Woodes Rogers

The new Governor is poised to arrive and tame the Pirate Republic of Nassau

With a sigh, Woodes Rogers put down his pen and closed the ink bottle. He then closed the desk, left his cabin and walked to the rail. The quarter moon provided surprising light off the port bow, yet he could see no other ships. Worse, he could not see land. Captain Rogers had hoped to make the voyage from England to Nassau in 40 days. This was now day 93 and still The Delicia continued her trudge through the Atlantic.

Even Columbus only needed two months, he muttered to himself. He glanced starboard at the familiar sight of Polaris, still holding stead, yet sinking ever closer to the horizon with each league.

“Mister Simms!” he barked at a junior officer, “our position?”

“We should see Nassau tonight, sir. Can’t be more than a few miles.”

Captain Rogers made his way to the ensign and the chart and looked for himself. Sure enough, the series of dots marking their position creeped steadily, if slowly, towards New Providence Island. He’d taken enough of the sightings himself to feel confident in the accuracy of his position. The accuracy of his chart, however, remained uncertain.

They’d sighted the first of The Bahamas that morning and had passed through the channel between the two outer islands – the last vestige of deep water before the tricky shoals and reefs that guarded New Providence Island. His impatience grew as New Providence Island inched closer. The only people whose impatience rivaled his were the crew. They’d endured rancid water, weevil infested hardtack and spoiled meat for weeks as the voyage stretched on. Sometimes Rogers felt that only the grog kept them in line.

He made one last glance toward the moon, hoping to see a silhouette of land beneath. New Providence had been without a governor for 14 years and grown into a raging nest of piracy and lawlessness. Some even dared call it a Pirate Republic. Whether it could be considered a nation or not mattered little to Rogers. What mattered was that the settlement of Nassau was British, and His Majesty King George had appointed Rogers as Governor with the mandate to restore the rule of law. The Crown’s law.

Pirates ruled the island, and had for over a decade, but that was about to change. Before sailing from England, Rogers had been informed that well over two hundred pirates could typically be found in Nassau, and hundreds more manned the crews of ships plundering the wealth of the new world. He had also been told of a few hundred other villagers who were not engaging in piracy. However, he expected these men to be former pirates or equally corrupt men who made their living off the spoils which the pirates had stolen. He knew he faced a murderer’s row of pirate Captains; men whose mere name struck fear into the hearts of honest merchants from Halifax to Barbados. Notorious brigands like Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, Henry Jennings, and John Cockram had siphoned the wealth of the new world for a generation. Yet he, Woodes Rogers, would be the Governor who tamed the bunch.

Piracy had gotten so out of hand that it literally affected the entire European economy. Countless honest men had been ruined when their cargoes and ships had been stolen from them. It was impossible to guess how much of the tax revenue needed to govern England had not been collected due to the contraband nature of the trade. All of England suffered higher price, higher unemployment, and less public assistance due to the greed of these thieves. Also, with war looming, The King could not afford to go even deeper in debt. Every shilling would matter should the war begin.

Despite this, Rogers knew these men, or their type. He’d sailed with them himself many times. Only a few were corrupt to their core. The rest had been driven outside the law due to desperation and circumstances beyond their control. He did not plan to eradicate them. He planned to pardon them. Before leaving England, he had persuaded The King that these were, in their hearts, good men. If they were offered a pardon instead of a death sentence, Rogers believed most would gladly return to the right side of the law. He offered them a fresh start and he believed most would take it. They would rather be honest merchants themselves, welcome in any port, rather than fearing the gallows with each landfall. My father would have been proud, he thought, the son of a fisherman, having an audience with The King himself!

Rogers had everything riding on this assumption. He’d already received a governorship for the idea. The idea of his star rising further yet appealed to him. Who knows how far that star might rise? If he could tame the Caribbean, his future would be limitless. If the rumored war with Spain were to ignite, Rogers would suddenly find himself in a strategic position with hundreds of experienced men who had seen combat. These former pirate ships could easily sail under Admiral Rogers and strike a blow for England here in the New World. A successful governorship, scouring the area of pirates, and a successful war - perhaps he might even be elevated to The Peerage? Lord Rogers has quite the ring to it, he thought with a smile. To say nothing of the lands and wealth that accompanied the title. And if I’m wrong, he continued, I have 60 guns at my disposal to prove otherwise.

When at last the Delicia did reach land, he would face his first major decision. He wished to surprise the island, but that would mean risking the reefs at night. He’d been told of a fort on a small hill guarding the bay and he hoped that even if it didn’t have an accompanying lighthouse, its elevated position and lights would at least serve as something of a beacon to light his way into the harbor. The lighthouse, or at least the fort, would guide him into the harbor and likewise he would guide these men back to the light of His Majesties good graces. While a full moon would have helped him, the half moon reflected just enough light to make sailing through the shallows possible. Rogers could imagine the reaction of the men on the island awakening to see The Union Jack flying once again in the harbor. The day of reckoning loomed close. He retreated to his cabin and thought, for perhaps the hundredth time, of the men he considered his two main obstacles in this endeavor.

His first adversary was Benjamin Hornigold. The Crown believed Hornigold spent most of his time in Nassau these days, rather than at sea. He had accumulated such wealth and power that he had other captains sail his ships for him; essentially a pirate admiral, although he did not claim the rank. He counted among his subordinates none other than Edward Teach – AKA Blackbeard. The broadsheets painted Blackbeard as the most fearsome pirate on earth, yet as fearsome as he was, he in turn sailed at the pleasure of Benjamin Hornigold. While men like Teach roamed the seas and gathered spoils, Hornigold could be found recruiting men and acquiring ships. More than any other man, he represented what passed for government in Nassau.

Hornigold was also believed to be expanding. He understood that if Nassau fell, then with it fell the entire pirate power-base. To defeat that he needed to grow. If the pirates could reclaim places like Port Royal and Tortuga, plus expand their operations to locations like St. Christophers, Bermuda, and perhaps even Charles Town, in the new Carolina colony, these bases could support each other and offer refuge in case of attack. If one base fell, the pirates could flee to another until things calmed. The Navy couldn’t be everywhere all at the same time.
Under this strategy, the so-called Pirate Republic could then expand across the Atlantic to São Tomé and the Cape Verdes, off the coast of West Africa, then to Madagascar and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. They would threaten shipping for the entire globe. Even mere fishermen, like his father, would ultimately not be safe.

In truth, Rogers believed Hornigold’s plan to be a fool’s errand, as the more powerful Hornigold got, the more European powers would need to crush him. Rogers also understood that Hornigold would be much more easily de-fanged now, before he could expand. If all he did in his life was defeat Hornigold and prevent the expansion of the Pirate Republic, Rogers could return home to his friends and family in Bristol and hold his head high. To do that, he simply planned to offer Hornigold the pardon. When Hornigold saw that his plays were foiled before they started, he would, Rogers hoped, accept the pardon and use is wealth in a life of leisure. If Hornigold took the pardon, he would influence countless others.

Perhaps the most powerful opposition lie in Henry Jennings, present location unknown. Jennings motivations might be even more severe. He was a Jacobite – which is to say a Christian who believed that the exiled James Stewart, son of king James II, to be the rightful heir to the throne. James would be turning 17 shortly, old enough now to rule a nation, and young enough to desire the crown. Should James ascend to the throne, England would yet again have its national religion changed, this time from Protestantism back to Catholicism. Henry Jennings was believed to have accumulated so much wealth that he could sail to France, retrieve James and ferry him to England. From there, the wealth could be spent recruiting an army and placing James on the throne. While England and France may be allies against Spain in the forthcoming war, that would likely not stop King Louis from interfering yet again in English politics. With Henry Jennings wealth and King Louis’s additional backing, such an audacious plan actually had a realistic chance of success.

As a protestant, Woodes Rogers could not allow this to happen. Nearly all of Bristol, and specifically his friends and family, were all protestants. Things had gone hard for them under the previous catholic monarchs, and they would likely suffer again should James depose King George. Finally, as a logical man, he understood that King George himself was the one who had named him Governor of Nassau and provided him the ships and men to fulfill that mission. He would certainly not find the same favor with a catholic monarch. He was firmly King George’s man, both out of loyalty and practicality. Any threat to The King was a threat to him as well, and could not be allowed to succeed. Thus, Henry Jennings could not, under any circumstances, be allowed to succeed. Rogers hoped Hornigold would take the pardon and make it impossible for Jennings to operate, thus forcing Jennings to accept the pardon as well. However, if he did not take the pardon, he would find himself at the end of a rope. Jennings, much like Rogers himself, had everything to gain, yet also had everything to lose.