The UNRELIABLE LEGEND of the BATCHELORS

DELIGHT By Ben Kennedy ’05 ^ Illustration by Laszlo Kubinyi n 1691, the Rev. James Blair was sent The real story began when the Revenge left Virginia. In November back to . If he and the other 1683, the pirates sailed their decaying ship into the Sierra Leone River colonial leaders wanted to secure in West Africa. They found exactly what they were looking for. A enough funding to build a college in Vir - newer, better-built ship with a Danish crew was anchored there, near ginia, Blair was going to have to talk to what would later become Freetown, Sierra Leone. One version of the the king and queen, and possibly some story claims Dampier challenged the Danes to a high-stakes card game I less savory characters as well. Little did with the ship as a wager — and won. Another version indicates that he know how unsavory those charac - the crew stole the other ship and traded the larger Revenge for the ters would be — or how important a Danes’ cargo of female African slaves. The crew boarded the formerly contribution from seafaring scoundrels would become. Danish ship and christened it the Batchelors Delight — having taken at A few years earlier, pirate captain was determined to go least some of the slaves as consorts. back to . Having just been hired to lead a small ship of aspiring The more experienced pirates among them knew that the in 1682, he knew the key to a successful voyage was an expe - Caribbean was crawling with Spanish military patrols, making it a less- rienced doctor. Cook traveled to Panama in search of an old colleague, than-profitable choice. Instead, the Batchelors Delight sailed west the surgeon , who had been abandoned there by his last across the Atlantic, rounded the treacherous — most of the captain. Wafer’s leg had been badly burned in a gunpowder accident slaves died of hypothermia in the process — and arrived at the west and he had disappeared amongst the native Cunacuna for months. coast of . Sea trading routes existed between the When Cook arrived in Panama, he came across a white man coastal towns at the foot of the Andes, as the mountainous terrain dressed just as the Cunacuna were. He did not immediately recognize made road-building too difficult. that man as Wafer, whose wound had been entirely healed by the Indi - The Spanish felt Cape Horn was enough of a deterrent to pirates, so ans’ herbal medicine. Armed with that additional expertise, Wafer and ships carrying precious metals from the South American interior trav - his companion John Hingson decided to join Cook’s new ship — the eled up and down the coast with little protection. Batchelors Delight plied seaworthy but unremarkable Revenge — and continue recruiting their the west coast of the Americas from Chile to California, raiding when former cohorts along the Atlantic coast. As privateers, they were they could and hiding amongst the numerous coastal islands. Dampier licensed by the English government to attack enemy ships in wartime, in particular made extensive notes of the Galápagos Islands wildlife that but commonly, they were known as pirates. would find valuable a century and a half later. What likely drove these men to in the first place? “In a word, poverty,” says Kris Lane, professor of history at William and Mary. DISASTER AND DEBAUCHERY Many famous pirates sought refuge in Virginia during the late 17th Unfortunately, not all of the ship’s voyages were unaccompanied. A century because the numerous ships and increasing commercial activ - coordinated attack on a Spanish convoy went sour; allied ity in Chesapeake Bay made blending in easy — yet countless unset - French privateers did not support Batchelors Delight and the ship took tled inlets and islands made for plenty of secret refuge as well, he says. heavy damage before being chased west by the Spanish government. In Hampton, Va., the Revenge picked up and Millar believes the crew became the first Westerners to see the east , who had traveled with Cook and Wafer on previous coast of while in retreat. adventures. Dampier, who would one day serve as inspiration for both By now, Cook had died, leaving the ship without a leader. Edward Davis and Gulliver’s Travels , was an experienced sailor, writer was elected captain and was said to be one of the few leaders to keep a and reluctant pirate who was hiding in Hampton from the unfriendly crew together for more than four years. Davis sailed the Batchelors Delight Caribbean authorities. He and the capable Davis joined the Revenge crew back to South America and resumed raiding its coastal towns. Towns of around 70 men and sailed east across the Atlantic in August 1683.

UNSCRUPULOUS ACTIVITIES The stories of these are, as one might expect, less than fully truthful. Books written by pirates have always been embellished by their own quests for personal glory, and conflicting reports — and spellings — abound. The tale of Cook, Wafer, Dampier and Davis is outlined to varying degrees in Lane’s book Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750 and in many other publications, such as J.R. Morpurgo’s Their Majesties’ Royall Colledge and Dampier’s A New Voy - age Around the World . The pirates’ personal writings and contempo - rary, sometimes official correspondence all provide different perspec - tives on what actually happened. John Fitzhugh Millar M.A. ’81, a historian and colonial maritime enthusiast, has made it a particular mission to consolidate the finer points of a story that brushes so much history, but that so few are familiar with. “I wanted to nail down all the details so that people couldn’t dismiss it that easily,” he says. “If it has legs in so many different places, it’s def - initely a real story.”

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