The Pirates' Who's Who Part 47

He sailed with Captain Dew from the Barbadoes with a Commission from the Governor to join with the Royal African Company in an attack on the French factory at Goori, at Gambia. Instead of going to West Africa, Tew and his crew turned pirates, and sailed to the Red Sea. Here he met with a great Indian ship, which he had the hardiness to attack, and soon took her, and each of his men received as his share 3,000, and with this booty they sailed to Madagascar. He was already held in high esteem by the pirates who resided in that favourite stronghold. At one time he joined Misson, the originator of "piracy-without-tears" at his garden city of Libertatia.

A quarrel arose between Misson's French followers and Tew's English pirates. A duel was arranged between the two leaders, but by the tact of another pirate--an unfrocked Italian priest--all was settled amicably, Tew being appointed Admiral and the diplomatic ex-priest suitably chosen as Secretary of State to the little republic. Such a reputation for kindness had Tew that ships seldom resisted him, but on knowing who their a.s.sailant was they gave themselves up freely. Some of Tew's men started a daughter colony on their own account, and the Admiral sailed after them to try and persuade them to return to the fold at Libertatia. The men refused, and while Tew was arguing and trying to persuade them to change their minds, his ship was lost in a sudden storm. Tew was soon rescued by the ship _Bijoux_ with Misson on board, who, with a few men, had escaped being ma.s.sacred by the natives. Misson, giving Tew an equal share of his gold and diamonds, sailed away, while Tew managed to return to Rhode Island in New England, where he settled down for a while. To show the honesty of this man, being now affluent, he kept a promise to the friends in Bermuda who originally set him up with a ship, by sending them fourteen times the original cost of the sloop as their just share of the profits.

At last, Tew found the call of the sea and the lure of the "grand account"

too great to resist, and he consented to take command of a pirate ship which was to go on a cruise in the Red Sea. Arrived there, Tew attacked a big ship belonging to the Great Mogul, and during the battle was mortally wounded.

His historian tells us "a shot carried away the rim of Tew's belly, who held his bowels with his hands for some s.p.a.ce. When he dropped, it struck such terror to his men that they suffered themselves to be taken without further resistance." Thus fell fighting a fine sailor, a brave man, and a successful pirate, and one who cheated the gallows awaiting him at Execution Dock.

THOMAS, CAPTAIN, _alias_ STEDE BONNET.

THOMAS, JOHN.

Of Jamaica.

This Welsh pirate was one of Major Stede Bonnet's crew of the _Royal James_. Hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1718.

THOMPSON, CAPTAIN.

A renegade pirate who joined the Barbary corsairs, becoming a Mohammedan.

Commanded a pirate vessel, and was taken prisoner off the coast of Ireland by an Elizabethan ship. Hanged at Wapping.

THURBAR, RICHARD.

Tried for piracy at Boston in 1704.

THURSTON, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.

Of Tortuga Island.

Refused to accept the Royal offer of pardon of 1670, when all commissions to privateer on the Spanish were revoked. Thurston, with a mulatto, Diego, using obsolete commissions issued by the late Governor of Jamaica, Modyford, continued to prey upon Spanish shipping, carrying their prizes to Tortuga.

THWAITES, CAPTAIN JOSEPH.

c.o.xswain to Captain Hood, he was promoted in 1763 to be a midshipman in H.M.S. _Zealous_, cruising in the Mediterranean. Putting into Algiers, Thwaites was sent ash.o.r.e by the captain to buy some sheep, but did not return to the boat and, it being supposed he had been a.s.sa.s.sinated, the ship sailed without him. The fact was that young Thwaites, who spoke Turkish and Greek, had accepted an invitation to enter the Ottoman service. Embracing the Mohammedan religion, Thwaites was put in command of a forty-four gun frigate.

His first engagement was with the flagship of the Tunisian Admiral, which he took and carried to Algiers. He soon brought in another prize, and so pleased the Dey that he presented him with a scimitar, the hilt of which was set with diamonds.

Thwaites, having soiled his hands with blood, now became the pirate indeed, taking vessels of any nation, and drowning all his prisoners by tying a double-headed shot round their necks and throwing them overboard.

He stopped at no atrocity--even children were killed, and one prisoner, an English lieutenant and an old shipmate of his, called Roberts, he murdered without a second thought. When Thwaites happened to be near Gibraltar, he would go ash.o.r.e and through his agents, Messrs. Ross and Co., transmit large sums of money to his wife and children in England. But Thwaites had another home at Algiers fitted with every luxury, including three Armenian girls.

For several years this successful pirate plundered ships of all nations until such pressure was brought to bear on the Dey of Algiers that Thwaites thought it best to collect what valuables he could carry away and disappear.

Landing at Gibraltar in 1796, dressed in European clothes, he procured a pa.s.sage to New York in an American frigate, the _Const.i.tution_. Arriving in the United States, he purchased an estate not far from New York and built himself a handsome mansion, but a year later retribution came from an unlooked-for quarter, for he was bitten by a rattlesnake and died in the most horrible agonies both of mind and body.

TOMKINS, JOHN.

Of Gloucestershire.

Hanged at the age of 23 at Rhode Island in 1723. One of Charles Harris's crew.

TOPPING, DENNIS.

He shipped on board the sloop _Buck_ at Providence in 1718, in company with Anstis and other famous pirates. Was killed at the taking of a rich Portuguese ship off the coast of Brazil.

TOWNLEY, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.

A buccaneer who in the year 1684 was one of the mixed English and French fleet blockading Panama. On this occasion, he commanded a ship with a crew of 180 men. By the next year the quarrels between the English had reached such a pitch that Townley and Swan left Davis and sailed in search of their French friends. In May, 1685, Townley was amongst the company that took and sacked Guayaquil. In January, 1686, Townley rescued the French pirate Grogniet and some 350 Frenchmen who, when attacking the town of Quibo, were surprised by a Spanish squadron, which burnt their vessels while the crews were on sh.o.r.e. Townley then sailed north with his French comrades and sacked Granada.

His next adventure was to take the town of Lavelia, near to Panama, where he found a rich cargo which the Viceroy had placed on sh.o.r.e because he was afraid to send it to sea when so many pirates were about.

In August of the same year, Townley's ship was attacked by three Spanish men-of-war. A furious fight took place, which ended by two of the Spanish ships being captured and the third burnt. In this action the gallant Townley was gravely wounded, and died shortly afterwards.

TRISTRIAN, CAPTAIN. French buccaneer.

In the year 1681 Dampier, with other malcontents, broke away from Captain Sharp and marched on foot across the Isthmus of Darien. After undergoing terrible hardships for twenty-two days, the party arrived on the Atlantic seaboard, to find Captain Tristrian with his ship lying in La Sounds Cay.

The buccaneers bought red, blue, and green beads, and knives, scissors, and looking-gla.s.ses from the French pirates to give to their faithful Indian guides as parting gifts.

TRYER, MATTHEW.

A Carolina pirate, accused and acquitted on a charge of having captured a sloop belonging to Samuel Salters, of Bermuda, in 1699.

TUCKER, ROBERT.

Of the Island of Jamaica.

One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Tried, condemned, and hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, on November 8th, 1718. The prisoners were not defended by counsel, because the members of the South Carolina Bar still deemed it "a base and vile thing to plead for money or reward." We understand that the barristers of South Carolina have since persuaded themselves to overcome this prejudice. The result was that, with the famous Judge Trott, a veritable terror to pirates, being President of the Court of Vice-Admiralty, the prisoners had short and ready justice, and all but four of the thirty-five pirates tried were found guilty.

TUCKERMAN, CAPTAIN.

Sailed with Captain Porter in the West Indies. Captain Johnson gives an account of the meeting between these two pirate novices and the great Captain Roberts at Hispaniola.

TURNLEY, CAPTAIN RICHARD.

A New Providence pirate who received the general pardon from Captain Woodes Rogers in 1718. When, a little later, the scandal of Captain Rackam's infatuation for Anne Bonny was causing such gossip among the two thousand ex-pirates who formed the population of the settlement, it was Turnley who brought news of the affair to the notice of the Governor. In revenge for this action, Rackam and his lady, one day hearing that Turnley had sailed to a neighbouring island to catch turtles, followed him. It happened that Turnley was on sh.o.r.e hunting wild pigs and so escaped, but Rackam sank his sloop and took his crew away with him as prisoners.