The Pirates' Who's Who Part 5

Taken by Captain Roberts out of the _Martha_ snow (Captain Lady). Turned pirate and served in the _Ranger_ in 1721.

BELLAMY, CAPTAIN CHARLES. Pirate, Socialist, and orator. A famous West Indian filibuster.

He began life as a wrecker in the West Indies, but this business being uncertain in its profits, and Bellamy being an ambitious young man, he decided with his partner, Paul Williams, to aim at higher things, and to enter the profession of piracy. Bellamy had now chosen a calling that lent itself to his undoubted talents, and his future career, while it lasted, was a brilliant one.

Procuring a ship, he sailed up and down the coast of Carolina and New England, taking and plundering numerous vessels; and when this neighbourhood became too hot for him he would cruise for a while in the cooler climate of Newfoundland.

Bellamy had considerable gifts for public speaking, and seldom missed an opportunity of addressing the a.s.sembled officers and crews of the ships he took, before liberating or otherwise disposing of them.

His views were distinctly Socialistic. On one occasion, in an address to a Captain Beer, who had pleaded to have his sloop returned to him, Captain Bellamy, after clearing his throat, began as follows: "I am sorry," he said, "that you can't have your sloop again, for I scorn to do anyone any mischief--when it is not to my advantage--though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery. But d.a.m.n ye altogether for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls! They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is the only difference that they rob the poor under cover of the law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make one of us than sneak after these villains for employment?"

Bellamy's fall came at last at the hands of a whaler captain. At the time he was in command of the _Whidaw_ and a small fleet of other pirate craft, which was lying at anchor in the Bay of Placentia in Newfoundland. Sailing from Placentia for Nantucket Shoals, he seized a whaling vessel, the _Mary Anne_. As the skipper of the whaler knew the coast well, Bellamy made him pilot of his small fleet. The cunning skipper one night ran his ship on to a sand-bank near Eastman, Ma.s.sachusetts, and the rest of the fleet followed his stern light on to the rocks. Almost all the crews perished, only seven of the pirates being saved. These were seized and brought to trial, condemned, and hanged at Boston in 1726. The days spent between the sentence and the hanging were not wasted, for we read in a contemporary account that "by the indefatigable pains of a pious and learned divine, who constantly attended them, they were at length, by the special grace of G.o.d, made sensible of and truly penitent for the enormous crimes they had been guilty of."

BELVIN, JAMES.

Bo'son to Captain Gow, the pirate. He had the reputation of being a good sailor but a bloodthirsty fellow. Was hanged at Wapping in June, 1725.

BEME, FRANCIS.

In 1539 this Baltic pirate was cruising off Antwerp, waiting to waylay English merchant vessels.

BENDALL, GEORGE, or BENDEALL.

A flourishing pirate, whose headquarters, in the early eighteenth century, were in New Providence Island.

In the year 1717, King George offered a free pardon to all freebooters who would come in and give themselves up. But the call of the brotherhood was too strong for a few of the "old hands," and Bendall, amongst others, was off once again to carry on piracy around the Bahama and Virgin Islands.

Within a few years these last "die-hards" were all killed, drowned, caught, or hanged.

BENNETT, WILLIAM.

An English soldier, who deserted from Fort Loyal, Falmouth, Marne, in 1689, and joined the pirate Pounds. Was sent to prison at Boston, where he died.

BILL, PHILIP.

Belonged to the Island of St. Thomas.

One of Captain Roberts's crew. Hanged at the age of 27.

BISHOP.

An Irishman. Chief mate to the pirate Captain Cobham.

BISHOP, CAPTAIN.

In 1613, Bishop and a few other English seamen set up as pirates at Marmora on the Barbary Coast.

BISHOP, WILLIAM.

One of Avery's crew. Hanged at Execution Dock in 1691.

BLADS, WILLIAM.

Born in Rhode Island.

One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged at Newport on July 19th, 1723. Age 28.

BLAKE, BENJAMIN.

A Boston boy, taken prisoner with Captain Pounds's crew at Tarpaulin Cove.

BLAKE, JAMES.

One of Captain Teach's crew. Hanged in 1718 at Virginia.

BLEWFIELD, CAPTAIN, or BLAUVELT.

In 1649 this Dutch pirate brought a prize into Newport, Rhode Island. In 1663 was known to be living among the friendly Indians at Cape Gratia de Dios on the Spanish Main. He commanded a barque carrying three guns and a crew of fifty men. He was very active in the logwood cutting in Honduras.

Whether the town and river of Bluefield take their name from this pirate is uncertain, but the captain must many a time have gone up the river into the forests of Nicaragua on his logwood cutting raids.

BLOT, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.

In 1684 was in command of _La Quagone_, ninety men, eight guns.

BOLIVAR, LIEUTENANT.

This Portuguese pirate was first officer to Captain Jonnia. He was a stout, well-built man of swarthy complexion and keen, ferocious eyes, huge black whiskers and beard, and a tremendously loud voice. He took the Boston schooner _Exertion_ at Twelve League Key on December 17th, 1821.

BOND, CAPTAIN.

Of Bristol.

In 1682 arrived at the Cape Verde Islands. Having procured leave to land on Mayo Island, on the pretence of being an honest merchant in need of provisions, particularly of beef and goats, Bond and his crew seized and carried away some of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants. A year later John Cooke and Cowley arrived at Mayo in the _Revenge_, but were prevented by the inhabitants from landing owing to their recent treatment at the hands of Bond.