John Taylor (pirate)

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John Taylor (* in England ) was a pirate who lived in the early 18th century .

Life

Taylor was the helmsman of Captain Edward England (1685-1720) and popular with his crew because of his violent disposition.

In 1719 England captured a 30-gun sloop off Africa. Taylor was given command of the ship, which he named Victory . Together they then hijacked the ship Cassandra . Since England spared the captain of the captured sloop, he was deposed by Taylor at Mauritius and Taylor took command of his ship. Then Taylor captured several small Arab and European ships in the Indian Ocean . During this time he fled once before a British naval squadron, which he originally believed to be the pirate Kanhoji Angre's (1669-1729) fleet . Then Taylor sailed his ships to the Dutch port of Kochi to renew his provisions. Once there, however, he was forced to pay high bribes. Taylor had his ships keeled at Mauritius and Sainte Marie . At that time, Olivier Levasseur (1680 / 1690-1730) joined him, who took command of the Victory .

In 1721 they headed for Réunion off the coast of Madagascar , where they looted the most valuable treasure in pirate history - variously described as Nostra Senora della Cabo, Nostra Senhora do Cabo or Nossa Senhora do Cabo ( Our Lady of the Cape ). The hijacked Portuguese ship transported gold, rough diamonds and ecclesiastical insignia to the departing Viceroy of Goa . As a result of a storm, it had been de-masted, making it easy prey. After the capture with the treasure - more than a million pounds sterling at the time - Levasseur and Taylor set off for Madagascar. Once there, the booty was divided among the crew. The burned Victory was replaced by the carrack Nostra Senhora de Cabo and renamed Victory .

In 1722 Taylor and Levasseur separated after a serious dispute. Taylor took the Cassandra and set sail for the Caribbean and finally headed for Panama , where he arrived in May 1723. The governor of Portobelo pardoned him and his crew in exchange for his ship. What happened to Captain Taylor after that is uncertain. According to one report, he became an officer in the Armada de Barlovento . After another, he became a captain in the Panama Coast Guard.

literature

  • Jan Rogozinski: Pirates: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend, New York: Da Capo Press, 1996, ISBN 0-306-80722-X
  • Jan Rogozinski: Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Republic Libertalia, Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 2000, ISBN 0-8117-1529-9
  • Don Carlos Seitz: Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates, Mineola, Ny: Courier Dover Publications, 2002, ISBN 0-486-42131-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johnson, Charles: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates
  2. ↑ Edward England on thepirateking.com website
  3. ^ A b Konstam, Angus: Piracy: The Complete History
  4. ↑ a b c d e John Taylor on the website of vleonica.com ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vleonica.com
  5. ↑ a b c d John Taylor on the website of privateerdragons.com
  6. ^ Kuhn, Gabriel: Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy
  7. ^ Piat, Denis: Pirates & Privateers of Mauritius

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Taylor, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pirate
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH 18th century