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Pirate Facts Main
General History
Types of Piracy
Famous Pirates
Anne Bonny
Bartholomew R.
Beniowski, M.
Edward Teach
Henry Morgan
John Rackham
Jean Laffite
Mary Read
Samuel Bellamy
Sir Franics Drake
Stede Bonnet
William Kidd
Pirate Facts
Pirate Ships
Pirate Vocabulary
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Samual Bellamy, later to be called "Black Bellamy", was known to
be one of the most active freebooters. As legend has it that he was a young English
sailor, who traveled to the new world colonies to seek his fortune. He found a
wealthy sponsor to finance an expedition South, to search for sunken Spanish
treasure. This proved to be unsuccessful, and Bellamy returned home empty-handed,
and married.
He soon however, left his wife and family behind in a town near Canterbury
to sail the seas once more. As many notorious pirates before him, Bellamy served as
an apprentice with Benjamin Hornigold, who was known for his generosity to
prisoners, and reluctance to plunder English ships. Bellamy was elected as captain
when Hornigold was deposed.
Bellamy proved to be a most successful pirate, mainly in the West Indies.
He was known to entertain his crew with flowery orations, of which he considered
himself quite the master. The concerned for the well-being of his prisoners, but he
favored his crew’s well-being above all else, not to evoke any sinister feelings
among them.
His growing carrier came to an abrupt end in April 1717, off Cape Cod, when
his fleet was hit by an intense storm, completely capsizing and destroying his ship,
the Whydah. Two men survived this tragedy, one disappeared in history, while
the other, Thomas Davis, lived on to pass down the intense account of the shipwreck
to Cape Cod folklore.×
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