief rival Jan Janszoon. This caused a major disagreement, with Simon sending a fleet to attack him while at port. Compaen was warned of the attack ahead of time and was able to successfully defeat the attackers as well as capture one of the Simon's ships. During the raid, Simon's flagship was reportedly so badly damaged it was forced to retreat from the battle. Following this defeat, Simon was forced to leave Salé seeking asylum in the Dutch Republic. Receiving a pardon from the Netherlands, he eventually becoming a corsair himself.


In 1626, Compaen began looking to request a pardon from the Dutch so as to return to his homeland. On July 5, two ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company were sighted. These ships, the Hollandia and the smaller yacht Grootenbroek, had been separate from the main fleet which had gone ahead to the Verdian Isles without them while the Hollandia was escorted to Sierra Leone to repair a leak (another account claims it stopped to stock up on limes for its crew suffing from scurvy). Compaen ordered his four ships to attack the stragglers although he was forced to withdraw after his flagship suffered severe damage from the Hollandia under Captain Wybrant Schram. Seventy of his men had also been killed in battle. When Schram's logbook was later published, Compaen gained particular notoriaty from the battle whose reputation was established as "the most notorious Dutch pirate".

With his other three ships guarding the harbor, both protecting the flagship and preventing the two East India ships from leaving, Compaen managed to sail his ship into Sierra Leone for repairs. Although tensions were high between the two parties while in port, he left peacefully with his fleet once repairs had been completed. The Hollandia and the Grootenbroek were allowed to leave and eventually arrived in Batavia in December 1626.

Compaen, at certain times, often found it difficult to control his large crew who were given to heavy drinking and survived on poor rations being short of supplies. In one incident, he attacked a Spanish settlement because his fleet were running low on provisions. He and his crew were unable to defeat the Spanish defenders however and ended up retreating with heavy losses. While sailing along the Spanish coast, he also encountered the pirate Colaert of Duinkerken. Despite his fleet being outnumbered 4 to 1, he was able to escape from the stronger Colaert.

In 1626 or 1627, Compaan returned to Salé with a number of recently captured prizes. While there, he was told he had been granted a pardon from the Netherlands. He sailed immediately for home, only four days before a Dutch fleet arrived looking to apprehend him. Stopping to drop off some of his crew in Ireland, he arrived in Vlie and officially received his pardon from Prince Frederik Hendrik in the Hague. He apparently found less success in his later years, eventually dying a pauper in Oostzanen on February 25, 1660.

A biography on his piratical career, The Life of Claes G. Compaen, was published in Amsterdam by De Groot in 1715.

This entry was posted on January 4, 2011 at 10:44 am, filed under What to Do and tagged Archaeology, Blackbeard, History, Maritime Museum in Beaufort, Museum of History, Queen Anne's Revenge, Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Laboratory. Bookmark the permalink.

François or Francis Le Clerc, known as Jambe de Bois ('Peg Leg'), was a 16th century French privateer, originally from Normandy. He is credited as the first pirate in the modern era to have a "peg leg".

He was often the first to board an enemy vessel during an attack or raid. It was this brazen style that eventually caused him to suffer the loss of a leg and severe damage to one arm while fighting the English at Guernsey in 1549. Although many pirates would have had their careers ended by such an injury, le Clerc refused to retire and instead expanded the scope of his piracy by financing the voyages and attacks of other pirates as well.

Despite his wounds, Le Clerc led major raids against the Spanish, who nicknamed him "Pie de Palo" ("Peg Leg"). In 1553, he assumed overall command of seven pirate craft and three royal vessels, the latter commanded by himself, Jacques Sores and Robert Blundel. This same year he attacked the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma, in the Canary Islands, which he looted and set on fire, destroying a large number of buildings.

This strong fleet raided San Germán in Puerto Rico and methodically looted the ports of Hispaniola (Cuba) from south to north, stealing hides and cannon as they travelled. They sacked Santiago de Cuba in 1554, occupied it for a month, and left with 80,000 pesos in treasure. So completely devastated was Cuba's first capital that it was soon completely eclipsed by Havana and never recovered its former prosperity.

Richer booty was taken on the return voyage as the corsairs plundered Las Palmas on Grand Canary Island and captured a Genoese carrack.

He and his crew of 330 men were the first Europeans to settle the island of Saint Lucia, and used the nearby Pigeon Island to target Spanish treasure galleons.
In 1560, while awaiting a Spanish treasure fleet carrying a cargo of bullion, he caused a great deal of damage to settlements along the coast of Panama.

In April 1562, Protestants in several Norman cities rebelled against their Roman Catholic king. Queen Elizabeth I of England dispatched British troops to occupy Le Havre until June 1563. Le Clerc joined the English invaders and ravaged French shipping. In March 1563, he asked for a large pension as a reward for his actions. Wounded in his pride when Elizabeth turned down his request, he sailed for the Azores Islands. He was killed there in 1563, while hunting down Spanish treasure ships

David Marteen (fl. 1663-1665) was a Dutch privateer based in Tortuga during the mid-17th century, known primarily as the sole non-English Captain who participated in the raids against Spanish strongholds in present-day Mexico and Nicaragua during 1663 until 1665.

Although raids against the Spanish were prohibited under British law, he agreed to join Sir Henry Morgan's expedition and soon set sail from Port Royal along with John Morris and Captain's Jackman and Freeman under letters of marque issued by Governor Thomas Modyford.

After reaching the Grijalva River, Marteen and the others led their men 50 miles overland and successfully looted Villa Hermosa in a surprise raid. Returning to the coast, they discovered a Spanish patrol had captured their ships and, after a fierce battle, they managed to retake two barques and four Indian canoes. Marteen eventually made his way back with the others, raiding Spanish villages on the way, until their arrival in Port Royal in November 1665. Although Marteen served as a pirate hunter under Modyford during the next year , nothing more is known of his activities after this time.

There have been reports that Marteen led a group that later established a base in Connecticut, near the Farmington River and were wiped out during King Philip's war in 1676. There are a few treasure hunters seeking the evidence of Marteen's settlement and possible remnants of any undiscovered treasure.

Baltazar de Cordes (16th century–17th century), the brother of Simon de Cordez, was a Dutch corsair who fought against the Spanish during the early 17th Century.

Born in the Netherlands in the mid-16th century, Baltazar de Cordes began sailing for the Netherlands against Spain during the Eighty Years' War. Baltazar possibly arrived in the Pacific during the 1598 Magellano Company expedition attempting to circumnavigate South America. This expedition, under the command of Admiral Jacques Mahu, consisted of five ships. One of the vessels, the Liefde ("Love" or "Charity"), reached Japan in 1600, pilot William Adams among the surviving crew. He succeeded Captain Jurriaan van Bokholt (or Van Boekhout) who died around August 23, 1599 shortly after crossing the Straits of Magellan.

In early 1600, (whether this occurred before or after the capture of Chiloe is unknown), Cordes occupied the Spanish colony of Castro, Chile. In April 1600, with combined Dutch and native forces, Cordez organized the capture of the island of Chiloé off the coast of Patagonia (Chile). However Cordez's forces suffered heavy losses upon the recapture of the city by the Spanish, executing all but 23 Dutch and over 300 natives (thought to be Huilliches). Cordes ship the Trouw (Faith) sailed to the Portuguese colony of Tidore, an East Indies trading post, with the surviving sailors, where they were imprisoned in January 1601.

Jacques de Sores was a French pirate who attacked and burnt Havana, Cuba in 1555.

Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores. He was nicknamed "The Exterminating Angel" ("L'Ange Exterminateur"). He was the leader of a band of Huguenot pirates and a lieutenant or former lieutenant of another French pirate, François le Clerc, who was called "Pegleg" or "Jambe de Bois" on account of his wooden leg. Le Clerc and Sores had set out from France in 1553 with three royal ships and a number of privateers under commission from Francis I of France who was envious of the riches returning to Spain from the New World. Le Clerc had raided Santiago de Cuba in 1554, and some accounts mention a raid on Santiago de Cuba by de Sores, although whether this was as part of the attack by le Clerc is not clear. He may have used Cayo Romano and Cayo Coco in the archipelago of Jardines del Rey adjacent to the northern Cuban coast as a base of operations.

Details of the attack on Havana are also sketchy: the number of ships that de Sores used in the attack varies in different accounts from 2 to 20. Regardless of the number of ships involved, de Sores had little trouble in capturing the lightly defended town. Most accounts make it clear that he was expecting to find stores of gold in the town, while some claim he ransomed important members of the population. All agree that whatever his intention he was frustrated: he did not find vast reserves of gold in the city, and if he ransomed the population the ransom was mostly not paid. He destroyed the fortress of La Fuerza Vieja in today's Calle Tacón and burnt most of the town. He also burnt the shipping in the harbour and laid waste to much of the surrounding countryside, and seems to have found time to organise a play "to insult the pope". The ease with which de Sores had captured the town prompted the Spanish crown to start a massive fortification programme. The Castillo de la Real Fuerza was built to replace the Vieja Fuerza and later the Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro and the smaller Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta were built on opposite sides of the entrance to Havana habour.

In 1570 he murdered 40 Jesuit missionaries and threw their bodies into the sea off Tazacorte in the Canary Islands of La Palma- crosses on the sea floor still mark the site at Malpique today.

John Nutt (fl. 1620–1632) was a 17th-century English pirate. He was one of the more notorious brigands of his time raiding the coast of southern Canada and western England for over three years before his capture by Sir John Eliot in 1623. His arrest and conviction caused a scandal in the English court, Nutt having paid Eliot £500 in exchange for a pardon, and was eventually released by the Secretary of State George Calvert.

Born in Lympstone, near Exmouth in Devon, England, John Nutt arrived in Newfoundland as a gunner on a Dartmouth ship around 1620. He decided to settle in the area permanently and moved his family to live in Torbay, Newfoundland and Labrador. He soon organized a small crew with whom he seized a small French fishing boat as well as two other French ships (another account claims the ships were English and Flemish) during the summer of 1621 before returning to the western coast of England. He would continue using unemployed sailors, particularly those conscripted to press gangs, and actually lured away a significant number from the Royal Navy paying regular wages and commissions. He would also offer his services to protect French and English settlements including the Colony of Avalon then under the leadership of George Calvert.

He would continue raiding shipping both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Irish Sea for over three years, often avoiding attempts to apprehend him, before he requested a royal pardon from John Eliot, the Vice Admiral of Devon. Eliot agreed in exchange for a £500 bond, however he was arrested by Eliot and imprisoned once back in England. Tried and convicted for piracy, Nutt was about to be hanged when George Calvert, then Secretary of State, intervened on his behalf having been a friend and associate of his while Nutt and his family were living in the Avalon Colony. Nutt was given his pardon and also granted £100 in compensation while Eliot, for his betrayal, was charged with malfeasance in office and imprisoned.

Sir James Lancaster (died 1618) was a prominent Elizabethan trader and privateer. Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. In his early life, he was a soldier and a trader in Portugal. On the 10th of April 1591 he started from Torbay in Devon, with Raymond and Foxcroft, on his first great voyage to the East Indies; this fleet of three ships is the earliest of English oversea Indian expeditions. Reaching Table Bay (1 August 1591), and losing one ship off Cape Corrientes on 12 September, the squadron rested and refitted at Zanzibar (February 1592), rounded Cape Comorin the following May, and reached the Malay Peninsula in June. During this voyage, Lancaster's ships attacked for plunder every ship they encountered.

After a later crossing to Ceylon, the crews insisted on returning home. The return voyage was disastrous with only twenty-five officers and men surviving to reach England in May 1594. Lancaster himself reached Rye on 24 May 1594. His Indian voyage, like Ralph Fitchs overland explorations and trading, was an important factor in the foundation of the East India Company. In the same year he led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco. Unlike the East Indies voyage, this was (according to Hakluyt's account) highly professional in its conduct and very successful; after picking up a chance-met separate squadron under Captain Middleton, he led an assault landing, seized the town and (with the assistance of a flotilla of Dutch traders who also threw in their lot with him) held it for several weeks and embarked the carrack's cargo along with local produce such as Brazil-wood (source of a valuable red dye used in the woolen textile industry).

In 1600 he was given command of the company's first fleet (which sailed from Torbay towards the end of April 1601); his vessel was the Red Dragon. He was also accredited as Queen Elizabeth's special envoy to various Eastern potentates. Going by the Cape of Good Hope (1st of November 1601) Lancaster visited the Nicobars (from 9 April 1602), Aceh and other parts of Sumatra (from 5 June 1602), and Bantam in Java. An alliance was established with Aceh, the first English East India Company factory established at Bantam and a commercial mission despatched to the Moluccas. The return voyage from 20 February to 11 September 1603 was speedy and prosperous, and Lancaster (whose success both in trade and diplomacy had been brilliant) was rewarded with a knighthood in October 1603.

Lancaster continued to be one of the chief directors of the East India Company until his death in May 1618. Most of the voyages of the early Stuart time both to India and in search of the Northwest Passage were undertaken under his sponsorship and direction. In July 1616, Lancaster Sound, north-west of Baffin Bay (74° 20' N.), was named by William Baffin after Sir James.

His will (dated 18 April 1618)[1] established two charitable trusts administered by the Skinners' Company. One was for the benefit of officials and poor people in Basingstoke, and was subsequently transferred by court order to Basingstoke Corporation in 1717. The other was for poor divinity students at Oxford and Cambridge, to whom the Skinners' Company still makes grants today.

Emanuel Wynn (or Emanuel Wynne) was a French pirate of the 18th century, and is often considered the first pirate to fly the Jolly Roger. His design incorporated an hourglass beneath the bones to represent that time was running out.

British Admiralty Records, in the Public Records Office in the UK show, in a report dated 18 July 1700, that HMS Poole, commanded by Captain John Cranby, engaged Wynn's ship off the Cape Verde islands. Cranby chased Wynn into a cove at Brava Island but, assisted by Portuguese soldiers, Wynn escaped Poole.

Most historians agree that Cranby's account is the first mention of a Jolly Roger, which Cranby described as "a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hour glass." Wynne is believed to be the first (or some sources contend one of the first) pirate to fly the now familiar form of the jolly roger.

His flag, showing the distinctive skull and crossbones motif, was augmented with another common pirate symbol: an hourglass (meant to signify to his prey that only by timely surrender could they evade death).

Wynne began his piratical career raiding English merchantmen off the coast of the Province of Carolina near the end of the 17th century. He later moved to the more profitable waters of the Caribbean, attacking both English and Spanish ships.

Richard Worley set out from New York with eight others in a small open boat; they were ill equipped and carried a few supplies. The crew set out in late September 1718. Their ship was hardly seaworthy so they set out down the coast and up the Delaware River where they captured a shallop laden with household goods (this was not constituted as piracy, but rather burglary since it did not take place upon the sea). 

The next prize taken by these men was more in keeping with their needs, a sloop out of Philadelphia. They took the sloop and increased the size of their band to 12. Within a couple more days they had taken another slop that they felt more well kept than the prior ship and transferred to it.

At this time the governor issued a proclamation for the apprehension of all pirates who had not availed themselves of the King's pardon, and ordered out the Phoenix, a ship of 20 guns, to enforce this proclamation. However, Worley and his band set out to sea and missed the Phoenix which was searching for them in the coastal waters.

Six weeks later the pirates returned, having taken another sloop and a brigantine among the Bahama Islands. The company had increased to 25 during this trip and their sloop now mounted 6 guns. Captain Worley and his crew had also adopted the skull and crossbones in their ensign. Articles were signed and the crew were officially 'on account' that they would fight to the end, no quarter asked or given.

They were next sighted off North Carolina where they paused to clean and refit their ship. The governor received this information and outfitted two ships of 8 and 6 guns to trap the pirates, but to no avail as they were gone by the time the ships arrived. Unfortunately, Worley came in sight of the ships and mistaking them for merchants moved to prevent them from entering the James Town harbor. Instead of preventing their entry, he ended up trapping himself in the harbor with two ships blocking his escape. True to their articles the pirates fought to the end, taking a broadside from one of the Carolina ships before being boarded. All of the pirates died on board, except for the captain and one other, who were very seriously wounded. Both captured pirates were hanged the next day, February 17th 1719, for fear that their wounds might prevent them from receiving the punishment that was felt due.

We see what amounts to a five month run for these pirates, if I had to speculate on their earlier lives, I would guess that they had been employed as ship hands or privateers, having been let off in New York they spent all of their money and found themselves without the means of survival. The small boat they set out in was most likely stolen and the best they could get given limited time before the season changed and weather worsened. Their start was meager but they soon found the means to pursue their goal. If they had not had some seamen skills it is unlikely that they would have survived out on the open seas.

William Fly's origins are unknown, although it is probable that he is of British decent. He does not appear to have been very educated or even terribly skilled as a seaman. He first surfaces as a boatswain aboard the snow Elizabeth of Bristol bound from Jamaica for the Guinea coast in April of 1726. By May of that same year he appears to have convince some like minded souls that they should take the ship and go on the account. The evening of the 27th of May the mutineers lightened the ship by the tune of one captain and one mate by tossing them over the side, ignoring their entreaties for mercy.

Having taken the ship they then set sail for the coast of North Carolina. Here after some trickery they took the sloop John and Hannah, although they appear to have run it aground and set fire to it out of spite. The 5th of June they sighted the John and Betty and took very little of value, some sails and small arms, as well as six men. They next took a sloop off Delaware Bay and after finding little of value let her go. Proceeding for Martha's Vineyard, they missed and found themselves off Nantucket and next took a fishing schooner off Brown's Bank. Using this vessel they then tried to take another schooner, leaving only Fly and three pirates on board the snow, along with some fifteen forced men. The forced men seeing the odds so greatly in their favor revolted and captured Fly and the other pirates and sailed for and arrived at Great Brewster on June 28th, 1726.

The pirates were given a trial and all were sentenced to die. The execution was performed on July 12th, and Fly's body was hung in chains at the mouth of Boston harbor. Fly approached the hanging with complete disdain and even reproached the hangman for doing a poor job, showing him how to mange the ropes more efficiently.

The average career of a pirate during the Golden Age was under two years, Fly seems to have been one of the ones to bring the average down with a career length of about two months. His career also illustrates the fact that, contrary to popular mythology, most acts of piracy failed to turn up masses of gold doubloons or pieces of eight. Most plunder was of much more mundane quality, ranging from bundles of tobacco, logwood, cloth, or spices. If pirates were lucky they would find enough food and shipboard supplies to meet their own needs let alone to sell and get rich.

Jan Jacobsen (1588/89 – 1622) was a Flemish naval commander and Dunkirker during the Eighty Years' War. He became a posthumous hero when, after battling an enemy fleet for over 13 hours, he destroyed his own ship rather than surrender.

He was the son of Admiral Michiel Jacobsen and great-uncle of Jean Bart. On 3 October 1622 Jacobsen put out from Ostend on his first expedition as a captain of one of the king's frigates. His ship was part of a three-ship flotilla, with the intention of locating the Dutch Baltic convoy, accompanied by Spanish privateers Pedro de la Plesa and Juan Garcia. Jacobsen failed to elude the Dutch blockaders patrolling off the Flemish coast and was soon in a running battle with nine Dutch warships which was to last for thirteen hours. He disabled two of them before finally fought to a standstill with his mast, rudder and sweeps shot away.

The Dutch called upon Jacobsen to surrender and offered quarter, but, rather than let one of the king's ships fall into the hands of the enemy he exploded his powder store. In doing so he crippled the two Dutch ships alongside and caused considerable loss of life on board them but at the cost of destroying himself, his ship and much of what remained of his crew.Initial reports had Jacobsen putting the match to the powder himself, but at least one later account records that he had been shot through the thigh and gave the order to explode the powder store to one of his men. Surviving members of his 170-man crew  that were picked up were hanged as pirates.

This incident was comparable to English admiral Sir Richard Grenville and the Revenge and created a mystique around the Dunkirkers, and the figure of Jacobsen in particular, at the very beginning of the second phase (1621-1648) of the Eighty Years' War^. The event was reported in contemporary newspapers, such as the Nieuwe Tijdinghen printed in Antwerp,and was the subject of at least one contemporary ballad, Kapiteyn Jacobus, that likened Jacobsen to Samson.

Juan Garcia (fl. 1622) was a 17th century Spanish privateer. He was among several other Spaniards who worked with Dunkirkers in the service of Spain during the Eighty Years' War. Both he and Pedro de la Plesa were caught by the Dutch Republic in a failed attempt to break through the imposed blockade at Dunkirk, he and de la Plesa leaving Captain Jan Jacobsen to face nine pursuing Dutch warships.

In October 1622, he and Pedro de la Plesa left Duinkerken with Jan Jacobsen attempting to break through the blockade imposed on the city by the Dutch Republic. However, a Dutch yacht spotted Pedro de la Plesa as he sailed out of Oostende. The ship's captain, Jacob Volckertzoon Vinck, immediately sailed to a small fleet stationed nearby.

Its commander, Admiral Harman Kleuter, set off after the blocade runners at once and was later joined by another squadron under Captain Lambert Hendrikszoon. Garcia and Pedro de la Plesa fled instantly upon encountering the fleet, however Jacobsen stayed behind to fight the nine pursuing warships. Both because of his heroic stand, as well as allowing his Spanish allies to escape to England, Jacobsen and his crew became a national hero.

Pedro de la Plesa (fl. 1622) was a 17th century Spanish privateer. He served alongside Dunkirkers in the service of Spain during the Eighty Years' War. He and Juan Garcia accompanied Captain Jan Jacobsen in his final battle against the Dutch Republic, he and his Spanish comrade leaving Jacobsen to his fate.

In October 1622, he left from Duinkerken along with Juan Garcia and Jan Jacobsen in an attempt to break through the enemy blockade. However, de la Plesa was immediately sighted by a passing Dutch yacht as he sailed out of Oostende. The ship's captain, Jacob Volckertzoon Vinck, cut his mooring lines and sailed out to a nearby fleet under Admiral Harman Kleuter. Being informed of the Dunkirkers activities, he set out after them at once.

He was later joined by another squadron from Den Briel under the command of Captain Lambert Hendrikszoon. As the combined fleet appeared, the two Spaniards realizing they were outnumbered chose to retreat. Heading for England, Jan Jacobsen chose to fight the nine pursuing warships. Weither Jacobsen had decided to make a final stand or to protect the retreat of Juan Garcia and Pedro de la Plesa is uncertain, however he died in the ensuing battle.

In my mind Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is almost without question the best, seafaring adventure movie ever made. Better still, unlike a lot of the movies Hollywood tries to force into a franchise mold in pursuit of more money, it naturally lends itself to a sequel. In fact it’s based on a lengthy series of books by Patrick O’Brian. The sequels are already written, just sitting there waiting for someone to do something with them. Unfortunately the film achieved only modest results at the box office when it debuted in 2003 and despite a lot of initial enthusiasm for the project from everyone involved, there’s been no real movement to do anything with it. But Russell Crowe hasn’t given up.

Crowe starred in the film as Captain Jack Aubrey and he’s long held a great deal of affection for the film. So much so that he’s now attempting to rally fans into pressuring Fox for the sequel Master & Commander so richly deserves. A few minutes ago Russell used Twitter to deliver this message:

If you want a Master and Commander sequel I suggest you e-mail Tom Rothman at Fox and let him know your thoughts

It was back in mid-2009 here that we first heard Russell Crowe was working on developing a Master and Commander 2. Since then we haven’t heard much about the project. Maybe Crowe’s tweet is just the result of random, after-midnight musings or maybe he’s really been talking to Fox about getting it done and is looking for help in getting them on his side. Either way, I’ll bite. If there’s a fight, I’m on Capt. Jack Aubrey's side.

Since you probably don’t have Tom Rothman’s email, I’d like to suggest an alternative means of supporting Russell Crowe’s push to revive Master and Commander as a franchise. 20th Century Fox has recently set up a twitter account, to promote their upcoming movies. Rather than waiting on Russell to look up Rothman’s email address, simply click right here to tell 20th Century Fox how much you want Master and Commander 2. Rally together and hold fast!





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