Captain Samuel Bellamy (
c. 23 February, 1689 – 26 April 1717), later known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English sailor, turned pirate, who operated in the early 18th century. He is best known as the wealthiest pirate in
recorded history
Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world hist ...
, and one of the faces of the
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa ...
. Though his known career as a pirate captain lasted little more than a year, he and his crew captured at least 53 ships. Called "Black Sam" in Cape Cod folklore because he eschewed the fashionable powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men".
Bellamy was born in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England, in 1689, and began sailing for the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
as a teenager. After traveling to
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
around 1715, he then went south to the Florida coast in an effort to locate a
sunken treasure fleet. From there he made his way to the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
, sailing under
Benjamin Hornigold
Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bah ...
and his second-in-command,
Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. After Hornigold and Teach were voted out of command, Bellamy took a captured vessel as his own, before capturing a state-of-the-art slave trade ship, the ''
Whydah Gally
''Whydah Gally'' (commonly known simply as the ''Whydah'') was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade, ''Whydah Gally'' was captu ...
'', in the early spring of 1717. Two months later, the vessel was caught in a
nor'easter
A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...
storm off the coast of
and sank, taking Bellamy and most of his crew down with it. The remains of the ''Whydah Gally'' were discovered in 1984, making it the first fully authenticated golden age pirate ship discovered in North America.
Early life
Bellamy was the youngest of six known children born to Stephen and Elizabeth Bellamy in the parish of
Hittisleigh
Hittisleigh is a small rural parish and village just north-east of Dartmoor in Devon. Once part of the ancient district of the Wonford Hundred, it is now administered by Mid Devon District Council and part of the Central Devon constituency. The ...
on
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...
in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
,
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
On 1 ...
, in 1689.
Elizabeth died soon after, and was buried on 23 February, 1689, three weeks before Samuel's baptism on 18 March. The future pirate became a sailor at a young age; in his late teens, he joined the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
and fought in several battles. Though it has been speculated that he may have had a wife and child, there is no definite historical proof of this.
Bellamy traveled to
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
around 1715, allegedly to seek some of his relatives there. According to an abundance of local lore on the subject, it is believed that he took up an affair with a local beauty,
Goody Hallett
Goody, Goodies, or Goody's may refer to:
Brands
* Goody (brand), a brand of hair styling products owned by ACON Investments, LLC.
* Goody's Powder, a pain reliever sold primarily in the southern United States
* Goody's (restaurant), a fast food ...
— the "Witch of
Wellfleet".
Professor
Elizabeth Reynard
Elizabeth Reynard (1897–1962) was an English professor at Barnard College. She served in the military, helping to establish the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and was the first woman to be appointed lieutenant in the Unite ...
, in her 1934 book, ''The Narrow Land'', gave her the name "Maria", and though there is no evidence of her bearing that name, it has nevertheless become a popular name for her. Other modern authors have called her "Mariah" and "Mary". Her age and marital status remains a subject of much debate. Some stories depict her as a young lady between 16 and 25, while others depict her as a very old woman. In some stories, her parents liked him, but did not think a poor self-confident sailor was husband material;
circumstantial evidence indicates that she may have already been married, confirming some stories that it was Bellamy's intent to seek his fortune and then return, not to marry her, but to take her away.
![Pirate_Flag_of_Samuel_Bellamy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Pirate_Flag_of_Samuel_Bellamy.svg)
For whatever reason, he left Cape Cod in early 1716 with a group of men to seek the vast treasures on the Florida coast from the Spanish wreck of the
1715 Treasure Fleet
The 1715 Treasure Fleet was actually a combination of two Spanish treasure fleets returning from the New World to Spain, the "Nueva España Fleet", under Capt.-General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, and the "Tierra Firme Fleet", under Don Antonio de ...
. Wealthy jeweler
Palgraves Williams (also recorded as Palsgrave, Paulgrave, Paulgraves, Paulsgrave and Paul),
son of Rhode Island Attorney General John Williams, joined Bellamy and funded their expedition. After Bellamy left the Cape, Hallett was found to be pregnant by Bellamy. It is said that she gave birth to a son and hid the child in a barn for warmth while she foraged for food; and when she returned she found that the child had choked to death on the straw. Some legends say that it was the barn of the notable Knowles family; others claim it to be that of Justice Joseph Doane who had banished her. In either case, she was arrested for the child's murder and imprisoned in the
Old Jail
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
* Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...
of
Barnstable, Massachusetts
The Town of Barnstable ( ) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipaliti ...
(the oldest wooden jail house in the United States; said to be haunted by her). Her sentence was relatively short, but she was exiled from the town. Even after that, she still waited for him in
Eastham.
Career
The treasure hunters apparently met with little success, as they soon turned to piracy in the crew of pirate captain
Benjamin Hornigold
Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bah ...
, who commanded the ''Marianne'' with his first mate, the soon to become famous
Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.
In the summer of 1716, the crew became irritated by Hornigold's unwillingness to attack ships of England, his home country. By a majority vote of the crew, Hornigold was deposed as captain of the ''Marianne'' and left the vessel with his loyal followers, including Teach. The remaining 90-man crew then elected Bellamy as captain.
Upon capturing a second ship, the ''Sultana,'' it was made into a
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
, and with approval of the crew, Bellamy took it as his own and assigned his friend Palsgrave Williams as commander of the ''Marianne''.
They sailed briefly alongside
Olivier Levasseur, who left early in 1717 to raid South America. However, Bellamy's greatest capture was to come in the spring of 1717, when he spotted the ''
Whydah Gally
''Whydah Gally'' (commonly known simply as the ''Whydah'') was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of her maiden voyage of the triangle trade, ''Whydah Gally'' was captu ...
'' (pronounced ) sailing through the
Windward Passage
The Windward Passage (french: Passage au Vent; es, Paso de los Vientos) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. ...
between
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
and
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
.
Built in England in 1715 as a state-of-the-art, 300-ton, English slave ship with 18 guns (cannons), and with speeds of up to , the ''Whydah'' was on its maiden voyage in 1716 and had just finished the second (Africa to Caribbean) leg of the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, loaded with a fortune in gold,
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
,
Jesuit's bark
Jesuit's bark, also known as cinchona bark, Peruvian bark or China bark, is a former remedy for malaria, as the bark contains quinine used to treat the disease. The bark of several species of the genus ''Cinchona'', family Rubiaceae indigenous ...
,
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
and other precious trade goods from the sale of 312 slaves.
Bellamy chased the ''Whydah'' for three days before getting close enough to fire. After a single shot, Captain
Lawrence Prince
Laurens Prins, anglicized as Lawrence Prince,Marley, David. ''Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1998. (pp. 151, 158, 172) (c. 1630s, Amsterdam – ...
surrendered the ''Whydah'' by lowering its flag. True to his reputation for generosity, Bellamy rewarded Prince's lack of resistance by trading the ''Sultana'' for the ''Whydah''.
Removing the captain's quarters and upgrading the ship to 28 guns, Bellamy turned his new flagship northwards along the eastern coast of
the Carolinas
The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
Combining Nort ...
and on to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
.
Captain Charles Johnson
Captain Charles Johnson was the British author of the 1724 book ''A General History of the Pyrates, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates'', whose identity remains a mystery. No record exists of a captain b ...
(possibly a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
) wrote what became the first standard historical text on pirates, ''
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates''. That source relates the story of the ''Whydah'' overtaking a
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
commanded by Captain Beer. Bellamy had wanted to let the captain keep his ship, but his crew had just voted to burn it, and the captain of the merchant vessel had just declined an invitation to join the pirates. Bellamy is attributed with making this now-famous speech:
![Whydah-gold](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Whydah-gold.jpg)
Johnson attributes these speeches to "Captain Bellamy" without naming Samuel Bellamy specifically; other writers like Philip Gosse attribute the speeches to
Charles Bellamy, a separate pirate unrelated to Samuel Bellamy.
They operated at the same time in the same areas and their exploits are often conflated.
Reputation
Captain Samuel Bellamy, now known as Black Bellamy, was well known to his contemporaries and chroniclers as a distinctive figure, a tall, strong, well-mannered and very tidy man. He liked expensive clothes, especially black coats. His favorite weapons were four
duelling pistol
A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead ball. Not all fin ...
s that he always carried in his sash:
As captain, his leadership style was almost democratic. His crew was very fond of him, sometimes even referring to him as "Robin Hood of the Sea" and themselves as "Robin Hood's Men".
Captain Bellamy was also a good tactician. Usually, he had two ships under his control. His flagship was powerful with many cannons and the second one was light but fast, which made a good balance. With coordinated attacks, they managed to capture ships easily without harming them.
Death
Just two months after acquiring the ''Whydah'', as she and the ''Marianne'' approached Cape Cod, Williams told Bellamy that he wished to visit his family in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, and the two agreed to meet up again near
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
. Bellamy and the ''Whydah'' captured several other small vessels in the area, including the ''Anne Galley'', to which he appointed his quartermaster
Richard Noland
Richard Noland ( fl. 1717-1724, last name occasionally Holland or Nowland) was an Irish pirate active in the Caribbean. He was best known for sailing with Samuel Bellamy before working for the Spanish.
History
Elected captain of Benjamin Horni ...
as captain.
If Bellamy intended to revisit his lover Maria Hallett, he failed.
The ''Whydah'' was swept up in a violent
nor'easter
A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...
storm off
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
at midnight, on 26 April 1717, and was driven onto the sand bar shoals in of water some from the coast of what is now
Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Wellfleet is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, and is located halfway between the "tip" and "elbow" of Cape Cod. The town had a population of 3,566 at the 2020 United S ...
. At 15 minutes past midnight, the masts snapped and drew the heavily loaded ship into 30 feet of water, where she capsized and quickly sank, taking Bellamy and all but two of the ''Whydah's'' 146-man crew with her.
104 bodies were known to have washed ashore and were buried by the town coroner, leaving 42 bodies unaccounted for. The ''Mary Anne'' was also wrecked that night several miles south of the ''Whydah'', leaving seven more survivors. All nine survivors from the two ships were captured and prosecuted for piracy in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and six were convicted on 22 October 1717 and hanged on 15 November 1717. (
King George's pardon of all pirates, issued on 5 September, supposedly arrived in Boston three weeks too late). Two were set free, the court believing their testimony that they had been forced into piracy. The last, a 16-year-old
Miskito Indian from Central America,
John Julian
John Julian (March 26, 1733) was a mixed-blood pirate who operated in the New World, as the pilot of the ship '' Whydah''.
Julian joined pirate Samuel Bellamy, and became the pilot of Bellamy's '' Whydah'' when he was probably only 16 years of ag ...
, was believed to have been sold into slavery to
John Quincy
Colonel John Quincy (July 21, 1689 – July 13, 1767) was an American soldier, politician and member of the Quincy political family. His granddaughter Abigail Adams named her son, the future president John Quincy Adams, after him. Two days aft ...
, the great-grandfather of U.S. President
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
.
Williams waited for Bellamy to rendezvous; when Bellamy never appeared, Williams realized what had happened, and sailed south to
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
in the ''Marianne''. Noland also searched for Bellamy off
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
; failing to find him, he took the ''Anne Galley'' south, raiding ships along the way before accepting a pardon in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
.
Legacy
![Whydah-bell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Whydah-bell.jpg)
In July 1984, Bellamy became famous again when the discovery of the wreckage of his flagship ''Whydah'' was announced, and would soon become the first authenticated pirate shipwreck ever discovered in North America. At the time of its sinking, the ''Whydah'' was the largest pirate prize ever captured, and the treasure in its hold amassed roughly 4.5 to 5 tons, including huge quantities of
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
,
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
,
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
, and 20,000 to 30,000
pounds sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO 4217, ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of #Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, its associated territori ...
, divided into 180 sacks of each.
The discovery of the wreck was made in 1982 by a diving crew led and funded by underwater explorer
Barry Clifford
Barry Clifford (born May 30, 1945) is an American underwater archaeological explorer, best known for discovering the remains of Samuel Bellamy's wrecked pirate ship ''Whydah'' ronounced ''wih-duh'' the only fully verified and authenticated pirat ...
.
The vessel was under just of water and of sand.
In 1985, Clifford recovered the ship's bell, upon which were the words "THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716", the first incontrovertible evidence of his find. He subsequently founded The Whydah Pirate Museum on MacMillan Wharf in
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
, dedicated to Bellamy and the ''Whydah''. It houses many artifacts which were brought from the actual wreck, including a cannon found to be stuffed with precious stones, gold and artifacts. A portion of the some 200,000 artifacts so far recovered are currently on a six-year tour around the United States under the sponsorship of the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...
. From May 2017 through 30 July 2017, it was at the Portland Science Center in Portland, Maine.
Suspected remains of Bellamy were found near the wreck of his ship, in February 2018. The bones were near a pistol identified as his, and DNA tests were carried out with a living relative to confirm. In May 2018, tests confirmed that the bones were of an Eastern European man, though not Bellamy.
In February 2021, Clifford announced six more pirates' bones were discovered in concretements of debris, and will be tested for DNA matches once they are extracted.
In popular culture
* In the manga ''
One Piece
''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chapte ...
'', the pirate character
Bellamy the Hyena is named after Samuel Bellamy.
* He appears in Assassin's Creed: Pirates as one of the most notorious and colorful pirates of the era.
* The ''
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
'' docudrama series ''
The Lost Pirate Kingdom'' features his pirate career prominently, though with some historical inaccuracies.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
The Way of the Pirates, "Famous Pirate: Samuel Bellamy, The Romantic Pirate"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Samuel
1689 births
1716 crimes
1717 crimes
1717 deaths
17th-century English people
18th-century English people
18th-century pirates
Criminals from Devon
Deaths due to shipwreck at sea
British pirates
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
Maritime folklore
Military personnel from Devon