The Pirates of Assassin's Creed IV

Assassin’s Creed IV’s release date is drawing near, and it promises to take us back to the Golden Age of Pirates in the early eighteenth century. Naturally, this announcement elicited quite a positive response, what with pirates being this generation’s Ninja Turtles.

Thankfully (though unsurprisingly, given the series) it seems that Ubisoft has eschewed the “Pirates of The Carribean” style fantasy depiction, and is instead presenting a historically accurate depiction of the era and the pirates that inhabited it. So far, Ubisoft has confirmed the appearance of five historical pirates in the game, namely Blackbeard, Charles Vane, “Calico” Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny and Benjamin Hornigold. Those figures should be known to anyone interested in the history of pirates. But for the uninitiated, questions like “Who were they?”, “Why are they so significant?”, and “Did they own a parrot?” are sure to creep up. So I thought it would be great to answer some of these questions, and give you an idea about who these pirates were and why they mattered.
 

Blackbeard (real name Edward Teach) is arguably the most famous pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, and serves as a poster boy for the era. He is in part responsible for our image of pirates as fearsome, bloodthirsty tyrants. He certainly was a much feared pirate in his time, but what’s interesting is that his fearsome reputation was manufactured by Blackbeard himself. Blackbeard was more of a shrewd leader than a murderous pirate, and avoided armed conflict whenever he could, relying instead on his fearsome reputation to elicit the desired response from his victims. He did things like lighting two fuses under his hat that billowed smoke, thus giving the impression that clouds of smoke were coming out of his beard. Contrary to our image of Blackbeard as a murderous and tyrannical leader, there really is no account of him ever harming those he captured.

That is not to say that Blackbeard was an upstanding citizen. He was not above killing his crewmembers at any hint of mutiny and would resort to brutal punishment to penalize any resistance, all in order to preserve his fearsome reputation. And according to one contemporary source, he once offered his newlywed 16 year old wife Mary Ormond to his crewmembers to have their way with her.

The Governor of Virginia received news that Blackbeard was planning on retiring in close proximity to him, which as you can imagine, worried him immensely. He thus sent a small force of sailors, led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, to capture the pirate. After a ferocious battle, Blackbeard was finally killed (it took 5 bullets and 20 sword slashes), and his severed head was hung on the ship’s bowsprit as a warning to other pirates.  
 

If Blackbeard is the most famous pirate of the Golden Age, Charles Vane was arguably the cruelest. Charles Vane’s pirate career lasted for three years, a relatively long career among pirates, and started a “reign of terror” of sorts. He captured numerous merchant ships, and at one point captured the city of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, only to lose it soon after. He was known to often violate the “Pirate Code” of the time; he often treated captive sailors and merchants cruelly, even if they willingly surrendered, and cheated his crewmembers out of their shares in plunders.

Towards the end of his career, Charles Vane faced a mutiny that deposed him as the captain of his ship. The mutiny was led by one his crewmembers, a reckless (yet impeccably dressed) man named Calico Jack Rackham, who deposed him for what he considered to be a cowardly act on Vane’s part. The cowardly action in question? Refusing to attack French warships that would’ve no doubt decimated Vane and his fleet.

After being deposed, Charles Vane was given a small ship and a crew of 15 men who were loyal to him before being sent his own way. Vane went back to raiding larger ships and building his crew. That didn’t last long however, as his ship was wrecked by a storm that killed almost the entire crew. Vane however, survived and was rescued by another ship. Unfortunately for Vane, the captain of the ship that rescued him recognized Vane for the murderous pirate that he was, and he subsequently handed him to the authorities. He was sentenced to death for his crimes, and on March 29, 1791, he was hanged. He expressed no remorse for his crimes.  
 

Popular culture owes a lot to Calico Jack Rackham, as he was the one to popularize the skull and the crossed swords flag design that we associate with pirates today (Note that the actual Skull and Crossbones flag design was popularized by another pirate, Black Sam Bellamy). Calico Jack was also known for having two females aboard his crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, the former with which he had a love affair.

Calico Jack Rackham started off as a crewmember on Charles Vane’s ship. But after the aforementioned mutiny against Vane, Calico Jack became a full fledged pirate with his own pirate crew, and together with his crew went off doing pirate-y things like raiding merchants along coastal villages. It’s already established that Calico Jack may not be the most cautious pirate, but he certainly was a bold and devious one, as one story relates to how he and his crew managed to steal an English Sloop from Spanish warships not by directly attacking it, but by stealthily boarding it in the dead of night, and sailing off, while leaving his old (now empty) ship as a decoy for Spanish ships to attack.

Calico Jack and his crew were eventually granted a royal pardon by the Governor of Nassau, as they claimed they didn’t want to be pirates, but were forced to be so by Charles Vane. However, Rackham and his crew couldn’t stand being honest men for long, and soon returned to pirating. Famed pirate hunter Jonathan Barnet caught up to Rackham in Jamaica. Rackham and his crew were too drunk to fight the Barnet’s forces, and thus were all captured and tried in Jamaica, where Jack and nearly all of his crew members were hanged.
 

Anne Bonny is the only pirate on this list to never have captained a ship, yet she did achieve the same level of notoriety that the others on the list have, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that she is a female.

Anne Bonny was a rebel from a young age, so much so that she was disowned by her rich merchant father. As a young woman, she married smalltime pirate James Bonny, and moved with him to Nassau. Nassau being the pirate haven of the time, Bonny met and mingled with a lot of the big time pirates who seemed to go on adventures far more exciting that her husband’s. There she met Calico Jack Rackham and became his lover. She soon ran away from her husband and joined Rackham’s crew

Onboard Rackham’s ship, Bonny met another female crewmember by the name of Mary Read who disguised herself as a man to join Rackham’s crew. Bonny and Read formed a strong friendship, much to the chagrin of Rackham who was under impression that Read was a man. Driven by jealousy, Rackham threatened to kill Read, and Bonny had to reveal Read’s true gender to Rackham to save her friend.

Rackham and Bonny went on to have successful pirating career together, and by most accounts, Bonny was respected by Rackham’s crew as an equal aboard the ship. On the fateful night of Jonathan Barnet’s forces attack, Rackham and his crew were too drunk to fight back; Anne Bonny, Mary Read and a third crewmember were the only ones to take up arms against Barnet’s forces. They fought ferociously and managed to hold back Barnet for a while, but were eventually overpowered, and captured. Bonny and Read were among those sentenced to hanging, but they “plead their bellies” i.e. asked for mercy by claiming to be pregnant. They were granted temporary pardon until they gave birth. Mary Read died in prison shortly after, and while Anne Bonny survived, she dropped off of historical records completely, and no one knows what happened or what became of her. The most common theory is that her rich father bought her freedom from the governor of the Bahamas.

Her last words to Calico Jack were after they were captured and tried, where she said “Sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a Man, he need not have been hang'd like a Dog”
 

Remember the fearsome pirate Blackbeard whom we’ve talked about a few paragraphs ago? Well Benjamin Hornigold is his mentor, as Blackbeard started off as a member of Hornigold's crew. Like many pirates of that era, Hornigold started as a privateer working for the British Empire during the Spanish War of Succession. After the war ended, Hornigold turned to piracy, and soon acquired a reputation for maritime supremacy, and it was during this time that Blackbeard became his second-in-command. Hornigold made sure that he or his crew never attacked any British flagged vessels, probably to maintain the claim that was still a privateer working for the British Empire.

However, his insistence on avoiding British ships did not sit well with his crew. His crew soon deposed him and replaced him as a captain. Hornigold was left with a small ship and an even smaller crew. It was during this time that Horningold and Blackbeard parted ways, with Hornigold and his new crew continuing a life of piracy. That was until he heard of a general pardon offered by the King to all pirates who requested it.

Hornigold sought pardon for his actions and was granted it, but was commissioned to hunt down other pirates. Thus, the feared pirate becomes a fearsome pirate hunter, he spent the rest of his life hunting pirates and former allies like Calico Jack and Stede Bonnet with varying degrees of success. Hornigold’s pirate hunting career lasted for 18 months, as he abruptly met his end when his ship crashed on a reef after being caught in a hurricane. The location of the reef where Hornigold died remains unknown to this day.
 

Assassin’s Creed IV of course won’t run on those five pirates alone, as we will certainly see more pirates of that area play smaller roles throughout the story. But those are the five pirates confirmed to play a big role so far, and remember - if any of this interests you, make sure you look for sources on the topic for a more specific history of pirates.