Israel Hands

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Israel Hands (* before 1700, † after 1718) was a pirate who sailed under the command of Blackbeard .

Hands is mentioned in the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates by Charles Johnson, published in 1724, in the chapter on Blackbeard .

Hands commanded a sloop in the Blackbeard flotilla. He was on land in Bath, North Carolina , with other pirates from Blackbeard's flotilla on November 22, 1718 , when Blackbeard was caught and killed by two ships of the British Navy under the command of Robert Maynard . Hands was then captured along with remaining pirates in Bath, but later pardoned because he had testified against other pirates and corrupt officials.

Johnson relates an anecdote according to which Hands was crippled by Blackbeard himself from a pistol shot in the knee:

“During a night drinking session in his cabin with a pilot, Hands, and a third man, Blackbird secretly drew two small pistols without provocation and placed them under the table. The third man noticed this and went out onto the deck, leaving Blackbeard, the pilot and Hands alone in the cabin. After the two pistols were ready to fire, Blackbeard blew out the candle on the table and shot the two remaining drinking buddies. Hands was hit in the knee and was paralyzed for life. The second pistol failed. When Blackbeard was asked why he did that, he replied that if he didn't kill one of them every now and then, they'd forget who he was. "

- Charles Jonson in: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates

After Johnson, Hands later died as a beggar in London, but Breverton suspects that he may be identical to the pirate Israel Hynde , who a few years later belonged to the crew of the pirate Bartholomew Roberts and was hanged in Cape Coast Castle ( Ghana ) in 1722 .

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) named one of his pirates after Israel Hands in his famous novel Treasure Island (1883). In the television series Black Sails (2014-2017), which tells a fictional prehistory to Treasure Island and integrates historical events and characters, Israel Hands appears in the fourth and final season and is played there by Irish actor David Wilmot . In the two-part television film Blackbeard (2006), Israel Hands is played by Anthony Green .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Terry Breverton: The Pirate Dictionary . Pelican Publishing, 2007, ISBN 9781455610501 , pp. 84–85 ( excerpt (Google) )
  2. ^ A b Tim Travers: Pirates: A History. The History Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-75248827-1 , pp. 137, 141 ( excerpt (Google) )
  3. ^ Charles Johnson : A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates . Ch. Rivington, J. Lacy and J. Stone, 1724, pp. 86-87
personal data
SURNAME Hands, Israel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pirate
DATE OF BIRTH before 1700
DATE OF DEATH after 1718