True Caribbean Pirates

True Caribbean Pirates is a documentary which aired on The History Channel in 2006.

The documentary tells about pirates of the Caribbean such as Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, Anne Bonny and Black Bart Roberts. Larger than life, more dangerous than legend - pirates and buccaneers set sail for plunder. True Caribbean Pirates recreates the rise of piracy in the Caribbean and its climactic, inevitable downfall.

Show history

True Caribbean Pirates captures the events and tales of piracy that were said to take place in the Caribbean during the time when Christopher Columbus made his landing in the West Indies during 1492. Within this time, the land of the Caribbean had attracted the attention of many but was dominated by Spain; as they mined plenty of riches and gold out of the region. This drew attention to the land and disruptions arose- creating chaos in the new world. Regions such as Holland, England and France all began to send privateers into the land so they could to- establish a presence.^[1]

Characters

In the days of pirates and treasures, privateering was used to fight battles and disrupt the Spanish without having to pay for real navy within the Caribbean. Privateers were known to disrupt commerce and take part in the disruption of the enemies warships to protect trade against raiders.

Sir Henry Morgan- played by Lance J.Holt was one of the most famous privateers to cross the Caribbean land was known for his ruthless acts against Spanish colonies and was successful through his ways to bring down them down through his brutal acts. The privateer turned pirate was most notorious for his two most famous attacks on Porto Bello and Panama. Porto Bello was targeted by Morgan due to it being the third most relevant Spanish city in regards to its saturation of warehouses that stored the riches discovered by Spanish colonies. Morgan and his men then went to capture Panama where they were much more capable of destruction compared to the opposing Spanish attackers. Sir Henry Morgan died unlike many other pirates- dying from what may have been tuberculosis and was buried Palisades cemetery.^[2]

Blackbeard, who is played by Patrick Lander- earned his stripes by attacking Spanish ships during the Spanish Succession and to withhold the stolen goods which transformed him into an experienced sea robber, allowing him to join a group of Caribbean Pirates. Many stories have been retold time and time again about Blackbeard’s capturing ships with hostages and bribing them with their lives in turn for favors to benefit his conquests. The fearful pirate was finally taken down by an opposing ship during a vigorous battle and was then decapitated as a reward for the opposing pirates.^[3]

Calico Jack- a pirate played by David Joseph Boyd was a pirate who conducted his operations in the Bahamas and Cuba was not as successful in his missions as the former two pirates mentioned and was mostly known for his relations with the two female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who served under his command. This pirate’s most successful prize- Kingston did not remain long in his power and therefore had left the pirate with little to be proud of. Jack’s legacy would not have been much had it not been for Bonny and Read. He was brought to his death after him and his crew were captured in Jamaica, tried and hung on November 28, 1720.^[4]

The stories of these pirates have been retold in this documentary as it separates the truth from the tales; truly depicting the true story of Piracy’s Golden Age.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to True Caribbean Pirates.

• Official History Channel True Caribbean Pirates website