Black Pirates Month: Peter Cloise

Peter Cloise was a Caribbean slave who was "taken" from his "owner" by the English pirate Edward Davis in the mid-1600's. According to accounts, Cloise and Davis became fast friends and pirated together not only in the Caribbean but also off the coast of Brazil. Davis and Cloise were Buccaneers-- although the term eventually came to be synonymous with "pirate," in Cloise's day the "Buccaneer" label was given to Caribbean pirates with large crews who often attacked coastal cities. England gave letters of marque to Buccaneers, legalizing their raids against England's main rival in the region-- Spain.

Not much is known about Cloise. He was arrested in 1688, and contradicted Davis' statement that he was "never a privateer," which may have been damning or exonerating, depending on who was doing the prosecuting. In any case Davis was pardoned by King James II and Cloise may have been the recipient of that deal as well. Possibly related to the pardon: some of the loot that Cloise and Davis raised were used to build a college in the name of the next generation of royals: William and Mary.

This Day in Pyrate Historie

The year was 1689. Robert Culliford, William Kidd and six other Britons were shipmates on a French privateering vessel called the Sainte Rose. They had been plundering with the sanction of King Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King." But when tensions with the Holy Roman Empire erupted into the Nine Years' War, Culliford and his countrymen mutinied and took over the ship. Kidd became the new Captain. They renamed the ship Blessed William, and used it to defend English colonies and to privateer against the French. But then, on February 2 of 1690, Culliford stole the ship and went Caribbean pirate! It's a little unclear whether Culliford mutinied against Kidd, or simply took the ship while he was ashore, but in any case today marks the anniversary of the start of Culliford's pirate career.

Bumbo: Better than Grog

Grog has long been thought of as the quintessential pirate drink. Rum, watered down, often with lime added, and sometimes salt, was the drink rationed by the English Royal Navy to its sailors. The lime, of course, is used to prevent scurvy.

But most pirates saw land more often than navy sailors, and Caribbean pirates ate a lot of fresh fruit. Scurvy was not much of an issue of them. So they ditched the lime and added sugar and nutmeg to make it taste yummy.

Today, some bumbo recipes include cinnamon or grenadine.

Here's a simple recipe:

Bumbo
2 shots rum or dark rum
1 oz water
1-2 tsp sugar
dash nutmeg (& cinnamon if desired)

Pirate Haunt of the Day: Tortuga

Tortuga, featured as an anarchistic pirate haven in Pirates of the Caribbean is a mountainous, rocky island off Haiti's northwestern coast. Christopher Columbus encountered the island in 1493, and it was his crew that gave it the name Tortuga: its shape reminded them of a turtle. Some Spanish settlers eventually inhabited the island, and in the 1600's the Spanish fought over it with the English and the French. The Spanish ultimately abandoned it as unimportant, leaving it to the English and the French who set up neighboring colonies to grow tobacco and such.

The island was never well controlled by the colonial government, and it became a haven for Buccaneers who began calling themselves Brethren of the Coast. Henry Morgan-- who the rum is named after-- was a Brethren, and codified the previously loose association. In 1645, the French governor attempted to gain control of the island by bribing the pirates with over a thousand prostitutes. But pirates are an uncontrollable lot, and Tortuga remained under Brethren control for most of the 17th century.

A Bottle of Rum

Pirates didn't have running water on their wooden ships (and in case you didn't know it, you can't survive on sea water because of the salt). So all the water to be consumed on a voyage had to be brought along in barrels. Over the course of a few weeks, the water would get algae in it.

To keep the water from growing, they would sometimes put salt in it (enough to kill algae but not pirates). Or they would put some alcohol in it. Pirates of the Caribbean found an abundant supply of "kill devil," an alcohol that came as a byproduct of sugar cane production. When people began to cultivate kill devil on purpose, its name became rum. A bit of rum in water (and sometimes also with a little salt) is the drink that became known as "grog."

Rum was very cheap and abundant in the Caribbean, and so it was the alcohol of choice for our brethren around the Spanish Main. The Royal Navy gave strict rations of hootch, but pirates could be freer, at least when recruiting Navy sailors. During a voyage, the captain would still ration the rum, and the Articles usually outlined stiff penalties for being drunk during battle.

Pirate Haunt of the Day: The Spanish Main

The Spanish Main consisted of the Carribbean coasts of Florida, Mexico, northern South America, and the waterways that served their ports. The riches of the Spanish Empire were concentrated in this area and drew the attention of many a hopeful scallywag.

The Spanish Empire in the Americas largely consisted of Florida, Mexico, Central America and northern South America. From these regions the Spanish reaped mind-blowingly vast amounts of wealth in the form of gold, silver, precious jewels, New World spices and hardwoods, tobacco, and other goods. These riches would be hauled to the Caribbean coast, loaded onto galleons, and shipped back to the motherland. Goods from Asia were also brought in from the east to Acapulco, brought overland to Veracruz, and added to the treasure fleet for transport to Spain.

This is the major reason why the Caribbean was so rife with pirates. A Spanish treasure fleet was not easy to capture, but perhaps trailing the fleet you could pick off a straggler and immediately retire! This did not happen often, but the presence of such vast riches was enough to attract the hopes and aspirations of many an outlaw, who would then wise up and pick easier targets.

There's also a film entitled "The Spanish Main," and there are pirates in it. It is an adventure film from 1945. Check it out if you're so inclined: