Charles Vane

Serving under Henry Jennings

Charles Vane's history is not well documented, but he most likely started his career aboard one of Lord Archibald Hamilton's privateers.^[2] He arrived in Port Royal sometime during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). In 1716, he began serving under the infamous pirate Henry Jennings. In late July 1715, a Spanish treasure fleet was hit by a hurricane off the coast of Florida, dumping tons of Spanish gold and silver not far from shore. The surviving Spanish sailors salvaged what they could while pirates made a beeline for the wreck site. Jennings (with Vane on board) was one of the first to reach the site, and his buccaneers raided the Spanish camp on shore, making off with some £87,000 in recovered gold and silver.

Vane's reign of terror

Vane was infamous for his cruelty toward the crews of captured vessels. After his first act as a pirate, he was reported to the governor of Bermuda for torturing men on rival vessels while on a salvage mission.^[3] He also showed scant respect for the pirate code, cheating his own crews out of their fair share of plunder and killing surrendered sailors after promising them quarter. By April 1718, Vane had a handful of small ships and was ready for action; in that month, he captured twelve merchant ships. Vane and his men treated the sailors and merchants cruelly, in spite of the fact that they had surrendered rather than fight. One sailor was bound hand and foot and tied to the top of the bowsprit and the pirates threatened to shoot him if he did not tell where the treasure was located on board. Fear of Vane drove commerce to a halt in the area.

The King's pardon

In 1718, King George I of England sent Cpt. Woodes Rogers with a royal pardon of blanket clemency for all pirates who wished to return to an honest life, provided that they turned themselves in by September 1718. Rogers also commanded four Royal Navy warships to clean up those pirates who refused to surrender.

Vane improved the quality of his ships by capturing first a Barbados sloop and then a large 12-gun brigantine, each of which he named the Ranger. Soon Vane was cornered by Vincent Pearse, commander of the royal frigate HMS Phoenix which arrived in Nassau on February 23, 1718. Word had spread of the royal pardon offered to pirates in exchange for a guarantee that they would quit plundering, so Vane claimed that he'd actually been en route to surrender to Pearse and accepted the pardon on the spot, gaining his freedom though losing his captured ship, the Lark. As soon as he was free of Pearse, however, he ignored the pardon and resumed his depredations.^[1]

Within a couple of weeks, Vane and several of his hardened companions were ready once again to take to piracy. He recruited forty of Nassau's unrepentant pirates, including seasoned buccaneer Edward England and "Calico Jack" Rackham, who also became a notorious pirate captain.

Vane knew that Woodes Rogers, the new governor, would be arriving soon. Vane decided that his position in Nassau was too weak, so he set out to capture a proper pirate ship. He took a 20-gun French ship and made it his flagship. In June and July 1718, he seized many more small merchant vessels, more than enough to keep his men happy. Vane triumphantly re-entered Nassau, essentially taking over the town. He controlled the Nassau harbor and the small fort, which flew a pirate flag from its flagpole.

Vane's escape and Blackbeard

In August 1718, Governor Woodes Rogers arrived in Nassau with two men-of-war full of troops to oversee the pardon and, more importantly for Vane, to capture those who violated it. Most pirates accepted the enforced pardon, including Jennings. Vane, however, scoffed at the notion of retirement from piracy. He resisted it and any who attempted to honestly reform and soon became the leader of those who refused the pardon. Vane and a handful of other pirates outfitted the sloop Lark for service as a pirate vessel. Vane had recently plundered a French prize and wasn't about to turn over his rich spoils for a free pass from the gallows. He made an impression by firing on the Royal Navy immediately, and sent a letter to Rogers demanding to be allowed to dispose of his plundered goods before accepting the King's pardon.

As night fell, Vane knew that his situation was impossible. He loaded the plundered ship with explosives, set her on fire, and set it drifting straight at the newly arrived English vessels. The powder magazines ignited and cannon burst as the fire ship's explosion rocked the bay. In their hasty attempt to avoid the floating fireball, the Navy ships were able to cut their anchor lines and get away, but Vane and his men escaped in his fast six-gun sloop, defiantly firing at the governor as he passed and threatening to return. He evaded the few Royal Navy vessels in the area and sailed north.

Vane continued practising piracy on the open seas, amassing a large crew and three ships. He was so successful, in fact, that Governor Rogers decided to send out Colonel William Rhett to hunt Vane down. Meanwhile, Vane had given command of one of his ships to a fellow pirate by the name of Yeats, and the two pillaged and looted vessels that were entering and leaving the port at Charleston, looking to emulate Blackbeard's success.^[4] However, Vane created division among his crew by refusing to capture several promising vessels, leading Yeats to abscond in the night with a large portion of treasure and one of the captured brigs.^[5] Vane continued pirating and had some success but still dreamed of the days when Nassau was under pirate control. He headed to North Carolina to meet up with Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, and the two pirate crews socialized for a week in October 1718 on the shores of Ocracoke Island. Vane hoped to convince his old friend to join in an attack on Nassau, but Blackbeard declined, having too much to lose.

Deposed

Vane then turned north toward New York. On November 23, he ordered an attack on a frigate which turned out to be a French Navy warship. Out-gunned, Vane broke off the fight and fled. His men, led by the reckless Calico Jack Rackham, had wanted to stay and fight and take the French ship. The next day, the crew deposed Vane as captain, electing Rackham instead. Vane and fifteen others were given a small sloop, and the two pirate crews went their separate ways. Sailing south again, he set about clawing his way back up the pirate ranks by seizing ever larger ships.