Black Sam Bellamy
Samuel Bellamy, better known as Captain Black Sam Bellamy (1689 – 1717), earned the nickname “Black Sam” not because of any fell acts or dark deeds of piracy, but because he eschewed the white powdered wigs of his era and grew out his own mane of long black hair instead. He went to sea at an early age and was a combat veteran who’d already taken part in a number of sea battles with the Royal Navy by the time he reached manhood.
In 1715, he went to Cape Cod in search of relatives, and there, news arrived of the wreck of a Spanish treasure fleet in a storm off the Florida coast. Bellamy joined a treasure-hunting expedition that hoped to recover the sunken riches, but when they failed to do, they turned to piracy to recoup their investment. Bellamy fell in with captain Benjamin Hornigold and his first mate Blackbeard of the Marianne.
In 1716, Hornigold’s refusal to attack English ships led his pirate crew to vote him out as captain and kick him and Blackbeard off the ship. Bellamy, who had none of Hornigold’s compunctions about preying on English vessels, was elected captain in his stead. His biggest haul was the Whydah Gally, which Bellamy overtook on its maiden voyage after a 3-day chase, and captured it with a rich haul of gold, ivory, indigo, and other high-value goods. Upgrading it with extra cannon and turning it into his flagship, Bellamy then fell upon the shipping lanes to the Carolinas and New England and feasted.
Likening himself to Robin Hood, Bellamy’s pirate career was brief, lasting little more than a year, but it was one of the most prolific and spectacular years in the history of piracy, during which he captured over 50 ships – which made him the richest pirate in recorded history. He stood out for his shows of mercy, which earned him another nickname, the “Prince of Pirates”. He met his end off Cape Cod, where the Whydah Gally was driven ashore and wrecked by a nor’easter on April 26th, 1717, quickly sinking and drowning Bellamy and all but two of her 145-man crew.
