Thomas Anstis - The Pirate

During the period known as the Golden Age or Piracy, we run into a certain pirate by the name of Thomas Anstis. But before we talk about him, let me lay down some facts about the pirate life. It was not romantic and filled with wonderful adventure, good food, good clothes and gold; the life of a pirate was one where you had terrible food, there was rarely any gold because everything was used for buying rum; it was a life full of diseases and a pirate could not put his foot in a decent town for fear of being hanged.

The way that a pirate’s life usually ended was violent, either they were hanged, shot, stabbed or drowned in their own drunkenness, except for the few that managed to get a pardon, and even those were sometimes hunted down and killed.

The life of Thomas Anstis was not much different then what I just described above. He lived in the 18th century and had the honor of serving under Captain Bart Roberts before going out on his own, and setting out on the course that would eventually lead to his death.

Because many pirates are forced into piracy, it would have been kind of hard to just set out on his own, because the Captain at the time would not have let him, so Anstis conspired with other crew members to mutiny, so that they could go and be pirates the way that they wanted. Howell Davis was elected captain but he soon died, that was when Bart Roberts was elected captain, and as his reputation suggests, he was extremely successful in his career, eventually building up a fleet of ships all under his command; that was when Anstis finally got to be a Captain for the first time, he was put in charge of a ship named the Good Fortune .

Again Anstis was faced with the problem of getting out on his own and doing what he wanted, so one night, while the attention of the fleet was focused elsewhere, Anstis and his crew made a great escape and set out on their own, they worked primarily in the Caribbean, where they raped the female passengers of the ships they took and tortured the rest. Some pirates (very few) actually had the reputation of being nice to their prisoners, Anstis did not have this reputation, to tell the truth, when it came to the treatment of prisoners, Anstis has one of the worst reputations.

Eventually, around Bermuda, Anstis attacked a big treasure ship that was sailing for the Carolinas; after a long battle, they managed to take over the ship and outfit it with some 32 guns. The HMS Morning Star was then handed over to John Fenn, Anstis did not take the ship because the handling on his beloved Good Fortune was superior to the Morning Star.

Anstis career as a pirate began to go down hill after that, his crew was not satisfied with him, and after continuous fighting amongst themselves, they decided to petition the King for a pardon, their claim was that they had been forced into piracy by Roberts and then Anstis. They holed up in at an island in Cuba and began the long wait for the response, they waited for nine months with nothing more to eat then sea turtles, rice and rum.

They were greatly disappointed in the reply that they got, their pleas for leniency had completely been ignored by the government, so with noting more to look forward to, they turned to the only thing that they knew, piracy…their luck had changed though, and the Morning Star soon ran aground on the reefs; while the survivors were being rescued by the other ship, two Royal Navy vessels came upon the scene. The Good Fortune was forced to run and leave forty men to their fate, these men were captured and hanged.

After barely escaping the Royal Navy, Anstis continued pirating, and started to capture several ships, and taking their crew, he managed to replace the ones that had been lost. While one of the new ships was being repaired, another ship from the Royal Navy came upon the scene and again Anstis was forced to flee…he did not get far however, his discouraged crew shot him in his sleep and took prisoner all the ones that were loyal to Anstis, then they went and surrendered, their lives were spared, but the prisoners were hanged.

That is the reality of a pirate’s life ,Thomas Anstis’ as well.