WEBVTT - Pirates 12: Cutlasses & Cutthroats 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:09.080 Cutthroat. According to Dictionary entries, it's someone so ruthless they 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.680 would cut the throat of another, a murderer, a person 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.720 of a vicious nature. And believe me, in the world 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:20.360 of piracy, there were plenty of cutthroats. Sure, pirates lived 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.599 on the fringes of the societal boundaries. Many stole without conscience, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.400 justified murder, and weren't exactly the nicest people in the world. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.680 But to most of them, there were rules and behavioral expectations, 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:37.120 even among pirates. Edward Lowe, however, didn't subscribe to any 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.559 of that. If a fraction of the stories about his 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.400 cruelty are true, then it's a small wonder his crew 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.839 didn't hang him. His meanness and depravity, according to the tales, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.519 at least could shame the devil. Low was born sometime 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.360 in the sixteen nineties in Westminster, London. As a teen, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.200 he found work as a sailor on a ship heading 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.400 to Boston in the New World. There he secured job 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.440 at a rigging house. Accounts say that low married in 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.680 seventeen fourteen. Tragedy struck when his son died in infancy 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.720 and his wife died from complications during the birth of 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.360 their second child, a daughter. Low then lost his job 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.560 and spiraled into a manic a bout of depression, he 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.479 returned to the sea, abandoning whatever kindness and solace he possessed, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.320 along with his baby daughter. During the ship's voyage, Low 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.760 ended up in a brawl with a captain. Some of 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.400 the crew said Low insisted on more breaks, while others 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.240 claimed that he had grown tired of manual labor altogether. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.319 When life aboard the ship did not improve to his liking, 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.200 Low convinced a handful of the crew to attempt a mutiny. 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.679 He killed a crewman while trying to shoot the captain. 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.440 The coup failed, and Low and his collaborators fled in 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:52.240 a rowboat. The group joined forces with another pirate, George Lowther. 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.280 While in Honduras, the crew attacked the Greyhound. Lowther and 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.800 Low ordered their crew to beat the men aboard the 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.320 merchant ship violently. Afterward, they joyfully set the Greyhound on fire. 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.840 With additional raids came upgrades to their ships. Lowther took 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.000 a vessel of his own, christening it the Ranger. Any 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.400 ship the men didn't take for their fleet was set 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.040 ablaze simply for having new Englanders on board, but things 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.840 weren't perfect in Paradise. Lowther and Low fought constantly and 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.680 finally parted ways. In seventeen twenty two, Low sailed for 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.080 Block Island. He flew various flags designed to instill a 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.400 sense of false security in his victims. His other ships 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.600 helped corral the unsuspecting vessel. If the captain refused to surrender, 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:38.679 Low open fire on the ship. Not that there was 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.679 anything out of the ordinary about that. No, it was 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.080 Lowe's cruelty that made him stand out. This was a 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.799 man who was amused by the thought of a human 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.480 being sizzling in flames, and so one time he ordered 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.120 his men to tie one ship's cook to the mast 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.200 and then set the whole vessel ablaze. He strung up friars, 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.000 jerking them from their feet, and how they died. He 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.760 cut another man to pieces for pitying the victims. Word 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.320 of Low's rampages, murder and the removal and roasting of 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.640 body parts reached the Boston papers. He had earned a 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.160 reputation as the most barbaric pirate to sail the Caribbean. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.280 He was a cutthroat in the end, though his deeds 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.720 proved too much even for his own crew. After Low 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.839 killed his quartermaster, his men marooned him, and no one 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:39.600 ever saw him again. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates. Pirates, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.400 the rogues of the sea, with reputations for giving no quarter, 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.320 meaning to grant to no mercy. The sight of a 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.400 pirate ship instilled fear in many sailors, and for good reason. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.240 Codes and rules regarding the pirates crews treatment did not 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.760 extend to those aboard targeted ships. A rare few, like 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.040 Steve Bonnet, had the reputation of being kinder than most. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.680 He wasn't known as the gentleman pirate for nothing. Others, though, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.960 like Blackbeard, struck fear in all who crossed their paths, 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.960 yet treated their crewman well. But some pirate captains treated 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.520 their crew poorly or worse than their intended victims. John 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.320 Phillips had taken to pirate life aboard the Good Fortune 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.640 with Gusto. In April of seventeen twenty two, he and 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.200 the other crewmates were busily working on a frigate to 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.720 add to their fleet when a British man of war 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.600 captained by Sir John Flowers approached Phillips and the others 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.360 ran into the woods to hide. Flowers captured most of 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.240 the pirates, although Phillips and a handful of others remained undetected. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.080 With most of the crew gone, they returned to England 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.400 to take the King's pardon while visiting family, though Phillips 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.480 heard that authorities imprisoned a few anyway, and he quickly 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.919 hopped on a ship heading to Newfoundland. He deserted that 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.119 ship when it arrived on an island off Newfoundland's coast, 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.039 and convinced others to join him. Intent on returning to piracy, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.440 the group stole a schooner from Austin Harbor and named 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.239 it the Revenge. With Phillips as captain, the pirates raided 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.280 ships along the coast, growing their numbers with each attack. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.720 While some went willingly, others, like John Fillmore, great grandfather 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.559 of US President Millard Fillmore, did not. For the crew 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.000 leaving was not an option. While some captains had would 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:24.119 be deserters maroon, Phillips was deadly serious about keeping his crew. 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.400 He killed two men who tried to escape, violating the 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.480 agreed upon rules of punishment. Phillips continued to raid ships 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.080 and take on the crew as his own. By now 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.480 much of the crew aboard there were against their will, 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.520 and by April eighteenth of seventeen twenty four, they'd had enough. 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.000 Fillmore and three more took action. While repairing the ship, 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.480 one of the men grabbed an axe like weapon and 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.679 killed Phillips. Before long, the rest of the crew joined 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.120 the fray, defeating the pirates. They steered the ship to Boston, 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.279 where they handed over the pirates and Philip's head to 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.280 the authorities. About as happy and ending as we can 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.280 expect for their story. While most captains treated their crew fairly, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.680 others went too far, even for the most ruthless legends 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.680 of pirate lore. Like many pirates, there's not a lot 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.040 of information about Charles Vane's early life, although there are 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.960 some assertions. Notably, he was likely born in London around 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:22.839 sixteen eighty, and his surname suggests French ancestry. As a 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.600 child and teen Vain most likely witnessed a pirate hanging 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.800 in public. Public hangings gathered quite a crowd back then, 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.560 and entire families would make their way to the gallows 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.640 to watch. Of course, that's assuming that he grew up 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.520 in England at some point. We do know that he 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.919 found his way to Port Royal. There he met privateer 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.760 Henry Jennings and joined his crew. Vain discovered that they 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.880 were both well educated, which was the exception rather than 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.080 the norm among sailors. Vain looked up to his mentor. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.680 Jennings was a devout patriot and wealthy landowner with a 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.120 couple of island estates. If you remember, it was Jennings 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.680 who was sent by Jamaica's governor, Lord Archibald Hamilton's to 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.720 retrieve treasure from a fleet of wrecked Spanish ships off 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.800 Florida's coast in seventeen fifteen. While the crew recovered treasure, 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.800 they also attacked the Spanish camps and made off with 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.760 the hefty bounty. When Hamilton's lost his power in Jamaica, though, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.320 jennings unwillingness to give up raids made him a pirate, 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.040 and to complicate matters further, the authorities in England had 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.880 tied the governor and Jennings and Vain to a conspiracy 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.120 to fund an army to overthrow King George the First. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.840 But Jennings hadn't started out intending to become a pirate. 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.840 The king would soon offer him and others away out 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.560 much to their relief. Pirates in the Caribbean cross paths regularly, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.960 and many knew each other from their privateering days. Vain 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.960 took note of Jenning's dislike of Benjamin Hornegald, and following 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.280 his lead, also looked down on the man Hornegold was 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.320 beneath them due to his lack of formal education and 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.080 his origins in a much lower class. Vain despise as 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.440 to Hornegold as much as his mentor, and like Jennings, 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.640 he clashed with pirates and privateers a lake. In fact, 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.960 Vain spent much of his time in Nassau drinking, fighting 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.520 and harassing the residents, and the more his brethren talked 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.200 of taking the pardon, the more he saw the offer 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.520 as an act of war on the pirate republic, and 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:30.280 Charles Vane was ready for a fight. Unlike Jennings, Vain 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.320 had no such loyalty to England, the Stewart line of 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.720 heirs or King George the First. His loyalties were to 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:41.480 piracy and himself. Vain took over those under jennings command 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.480 who refused to sign the pardon. He continued to cause 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.679 trouble in Nassau, putting himself in Britain's crosshairs. While making 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.960 his displeasure well heard, Vain also knew that it was 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.320 just a matter of time before someone came looking for him. 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.240 Ambitious and young British captain Vincent Pierce set out to 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.200 capture Vane with the help of a few pirates. He 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.160 found the rebel pirate aboard the sloop called the Lark. 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.440 Pierce's own ship, the Phoenix, greatly outmatched the Lark, leaving 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.400 Vain no choice but to surrender. Pierce returned to Nassa 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.640 with the pirates instead of jailing them. Though authorities thought 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.040 releasing Vain and his crew might be a gesture of 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.120 good faith to the rest of the pirate community, still 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:26.920 considering a pardon, Vain and his crew immediately returned to piracy, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.280 though collecting forty of the most cutthroat pirates on the island, 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.000 including Jack Rackham. As he sailed out of port, Vain 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:38.120 passed Pierce's ship. The pirates hailed him, waving and laughing 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.840 as they ventured back out to see By spring, Vain 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.679 and his men had attacked twelve ships. Some of their 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.280 targets fought back, others did not. Either way, they were 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.000 treated with absolute cruelty. Vain and his men bound one 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.240 sailor to the bowsprit and threatened to shoot him. The 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.640 word of Vein's brutality and acts of violence spread far 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.679 and wide, and as his reputation grew, so too did 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.640 his ego. In mid April of seventeen eighteen, Vein spotted 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.560 the sloop William and Mary near rum K and gave chase. 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.960 Captain Edward North surrendered without a fight. Despite this, Vein's 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:20.000 men savagely beat North's crew. After that, Vain randomly selected 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.559 one of North's men's and had his hands and feet 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.800 bound and tied the sailor to the top side. One 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.679 pirate rammed the end of a loaded musket into his mouth. 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.520 Another pirate placed the ends of matches in the sailor's eyelids. 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.320 Vain threatened to like them if the sailor did not 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.320 tell him where The crew hit the valuables, but the 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.000 William and Mary had nothing of real value on board, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.920 so Vein took what cargo they had anyway, and then 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.320 also took the black sailors on board for enslavement. Aboard 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.080 the Lark, Vein captured another ship, the Diamond, and viciously 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.880 beat their crew as well. After taking whatever valuables they found, 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.920 he and his crew committed their final acts of cruelty. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.480 The pirates put a noose around a sail ER's neck 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.199 and repeatedly hoisted him up and down until he lost consciousness. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.200 Then they set the diamond ablaze. Later, they celebrated into 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.240 the night, drinking and cursing King George the first. The 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.520 raids continued in the same manner. Vain promised their victims quarter, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.319 then unleashed his men to beat and torture anyone on board. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.960 The violence caused tensions among other pirates, who relied on 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.840 their victims easy surrender as part of a promise to 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.800 give them quarter. Vain, however, genuinely seemed to delight in 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.040 each torture and saved his most violent acts of terror 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.360 for ships originating from Bermuda. For Vain, these acts were 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.800 in retaliation for the governor arresting a pirate. There was 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.120 one calendar month where Vain and his pirates raided a 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:49.480 dozen ships, terrorizing the crew each time. Survivors gave accounts 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.400 of Vein's cruelty and delight in delivering the most brutal assaults. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.719 A few pirates in Nassau admitted that the atrocities the 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.880 Vein and his crew committed were dark even by their 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.600 own standards. In Bermuda, mariner Nathaniel Katling, a survivor of 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.480 the ill fated Diamond, testified before Governor Bennett. He'd been 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.600 slashed with a cutlass, strung up and left for dead, 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.920 but miraculously he had somehow survived. The sights of Vein's 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.400 ship flying the black flag alongside a Union jack struck 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.920 fear and terror into merchant captains and crew. Trade in 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.840 the Caribbean suffered, nearly coming to a halt. By now, 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:31.800 Pierce had left Nassa, but Vain had another problem. Woods Rogers, 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.280 the new governor, had larger ships and more firepower. Undeterred 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.319 when Vain returned in April, he doubled down on his efforts, 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:45.880 recruiting even more men, and then their spree of violence continued. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.200 Vain captured a two d ton French vessel he took 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.280 for his new flagship. By mid June. He christened the 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.559 ship the Ranger and promoted Jack Rackham as his quartermaster. Later, 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.520 Rackham would go on to captain the ship himself. In 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.080 July of seventeen eighteen woods, Rogers and his landing party 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.240 arrived in Nassau. The early arrival took Vain and his 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:16.440 crew by surprise. Watching his brethren, including former mentor Henry Jennings, 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.920 signed the letter of pardon was bad enough, but when 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.520 many of them flew the British flag atop the forts 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:27.240 and celebrated, Vain flew into a rage. The community split 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.480 into two pieces, those who took the pardon and those 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.680 who refused it. Jennings and Hornegal, although still enemies, both 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.800 took the pardon. Defiant, Vain led a band of men 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.800 determined to remain free from Britain's control, and stormed the fort, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.239 replacing the Union jack with a Pirate flag. Still furious, 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.240 Vain fired upon the HMS Rose. When the ship entered 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.720 the port, Captain Thomas Whitney pulled alongside the Ranger and 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.040 confronted the pirates. Vain handed the captain a letter of 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.760 refusal to take the pardon and shouted that he would 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.960 see Rogers burned on the harbor. Now, Charles Vaine's bravado 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.680 was one thing, but managing to get out of the 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.320 harbor safely was quite another. The HMS Rose had not 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:15.359 arrived alone. The HMS Milford Shark, willing mine Buck, Samuel 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:20.040 and Alicia had blocked his escape. Altogether, the British fleet 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.160 carried a hundred and thirty one guns, a hundred soldiers 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.800 and one d thirty colonists, making the deployment the largest 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.680 ever since the Treaty of You trect in seventeen thirteen. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.400 It goes without saying Vain was vastly outnumbered. For hours, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.920 he considered his options. I can imagine his fellow pirates 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.720 betting on Vain's next move. The odds seemed evenly split 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.920 between surrender followed by capture or a short battle followed 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.600 by going to Davy Jones Locker. In a blaze of glory. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.480 At two o'clock in the morning, the sound of an 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:55.280 explosion pulled residents and pirates from their beds. Vain had 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.400 set a ship full of gunpowder and ammo on fire 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.600 and sailed it directly at the h MS Rose and 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.520 HMS Shark. Both British ships were anchored. When the sight 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.720 of the flaming ship alerted a guard, Captains and crew 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.080 scrambled to pull anchor and maneuver out of harm's way. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.160 The pirates abandoned the fiery vessel and made their way 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:20.240 to another of Veins ships. The stolen sloop exploded rather spectacularly, 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.680 barely missing the two naval ships. With the crew aboard 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.680 the Rose and Shark preoccupied, Vain and his small but 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.840 fast sloop sailed out of the harbor before anyone else 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.720 pulled anchor to give chase. Vain laughed and fired one 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:38.280 last shot as he sailed out to sea. Humiliated and angry, 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.520 woods rogers vowed to catch Vain, and he knew just 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.040 who to turn to to help, and as we've learned, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.320 that was his nemesis, Benjamin Hornegal. Meanwhile, Vain set out 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.960 to gather forces. If he was to stand a chance 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.880 at ridding the Pirate Republic of British rule, he needed 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.280 a formidable fleet, so he set sail for North Carolina 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.160 in search of the most powerful remaining pirate of all, Blackbeard. 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.360 Edward Teach had left Nassau and took over the port 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.640 of Charleston to get medicine for his ailing men. Afterward, 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.400 he met with North Carolina's governor to accept the pardon. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.360 Vain met back up with Blackbeard on Ocracoke Island. The 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.800 two men talked, although some say they partied for nearly 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.840 a week. In the end, Blackbeard wished Vain all the 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.360 best of luck, but he remained determined to take the 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.440 pardon and retire, an attempt we now know didn't work 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.280 out so well thanks to Virginia's Lieutenant governor. Undaunted, Vain 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:35.880 continued his merciless raids, although his men became increasingly worried 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.560 their captain was less than predictable. He had a temper, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.560 and their raids and brutality had placed them as a 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.120 high priority on the capture list. One of Vain's captain's 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.280 even betrayed him. After raiding a ship in Charleston. He 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.040 set off with a cargo, intent on turning himself in 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.040 and taking the pardon. Yet it wouldn't be the loss 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.400 of valuables, a ship or the captain that did Vain in. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.200 Jack Rackam called for a vote to oust Vain, and 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.119 they overwhelmingly agreed his abuse and violence had been too 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.960 much even for pirates. They set him and a handful 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.520 of supporters adrift in a small boat. Then they voted 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.879 Calico Jack Rackham as their new captain and returned to 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:28.399 NASA to take the King's pardon temporarily. Of course, Charles 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.560 Vane never treated his crew well, and then again, he 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.480 did cheat them on raids and had been less than civil, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.480 often punishing them for the smallest of transgressions. Known for 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.480 cruelty to men on the ships they plundered, Vain also 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.399 had a reputation for brutality with his own crew, and 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.440 NASA rumors floated that he kneel halled a few men 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.560 who displeased him. Part of the problem was that Vain 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.000 dealt up punishments that were far more severe than required 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.840 by the crime or the agreed upon rules of discipline, 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.119 and the way he treated the sailors aboard the ships 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.720 they rated built distrust in his men. It's no wonder 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.800 that before voting him out, the crew had begun plotting revenge. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.440 Luckily for him, Rackham's call for a vote ended, this 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.400 time on the ship more amicably. Vain and a few 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.000 of his supporters were sent adrift in a hunting trip 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.879 in November of seventeen eighteen. Vain realized the large merchant 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.159 vessel they'd been tracking was a French warship and stopped 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.359 the attack. That's when Quartermaster Jack Rackham called for a 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:31.040 vote to replace him. Surprisingly, Vain's career didn't end there, though, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.199 He and his handful of men began to raid ships 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:38.040 and rebuild a fleet. By February of seventeen nineteen, Vain 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.600 commanded five ships. They set sail for the Bay Islands 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.159 of Honduras, when Vain met a force stronger and meaner 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.640 than even him, a hurricane. The storm tore through the ships, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.280 smashing them and scattering men into the sea. Vain and 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.440 one other pirates survived, finding shelter on a nearby uninhabited 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.280 island that pirates used for marooning crewmate. The two hunted 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.760 turtles and other wildlife, and then waited for passing ships. 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.480 Captain Holford spotted the men and stopped to help. He 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.639 had once been a pirate himself under Vain and recognized 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.640 the man immediately. Holford ordered the crew to take Vain's companion, 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.439 but leave the notorious pirate behind, promising to return in 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.119 a month. He would personally escort Vain to Jamaica and 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.959 see him hanged if Vain survived. Sometime later, another ship arrived. 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.919 This time Vain pretended to be a marooned sailor. The 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.160 captain took him on board and even provided work. Unfortunately 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.879 for Vain, though the ship connected with Holford's and a 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.560 crewman pointed out the infamous pirate. Holford had Vain placed 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.000 in shackles and took him to Port Royal, where he 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.720 made good on his promise. In March of seventeen twenty one, 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:52.160 Vain found himself before the court. Survivors testified against him, 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.520 were laying the horrors they'd seen and suffered, and Captain 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.439 Pierce returned to testify as well. Vain was hanged at 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:04.440 Gallows Points on March twenty nine, seventy one. Officials displayed 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.320 his corpse in a cage at the harbor entrance. We're 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.920 all to see and of course for the birds the 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:20.399 slowly devour. The legends tell us that all pirates were 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.600 violent cutthroats, but hopefully you've seen the error in that 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.200 notion demonstrated throughout this season. Still, there were, of course 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.240 exceptions to the rule, and Charles Vane was one of 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.280 the worst, but there were others. And if you stick 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.639 around through this brief sponsor break, my croommate Alie Steed 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:46.640 will tell you all about another pirate cutthroat. The records 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:51.560 are not exact. Still, it's believed that Joan Davignon was 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.359 born between sixteen thirty and sixteen thirty five in the 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.600 French coastal town of However, most people never called him 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.359 by his birth name and head. He went by Flacois 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.639 and used the surname Lulnay as a nod to his birthplace. 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.640 Records put him in the Caribbean in the sixteen fifties, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.440 where he worked as an indentured servant for about ten years. 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.600 After paying his debt, he ventured to Hispaniola, where he 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.880 joined hunters the locals called buccaneers due to their preference 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:20.120 for smoking meat on grills. The Spanish tried to rid 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.080 Hispaniola of the buccaneers, to no avail. In retaliation, the 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:28.040 hunters attacked the Spanish before retreating into dense forests. When 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.320 the hunters set out to see for a life of piracy, 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:35.120 Lelnay gladly joined them. The buccaneers focused mainly on Spanish vessels, 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:37.720 not just because of their vast wealth, but partly in 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:42.280 retaliation for slaughtering other buccaneers. Lelnai and the others held 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.760 little back in their attacks, and they were brutal to 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.720 the Spanish Towarduca's French governor had once been a buccaneer himself, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.960 and the Lini must have impressed him, because he offered 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.680 Francois and a few of his former brethren a deal 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.520 they couldn't pass up. He would supply a ship in 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.360 exchange for continued raids on the Spanish. All governments sanctioned, 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.159 of course, and all Lolnais and the others had to 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.359 do was share a portion of the bounty. Branson Spain 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.760 were hereditary enemies, and in sixteen sixty seven and sixty 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.920 eight the two were at war again. The governor selected 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.840 a crew that hated the Spanish and were almost as 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:21.600 bloodthirsty as Lolnai. Delighted with his new position, the buccaneer 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.320 eagerly threw himself into his work. Before long, his reputation 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.879 grew as the most vicious and deviant buccaneer in the Caribbean, 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.400 which was a pretty impressive claim given his brethren's animosity 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.359 towards the Spanish. Lolani sailed on ships owned by private 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.119 parties for the first two or three hunts. The raids 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:43.280 were wildly successful, bringing in a hefty fortune and a 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:46.480 heftier body count. With all the new found wealth, the 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.119 buccaneer captain bought his own ship. There's no record of 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.400 how he treated his crew, but his victims, they were 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:57.959 another story. Lolani took no prisoners, and he gave no quarter. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.399 It said he killed and in tire crew aboard a 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:06.000 Spanish ship. He personally took the role of executioner, beheading 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.560 ninety men. Other times you chose to have the Spanish 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.520 thrown overboard to drown or set them on fire. And 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.760 more grotesquely, it said he had a fondness for removing 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:20.120 men's hearts and eating them. His brutality and depravity knew 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:24.399 no bounds, which ultimately became his downfall. Without quarter, the 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.040 Spanish had no choice but to fight to stay alive. 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:30.760 Torture and horrific death motivated the Spanish to fight harder, 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:34.600 more fiercely, and dirtier than they ever had before. At best, 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:38.639 they died in battle. At worst, well we already know 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.120 what happened. Still, all that fighting costs the line men. 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.000 In sixteen sixty seven, his ships sank off the Yucatan coast. 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:49.200 Fortunately for Loolani and his crew, most of them survived 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:54.680 and swam ashore. Unfortunately, Yucatan's population consisted of indigenous tribes 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:57.399 and the Spaniards that were trying to conquer them. The 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:01.160 Spanish found them first. The two groups engaged in an 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:05.560 intense battle. Outnumbered and at a disadvantage, Loloni knew he 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:08.280 had to act quickly if he wanted to survive. He 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:10.760 covered himself in the blood of his fallen men, then 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:14.560 rolled in sand to resemble a corpse. Finally, he hid 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:17.440 beneath a few bodies and lay still and quiet until 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:22.200 the Spanish stopped looking for survivors and left. When Loloni 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:24.720