Hendrik Quintor

            In his deposition on May 6, 1717, before his trial for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts, in October, 1716, Hendrik Quintor declared that he was born in Amsterdam, Aged 25 years, a Mariner.

That he was taken in a Spanish Briganteen by Labous Commander of the Sloop Postillion, and Bellamy Commander of the Sloop Mary Anne and being bound to La Vera Cruz, the Pirates told him he should go to the Coast of Crocus, but afterwards they compelled him to stay, and during the time he was with them they took 3 French Ships and then clean’d at the Main Land of Hispaniola.

After that they took 3 English Ships, viz. Richard’s, Tosor’s and Williams’s, and went to St. Croix, where a French Pirate was blown up. That this Examinate and the other six, who were sent on board the Pink were Forced Men.

On the way to the gallows after their trial in Boston, in November, 1716, Hendrik had this conversation with the Reverend Cotton Mather, who accompanied the men to the scaffold:

CM: Quinter. Thou art come into a Dark Time.

HQ: ‘Tis a Dark Time with me.

CM: But will you receive it, if I bring you Light on this Darkness!

HQ: God be merciful to me!

CM: One who had been a Great Sinner, had this Experiment: I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin. May not this be your Experience too?

HQ: I wish it may!

CM: When you have Sinned, you have swallowed a Deadly Payson. With a Vomit of Repentance, and Confession, you must cast up this Deadly Poison. If your Soul go away with it, you are Banished from GOD, and fixed in Eternal Miseries.

HQ: What shall I do?

CM: Do you Confess, That you are a very Great Sinner?

HQ: Yes, I confess, I have committed all manner of Sins.

CM: But are you sensible, That you have an Heart full of Sin; An Heart that is desperately wicked? All the Sin in your Life, came out of your Heart. Are you Troubled, that you have such an Heart?

HQ: Heartily Troubled.

CM: Do you Look up to GOD for a New Heart?

HQ: With all my Heart.

CM: Do you own that GOD is Righteous in all the Evil that is come upon you?

HQ: Yes, I do.

CM: But now, Your Confession must be made, with a Faith Leaning on the Great Sacrifice. On every Stroke in your Confession of your Sin, you must add: Lord Pardon my Sin, for the sake of the Blood of SAVIOUR.

HQ: I desire to do so.

CM: But, we are taught, He that confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy. You wil have no Opportunity now, for the Experiment of a Reformed Life; You cannot now Live to see whether you don’t Return unto Folly. But however, your Heart must be so set against all Sin, that your Choice must be, Rather to Dy than to Sin.

Tho’ Man cannot show you Mercy; your Life is forfeited, beyond the Reach of Mercy from the Government; yet upon a True Repentance, you will find Mercy with GOD. This Repentance is also His Gift. Oh! Keep looking up unto Him; Lord, Give me a Repenting Heart! O my SAVIOUR, Thou givest Repentance and Remission of Sins!

Man, Thy Immortal SOUL is presently to Return unto GOD. A SOUL doing so, can look for nothing but His Fiery Indignation, and a dreadful Banishment from Him; Except it be a SOUL with another Biass upon it, than what men have in their Depraved Nature. A SOUL to which a CHRIST is Precious; to which a CHRIST is the Prince of Life, the Living Spring of all that it Good: A SOUL groaning under all its Evil Inclinations; as the most heavy Burdens; A SOUL desirous above all things to Serve and please the Glorious GOD.

My Friend, May thy SOUL now be found so disposed!

 Sources:

1717    Instruc­tions to the Liv­ing, From the Condi­tion of the Dead [etc.] John Allen for Nicho­las Boone. Boston



1718    "The Tri­als of Eight Persons Indicted for Piracy [etc.­]"  Barth­olo­mew Green for John Edwards.  Boston.  Early American Imprint Series  Microfilm #2003. Clif­ford K. Shipt­on, edi­tor.  American Antiquari­an Soci­ety. Worcester, MA.

 

   

 

A Story of Labous, England, and Taylor

A month later, Boone received intelligence of a serious loss to the Company's trade from the Madagascar pirates. On the 7th August, the Greenwich, Captain Kirby, and the Cassandra, Captain James Macrae, bringing the usual yearly investment for Bombay and Surat, were in Johanna roads, engaged in watering. At anchor, near them, was an Ostend ship that had called for the same purpose. A few days before, they had received intelligence that a French pirate, Oliver la Bouche, had run on a reef off Mayotta and lost his ship, and was engaged in building a new one. Thinking that the opportunity of catching the pirates at a disadvantage should not be lost, Macrae and Kirby agreed to go in search of them and attack them. They had just completed their arrangements when two strange sails hove in sight. They proved to be the Victory, a French-built ship of forty-six guns, commanded by the well-known pirate, Edward England, and the Fancy, a Dutch-built ship of twenty-four guns, commanded by Taylor.

Macrae and Kirby prepared to give them a hot reception, the Ostend ship promising to stand by them. So far were they from simply trying to make their escape that they looked forward to the handsome reward the Company would give them for the capture of the pirates. From what followed it is easy to see that Macrae's was the guiding spirit in this. Cables were cut, and they stood out to sea, but, owing to the light baffling winds, made little way. By next morning the pirates had closed, and bore down with a black flag (skull and crossbones) at the main, a red flag at the fore, and the cross of St. George at the ensign staff. The Greenwich and the Ostender, having a better wind than the Cassandra, had got some distance away. In vain Macrae fired gun after gun at the Greenwich to make Kirby heave to. In a most dastardly way the captain of the Greenwich pursued his course, taking the Ostender with him, till he had got well to windward; when, at a distance of two or three miles, he hove to and watched the fate of the Cassandra.

The Cassandra was a new ship of 380 tons, on her first voyage. Macrae was a thoroughly good seaman, with a fine crew that was attached to him, and was resolved to fight his ship to the last. Early in the engagement he gave the Victory some shots between wind and water, which made England keep off till he had stopped the leaks. Taylor got out the boats of the Fancy and tried to tow her alongside, to carry the Cassandra by boarding, but such good practice was made by the Cassandra's marksmen that the design was given up. At the end of three hours the Victory had repaired damages, and was closing again.

Macrae had lost so many of his crew that, giving up all hope of assistance from Kirby, he determined to run his ship ashore. The Fancy, which drew less water, followed with the intention of boarding, but got aground within pistol-shot, with her bows towards the Cassandra's broadside, and the action recommenced hotter than ever. There the two ships lay, both fast aground, pelting each other furiously, till the crew of the Fancy, finding the Cassandra's fire too hot for them, left their guns and ran below. Had Kirby come to his assistance at this moment, Macrae's triumph would have been assured; but this was the moment chosen by Kirby to bear up and shape his course for Bombay.

England in the Victory, seeing that the Greenwich might be disregarded, sent three boats full of men to reinforce the Fancy; by which time there had been so many killed and wounded on board the Cassandra that the crew, losing heart, refused to fight the ship any longer. Thirteen had been killed and twenty-four wounded, among the latter Macrae himself, who had been struck by a musket ball on the head; so some in the long boat and some by swimming reached the shore, leaving on board three wounded men who could not be moved, and who were butchered by the pirates.

Not deeming it safe to linger on the coast, Macrae and his crew hastened inland, reaching the town of the local chief, twenty-five miles off, the following morning. Exhausted with fatigue and wounds, almost naked, they were in a pitiable condition. The natives received them hospitably, supplied their wants to the best of their ability, and refused to surrender them to the pirates, who offered a reward for them.

After the first rage of the pirates at the heavy losses they had sustained, had abated, and [had been] soothed, no doubt, by the capture of a fine new ship with £75,000 on board in hard cash, Macrae ventured to open communications with them. Several among them had sailed with him, and his reputation for considerate treatment of his men was well known. With all their faults, they were not all of them men to resent greatly, after their first fury had cooled, the loss that had been suffered in fair fight; so England gave him a promise of safety, and he ventured himself among them. The Cassandra and the Fancy had been floated, and Macrae was entertained on board his own ship with his own liquors and provisions.

His position was not without danger, as there were many brutal fellows among the pirates. England, who had a reputation for good treatment of prisoners, befriended him; but Taylor, whose influence was greatest among the most brutal of the rovers, insisted he should be made an end of. In the midst of the quarrel, a fierce-looking fellow with a wooden leg and his belt full of pistols, intervened, asking with many oaths for Macrae, who thought his last moment had come. He was pleasantly surprised when the ruffian took him by the hand, and swore with many oaths that he would make mince-meat of the first man that hurt him; and protested, with more oaths, that Macrae was an honest fellow, and he had formerly sailed with him. So the dispute ended. Taylor was plied with punch till he was prevailed on to consent that the Fancy, together with some of the Cassandra's cargo, should be given to Macrae, and before he could recover from his carouse, Macrae had got safe to shore again.

As soon as the pirates had left the coast, in the Victory and the Cassandra, Macrae set to work to patch up the much-battered Fancy, and in a few days sailed for Bombay, with forty-one of his ship's company, among whom were two passengers and twelve soldiers. After forty-eight days of terrible sufferings almost naked, half starved, and reduced to a daily pint of water each, they reached Bombay on the 26th October. It would have been well for the Company if they had had more captains like Macrae. His arrival brought much obloquy on Kirby, whose shameful desertion was now made known.

From:  The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago, by John Biddulph, 1907.

 

The interview for my story in A Tall Shp, A Star, and Plunder

A Tall Ship, a Star, and Plunder: Interview with Laura Nelson

Posted by Robert J. on Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Author Laura Nelson came by Krogfiction for a chat.  Her story in A Tall Ship is titled Rosa and the Pirate.  Of herself, she says: I live at home with my two cats Houdini and Aliti. When I'm not reading or writing about pirates, I enjoy cats, walking, Tai Chi, horse racing, reading history and true crime.

1)      Why did you decide to write about pirates?

I became interested in pirates after attending the Real Pirates Exhibit in Denver, Co, in 2011. After attending the exhibit, I found that I had an obsession with obtaining any information I could about them.  I found the stories of the real pirates fascinating. I wanted to understand more about what drove them to piracy.  I think the stories of the real pirates are even more fascinating than the way Hollywood depicts them.

When it came to writing a fictional story about them, I decided that it would be fun to try and retain as much realism as possible while interposing a little fantasy to hopefully bring in a “what-if” kind of quality to my story.

 2)      What, in your humble opinion, is the attraction of pirates in literature?

  Pure adventure. Most of us when we read want to be taken away from everyday mundane and swept into a world that most of us will only dream of ever being a part of.

  3)      Do you have a favorite historical pirate, if so, who is it and why?

Peter Cornelius Hoof, who sailed on the Whydah Galley with Sam Bellamy, because he was one of the first pirates I became interested in after attending the Real Pirates Exhibit. His name would, for want of a better term, “leap out at me” whenever I read anything to do with the Whydah and its history. I have always felt a very psychic connection to him. He eventually became the subject of my first published article.

  4)      Without spoiling the plot, what inspired you to write your story for A Tall Ship, a Star, and Plunder?

  I took up writing again in response to the dreams I started having after attending the Real Pirates Exhibit. I began to fill up notebooks with “vignettes” which were often sequential, playing out over a period of time. I am not entirely sure if the vignettes are real events or just elaborate dreams. When I saw the call for stories for this anthology, I realized that a fictional story was the perfect opportunity to use several of them as the basis of my story. I’ll leave it for the reader to figure out which scenes are the vignettes and which are the ones that came later to “fill in” the story!

5)      So, pirates in general, are they lovable rouges, just misunderstood, adventurers, romantic rebels, or are they just bandits on the sea, thieves, and murderers?

In reality, yes, they are just bandits, thieves, and murderers. But we are willing to overlook the condition they left their victims in because their actions speak to a longing in many of us for the freedom to break away from our everyday mundane lives and go where we wish and do what we wish. I think we admire pirates for their willingness to thumb their noses at the establishment and get away with it even if it was only for a short time.

For us women, who even now still have more constraints on what we are allowed to achieve and participate in and how we must behave than men, the few female pirates that we know about broke out of that mold and showed the world they could do the same job as a man.

 6)      Who is your favorite author?  Why?

OK, I can’t limit this to one, so I will try to keep the list short. Ann Rule, Tom Clancy, Mercedes Lackey, JK Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell, Erik Larson. Ann because while she is telling you a true story she includes a lot of facts but writes in an everyday manner that anyone can read and she gives thorough explanations of terminology and tactics as she goes. Tom because of the way he can combine real military tactics and gadgets and explanations while still telling a riveting story. Mercedes and JK because of their ability to draw you into the world they have created. You want their books to go on forever! Malcolm and Erik for basically the same reason as Ann: you are learning at the same time that you are being entertained.

  7)      What is your favorite book?  Why?
  The Harry Potter series, because Rowling has such a way of drawing you into her world. You never want to leave!
  8)      Is there an author that you emulate?  Why?

All of my favorites listed earlier, because they write for everybody. They use plain, everyday language and don’t try to impress people with their superior vocabulary. It is almost as though they are sitting in front of you talking to you rather than you reading words on a page.

9)      How much do you read?

 A lot! Seriously! I keep a short stack of books at my desk at work to read when I’m on break and I am always trolling Amazon for new books for my Kindle at home. I literally don’t know what to do with myself if I don’t have a book to read!

  10)  Where did you get your start in writing?
  I wrote an article about Peter Cornelius Hoof, one of the pirates who sailed with Sam Bellamy on the Whydah Galley. It was published in the online newsletter “Pirates and Privateers” which appears on the Whistles and Pirates web site.
  11)  What is your most current project that is close to publication?
           I am currently working on a book about the piratical career of Olivier Levassuer, but it is still a ways from publication, I'm afraid.

var infolink_pid = 1946980; var infolink_wsid = 0;

Another from the vignettes

            When she was thrown against the wooden wall of the tavern she promptly curled herself into a ball to avoid looking at anyone. Her senses assaulted by the simultaneous scents of stale alcohol, unwashed bodies, tar, and general dirt; she had to breathe through her mouth initially to avoid vomiting.

            She had no way to keep track of how long she was there. No one approached her or offered her anything to eat or drink. Even though she was eventually able to breathe normally through her nose, she was still overwhelmed by the smells and then the sounds. There was shouting, cursing, arguing, and chairs scraping and sometimes crashing together. Male and female voices blended together, the volume dropping or increasing randomly.

            There was an argument near her. She recognized the voices of two of the men who were holding her captive. Someone accused someone else of cheating at a card game. Chairs scraped, boots thudded, then the sounds of blows being exchanged. She made herself smaller against the wall. Finally an accord was reached, and by the sounds she could tell that they were returning to their game.

            At some point she let her eyes close and her body relax. She allowed herself to doze off, the better to deal with the stress. On one level she still had some awareness of the noise and the smells of where she was, but now her mind was in a peaceful place where it could at least seek some solace.

            Suddenly, her reverie was interrupted by a footstep next to her. She was jerked into reality by the sight of a brown leather boot next to her knees. There was a movement, and a cup was set down by her feet.

            Before she had a chance to move towards it, she heard the voice of one of her captors shout out from their table nearby.

            “Hey, get away from there.” The area immediately around her went eerily quiet. The scrape of chairs and boots was loud.

            “What?” the voice came from directly above her. “She’s been sitting there for hours. I gave her something to drink.”

            “You don’t go near her and she doesn’t get anything. No one hangs around her. So get away before you have more trouble than you know how to deal with.”

            The brown boots moved away. She found the courage to lift her head a bit and look at the cup, but the man who was her main captor kicked it away. She quickly curled back into a ball, face towards the wall. Outwardly cowed and obedient, inside she harvested a tiny hope that the brown boots might come back.