302 years ago today in 1718, the Pirate who defied the king's pardon.

 302 years ago today in 1718, just one day after the death of the notorious pirate captain, Blackbeard, in another part of the New World, the career of another great pirate leader, Charles Vane, came to an inglorious end as he was voted out of command by his crew for not attacking a French warship.

 A few months later and Vane, abandoned by his men and out of luck, was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death in Jamaica (1888 depiction of Vane from a cigarette pack).

As with many of the great pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy, Vane’s exact origins are wreathed in obscurity.

 Though some have theorised he may have been an exiled French Huguenot, there is little evidence for this, and like most of his fellow pirates he probably hailed from England originally, being born at some point in the late 17th century. He first appeared in Port Royal, Jamaica.

 Whether he was a former privateer of the Royal Navy like Hornigold or Teach is unknown but would certainly not be impossible. 

Either way, the temptation of piracy was all too great to resist and he joined the crew of the former privateer, Henry Jennings.

 Vane was by Jennings’ side in 1716 when he launched his expedition to rake up the trove of the Spanish Treasure Fleet that had been wrecked in a hurricane off Florida. 

By the time they had arrived at the wreck, most of the treasure had already been collected by Indian divers. By pure chance however they happened upon a Spanish mail ship and acquired the location of the Spanish salvage camp. 

Alongside ‘Black’ Sam, Benjamin Hornigold, and Edward England, they stormed the beach with 300 pirates at their backs, scared off the Spanish soldiers and snatched up nearly ninety thousand pounds worth of silver and gold.

Just as Hornigold had been a mentor to the likes of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet and Black Sam, so Jennings was Vane’s mentor. 

Under Jennings wing, Vane gained his fair share of raids and before long started to emerge as one of the leading pirates of the so-called ‘Flying Gang’ which ruled the Pirate Republic of Nassau. 

By 1717 he had become independent of Jennings and was launching his own raids for loot and plunder. 

Within a year of his ascendancy however, Woodes Rogers had was on his way with the intent of stamping out the pirates for good and reclaiming Nassau from the sea bandits. 

To avoid unnecessary bloodshed, Rogers extended the King’s offer of a royal pardon to the pirates. Both the veteran Hornigold and Jennings, along with many other pirates, willingly accepted the pardon. 

Vane however had no intention of surrendering and mustered support amongst his brethren, many of whom were exiled Jacobites who despised the new Georgian king residing in London.

 After being temporarily captured by Captain Vincent Pearse of HMS Phoenix who managed to retake Nassau ahead of Rogers, he was released upon the urging of Benjamin Hornigold. 

Upon his release Vane did accept the pardon but like Blackbeard he quickly returned to his old ways and ran Captain Pearse and his men out of Nassau.

With Nassau back in pirate hands, Vane set about upon his ship, The Ranger, and raided the Bahamas with impunity. After his momentary brush with the law, Vane became a captain of cruel dimensions.

 He would torture and batter those sailors who surrendered to him, even putting them to the sword. 

Far from instilling fear in his enemies and warding them away from Nassau however, it merely attracted more unwanted attention.

 Within a few months of running Pearse out of town, Rogers himself had arrived and trapped Vane’s ship. In a bid to escape, Vane used a captured French sloop as a fireship, forcing the British ships to break formation and allowing Vane and his comrades to escape the trap. In so escaping however, he left Nassau for Rogers to claim for himself. 

Moreover, the now pardoned Captain Hornigold had become a pirate hunter and was hired by Rogers to track Vane down and kill him. 

Vane did not abandon his old abode lightly though for he sent Rogers a message that he would return with Edward Teach at his side and that they would take the island back and restore pirate rule. 

Hornigold’s pursuit came to nothing and Vane did indeed join up with Blackbeard at Ocracoke Island.

 There alongside his protégé Calico Jack Rackham and the Irishman, Edward England, Vane and Blackbeard plotted their revenge on the British, their crews celebrating for the course of a week.

 Their little convention however evidently came to little as both Vane and Teach went separate ways thereafter, most likely as they understood it to be now impossible to reclaim Nassau even with their combined strength. 

With or without Nassau, there was still plenty of helpless merchant ships for them to hunt and pillage. 

Vane sailed back to the Bahamas and raided Eleuthera while Blackbeard loomed closer to the Carolinas and Virginia. 

After carrying away the spoils of Eleuthera, Vane and his crew came upon a French frigate. Vane made ready to attack and ordered that the black be raised. 

As his colours were hoisted however, their prey raised the colours of the French navy, opened their gun ports and let loose a deafening broadside of cannon fire.

 Realising that he was completely outgunned, Vane opted not to try his luck with the warship and took the more prudent path of backing off.

 His crew were not of the same mind though and believed their captain had gone soft.

 He was promptly voted out of command and Jack Rackham took his place. Vane and his supporters were placed upon a sloop and sent on their way. 

Though this need not have been the end of Vane, indeed he and his first mate Robert Deal went onto plunder a host of ships about the Bay Islands, he had the misfortune of being caught in a hurricane. 

The tempest was fierce enough that Vane and his crew were shipwrecked upon an unpopulated island.

 When an English ship arrived to collect supplies there, Vane tried to join the crew but was recognised amongst the sailors and arrested. 

He was taken to Spanish Town, Jamaica, and imprisoned there for almost a year and half before being found guilty of piracy and sentenced to death by hanging.

 His corpse was left on display for some days afterwards. Such was the fate of Charles Vane, the pirate who defied the king’s pardon.