John King (c. 1706/09 – April 26, 1717) was an 18th-century

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. He joined the crew of Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy while still a juvenile, and may have been the youngest known pirate on record. On November 9, 1716, Bellamy and his crew, sailing the

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 ...

''Mary Anne'' (or ''Marianne''), attacked and captured the

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

n sloop ''Bonetta'', which was then en route from Antigua to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. John King, then aged between eight and eleven, was a passenger on the ''Bonetta''. According to Abijah Savage, the ''Bonetta''s commander, the pirates looted the ship for 15 days, during which time King demanded to join Bellamy's crew. "(F)ar from being forced or compelled (to join)," Savage wrote in his report, "he declared he would kill himself if he was restrained, and even threatened his mother, who was then on board as a passenger and his father who did not like him." While teenage pirates were common in the 18th century, and though 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 ...

employed young boys as "

powder monkey A powder boy or powder monkey manned naval artillery guns as a member of a warship's crew, primarily during the Age of Sail. His chief role was to ferry gunpowder from the powder magazine in the ship's hold to the artillery pieces, either in ...

s" to carry gunpowder from ship's magazine to their

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s, boys of King's age were unknown as pirates. However, after an initial show of defiance, Bellamy allowed King to join him. In the subsequent months, Bellamy and his crew would capture and loot many ships, including the '' Whydah'' in February 1717, a heavily armed slave

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 ...

which Bellamy claimed for his flagship. On April 26, 1717, the ''Whydah'' was wrecked in a storm off the coast of

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 ...

, killing Bellamy and most of his crew, including King. King's remains were tentatively identified in 2006, when

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 ...

, principal of Expedition Whydah Sea Lab & Learning Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Project Historian

Ken Kinkor Kenneth J. Kinkor (January 26, 1954 – June 7, 2013) was an American pirate historian. Kinkor graduated from Loras College, Iowa, in 1976, majoring in history and political science, and pursued post-graduate studies in Iowa and Illinois. He move ...

had partial human remains recovered from the wreck analyzed by researchers at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and Center for Historical Archaeology in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The remains, consisting of an 11-inch

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

encased in a shoe and silk stocking, were determined not to belong to a small man, as originally thought, but to a young boy of King's approximate age.

References

Sources

Michael Levinson, "Remains are identified as boy pirate" Boston Globe, June 2, 2006Thomas H. Maugh II, "Whydah's littlest pirate found" Baltimore Sun, June 1, 2006The Strange and Brief Life of a Young Pirate National Public Radio
*Nelson, Laura "John King - The Boy Pirate" in Pirates and Privateers http://www.cindyvallar.com/JohnKing.html {{DEFAULTSORT:King, John (pirate) 1700s births 1717 deaths Year of birth uncertain 18th-century pirates

See also

References

Sources