Speaker 1: Cutthroat. According to Dictionary entries, it's someone so ruthless they
Speaker 1: would cut the throat of another, a murderer, a person
Speaker 1: of a vicious nature. And believe me, in the world
Speaker 1: of piracy, there were plenty of cutthroats. Sure, pirates lived
Speaker 1: on the fringes of the societal boundaries. Many stole without conscience,
Speaker 1: justified murder, and weren't exactly the nicest people in the world.
Speaker 1: But to most of them, there were rules and behavioral expectations,
Speaker 1: even among pirates. Edward Lowe, however, didn't subscribe to any
Speaker 1: of that. If a fraction of the stories about his
Speaker 1: cruelty are true, then it's a small wonder his crew
Speaker 1: didn't hang him. His meanness and depravity, according to the tales,
Speaker 1: at least could shame the devil. Low was born sometime
Speaker 1: in the sixteen nineties in Westminster, London. As a teen,
Speaker 1: he found work as a sailor on a ship heading
Speaker 1: to Boston in the New World. There he secured job
Speaker 1: at a rigging house. Accounts say that low married in
Speaker 1: seventeen fourteen. Tragedy struck when his son died in infancy
Speaker 1: and his wife died from complications during the birth of
Speaker 1: their second child, a daughter. Low then lost his job
Speaker 1: and spiraled into a manic a bout of depression, he
Speaker 1: returned to the sea, abandoning whatever kindness and solace he possessed,
Speaker 1: along with his baby daughter. During the ship's voyage, Low
Speaker 1: ended up in a brawl with a captain. Some of
Speaker 1: the crew said Low insisted on more breaks, while others
Speaker 1: claimed that he had grown tired of manual labor altogether.
Speaker 1: When life aboard the ship did not improve to his liking,
Speaker 1: Low convinced a handful of the crew to attempt a mutiny.
Speaker 1: He killed a crewman while trying to shoot the captain.
Speaker 1: The coup failed, and Low and his collaborators fled in
Speaker 1: a rowboat. The group joined forces with another pirate, George Lowther.
Speaker 1: While in Honduras, the crew attacked the Greyhound. Lowther and
Speaker 1: Low ordered their crew to beat the men aboard the
Speaker 1: merchant ship violently. Afterward, they joyfully set the Greyhound on fire.
Speaker 1: With additional raids came upgrades to their ships. Lowther took
Speaker 1: a vessel of his own, christening it the Ranger. Any
Speaker 1: ship the men didn't take for their fleet was set
Speaker 1: ablaze simply for having new Englanders on board, but things
Speaker 1: weren't perfect in Paradise. Lowther and Low fought constantly and
Speaker 1: finally parted ways. In seventeen twenty two, Low sailed for
Speaker 1: Block Island. He flew various flags designed to instill a
Speaker 1: sense of false security in his victims. His other ships
Speaker 1: helped corral the unsuspecting vessel. If the captain refused to surrender,
Speaker 1: Low open fire on the ship. Not that there was
Speaker 1: anything out of the ordinary about that. No, it was
Speaker 1: Lowe's cruelty that made him stand out. This was a
Speaker 1: man who was amused by the thought of a human
Speaker 1: being sizzling in flames, and so one time he ordered
Speaker 1: his men to tie one ship's cook to the mast
Speaker 1: and then set the whole vessel ablaze. He strung up friars,
Speaker 1: jerking them from their feet, and how they died. He
Speaker 1: cut another man to pieces for pitying the victims. Word
Speaker 1: of Low's rampages, murder and the removal and roasting of
Speaker 1: body parts reached the Boston papers. He had earned a
Speaker 1: reputation as the most barbaric pirate to sail the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: He was a cutthroat in the end, though his deeds
Speaker 1: proved too much even for his own crew. After Low
Speaker 1: killed his quartermaster, his men marooned him, and no one
Speaker 1: ever saw him again. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates. Pirates,
Speaker 1: the rogues of the sea, with reputations for giving no quarter,
Speaker 1: meaning to grant to no mercy. The sight of a
Speaker 1: pirate ship instilled fear in many sailors, and for good reason.
Speaker 1: Codes and rules regarding the pirates crews treatment did not
Speaker 1: extend to those aboard targeted ships. A rare few, like
Speaker 1: Steve Bonnet, had the reputation of being kinder than most.
Speaker 1: He wasn't known as the gentleman pirate for nothing. Others, though,
Speaker 1: like Blackbeard, struck fear in all who crossed their paths,
Speaker 1: yet treated their crewman well. But some pirate captains treated
Speaker 1: their crew poorly or worse than their intended victims. John
Speaker 1: Phillips had taken to pirate life aboard the Good Fortune
Speaker 1: with Gusto. In April of seventeen twenty two, he and
Speaker 1: the other crewmates were busily working on a frigate to
Speaker 1: add to their fleet when a British man of war
Speaker 1: captained by Sir John Flowers approached Phillips and the others
Speaker 1: ran into the woods to hide. Flowers captured most of
Speaker 1: the pirates, although Phillips and a handful of others remained undetected.
Speaker 1: With most of the crew gone, they returned to England
Speaker 1: to take the King's pardon while visiting family, though Phillips
Speaker 1: heard that authorities imprisoned a few anyway, and he quickly
Speaker 1: hopped on a ship heading to Newfoundland. He deserted that
Speaker 1: ship when it arrived on an island off Newfoundland's coast,
Speaker 1: and convinced others to join him. Intent on returning to piracy,
Speaker 1: the group stole a schooner from Austin Harbor and named
Speaker 1: it the Revenge. With Phillips as captain, the pirates raided
Speaker 1: ships along the coast, growing their numbers with each attack.
Speaker 1: While some went willingly, others, like John Fillmore, great grandfather
Speaker 1: of US President Millard Fillmore, did not. For the crew
Speaker 1: leaving was not an option. While some captains had would
Speaker 1: be deserters maroon, Phillips was deadly serious about keeping his crew.
Speaker 1: He killed two men who tried to escape, violating the
Speaker 1: agreed upon rules of punishment. Phillips continued to raid ships
Speaker 1: and take on the crew as his own. By now
Speaker 1: much of the crew aboard there were against their will,
Speaker 1: and by April eighteenth of seventeen twenty four, they'd had enough.
Speaker 1: Fillmore and three more took action. While repairing the ship,
Speaker 1: one of the men grabbed an axe like weapon and
Speaker 1: killed Phillips. Before long, the rest of the crew joined
Speaker 1: the fray, defeating the pirates. They steered the ship to Boston,
Speaker 1: where they handed over the pirates and Philip's head to
Speaker 1: the authorities. About as happy and ending as we can
Speaker 1: expect for their story. While most captains treated their crew fairly,
Speaker 1: others went too far, even for the most ruthless legends
Speaker 1: of pirate lore. Like many pirates, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of information about Charles Vane's early life, although there are
Speaker 1: some assertions. Notably, he was likely born in London around
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty, and his surname suggests French ancestry. As a
Speaker 1: child and teen Vain most likely witnessed a pirate hanging
Speaker 1: in public. Public hangings gathered quite a crowd back then,
Speaker 1: and entire families would make their way to the gallows
Speaker 1: to watch. Of course, that's assuming that he grew up
Speaker 1: in England at some point. We do know that he
Speaker 1: found his way to Port Royal. There he met privateer
Speaker 1: Henry Jennings and joined his crew. Vain discovered that they
Speaker 1: were both well educated, which was the exception rather than
Speaker 1: the norm among sailors. Vain looked up to his mentor.
Speaker 1: Jennings was a devout patriot and wealthy landowner with a
Speaker 1: couple of island estates. If you remember, it was Jennings
Speaker 1: who was sent by Jamaica's governor, Lord Archibald Hamilton's to
Speaker 1: retrieve treasure from a fleet of wrecked Spanish ships off
Speaker 1: Florida's coast in seventeen fifteen. While the crew recovered treasure,
Speaker 1: they also attacked the Spanish camps and made off with
Speaker 1: the hefty bounty. When Hamilton's lost his power in Jamaica, though,
Speaker 1: jennings unwillingness to give up raids made him a pirate,
Speaker 1: and to complicate matters further, the authorities in England had
Speaker 1: tied the governor and Jennings and Vain to a conspiracy
Speaker 1: to fund an army to overthrow King George the First.
Speaker 1: But Jennings hadn't started out intending to become a pirate.
Speaker 1: The king would soon offer him and others away out
Speaker 1: much to their relief. Pirates in the Caribbean cross paths regularly,
Speaker 1: and many knew each other from their privateering days. Vain
Speaker 1: took note of Jenning's dislike of Benjamin Hornegald, and following
Speaker 1: his lead, also looked down on the man Hornegold was
Speaker 1: beneath them due to his lack of formal education and
Speaker 1: his origins in a much lower class. Vain despise as
Speaker 1: to Hornegold as much as his mentor, and like Jennings,
Speaker 1: he clashed with pirates and privateers a lake. In fact,
Speaker 1: Vain spent much of his time in Nassau drinking, fighting
Speaker 1: and harassing the residents, and the more his brethren talked
Speaker 1: of taking the pardon, the more he saw the offer
Speaker 1: as an act of war on the pirate republic, and
Speaker 1: Charles Vane was ready for a fight. Unlike Jennings, Vain
Speaker 1: had no such loyalty to England, the Stewart line of
Speaker 1: heirs or King George the First. His loyalties were to
Speaker 1: piracy and himself. Vain took over those under jennings command
Speaker 1: who refused to sign the pardon. He continued to cause
Speaker 1: trouble in Nassau, putting himself in Britain's crosshairs. While making
Speaker 1: his displeasure well heard, Vain also knew that it was
Speaker 1: just a matter of time before someone came looking for him.
Speaker 1: Ambitious and young British captain Vincent Pierce set out to
Speaker 1: capture Vane with the help of a few pirates. He
Speaker 1: found the rebel pirate aboard the sloop called the Lark.
Speaker 1: Pierce's own ship, the Phoenix, greatly outmatched the Lark, leaving
Speaker 1: Vain no choice but to surrender. Pierce returned to Nassa
Speaker 1: with the pirates instead of jailing them. Though authorities thought
Speaker 1: releasing Vain and his crew might be a gesture of
Speaker 1: good faith to the rest of the pirate community, still
Speaker 1: considering a pardon, Vain and his crew immediately returned to piracy,
Speaker 1: though collecting forty of the most cutthroat pirates on the island,
Speaker 1: including Jack Rackham. As he sailed out of port, Vain
Speaker 1: passed Pierce's ship. The pirates hailed him, waving and laughing
Speaker 1: as they ventured back out to see By spring, Vain
Speaker 1: and his men had attacked twelve ships. Some of their
Speaker 1: targets fought back, others did not. Either way, they were
Speaker 1: treated with absolute cruelty. Vain and his men bound one
Speaker 1: sailor to the bowsprit and threatened to shoot him. The
Speaker 1: word of Vein's brutality and acts of violence spread far
Speaker 1: and wide, and as his reputation grew, so too did
Speaker 1: his ego. In mid April of seventeen eighteen, Vein spotted
Speaker 1: the sloop William and Mary near rum K and gave chase.
Speaker 1: Captain Edward North surrendered without a fight. Despite this, Vein's
Speaker 1: men savagely beat North's crew. After that, Vain randomly selected
Speaker 1: one of North's men's and had his hands and feet
Speaker 1: bound and tied the sailor to the top side. One
Speaker 1: pirate rammed the end of a loaded musket into his mouth.
Speaker 1: Another pirate placed the ends of matches in the sailor's eyelids.
Speaker 1: Vain threatened to like them if the sailor did not
Speaker 1: tell him where The crew hit the valuables, but the
Speaker 1: William and Mary had nothing of real value on board,
Speaker 1: so Vein took what cargo they had anyway, and then
Speaker 1: also took the black sailors on board for enslavement. Aboard
Speaker 1: the Lark, Vein captured another ship, the Diamond, and viciously
Speaker 1: beat their crew as well. After taking whatever valuables they found,
Speaker 1: he and his crew committed their final acts of cruelty.
Speaker 1: The pirates put a noose around a sail ER's neck
Speaker 1: and repeatedly hoisted him up and down until he lost consciousness.
Speaker 1: Then they set the diamond ablaze. Later, they celebrated into
Speaker 1: the night, drinking and cursing King George the first. The
Speaker 1: raids continued in the same manner. Vain promised their victims quarter,
Speaker 1: then unleashed his men to beat and torture anyone on board.
Speaker 1: The violence caused tensions among other pirates, who relied on
Speaker 1: their victims easy surrender as part of a promise to
Speaker 1: give them quarter. Vain, however, genuinely seemed to delight in
Speaker 1: each torture and saved his most violent acts of terror
Speaker 1: for ships originating from Bermuda. For Vain, these acts were
Speaker 1: in retaliation for the governor arresting a pirate. There was
Speaker 1: one calendar month where Vain and his pirates raided a
Speaker 1: dozen ships, terrorizing the crew each time. Survivors gave accounts
Speaker 1: of Vein's cruelty and delight in delivering the most brutal assaults.
Speaker 1: A few pirates in Nassau admitted that the atrocities the
Speaker 1: Vein and his crew committed were dark even by their
Speaker 1: own standards. In Bermuda, mariner Nathaniel Katling, a survivor of
Speaker 1: the ill fated Diamond, testified before Governor Bennett. He'd been
Speaker 1: slashed with a cutlass, strung up and left for dead,
Speaker 1: but miraculously he had somehow survived. The sights of Vein's
Speaker 1: ship flying the black flag alongside a Union jack struck
Speaker 1: fear and terror into merchant captains and crew. Trade in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean suffered, nearly coming to a halt. By now,
Speaker 1: Pierce had left Nassa, but Vain had another problem. Woods Rogers,
Speaker 1: the new governor, had larger ships and more firepower. Undeterred
Speaker 1: when Vain returned in April, he doubled down on his efforts,
Speaker 1: recruiting even more men, and then their spree of violence continued.
Speaker 1: Vain captured a two d ton French vessel he took
Speaker 1: for his new flagship. By mid June. He christened the
Speaker 1: ship the Ranger and promoted Jack Rackham as his quartermaster. Later,
Speaker 1: Rackham would go on to captain the ship himself. In
Speaker 1: July of seventeen eighteen woods, Rogers and his landing party
Speaker 1: arrived in Nassau. The early arrival took Vain and his
Speaker 1: crew by surprise. Watching his brethren, including former mentor Henry Jennings,
Speaker 1: signed the letter of pardon was bad enough, but when
Speaker 1: many of them flew the British flag atop the forts
Speaker 1: and celebrated, Vain flew into a rage. The community split
Speaker 1: into two pieces, those who took the pardon and those
Speaker 1: who refused it. Jennings and Hornegal, although still enemies, both
Speaker 1: took the pardon. Defiant, Vain led a band of men
Speaker 1: determined to remain free from Britain's control, and stormed the fort,
Speaker 1: replacing the Union jack with a Pirate flag. Still furious,
Speaker 1: Vain fired upon the HMS Rose. When the ship entered
Speaker 1: the port, Captain Thomas Whitney pulled alongside the Ranger and
Speaker 1: confronted the pirates. Vain handed the captain a letter of
Speaker 1: refusal to take the pardon and shouted that he would
Speaker 1: see Rogers burned on the harbor. Now, Charles Vaine's bravado
Speaker 1: was one thing, but managing to get out of the
Speaker 1: harbor safely was quite another. The HMS Rose had not
Speaker 1: arrived alone. The HMS Milford Shark, willing mine Buck, Samuel
Speaker 1: and Alicia had blocked his escape. Altogether, the British fleet
Speaker 1: carried a hundred and thirty one guns, a hundred soldiers
Speaker 1: and one d thirty colonists, making the deployment the largest
Speaker 1: ever since the Treaty of You trect in seventeen thirteen.
Speaker 1: It goes without saying Vain was vastly outnumbered. For hours,
Speaker 1: he considered his options. I can imagine his fellow pirates
Speaker 1: betting on Vain's next move. The odds seemed evenly split
Speaker 1: between surrender followed by capture or a short battle followed
Speaker 1: by going to Davy Jones Locker. In a blaze of glory.
Speaker 1: At two o'clock in the morning, the sound of an
Speaker 1: explosion pulled residents and pirates from their beds. Vain had
Speaker 1: set a ship full of gunpowder and ammo on fire
Speaker 1: and sailed it directly at the h MS Rose and
Speaker 1: HMS Shark. Both British ships were anchored. When the sight
Speaker 1: of the flaming ship alerted a guard, Captains and crew
Speaker 1: scrambled to pull anchor and maneuver out of harm's way.
Speaker 1: The pirates abandoned the fiery vessel and made their way
Speaker 1: to another of Veins ships. The stolen sloop exploded rather spectacularly,
Speaker 1: barely missing the two naval ships. With the crew aboard
Speaker 1: the Rose and Shark preoccupied, Vain and his small but
Speaker 1: fast sloop sailed out of the harbor before anyone else
Speaker 1: pulled anchor to give chase. Vain laughed and fired one
Speaker 1: last shot as he sailed out to sea. Humiliated and angry,
Speaker 1: woods rogers vowed to catch Vain, and he knew just
Speaker 1: who to turn to to help, and as we've learned,
Speaker 1: that was his nemesis, Benjamin Hornegal. Meanwhile, Vain set out
Speaker 1: to gather forces. If he was to stand a chance
Speaker 1: at ridding the Pirate Republic of British rule, he needed
Speaker 1: a formidable fleet, so he set sail for North Carolina
Speaker 1: in search of the most powerful remaining pirate of all, Blackbeard.
Speaker 1: Edward Teach had left Nassau and took over the port
Speaker 1: of Charleston to get medicine for his ailing men. Afterward,
Speaker 1: he met with North Carolina's governor to accept the pardon.
Speaker 1: Vain met back up with Blackbeard on Ocracoke Island. The
Speaker 1: two men talked, although some say they partied for nearly
Speaker 1: a week. In the end, Blackbeard wished Vain all the
Speaker 1: best of luck, but he remained determined to take the
Speaker 1: pardon and retire, an attempt we now know didn't work
Speaker 1: out so well thanks to Virginia's Lieutenant governor. Undaunted, Vain
Speaker 1: continued his merciless raids, although his men became increasingly worried
Speaker 1: their captain was less than predictable. He had a temper,
Speaker 1: and their raids and brutality had placed them as a
Speaker 1: high priority on the capture list. One of Vain's captain's
Speaker 1: even betrayed him. After raiding a ship in Charleston. He
Speaker 1: set off with a cargo, intent on turning himself in
Speaker 1: and taking the pardon. Yet it wouldn't be the loss
Speaker 1: of valuables, a ship or the captain that did Vain in.
Speaker 1: Jack Rackam called for a vote to oust Vain, and
Speaker 1: they overwhelmingly agreed his abuse and violence had been too
Speaker 1: much even for pirates. They set him and a handful
Speaker 1: of supporters adrift in a small boat. Then they voted
Speaker 1: Calico Jack Rackham as their new captain and returned to
Speaker 1: NASA to take the King's pardon temporarily. Of course, Charles
Speaker 1: Vane never treated his crew well, and then again, he
Speaker 1: did cheat them on raids and had been less than civil,
Speaker 1: often punishing them for the smallest of transgressions. Known for
Speaker 1: cruelty to men on the ships they plundered, Vain also
Speaker 1: had a reputation for brutality with his own crew, and
Speaker 1: NASA rumors floated that he kneel halled a few men
Speaker 1: who displeased him. Part of the problem was that Vain
Speaker 1: dealt up punishments that were far more severe than required
Speaker 1: by the crime or the agreed upon rules of discipline,
Speaker 1: and the way he treated the sailors aboard the ships
Speaker 1: they rated built distrust in his men. It's no wonder
Speaker 1: that before voting him out, the crew had begun plotting revenge.
Speaker 1: Luckily for him, Rackham's call for a vote ended, this
Speaker 1: time on the ship more amicably. Vain and a few
Speaker 1: of his supporters were sent adrift in a hunting trip
Speaker 1: in November of seventeen eighteen. Vain realized the large merchant
Speaker 1: vessel they'd been tracking was a French warship and stopped
Speaker 1: the attack. That's when Quartermaster Jack Rackham called for a
Speaker 1: vote to replace him. Surprisingly, Vain's career didn't end there, though,
Speaker 1: He and his handful of men began to raid ships
Speaker 1: and rebuild a fleet. By February of seventeen nineteen, Vain
Speaker 1: commanded five ships. They set sail for the Bay Islands
Speaker 1: of Honduras, when Vain met a force stronger and meaner
Speaker 1: than even him, a hurricane. The storm tore through the ships,
Speaker 1: smashing them and scattering men into the sea. Vain and
Speaker 1: one other pirates survived, finding shelter on a nearby uninhabited
Speaker 1: island that pirates used for marooning crewmate. The two hunted
Speaker 1: turtles and other wildlife, and then waited for passing ships.
Speaker 1: Captain Holford spotted the men and stopped to help. He
Speaker 1: had once been a pirate himself under Vain and recognized
Speaker 1: the man immediately. Holford ordered the crew to take Vain's companion,
Speaker 1: but leave the notorious pirate behind, promising to return in
Speaker 1: a month. He would personally escort Vain to Jamaica and
Speaker 1: see him hanged if Vain survived. Sometime later, another ship arrived.
Speaker 1: This time Vain pretended to be a marooned sailor. The
Speaker 1: captain took him on board and even provided work. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: for Vain, though the ship connected with Holford's and a
Speaker 1: crewman pointed out the infamous pirate. Holford had Vain placed
Speaker 1: in shackles and took him to Port Royal, where he
Speaker 1: made good on his promise. In March of seventeen twenty one,
Speaker 1: Vain found himself before the court. Survivors testified against him,
Speaker 1: were laying the horrors they'd seen and suffered, and Captain
Speaker 1: Pierce returned to testify as well. Vain was hanged at
Speaker 1: Gallows Points on March twenty nine, seventy one. Officials displayed
Speaker 1: his corpse in a cage at the harbor entrance. We're
Speaker 1: all to see and of course for the birds the
Speaker 1: slowly devour. The legends tell us that all pirates were
Speaker 1: violent cutthroats, but hopefully you've seen the error in that
Speaker 1: notion demonstrated throughout this season. Still, there were, of course
Speaker 1: exceptions to the rule, and Charles Vane was one of
Speaker 1: the worst, but there were others. And if you stick
Speaker 1: around through this brief sponsor break, my croommate Alie Steed
Speaker 1: will tell you all about another pirate cutthroat. The records
Speaker 1: are not exact. Still, it's believed that Joan Davignon was
Speaker 1: born between sixteen thirty and sixteen thirty five in the
Speaker 1: French coastal town of However, most people never called him
Speaker 1: by his birth name and head. He went by Flacois
Speaker 1: and used the surname Lulnay as a nod to his birthplace.
Speaker 1: Records put him in the Caribbean in the sixteen fifties,
Speaker 1: where he worked as an indentured servant for about ten years.
Speaker 1: After paying his debt, he ventured to Hispaniola, where he
Speaker 1: joined hunters the locals called buccaneers due to their preference
Speaker 1: for smoking meat on grills. The Spanish tried to rid
Speaker 1: Hispaniola of the buccaneers, to no avail. In retaliation, the
Speaker 1: hunters attacked the Spanish before retreating into dense forests. When
Speaker 1: the hunters set out to see for a life of piracy,
Speaker 1: Lelnay gladly joined them. The buccaneers focused mainly on Spanish vessels,
Speaker 1: not just because of their vast wealth, but partly in
Speaker 1: retaliation for slaughtering other buccaneers. Lelnai and the others held
Speaker 1: little back in their attacks, and they were brutal to
Speaker 1: the Spanish Towarduca's French governor had once been a buccaneer himself,
Speaker 1: and the Lini must have impressed him, because he offered
Speaker 1: Francois and a few of his former brethren a deal
Speaker 1: they couldn't pass up. He would supply a ship in
Speaker 1: exchange for continued raids on the Spanish. All governments sanctioned,
Speaker 1: of course, and all Lolnais and the others had to
Speaker 1: do was share a portion of the bounty. Branson Spain
Speaker 1: were hereditary enemies, and in sixteen sixty seven and sixty
Speaker 1: eight the two were at war again. The governor selected
Speaker 1: a crew that hated the Spanish and were almost as
Speaker 1: bloodthirsty as Lolnai. Delighted with his new position, the buccaneer
Speaker 1: eagerly threw himself into his work. Before long, his reputation
Speaker 1: grew as the most vicious and deviant buccaneer in the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: which was a pretty impressive claim given his brethren's animosity
Speaker 1: towards the Spanish. Lolani sailed on ships owned by private
Speaker 1: parties for the first two or three hunts. The raids
Speaker 1: were wildly successful, bringing in a hefty fortune and a
Speaker 1: heftier body count. With all the new found wealth, the
Speaker 1: buccaneer captain bought his own ship. There's no record of
Speaker 1: how he treated his crew, but his victims, they were
Speaker 1: another story. Lolani took no prisoners, and he gave no quarter.
Speaker 1: It said he killed and in tire crew aboard a
Speaker 1: Spanish ship. He personally took the role of executioner, beheading
Speaker 1: ninety men. Other times you chose to have the Spanish
Speaker 1: thrown overboard to drown or set them on fire. And
Speaker 1: more grotesquely, it said he had a fondness for removing
Speaker 1: men's hearts and eating them. His brutality and depravity knew
Speaker 1: no bounds, which ultimately became his downfall. Without quarter, the
Speaker 1: Spanish had no choice but to fight to stay alive.
Speaker 1: Torture and horrific death motivated the Spanish to fight harder,
Speaker 1: more fiercely, and dirtier than they ever had before. At best,
Speaker 1: they died in battle. At worst, well we already know
Speaker 1: what happened. Still, all that fighting costs the line men.
Speaker 1: In sixteen sixty seven, his ships sank off the Yucatan coast.
Speaker 1: Fortunately for Loolani and his crew, most of them survived
Speaker 1: and swam ashore. Unfortunately, Yucatan's population consisted of indigenous tribes
Speaker 1: and the Spaniards that were trying to conquer them. The
Speaker 1: Spanish found them first. The two groups engaged in an
Speaker 1: intense battle. Outnumbered and at a disadvantage, Loloni knew he
Speaker 1: had to act quickly if he wanted to survive. He
Speaker 1: covered himself in the blood of his fallen men, then
Speaker 1: rolled in sand to resemble a corpse. Finally, he hid
Speaker 1: beneath a few bodies and lay still and quiet until
Speaker 1: the Spanish stopped looking for survivors and left. When Loloni
Speaker 1: felt safe enough to emerge, he took the clothing of
Speaker 1: one of the dead Spanish men. While trying to find
Speaker 1: a safe place to hide for the night, he stumbled
Speaker 1: across the Spanish soldier's campsite. The fighters were celebrating, toasting
Speaker 1: each other for killing the hated buccaneers. Loloni quietly left.
Speaker 1: Survival meant making it to neutral territory. Luckily, he found
Speaker 1: assistance from some enslaved indigenous people, and the group stole
Speaker 1: a canoe and made it safely to French rule. Tortuga.
Speaker 1: Determined to destroy the Spaniards for killing his men, Lolnais
Speaker 1: assembled another crew and set a course for Cuba. Havannah's
Speaker 1: governor sent a warship to confront the Buccaneers. Head to
Speaker 1: head battle would be two day dangerous, so Lolini decided
Speaker 1: on a surprise attack. The Buccaneers won the battle, intentionally,
Speaker 1: leaving one sole survivor to deliver a message they would
Speaker 1: give the Spaniards no quarter. During their next cruise in Venezuela,
Speaker 1: Lolnai had a fleet of six hundred men and eight ships.
Speaker 1: Again they prevailed, killing the Spanish and taking enormous riches,
Speaker 1: gold gems, gunpowder, and other valuables. Bent on a reign
Speaker 1: of terror, they sailed to marri Gaibo, at the site
Speaker 1: of Lolonese ships. The four thousand residents panicked, men, women
Speaker 1: and children, packed up valuables and fled into the woods.
Speaker 1: When the lane stormed the town, he found it empty
Speaker 1: and relatively void of treasure. Ultimately, and his crew found
Speaker 1: and killed twenty people before taking two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: thousand pieces of eight and heading towards their next port.
Speaker 1: Gibraltar put up a fight, managing to kill seventy Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be enough, and the Lenaie his men
Speaker 1: spent four weeks, raiding and brutalizing the town. In the end,
Speaker 1: they killed two hundred people and took another hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty hostage for a hefty ransom. Then they returned to Maricaibo,
Speaker 1: whose residence had just begun, to creep out of the woods,
Speaker 1: only to find the buccaneers had returned. They looted and
Speaker 1: pillaged them before returning to Tortuga with another thirty thousand
Speaker 1: pieces of eight. Lolani and the crew met disaster once
Speaker 1: more on the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua. During a losing
Speaker 1: battle with the Spanish, Lolani and a few of his
Speaker 1: men fled on a makeshift raft. The indigenous tribe they
Speaker 1: met this time was not as friendly and captured the buccaneers.
Speaker 1: One of Loloni's men managed to escape and eventually returned
Speaker 1: to safety. He reported that the tribe had been cannibals,
Speaker 1: that they cut Lolany to bits and ate him. Pirates
Speaker 1: was executive produced by Aaron Manky and narrated by Aaron
Speaker 1: Manky and Alexander Steid. Writing for this season was provid
Speaker 1: fended by Michelle Muto, with research by Alexander Steide and
Speaker 1: Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided by Josh Thain, Jesse Funk,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about this
Speaker 1: and other shows from Grimm and Mild and I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit grim and Mild dot com