Pirates and Privateers

Insidious and pernicious. These two words can be applied to pirates throughout history. One of the earliest attempts to eradicate sea raiders happens in 694 BC when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, tries to do so. The best-known offensive against them occurs in 67 BC, when the Roman Senate sanctions Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) to gather 270 vessels and sweep across the Mediterranean to wipe out pirates and their bases. The milestone in these attacks takes place on Anatolia’s coast, when Pompeius and his men slay 10,000 pirates and seize 400 ships, but they also help the survivors transform themselves into farmers. In between these two events, Alexander the Great implements his own suppression endeavors in 330 BC. He just doesn’t expect to find a sea raider with enough gumption to stand up to him.

Sennacherib (Cast of a rock relief from the foot of Cudi Dağı, near Cizre and now exhibited in Landshut, Germany)
[Source: Timo Roller, 2015 at Wikimedia Commons]
Bust of Pompeius the Great (Museo archeologico nazionale in Venice) by unknown artist of AD first century
[Source: Didier Descouens, 2023 at Wikimedia Commons]
Section of mosaic depicting Alexander the Great at the House of the Faun on Pompeii
[Source: Unknown artist, circa 100 BC, Wikimedia Commons]

In De civitate Dei contra paganos (The City of God), Saint Augustine recounts an interview between Alexander the Great and a captured pirate named Diomedes. The Macedonian king asks why Diomedes dares to rob people at sea. Since execution awaits the pirate, he has nothing to lose and poses a cheeky question instead: What gives Alexander the right to invade and conquer other lands? Diomedes sees no difference between what they both do. Alexander, who has wealth and power, does what he wants and gets away with “pirating” other countries. Whereas he, lowly Diomedes, is deemed a sea robber because he chooses to do the same thing on a much smaller scale. Seeing the truth, or wisdom, in what Diomedes says, Alexander offers the pirate a pardon so he can begin life anew.

Excusing a crime without exacting a penalty might seem like an unusual way to suppress piracy, but sovereigns around the world offered such pardons multiple times throughout history. King George I of England, for example, signed a proclamation offering pirates an Act of Grace during the most prolific period of marauding in the early eighteenth century. His predecessor, James I extended pardons to pirates in Ireland in 1609; two years later, he agreed to pardon other pirates, such as Peter Easton, but corruption within the Emerald Isle eventually led James’s Privy Council to add a stipulation. Any pirate hopeful of a pardon must “repair to some port in England” to obtain one. (Appleby, Affairs, 81)

Pardons were often merely one tool in the authorities’ arsenal. If a pirate chose to ignore the pardon and resume plundering, he would be hunted down, prosecuted, and punished. This was what happened to Charles Vane, who sneered at King George’s pardon, and Calico Jack Rackham, who signed the pardon but returned to his old ways.

Charles Vane and Jack Rackham
(Source: Pirate Images)

When Woodes Rogers assumed the governorship of the Bahamas in 1718, part of his mission was to eradicate piracy. The islands were both a haven and a staging ground for the scoundrels, but not everyone was amenable to returning to society and obeying the rules and regulations that identified what a person could or could not. Vane warned Rogers that he would only surrender on his terms:

That you will suffer us to dispose of all our Goods now in our Possession. Likewise, to act as we think fit with every Thing belonging to us, as his Majesty’s Act of Grace specifies. (Defoe, 142)

Woodes had no intention of giving the pirate the upper hand, and after creating some mischief, Vane and his men fled the Bahamas. Various pirate hunters, such as Colonel William Rhett of South Carolina who captured Stede Bonnet, attempted to track down Vane and bring him in, but none succeeded. His initial comeuppance came at the hands of his fellow pirates, who ousted him as captain and sent him off in a boat with some loyal followers. Mother Nature delivered her own justice when a hurricane destroyed this vessel. Only two men, Vane being one of them, survived the ordeal. Rescue seemed close at hand when a ship happened upon the uninhabited island, but her captain recognized Vane and, knowing his untrustworthy nature, sailed away. Sometime later, this same captain came aboard another ship and recognized one of the seamen. Vane was clapped in irons and taken to Port Royal, Jamaica, where he was hanged in 1721.¹ His corpse was gibbeted on Gun Cay as a warning to others.

Once Vane’s quartermaster, Rackham opted to take advantage of the king’s amnesty in 1719. Whether pillaging proved too tempting or difficulties concerning Anne Bonny’s marital status forced Jack to rethink his decision, he returned to marauding. This resumption made him fair game for pirate hunters, and he was captured in November 1720 by Captain Jonathan Barnett. Found guilty at his trial in Port Royal, he, too, danced the hempen jig before being placed on display at Deadman’s Cay (now Rackham’s Cay).

Unlike the codes by which pirates operated, which applied equally to each and every pirate within a crew, implementation of land-based laws was sometimes dependent on one’s station in life. The Killigrews of Cornwall had deep ties to the ruling Tudors, and their misdeeds were often overlooked or treated more like slaps on the wrist. Until some Spaniards decided the Killigrews had gone too far and took their case to Elizabeth I. An international incident was not what the queen wanted, so Lady Mary Killigrew and two of her servants were arrested. Whereas Lady Mary was pardoned, her servants were hanged.

When Westerners came to Asian waters, they brought with them their concept of what constituted piracy. This notion was alien to Asians because the word “pirate” was unknown, and their deeds were not seen in the same way that they were in Europe. Chinese, for example, had a number of words that pertained to those who raided at sea – haizei, haidao, haikou, and yangfei, for example – but none of these were specifically “pirates” as Westerners thought of these plunderers. Although sea people did rob and blackmail victims, it was common for a sea merchant and a pirate to be one and the same, depending on circumstances at home. One reason for this was that at times sea bans (haijan) were decreed, which essentially shut down maritime trade, especially between China and other countries. Imperial thinking was that without such commerce, piracy would end, except Emperor Zhu Gaochi (also known as the Hongxi Emperor) found out differently after imposing one such ban in the early 1400s. No trade actually prompted more smuggling and piracy. This gave rise to men like Zheng Zhilong, a powerful and successful merchant, pirate, smuggler, and sea lord of the seventeenth century. He was later executed but not for his piracy. He was beheaded because his son refused to surrender to the Qing officials who ruled China.

Emperor Zhu Gaochi, also known as the Hongxi Emperor, by unknown artist of the Ming Dynasty
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Zheng Zhilong in Taiwain Waiji, 1699 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

During the Qing Dynasty, pirates (zheng dao) broke the law by raiding ships and coastal villages. After such violent attacks, these gang members shared whatever illicit booty they had acquired. The punishment for those convicted of piracy was zhan lijue xiaoshi (beheading of the pirate and displaying of his head, much like Westerners displayed the corpses of executed pirate captains). So many pirates plagued China’s waters in 1796, that the emperor gave authorities permission to immediately execute convicted pirates rather than wait for his permission. Some severed heads were sent to locales where the crimes had been committed and displayed on pikes or in cages for all to see.

Beheaded pirates in Hong Kong, April 1891
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In instances where the crimes were particularly brutal, lingchi (death by 1,000 cuts) was deemed more appropriate.

The criminal is fastened to a rough cross, and the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, begins by grasping handfuls from the fleshy parts of the body, such as the thighs and the breasts, and slicing them off. After this he removes the joints and the excrescences of the body one by one – the nose and ears, fingers and toes. Then the limbs are cut off piecemeal at the wrists and the ankles, the elbows and knees, the shoulders and hips. Finally, the victim is stabbed to the heart and his head cut off. (Norman, 225)

According to Qing law, a pirate plundered vessels at sea or on a river or employed a boat to go ashore to pillage villages or other places where people lived. Rather than judge prisoners for the single crime of piracy, the authorities viewed each act as a separate offense. This meant the charges against captured pirates on a single raid might include abduction, extortion, homicide, theft, and violence (such as rape or wounding).

Governor-General Bai Ling believed that “without rice and gunpowder there would be no pirates.” (Antony, Like, 129) In 1809, he instituted a variety of policies to clamp down on piracy. One required vessels carrying rice to be armed and protected by soldiers; they also had to sail in convoys of eight to ten boats. Some rice was transported overland instead of by water. Detailed records of gunpowder needed to be kept, and those who worked with the explosive were kept under close watch. The pirates’ reactions were not what Bai Ling expected. Instead, they turned violent and for over two months, navigated inland water routes, pillaging and kidnapping. When General Xu Tinggui put in at Weijiamen in July, the pirates staged an ambush. More than 1,000 soldiers were slain, including General Xu. Seeing the writing on the wall, Bai Ling rethought his policies and decided it was better to pacify the pirates than rile them. His offers of pardon resulted in more than 1,500 ceasing to live a life of pillaging and violence. Among them were Zheng Yi Sao and Zhang Bao; with their surrenders, the great pirate confederation ceased to exist.

Regardless of time or place, authorities ultimately understood that suppressing piracy wasn’t as simple as just getting rid of pirates. These violators of the law did not work in a void; they had help. To fully succeed in eradicating piracy, those who assisted the pirates had to be dealt with as well. During the Qing dynasty, Chinese authorities in coastal communities referred to collaborators who supplied goods and services to the pirates as jianmin (wicked people) and lanzai (worthless fellows). Thousands of these abettors were arrested and tried between 1780 and 1810. Those found guilty either had to wear a cangue for a time or suffer death, depending on just how much this person helped the pirates.²

During the uptick in piracy after 1780, officials imposed stricter penalties. Yang Yawo was arrested as an abettor in 1789, but Governor-General Jiqing didn’t think wearing the cangue was a harsh enough penalty to make him cease and desist once the device was removed. Instead, Yang spent three years in prison, forced to do hard labor. He also received 100 lashes from a bamboo stick. Once he endured these punishments, the authorities inflicted one more to guarantee that he never again reverted to his old ways: relocation further inland. Twenty years later, Xiao Shique received a similar fate after being nabbed for selling watermelon to pirates; his ultimate destination was remote northeast China near the borders of what is today known as Inner Mongolia and Russia. At least, these men survived. Fisherman Yang Pinfu wasn’t so lucky. Nabbed for selling rice to pirates three separate times, he literally lost his head.

Mitigating circumstances, such as being forced to assist pirates, were irrelevant. As far as the government was concerned, only those who spent their entire captivity locked away below decks were released without punishment if rescued. The remaining captives (beilu zhe) suffered various forms of punishment.

In the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, 9,600 people were arrested for piracy, but only 2,803 of these were actual pirates. Of the remaining 6,797 detainees, all of whom were kidnappees, just 26% were eventually released without penalty. Twenty-eight percent had been forced to take part in raids, which made them accomplices. Pirates compelled the remaining 46% to do menial tasks. One such victim was Chen Kaifa, who had been taken by Zheng Qi. Initially, Chen was assigned menial tasks, but Zheng decided Chen should act as a lookout (bafeng) and then he had to help stow the plunder aboard Zheng’s junk. One time only. Once was enough; in the eyes of the authorities, the victim was now an accessory, and he was sentenced to die.

While not considered as guilty as victims like Chen, even those who brewed tea, hauled on ropes, or helped to weigh anchor had to be punished. They received sentences of three years forced labor and 100 whacks with a bamboo rod.

Think such punishments too harsh? Remember the opening scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. A line of shackled men, women, and children shuffle towards the gallows at Port Royal. Each is to be hanged for abetting piracy. Yes, it is dramatic license, but Hollywood merely depicts on a grand scale what eighteenth-century English law decrees. Even an accomplice is deemed a pirate and is subject to the same punishment – dancing the hempen jig.


To be continued . . .


Notes:
1. Although Great Britain abolished the death penalty in 1965 for those convicted of murder, people found guilty of piracy were still eligible for death until 1998.

2. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the cangue as “a large, flat, square or rectangular device that was formerly used in some Asian countries like a portable pillory for confining the neck and sometimes also the hands as punishment.” The word “cangue” is French and derives from the Portuguese word meaning “yoke.” Cangue is pronounced “kan-gay.”


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