historical
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Bartholomew Sharp
Bartholomew Sharp was an English buccaneer who led a raiding expedition across the Isthmus of Panama and along the Pacific coast of South America in 1680-1681, capturing Spanish ships and, notably, a set of Spanish navigational charts of the Pacific coast that were highly valuable to the English. He was tried for piracy upon returning…
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Rock Brasiliano
Rock Brasiliano was a Dutch buccaneer based at Port Royal, Jamaica, and Tortuga, known from contemporary accounts, particularly Alexandre Exquemelin’s Buccaneers of America, for extreme cruelty toward Spanish captives. He raided shipping and coastal settlements in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico for roughly two decades. Records of his later life and death are fragmentary.
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François l’Olonnais
François l’Olonnais was a French buccaneer operating from Tortuga and Hispaniola, notorious in contemporary accounts for extreme brutality toward Spanish captives, including the sack of Maracaibo and Gibraltar (Venezuela) in 1666-1667. Much of what is known about him comes from Alexandre Exquemelin’s 1678 book Buccaneers of America. He reportedly met a violent end at the…
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Michel de Grammont
Michel de Grammont was a French buccaneer active in the Caribbean, participating in major raids on Spanish colonial towns including Maracaibo and Veracruz alongside other buccaneer captains such as Laurens de Graaf. He held a semi-official status as a French privateer for parts of his career. He disappeared at sea in a storm around 1686…
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Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish was an English privateer and the third person to complete a global circumnavigation (1586-1588), during which he raided Spanish shipping and settlements in the Pacific, including capturing the treasure galleon Santa Ana. His voyage returned enormous profits to his investors. A second circumnavigation attempt in 1591-92 failed, and he died at sea, likely…
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Amaro Pargo
Amaro Pargo was a Spanish corsair from Tenerife in the Canary Islands who, under Spanish crown authorization, captured English and Dutch ships along the Cádiz-Caribbean trade route in the early 18th century. He was later granted noble status for his service to Spain. He was also known for significant charitable donations, and legends of buried…
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Cornelis Jol
Cornelis Jol was a Dutch privateer and admiral for the Dutch West India Company during the Eighty Years’ War, raiding Spanish and Portuguese shipping and territory across the Atlantic, including attacks on Campeche and later the capture of Luanda from Portugal. His nickname ‘Houtebeen’ (‘Peg Leg’) referenced a wooden prosthetic leg, making him one of…
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Ingela Gathenhielm
Ingela Gathenhielm was a Swedish privateer who ran privateering operations alongside, and later after the death of, her husband Lars Gathenhielm, who held a royal license to raid enemy shipping during the Great Northern War. After his death in 1718, she took over and expanded the enterprise, becoming known as ‘the Shipping Queen.’ She retired…
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Louis-Michel Aury
Louis-Michel Aury was a French privateer who fought for Latin American independence movements against Spain, establishing a short-lived privateer base at Galveston Island, Texas, in 1816-1817, before Jean Lafitte took over the settlement in his absence. He later joined operations against Spanish Florida and captured Old Providence Island in the Caribbean. He died there in…
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Dominique You
Dominique You was a French-born artilleryman and Baratarian pirate captain who, alongside Jean and Pierre Lafitte, ran smuggling and privateering operations from Barataria Bay, Louisiana. He commanded the pirate vessel Le Pandoure and was captured when American forces raided Barataria in 1814. He later commanded an artillery battery for Andrew Jackson at the Battle of…