Pirate Timeline
67 AD: Piracy is a major problem for Roman trade. Rome senate organizes military fleet to dissolve piracy in the Mediterranean.
2nd century: Piracy rose in Asian waters after the fall of the Chinese Han dynasty.
13th century: Piracy is a problem in the Mediterranean.
Late 14th century: English and French fleets combined their forces in battle against African based corsairs.
15th century: Chinese Ming Dynasty regained their power over Asian waters.
16th century: Rise in maritime technology and trade traffic between Europe, Africa and New World gave rise to piracy. Numerous ships and towns were ransacked in the newly discovered America.
1557: Conflict between England and Spain brought the rise of privateers. Nations would hire privateers to attack merchants from other nations. privateers fought in the seas of Central America, most notably Sir Francis Drake who was paid to plunder Spanish colonies and traders.
1604: Treaty of London agreement to end privateering in the Americas.
1623-1638: The Caribbean became a haven for pirates. Over 500 ships destroyed or raided. Buccaneers, a motley crew of seafaring desperados comprised of French, English, Welsh, and Dutch sailors, harass Spanish shipping lanes and ports from their bases in French Tortuga and Jamaica.
1650-1680: Anglo-French commenced their attack on Spanish shipping lanes and ports, creating the first phase of the “Golden Age of Piracy.”
1654-1660: Throughout the Anglo - Spanish war, England provides leadership and support for the buccaneers based in Jamaica and Tortuga in attacking Spanish colonies, and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
1655: England captures Jamaica from Spain, the new Governor encourages buccaneers to use Port Royal as a base for pirate attacks on Spanish shipping.
1671: Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan sacks Panama City with 1400 pirates.
June 7, 1692: Major Earthquake devastates Port Royal, most of the city sinks into its sand base, followed by a tsunami. Thousands perish.
1690s: Caribbean based pirates started doing their “Pirate Round” by sailing to the Indian Ocean and Red sea in search for trade ships sailing from and to India. The Pirate Round is the second phase of the “Golden Age of Piracy.”
1693: Thomas Tew pioneers the Pirate Round, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, Africa, to plunder Muslim and East India Company shipping in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
May 1694: Henry Every leads a mutiny and takes over the Charles II which he renames the Fancy.
August 1695: Henry Every hits the jackpot on the Pirate Round with one of the greatest pirate catches ever with the plundering of the Grand Mughal Flagship of India bound for the Ottoman Empire.
1695: In London, famous Scottish Captain Kidd leads a consortium of anonymous backers to fund a privateering expedition in the Indian Ocean.
December 1695: William Kidd is commissioned to hunt down pirates in the Indian Ocean threatening the East India Company merchant shipping. He later becomes a pirate.
1697-1698: Captain Kidd commits several acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Jan 1698: Captain Kidd attacks and captures the merchant ship Quedah Merchant off the coast of India near Cochin.
1701: The British government permits colonies to try and hang pirates themselves rather than ship them to England.
1701: Captain Kidd captured, tried and executed in London.
1701-1714: War of the Spanish Succession erupts. English pirates legally attack and plunder merchant shipping sailing under enemy flags.
1706: The Republic of Pirates (1706-1718) established in New Providence, Bahamas when Henry Every returned from the Indian Ocean with loot enough to bribe the governor. The first captains: Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings, bitter rivals. Hornigold was mentor to Blackbeard, Bellamy, and Bonnet, while Jennings mentored Vane, Calico Jack, Bonny and Read. Despite their rivalries, the pirates formed themselves into the Flying Gang and quickly became infamous for their exploits.
1713: England withdraws from the War of the Spanish Succession. Piracy increases dramatically in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and the American Atlantic coast. Several sailors are released from service and become pirates. The third phase of the Golden Age of Piracy ensues.
1713-1718: The British pirate Benjamin Hornigold is active in the Caribbean and North American coast.
July 1715: 11 ship Spanish “Treasure Fleet”, is lost at sea off the coast of Florida during a hurricane. The fleet had departed Havana bound for Spain with gold coins and tons of silver. Spanish salvagers started to recover the gold, but were attacked by an English pirate force that included Henry Jennings, Charles Vane, Samuel Bellamy, Benjamin Hornigold, and Edward England. The attack was successful and the pirates were able to take some of the booty to Nassau.
1716-1720: The English pirate Charles Vane is active in the Caribbean and the east coast of North America.
1717-1718: The pirates Edward Teach and Benjamin Hornigold sail and terrorize in concert.
1717: Woodes Rogers is appointed the Governor of the Bahamas for the first time.
1717-1720: The pirate Edward England is active in the Caribbean, Eastern Atlantic, and Indian Ocean.
Mar 1717-Oct 1718: The Barbadian pirate Stede Bonnet is active in the Caribbean and off the east coast of North America.
April 26, 1717: The Whydah Galley sinks in a major storm off the coast of North Carolina taking Black Sam Bellamy and his crew down to Davy Jones’ locker.
November 1717: Blackbeard captures large French trading ship, assumes command, and renames it Queen Anne’s Revenge.
January 5, 1718: King George I issues proclamation offering a royal pardon to any pirate who agrees to surrender to British authorities by September 5th. Over 200 pirates accepted the pardon. Some turned Privateer and begin to track, hunt and weed out pirates.
April 1718: English sea captain Woodes Rogers departs London bound for the Bahamas to break up the Pirate Republic, restore law and bring resisting pirates to heel.
May 1718: Blackbeard blockades the port of Charleston, South Carolina.
November 22, 1718: Blackbeard killed in battle off North Carolina when his ship was attacked by two British armed sloops whose captain and crew were tracking him. One of the sloops was disabled by cannon fire. The other sloop was boarded by Blackbeard and crew, and in the ensuing hand-to-hand combat Blackbeard and fellow pirates were surprised and overwhelmed by several soldiers rushing from below deck where they were hiding.
December 10, 1718: Captain “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet captured and hanged in Charles Town, South Carolina.
1719: Sailor Bartholomew Roberts is captured by pirates and joins their ranks. Black Bart becomes the most successful pirate of the age.
November 18, 1719: Captain Jack Rackham is captured and hanged in Port Royal, Jamaica. Anne Bonny and Mary Read imprisoned.
March 29, 1720: Charles Vane is captured and hanged in Port Royal.
1721: John Taylor and Oliver Levasseur score the greatest single prize in the Pirate Round with the capture of the Portuguese East India Nossa Senhora Do Cabo off Reunion Island.
February 10, 1722: Bartholomew Roberts is killed in battle against the English Navy captain Chaloner Ogle, signaling the beginning of the end for the Golden Age of Piracy.
1722-1730: Final stage of “Golden Age of Piracy”. It was marked with scores of ex privateers who refused to retire after the hostilities between European countries ceased. They returned to piracy, until combined military forces of Europe and America hunted them down and weeded them out.
1775-early 1800s: Piracy returned to the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the length of the American Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.
1807: Female pirate captain Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Ching Shih, united Asian pirates into immense organization that counted 800 ships and 80-150 thousand men.
1810-1820: American pirate Jean Lafitte raided merchants in the waters of northern Gulf of Mexico.
1820: Piracy eliminated in Central America.
1850: Piracy eliminated in Asian waters.
