Robert Culliford

Robert Culliford (* 17th century ; † 18th century ) was an Anglo-American pirate captain who operated in the Indian Ocean in the last decade of the 17th century . He gained a certain fame through several encounters with William Kidd .

Life

Early years and beginning of the pirate career

There are no reliable facts known about Culliford's early years. It is said that he began his career at sea as a cabin boy in the Caribbean . It is certain that the former buccaneer Culliford belonged to the crew of the brigantine Blessed William , with which William Kidd had undertaken a number of successful pirate voyages in the Caribbean since 1689 ; and he was among the men who stole the ship off Antigua in February 1690, leaving Kidd on the island. In 1691, Culliford reached the Indian Ocean on the ship Jacob along with a few other pirates , but later returned to North America. After another trip to the Indian Ocean, Culliford hired himself as a gunner for the East India Company from 1694 . In June 1696 he instigated a mutiny on the Josiah ketch , which failed. Culliford was lucky that the ship that was supposed to bring him and the other mutineers to Bombay as prisoners was seized by pirates shortly afterwards. So Culliford came aboard the frigate Resolution , which had belonged to the East India Company as a mocha and had fallen into the hands of its captain, Ralph Stout , through a mutiny .

In search of rewarding prizes , the Resolution and its escort ship, the Charming Mary , whose crew was largely recruited from the former crew of the Amity Thomas Tews , subsequently roamed the sea area off the west coast of India. In the first quarter of 1697 the pirates caught the English coastal ship Satisfaction here and kept its crew on board as prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the pirates also fell into the hands of a Portuguese ship, the crew of which were tortured for refusing to reveal where they had hidden their valuables. During a stopover in the Maldives , during which, among other things, several island villages were sacked, there was a violent dispute between the crews of the two ships, whereupon the Charming Mary separated from the resolution . The Resolution now sailed alone into the Malakka Strait , where a richly laden Portuguese ship was arrested. In June 1697, however, the pirates' streak of luck ended abruptly when they were attacked while going ashore on the Nicobar Islands and their captain was killed in the process.

As a pirate captain in the Indian Ocean

After Stout's death, the pirates chose Culliford as his successor. The first action of the new pirate captain would, however, almost ended in a fiasco: in July which was resolution after a three-day chase while attempting the East Indiaman Dorrill apply from whose guns damaged such that Culliford heave had. After the repair of the ship, however, the pirates captured two richly laden junks and a large Chinese ship within a short time. Loaded with rich booty, the Resolution now went to the pirate lair on the island of Sainte Marie off the east coast of Madagascar , where most of the crew members soon squandered their booty.

Another encounter with William Kidd

On Sainte Marie, William Kidd and Robert Culliford met again in April 1698. Kidd had been authorized to hunt pirates and take away their ships and their loot. Culliford was undoubtedly a pirate and since he only commanded around 40 men, Kidd suggested that his crew take control of Culliford's ship. Unfortunately for Kidd, his men not only refused to take action against Culliford, but also ran over to him in droves, taking weapons and equipment with them. After all, for the sake of his own safety, Kidd was forced to give Culliford a drinking bout to assure him that he had nothing to fear from him.

Capture of the "Mohammed" and return to Madagascar

After Culliford's crew and armament had grown to around 130 men and 40 cannons within a few weeks - at Kidd's expense - he set sail again in June 1698 and hijacked a small French ship off the Comoros island of Anjouan , which was formerly called Johanna especially alcohol. With the aim of capturing one of the rich pilgrim ships that sailed from the Mughal Empire to the Red Sea and back every year , the resolution then set course for Socotra . From here, the pirates sailed to the entrance of the Persian Gulf and then to the coast of India, where it in September in the waters off Surat on Soldado from Richard Sievers met who already lurking here on the pilgrims ships. Culliford and Sievers agreed to share any booty they would make over the next two months. When the pilgrim fleet appeared, however, the pirates were in for a bitter disappointment: an East Indiaman escorting the pilgrim ships made it impossible to get to any of them. Despite this failure, the crews of the two pirate ships decided to maintain their position and were soon joined by the Pelican, commanded by Joseph Wheeler .

After a grueling wait, the pirates finally sighted July 23rd ^. / October 3, 1698 ^greg. the pilgrim ship Mohammed , which was brought up by Sievers' crew before the other two pirate ships could intervene. On board the Mohammed there were not only hundreds of pilgrims, but also enormous riches. The value of the means of payment alone which Sievers' men had captured was about £ 120,000 ; In addition, there were large quantities of all kinds of merchandise. According to the agreement, the booty was divided between the crews of Culliford and Sievers, but the crew of the Pelican was only fobbed off with a meager 1,000 pounds of booty. After the spoil at Rajapur had been divided between the crew members of the Resolution and the Soldado - the Pelican had already sailed away - Culliford and Sievers went south together.

While traveling along the west coast of India, the two pirate ships got caught in a severe storm and were separated. After they had met again, the pirates extorted provisions in Onore for the onward journey and returned to Sainte Marie around the turn of the year 1698/99. Here the ways of the two ship's crews parted. Quite a few pirates saw to it that they could get their riches on board one of the merchant ships that had come to Sainte Marie to provide them with everyday necessities, but above all with alcohol.

End of the pirate career

Culliford did not leave Sainte Marie until September 1699. In that month the Pinke Vine had laid out before Sainte Marie . Their captain, Thomas Warren, had been hired to sail the coast of Madagascar and proclaim a royal amnesty for the pirates. 14 pirates accepted the offer of amnesty and boarded the Vine , which was now on its way to England. One of these men was Culliford, who, in addition to several boxes of booty, wanted to take some slaves with him on the long journey. When the Vine called at the Dutch base on the Cape of Good Hope at the end of December , she came across the Loyal Merchant , a three-masted sailing ship of the East India Company , and Brigantine Margaret , commanded by Samuel Burgess , with which Richard Sievers and other pirates carried Richard Sievers and other pirates a few months earlier Had left Sainte Marie. Sievers and his cronies were already prisoners on the Loyal Merchant , whose captain, Matthew Lowth, had been authorized to search all ships suspected of piracy and to arrest pirates. Lowth also wanted to search and seize the Vine , but was prevented from doing so by the Dutch, who had already viewed his action against the Margaret as an interference with their sovereign rights.

In this way, Culliford came to England unmolested for the time being. Here he was taken into custody, however, because the amnesty of 1698 had not been recognized due to a formal error. In connection with the pirate trials taking place in the Old Bailey court house in London , in which William Kidd was also tried, Culliford was evidently forced to incriminate other pirates. In the summer of 1702, for example, he appeared as a witness in London at the trial of Samuel Burgess, whom he knew well. This cooperative attitude towards the authorities appears to have ultimately paid off for Culliford, as he was eventually amnestied. Immediately after these trials, Culliford's trail is lost. Having escaped the gallows, he should have left London as quickly as possible. He was rumored to later serve on a Royal Navy ship .

Footnotes

1. ↑ The encounter between Kidd and Culliford is also an essential element of the 2002 book The Pirate Hunter. The True Story of Captain Kidd by the American journalist and author Richard Zacks. Zacks did research the historical facts, but his portrayal of Culliford as Kidd's opponent, even as “Kidd's long-forgotten nemesis”, is more fiction than historical truth. See An Excerpt From: The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks.
2. ↑ The captain of Satisfaction , William Willock, spent eleven months as a prisoner on the Resolution . He left a detailed account of the time of his imprisonment. Bialuschewski, Piratenleben, p. 178, note 39.

literature

1. Bialuschewski, Arne: Pirate life. The adventurous journeys of the pirate Richard Sievers. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1997. ISBN 3-593-35819-0
2. Marx, Jenifer G .: The "Pirate Round" . In: Cordingly, David (ed.): Piraten. Fear and horror on the oceans. From the American by Sabine Lorenz and Felix Seewöster. vgs Verlagsgesellschaft, Cologne 1997, pp. 142–165. ISBN 3-8025-2508-6
3. Comtesse Catherine de Chenonceau: The Prisoner of Ste-Marie. Historical novel about Culliford and La Buse. Books on Demand, GmbH, Norderstedt, 2010. ISBN 978-3-8391-6589-8

Web links

• Brief description of the life of Culliford (in English )
• Excerpt from The Pirate Hunter (in English )