Charles Vane is remembered as one of the few pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century who rejected the offer of a pardon and willingly went to the gallows. He also gained notoriety for his association with some of the most dreaded pirates of the age—including “Calico Jack” Rackham and Edward Thatch, or “Blackbeard.” Vane rose to prominence in the wake of the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) by terrorizing British and Spanish ships alike, until his arrest and execution in 1721.
Pirates in the early eighteenth century’s golden age like Charles Vane produced legends that continue to fascinate and entertain readers and moviegoers. Vane was commissioned to salvage wrecked Spanish galleons but soon turned to plundering British merchant vessels. He was captured and hanged in Jamaica in 1721. (Library of Congress)
The exact place and date of Charles Vane’s birth are not known. He was one of the English ex-privateers along with Henry Jennings, Samuel Bellamy, and Edward England who operated from Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. Vane became unemployed after the end of the War of Spanish Succession in 1714 and began his career of piracy in July 1715 off the coast of Florida. He was a member of the team led by Henry Jennings. In one episode, Vane learned of twelve Spanish galleons sunk in a violent hurricane. The Viceroy of Havana gave the order to salvage their treasure from the east coast of Florida. The salvage ships, which were recovering the lost gold and silver, became easy targets for pirating, as they were not heavily armed. Vane returned to his hideout of Nassau along with Jennings taking with them £87,000 in looted treasure.
Nassau was also the base of operations for other notorious pirates such as Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Thatch. The British government had brought the Bahamas under its colonial administration, and in September 1717 decided to issue a royal decree of amnesty to their new colony across the Atlantic. Any pirates who accepted the offer of pardon would be permitted to go free on the condition of abandoning their prior profession, but justice would ruthlessly pursue any rogues who rejected the amnesty. Meanwhile, Vane parted company with Jennings in 1718 and operated as captain of his own ship, called the Ranger.
On February 23, 1718, Vincent Pearce’s royal frigate HMS Phoenix landed in Nassau carrying with it the offer of pardon. Vane, along with forty like-minded pirates, rejected the offer and continued pirating. The Ranger intercepted a Bermudian sloop on April 14, 1718, savagely attacking its crew. Afterwards they seized the Diamond, captained by John Tibby, near a Bahamas Island named Rum Key and looted the ship. Vane’s pilfering of merchant ships went unabated. During this period, he and his cohort captured a total of twelve vessels, becoming the unchallenged pirate leader in Nassau. On July 26, 1718, Vane even attacked the Delicia, a ship belonging to the new governor, Woodes Rogers. He then dramatically escaped out of the harbor. Furthering his insult, Vane even had the audacity to write to the governor two days before that he would accept the pardon provided that he could keep all his plunder.
After arriving at Charleston on August 30, 1718, Vane continued to acquire more vessels for pirate raids, making his new flagship the eighty-ton Dorothy. Vane terrorized the eastern shoreline of America and all the power of the colonial governments was bent on his capture. Captain Benjamin Hornigold, an ex-pirate who himself had accepted the offer of pardon, and later Colonel William Rhett were employed to hunt down Vane. He eluded both. However, soon afterward, Vane’s luck began to run out, leading to his eventual downfall.
On November 23, 1718, he spotted a vessel between Cuba and Hispaniola. Upon seeing that the ship was a twenty-four-gun French frigate, Vane ordered his crew to turn around when he perceived that that they were significantly outgunned. Vane’s quartermaster, “Calico Jack” Rackham, however, saw this as an act of cowardice unworthy of a captain of a vessel. Rackham persuaded the crew of seventy-five to stage a mutiny and name himself captain. Vane, along with his fifteen loyal supporters, were put in a small boat and cast adrift. Not disheartened, Vane recruited another crew and armed the vessel with looted weaponry. He moved toward the northwestern coast of Jamaica seizing small vessels and afterward began to cruise the Bay of Honduras.
In February 1719, Vane’s ship was destroyed by a hurricane and he was marooned on an uninhabited Honduran island along with another survivor. For several days, Vane lived miserably with occasional help from Mosquito Indians. A Jamaican ship captained by Holford, an old buccaneer, landed on the island to replenish its stock of fresh water. Although they were both old friends, Holford did not trust the pirate. Nevertheless, he promised to return after a month. After some days, another vessel landed on the island. The ship’s captain was an old acquaintance of Holford named Margaritte. Through a clever ruse, Vane convinced Captain Margaritte to let him come aboard. He was employed on board the ship and worked very hard to impress the crew. Unfortunately for the pirate, Holford happened to see him as he dined with Margaritte. That was Vane’s downfall. Learning the true identity of his guest, Margaritte took Vane, clamped in irons, to Port Royal and appealed to the authorities for a reward for capturing the notorious pirate. On March 22, 1721, the Court of Admiralty tried Vane at the town of Santiago de la Vega. He was found guilty and hanged a week later at Gallows Point, Port Royal. His execution brought an end to a colorful career of infamy, cruelty, and adventurism.
Patit Paban Mishra
See also Bellamy, Samuel “Black Sam”; Hornigold, Benjamin; Kidd, Captain William; Lafitte, Jean; Rackham, John “Calico Jack”; Thatch, Edward “Blackbeard”
Further Reading
Marley, David F. 2010. Pirates of the Americas: Volume 2, 1686–1725. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Rediker, Marcus. 2004. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press.
Woodard, Colin. 2008. The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Zepke, Terrance. 2005. Pirates of the Carolinas. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press.