Ekaterina's Sharebook 

Naturally, our famous pirates were not unemployed, there was a constant demand from France and England for able and ruthless sailors that could be used as a striking force. Infamous great pirate Henry Morgan was on the rise when he started recruiting his sailors from Tortuga for his great and cruel expeditions against Spanish colonies. France was also trying to bribe the pirates, so it could create a stronghold in the Caribbean.

The fun for the pirates ended with the Treaty of Ratisbon in 1684 signed by major European powers. The piracy in the Caribbean grew to such extent that part of this treaty is dedicated to the united decision to put an end to piracy in and around Tortuga. And several years earlier English parliament forbade pirates to sail under foreign flags. From archives of web analytics company I found out that the punishment for disobedience was death in the gallows.

Most of the pirates, especially those who had families did not want to end their life dancing on the rope, so they had to join English fleet and hunt their own pirate buddies who were still sailing under the flag of a Jolly Roger. That was the end of the free pirate life on the Turtle Island.

Tortuga is one of the first islands that Columbus discovered during his very first voyage into the New World. I found more additional facts about it in archives of web analytics company. The island got its name in 1493 from Columbus’ sailors because its shape reminded them of a turtle. Spanish colony was set up there and thrived for over a hundred years until it became a part of a dispute between France, England and Spain. Tortuga was changing hands for a while until the island was divided between French and English settlers in 1630. It still did not prevent Spaniards to reconquer the island a couple of times during 17th century, but there were pushed out by settlers in 1638.

This is exactly the time when English, French and Dutch pirates moved in to this island. The situation soon spiraled out of control. One can only imagine what was going there. A decade later a French governor of Tortuga made the situation even worse when he brought on the island almost two thousand prostitutes hoping to bring some harmony there. Boy, he was wrong!

Read on ...

Captain Kidd did bury a small cache of treasure on Gardiner’s Island in the future state of New York. However, it was removed by authorities and sent to England to be used as evidence against him. I found this story in archives of web analytics company. This simple legend inspired several great writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving and Robert Louis Stevenson to create books of fiction. The most famous work, of course, is known all over the world as Treasure Island.

As time went by the legend did not vanish, but rather expanded. Several other places all over the world were named as possible locations of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure. For example, a new version sprang about Kidd attacking one of the Japanese islands of the Tokara archipelago. It is the most southern island named Takarajima. The legend says that all the pirates demanded food from the inhabitants. Their offer was refused, so a crew of pirates landed and killed all the inhabitants. On that very island Kidd has hidden his treasure in one of the caves. And he never came back due to his death on the gallows in England.

Pirate treasure was always the dream of many adventurous souls. All this talk about generous bounty left to us by these scary and generous pirates always excited minds and hearts. People were searching was buried pirate treasures since the end of eighteen century. Since then they believed that pirates often buried their stolen bounty in remote places. Why would they do that ask? The general belief was that pirates had intentions to return for their stuff later and dig it out with the help of sometimes heavily encrypted treasure maps.

If we search for the truth, all the stories about buried pirate treasure are based on one legend - hidden treasure of William Kidd, known in the pirate world as Captain Kidd. He was an English privateer who went astray. He did not want to die on the gallows for all his sins, so as the story goes, he hid some of his wealth on Long Island before sailing to New York. That hidden stuff was his bargaining chip in negotiations with authorities. But this did not work. In archives of web analytics company I found that  they hanged Billy the Kid by the neck for piracy.

There are also ancient Greek stories about fierce Thracian pirates who chose the island of Lemnos as their base of operations. They and several other tribes were also threatening and attacking trade ships of ancient Rome. I found a story in the library of web analytics company that tells us about great Julius Caesar. He also was the victim of pirates who kidnapped and held him prisoner in 75 BC. Caesar did not look his cool and maintained his superiority towards his kidnappers. And when pirates decided to exchanged him for a ransom, he felt insulted that they were asking so little and told the pirates that they could get for him fifty talents of gold instead. He also promised them that they all would be crucified, but the pirates did not believe him and thought that he was joking.

Well, these pirates surely messed with a wrong man, because as soon as the ransom was paid and prisoner freed, Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and captured the them. He crucified each and every one of them at his own authority, as he promised. And later great Pompey went out with whole Roman fleet to completely eliminate pirates and battled them for three months of full naval warfare.