“The unspeakable Calamity this poor Province Suffers from Pyrats”: South Carolina and the Golden Age of Piracy

The unspeakable Calamity this poor Province Suffers from Pyrats": South Carolina and the Golden Age of Piracy Carl E. SwansonCet essai examine l'impact des pirates sur la Caroline du Sud pendant le soi-disant « âge d'or » de la piraterie.Cependant, un examen des prix capturés par les pirates sur la côte de la Caroline démontre que, en dépit de leur réputation colorée, les pirates ont fait peu de dégats au commerce de Charles Town.Bien que les forces navales coloniales aient été généralement faibles, la Caroline du Sud et la Virginie étaient assez fortes pour décourager certains des pirates les plus notoires de l'époque.La piraterie peut avoir infesté la plupart des voies de navigation atlantiques, mais elle a à peine constitué « un âge d'or » sur la côte de la Caroline.L'attention reçue par les pirates en Caroline du Sud pendant les années 1700 -et durant les siècles correspondant -implique que leur impact culturel et politique a dépassé leurs conséquences économiques.Although the normal hazards of the seas-shoals, uncharted reefs, squalls, lee shores, nor'easters, and hurricanes-regularly posed difficulties for vessels engaged in early eighteenth-century transatlantic commerce, pirates presented the most dramatic dangers.On 22 April 1718, for example, the ship Crawley, commanded by Captain Robert Clark, departed Charles Town, South Carolina, on what proved to be a very short voyage.Loaded with rice, pitch, and tar, the Crawley worked its way toward the open Atlantic homeward bound to London."As he was just proceeding from the Barr [the sand bar at the entrance to the city's harbor]," an observer later reported, "[he] was unfortunately taken by two Pirates.One a large french Ship Mounted with 40 Guns and the other a Sloop Mounted with 12 Guns with Two other Sloopes for their Tenders having in all about 300 Men all English."The Crawley's fate was not unique, as pirate ships assaulted Charles Town's commerce with seeming impunity: "They [the pirates] are now Come to such a head that there is no Trading in these Parts [.]It being almost Impossible to avoid them." 1 1 ? to the Board of Trade, 13 June 1718, Records in the British Public Record Office Relating to South Carolina, 1663-1782 (Columbia, SC), VII, 73-75 (microfilm).Hereafter cited as BPRO-SC.The first quotation is on 73; the second is from 75.Blackbeard, perhaps the The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XXI No. 2, (April 2011), 117-142The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord This essay examines the impact of piracy on Charles Town's transatlantic commerce during the early eighteenth century, the so-called "golden age" of piracy, 1716 to 1726.During these years, pirates operated on a grand scale and attacked the commerce of numerous Atlantic ports, especially along the North American seaboard, the Caribbean, and the West African coast.Because of the pirates' expansive theaters of operations, piracy offers yet another example of the value of adopting an "Atlantic world view." 2 This essay will place South Carolina's experience with piracy in its Atlantic context.Of course, the golden age pirates did not simply materialize in 1716; commerce raiding by private warships had a lengthy tradition.English New World expansion during the sixteenth century, for example, virtually began with attacks on Spanish shipping.Although London officials did not view such successful predators as Francis Drake, John Hawkins, and Martin Frobisher as pirates, the Spanish certainly did. 3 During most notorious eighteenth-century pirate, captured Captain Clark.See Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates, from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time … (London, 1724), 72.http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/item.aspx?id=joh.Blackbeard eventually released the Crawley, and Captain Clark completed his voyage to London.He also made three subsequent voyages between London and Charles Town during 1722-1724.See South Carolina Naval Officer Shipping Lists, 1716-1767, from Charles Town

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