TREASURE COAST BOATING
LIVING HISTORY
27
D’Aire of Le Griffon had refused the
orders of Ubilla. At the first signs of
heavy wind, he had abandoned the
Spanish Fleet and skillfully tacked in
a different direction, heading to the
northeast. D’Aire made it back to Brest,
France, on Aug. 31, safe, unscathed and
unaware of the fate of the others.
PIRATES ARRIVE
At front and center of “The Golden
Age of Piracy” were Henry Jennings,
Charles Vane and Sam Bellamy. Like
many pirates, all three men started
as privateers during the War of the
Spanish Succession. However, they
had a hard time adjusting to the peace
that followed the Treaty of Utrecht in
1713. Jennings and the other privateers
found themselves jobless, as the treaty
made allies of nations that were once
enemies.
Jennings, Vane and Bellamy each
would not hesitate to increase his own
reputation at his colleague’s expense.
Jennings was famous for one plunder,
the 1715 Spanish Fleet of 11 ships
that sank off the coast of Florida after
the devastating hurricane. Like a shot
out of a cannon, word spread throughout
the Caribbean islands and the
Americas that silver and gold lay on
the seafloor.
A ruthless, educated merchant
seaman, Jennings operated from Jamaica
under the unscrupulous English
governor, Lord Archibald Hamilton.
Jennings and Vane had an unwritten
agreement to split profits with him
from their plunders of Spanish and
French merchant ships in exchange for
protection.
Jennings acquired five vessels, two
ships and three sloops, 21 divers and
a couple hundred pirates. On Dec. 27,
1715, Jennings and Vane arrived off
the east coast of Florida in an 80-ton
sloop, Barsheba. They found a poorlydefended
Spanish camp right where it
was reported to be, at Palma de Ayes.
Admiral Francisco Salmon, whose
life and the lives of half his crew were
spared from his sunken ship, was second
in charge of the Spanish fleet and
directed all recovered treasure from
the shipwrecks to be placed on the
dune line, which was then defended
by the few Spanish soldiers available.
Jennings was as smart as Vane was
vicious. Vane, without provocation,
would maim innocent women and
children just to see them suffer. A true
“Black Sam” Bellamy, the Prince of Pirates and
the wealthiest pirate in recorded history, is depicted
in this image and painting by artist Howard
>> Pyle, early 1900s.
/www.dragonflyboats.net