During the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’, John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham was a notorious pirate captain who pillaged the Caribbean for treasures. Despite his brief two-year career, Calico Jack gained notoriety as a flamboyant buccaneer who sailed alongside the two most famous female pirates in history.
Little is known of Rackham’s early years, except that he was born in England around 1680 and earned his distinctive moniker due to his penchant for adorning himself in fine Indian cotton clothing. Prior to his pirate days, Rackham served as a quartermaster aboard Charles Vane’s pirate ship, Ranger. Unlike Rackham, Vane was a br*tal and feared hijacker known for his tendency to t*rture and br*talize the crew members of the ships he captured.
Despite Vane’s fearsome reputation, it didn’t save him from losing his captaincy after failing to successfully plunder a vessel in 1718.
As they sailed off the coast of The Bahamas, Vane spotted a French Man-o-War. Despite only having two small ships at his disposal – a brigantine and a sloop – Vane chose not to attack, fearing defeat and capture. Rackham was outraged and vehemently objected, but Vane remained firm in his decision. However, majority of the crew disagreed with their captain’s lack of action and saw it as an act of cowardice, instead siding with Rackham.
At this time, pirate ships functioned under democratic principles, with crews allowed to vote on various matters, including the selection of their leader and which targets to attack. Rackham even organized a vote for the captaincy, in which he emerged victorious, leading to Vane being relieved of his duties and given the smaller pirate vessel.
The next year, Vane found himself imprisoned after experiencing a shipwreck and being captured. He was ultimately executed on 29th March 1721.
After being voted in as captain, Rackham wasted no time in launching attacks on smaller vessels along the coasts of The Bahamas and Jamaica. In 1719, he and his crew set their sights on the Jamaican merchant ship, the Kingston, which they successfully stole. However, their daring act did not go unnoticed as the ship’s owners in Port Royal sent bounty hunters after them.
The bounty hunters tracked the pirates down to the Isla de Pinos off the Cuban coast, where the Kingston and Rackham’s ship were anchored together. Unfortunately for Rackham and his crew, they were onshore when the hunters arrived, and upon returning, they found both ships missing.
Undeterred, Rackham managed to capture another ship and sailed it to Cuba for repairs. However, during their stay, a Spanish warship arrived at the dock with an English sloop in tow. Upon recognizing Rackham’s ship, the Spanish attempted to seize it, but the low tides prevented their success. Taking advantage of the situation, Rackham’s crew rowed to the captured sloop, overpowered its crew, and sailed off just as the Spanish warship fired at his abandoned old ship.
Making his way to New Providence, Rackham sought to take advantage of an amnesty and pardon being offered to pirates by Woodes Rogers, the governor of The Bahamas, on behalf of King George I. Appealing to Rogers for clemency, Rackham admitted that he had been press-ganged into piracy by Charles Vane. The governor, who harbored no love for the ruthless Vane, granted Rackham a pardon.
Attempting to start a new in the town of Nassau, Rackham struggled to adapt to an honest life. Once his funds ran out, he quickly returned to his life of piracy. This time, he set sail with two unconventional crew members – Mary Read and Anne Bonny – who defied gender expectations in the 18th century.
Anne Bonny, who had arrived in Nassau with her husband James Bonny, a sailor and former pirate turned informant for Rogers, frequented the local pirate taverns. It wasn’t long before she fell for the charming Rackham, and the two quickly developed a intense rom*nce.
Rackham made attempts to pay James to divorce Anne, but the furious Bonny refused and threatened to harm the pirate for sleeping with his wife. In order to escape James’s wrath, Rackham and Anne fled to sea, with Anne disguising herself as a male crew member due to the stigma against women on pirate ships.
Mary was born in England in 1685 and was raised as a boy so that her mother could continue to receive maintenance payments from her dead son’s grandmother. To avoid destitution, Mary was forced to live under the guise of her deceased brother, and the deception lasted through her childhood.
After leaving home, Mary worked as a male servant before disguising herself as a man to join the Royal Navy. When the ship she was serving on was captured by pirates, Mary happily joined them. Like Rackham, she later received a pardon from the king but grew bored of the mundane life on land and yearned to return to the high seas. She joined Rackham’s crew after he gave up on living a legitimate life in Nassau.
Together, Rackham and his crew stole a sloop and attacked other pirate ships. Mary Read became known for her impressive and fearless fighting skills. Anne Bonny, meanwhile, became pregnant with Rackham’s child and was dropped off in Cuba as a pirate ship was no place for a newborn.
In pursuit of Rackham, pirate hunter Jonathan Barnett and former pirate Jean Bonadvis were sent by Woodes Rogers to put an end to Rackham’s terrorizing of fishing vessels off the coast of Jamaica.
While sailing towards the western tip of Jamaica, Bonadvis heard a cannon being fired from a ship. Upon investigation, Barnett discovered it was Rackham’s sloop and demanded to know who was in charge. When Rackham revealed himself, Barnett’s crew attacked and overtook the ship, as most of Rackham’s crew were drunk and incapable of fighting. However, Bonny, Read, and a few others fought back fiercely, with Read even firing into the cabin at their cowardly crewmates. After a scuffle, the pirates surrendered and were arrested, later sent to Spanish Town in Jamaica.
Rackham was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was h*nged on November 18th, 1780, and his body was placed in a gibbet cage on a small islet at the entrance to Port Royal, now known as Rackham’s Cay. Bonny and Read were spared the same fate as they claimed to be pregnant, and since it was against the law to kill an unborn child, they were imprisoned instead. Read later died in jail due to contracting a fever, and there is no record of what happened to Bonny.
By the time of Rackham’s death, the era of piracy was coming to an end, with New Providence no longer serving as a safe haven for pirates. By 1726, many infamous pirates such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Black Bart Roberts, Stede Bonnet, and Calico Jack were all dead. The h*nging of William Fly in 1726 marked the end of the pirate reign, and the lawless era of the Caribbean was over. The Royal Navy was in charge, and the days of the pirates were gone for good.