A Pirate's Life For
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Institution of Archaeology and Ancient History A pirate’s life for me! A comparative study of the Queen Anne’s Revenge and the Quedagh Merchant shipwrecks Amanda Oxonius BA thesis 15 credits in Archaeology Spring 2019 Supervisor: Paul Wallin Campus Gotland Abstract Oxonius, A. 2019 A Pirate’s Life For Me. A Comparative Study of the Queen Anne’s Revenge And the Quedagh Merchant Shipwrecks Oxonius, A. 2019 Ett Sjörövarliv För Mig. En Jämförande Studie Mellan Skeppsvraken Queen Anne’s Revenge Och Quedagh Merchant Dagens syn på pirater har länge blivit influerad av olika medier. Allt från böcker och filmer har kontinuerligt påverkat allmänhetens syn på en viktig del av marinhistoria och på så sätt har den perioden av historien blivit näst intill översedd av forskare. Inte förrän bara några år sedan blev arkeologin kring pirater en etablerad gren inom vetenskapen (Skowronek & Ewen 2006:1–2) och i och med det har praktiken vuxit. Men vad går det egentligen att säga är sant om piraterna? Har alla medier förmedlat en viss sanning eller är allt påhitt? Denna uppsats kommer diskutera kring fenomenet som är pirater och sjöröveri och jämföra dessa legendariska berättelser med det arkeologiska materialet som funnits som kan länkas till legenderna om de mytomspunna piraterna. Denna studie kommer utgå ifrån två framträdande skeppsvrak, Queen Anne’s Revenge och Quedagh Merchant, som hittats i det västindiska havet samt artefakterna som framkom i samband med vraken. Med utgångspunkt i detta material, ska en diskussion föras kring möjliga sanningar till legenderna samt deras skepp. The image of pirates today has long been influenced by different media. From books to movies have all continually affected the public’s view on an important part of maritime history and such has that period of history been close to neglected by scientists. It was not until a few years ago that archaeology of piracy became an established part of the science (Skowronek & Ewen 2006:1-2) and with that has the practice grown. But what can one say is actually true about pirates? Have all media arbitrated a certain truth or is everything made up? This thesis will discuss the phenomena that is pirates and piracy and compare the legendary tales with the archaeological material found which can be linked to the legend of the nefarious pirates. This study will emanate from two protruding shipwrecks, Queen Anne’s Revenge and Quedagh Merchant, which has been found in the West-Indies as well as the artefacts that emerged with the wrecks. A discussion will be done based on the materials to see possible truths to the legends and the ships. Keywords: Pirates, piracy, shipwreck, maritime archaeology, archaeology of piracy, Blackbeard, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Captain Kidd, Quedagh Merchant Bachelors thesis of Archaeology 15 hp Supervisor: Paul Wallin Ventilated and approved: 2019-06-20. © Amanda Oxonius Institution of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, Cramérgatan 3, 621 67 Visby, Sweden “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted” Assassin’s Creed franchise Acknowledgement I want to thank my supervisor Paul Wallin for his guiding for this paper. A special thank you to my best friend Cajsa-Stina Andersson for your constant support, aid and to always lend a helping hand. Christoffer Cornelsen for always lending his eyes and comments. And last but not least, my mother Petra Oxonius who always was willing to read and comment and give helpful suggestions. All who have helped and supported me and pushed me to give going, thank you. 2 Index 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Purpose and questions .......................................................................................... 2 1.2. Methods and theory.............................................................................................. 2 1.3. Restrictions .......................................................................................................... 3 2. Background ................................................................................................................. 4 2.1. What is archaeology of piracy ............................................................................. 4 2.1.1. Pirate ............................................................................................................. 4 2.1.2. Privateer ........................................................................................................ 4 2.1.3. Buccaneer/corsair ......................................................................................... 4 2.2. Setting the sails toward archaeology of piracy .................................................... 5 2.3. Defining maritime archaeology ........................................................................... 7 2.4. Recognizing piracy-related excavation sites ........................................................ 7 2.4.1. Staging locations........................................................................................... 8 2.4.2. Ships ............................................................................................................. 8 2.4.2.1. Pirate shipwrecks ..................................................................................... 9 2.4.3. Victims and smuggling ................................................................................. 9 3. Case study 1: ............................................................................................................. 10 3.1. The legend of Captain Blackbeard ..................................................................... 10 3.2. The QAR (Queen Anne’s Revenge)-project ....................................................... 10 3.3. The archaeological material ............................................................................... 11 3.4. Summary of artefacts and the shipwreck ........................................................... 12 3.5. Discussion .......................................................................................................... 14 4. Case study 2: ............................................................................................................. 16 4.1. The legend of Captain William Kidd ..................................................................... 16 4.2. The lost wreck of Quedagh Merchant ............................................................... 16 4.2.1. The ferrous artefacts ................................................................................... 17 4.2.2. The vessels origin ....................................................................................... 18 4.2.2.1. Wood Sample Analysis ......................................................................... 18 4.2.2.2. Ballast Stone Analysis ........................................................................... 18 4.2.2.3. Hull Construction .................................................................................. 18 4.3. Discussion .......................................................................................................... 18 3 5. Conclusions and assessment of questions ................................................................. 20 6. Summary ................................................................................................................... 23 7. Future research .......................................................................................................... 24 8. Sources ...................................................................................................................... 25 4 1. Introduction Pirates have existed since men first took to the sea for trading. One of the pirates' earliest strongholds was in the Hormuz Strait at the opening of the Persian Gulf, which ships carrying gold, silver, silk, spices, copper and teak to and from the Middle East and India were forced to sail through (Cawthorne 2003:7). When ancient Greece flourished, pirates hid among the islands of the Aegean, and their deeds were written down by Thucydides and Herodotus. Alexander the Great tried to wipe out the Mediterranean piracy in 330 BC, but it was still strong during the Roman Empire's peak two hundred years later. During 694 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib tried to destroy pirates and the Roman Emperor Trajan tried the same during the first century BC, followed by another attempt by King Shapur of Persia during the fourth century BC. At the same time, in the Mediterranean, early pirates chased after Phoenician merchant ships who transported silver, amber, tin and copper from merchants in Sidon and Tyre (Cawthorne 2003: 8). Under the reign of James, I of England (1603-1625), Europe experienced a period of peace beyond the 30-year war. Monarchs reduced the nations own navy, which meant that privateers who went to sea 'on their own', in other words pirates, had a very small chance of being caught. Thanks to the number of unemployed seamen, pirates increased in number. They worked in ports around Morocco's coast to the Atlantic, threatened shipping in the Gibraltar Strait, and from Bantry Bay they attacked the shipment in the English Channel. However, during 1614- 15, the Dutch and English succeeded in pushing out pirates across the Atlantic, where pirates became inseparable from colonial war and slave trade. At this time, British, Dutch and French settled to establish colonies in the Caribbean. Colonialists only grew with prisoners from the English