Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine January 2018 | Page 462

T
he word “pirate” often invokes
peoples’ imaginations of
secluded Caribbean islands,
rum, parrots, and of course
treasure. Most of this romanticized imagery
comes from tales of pirates from the 1600’s and
early 1700’s, but few people are aware that one
of the most active periods of Caribbean piracy
took place in the early 1800’s, during the Latin
American Wars of Independence and a few years
afterward. This was caused in part by the effects
of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, which ended
in 1815. Spain had fallen under control of the
French under Napoleon, which left Spain’s
American colonies in an uncertain
situation which eventually
they captured. The important difference
between privateers and pirates are that a
privateer’s letter of marque guaranteed that if
they were captured by the enemy, the privateer
crew were considered prisoners of war rather
than pirates. The sentence for captured pirates
was almost always execution. As the end of the
Napoleonic Wars left Britain and the U.S. with
a glut of formerly enlisted and professional
soldiers and sailors, many answered the call to
sail as privateers under Buenos Aires, Venezuela,
and Spain, sailing the waters of the eastern
Caribbean and even the coast of Spain, the
Mediterranean, and the coast of West Africa for
enemy ships. With so many privateers hunting
in these waters for enemy ships, this also created
big opportunities for pirates, who often
pretended to be privateers themselves.
The problem for South American
privateers was that by being at sea for
led to independence
movements. Buenos Aires
declared independence in
by Dr. Ryan Espersen, Director of SABARC
1810, and Gran Columbia (mostly
months at a time, they could not be informed
referred to back then as Venezuela) , which included
of new developments of the war, especially if
modern day Columbia and Venezuela, soon
their home port was captured by the Spanish.
followed under the rebel General Simon Bolivar.
Therefore they began to seek out islands in
The islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Thomas,
the eastern Caribbean where they could safely
Saba, and St. Eustatius played active, covert
supply their own ships with crews and supplies,
roles during this time as safe havens for these
and also to sell their captured ships and prize
ships.
goods. They found the most support for this
between the islands of St. Barts, St. Thomas,
Spain was left with no navy after 1815, and the
St. Eustatius, and Saba. These islands soon
rebels in Buenos Aires under Admiral William
developed into an underground smuggling
Brown (an Irishman) , and Simon Bolivar further
and laundering ring for privateers and pirates,
north, had no navy either. Therefore, they all
supported secretly by the islands’ governors.
began issuing letters of marque captains that
Officially, it was considered illegal on all four
could muster together an armed ship with a
islands to trade or aid privateer ships, since
crew, who became privateers. By sailing as
Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark did
privateers for either side, they were guaranteed
not officially recognize the rebel states in South
a large cut of the spoils from any enemy ship