Famous Pirates

Blackbeard the Pirate - whose real name was Edward Teach - has achieved legendary status. This ruthless pirate worked the Caribbean for about three years before coming to a bloody end. What are the facts about the most notorious of pirates?

Henry Every was an English pirate who made one huge score - the Grand Mughal of India's treasure ship, in 1695. He retired with his wealth and was never heard from again, giving rise to many myths and legends.

Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was the most successful pirate of the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy." It is estimated that he and his men captured and looted some 400 ships before he was killed in battle by pirate hunters in 1722.

Anne Bonny (1700-1782, exact dates uncertain) was a pirate who fought under the command of "Calico Jack" Rackham between 1718 and 1720. Together with fellow female pirate Mary Read, she was one of Rackham's more formidable pirates, fighting, cursing and drinking with the best of them. She was captured along with the rest of Rackham's crew in...

Mary Read was an English pirate who sailed with "Calico Jack" Rackham and fellow female pirate Anne Bonny. Read was captured in 1720 and died in prison.

John "Calico Jack" Rackham (1680?-1720) was an English pirate who sailed in the Caribbean and the Southeastern coast of the United States during the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1725)." Rackham was not one of the more successful pirates, and most of his victims were fishermen and lightly armed traders. Nevertheless, he is remembered by...

Major Stede Bonnet (1688-1718) was the most unlikely of pirates. He had a family and a prosperous plantation on Barbados, and didn't know one end of a sloop from the other. But he was determined to become a pirate, so he bought himself a ship, hired a crew and set sail.

Francis Spriggs (roughly 1690-1725) was an English pirate captain who raided shipping in the Caribbean from 1723-1725. Before becoming captain of...

Charles Vane (1680? - 1721) was an English pirate who was active in the Caribbean and the southeast coast of the United States during the first part of the eighteenth century, sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Piracy." A close associate of other ruthless buccaneer commanders such as Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet, Vane distinguished...

Howell Davis was a Welsh pirate who raided shipping in the Caribbean and the western coast of Africa in 1718-1719. He was a charismatic captain and treated his victims relatively humanely. Davis was a very clever pirate who preferred ruses and deception to outright force.

Edward "Ned" Low was an English criminal, sailor and pirate. He took up piracy sometime around 1722 and was very successful, plundering dozens if...

Captain John Phillips (1690? - 1724) was a ruthless pirate leader who captured several ships in the Caribbean and along the North American coast in 1723-1724. He was killed when prisoners and forced pirates on board mutinied.

George Lowther was an English pirate active from 1721 to 1723. Although he was relatively successful, he never became as famous as other pirates like Blackbeard. His final fate is unclear, but it is thought that he took his own life after being marooned on an island.