Golden Age of Piracy Timeline

The Golden Age of Piracy.

Henry Every leads a mutiny and takes over the Charles II which he renames the Fancy.

In London, Captain Kidd gathers a consortium of anonymous backers to fund a privateering expedition in the Indian Ocean.

The English pirate Henry Every captures a treasure ship of the Mughal emperor, one of the richest prizes ever taken by a pirate in any era.

Captain Kidd commits several acts of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Captain Kidd kills one of his gunners, William Moore.

Captain Kidd attacks and captures the merchant ship Quedah Merchant off the coast of India near Cochin.

The British government permits colonies to try and hang pirates themselves rather than ship them to England.

The pirate Captain Kidd is hanged at Wapping Old Stairs, London and his body is left to rot in public veiw by the River Thames.

The British pirate Benjamin Hornigold is active in the Caribbean and North American coast.

The English pirate Charles Vane is active in the Caribbean and east coast of America.

The pirates Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard) and Benjamin Hornigold sail in consort.

Woodes Rogers is appointed the Governor of the Bahamas for the first time.

The pirate Edward England is active in the Caribbean, Eastern Atlantic, and Indian Ocean.

The Barbadian pirate Stede Bonnet is active in the Caribbean and off the east coast of North America.

The British pirate Samuel Bellamy dies when his ship Whydah is shipwrecked off Cape Cod.

The two pirate crews of Blackbeard and Charles Vane enjoy a week-long party on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina.

The pirate crew of Charles Vane votes to depose him. They select John Rackham ('Calico Jack') as their new captain.

The Barbadian pirate Stede Bonnet is hanged in Charleston, South Carolina.

Anne Bonny and John Rackham steal a ship in the Bahamas and embark on a life of piracy in the Caribbean.

The Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts ('Black Bart' Roberts) is active on both sides of the Atlantic.

The pirates 'Calico Jack' (John Rackham), Anne Bonny, and Mary Read are apprehended in the Caribbean by the Jamaican authorities.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read are tried for piracy in Jamaica and found guilty. Thier sentence of death by hanging is postpoend as both are pregnant.

The English pirate Edward Low is active in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic.

John Taylor and Olivier La Bouche capture the Portuguese treasure ship Nostra Senhora de Cabo at Réunion Island.

The English pirate Charles Vane is hanged in Jamaica.

The pirates Edward Low and George Lowther operate in tandem in the Caribbean.

At Cape Coast Castle, Guinea in West Africa, 52 of Bartholomew Roberts’ crew are hanged.

The Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts captures 11 ships of the West African coast.

The Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts ('Black Bart' Roberts) is killed in action against the Royal Naval vessel HMS Swallow.