A
Pirate's Life and Times
"Ha ha, me hearties! Good to
have you aboard. Hoist the main sail, swash yer buckles and let's to the oceans
for adventures and ill-gotten swag on the High Seas!"
The odd thing is, that it seems
quite a number of pirates really did talk something like that.
And there really was a Pirate
Code and buried treasure and walking the plank, marooning, patches, peg-legs,
hooks and all.
Pirate
Captain
A typical image of a Pirate Captain.
While the romantic notion of the pirate life is based on the evidence of many
facts, the truth remains that a pirates life was generally dangerous, brutish
and short.
Even so, the true lives of real
pirates were often bloodthirsty, dangerous and short. Most, if not ending their
days in 'Davy Jones' Locker' would breathe their last as the
hempen noose tightened around their necks, victims of a public hanging.
It was a very risky life and, as
we have said, often a brutish and short one.
The Pirate Captain John Phillips,
for example, had a career as a pirate that lasted only a matter of months
before his his final doom befell him.
The interesting thing about him
is that, unlike his much mythologized colleagues in crime, Blackbeard,Dread
Roberts and the others - whose stories have become so mingled with
legend that it is hard to discern where the fiction ends and the facts lie
concealed - the life of Captain John Phillips is comparatively well documented.
Indeed, it is his famous drawing
up of the 'code' and several other references to the management of his
ship, The Revenge and its crew, that give us much of the
history of the pirate life as we now know it.
Despite the brutish realities,
there has always been something appealing to the popular imagination about the
life and times of the pirates of the eighteenth century. So many famous pirates
have gone down in the annals of history and indeed in the storytelling of the
folkloric traditions, that even those with no or little knowledge of history
are familiar with their names: Blackbeard, Capt. Roberts and
now, thanks to Hollywood, the entirely fictional, Capt. Jack Sparrow.
What many people don't realize is
that, in fact, the true history of the pirates of the Caribbean, whilst a
little more sordid in its details, is no less exciting and interesting than the
fancies of storytellers and film makers.
Captain
John Phillips - A Pirate of the Caribbean
Pirate Captain John Phillips was
renowned for forcing his prisoners to inebriate themselves with strong drink.
It was more a means of keeping them compliant than any sign of hospitality. The
Pirate Captain holds a man at gunpoint to drink the liquor
Pirate
Captain John Phillips
So in this examination of the
life and times of the lesser known and perhaps less celebrated story of the
infamous Captain John Phillips, be not surprised if you find that you come
across facts more surprising than fiction, deeds more daring than any committed
to celluloid by the likes of Errol Flynn or Johnny Depp and mysteries still to
be discovered as the fog of unknowing sometimes clouds the uncharted waters of
history.
So, if you've a little time on
your hands and would seek to hear of fame and infamy and add to your secret
store of wonder, sail with me as we venture out to learn the biography of the
Pirate Captain John Phillips. But remember this, before we leave the
harbor...no matter what marvels and mysteries now unfold, every word is
true...
The
Buccaneers: The Romantic View of The Pirate Life
The Early
Life Of Captain John Phillips
Very little indeed is known of
the life of John Phillips before he flashed briefly across the pages of
history, known as a ruthless and much feared pirate captain.
There are, however, some
indications that he may have branches of his family lineage alive today in New
England and New Zealand.
Bristol,
The Birth Place of Pirate Captain John Phillips
Bristol was one of the busiest ports in the world in the 18th century
and was the birth place of the infamous Pirate Captain, John Phillips.
What we do know of his life
before becoming a pirate, is that he was born and raised in Bristol, England.
By the 18th Century the City of
Bristol had become the second largest city in England. Bristol harbor was the
busiest in the country and famed throughout the world. Every day, consignments
of tobacco, sugar cane, exotic animals, cocoa, rum and slaves were imported
onto the stone port. The streets around about were a mess of new town houses
erected by wealthy merchants and steaming hostelries and perhaps steamier
brothels.
Bristol was the busiest and most
famous port of the day and the young John would have been raised around
seafaring folk and heard their colorful tales and salty songs in the taverns
and bawdy houses of his youth.
He was apprenticed to a trade,
becoming a working carpenter. This fact is interesting in the historical
context and enables us to deduce something about his background and also his
motives for going to sea. Let me explain.
An 18th
Century Carpenter's Work
"The
carpenter is employed in the wooden-work from the foundation to the top.... In
brick-works he places bearers, where the chief weight of the building lies. He
lays the joists, girders, and rafters in flooring, and when the outward case is
built, he puts on the roof and prepares it for the slater... Strength is the
chief of his study, and to dispose his work in such a manner as that what is
designed for the support of a building may not, by its weight, overturn it. He
is employed in making doors, laying floors, preparing the ceiling for the
plaisterer to nail his laths on; in dividing the house with partitions, and
wainscoting the several apartments. As a joiner's work requires a nicer hand,
and a greater taste in ornament, his business requries that he should be
acquainted with geometry and mensuration."
R.
Campbell 1747
In the 17th Century, skilled
carpenters had done very well for themselves, especially in London after the
Great Fire, when the restoration and rebuilding of the capital city was taking
place. At the same time the social status of carpentry as a trade took a hammer
blow. The reason for this was that the new anti-fire regulations stipulated
that all new buildings be constructed from bricks. While there was still a huge
amount of woodwork and joinery involved, the bricklayer and the stone mason now
took first position in the hierarchy and carpenters and joiners were relegated
to a lower order.
By the 18th Century - which was a
British society more preoccupied with class and social status even than today -
the role of the carpenter had been reduced to little more than that of a manual
laborer.
Nevertheless, there remained one
place in which the role of carpenter was still highly regarded, commanding both
respect and a good wage. That place was aboard ship. The importance of a
carpenter and joiner aboard a wooden sailing vessel undertaking perilous and
long voyages, often through uncharted seas, cannot be over-estimated.
As, in those times, the son would
follow in the trade of the father, we can safely assume that John Phillips
family had been carpenters for generations and so would have seen a decline in
their fortunes during his father's lifetime.
A decline in the family's
fortunes and the possibility to achieve higher social status (and better pay)
aboard ship, may well have proved sufficient motivation for the young John
Phillips to pack up the tools of his trade and head to the harbor to seek
employment on an ocean-going vessel.
And that is precisely what he
did.
An 18th
Century Ship's Carpenter's Workshop
A typical 18th Century ship's
carpenter's workshop such as the one that John Phillips would have worked in
when he set sail from his native Bristol.
John
Phillips Captured By Pirate Captain Thomas Anstis
As a skilled and experienced
carpenter, the young John Phillips would have had but little difficulty finding
work and wage on board a worthy vessel and so it was that he set sail from
Bristol in 1720 at the start of a new century and a new life for the young man.
A
Brigantine
A typical Brigantine, much smaller
and lighter than the Spanish Galleon and an ideal raiding ship for many
pirates.
Who can know what dreams he held
in his heart as he watched the coast of his native land diminishing from view
behind him and the vastness of the open seas, already bucking the ship on the
tussling waves, open up before.
If he took pride in his trade
then he will have been proud and pleased indeed with his fine workshop. Quite
probably he would have been used to working from his leathern tool bag where
and how he may. As ship's carpenter, he would have been graced with a spacious
and fully equipped workshop.
Whatever his hopes and fears at
that time, little in his past experience could have prepared him for the
adventures soon to come. For the ship that he sailed with had been barely two
years at sea before that one disaster befell them that all seafaring men of
honest heart and proper loyalty feared in those days - now dubbed The
Golden Age of Piracy. It was an event that would change and
foreshorten his life beyond his own imagining...
A Pirate
Ship
The brigantine was a popular vessel
among pirates, prized for its speed and agility. It was ideal for coastal raids
or moving between the islands of the Caribbean but did not fare so well on open
and stormy seas.
Pirate
Captain Thomas Anstis
Pirate
Captain Thomas Anstis was the commander of the brigantine, Good Fortune and
one of the confederates of the fearsome and feared pirate, Dread Bartholomew
Roberts.
Anstis
was a heartless cut-throat and no stranger to ordering rape and murder as he
pillaged and plundered any vessel he could take.
Tiring of
being under the command of the equally gruesome Captain Roberts and wanting all
gain for himself, Anstis made up his mind to take leave of his pirate lord and
strike out on his own.
It was
thus, one April night in 1721, under cover of darkness, that he turned course with
his swift ship and crew and leaving Roberts heading for Africa, set his own
course for the Caribbean.
The belabored cargo vessel aboard
which John Phillips served was en route between England and Newfoundland when
it was chased and captured by the swift brigantine of Pirate Captain Thomas
Anstis.
By all accounts, Thomas Anstis
was a ruthless villain and it was to John's good fortune that the crew had
latterly lost its carpenter in a skirmish. He was offered the post and quickly
and wisely acquiesced to the captain's wishes.
Little doubt that he had not
planned to take up a career of piracy but equally, he was sufficiently
cognizant of the kind of men these were not to risk his own life for the sake
of an honor that no-one else would witness or acknowledge.
All the other crew members and
his first former captain were killed, sold on as slaves or, if fit and willing,
made pirates and taken on as crew.
Aboard SV
Florette - The Last Wooden Brigantine In The World
Pirate
John Phillips High Seas Adventures
Some sources say that John
Phillips was "soon reconciled to life as a pirate" and, as we will
see in his later life, may even have come to relish aspects of the piratical
life.
In any case, he served
aboard The Good Fortune for a year before suffering another
change in his own fortunes.
Pirates
Of The Caribbean
The Caribbean islands were the main haunts and hiding places, the center
of operations, for many 18th century pirate gangs.
During that year as a pirate
under the command of Captain Thomas Anstis, John Phillips was involved in and
witnessed many skirmishes, raids and looting. Some of this he must have found
exciting and brought fire to his blood but some of his captain's more brutal
acts, we know from the pirate code he drew up for his own crew, appalled and
disgusted him.
When Anstis's gang took The
Irwin off the coast of Jamaica, the captain ordered the crew to gang rape
and then brutally murder a woman that they had found aboard. Whether John
Phillips was forced to participate in such acts or only witnessed them we do
not know. What we do know is that he loathed that side of his life and
determined to escape when opportunity arose.
In 1722, King George of England
made a determined effort to eradicate piracy from the spice routes and sent
Admiral Sir John Flowers, in charge of two warships, the HMS Hector and
the HMS Adventure, to round up the pirate ships and capture
the captains and their crews. He was given orders to focus his efforts on
Roberts and Anstis among others of the most notorious pirates of the day.
The HMS
Hector: Sent To Pursue the Pirates
A contemporary caricature of the 18th
Century Warship, The Hector, sent to pursue Pirate Roberts and Pirate Anstis.
Meanwhile, The Good
Fortune and The Morning Star, which were sailing together, had
set a southward course towards the Cayman Islands. It was near Grand Cayman
that The Morning Star ran aground on one of the many concealed
sandbanks that litter the archipelago. It was as the one ship was grounded and
the other was attempting to rescue it by dragging it free, that the pirates
were sighted by Admiral Sir John Flowers and the HMS Hector and Adventure raced
upon them.
On of Anstis's crew who had been
looking out from the 'crow's nest' yelled the alarm as he sighted the warships
cutting through the waves towards them. For a moment it seemed that his time
had come, for his own vessel was tied by towing ropes to The Morning
Starand had yet to give up the anchor. His second in command, seeing what
his captain was likely now to do, managed to sling a grappling rope across into
the rigging of The Good Fortune and swing across. As he did
so, Anstis shouted the order to his men to cut the ropes and let the anchor
chain run loose.
So it was, that he and those that
remained aboard his vessel, were able, under a strong wind to turn the ship
about and make good their escape just in the nick of time. The Admiral knew
there would be no advantage gained in sending a heavy warship after a swift
brigantine under a good wind and so all his efforts were turned upon the
stranded Morning Star.
Forty pirates were taken that day
in the Cayman Islands and, after due trial, danced their final jig dangling
from the hangman's rope.
Pirates
Awaiting Trial
Pirates awaiting summary trial before
execution.
Pirate
John Phillips Escapes Back To England
Anstis and his second in command,
Fenn sailed with the wind as far as they could towards the Bay of Honduras. The
wind dropped after they lost sight of the warships they still feared might have
pursued them. Taking no chances, they went to oar with the remaining men they
had aboard.
Even so depleted in crew,
supplies and morale - or perhaps spurred on by that - they captured several
vessels on their way, boosting the larder and the stock of treasures in the
hold, not to mention man-power on deck.
Throughout all this, John
Phillips continued to watch and learn and serve as quietly as he was able as
the ship's carpenter.
John soon had has work cut out
for him. On arriving in Tobago, the captain ordered that they put ashore on a
small and uninhabited island just off the main island in order that they might
careen the ship.
'Careening' meant taking the
vessel at least half out of the water - usually anchoring her against the tide,
so that she could easily be put afloat once more - and attending to any repairs
that may have been required. The ships being made largely of wood - even
employing wooden pegs rather than nails - the larger part of this task fell to
the ship's carpenter.
This was in April 1723. But it
had been a grave error of judgement on the part of Captain Anstis, as they had
indeed, all be it at a slower pace, been pursued by the Admiral Sir John
Flowers, now aboard the British warship, HMS Winchelsea.
Anstis ordered his crew to burn
one of the ships, soaking brands in pitch and setting light to the boards and
sails.
As the ship, a sloop captured on
their recent travels, shot up in flames, he and his closest crew, stole back to The
Good Fortune and set sail to flee.
The crew who remained on the
Island, seeing themselves so cruelly abandoned had no choice but to attempt to
flee themselves, albeit on foot. The only place of hiding available to them was
the deep. forested interior of the island.
Most of them were easily found
and captured by the HMS Winchelsea's marines, but Phillips and a few others
remained in hiding until the warships had departed.
Tobago:
Pirate John Phillips' Hiding Place
In the deep forested interior of Tobago, John Phillips hid from the
Royal Navy until he was able to board a ship and work his passage back to
England.
While Anstis had escaped once more with his swift brigantine The Good Fortune, his ill treatment of his crew and his wicked nature finally bore their just fruit. His crew, discouraged not only by their losses but by their punishments for his failures of judgement, murdered him one night while he slept in his hammock.
The mutineers then surrendered themselves to the authorities and were finally granted amnesty and permitted to return to civilian life.
The
Burning Ship
Captain Thomas Anstis ordered the
burning of the ship and then fled from the Navy in his brigantine.
John Phillips remained in hiding
with his shipmates, finally making it to the main island and thence working
their passage back to Bristol.
It may well be that at first
Phillips had hopes of gaining an amnesty himself and turning back to his old
life on land. However, in this case the King was not inclined to mercy. Having
witnessed many of his fellows captured by the naval militia and imprisoned -
and fearing that someone might squeal in order to gain clemency from the
authorities - he resigned himself to his fate.
From that point on he dedicated
himself anew to the life of the pirate, But this time things would be
different. This time he would be the Captain of his own ship and he would run
things as he saw fit.
Pirate
John Phillips Sails Back To Newfoundland
No longer wishing to live a life
of secrecy and hiding in his home town, pirate John Phillips took passage back
to Newfoundland with four of his closest mates.
Petty
Harbour
Looking down over Petty Harbour as it
is today. It has not changed significantly since Pirate John Phillips stole his
schooner from the harbour.
They settled in the tiny port
town of Petty Harbour. They had a single purpose in mind. That purpose was to steal
a ship.
Petty Harbour, which nestles deep
in the heart of Motion Bay on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula,is still
a tiny place today and the focus of tourism - but back then there were fewer
than fifty inhabitants and all of them fishermen. A more remote and secluded
place it would have been hard to find.
Nevertheless, John Phillips must
have known that from time to time, larger ships would use the port to rest,
careen and restock on long northern voyages.
John
Phillips Becomes A Pirate Captain
After a long wait, Phillips and
his gang finally saw their chance, when a reasonably sizeable schooner came in
to harbour. She was not a very large vessel but was in good condition and could
be handled by the tiny crew of just five men.
A
Schooner
A typical schooner moored at harbour
for loading. While clearly a recent image, the design of the schooner has not
changed since Phillips' day.
While the owner, a certain
William Minott, and crew were all onshore one evening - August 29th 1723 -
Phillips and his associates smuggled themselves aboard the ship, raised the
anchor, loosed the ropes and sailed away into the night.
She was not a large vessel but
she was fast and agile and had a deep hold that could be used to store a
considerable swag.
Phillips renamed her The
Revengeand announced himself to be her Captain.
Under him he had four crew. These
men were John Nutt - the sailing master, James Sparks - the gunner, Thomas Fern
- the ship's carpenter and William White - tailor and private crewman.
John Phillips' first act as
Captain of his ship and crew, was to draw up a Pirate Code, to which each man
had to swear fealty on pain of death. Typically, the oath would have been made
on a copy of The Bible but as none of them possessed such a book, they swore to
honor the Code on the head of an axe.
John
Phillips Pirate Articles
I Every
Man Shall obey civil Command ; the Captain shall have one full Share and a half
of all Prizes ; the Master, Carpenter, Boatswain and Gunner shall have one
Share and quarter.
II If any
Man shall offer to run away, or keep any Secret from the Company, he shall be
marroon’d with one Bottle of Powder, one Bottle of Water, one small Arm, and
Shot.
III If
any Man shall steal any Thing in the Company, or game, to the Value of a Piece
of Eight, he shall be marroon’d or shot.
IV If any
time we shall meet another Marroner that Man shall sign his Articles without
the Consent of our Company, shall suffer such Punishment as the Captain and
Company shall think fit.
V That
Man that shall strike another whilst these Articles are in force, shall receive
Moses’s Law (that is, 40 Stripes lacking one) on the bare Back.
VI That
Man that shall snap his Arms, or smoak Tobacco in the Hold, without a Cap to
his Pipe, or carry a Candle lighted without a Lanthorn, shall suffer the same
Punishment as in the former Article.
VII That
Man shall not keep his Arms clean, fit for an Engagement, or neglect his
Business, shall be cut off from his Share, and suffer such other Punishment as
the Captain and the Company shall think fit.
VIII If
any Man shall lose a Joint in time of an Engagement, shall have 400 Pieces of
Eight ; if a Limb, 800.
IX If at
any time you meet with a prudent Woman, that Man that offers to meddle with
her, without her Consent, shall suffer present Death.
The
Pirate Code
The articles described division
of loot, punishments for transgressions and compensation for those who lost a
limb while in service.
It is worth noting that John
Phillips articles, or pirate code, expressly forbade rape on pain of death.
The pirate code of John Phillips
is of considerable scholarly importance as they are the only complete set of
piratical articles that survive from the period.
They were preserved by being
reprinted in Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates.
Other than these there are only
three other extant sets of articles referred to in secondary literature.
It is John Phillips' Pirate Code
that gives us much of the insight that we have into life aboard a pirate ship
in the so called Golden Age.
The Articles, or the Pirate Code,
constituted a very important agreement made between the captain and the crew of
any pirate ship.
They stated the several terms and
conditions under which the crew were permitted to sail with the pirate captain.
Aside from the code, most pirate vessels were run on fairly democratic grounds
and the division of spoils was undertaken with great fairness.
The other great primary source of
historical information is an invaluable document.
It is a hand written account by
John Fillmore, who was captured by Phillips and forced to join his crew.
The document gives considerable
detail about life aboard Phillips' schooner, The Revenge and
also an insight into the fearsome nature of the man that Pirate Captain John
Phillips had by then become.
The
Spoils of Piracy
According to the Pirate Code, all
spoils and loot had to be fairly divided to each man according to his station.
John
Fillmore's Account of Life Aboard The Revenge
John Fillmore's account of life
aboard Pirate Captain John Phillips' schooner, The Revenge, is the
source not only of much that we know about John Phillips but also about pirate
life generally in the 18th century.
The front page of the 1837 edition of
John Filmore's original account, written by hand in the late 1700s.
Prisoner
Of The Pirates
In the spring of 1723, John
Fillmore, an orphan who has himself been apprenticed as a ship's carpenter, was
taken on as crew on a fishing voyage under a certain Captain Haskell.
All went peaceably until the
following August, when their fishing vessel was attacked by Pirate Captain John
Phillips' schooner, which according to Fillmore's account, seemed to appear out
of nowhere and was upon them before they had any chance of escape.
Bloodthirsty
Pirates
The Pirates board and capture a ship.
It so happened that one of
Fillmore's former acquaintances by the name of White, whom he had known to be a
tailor's apprentice, was among the pirates who boarded the fishing vessel.
This fellow, White, put in a word
for Fillmore with Pirate Captain John Phillips, saying that he would make a
worthy addition to the crew on account of his fine personal qualities and his
manual and technical skills.
The pirate Captain Phillips then
sent out a boat to the captured ship, with a message to Captain Haskell that if
he would hand over Fillmore and Fillmore would be wiling to join the pirates,
everyone else aboard would be spared and the ship go free.
Fillmore bluntly refused to
comply with this request.
Phillips flew into a rage and
sent some of his crew to bring Fillmore back by force. He then constrained
Fillmore to serve him as a pirate for two months and promised him his liberty
at the end of that time if he served well.
The pirate crew by now consisted
of ten stout and fearless rogues against whom Fillmore knew he would make no
match. He was also aware of the danger his resistance posed to his comrades
aboard Captain Haskell's vessel. Thus persuaded, he gave himself over to the
pirates.
However, he refused to sign the articles and so actually become a pirate
himself. He was consigned to the helm of the schooner. The two months
stipulated in the verbal agreement passed uneventfully and Filmore demanded his
freedom.
Signing
The Pirate Code
Pirate's prisoners were often forced
to sign the articles of the pirate code, thus becoming pirates themselves.
But Phillips had other ideas. He
said that as nothing had occurred of any note and in consequence Filmore had
not provided service, the agreement was void. rather than grant him liberty,
the Pirate captain constrained the poor fellow to a further three months in his
service, swearing on his honor that after the allotted span of time had passed,
he would most certainly set him free. It was not, however, to be.
The months that followed were not
without event and a number of ships were captured and plundered and additional
crew members added to the number of pirates aboard The Revenge.
Again the time passed and this time none could claim that Fillmore had not
fulfilled his part of the bargain. Yet when he asked once more for his freedom,
Pirate captain John Phillips, according to Fillmore's account, flew into a
demonic rage and swore "That he should have his liberty when he himself
was damned, and not before."
Fillmore tells us that at that point he realized that he had been enslaved
aboard the ship. Secretly, he determined to look for the earliest opportunity
to escape, even if he should risk his life in doing so, as he found the pirate
life a loathsome one.
The
Psychology Of A Pirate
It is
interesting to speculate at this point about the psychology of Captain John
Phillips.
From
Fillmore's account we understand that there is a gradual degeneration of
Philips' character as he becomes ever more quick to anger and more
unpredictably dangerous in his moods and actions.
Fillmore
also points out that the Captain begins to drink alcohol more. Drunkenness was
common enough in 18th century society and well-known among pirates but it is
also true that mood changes can be a consequence of physical alcohol addiction.
We must
also remember that he had never intended, when he first set to sea, to live tha
dangerous life of a pirate. He was originally coerced into it and later, when
he wanted to return to civilian life, the Crown had not granted him amnesty.
There must have been a strong sense of resentment in his mind and possibly a
deal of anger at his powerlessness to control his own fate.
Despite
his increasing cruelty, he remained steadfast on one issue. That was conduct
towards women. His Pirate Code forbade any man to so much as touch a woman
without her consent or to suffer the penalty of execution.
He had,
of course, witnessed the horrific gang rapes ordered by his former master,
Thomas Anstis and may even have been forced to participate against his will.
This section of the Code suggests a deep revulsion to what he had seen and
done.
It is
also interesting to recall that he was an orphan and so never knew his mother
and as a seafarer, and especially an outlaw, he would have had no chance of
romance in his own life. It is, perhaps, not uncommon in such circumstances,
for a man to idolize womankind, elevating her to the status almost of a
goddess. This would certainly account for his strict moral prohibition in the
midst of a culture in which knavery and lustfulness of every kind were
commonplace.
One final
point to consider is that he was yet a very young man when he took the post as
ship's carpenter. perhaps still very impressionable and, as an orphan, in need
of role models for his future manhood.
What he
actually got was a twisted parody of fatherhood in the cruel captaincy of the
wicked pirates, Anstis and Roberts.
One of the crew's next conquests
was a sloop with the curious name ofSquirrel of Cape Ann. She was
captured by Phillips n April of 1724 and the ships master, Andrew Harridon, was
imprisoned. he also refused to sign the Code.
At that point, notes Fillmore in
his memoir, every man aboard had signed up apart from himself, Harridon, a
fellow called Cheeseman who was also a ship's carpenter by trade, a Spanish
Indian and a young American gentleman. Having refused obstinately to sign the
Code, they remained non-pirate prisoners aboard the ship.
Fillmore relates how much Pirate
Captain John Phillips drank and how he would force others to drink at gun
point. he tells of how the Captain became increasingly feared by the crew -
even those closest to him - and of his sudden swings in mood and savage acts of
barbarity. And yet, he forbade the ill-treatment of any woman and never took a
female as a captive on his ship.
It was one of these men that had
been ordered aboard the sloop taken from Harridon. It seems that as the crew's
disliking for Phillips grew, so did his own fear and paranoia. He got it into
his head that others were conspiring against him and once, in a sudden and
unaccountable rage, accosted this man, accusing him of falling in league with
Fillmore to organize a mutiny.
The man begged for mercy,
vehemently denying the charge but Phillips swore he would send the man to hell
and promptly ran him through with his sword, so hard that the tip of the blade
broke off in his spine.
He then shot the dead man through
the head and shouted, "I have sent one of the devils to hell; and where is
Fillmore? He shall go next."
Fillmore recounts how he was then
brought before the captain. Death seemed inevitable. What followed was a
bizarre encounter that further exemplifies the growing madness of Pirate
Captain John Phillips.
Phillips charged Fillmore with
conspiracy to mutiny and promptly pulled his pistol on him, pressing the barrel
to the man's breast. he pulled the trigger but the gunpowder had become damp
and the pistol did not fire. Phillips stepped back, drew his broken blade and
took a swipe at Fillmore, who dodged the attack.
Captain Phillips then laughed,
sheathed his sword and ordered Fillmore back to his duties, proclaiming that
all was well with him and he had only wanted to test his mettle.
Mutiny
& Escape
Fillmore recounts many further
startling and disturbing adventures amongst the pirates that are too numerous
to relate here. the story of his eventual escape is one that would be worthy of
any novelist, were it not for the fact that it is true.
After nine months of servitude aboard The Revenge, Fillmore and his
non-pirate confederates did indeed conspire to make good their escape from the
slavery that they had so long endured.
At last, the opportunity
presented itself. Pirate captain John Phillips was in one of his uncommonly
genial moods and one night ordered that they should weigh anchor and spend the
night in jollity and carousal. Food and rum aplenty was brought on deck and the
festivities began.
Cheeseman, Fillmore, and the
Indian set out their plan. By all accounts,Captain Harridon was too much in
fear of Phillips to take an active role.
Cheeseman, as the ship's
carpenter and under pretence of making preparations for some work he intended
to fulfil the following day, brought tools up on deck, including and axe and a
large hammer. These tools were destined to be used as weapons.
The conspirators were careful to
only feign their part in the orgy of drunkenness which ensued. And so they bid
their time until the pirates all retired in an inebriated stupor.
Pirate
Fight
The time for action had come.
Realizing that they were but
three men against a whole crew, they sought first to disable some of the
pirates during the night.
White and Archer had fallen
asleep by the fire in the ship's galley. Fillmore crept by them and, seeing
they would not easily be roused, tipped hot coals onto their naked feet causing
them serious burns. So drunk with rum were the two men that they barely stirred
even as their feet burned.
Others were bound as they slept
but the captain and his main crew could not be accessed as the door to the
cabin in which they all slept had been firmly locked and bolted.
The pirates slept late the next
morning and at last Fillmore went and hammered on the cabin door, calling to
the inmates that the sun was nigh at noon. Swearing and cursing, the captain
and his henchmen soon emerged on deck.
The moment for action had come.
Three desperate men against a
crew of ruthless pirates. They made their attack at midday.
Cheeseman took up the hammer as
if he was to busy himself about some work. Fillmore stood not far off, and a
little behind the captain and boatswain, who were in conversation standing just
by the main mast. he had concealed under his jerking the sharpened axe.
The Indian stood by the cabin
door. The quartermaster was busy within the cabin.
The time had come.
Cheeseman seized the master and
in that moment of sudden confusion, Fillmore swung out with the axe and split
the boatswain's head in two. Before Pirate Captain John Phillips could make a
move in his own defence, both Cheeseman and Fillmore were upon him and dealt
him such a round of blows with hammer and axe, that he crumpled immediately and
died on the deck in a pool of his own spilled blood.
The master was thrown overboard.
The quarter-master, having heard the commotion, came running out from the cabin
wielding a hammer above his head but the Indian caught hold of him as he
emerged. Fillmore took the man's own sword and severed his head from his body
with a single, clean blow to the back of the neck.
Having slaughtered all the
pirates except those that they had disabled during the night, Filmore and his
companions took command of the ship and sailed her to Boston.
She put in to Boston on a bright spring morning, May 3d, 1724.
On the 12th day of the same month
at a Court of Admiralty, with Lieutenant Governor Dummer
presiding the pirates William White, William Phillips, and John Rose Archer
were proclaimed guilty and on 2nd June were executed at Bird Island.
The three other pirates, also
condemned by the same court, were dispatched to England in the schooner and
hanged by the neck at Execution Dock. Edward Cheeseman and the Indian
accompanied them and were subsequently honored by the British Government for
their services.
The Court of The Admiralty later
presented John Fillmore with the
pistol, the silver-hilted sword and a curiously carved tobacco box which had
belonged
to Pirate Captain John Phillips along with the silver shoe buckles and two
gold rings that the infamous Pirate Captain used to wear.
Great
Pirate Ships Documentary
The Historical Significance Of Pirate Captain John Phillips
When compared to pirates such as his first master, Bartholomew Roberts,
Pirate captain John Phillips was clearly little more than a small-time bandit
on the water. he never graduated from the fishing schooner that he stole form
Petty Harbour and at the end of his brief captaincy had a crew of only eleven
men at his commend.
As we have seen, John Phillips made a habit of coercing prisoners into
service and reneged on his promises of release to captives such as John
Fillmore. he also became known for his savagery and brutal treatment of anyone
attempting to leave his service.
Captain John Phillips was also last in a lineage of pirates that had
been captured and coerced at first into piracy, then finding themselves outside
the law, taken their own ships and made pirate captains of themselves.
Phillips' first master,Thomas Anstis, had been captured by Dread Pirate,
Bartholomew Roberts. Roberts by Captain Howell Davis. Davis by Edward and so
on. This lineage of piracy originated in the pirate den of the Bahamas.
But John Phillips' death signalled the end of the line and the drawing
to a close of the Golden Age of Piracy.
The biography of
Pirate Captain John Phillips is largely a tragic one but leaves us with a
legacy of documentation without which our knowledge of the life and times of
the pirates of the 18th century would be greatly impoverished.
The Jolly
Roger - A Pirate Flag
The pirate flag was commonly known as
The Jolly Roger.
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