01x08 - The Tale of Bart Roberts

[bunniefuu]

[Narrator] This is the tale

of Bartholomew Roberts,

the improbable pirate king.

Captured at sea and forced

into a life of crime,

he swiftly embraces

outlaw life,

transforming from regular

sailor to a pirate captain.

[Historian] From Africa

to the Americas and back again,

he doesn't settle in one base.

He seems to exemplify this idea

that pirates are "of the sea."

[Narrator] In an epic

three-year spree,

he plundered 400 ships

and assembled one

of the fiercest pirate fleets

the world had ever seen.

[Author] Bartholomew Roberts

might be the most successful

pirate in history.

[Narrator]

For a few bloody years,

Bartholomew Roberts

reigned supreme,

but these were the dying days

of the Golden Age of Piracy.

♪

[birds twittering]

[Richard Blakemore] Roberts

is from a small Welsh village

called Casnewydd Bach

near Abergwaun in Pembrokeshire.

And he's born

into a seafaring family

and probably goes to sea early,

as many people

from that region did.

[Iszi Lawrence]

He was in the merchant navy.

It was hard work.

You were barely paid,

and if you were paid,

it wasn't very much at all.

[Narrator] The young Roberts

grew accustomed to hard labor,

low wages,

and grisly conditions.

Roberts is now third mate

aboard the Princess,

an English sl*ve ship.

♪

Several ships are

spotted on the horizon.

Are they fellow

merchant vessels?

Or pirates seeking

their next prize?

The Princess

is only lightly armed,

no match for

battle-tested outlaws.

A flag is identified.

The pirates are coming.

[Lawrence] Fleeing is

probably not an option.

Those ships are probably

much faster in the water

and more maneuverable because

they'll be smaller boats,

and they do not want to fight.

Fighting is incredibly

dangerous at sea.

There's no guarantee

that you will survive it.

So, the captain

of the Princess surrenders,

and at this point,

he is at the mercy

of the captain

of these two pirate vessels.

[Narrator] The captain

of the pirate fleet

steps aboard the Princess

and announces himself

as the famed outlaw

Howell Davis.

He seeks men to join his crew.

More than 30

willingly volunteer,

but not Roberts.

He wants no part of piracy, but

he's forced aboard their ship.

[Lawrence] It's unlikely

he did this willingly.

I mean, to join a pirate crew,

you're basically saying

that if anybody catches us,

which is very likely, we are

going to be hanged as criminals.

And in order to join

a pirate crew,

you're basically agreeing

to be a criminal.

You're throwing your life away.

You're gonna risk everything.

And for what?

For your own monetary greed.

It's not seen

as a noble thing to do.

[Charles Ewen] We've really

romanticized the pirate life,

but I think the average pirate

had a miserable life.

A lot of folks

that went into piracy

were either pressed into piracy

when their ships were captured,

some went voluntarily,

but I think most people

that did piracy

didn't have much other choice.

[Narrator] The pirates know a

good sailor when they see one.

Roberts holds years

of seafaring experience

and a sturdy reputation

as a fine navigator.

Although reluctant,

the Welshman soon warms

to his captors.

Piracy may not be

as cruel a life

as he had initially assumed.

[Lawrence] Now, although

he was forced to board,

Roberts was actually

very popular.

It was clear that he was very

good at chatting to people,

at getting along with them,

and Howell Davis, the captain,

really liked him because

they both spoke Welsh.

Howell could confide

with Roberts

without any difficulty at all

because they spoke a language

none of the other people

in the crew spoke.

[Narrator] This shared language

forms the foundation

of a dangerous friendship.

Roberts concedes.

He's a pirate now.

Dropping his common name, John,

he adopts a suitable alias.

The moniker

Bartholomew Roberts

will soon send a shiver of fear

through seafaring men

the world over.

[Lawrence] Already, Roberts

has changed his name.

He's no longer John Roberts.

He is Bartholomew Roberts.

Giving yourself an alias means

it might be easier to slip away

and escape persecution,

so lots of pirates

change their names.

♪

[Narrator] And now

Bartholomew Roberts gains

his first taste

of pirate action.

Howell Davis plots an as*ault

on the Portuguese island

of Príncipe,

off the west coast

of equatorial Africa.

His goal--kidnap the governor

and hold him to ransom.

But rather than risk

a frontal as*ault

on the fortified settlement,

Howell opts

for a shrewder approach.

[Blakemore] To enter a port,

you have to use a ruse

to show that you're

a friendly ship.

The normal way of doing this

is to fly a flag of a nation

friendly to the port

that you are entering.

And most ships,

even merchant ships,

would be carrying

multiple flags.

So you could fly an English flag

when you're entering

an English port

or a French flag when

you're entering a French port.

[Lawrence] At this time,

when they approach Príncipe,

which is owned

by the Portuguese,

Britain and Portugal,

they're rivals,

but they're not at w*r.

They could fly

a flag which says,

"We're not gonna hurt you.

We're not pirates,"

when all along

they actually are.

[Blakemore] There could be

some dangerous consequences

to carrying these flags

and also paperwork

in different languages.

The advantage is that you can

pretend to be, say, French

if you're attacked

by a French ship.

But if you're attacked

by an English ship

and they find French

documentation aboard,

then you could be

condemned as a prize.

Your ship could be taken away.

So it is a very dangerous

game to play,

although it seems that

most ships are playing it.

This is an international

system that is abused a lot,

not just by pirates.

But it's a really useful

technique for Roberts and Davis

to use as they're entering

the port at Príncipe.

[Narrator] With entry

to the port secured,

Davis sets his sights

on the Portuguese governor.

He sends the official an

invitation to visit his ship.

[Lawrence] But the Portuguese

aren't that foolish,

and they think those look

like pirate ships out there.

How about instead of you guys

coming over to us,

come to us first.

We'll have a bit of wine,

we'll have a bit of a sit-down,

we'll have a chat,

and then we'll go over

to your ship, no problem.

And Howell Davis falls for this.

[Narrator] Roberts stays

aboard whilst Davis,

accompanied by a clutch

of loyal pirates, goes ashore,

heading for

the governor's residence.

♪

Suddenly, the pirates

are surrounded.

It's a trap.

[shouting]

♪

♪

Minutes later,

Davis and his men are dead.

[thunder]

The pirates still have

a ship, but no captain.

They assemble for a vote.

[Ewen] One of

the interesting things

that kind of distinguishes

a pirate ship from, say,

a merchant vessel

is captains were elected,

so there was some more

equality amongst pirates

than there would have been in a

naval or even a merchant vessel.

[Lawrence] They actually

had a sort of system

where they had a House of Lords,

like you get

in the British Parliament,

and a House of Commons, like you

get in the British Parliament,

except the Lords in this point

are all the officers

aboard the ship,

and the House of Commons,

they're just

your average seamen.

[Narrator] According to stories,

they nominate candidates.

Then every crew member

casts his vote.

[Lawrence] So, one of

the officers aboard the ship

proposes Bartholomew Roberts,

a man who's only been

on board for six weeks,

to be their leader.

[Blakemore] I think it speaks

to Roberts' capability

as a navigator and perhaps also

the force of his personality

that in that short time,

he has placed himself to become

the leader of this band of men.

[Lawrence] They elected

Bartholomew Roberts,

must have that leadership

quality in him.

He must be seen as clever

enough for this entire crew

to go, "That's our man.

We want him to be leading us."

[Narrator]

But Roberts is reluctant

to accept the responsibility.

After all, he only

recently agreed

to embark

on this life of piracy.

According to legend,

he eventually

accepts the promotion,

claiming that "I have dipped

my hands in muddy water.

If a pirate I must be,

'tis better being a commander

than a common man."

This newly appointed

Captain Roberts

must now decide, will he avenge

his predecessor's death

or sail for safer waters?

[Lawrence] Roberts decides

to take his revenge.

"Let's go after them.

Let's get them back

for k*lling our captain."

[cannon fire]

[Narrator] 30 pirates

storm Príncipe.

[cannon fire]

Whilst cannons bombard

the fort from the sea,

they breach the battlements.

[shouting and fighting]

[Lawrence] Now

he has the fortress.

He's able to take whatever

he likes from the Portuguese.

[shouting]

What better way of saying,

"Yeah, you were right

to vote for me"

than delivering within a day

of being elected captain.

[Narrator] Buoyed

by his success at Príncipe,

Roberts fully embraces

his new identity

along with all of its finery.

[Blakemore] One thing

we know about Roberts

is that he's

a very stylish dresser.

He's said to have worn

a crimson waistcoat,

matching breeches,

and a plume in his hat.

[Lawrence] This boy from a

poverty stricken part of Wales,

he's got now a costume,

and he struck a really

flamboyant character.

[Blakemore] He's not hiding

himself as a pirate captain.

He's setting out

to establish a reputation.

♪

[Narrator] Lusting after

ever grander prizes,

Roberts decides to leave

West Africa for Brazil,

the sparkling jewel

in Portugal's imperial crown

and one of the largest

sl*ve colonies in the world.

Throughout the 17th century,

enslaved people had cultivated

sugar here on a massive scale.

But by the opening decades

of the 18th century,

an even more valuable commodity

had been discovered--gold.

Brazil now harbors more

of this precious metal

than can be found

anywhere else in the world.

Roberts determines

to make his fortune

in this alluring treasure

or die trying.

[Blakemore]

And he spends some time

cruising off

the coast of Brazil,

and initially

his luck is not good,

he doesn't encounter

many prizes.

And his crew, getting restless,

he's getting disappointed,

and they're just about

to set course elsewhere

when they encounter a convoy

of 42 Portuguese ships.

This is a jackpot for Roberts.

[Narrator] Roberts is near

the port of Pernambuco,

within striking distance

of a Portuguese treasure fleet

awaiting a military convoy

to escort its gold and silver

back to Lisbon.

[Lawrence] Now, obviously,

some of these ships have g*ns,

you know, he can't take

the entire fleet.

But the thing is,

he doesn't need to.

He just needs to take

the richest ship.

[Narrator] Direct as*ault

on a fleet of this size

would almost certainly

mean a miserable death.

But the crew has already

sailed 4,000 miles

with little to show

for their progress,

and Roberts needs a prize.

He raises a Portuguese flag,

orders his men

to conceal themselves,

and drifts into formation

with the Portuguese flotilla.

[Lawrence] It's very easy for

another ship to just infiltrate.

If you're not being aggressive,

why would they even notice you?

They're waiting

for another ship,

you know, you're one

of several boats.

And so he literally slips in

like he's just one

of the Portuguese ships.

[Narrator] Quietly joining

the Portuguese fleet,

Roberts sails for one

of the smaller ships.

♪

He calls out,

"Surrender or face attack!"

Confounded, the captain

quickly submits.

Dragged from his ship,

he's thrown before Roberts.

[Lawrence] This captain

is given a choice.

Either we k*ll you

where you're standing

and then attack your ship and

k*ll your crew before escaping,

or you tell us

which of these vessels

has the most amount

of treasure on board.

Now, the captain at this point

is terrified because obviously

he's heard all the stories

about how brutal pirates can be,

so he immediately points

to this boat.

It's a 40-g*n vessel

called the Sagrada Familia.

[Blakemore] This is

a substantial vessel.

It's larger probably

than Robert's own vessel,

but he's not daunted.

[Narrator] Roberts

might be outgunned,

but the element of surprise

is on his side.

If he's able to rapidly subdue

the mighty Sagrada Familia,

the surrounding ships will be

too stunned to intervene.

[Lawrence] So, Roberts

gambles everything

and decides to trust

this other captain

that the Sagrada Familia

is the ship to go for.

He's only got one shot at this.

The moment that he reveals

to the rest of the fleet

that he's a pirate ship,

they're going to be wary

and he won't get

another chance.

He's got to take

this boat by surprise,

and that's what he does.

[Narrator] Roberts' ship,

the Royal Rover,

sidles up

to the Sagrada Familia.

He calls out, inviting

the captain to come aboard.

But the captain

isn't so easily fooled.

He knows they're pirates.

Roberts orders an attack.

Several volleys of cannon fire

hammer the Portuguese ship.

Grappling hooks

scratch across its decks.

finding purchase.

Pirates begin to board.

Portuguese sailors are

cut down where they stand,

unable to beat back

this furious onslaught.

And within half an hour,

the Sagrada Familia belongs

to Bartholomew Roberts.

[Lawrence] Now,

fortunately for Roberts,

the Sagrada Familia

is easy to break away

from the rest of the fleet.

But he doesn't have time

to check the hold.

He just has to put his men

in charge and get out of there,

which is what they do.

They get as far away

from the potential warships

that they know are coming

to defend the fleet.

They get away.

They open up the hold

and see what's inside.

[Narrator] Roberts and his

pirate crew have just seized

the largest treasure galleon

in the Portuguese flotilla.

[Lawrence]

They were not let down.

Inside this ship's hold

were 40,000 silver coins.

It's more than you

could possibly earn

in like a dozen lifetimes.

This is enormous.

And as well as that,

there is exquisite jewelry.

[Blakemore] One of the jewels

that they seize

is a fabulous silver cross,

encrusted with diamonds.

And supposedly Roberts

takes this for himself

and wears it around his neck

for the rest of his life

as a trophy or a token

of this first big haul.

♪

[Narrator]

Some are eager to enjoy

their newfound fortune

in peace,

wishing to retire

from the constant hazards

of a life at sea.

But Roberts won't hear of it.

He's just getting started.

[Lawrence] Roberts knows

that they can't stop now.

You're still on the run.

You're still part of this crew.

And at this point,

Roberts doesn't want to stop.

He's enjoying this life.

This is the first time

he's had any sort of success.

[Narrator] Now with two ships

at his command,

Roberts leaves Brazilian

waters, sailing north.

His next victim is a sloop,

which he adds to his fleet.

Then as he nears

Devil's Island,

he spots another ship,

a brigantine.

These are swift

and easy to maneuver

and therefore

highly prized by pirates.

He boards his new sloop

and gives chase,

leaving most

of his crew behind.

[Lawrence] Now, he'd left a man

called Walter Kennedy in charge,

a trusted person on board.

But Walter was one of these men

who was thinking,

"Well, why go to the West Indies

and risk it anymore?

Let's keep low.

Let's stay quiet."

And while Roberts was away,

he'd managed to convince

half the crew to do just that.

They loaded half the treasure

into a smaller vessel

in with the crew who wanted

to stay with Roberts.

Honor among thieves.

And then they took the Rover and

the Sagrada Familia, and left.

[Narrator] For nine

wind-ravaged days and nights,

Roberts frantically

hunts the brigantine.

Food and water supplies

run dangerously low,

contrary winds

blow him off course.

Eventually, he relents, sailing

for the crew he left behind.

♪

[Blakemore]

When Roberts returns,

he finds that most of his

wonderful gains have disappeared

and most of his crew

and his larger ship.

So he's left with a small number

of men and a small sloop.

[Narrator] The betrayal

is a brutal blow

to the fledgling captain.

He's just lost many men,

most of his loot,

and much of his prestige.

[Ewen] You did

have to have a captain

that knew what he was doing,

that commanded

the respect of the crew.

They were elected as long

as they were good providers

and they were able

to do a competent job

of finding ships and prizes

and gathering them.

[Narrator] Roberts rallies

the remaining pirates.

It's vital that mutiny never

again threatens his command.

[Blakemore] Roberts seems

to have learned a lesson

because, from here on,

Roberts makes sure

that his men sign articles

binding them to the ship

and providing a set of rules

about how these pirates

are going to behave

while they're part of the crew.

And this is a very

interesting dimension

that has really become part of

pirate lore, the idea of codes.

[Lawrence] Roberts is

one of the few pirates

that we have the actual code

that he had written down.

And this might be a sort of

signal of how seriously Roberts

took the code more

than other pirate captains.

This wasn't something

you could just change

and chop up interchangeably

when it suited you.

Roberts believed in it.

[Blakemore] There's

a variety of rules

covering different aspects

of life aboard a ship.

One says every man shall have

a vote in affairs of moment,

which implies a certain

democratic tendency,

although I think we have

to be very careful there,

because, again,

we know from other evidence

that actually many of the crew

are forced by violence

to join in,

so they probably

don't have a vote.

Another rule says there should

be no fighting aboard ship.

And to settle any disputes,

pirates had to go ashore

and fight a duel.

But we know people

did get into fights,

and this rule may not

always have been observed.

[Lawrence] Roberts

is also really strict

about women and boys on board.

He couldn't have that sort

of sexual jealousy on board.

He says in the rules

that if a woman is on board,

that a man will be placed

in front of her to guard her.

And this goes to show how

scared, I suppose, Roberts was

that infighting would

completely ruin his plans.

[Narrator] In addition

to keeping the peace,

Roberts' pirate code

included articles governing

the working conditions

of the crew.

[Blakemore] We do know that

there were musicians aboard,

and some of these

musicians do complain

that they were forced to play,

even though they didn't want to,

and that they were prisoners

aboard the ship.

So, one of my favorite rules is

that musicians get Sundays off.

[Narrator] They pledge

to live by this new code.

Roberts will need loyalty

where they're headed--

the Caribbean, one of

the richest places on Earth

and an incredibly dangerous

region for pirates.

[Narrator] After facing years

of terror at sea,

Europe's major empires

have finally

strengthened their defenses

in the Caribbean.

Naval gunboats

and well-armed colonial ships

now patrol these waters

on the hunt for pirates.

But Roberts isn't

easily intimidated,

and his sloop, now renamed

the Good Fortune,

soon seizes several prizes.

[Blakemore] Roberts

continues plundering.

And indeed, he's now so

well-known that the governors

of the various colonies

in the Caribbean

send out expeditions

to try and hunt him down.

[Narrator]

French pirate hunters

finally catch up with Roberts,

firing a barrage

of grapeshot into his ship,

ripping into the crew

and splintering the rigging.

[shouting]

The pirates are outgunned

but scramble to escape.

Roberts won't soon

forget this defeat.

The Good Fortune has

sustained terrible damage.

Many of the pirates

are dead or injured.

They sail into port at Dominica

for repairs to the ship.

Having sustained

such heavy losses,

finding competent

replacements proves tough.

Sourcing skilled recruits

is practically impossible.

[Blakemore] Injury and disease

was a very common

experience for sailors,

so one of the groups

that Roberts was always keen

to recruit were surgeons.

[Narrator] Sea surgeons were

typically jacks-of-all-trades,

serving as physicians,

dentists, and barbers

to the ship's crew.

[Blakemore] Often surgeons

on merchant ships or naval ships

would be young men, perhaps

apothecaries or apprentices,

people looking

to establish themselves

and taking the opportunities

for employment.

Sometimes they were old men

whose careers had gone badly,

and they were taking

whatever they could get.

It certainly wasn't

the most desirable employment

in this period.

We know that at least one of the

surgeons who served with Roberts

was described as a very bad man

and often a drunkard,

so he seems to have

let took the opportunity

to join Roberts' crew

and live the lifestyle

that he was looking for.

But others were

captured as prisoners

and forced under threat

and beatings to tend to the crew

and would later protest

that they had never wanted

to be pirates at all.

♪

[Narrator] Roberts' code

also made provision

for those injured

in the line of duty.

Wounded combatants would

receive additional shares

of plunder, pirate insurance.

[Blakemore] We know that

within his pirate articles

there was provision

for injured sailors.

So a sailor who lost

a right arm would get £800.

A sailor who lost a left arm

would get £700.

A sailor who lost an eye

or a finger would get £100.

And this is very common

in other pirate ships as well,

and indeed is a tradition

that goes back

several decades at least.

These are very substantial sums,

possibly more than most sailors

would earn in a lifetime.

So this is really quite

a generous reimbursement

for these injuries

that these sailors

might encounter during battle.

[Narrator] Roberts and his crew

lay low for several months

after their

near-fatal encounter

with the French pirate hunters.

As spring turns to summer

and the oppressive

tropical heat

of the Caribbean intensifies,

Roberts decides to sail

for more temperate waters.

He follows a common

pirate circuit,

heading towards the fishing

grounds of Newfoundland.

Along the way,

he picks off several ships.

[Lawrence] Fishing vessels

don't contain much money,

but they're very easy to take.

They contain things

like, you know,

alcohol and provisions

for the crew

and can be easily transformed

into more pirate ships.

[Blakemore] And he's

also recruiting men

from many of the prizes

that he captures.

Some of them are volunteers.

Others are forced

through violence,

through threats,

to join the ships.

They're forced

to sign the articles,

and this binds them to the crew.

This means that they are legally

liable for charges of piracy

because they've signed up to

receive a share of the plunder.

♪

[Narrator] June 21, 1720,

dawns like any other day

in the quiet fishing town

of Trepassey

on the southern shore

of Newfoundland.

But then, in the distance,

a faint din

of trumpets and drums.

As the music grows louder,

the shattering sound

of cannon fire

suddenly echoes

across the harbor.

This can mean

only one thing--pirates.

Panic-stricken men

abandon their ships in droves

and rush ashore for safety.

[Blakemore] When he sails

into Trepassey,

which is quite different

to the earlier attempt

to trick the governor

of Príncipe,

he's really making a big show.

He's fearless. He's bold.

He's demonstrating

that he's not afraid.

[Narrator] As the Good Fortune

sweeps into port,

an ominous black flag can

be seen flying from the mast.

[Blakemore] Roberts is

making no pretense here.

Flying a black flag declared

that you were a pirate.

[Narrator] Legends claim

that Roberts' flag featured

a skull with a single

cutlass beneath it.

Variations on this theme

incorporating skulls,

skeletons, and cutlasses

are widely used

by pirate crews at this time.

These flags would come

to be known as Jolly Rogers.

[Blakemore] This is

a warning that the pirates

are going to be brutal.

It's a way of intimidating

the victims of piracy.

And this saves

the pirates danger,

it saves the pirates work.

[Ewen] A lot of being a pirate

was like being a t*rror1st.

You wanted to inspire terror.

You wanted to intimidate them

into just giving up.

That way, you didn't have to

fight or damage the vessel

and you could take all their

stuff relatively unharmed.

[Narrator] This theatrical

show of force works.

Trepassey's sailors surrender

without firing a shot,

despite vastly

outnumbering Roberts

and his meager crew of 60.

Bartholomew Roberts

is now master of the town,

taking command of its 22 ships

and over 200 fishing vessels.

♪

Local captains are

brought before Roberts.

He invites the most experienced

men to join his crew,

knowing better than anyone

that merchant sailors

can be turned into pirates

whether they're willing or not.

[Lawrence] He invites them

on board his ship.

And he tries to convince them,

this is the way the pirates are.

You can live like free men.

You can be like us.

But there was a threat

behind that.

And it was a threat

he actually carried out,

which was, if you didn't join

and you didn't become a pirate,

well, then they would

burn your ship.

[Narrator] For several weeks,

Roberts scours

the North Atlantic

for fishing vessels

and merchant ships,

forcibly converting ever

more men to a life of piracy.

He now has the fighting

force and firepower

to storm the Caribbean,

seeking bloody revenge

on the pirate hunters

who so nearly defeated him.

[Narrator] Roberts prowls the

Windward and Leeward Islands,

snatching ship after ship.

In one productive

three-day stretch,

he captures 15 French

and English vessels.

Pirates often remained loyal

to their monarch,

but not Roberts;

he's an equal opportunity

freebooter,

preying on every ship he spots,

regardless of nationality.

[Blakemore] Merchants are afraid

to send their ships to sea

because they fear that they

might be captured by Roberts.

He plunders so many ships

in the Caribbean

that he practically brings

trade to a standstill.

There have been pirates

active in this area

over the last few years,

but Roberts really stands out

in the way that he distorts

the trading networks

through his

plundering activities.

[Narrator] For six months,

Roberts' brazen attacks

across the seas

around the French colonies

of St. Lucia and St. Kitts

humiliate the authorities.

Roughly 350 pirates

now sail under his command,

and only the largest naval

vessels dare confront him.

[Lawrence] He was

the final scourge of the seas

that had to be put down.

He's basically the pinnacle

of all of these famous

pirates from history.

[Narrator] Relief for

the French colonies arrives

in the spring of 1721

in the form of three

heavily armed frigates.

Two more British warships

also sail for the Caribbean,

desperate to finally corner the

man now known around the globe

as the great Pirate Roberts.

Roberts decides not

to risk confrontation

with French or British forces.

Instead, he shifts

his operation,

sailing for the familiar

waters of West Africa,

in search of more plunder.

Much has changed

in the intervening two years.

Then he was merely

a common sailor;

now he's the feared pirate

Bartholomew Roberts.

[Lawrence] The British

Royal Navy are after him.

So many different people

have been complaining,

so many different colonies, so

many different merchant vessels,

that he's become something they

need to extinguish, and fast.

[Blakemore] But Roberts

doesn't seem to care

that he's being pursued.

Or perhaps it inspires him

to even greater

and more dramatic violence

and greater destruction.

[Narrator] British warships

now patrol the African coast,

but they're of little

concern to Roberts,

who continues to seize

merchant vessels

and their crews.

Two French patrol ships

chase him down

near the mouth

of the Senegal River.

Roberts turns

and captures both boats.

In Sierra Leone, he abandons

his old French ship

and captures the Onslow,

which they rename

the Royal Fortune.

January 1722.

He now sails

for the port of Whydah,

discovering 12 sl*ve ships

in its harbor.

Raising the black flag,

he demands their

immediate surrender.

[Lawrence] And he

does his old trick.

He gets the captains

to, you know, give in to him,

or he'll burn their ships.

[Narrator] The captain

of one ship, the Porcupine,

refuses to negotiate

with Roberts.

[Lawrence] Roberts thought,

"Well, if I can't, you know,

convince you, I'm going

to destroy your cargo."

And so they set the ship alight.

[Blakemore] This is one of the

most excessively violent acts

that Roberts commits.

He seems to be reaching

a height of violence

and damage and destruction.

[Lawrence] He burnt that ship

that had 80 enslaved

people aboard

and just let them die

in the most horrific way

that you could possibly imagine.

♪

♪

[Narrator] A month later,

Roberts is anchored

in a bay at Cape Lopez.

It's the morning after the

capture of yet another frigate,

and the crew is recovering

from their celebrations.

♪

[Blakemore]

The Royal Navy ship Swallow,

under Captain Chaloner Ogle,

has arrived on the coast

of West Africa with a convoy,

and his mission

is to hunt down Roberts.

He finds Roberts off Cape Lopez.

[Narrator] The pirates

are roused from their sleep.

Worse for wear, they stumble

and scramble to their posts

and prepare to engage.

[shouting]

[Blakemore] The pirates

outnumber the Swallow

and the naval vessels,

but the Navy have

more powerful firepower.

So Ogle uses a tactic

where he sails in

and then pretends to flee,

and this is too tempting

for the pirates.

[Narrator] Roberts

takes the bait.

Assuming the Swallow to be

a richly loaded merchant ship,

he dispatches the Ranger.

The pirates give chase,

barely noticing they're now

some distance from the safety

of Roberts' fleet.

Suddenly, His Majesty's Ship

the Swallow swings around,

revealing its true identity

as a heavily armed

navy warship.

Unloading a crippling

broadside,

the men aboard the Ranger

are blown to pieces.

Roberts is now exposed, trapped

in the bay by a powerful enemy

who is headed straight for him.

[Lawrence] Roberts must know

the game is nearly up.

HMS Swallow knows where he is

and is moving in.

Now, at this point,

Roberts decides to flee,

but he's been trapped in a bay,

and it's so hard for him

to maneuver out of this bay

without going broadside

to this ship.

[shouting]

♪

The Swallow fires.

[g*nsh*t]

[Blakemore] A large number

of small musket ba*ls

are fired out of a cannon,

so this is a hail of shot

that sweeps across the deck

and hits Roberts in his throat.

[Narrator] Roberts

is k*lled instantly.

Panic sets in

amongst the survivors.

Their mast has

been obliterated,

their captain is dead,

and the British warship

is closing in.

Still, they manage to fulfill

Roberts' final wish

for a pirate's burial.

They grab his body

and toss it overboard

so it can't be carried back

to London in triumph

by the British Navy.

They surrender,

finally bringing to a close

one of the deadliest eras

in pirate history.

[Narrator] Bartholomew Roberts'

three-year reign of terror

has come to a bloody end,

his ship seized,

his men arrested.

[Blakemore] Many

of his men are ex*cuted.

This is a statement of intent

by the British government.

The empire is

asserting its power,

and it's saying

they will pursue

and destroy pirates anywhere.

So Roberts' death

and the execution of his men

becomes part of this

big political statement

as the British Empire

tries to eradicate piracy

over these years.

♪

[Narrator] In the decades

following his death,

the name Bartholomew Roberts

passes into legend.

He and his crew appear

in swashbuckling chronicles

and popular novels

such as Treasure Island.

Later, he'll become

known as Black Bart.

[Blakemore] Two years

after Roberts' death,

The General History

of the Pyrates is published,

and of all of the pirates

discussed in that book,

Bartholomew Roberts

gets the largest chapter.

It's a really

extensive narrative.

That's partially because he has

such a long piratical career

by pirate standards,

but it's also because

he's such a dramatic figure.

And this is part of how

his legend comes to circulate

in the years after his death.

[Narrator] Bartholomew Roberts

was the last of the great

European pirates.

No other captain could boast

of what Black Bart

had achieved.

In less than three years,

he had sailed 35,000 miles,

captured roughly 400 ships,

and briefly paralyzed

the trade routes of Europe's

mightiest empires.

Defiant to the last,

his death in 1722 marked

the final dramatic act

in the Golden Age of Piracy.

[Blakemore] Bartholomew Roberts

is really iconic of this one era

in the history of piracy,

where these pirates are not

based in a single port.

They're not necessarily

associated with

or supported

by a colonial governor.

They are out for themselves.

And while Roberts

may have wished to retire

with all his plunder

like other pirates did,

he does keep going

for a long time.

And you have to wonder

if he's just doing it

for the sake of it,

if he's just plundering

to keep on plundering.

Maybe he just really

liked being a pirate.

And this is really unusual.

It's the image of piracy

that we have today,

but it's not what

most pirates in history do.

But it is what

Bartholomew Roberts does.

[Narrator] After the violent

death of Roberts,

the world's remaining pirates

are hunted to extinction

by European navies.

The age of Morgan, Blackbeard,

Rackham, and Roberts

has come to an end.

[Mark Hanna]

It's not self-sustaining.

If you have no place

to fence your goods,

you have no communities

to settle down,

eventually it's not going

to function any longer.

[Narrator] The kings

and queens of Europe

congratulate themselves

for securing the seas,

ridding the world

of those they labeled

the enemies of all mankind,

as captured and convicted

pirates are sent

to the gallows by boatload,

pirates that had sought

their fortune through robbery,

m*rder, extortion,

and abduction.

They were bandits

of a chaotic era,

a time of sl*ve traders

plundering Africa

of its people,

of Europe's lords using

commoners for their labor,

of colonists

forcing Native Americans

from their land.

So, were these pirates

any worse

than the authorities

that pursued them?

[Margarette Lincoln]

Often with piracy

it's a question of perspective.

[Tara Rider] Who's being

attacked and who is attacking?

[Narrator] While at sea,

pirates maintained

a degree of equality

that didn't exist in the

societies they left behind.

Social class held

little significance,

and even the lowest born

could rise to be captain.

Plunder was shared,

the wounded insured.

[Lincoln] They had

no culture to speak of

other than what they

made up for themselves.

[Narrator] So, were these

pirates skilled seamen,

loyal to their crews,

or savage criminals

ready to k*ll

for their treasure?

[Hanna] We see this going

from Drake to Blackbeard

as the total extremes

in the way we understand

the history of piracy.

On the one hand,

the anarchistic maniac,

on the other, a heroic figure

supported by his own community.

[Narrator]

Perhaps they were both.

Most of these outlaws achieved

exactly what they sought--

a merry life,

but a short one.