1680s in piracy


This timeline of the history of piracy in the 1680s is a chronological list of key events involving pirates between 1680 and 1689.

Events

1680

1681

  • January – A mutiny is made against Bartholomew Sharp and John Watling is elected Captain. He attacks the Spanish settlement of Arica, Chile. He is heavily outnumbered by the Spanish, the attack fails and he is killed.
  • Rev. Lancelot Blackburne, later becoming Archbishop of York, sails with buccaneers.
  • John Alexander, an officer under Bartholomew Sharp, drowns at sea.
  • May–August – William Wright along with eight other privateers, later joined an additional 50 English South Sea sailors, departs the San Blas Islands to raid the Spanish city of Cartago, Costa Rica however many of the privateers miss the rendezvous at San Andrés Island. Despite this setback Wright continues on with French privateers Captain Archambaud and Captain Toccart later capturing a Spanish tartane which he later gives to 30 of the South Sea sailors who refused to sail with the French privateer whom they had joined at San Blias. Sailing towards Corn Island and later Bluefield's River Wright leaves the French privateers.
  • September – While at Boca del Toro Wright joined Dutch Captain Yankey Willems, who had no commission of war, and departed the city sailing along the coast of Colombia. Near Cartagena Yankey sized a Spanish ship with a large cargo of sugar and tobacco. Traveling to Curaçao the two attempted to sell the Spanish cargo but are forced to leave by the Dutch governor where they continued to the Aves Island and to the Islas Roques staying until February of the following year.

1682

1683

1684

  • Jean Hamlin forms a new crew commanding La Nouve Trompeuse shortly before the removal of St. Thomas Governor Adolf Esmit where he would travel to the old buccaneer base of Ile-la-vache off the coast of Hispaniola.
  • Pierre LePain, wanted by the French government for the return of La Trompeuse stolen in Cayenne several years before, is captured and sent to Petit-Goâve.
  • January – In retaliation for the St. Augustine raid in 1683 Spanish forces raid New Providence. Later that year the Spanish burn the town killing several of the settlements defenders and taking others captive to Havana. The remaining survivors flee to Jamaica and the Carolinas as the English Bahamas colony is abandoned.
  • April – Jaques Nepveau de Pouancay, acting Governor of Petit-Goâve for former Governor de Franquesnay, is replaced by Pierre-Paul Tarin de Cussy.
  • August – Two officials are sent by King Louis XIV to assist in suppressing piracy in French Hispaniola.
  • October – Governor Adolph Esmit, one of the last remaining buccaneer supporters, is forced to leave St. Thomas.
  • Alexandre Esquemelin's "Buccaneers of America" is published in London.

1685

  • One of the last great buccaneering raids is attempted in the unsuccessful attack on the city of Panama by a force of about 3,000 men led by Edward Davis, John Eaton, Charles Swan, and several others. With the outbreak of the War of the Grand Alliance in 1689 these men, as well most of the remaining buccaneers, would become legitimate privateers as the era of buccaneering came to a close.
  • Charles Swan sails off the coast of Sinaloa and into the Gulf of California during the winter of 1685-1686 while unsuccessfully awaiting the Spanish Manila galleon. A full account of this voyage is later published in William Dampier's A New Voyage Round the World in 1697.
  • May – A fleet of French buccaneers, including Pierre le Picard, crosses the Isthmus of Panama on their way to the South Sea and loot Guayaquil. Later that year Picard leaves the South Sea expedition and returns to the Caribbean. On his way to the Caribbean he attacks and loots the city of Segovia.
  • July 6 – Laurens de Graff and Michel de Grammont storm ashore at Campeche with a force of 750 men and begin looting the city for two months while the Armada de Barlovento searches for the buccaneers base on the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras.
  • September – The Armada de Barlovento return to Campeche, with a loss of three ships from a hurricane, the remaining fleet encountered Graff's fleet off Cabo Catoche, on the way back from the raid on Campeche. The armada succeeded in sinking one ship and capturing another. While pursuing Graff's already heavily damaged flagship the explosion of a cannon on one of the armada vessels, killing three gunners, allowed Lorencillo to escape. Held responsible for abandoning the chase several Armada officers were suspended from duty. Two days following the battle Armada commander Ochoa died at sea from a sudden illness. However the Armada had captured 120 sailors, many of whom later defected from La Salle's colony, agreeing to reveal La Salle's plans for a French settlement on a river known as the "Michipipi" in exchange for escaping the death penalty. This information would later lead the Armada de Barlovento to launch a series of expeditions along the Gulf of Mexico to locate this colony.

1686

1687

1688

1689

Births

Deaths