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The Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Khalid Elhassan January 7, 2020 32 min

5. Commanding the Caribbean’s Most Powerful Pirate Ship

Benjamin Hornigold’s ship, the Ranger. Pintrest

In 1717, Benjamin Hornigold was riding high, commanding the Carribbean’s most powerful ship, a 30 gun sloop named the Ranger. It allowed him to prey on shipping with impunity. His first mate was Blackbeard, and his protégées and acquaintances included other future notorious pirates such as Black Sam Bellamy and Stede Bonnet.

Hornigold operated mainly around the Bahamas, and his base of operations was Nassau, a notorious pirates’ nest. Hornigold and a bitter rival, Henry Jennings, transformed Nassau into a de facto Pirates’ Republic, governed by its own code of conduct and regulations. The depredations and havoc issuing from there finally forced the British authorities to send a governor, with a Royal Navy squadron, to restore order in the Bahamas and end the scourge of piracy.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.