| John Rackam | |
|---|---|
| December 21, 1682 – November 18, 1720[1] (aged 37) | |
An 18th-century woodcut of Rackam |
|
| Nickname | Calico Jack |
| Type | Pirate |
| Place of birth | Bristol, England |
| Place of death | Port Royal, Jamaica |
| Allegiance | England |
| Rank | Captain |
| Base of operations | West Indies |
| Commands | Several vessels, most famously the Kingston (briefly) |
| Battles/wars | Action of 20 October 1720 |
John Rackham (21 December 1682 – 18 November 1720[1]), commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas during the early 18th century (Rackham is often spelled as Rackam or Rackum in historical documentation). His nickname was derived from the calico clothing he wore.[3]
Active towards the end (1717–1720) of the "golden age of piracy" (1690–1730) Rackham is most remembered for two things: the design of his Jolly Roger flag, a skull with crossed swords, which contributed to the popularization of the design, and for having two female crew members (Mary Read and Rackham's lover Anne Bonny).
After deposing Charles Vane from his captaincy, Rackham cruised the Leeward Islands, Jamaica Channel and Windward Passage. He accepted a pardon some time in 1719 and moved to New Providence where he met and married Anne Bonny. When Rackham returned to piracy in 1720, by stealing a British sloop, she joined him. Their new crew included Mary Read, disguised as a man. After a short run he was captured by pirate hunter Jonathan Barnet in 1720, before being hanged in November of the same year in Spanish Town, Jamaica.
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Little is known of Rackham's upbringing or early life, except for the fact that he was English and born in Jamaica around the year 1682. The first record of him is as quartermaster on Charles Vane's sloop Ranger in 1718.[4] After robbing several ships outside of New York City, Vane and his crew encountered a large French man-o-war. The ship, which was at least twice as large as Vane's sloop, went after them. Vane, claiming caution as his reason, commanded a retreat from battle.[5] Jack Rackham quickly spoke up and contested the decision, suggesting they fight the man-o-war, because it would have plenty of riches. Not only that, but if they captured it, he argued, it would place a much larger ship at their disposal. Of the approximately ninety men on the ship, only fifteen supported Vane in his decision. Despite the overwhelming support for Rackham's cry to fight, Vane declared that the captain's decision is considered final and they fled the man-o-war.
On November 24, 1718 Rackham called a vote in which the men branded Vane a coward and removed him from the captaincy, making Calico Jack the next captain.[4] Rackham gave Vane, and fifteen supporters, the other sloop in the fleet, along with a decent supply of ammunition and goods.[6]
Once gaining the captaincy Rackham made a career of plundering small vessels close to shore. He and his crew captured the Kingston, a small Jamaican vessel, and made it their flagship. They made several conquests in the West Indies, taking a couple of large ships off of Bermuda.
In 1719, Rackham sailed into Nassau in the Bahamas to take advantage of a general amnesty for pirates, in hopes of obtaining a royal pardon and commission from Governor Woodes Rogers. Rogers had been sent to the Bahamas to address the problem of pirates in the Caribbean who had started to attack and steal from British ships. The British government later sent him to Jamaica as governor to give out pardons, in the hope that most would either give up their life of piracy or join the British against the Spanish.
Rackham had plenty of treasure and a reputation as a good pirate, but he was only able to receive a pardon. Rogers would have given him a commission if he were able to take Spanish ships, but he had little faith that Rackham could defeat larger Spanish vessels.
Whilst in port Rackham began an affair with Anne Bonny, wife of James Bonny, a former pirate turned informant for the British government. After finding out about the relationship, James Bonny brought Anne to Governor Rogers, a close friend, who ordered her whipped on charges of adultery. Rackham offered to buy Anne in a "divorce by purchase," but she refused to be sold like an animal.[7] The pair (with a new crew) escaped to sea together, voiding Rackham's pardon, by tricking guards on the British ship "Curlew." They sailed the Caribbean for several months, overtaking other pirate ships. Often Rackham would invite the crew of ships he attacked to join his own.
The majority of Rackham’s crew is believed to not have known Bonny’s true sex. According to most accounts, Anne soon became pregnant with Rackham’s child, variously stating that there are no records of the birth or that Anne gave birth in Cuba but the baby was premature and died of a tumor. Some time after the pregnancy Rackham happened upon a Dutch merchant vessel, upon which Mary Read was a sailor. Mary "Mark" Read was an illegitimate child from England born sometime around 1690. Read's mother would dress her like a boy to pass her off as her older deceased brother, as well as to obtain financial support from Mary’s paternal grandmother. As a teenager Read ran away and joined the army, there she fell in love with another soldier, married and opened an inn in Holland. A few years later her husband met an untimely death. Mary decided to dress like a man and go to sea.
Not originally realizing her gender, Rackham welcomed Mary Read aboard his ship to join his crew. Anne Bonny started to have feelings for Read, and after flirting with Read, Mary revealed her sex to Anne by exposing her breasts. Rackham, becoming jealous of the amount of attention Bonny was giving Mary Read, threatened to kill Read. Rackham reportedly burst in upon them in a cabin, finding them partially undressed. Despite learning the secret of her sex, Rackham nevertheless welcomed Mary into his crew. Others hold that Mary fell in love with a different male crew member.
During the autumn of 1720 Rackham cruised near Jamaica, capturing numerous small fishing vessels, and terrorizing fishermen and women along the northern coastline. During November 1720, he came across a small vessel filled with nine English pirates. Soon after, Rackham's ship was attacked by an armed sloop sent by Governor Nicholas Lawes, and was captured. Rackham and his crew were brought to Jamaica, where he and nearly all of his crew members were sentenced to be hanged.
In the autumn of 1720, Woodes Rogers began to focus his attention on capturing Rackham, sending pirate hunter Jonathan Barnet in pursuit of him. Barnet captured Rackam and his crew while they were at anchor (and drunk) in Dry Harbor Bay in Jamaica, October 1720. They were tried and convicted in Spanish Town, Jamaica on November 16 or 17, 1720. Rackham was hanged at Gallows-Point in Port Royal on November 18, 1720. Rackham's body was then tarred, hanged in a cage, and gibbeted on display on a very small islet at a main entrance to Port Royal called Deadman's Cay (now known as Rackam's Cay).[4][6]
At Rackham's trial Anne Bonny was asked to testify on his behalf. She told the court the famous line "If he had fought like a man, he need not have been hanged like a dog".[1]
Anne Bonny and Mary Read both claimed to be pregnant at their trials, a week after Rackham's execution, and so were given a temporary stay until the claim was proven. Read died in April 1721 of fever related to childbirth, while Bonny was spared execution and disappeared from all historical records.[8]
The day after Rackham's trial, John "Old Dad the Cooper" Fenwick and Tom Brown (alias Bourn), listed with his crew in the title page of the printed "tryal" were separately tried and convicted of offenses committed in mid-June 1720 off Hispaniola. Fenwick was later mentioned posthumously in a January 1721 trial of four men for their mutiny in Africa in late June 1720. In a later trial (of the nine men who happened to be caught along with Rackham's crew) it was clarified that Fenwick and Brown were not part of Calico Jack's crew, though they very likely would have all known each other.[8]
All of the nine men captured with Rackham's crew were tried and convicted during January 1721, then hanged in February 1721 by Quinn and Kyle.[8]
Rackham appears as a main character in George MacDonald Fraser's 1983 The Pyrates and as a skeleton in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl hanging outside Port Royal when Jack sails in, with the sign "Pirates, Ye Be Warned!" hanging next to him.[9] In the same film, the Black Pearl flew Jack's Jolly Roger.
In Hergé's two Tintin albums, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, the search for the treasure trove of Calico Jack is one of the main plots. A 2011 film titled The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn and directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Daniel Craig as Calico Jack Rackham.
The novel The Only Life That Mattered: The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack Rackam, by James L. Nelson, is a fictionalized account of the lives of the three famous pirates. Jack is characterized as conflicted psychologically, lacking self-confidence but hiding it extremely well from his crew. The author based his novel on historical documents, especially the transcript of the three pirates' trial. George MacDonald Fraser's novel The Pyrates features Calico Jack as the leader of a federation of pirate captains known as The Coast Brotherhood.
In Carrie Vaughn's young adult novel Steel, when the main character's ship ports in the Bahamas, the crew go to a tavern at which Rackham is present with his shipmates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, as well as a number of other famous pirates, such as Blackbeard.