The Pirates' Who's Who Part 42

RODERIGO, PETER.

A "Flanderkin."

Commanded a Dutch vessel, the _Edward and Thomas_, that sailed from Boston in 1674, and took several small English vessels along the coast of Maine.

Tried for piracy at Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, and condemned to be hanged, but was afterwards pardoned.

ROGERS, CAPTAIN THOMAS.

Commanded a ship, the _Forlorn_. Routed the Spaniards at Venta Cruz in 1671. One of Morgan's captains in his attack on Panama.

ROGERS, CAPTAIN WOODES.

As the life of this famous navigator and privateer is, very justly, treated fully in the "Dictionary of National Biography" it is unnecessary to mention more than a few incidents in his adventurous career. Woodes Rogers was not only a good navigator, for on many occasions he showed a remarkable gift for commanding mutinous crews in spite of having many officers on whom he could place little reliance. On leaving Cork in 1708, after an incompetent pilot had almost run his ship on two rocks off Kinsale called "The Sovereigne's Bollacks," Rogers describes his crew thus: "A third were foreigners, while of Her Majestie's subjects many were taylors, tinkers, pedlars, fiddlers, and hay-makers, with ten boys and one negro." It was with crews such as these that many of the boldest and most remarkable early voyages were made, and they required a man of Woodes Rogers stamp to knock them into sailors. Rogers had a gift for inspiring friendship wherever he went. On arriving at the coast of Brazil, his boat was fired on when trying to land at Angre de Reys. This settlement had but lately received several hostile visitors in the way of French pirates. But before a week was pa.s.sed Woodes Rogers had so won the hearts of the Portuguese Governor and the settlers that he and his "musick" were invited to take part in an important religious function, or "entertainment," as Rogers calls it, "where," he says, "we waited on the Governour, Signior Raphael de Silva Lagos, in a body, being ten of us, with two trumpets and a hautboy, which he desir'd might play us to church, where our musick did the office of an organ, but separate from the singing, which was by the fathers well perform'd. Our musick played 'Hey, boys, up go we!' and all manner of noisy paltry tunes. And after service, our musicians, who were by that time more than half drunk, march'd at the head of the company; next to them an old father and two fryars carrying lamps of incense, then an image dressed with flowers and wax candles, then about forty priests, fryars, etc., followed by the Governor of the town, myself, and Capt.

Courtney, with each of us a long wax candle lighted. The ceremony held about two hours; after which we were splendidly entertained by the fathers of the Convent, and then by the Governour. They unanimously told us they expected nothing from us but our Company, and they had no more but our musick."

What a delightful picture this calls to the mind--the little Brazilian town, the tropical foliage, the Holy Procession, "wax figure" and priests, followed by the Governor with an English buccaneer on either side, and headed by a crew of drunken Protestant English sailors playing "Hey, boys, up go we!"

Rogers, not to be outdone in hospitality, next day entertained the Governor and fathers on board the _Duke_, "when," he says, "they were very merry, and in their cups propos'd the Pope's health to us. But we were quits with 'em by toasting the Archbishop of Canterbury; and to keep up the humour, we also proposed William Pen's health, and they liked the liquor so well, that they refused neither." Alas! the good Governor and the fathers were not in a fit state to leave the ship when the end came to the entertainment, so slept on board, being put ash.o.r.e in the morning, "when we saluted 'em with a huzza from each ship, because," as Rogers says, "we were not overstocked with powder."

It was in March, 1710, that Rogers brought his little fleet into the harbour of Guam, one of the Ladrone Islands. Although at war with Spain, the captain soon became on his usual friendly terms with the Governor of this Spanish colony, and gave an entertainment on board his ship to him and four other Spanish gentlemen, making them "as welcome as time and place would afford, with musick and our sailors dancing." The Governor gave a return party on sh.o.r.e, to which Rogers and all his brother officers were invited, partaking of "sixty dishes of various sorts." After this feast Rogers gave his host a present, consisting of "two negro boys dress'd in liveries." One other instance of Woodes Rogers adaptability must suffice. In the year 1717 he was appointed Governor to the Bahama Islands, at New Providence, now called Na.s.sau. His chief duty was to stamp out the West India pirates who had made this island their headquarters for many years, and were in complete power there, and numbered more than 2,000 desperadoes, including such famous men as Vane and Teach. Rogers's only weapon, besides the man-of-war he arrived in, was a royal proclamation from King George offering free pardon to all pirates or buccaneers who would surrender at once to the new Governor. At first the pirates were inclined to resist his landing, but in the end the tactful Rogers got his own way, and not only landed, but was received by an armed guard of honour, and pa.s.sed between two lines of pirates who fired salutes with their muskets.

Most of the pirates surrendered and received their pardons, but some, who reverted shortly afterwards to piracy and were captured and brought back to New Providence, were tried and actually hanged by Rogers's late buccaneer subjects.

Woodes Rogers eventually died in Na.s.sau in the year 1729.

He was the author of a delightful book ent.i.tled "A Cruising Voyage Round the World, begun in 1708 and finish'd in 1711, by Captain Woodes Rogers, Commander-in-Chief on this Expedition, with the ships _Duke_ and _d.u.c.h.ess_ of Bristol."

This was published in London in 1712.

ROLLSON, PETER.

Captain Gow's gunner in the _Revenge_. Hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping, in June, 1725.

ROSS, GEORGE, or ROSE.

Of Glasgow.

One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew of the _Royal James_. Was hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, on November 8th, 1718, and buried in the marsh below low-water mark.

ROSSOE, FRANCIS.

In June, 1717, in company with four other Carolina pirates, was placed on trial for his life. Convicted with De Cossey, De Mont, and Ernandos, of piratically taking the vessels the _Turtle Dove_, the _Penelope_, and the _Virgin Queen_ in July of the previous year, and, after being sentenced to death by Judge Trott, Rossoe and his fellow-pirates were promptly executed.

ROUNDSIVEL, CAPTAIN GEORGE.

Of the Bahama Islands.

He refused to avail himself of King George's pardon to all pirates in 1717, and went off again on the "main chance" till captured.

ROW, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.

In 1679, at the Boca del Toro, was with the buccaneer fleet that attacked and sacked Santa Maria. Row commanded a small vessel of twenty tons, a crew of twenty-five men, and no guns.

RUIZ.

One of Captain Gilbert's crew in the pirate schooner _Panda_, which plundered the Salem brig _Mexican_ in 1834. Tried in Boston and condemned to be hanged. Pleading insanity, he was respited for sixty days and then hanged on September 12th, 1835.

RUPERT. Prince of the Rhine.

After an adventurous life as a soldier on the Continent, he sailed from Ireland in 1648 with seven ships. His own ship was the _Swallow_. He was a man of boundless energy, who was never happy if not engaged in some enterprise, and as legitimate warfare gave him few opportunities he turned pirate. He spent five years at sea, largely in the West Indies, meeting with every kind of adventure.

In 1653 he was caught in a storm in the Virgin Islands, and his fleet was wrecked. His brother, Prince Maurice, was lost with his ship, the _Defiance_, the only ship saved being the _Swallow_. Prince Rupert returned in the _Swallow_ to France in the same year. Hitherto the prince had been a restless, clever man, "very sparkish in his dress," but this catastrophe to his fleet and the loss of his brother broke his spirit, and he retired to England, where he died in his bed in 1682 at Spring Gardens.

LE SAGE, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.

In 1684 was at San Domingo, in command of the _Tigre_, carrying thirty guns and a crew of 130 men.

SALTER, EDWARD.

Hanged in Virginia in 1718 with the rest of Captain Teach's crew.

SAMPLE, CAPTAIN RICHARD. Buccaneer.

Was at New Providence Island in 1718, and received the royal pardon from King George, offered to those pirates who surrendered themselves to Governor Woodes Rogers. Like many another, he fell again into his former wicked ways, and ended his life by being hanged.

SAMPLE, CAPTAIN ROBERT.

One of England's crew in the _Royal James_. In 1720 they took a prize, the _Elizabeth and Katherine_, off the coast of West Africa. Fitting her out for a pirate, they named her the _Flying King_, and Sample was put in command. In company with Captain Low, he sailed to Brazil and did much mischief amongst the Portuguese shipping. In November of the same year the two pirate ships were attacked by a very powerful man-of-war. Lane got away, but Sample was compelled to run his ship ash.o.r.e on the coast. Of his crew of seventy men, twelve were killed and the rest taken prisoners, of whom the Portuguese hanged thirty-eight. Of these, thirty-two were English, three Dutch, two French, and one Portuguese.

SANDERS, THOMAS.

An Elizabethan mariner who was taken prisoner by the Moors. He wrote a narrative of his life as a slave on a Barbary pirate galley.