Privateers
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John Coxon
John Coxon was an English buccaneer active in the Caribbean in the late 1670s and early 1680s. In January 1680 he led an attack on the Spanish town of Portobelo and was elected admiral of a combined buccaneer fleet. He then led roughly 330 to 350 men on foot across the Isthmus of Panama to…
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Bartolomeu Português
A Portuguese buccaneer whose escape from Spanish captivity — stabbing a guard, floating ashore on wine jars, and recapturing his own prison ship — became one of Exquemelin’s best-known stories.
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Pierre le Grand
Pierre le Grand was a French buccaneer said to have captured a Spanish galleon near Hispaniola in the mid-17th century with a crew of 28 men in a small boat, in a raid often cited as an early, defining episode of Caribbean buccaneering.
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Christopher Myngs
Christopher Myngs was an English naval officer and buccaneer who led fleets of privateers against Spanish colonial towns in the Caribbean during the 1650s and 1660s. He raided settlements including Tolu, Santa Marta, and Cumana, and in 1662 captured and plundered Santiago de Cuba. In February 1663 he led the largest buccaneer fleet then assembled,…
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Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan was a Welsh privateer who led major English raids against Spanish colonial holdings in the Caribbean, including the sack of Panama City in 1671, under commissions from English colonial authorities. Though his actions were often piratical in nature, he operated with official sanction for most of his career. He was later knighted and…
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Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake was an English privateer and explorer who raided Spanish colonial shipping and settlements under the sanction of Queen Elizabeth I, and became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577-1580). Spain regarded him as a pirate and called him ‘El Draque.’ He later served as a vice admiral against the Spanish Armada…
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William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, explorer, and naturalist who circumnavigated the globe three times and was the first Englishman to explore parts of Australia. He sailed with buccaneer crews that raided Spanish shipping in the Pacific before later commanding Royal Navy exploration voyages. His detailed published journals influenced navigation, natural history, and literature, including…
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John Hawkins
Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander and one of the pioneers of the English transatlantic slave trade, later serving as treasurer of the Royal Navy. He led early English trading and raiding voyages against Spanish colonial interests in the Caribbean. He died during a joint naval expedition with Francis Drake against Spanish territories…
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Piet Pieterszoon Hein
Piet Pieterszoon Hein was a Dutch naval officer and admiral of the Dutch West India Company, famous for capturing an entire Spanish treasure fleet near Cuba in 1628, the only time such a fleet was fully captured intact. He had earlier been enslaved as a galley rower after capture by Spanish forces. He was killed…
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Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers was an English privateer captain who commanded a circumnavigation voyage (1708-1711) during which he rescued the marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe. He later became the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas, tasked with suppressing the pirate haven at Nassau, offering the 1718 royal pardon and driving out or capturing…