Calico Jack

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John Rackham
December 21, 1682 - November 18, 1720

An 18th century lithograph of Rackham
Nickname: Calico Jack
Type: Pirate
Place of birth: Bristol, England
Place of death: Port Royal, Jamaica
Allegiance: England
Rank: Captain
Base of Operations: West Indies
Commands: The Treasure

John Rackham (December 21, 1682 – November 18, 1720 in Jamaica) (often spelled Rackam or Rackum in contemporary documentation), known also as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain during the early 18th century. His nickname was derived from the calico clothing he wore.[1]

Contents

[edit] Piracy

The Jolly Roger used by Calico Jack

John "Calico Jack" Rackham is most remembered for two things: (1) the design of his Jolly Roger flag, seen at left, which contributed to the popularization of the design and its association with piracy in popular culture; and (2)employing two of the most notorious female pirates of the age as part of his crew – Mary Read and Anne Bonny (the latter of whom he had (willingly) whisked away from her husband). He was called "Calico Jack" by many due to his preference for calico coats and britches.

Rackham originally sailed as a crewman for Charles Vane, an English pirate captain. During 1718, Vane refused to attack a French man-of-war, to the dismay of his crew. Instigated by Rackham (at the time the ship's quartermaster), the crew voted to depose Vane for cowardice. Having thus gained the support of the crew, Rackham was named as the new captain, and Vane was cast off in a smaller sloop with the crewmen who had voted against Rackham[2].

Once gaining the captaincy, "Calico Jack" made a career of plundering small vessels close to shore. This proved to be his undoing. During the autumn of 1720 he cruised near Jamaica, capturing numerous small fishing vessels, and terrorizing fishermen and women along the northern coastline. During November 1720, he came across a small vessel filled with nine English pirates. Soon after, Rackham's ship was attacked by an armed sloop sent by Governor Nicholas Lawes, and was captured. Rackham and his crew were brought to Jamaica, where he and nearly all of his crew members were sentenced to hang.

[edit] Capture, Trial and Death

Rackham and his crew were captured October 1720 by Captain Jonathan Barnet. Rackham and his crew were tried and convicted in St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town), Jamaica, November 16-17, 1720. Rackham was hanged at Gallows-Point in Port Royal on November 18, 1720. Rackham's body was then tarred, hanged in a cage, and gibbeted on display on a very small islet (first known as Plumb-point) at a main entrance to Port Royal, Jamaica as a warning to other pirates (now known as Rackham's Cay). Of the two female members of the crew, one died before execution and the fate of the other, who was not executed, is unknown. The others of the crew (comprising nine men) were executed by hanging. [3]

The gibbeting is referenced in the Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in which several pirates are hung from an open caveface in the film rendition of Port Royal. Calico Jack's crossed cutlass Jolly Roger was used in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End as Hector Barbossa's pirate flag. It was also used for Morgan Adams' flag in Cutthroat Island.

[edit] Cigarettes

Calico Jack also lends his name to the cigarette brand BlackJack, which also takes the other half of their name from Blackbeard, another well known and documented pirate.

[edit] Drinks

Calico Jack is the name of a alcoholic beverage/mixed drink created when one combines a healthy portion of rum with a Mike's Hard Lemonade.

[edit] Other Pirates

Justice was not always so swift. When, in October 1720, Rackham and his captured crew were brought to the Port Royal jail, Rackham's old captain, Charles Vane, was in a nearby cell. Vane was captured nearly two years prior, but was not tried & convicted until the March following Rackham's demise. [4]

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were not executed, because at their trial a week after Rackham's execution they both said they were quick with child. They were given a temporary stay until the claim was proved, and the plan was to hang them after childbirth. However, Read died during April 1721 of fever related to childbirth, while Bonny was spared execution and disappeared from all historical records, leaving much legend and speculation regarding her fate (and that of her child).

The day after Rackham's trial, two men, listed with Rackham's crew in the title page of the printed "tryal," were tried & convicted separately. John "Old Dad the Cooper" Fenwick, was tried with Tom Brown (alias Bourn) for offenses committed in mid-June 1720 off Hispaniola. During January 1721, Fenwick was later mentioned posthumously (& surely would have been convicted if tried) in a mutiny trial of four men (only two were convicted citing insufficient evidence for the other two), for their mutiny in Africa in late June, only two weeks after the piracy which led to Brown & Fenwick's trial & conviction. It is clarified in a later trial (of the nine men who happened to be caught with Rackham's crew) that Fenwick & Brown were not part of Rackham's 9-man, 2-woman crew, though they very likely would have all known each other.

All of the nine men from the other crew who were captured with Rackham's crew were tried and convicted (based on highly suspect testimony and charges) during January 1720, then hanged February 1720.

The reason there may be confusion, is that their trials were consecutive, their names listed together, & their executions consecutive. The greater reason for all of that would have been for the fact that they all offended one particular person. Either Thomas Spenlow had a vendetta against all supposed pirates, or he truly was the coincidental victim, which caused him to testify at three separate trials from 1720 to 1721. First, he testified against Rackham's crew, because they had taken his "unnamed" schooner in October 1720. The next day, Spenlow testified against Fenwick & Brown for their June 1720 capture of his schooner Neptune. The next week, he testified again against Bonny & Read for their participation with the October piracy with Rackham.

It is interesting to note who was in deliberation with Governor Lawes on the Court of Admiralty when Rackham, Fenwick et al were tried. Captain Vernon, Commander of HMS Mary was in charge of all His Majesty's ships of war in Jamaica. He was the captain who caught Fenwick & Brown in the act during mid June 1720 two hours after they pirated Spenlow. He knew first-hand about the piracy during June, and he chose to release Fenwick & Brown almost immediately. Yet five months later, he helped to sentence them to death based on testimony he'd already heard at the scene.

All of these accounts are verified in "The Tryals of Captain John Rackam and other Pirates", published 1720 in Jamaica, accepted as the only surviving records of the trials taking place from November 1720 to March 1721.

[edit] References

  1. ^ jack and captain john rackham
  2. ^ [|Woodard, Colin] (2007). The Republic of Pirates. Harcourt, Inc. pp. 306-307. ISBN 978-0-15-603462-3. http://www.republicofpirates.net. 
  3. ^ [|Woodard, Colin] (2007). The Republic of Pirates. Harcourt, Inc. pp. 319-320. ISBN 978-0-15-603462-3. http://www.republicofpirates.net. 
  4. ^ http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2008/10/when_did_charles_vane_die.html

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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