1831: Charles Gibbs, the pirate

ExecutedToday.com ^ | April 22, 2014 | 1831: Charles Gibbs, the pirate

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1831, pirate Charles Gibbs hanged on Ellis Island.

This Rhode Island native followed his father’s trade in buccaneering and made an adventurously brutal life on the waves during the early 19th century’s brief piracy recrudescence.

Neither Gibbs himself nor subsequent writers fascinated by him shrank from embellishing his career, according to Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs. Awaiting the gallows, Gibbs floated the story that he had first gone to sea under the Stars and Stripes during the War of 1812; that this turned out to be a fabrication has not prevented its repetition down the years.

His first corsair crew was the Maria, a privateer out of Colombia outfitted for the independence war against Spain. Gibbs — back when he was known by his birth name, James Jeffers — joined a mutiny that overthrew the irritating shackles of a letter of marque in favor of the pleasures of independent predation.

It was a fine time for such entrepreneurship; the recent upheaval of Europe’s Napoleonic Wars and the New World breakaway provinces had preoccupied the Spanish navy.....

[ComputerGuy]

I look forward to these posts.

[Delta 21]

Yaargh! A pirate he be. A true scoundrel!

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a Dutch ship from Curacao was captured, with a cargo of West India goods, and a quantity of silver plate. The passengers and crew, to the number of 30, were all destroyed, with the exception of a young female about 17, who fell upon her knees and implored Gibbs to save her life. The appeal was successful, and he promised to save her, though he knew it would lead to dangerous consequences among his crew. She was carried to Cape Antonio [Cuba], and kept there about two months; but the dissatisfaction increased until it broke out at last into open mutiny, and one of the pirates was shot by Gibbs for daring to lay hold of her with a view of beating out her brains. Gibbs was compelled in the end ot submit her fate to a council of war, at which it was decided that the preservation of their own lives made her sacrifice indispensable. He therefore acquiesced in the decision, and gave orders to have her destroyed by poison.

[vaskypilot]

So do I. An interesting look at the past.

[mewzilla]

I wonder if I'm the only person who ever watched Black Sails and ended up rooting, God forgive me, for the Redcoats....

[This_Dude]

You’re not the only one. Given the choice between redcoats and godless demonic pirates, I’d pull for the redcoats every time

[Varda]

I wouldn’t cheer for the Brits when it comes to pirates. The Brits looked down on other pirates while having large numbers of official ones of their own.

[chajin]

Ne’er-do-wells always go, as Willie Sutton put it, where the money is. In the 1500-1800s, it was in oceanic transportation, in the 1800-1900s, it was in train transport and banking, today it’s in drug and human trafficking.

We tend to romanticize the top practitioners in piracy and bank robbery, and despise the top practitioners in drug cartels and human traffickers, but the old pirates and train/bank robbers weren’t any better than the drug lords of today.

[threefinger]

To enlist private shipowners in their never-ending wars with France and/or Spain, the British issued more than 2,000 Letters of Marque and Repraisal. After their commissions as privateers expired, many hundreds of them decided they didn’t want to give up their new profession, so they took up piracy. So the British get the better part of the credit for creating the golden age of piracy.

The pirates for the most part were a democratic lot, with elected leadership. They also were paid the equivalent worker’s compensation for permanent injuries received during their pirating adventures, and an old age pension when they retired.

[Varda]

I like encyclopedia Britannicas’ description, “A privateer was a pirate with papers.”
https://www.britannica.com/story/pirates-privateers-corsairs-buccaneers-whats-the-difference

[sauropod]

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