Edward Owens hoax

Edward Owens (1852-1938) was an American pirate, possibly the last American pirate. He was an oyster fisherman working on the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, who fell on hard times during the Long Depression that began in 1873, and took up pirating largely to survive the economic downturn. Owens lived in Virginia, but operated primarily in the Maryland waters of the Bay, robbing smaller commercial vessels and wealthy pleasure boaters from Maryland. He sailed in a bugeye, rigged with a punt gun -- a sort of super shotgun -- with which he and his small crew threatened their victims. There is no evidence that Owens ever committed any serious violence against his victims. Owens and his crew used Watts Island in the Chesapeake as their haven when pirating. John Smith discovered Watts Island in 1607 and for a brief period in the seventeenth century the island served as a lair for more serious pirates. Watts Island washed away during the second half of the 20th century and is now marked on nautical maps as Watts Island Rocks. The Watts Island Light was destroyed in a storm in 1944. Owens was never apprehended, probably because the Virginia authorities saw no need to chase a pirate robbing Marylanders, and because once the Virginia economy improved in the late 1880s, Owens and his crew went back to oyster fishing and ceased their criminal activities.

References

• Cronin, William B.,"The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake," (JHU Press:2005)
• Defoe, Daniel, A General History of the Pyrates, (New York:Dover Publications 1972).
• Greener, W.W.,"The Gun and its Development" , (New York: Cassell and Company, Limited 1907).
• Wennersten, John R. "The Oyster Wars of Chesapeake Bay" (Tidewater Publishers 1981).