Canada has quite the history of piracy, but few pirates were as famous in Canadian waters as Black Bart.
Black Bart, born John Roberts, was a Welsh man who first went to sea when he was 13 in 1695. He slowly rose through the ranks on ships, typically in the merchant navy, eventually becoming captain of his own ship around 1718.
As soon as he became captain, he gave up the idea of being a merchant and went for the riskier and more profitable avenue of piracy.
Now a pirate captain, Black Bart implemented a pirate code he expected all his crew to follow. This included giving every man in his crew a vote in affairs, and equal title to provisions. No gambling was allowed on his ships, and it was lights out at 8 p.m. every night. No boy or woman would be allowed on the ship and anyone smuggling one onto the ship was put to death. Musicians on his ship were given Sundays off, a luxury afforded to no one else.
Looking for easy plunder, Black Bart set sail for North America and reached the coast of Canada in June 1720.
He raided Canso, Nova Scotia and captured several ships around Cape Breton before moving on to Newfoundland.
At Ferryland, Newfoundland, he raided the harbour and captured another dozen ships. On June 21, 1720, he attacked Trepassey, Newfoundland. In the harbour were 22 merchant ships and 150 fishing ships. The captain and crews of those merchant ships immediately abandoned their vessels and swam to shore.
Without any resistance, Black Bart had added 22 ships to his fleet. The fishing vessels were too small for him to care about beyond taking their fish stocks.
But Black Bart was not happy.
He considered the captains of those merchant ships to be cowards for having abandoned their vessels so quickly.
The next morning, Black Bart fired a cannon over the harbour.
He continued to fire a cannon, every morning, until the captains agreed to attend a meeting with him on his ship.
Once on his ship, he told them that if anyone was absent from their ship, he would burn it. Each captain went back to their merchant ship, now part of Black Bart’s crew.
A few days later, a brig arrived in the harbour and was captured by Bart and his crew, giving him a powerful ship with 16 guns.
In late June, Black Bart left the harbour and burned every fishing vessel as he left.
A few days later near Nova Scotia, he captured ten French ships and took the largest of them with 26 cannons, as his flagship. He renamed it Good Fortune and set out to continue to cement his reputation as one of the greatest pirates who ever lived.
Only two years later, on Feb. 10, 1722, Black Bart was killed in a battle with the 50-gun HMS Swallow. His body was wrapped in a sail with his personal effects, weighed down and thrown overboard as per his wishes.