Benjamin Hornigold

About Benjamin Hornigold

Who is it?: Pirate
Birth Year: 1680
Birth Place: Norfolk, United Kingdom, British
Type: Pirate Pirate Hunter
Allegiance: None (1715–1718) Bahamas (1718–19)
Years active: 1713–1718
Rank: Captain
Base of operations: West Indies
Commands: Ranger (30-gun sloop) La Concorde (20-gun cargo ship)

Benjamin Hornigold

Benjamin Hornigold was born on 1680 in Norfolk, United Kingdom, British, is Pirate. Captain Benjamin Hornigold was an 18th-century English privateer turned pirate who eventually became a pirate hunter working for the British government. He was one of the most renowned pirates who operated during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, along with contemporaries like John West, Daniel Stillwell, John Cockram and Captain Napin, and was the mentor to latter famous pirates such as Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, Sam Bellamy and Stede Bonnet. He provided protection to many of the pirates in the Bahamas and had established the 'Pirates' republic in Nassau. Despite being one of the most powerful pirates of the era, he is particularly known for avoiding attacking British vessels. However, this eventually cost him his ship and crew, who in a mutiny overthrown him, following which he took pardon of the King and became a pirate hunter. During the last couple years of his life, he hunted his former associates like Blackbeard and had successfully captured Nicholas Woodall and John Auger. He died at the age of 39 after being caught in a Hurricane.
Benjamin Hornigold is a member of Criminals

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Biography/Timeline

1713

Hornigold's early life is unrecorded, although he is sometimes claimed to have been born in the English county of Norfolk, where the surname Hornigold or Hornagold appears. If so, he might have first served at sea aboard ships whose home port was either King's Lynn or Great Yarmouth. His first documented acts of piracy took place in the winter of 1713–1714, when he employed periaguas (sailing canoes) and the sloop Happy Return alongside Daniel Stillwell, John Cockram, and John West to menace merchant vessels off the coast of New Providence and its capital Nassau, where he had established a 'Privateers' or 'Pirates' republic. By 1717, Hornigold had at his command a thirty-gun sloop he named the Ranger, which was probably the most heavily armed ship in the region, and this allowed him to seize other vessels with impunity.

1717

On 5 September 1717 King George I Issued the Proclamation of 1717 "For Suppressing Pirates in the West Indies." This document granted a pardon to all pirates who surrendered themselves to any colonial governor or governor under the domain of the British Empire safe passage and were guaranteed a "clean slate" of their record. However, word of this did not get out to the West Indies and so in December 1718 another proclamation, or more famously known as the King's Pardon of 1718 was issued for the same purpose. In both of these documents, not only were pirates granted a clean slate on their record, but they were also offered a large sum of money for the capturing of other pirates who were guilty of piracy, murder, and treason against His Majesty. More specifically, for every captain who was captured, the person responsible would receive 100 pounds, equivalent to £14,000 in 2016, and for every lieutenant and "boatswain" a reward of 40 pounds (£5,700) was offered. Each level of member on a pirate ship had a reward placed on their heads from this point on.

1718

Rogers granted Hornigold's request for a pardon, but he commissioned him to hunt down other pirates, including his former lieutenant, Teach (Blackbeard). Hornigold was to spend the next eighteen months cruising the Bahamas, hunting his former associates. He stalked but could not apprehend Charles Vane, capturing Vane's associate Nicholas Woodall instead, followed by John Auger, both of whom had accepted the same pardon as Hornigold but later slid back into piracy. In December 1718 Governor Rogers wrote to the Board of Trade in London commending Hornigold's efforts to remedy his reputation as a pirate by hunting his former allies.

1719

In late 1719, Hornigold's ship was caught in a hurricane somewhere between New Providence and Mexico, and was wrecked on an uncharted reef. The incident is referred to in the contemporary account A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson, which states, "in one of which voyages ... Captain Hornigold, another of the famous pirates, was cast away upon rocks, a great way from land, and perished, but five of his men got into a canoe and were saved." The specific location of the reef remains unknown.

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