EVELYN  TIDMAN Author
  • HOME
  • My Art
  • Over the Sea to Skye
  • Blog
  • ONE SMALL CANDLE
  • GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE
  • REBELLION
  • FOR THE KING
  • Reviews
  • About Evelyn Tidman
  • Contact Me

Bartholomew Roberts, the Greatest Pirate of All

1/26/2014

3 Comments

 
Picture
Bartholomew Roberts was the greatest pirate of them all. In just two years he captured 400 ships, most of which gave up without a fight when they saw the black flag (nicknamed by Roberts' crew the Jolly Roger). 

Yet despite the epithet Black Bart, Roberts does not appear to have been of the calibre of Edward Teach (Blackbeard) who by all accounts was a dreadful bear of a man. 

Bartholomew Roberts was born in South Wales, probably brought up Non-Conformist and went to sea when he was fourteen. Like many sailors, he was probably involved in the war of the Spanish succession, but when that war ended many who had been employed by his Majesty's navy, suddenly found themselves redundant. Some sailors found other employment or starved, but a few found work on merchant ships. Which meant working the slavers. And all the sailors loathed working slavers, not only for the stench, but also for the misery it entailed. So when a ship was captured by pirates, and they were invited (not forced) to join, they readily agreed to better conditions, less work, more time off, and better pay.


Roberts was different. He was forced to join Howell Davis's crew. Why? Because he was one of a rare breed - a navigator and they were desperate for a good navigator. But six weeks later when Davis died, Roberts was voted in to the position of captain which he accepted. Thus began a career which took the pirate company from fabulous riches to nearly dying of thirst, to the Caribbean, New England, and the slave coasts of West Africa.

So what was it that made Roberts so successful?


In the first place, he was well loved by his men. He was a first rate strategist, commander of men, navigator (as we have said) and he had the ability to inspire his men to great feats. He was also oddly, principled. In a situation where the majority of his company were drunken louts, he was tea-total, refused to allow his men to torture and kill prisoners, and when a ship was captured with slaves on board, he allowed those men who wished to join the company, and other slaves he set ashore where they had little chance of being re-captured. A woman prisoner had a guard to ensure that she was not raped, and this was written into the company's articles (or laws). He forced no man to join them with the possible exception of one Harry Glasby, another navigator and sailing master.

Altogether, Roberts was an enigma, an ordinary man turned pirate, a man with principles among a lawless crew. At one stage he commanded 250 men in three ships. So successful at relieving ships of their cargo was he that the Admiralty felt it necessary to send out two ships under the command of Chaloner Ogle to apprehend him.

Roberts was undoubtedly a rogue. But a handsome, daring, clever rogue. A swashbuckling hero in all his glory.





 

Picture
ONE SMALL CANDLE The Adventures of Bartholomew Roberts, Pirate is available in Print and on Kindle. See Amazon for details.
Available:
US
UK
CANADA
AUSTRALIA

For other countries see Amazon












5.0 out of 5 stars History, adventure, action, suspense, romance - this book has it all! Loved it!, 4 Jan 2014

By 
Joan P. Ashley "J.P. Lane" (Gainesville, FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE, The Adventures of Bartholomew Roberts - Pirate (Kindle Edition)
Evelyn Tidman has done a superb job of bringing the adventures of the infamous pirate Bartholomew Roberts to life in her novel, `Gentlemen of Fortune' - one of my favorite reads of 2013.

Ms. Tidman's Roberts is a rogue you can't help falling in love with and although I know a bit about Roberts and knew the inevitable would happen, I found myself wishing it wouldn't; wishing that Roberts and the love of his life, the beautiful Portuguese lady, Lucia, would live happily ever after.

But such was not the lot of pirates and, with the exception of the love story which had me on the edge of my seat as much as anything else in this book, Ms. Tidman stays close to the historical facts. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good historical fiction, or anyone who just loves a great swashbuckling tale that keeps you turning the pages.



To see review click HERE.

3 Comments

Why I Chose to Write about Bartholomew Roberts

2/15/2013

2 Comments

 
I enjoyed writing GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE about the pirate Bartholomew Roberts, far more than I thought I would. As I researched this man the more fascinated I became. Already he was the stuff of heroes, tall, dark, handsome. But  be he seemed to me to me to be a curious mixture of honourable man and villain. 

A Welshman, born near Milford Haven, he was likely brought up with strict religious principles. Certainly he was known to  drink no alcohol at all, and he seems to have stuck to that all his life, which could not have been easy when you think of the company he lived and worked in. Even the British navy gave their rum ration, and so did merchant ships, to say nothing of the drinking bouts that pirates indulged in. When it was available, rum was not rationed, neither was wine or other strong drink. Most of them were 'in the gun' most of the time! It made it difficult for him to keep control of them, yet he seems to have managed it most of the time. Probably that was due to the respect and love they had for him.

Initially Roberts was an ordinary sailor, forced to work slavers after being made redundant by the British navy, like so many others. All sailors loathed working the slavers because of the cruelty, and the filth, and the depravity, and Roberts was no different. So many slaves died, that one of the sailors' tasks was to throw the bodies overboard. You would think that the slave ship owners would have saved money by treating their 'cargo' better. Even so, when he was captured by pirates off West Africa, Roberts had no wish to go on the account. But Roberts was a skilled man, an 'artist', a first-rate navigator, and they wanted him. Navigators were hard to come by for any ship, and pirates were no exception. So they 'forced' him.

Once a pirate, he turned his many talents to being successful. When a new recruit on a pirate ship, even a forced man, had taken part in 'action' and received part of a prize, he was considered guilty of piracy by law, and liable to be hanged if caught. So once the pirates captured a ship and Roberts received part of the prize he was committed. He might just as well get on with it.

On becoming captain his talents came to the fore. Not only was he a brilliant navigator, but he had been trained by His Majesty's navy in warfare and cannon, and he was a brilliant strategist. And he certainly knew how to get the best out of a ship.


Initially he was not a cruel man. He freed any slaves on captured ships, giving the men an opportunity to join the company, and putting the rest ashore at as safe a place as it was possible to find to fend for themselves. He stopped his men from committing murder and torture on captured ships, or at places where they put in to shore. Unlike other pirate captains, Roberts seems to have kept his men under reasonable control. In particular, women prisoners were not kept long, and a guard was posted over a woman to protect her honour. Not only was this the decent thing to do, but also a woman aboard would be a source of jealous arguments and fights. It made sense to keep her under close guard, and thus the articles or laws every man on board had to sign and swear on the Bible to uphold, forbade the bringing of a woman (or boy) aboard for the purposes of seduction. The punishment for breaking that law was death. 

Roberts was capable of inspiring his men. They obeyed him implicitly, and while there were one or two men who tried to mutiny, for the most part he was loved and respected by his men. However, as time went on, he began to grow less tolerant, more ruthless.

Bartholomew Roberts won, and lost, a fortune in gold and treasure. In two years he captured over four hundred ships - an average of four a week. Sometimes he took two or thee ships in one day, and on one occasion, eleven in one day. 

As pirates go, Bartholomew Roberts was probably the most successful. I think he was the greatest pirate of the eighteenth century, and a fascinating man. That's why I chose to write about him. 
2 Comments

    Author

    Evelyn Tidman, the author of REBELLION, Roger L'Estrange and the Kent Petition, the second in the Roger L'Estrange series; FOR THE KING, Roger L'Estrange and the Siege of King's Lynn, the first in the Roger L'Estrange series based on a true story of the English Civil War, GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE, The Adventures of Bartholomew Roberts, Pirate. a historical swashbuckling romance; and ONE SMALL CANDLE The Story of William Bradford and the Pilgrim Fathers.  All based on true stories.

    Archives

    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Beliefs Of The Pilgrim Fathers
    Pilgrim Fathers
    Pirates
    Pirates' Articles
    Swearing
    Why Bart Roberts

    RSS Feed

    Historical Fiction News - Sign up for our newsletter

    * indicates required
    Picture
    OUT NOW!
    Kindle and print 

    Through Amazon (click to view)
    Picture
    KINDLE AND PAPERBACK
    through Amazon (click to buy)

    Picture
    KINDLE AND PAPERBACK
    through Amazon (click to buy)
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.