Last week, we took a first look at a work titled Of the Beginnings, Practices, and Suppression of Pirates, written by Captain Henry Mainwaring, the (in)famous seventeenth century English pirate. Mainwaring covers a number of topics in this work, remember: the origins of post-Elizabethan English piracy, the reasons men became pirates, the methods such pirates used at sea, details about the ports and harbors around the world used by pirates, and how to suppress and prevent piracy.
This series of posts focuses on the section dealing with the ports and harbors used by pirates. Last week, there was only room to include the bare beginnings of Mainwaring’s discussion of pirate ports. This week contains a longer extract.
I have taken some minor editorial liberties with Mainwaring’s text, as well as modernizing some of the archaic spellings, words, and expressions to make the text clearer. I have also added footnotes explaining some of the more obscure terms and identifying the locations mentioned.
Since last week’s excerpt was so short, I’ve included it again here to begin things.
Within the Straits of Gibraltar, [1] there is no place for pirates to resort to except Algiers and Tunis, where they may be fitted with all manner of provisions and ride safe from Christian forces. [2] In Algiers, however, they risk being betrayed and having their ships taken from them and manned out by the Turks, after the proportion of 150 Turks to 20 English, though the English in their persons are well used and duly paid their shares. At Tunis, they are better people and hold their words more justly, especially since Yusuf Dey, who is now there, became ruler, for he is a very just man of his word.
Algiers has a mole [3] within which ships ride, and the city has a great store of singular good ordnance [4] which commands the whole road, [5] which is very dangerous if the wind comes from the north, so that ships cannot or dare not ride there.
Tunis is but an open road, and the Castle cannot protect the ships; [6] it is a good road all over the Bay of 5, 6, and 7 fathoms. [7]
At Tripoli, they shall be entertained and refreshed; but these are dangerous people, and the entrance is bad for ships of any size, so that few dare come thither.
At Tetuan, the first town on the Barbary side going in, [8] a Pirate may water well, have good refreshing, buy store of powder (which is for the most part brought in by English and Flemish merchants) and sell their goods well which are quickly landed and dispatched by reason of the boats of the town, but here is no command but to ride upon their guard; they ride also in foul ground and must perforce put to Sea if the Levant [9] come here; the people are very just and trusty.
At Tlemcen, they may water, and ballast, sell goods, [10] and have some revictualling, but the town is 30 miles into the Country, so that things are long in coming, and the road is very dangerous, being in the bottom of a deep bay.
At Tetouan, pirates may water well, have good revictualling, buy stores of gunpowder (which is for the most part brought in by English and Flemish merchants) and sell their goods well, which are quickly landed and dispatched by reason of the boats of the town, but there is no fort here, and so they must ride upon their guard; they ride also in foul ground and must perforce put to sea if the Levant [11] come here. The people are very just and trusty.
Outside the Straits of Gibraltar for the most part all pirates do resort to the coast of Spain and Portugal for purchase, and there according to the times of the year they do lie off of one place or other.
From the middle of February to the last of March, they commonly lie south and south-south-west of Cape St. Maries,[12] some 20 or 30 leagues off, in wait for Indies men [13] outward bound. And generally in February, March, April, and May, they keep the coast of Spain, in which months those that look for Straits men [14] homeward bound, lie 20 Leagues off Cape St. Vincent. [15] Others that want victuals lie some 15 Leagues off the Rock, [16] or the Burlings, [17] waiting for Easterlings, [18] which come full of victuals for the Spanish Fleet, and bring also good store of copper, linen, and clothing; and between that height, being 39 and 44, [19] there are still Brazil men [20] both outward and homeward bound, which commonly are going and coming all the year long.
Some who have the occasion to trim [21] in Ireland in January and February will go to the Sound [22] by the first of March, but there they cannot stay long by reason of the King of Denmark’s ships, but presently they return for Ireland, and trim, and then head for the coast of Spain.
[1] “Within the Straits of Gibraltar…” That is, in the Mediterranean.
[2] The term “Christian forces” here refers to the European powers the pirates preyed upon. Naval ships of these “Christian forces” would, given the opportunity, attack pirate ships. “Ride safe” means “ride safely at anchor”—that is, to have a safe harbor.
[3] A “mole” is a breakwater or causeway, usually made of stone, that serves as a pier. The Algiers mole ran for a distance of some 750 feet (230 meters), linking the city to an island in the middle of the harbor.
[4] The term “ordinance” refers to cannon. So the “great store of singular good ordnance” refers to the large number of cannon which were employed to defend the port of Algiers.
[5] The term “road” refers to the stretch of open, deeper water outside a harbor where ships could anchor, sometimes also called a “roadstead.”
[6] “the Castle cannot protect the ships”… The term “castle” here refers to the fort overlooking the harbor. Mainwaring refers to the “castles” of various ports, specifying which ones protect their harbors successfully and which don’t. The effectiveness of a particular “castle” would have been determined by how closely it was located to the harbor and how many canon it contained.
[7] A fathom equals 6 feet (1.8 meters).
[8] “the first town on the Barbary side going in”… Tetuan was the first port on the North African (the Barbary, now the Moroccan) shore after one passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean.
[9] East Wind blowing up the Mediterranean.
[10] “Sell goods” refers to selling the illicit booty the pirates had amassed. A port where pirates could “sell goods” had a black market where merchants were willing to buy merchandise they knew to be stolen—usually at a fraction of what it was actually worth.
[11] The Levant was (and is) an easterly wind that blows across the Mediterranean. When blowing forcefully, it causes heavy sea swells.
[12] “Cape St. Maries” is Cabo de Santa Maria, on the northern crescent of the Golfo de Cadiz (Gulf of Cadiz), about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of the Strait of Gibraltar.
[13] “Indies men” refers to the Spanish ships sailing to (or from) the “Indies,” that is, the Spanish colonies in the New World, the West Indies. Ships returning from the Indies were laden with treasure of all sorts.
[14] “Straits men” refers to ships coming out of the Mediterranean.
[15] “Cape St. Vincent” is Cabo de São Vicente, on the southwestern tip of Portugal.
[16] “The Rock” is Cabo de Roca, on the southwestern extremity of Portugal (and Europe), close by Lisbon, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Cabo de São Vicente.
[17] “The Burlings” are a group of small islands located about 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the coast of Portugal, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Lisbon.
[18] “Easterlings” refers to ships from Hanseatic (i.e., Dutch/German) or Baltic ports, so called because, from the point of view of the North Atlantic, they lay to the east.
[19] “That height, being 39 and 44” refers to the latitude of that position at sea.
[20] “Brazil men” refers to ships sailing to or from Brazil.
[21] The term “trim” could be used in a general sense to refer to the process of revictualling, refitting, and generally setting things to rights aboard a ship in preparation for a voyage. The term also had a more specifically use, though, referring to the process of careening: hauling the ship ashore and scraping (trimming) the wooden hull to clean it of barnacles, weeds, etc. This cleaning not only helped prevent rot but also reduced drag and so increased sailing speed, an important factor when a pirate ship was chasing potential prey (or evading pursuit).
[22] “The Sound” refers to the Øresund (the Denmark Sound), the strait of water separating Denmark and Sweden. In the early seventeenth century, it was the main sea passage to and from the Baltic ports, and the ship traffic there would have provided a source of prey for pirates.
For those who may be interested…
The above excerpt from Of the Beginnings, Practices, and Suppression of Pirates is taken from the Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring, volume 2 (printed for the Navy Records Society, 1922), (pp. 25-33).
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