Today is the anniversary of the wreck of the Whydah Gally

April 26, 1717

So today I lit a candle for the sailors, pirates, and prisoners who perished in the storm.

May they all rest in peace.

A tribute to the French Corsairs

OK, so I’m always the last to know about these things! But, here is a video that was done about 5 years ago that is a tribute to the French Corsairs of the age of sail. Not informative, but still interesting with some excellent photos. This is a departure from my topic of the Whydah, but I thought it might be a bit fun diversion.

The song in the background is called “Santiano” and was recorded by Hugues Aufray. I have included the lyrics in French and then in English (scroll down.) You can get the original French version of the song and an English language version (sung by The Highwaymen) on itunes.

Here is a link to the video from You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG9SQ_NyiVk

Dave Fisher / Jacques Plante / Hugues Aufray

1 C'est un fameux trois-mts, fin comme un oiseau,
Hisse et ho, Santiano
Dix-huits noeuds, quatre cents tonneaux,
Je suis fier d'y tre matelot.
Rtiens bon la barre et tiens bon le vent,
Hisse et ho, Santiano
Si Dieu veut, toujours droit devant,
Nous irons jusqu' San Francisco.
2 Je pars pour de longs mois en laissant Margot
Hisse et ho, Santiano
D'y penser, j'avais le coeur gros
En doublant les feux de Saint Malo.
3 On prtend que l-bas, l'argent coule flots
Hisse et ho, Santiano
On trouve l'or au fond des ruisseaux,
J'en rapporterai plusieurs lingots.
4 Un jour je reviendrai, charg de cadeaux
Hisse et ho, Santiano
Au pays, j'irai voir Margot,
Son doigt, je passerai l'anneau.
R'Tiens bon la barre et tiens bon le vent,
Hisse et ho, Santiano
Sur la mer qui fait le gros dos
Nous irons jusqu' San Francisco

"Santiano" is a 1961 song, inspired by the popular song "Santianna", as it uses the same tune. However, it refers to a ship leaving Saint Malo bound to San Francisco, described as a wealthy place. The French-language version was popularized first in the 1960s by Hugues Aufray.

In the early 1960s, the song was recorded in French-language by artist Hugues Aufray. It is by far the most well-known shanty in France and was released in 1961. French lyrics were composed by the French writer Jacques Plante. The song was included on the singer's 2007 compilation Les 50 plus belles chansons.

Translation:

We're sailing 'cross the river from Liverpool
Heave aweigh, Santiano
'Round Cape Horn to Frisco Bay
Way out in Californ-i-o

So, heave her up and away we'll go
Heave aweigh, Santiano
So, heave her up and away we'll go
Way out in Californ-i-o

There's plenty of gold, so I've been told
Heave aweigh, Santiano
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told
Way out in Californ-i-o

So, heave her up and away we'll go
Heave aweigh, Santiano
Heave her up and away we'll go
Way out in Californ-i-o

Well, back in the days of forty-nine
Heave aweigh, Santiano
Back in the days of the good old times
Way out in Californ-i-o

So, heave her up and away we'll go
Heave aweigh, Santiano
Heave her up and away we'll go
Way out in Californ-i-o

When I leave ship, I'll settle down
Heave aweigh, Santiano
Marry a girl named Sally Brown
Way out in Californi-i-o

So, heave her up and away we'll go
Heave aweigh, Santiano
Heave her up and away we'll go
Way out in Californ-i-o

Oh, and here is another translation of Santiano, which looks to be a bit more exact:

It is a fine three-master thin like a bird.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
Eighteen knots, four hundred barrels :
I am proud to be one of her seaman

Hold fast the helm and hold fast the wind.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
By God's will, always straight ahead,
We will sail until San Francisco
I'm going away for long months, leaving Margot.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
To think of it caused me sorrow
While crossing the fires of Saint-Malo
They say that over there money flows.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
You find gold down in the streams
I will bring back several ingots
One day, I'll return with my arms full of gifts.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
In the country, I'll visit Margot
At her finger, I will slip a ring
Hold fast the course and hold fast the waves
Heave-ho, Santiano !
On the sea arching it's back,
We will sail until San Francisco
It is a fine three-master thin like a bird.
Heave-ho, Santiano !
Eighteen knots, four hundred barrels :
I am proud to be one of her seaman

A further story of Henry Jennings

Captain Samuell Liddall master of the Sloop Cocoa Nutt attending was called in and being duly Sworne and Examined declared to the Effect following,

            That Sometime in the Month of March last he cleared  from this Island for Carolina, but had orders from Mr. James Knight and Mr. John Lewis his owners to go look for the Wreck, and after his departure from Jamaica mett with Capt. Jennings in the Barsheba and Capt. Ashworth in the Mary near the west end of [The Isle of] Pines and in two or three days after mett with Captain Carnega near Cape Antonio in a Sloop, the name whereof he Cannot recollect, and Joyning them agreed to go to the Wrecks and in order thereto Kept together till they Came to the Bay of houndo where they found a french Ship and there Came to anchor, and afterwards Capt. Jennings sent a small Canoa with the Companie's Quarter Master  and Two Men More on board the Said French Ship who returning again gave an Account that she had about fourteen or Sixteen Guns and forty five Men or there­abouts on board her, after which they Endeavoured to prevaile with the said depont. to Joyne with them to Attack her which he refusing alleadging that he had seen her at Vera Cruz, and beleived she was there a trader on a Lawfull occation. Capt. Jennings thereupon answered he designed to be a Long side of her that Night, and this Depont. desired him Not to Attack the said french Ship till next Morning alleadging he would goe on board with him to See if they could make a Lawfull prize of her, and afterwards about ten a Clock that Night Capt. Jennings of the Barsheba, and Capt Ashworth of the Mary were Towed in by Two piraguas that came from the Bay and the said Depont. Declared that about Thirty Small Arms were fired by the assailants upon the French Ship and one Great Gun which was said to be fired by Capt. Jennings himself, and the French fired not So Much as a Pistoll, and that Allen Bernard the Captain's Quarter Master was then on board her whome he believed had lately had the Belly ache and was then weakly, but Declared the Said Capt. Jennings' Quarter Master Allen Bernard did not appear to be forwarder than the rest of the Company & that the said Captain Carnegie remained without the Barr, but Came in the next Morning and Joyned with the Barsheba and the Mary and lay along Side the French Ship, and that twenty-three of the said Deponent's Men left him, and Joyned with the rest of the Assailants, Some of them going on before the Attack was Made, of which Number the Company's Quarter Master named Thomas, to the best of the said Deponent's remembrance was one, and others Joyning them the day following, and after Capt. Carnegie was in the harbour he was towed out, and it was reported he went to take a french Sloop or vessell at Marian but what further happened this Deponent Knowed Not, he having left them, and afterwards returned to Jamaica and further this Deponent Saith not, Save that he returned to Jamaica with six or Seven white Men and about twenty Negroes.

"Deposition of Samuel Liddell" Jamaica. August 7, 1716. Jamaican Council Minutes

 ff.49-50.

Sam Bellamy: "I am a Free Prince"

An excerpt of Captain Bellamy's  Speech to Captain Beer: 

“D--n my B---d, says he, I am sorry they won't let you have your Sloop again, for I scorn to do any one a Mischief, when it is not for my Advantage; damn the Sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of Use to you. Tho', damn ye, 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 damn ye altogether: Damn them for a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them, for a Parcel of hen-hearted Numskuls. 

“They villify us, the Scoundrels do, when there is only this Difference, they rob the Poor under the Cover of 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 the A---s of those Villains for Employment?”

Captain Beer told him, that his Conscience would not allow him to break thro' the Laws of God and Man. 

“You are a devilish Con­science Rascal, d--n ye,” reply'd Bellamy, “I am a free Prince, and I have as much Authority to make War on the Whole World, as he who has a hundred Sails of Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my conscience tells me; but there is no arguing with such sniveling Puppies who allow Superiors to kick them about Deck at Pleasure; and pin their Faith upon a Pimp of a Parson; a Squab, who neither practices nor believes what he puts upon the chuckle-headed Fools he preaches to.---“

Some of the speeches attributed to Captain Bellamy show evidence of having been borrowed from other literary sources; especially the Jacobite playwright Thomas Otway.

This account of Bellamy appeared in a subsequent volume added to the highly-successful original edition of The General History and some of its content may reflect the author’s desire to “pad” the new volume.

For example:

DEFOE: I am a free Prince, and I have as much Authority to make War on the Whole World, as he who has a hundred Sails of Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my conscience tells me; but there is no arguing with such sniveling Puppies who allow Superiors to kick them about Deck at Pleasure; and pin their Faith upon a Pimp of a Parson; a Squab, who neither practices nor believes what he puts upon the chuckle-headed Fools he preaches to.---

OTWAY: Conscience! a trick of State, found out by those that wanted power to support their Laws; a bug-bear name to startle fools; but we that know the weakness of the fallacie, know better how to use what nature gave.  That Soul’s no Soul which to it self’s a slave.  Who any thing for Conscience sake deny, do nothing else but give themselves the lye [”Alcibiades” Otway 1968 1:129-130]

 

DEFOE: ...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 damn ye altogether: Damn them for a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them, for a Parcel of hen-hearted Numskuls.  They villify us, the Scoundrels do, when there is only this Difference, they rob the Poor under the Cover of Law, forsooth, and we plunder the Rich under the Protection of our own Courage...

OTWAY Yes [I am] a most notorious Villain; To see the suffering’s of my fellow Creatures, and own my self a Man: To see our Senators cheat the deluded people with a shew of Liberty, which yet they ne’r must taste of; They say, by them our hands are free from Fetters, yet whom they please they lay in basest bonds; Bring whom they please to Infamy and Sorrow;...that make us slaves and tell us ‘tis our Charter...Where all agree to spoil the Publick Good, and Villains fatten with the brave man’s Labours...We have neither safety, Unity, nor Peace, for the foundation’s lost of Common Good; Justice is lame as well as blind amongst us; The Laws (corrupted to their ends that make ‘em) serve but for Instruments of some new Tyranny, that every day starts up to enslave us deeper: [”Venice Preserv’d, or A Plot Discover’d” Otway 1968:208-210] Otway, Thomas 1968 The Works of Thomas Otway: Plays, Poems and Love-Letters (J.C. Ghosh, editor).  Clarendon Press reprint of 1932 edition. Oxford.

The Perpetuation of Pirate Myths

                A friend came across this article in his new issue of Lost Treasure Magazine and was nice enough to scan it over to me. I found it interesting because of all of the incorrect information and perpetuation of pirate myths it contains.

                I should have known something was up when I saw that there was a part of the article above the title, and then the entire article below it. There are only some sources listed before the title and then some at the end of the second article. A second warning is the fact that both listings of sources show that whoever the author of the article is used two articles that previously appeared in earlier issues of this same magazine. A little online research showed me there apparently was also an issue that mentioned this same topic in 2012, but that issue apparently wasn’t used as a reference here.  

                The premise of the article is that in the “latter part of 1716, a small band of pirates led by the infamous pirate Samuel Bellamy, buried a small fortune in gold, silver and jewels somewhere along the Machias River in Washington County, Maine.” The location of this fortune is said to be a few miles north-west of modern day Machias, Maine. The of 180 bags of gold that we know the pirates had on board the Whydah at the time its demise are said to be buried here. (As opposed to having gone down with the ship, which is the version told by at least two of the pirates during their interrogation before trial for piracy in Boston, Massachusetts in 1717.)

                The full article has Bellamy and Paulsgrave Williams starting out as Cape Cod fishermen who decided that the hard labor of fishing was not for them and joined forces with Thornigold and Lebous. (Yes, they spell the name Thornigold!)

                They are said to have sought out a safe harbor to affect repairs after a damaging storm. They pulled in to the mouth of the Machias River on the southeast coast of Maine. Here the article says that to avoid mutiny because they weren’t at a port where the men could spend their loot on women and alcohol, Bellamy made them start building a log fort to use as a permanent base of operations. The fortifications included a large underground vault.

                Bellamy is said to have been the only crew member aboard his ship that knew the art of navigation and thus was the only one who could find his way back to the fort.

                After they finished building this fort and headed back out to sea, the article has them capturing a ship called the Mary Jane, which seems to be a miss-spelling of the ship Mary Anne. It also has the crew of the Mary Anne shipwrecking off the near the town of Orleans instead of Eastham, Massachusetts.

                The article does get right the fact that Thomas Davis and John Julian are the only two recorded survivors of the wreck of the Whydah, but then it has them tried and hung for piracy, when Thomas Davis was acquitted and John Julian sold into slavery. It also has Davis and Julian confirming the location of this fort during their interrogation before trial. I have a copy of those trial transcripts, and Thomas Davis never mentions such a thing in his testimony and John Julian was never interrogated before being sold.

                Supposedly some of the logs and earthen defenses were visible until the 1970’s. Maybe the author was confused with the fact that it was sometimes parts of the Whydah which were visible for many years after the wreck.

                One of the sources of this article is said to be the Machias Chamber of Commerce, which I haven’t had a chance yet to contact. It might prove interesting to get their point of view on this subject. Since there are next to no records (other than Captain Kidd, I believe) of any pirates burying their treasure, I thought it was interesting to see yet another article come out perpetuating this myth.

                Keep in mind that this magazine is directed at amateur treasure hunters who search for lost treasure using metal detectors, etc.

“Lost Pirate Treasure,” Lost Treasure Magazine, April 2015, pps.  53-54.