Famous Pirates: 12 Real Pirates Who Made History

Some of the most famous pirates in history include Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts, Zheng Yi Sao, Captain William Kidd, Anne Bonny, and Henry Every. They became notorious for very different reasons: some captured hundreds of vessels, others commanded large pirate fleets, carried out extraordinary raids, or became cultural symbols long after their deaths.

They did not all live during the same period or operate in the Caribbean. Pirate activity stretched across the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and South China Sea. Some figures commonly called pirates were technically privateers, buccaneers, or corsairs, distinctions that matter historically. This article examines what made each figure famous, where they operated, the ships or fleets associated with them, and how their careers ultimately ended.

Blackbeard (Edward Teach)

Active: c. 1716–1718
Region: Caribbean and Atlantic coast of North America
Notable ship: Queen Anne’s Revenge
Why famous: Intimidating public image, the Charleston blockade, and lasting cultural notoriety
Fate: Killed near Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, on November 22, 1718

Blackbeard, commonly known as Edward Teach—although contemporary records also spell his surname Thatch and other ways—had a remarkably short pirate career for someone who became one of the most famous pirates in history. He emerged as a pirate during the final years of the Golden Age, initially sailing with Benjamin Hornigold before taking independent command in 1717.

That year, Blackbeard captured the French vessel La Concorde, a ship involved in the transatlantic slave trade, and converted it into his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. He increased its armament and used the powerful vessel while operating through the Caribbean and along the North American coast.

His most audacious documented operation came in May 1718, when his flotilla blockaded the entrance to Charleston, South Carolina, for several days. The pirates seized ships and passengers entering or leaving the harbor and demanded a chest of medicines before releasing their hostages. Soon afterward, Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground near present-day Beaufort, North Carolina.

Blackbeard also understood the value of intimidation. A famous 1724 account describes him entering action with pistols strapped across his body and slow-burning matches around his head, creating smoke around his face. That description helped construct the demonic Blackbeard of later legend, but it should not be treated as an eyewitness portrait of every encounter. Surviving victim accounts provide far less evidence of indiscriminate killing than his later reputation suggests; fear itself may have helped him force ships to surrender without destructive combat.

His career ended on November 22, 1718, when a force commanded by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard confronted him near Ocracoke Island. Blackbeard was killed after intense close-quarters fighting and subsequently beheaded. His death ended a pirate career lasting only a few years, yet the deliberately frightening image attached to his name proved far more durable than the career itself.

Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart)

Active: 1719–1722
Region: Atlantic, Caribbean, and West Africa
Notable ship: Royal Fortune
Why famous: One of the most prolific pirate captains of the Golden Age
Fate: Killed in battle off Cape Lopez, West Africa, on February 10, 1722

Bartholomew Roberts, better known as Black Bart, built an extraordinary record in a pirate career lasting only about three years. The Welsh sailor entered piracy in 1719 after the ship on which he was serving was captured by pirates led by Howell Davis. Following Davis’s death, Roberts rose to command and soon became one of the most successful raiders of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Roberts ranged across an unusually large territory. His crews attacked shipping off the Americas, in the Caribbean, across the Atlantic, and along the West African coast. Historical accounts credit him with taking hundreds of vessels, with the frequently cited total exceeding 400. That figure includes ships of very different sizes and values, but even treated cautiously, the scale of his activity distinguishes him from many better-known pirates whose careers produced far fewer captures.

Roberts repeatedly transferred his command to larger or more useful captured vessels, naming several of them Royal Fortune. His final flagship was a heavily armed former Royal African Company vessel captured during his West African operations. This practice reflects how pirate fleets could evolve rapidly as commanders replaced ships with superior prizes.

His career ended near Cape Lopez, in present-day Gabon, on February 10, 1722. HMS Swallow, commanded by Captain Chaloner Ogle, confronted Roberts’ force after pursuing the pirates along the African coast. During the battle, grapeshot struck Roberts and killed him. His crew reportedly honored his request that his body not fall into enemy hands by throwing it overboard.

Roberts’ death was significant beyond the loss of a single captain. The subsequent capture and prosecution of his crew represented one of the largest piracy trials of the period and came as Atlantic piracy’s Golden Age was rapidly drawing to a close.

Zheng Yi Sao (Ching Shih)

Active: c. 1807–1810 as the confederation’s principal leader
Region: South China Sea and the coast of southern China
Notable fleet: Red Flag Fleet
Why famous: Led one of the largest and most powerful pirate confederations in history
Fate: Negotiated a surrender to Qing authorities in 1810 and lived until 1844

Zheng Yi Sao, widely known in older Western accounts as Ching Shih, demonstrates how far the history of famous pirates extends beyond the Caribbean. Her name means roughly “wife of Zheng Yi,” the pirate commander she married. Together they helped build a large confederation of pirate fleets operating from the coast of Guangdong and across the South China Sea.

After Zheng Yi died in 1807, Zheng Yi Sao successfully preserved her position within an organization dominated by experienced male commanders. She worked closely with Zhang Bao, an important fleet leader, and helped maintain a confederation capable of challenging Qing naval forces and disrupting regional trade.

Modern accounts give dramatically different estimates for the organization’s size, ranging from hundreds to more than a thousand vessels and from tens of thousands of participants. The surviving evidence supports describing it as an exceptionally large maritime confederation, but precise totals should be treated cautiously rather than repeated as settled fact.

Its strength depended on organization as well as numbers. Contemporary and later accounts describe strict regulations governing discipline, distribution of plunder, desertion, unauthorized raids, and treatment of captives. Severe penalties could be imposed for breaking those rules. These measures helped coordinate multiple fleets whose crews might otherwise have had competing interests.

By 1809 and 1810, sustained Qing pressure, internal divisions, and conflict with rival forces weakened the confederation. Zheng Yi Sao ultimately pursued negotiation rather than fighting until destruction. In 1810, she reached terms with Qing authorities that allowed her and many of her followers to leave piracy under comparatively favorable conditions.

Unlike many Golden Age pirates who ended their careers at the gallows or in battle, Zheng Yi Sao survived her surrender and retained substantial freedom. She lived for more than three decades afterward, dying in 1844. Her combination of organizational authority, military power, and successful withdrawal from piracy makes her historically exceptional without relying on exaggerated fleet totals.

Henry Every

Active: 1694–1696
Region: Atlantic and Indian Ocean
Notable ship: Fancy
Why famous: Captured one of the richest prizes in pirate history and triggered an international manhunt
Fate: Disappeared after his final raids; his ultimate fate remains unknown

Henry Every—also recorded as Henry Avery—became notorious after one spectacularly successful pirate voyage. In May 1694, he helped lead a mutiny aboard the Charles II, a privateering ship whose crew had been left unpaid while waiting in Spain. The mutineers seized the vessel, elected Every captain, renamed the ship Fancy, and sailed toward the Indian Ocean in search of richer prizes.

Every followed the route later associated with the Pirate Round, in which pirates traveled around southern Africa to target valuable shipping between the Red Sea and India. In 1695, his crew joined other pirate vessels in pursuing a Mughal convoy returning toward India.

The greatest prize was the Ganj-i-Sawai, a heavily armed ship belonging to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. After a violent engagement in September 1695, Every’s pirates captured the vessel and seized an extraordinary quantity of gold, silver, jewels, and other valuables. Contemporary evidence also records severe violence against passengers, including sexual assaults. Estimates of the treasure’s value vary substantially, so modern conversions into exact dollar amounts should be treated cautiously.

The raid had consequences far beyond the stolen wealth. Aurangzeb’s government held the English East India Company responsible for failing to control English pirates and threatened its valuable trading position in India. English authorities responded with an extensive search for Every and his crew, making the case one of the earliest major international pirate manhunts.

Every escaped capture. After reaching the Bahamas, his crew dispersed, and several members were eventually arrested. Every himself disappeared from reliable records. Later stories claimed that he retired wealthy, died impoverished in England, or established himself elsewhere, but none has been conclusively proven. His unexplained disappearance became an important part of his legend.

Anne Bonny

Active: 1720
Region: Bahamas and Caribbean
Notable ship: William
Why famous: One of the best-documented women prosecuted for piracy during the Golden Age
Fate: Convicted of piracy in 1720; execution postponed because she was pregnant, and her later fate remains uncertain

Anne Bonny is one of the most famous women associated with Golden Age piracy, but much of her early biography is less certain than later retellings suggest. The familiar story that she was born in Ireland, moved to the Carolinas, married sailor James Bonny, and later abandoned him comes primarily from Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724. Those details should therefore be treated more cautiously than the surviving records of her pirate career.

By 1720, Bonny was in the Bahamas and had joined the crew of John “Calico Jack” Rackham. In August, Rackham and his companions seized the sloop William from Nassau and began raiding vessels around the Caribbean. Contemporary records identify Bonny as a member of the company alongside another woman, Mary Read.

Their career was brief. Rackham’s vessel was captured near western Jamaica in late 1720 by a force commanded by Jonathan Barnet. Bonny and Read were taken to St. Jago de la Vega, now Spanish Town, where they were tried separately from Rackham and the male members of the crew.

On November 28, 1720, Bonny was convicted of piracy and sentenced to death. She then “pleaded her belly,” meaning she declared herself pregnant. An examination confirmed the pregnancy, postponing her execution.

What happened afterward is uncertain. Later accounts offer several versions of Bonny’s release and subsequent life, but the contemporary record does not establish her ultimate fate with confidence. Her documented 1720 trial remains firmer evidence than the many stories that later grew around her.

Mary Read

Active: 1720
Region: Bahamas and Caribbean
Notable ship: William
Why famous: Documented participation in Calico Jack Rackham’s pirate crew alongside Anne Bonny
Fate: Convicted of piracy in 1720; died in prison in Jamaica in 1721

Mary Read’s documented pirate career was brief, but surviving evidence shows that she was more than a passenger aboard John “Calico Jack” Rackham’s vessel. By 1720, Read was sailing with Rackham and Anne Bonny as the crew raided vessels around the Caribbean.

Much of the familiar story of Read’s earlier life—being raised as a boy, serving as a soldier in Flanders, marrying a soldier, and later traveling to the West Indies—comes primarily from Charles Johnson’s 1724 A General History of the Pyrates. These details are widely repeated but are less securely documented than the events surrounding her capture and trial.

Contemporary testimony provides stronger evidence for Read’s conduct as a pirate. Witnesses at the proceedings stated that Read and Bonny wore men’s clothing when pursuing or attacking vessels and women’s clothing at other times. Accounts also portray both as active participants rather than figures merely accompanying Rackham’s crew.

After Jonathan Barnet’s force captured Rackham’s vessel near Jamaica in late 1720, Read was taken to Spanish Town for trial. On November 28, 1720, she and Bonny were convicted of piracy and sentenced to death. Both avoided immediate execution after declaring that they were pregnant.

Read never reached the gallows. She died while imprisoned in Jamaica the following spring and was buried on April 28, 1721. Unlike Bonny, whose later fate remains uncertain, Read’s death is documented in the historical record.

Captain William Kidd

Active: 1696–1699
Region: Atlantic and Indian Ocean
Notable ships: Adventure Galley and Quedagh Merchant
Why famous: A government-backed privateer whose controversial voyage ended in a piracy conviction
Fate: Hanged at Execution Dock in London on May 23, 1701

William Kidd occupies a more complicated place in pirate history than figures such as Blackbeard. A Scottish-born sea captain who became established in New York, Kidd had previously operated as a legitimate privateer. In 1695, he received backing for a new expedition intended to hunt pirates and attack French shipping, activities that could be lawful under the commissions he carried.

Kidd sailed aboard the Adventure Galley in 1696, but the expedition struggled to find profitable legal prizes. Tensions grew within the crew, and Kidd later killed gunner William Moore by striking him with a bucket during an argument—an incident that would become a separate murder charge at his trial.

The most consequential event came in early 1698, when Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant in the Indian Ocean. The wealthy Armenian-owned vessel sailed with an English captain but carried French passes that Kidd later argued made it a lawful wartime prize. British authorities and powerful commercial interests viewed the seizure very differently, and reports reaching England increasingly portrayed Kidd as a pirate.

After learning that he was wanted, Kidd returned toward North America hoping to defend his actions. In 1699, he deposited part of his treasure on Gardiners Island, New York, before meeting colonial governor Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont. Instead of clearing his name, Kidd was arrested and eventually transported to England.

He was tried in London in 1701 for piracy and the murder of Moore, convicted, and hanged on May 23. His case remains historically contentious because the boundary between authorized privateering and illegal piracy could depend on commissions, wartime legality, ownership of captured ships, and political interests. Later stories of buried treasure transformed that complicated legal history into the simpler legend of “Captain Kidd the pirate.”

John “Calico Jack” Rackham

Active: c. 1718–1720
Region: Bahamas and Caribbean
Notable ship: William
Why famous: Association with Anne Bonny and Mary Read and an enduring reputation far greater than the scale of his raids
Fate: Hanged at Port Royal, Jamaica, on November 18, 1720

John Rackham, better known today as Calico Jack, became one of the most recognizable names in pirate history despite leading a relatively small operation. By 1718, he was serving as quartermaster under Charles Vane. When Vane’s crew removed their captain after a dispute over whether to attack a heavily armed French vessel, Rackham was chosen to take command.

Rackham never matched the enormous number of prizes associated with Bartholomew Roberts or the scale of Zheng Yi Sao’s confederation. His lasting fame comes instead from his connection with Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women whose documented participation in his crew made the group unusually memorable. In August 1720, Rackham and his companions seized the sloop William from Nassau and began a short series of raids around the Caribbean, targeting fishing vessels and merchant craft.

The cruise ended off western Jamaica in late 1720, when a vessel commanded by Jonathan Barnet overtook and captured Rackham’s company. He was taken to Spanish Town, convicted of piracy, and hanged at Gallows Point in Port Royal on November 18, 1720. His body was subsequently displayed in chains as a warning to other pirates.

The black flag showing a skull above crossed swords is now widely associated with Calico Jack, but that attribution is not supported by surviving contemporary descriptions of his flag. Trial-era evidence instead mentions a white pendant. The familiar crossed-swords design appears to have been attached to Rackham much later, making it part of his modern visual legend rather than a securely documented feature of his pirate career.

Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy

Active: c. 1716–1717
Region: Caribbean and Atlantic coast of North America
Notable ship: Whydah Gally
Why famous: A highly successful short-lived pirate career and one of the most important authenticated pirate shipwrecks
Fate: Died when the Whydah Gally sank off Cape Cod on April 26, 1717

Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy became a prominent pirate despite a career that lasted little more than a year. Operating during the height of Golden Age piracy, he captured numerous vessels in the Caribbean and western Atlantic before taking the ship that would permanently link his name to maritime history.

In early 1717, Bellamy captured the Whydah Gally near the Bahamas. The vessel had been built for the transatlantic slave trade and was returning from the Caribbean after completing a voyage that had transported enslaved Africans to the Americas. Bellamy converted the large, fast ship into his flagship and continued northward with valuables accumulated from multiple prizes.

His final voyage brought him toward the coast of New England. On April 26, 1717, the Whydah encountered a powerful storm near what is now Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The ship was driven onto shoals and broke apart off Cape Cod. Bellamy and nearly everyone aboard died; only two men are known to have survived the wreck.

Bellamy’s historical importance extends beyond his short career because the Whydah provides unusually strong archaeological evidence about piracy. Discovered off Cape Cod in 1984, the wreck was identified in part through a ship’s bell bearing the vessel’s name. Thousands of recovered coins, weapons, tools, personal objects, and other artifacts have given researchers a rare material record of an early eighteenth-century pirate crew.

That connection between documented piracy and a securely identified wreck makes Bellamy particularly significant in American pirate history.

Edward Low

Active: c. 1722–1723 in the securely documented record
Region: Caribbean, Atlantic coast of North America, Azores, and eastern Atlantic
Notable ship: Fancy
Why famous: Extensive Atlantic raiding and an unusually brutal reputation in contemporary accounts
Fate: Unknown; later accounts give conflicting versions

Edward Low, often called Ned Low, emerged as a pirate in 1722 and quickly became one of the most feared captains of the late Golden Age. Born in England and later resident in Boston, he entered piracy after joining a voyage from New England and becoming involved in a mutiny. He subsequently sailed with George Lowther before commanding his own crew.

Low operated across a wide area, raiding merchant shipping in the Caribbean, near the Azores, along the North American coast, and farther across the Atlantic. Contemporary evidence shows that his reputation for violence was not simply a later literary invention. Testimony from captured sailors, piracy trials, and official colonial reports accused Low and his men of severe assaults and killings. Some of the most graphic stories were later amplified in pirate literature, but enough independent evidence survives to show that violence was central to how contemporaries understood his crew.

In June 1723, Low suffered a major setback near the American coast when his vessels encountered HMS Greyhound, commanded by Peter Solgard. During the battle, Low escaped aboard the Fancy, while the accompanying Ranger was captured. Many of the captured pirates were subsequently tried at Newport, Rhode Island, and executed.

After 1723, Low largely disappears from reliable documentation. Charles Johnson reported rumors that he had sailed toward Brazil or had been lost at sea, while later writers offered different stories about mutiny, capture, and execution. None establishes his final fate securely, making Low’s disappearance one of the unresolved endings of Golden Age piracy.

Charles Vane

Active: c. 1716–1719
Region: Bahamas, Caribbean, and Atlantic coast of North America
Notable ship: Ranger
Why famous: Rejected the King’s Pardon and resisted the British effort to suppress piracy at Nassau
Fate: Hanged at Port Royal, Jamaica, on March 29, 1721

Charles Vane became one of the most defiant pirates associated with Nassau, the Bahamian base used by numerous pirate crews during the final years of the Golden Age. When Woodes Rogers arrived as governor in 1718 with authority to restore British control and offer a royal pardon to pirates who surrendered, Vane refused to abandon piracy.

His escape from Nassau became one of the defining episodes of his career. Vane set a captured French vessel on fire and sent it toward Rogers’ ships, creating enough disruption to escape aboard the Ranger. The incident symbolized resistance to the British campaign that was rapidly dismantling Nassau’s pirate community.

Vane’s independence did not guarantee control over his own crew. Later in 1718, he declined to attack a large French warship that he considered too dangerous. His men interpreted the decision as cowardice and voted him out of command. John “Calico Jack” Rackham, previously his quartermaster, replaced him as captain.

Vane continued pirating with a smaller group, but a hurricane eventually wrecked his vessel near the Bay Islands. After being stranded, rescued, and recognized, he was taken into custody and transported to Jamaica.

Following imprisonment and prosecution for piracy, Vane was hanged at Gallows Point in Port Royal on March 29, 1721. His body was later displayed in chains at Gun Cay as a warning to other pirates. His downfall mirrored the broader collapse of the Nassau-centered pirate community once colonial authorities combined pardons with increasingly determined enforcement.

Stede Bonnet

Active: 1717–1718
Region: Atlantic coast of North America and Caribbean
Notable ship: Revenge
Why famous: A wealthy landowner with little maritime experience who deliberately chose piracy
Fate: Hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 10, 1718

Stede Bonnet stands apart from many other Golden Age pirates because he did not begin as an experienced sailor or privateer. Born into a prosperous family in Barbados, Bonnet owned a plantation and had sufficient wealth to purchase his own armed sloop, hire a crew, and enter piracy voluntarily in 1717. He named the vessel Revenge.

His lack of seafaring experience soon became apparent. After suffering injuries during an unsuccessful encounter with a Spanish warship, Bonnet reached Nassau and became associated with Blackbeard. For a period, Blackbeard effectively took command of the Revenge while Bonnet remained aboard his larger pirate company. Their uneasy partnership eventually collapsed, and Bonnet resumed control of his ship after Blackbeard separated from him in North Carolina.

Bonnet later accepted a royal pardon but returned to piracy, attempting to disguise his renewed activities by using the alias Captain Thomas and renaming his vessel Royal James. His final campaign ended near the mouth of the Cape Fear River in September 1718, where a South Carolina force commanded by Colonel William Rhett captured Bonnet and his crew after a prolonged fight.

Taken to Charleston, Bonnet escaped custody briefly but was recaptured. He was tried and convicted of piracy despite attempts to blame his crew and Blackbeard for his actions. Bonnet was hanged at White Point in Charleston on December 10, 1718. His unusual transition from wealthy landowner to condemned pirate later earned him the enduring nickname “the Gentleman Pirate.”

Famous Privateers, Buccaneers, and Corsairs Often Called Pirates

Not everyone commonly included in lists of famous pirates was legally or historically a pirate in the same sense as Blackbeard or Bartholomew Roberts. Maritime warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created categories that often overlapped in practice. Privateers operated with government authorization against enemy shipping, buccaneers developed from Caribbean raiding communities and sometimes acted with colonial support, and corsairs often fought within the political and military struggles of the Mediterranean.

Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan is often called a pirate, but buccaneer and privateer describe much of his career more accurately. A Welsh commander based in Jamaica, Morgan led major raids against Spanish possessions during a period of intense Anglo-Spanish rivalry in the Caribbean.

His expeditions included attacks on Portobelo, Maracaibo, and Panama, often carried out with the approval or encouragement of Jamaican authorities. The legality of individual operations could be disputed, especially when diplomatic conditions changed, but Morgan did not spend his entire career as an outlaw operating against every nation indiscriminately.

His later life makes the distinction even clearer. Morgan was knighted by the English Crown and served as lieutenant governor of Jamaica, an unlikely career path for someone treated by his own government simply as a criminal pirate.

Francis Drake

Francis Drake illustrates how the label “pirate” could depend heavily on perspective. To Queen Elizabeth I and many English contemporaries, Drake was a privateer, naval commander, and valuable agent in the struggle against Spain. His voyages included attacks on Spanish ports and treasure shipping carried out with English royal backing.

Spanish authorities saw the same actions very differently and regarded Drake as a pirate attacking their ships and colonies for profit.

That contrast is why Drake frequently appears in lists of famous pirates despite his formal status as a privateer. His circumnavigation of 1577–1580 included highly profitable raids against Spanish interests, and he later played a major role in England’s naval war with Spain. Calling him only a pirate removes the political context that made his activities possible.

The Barbarossa Brothers

The brothers Aruj and Khayr al-Din Barbarossa belonged to a different maritime world from the Caribbean pirates of the Golden Age. Operating in the Mediterranean during the early sixteenth century, they became prominent corsairs during struggles between Christian European powers and expanding Ottoman influence in North Africa.

Aruj established power along the North African coast before his death in 1518. His brother Khayr al-Din, known in Europe as Barbarossa, developed an even more important relationship with the Ottoman Empire and eventually became grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet.

Their forces raided ships and coastal settlements, captured prisoners, and seized wealth, activities that resemble piracy when viewed outside their political context. However, Khayr al-Din ultimately operated as a senior military commander serving an imperial state. The label corsair therefore better reflects his historical position than simply calling him a pirate.

François l’Olonnais

François l’Olonnais, whose real name was Jean-David Nau, fits much more closely within the world of seventeenth-century Caribbean buccaneering. Operating primarily from Tortuga, he participated in raids against Spanish ships and settlements and became especially notorious after attacks on the Spanish Main, including Maracaibo and other settlements in present-day Venezuela.

His reputation for exceptional cruelty comes largely from Alexandre Exquemelin’s influential account of the buccaneers. Exquemelin describes extreme violence against Spanish captives, but his work is also known for dramatic and sometimes sensational storytelling. The broad reputation of l’Olonnais as a violent buccaneer is well established, while the most graphic individual anecdotes should be treated with greater caution.

Unlike Morgan or Drake, l’Olonnais never developed a comparable later career within official government or naval service. He therefore sits much closer to the boundary where buccaneering and outright piracy became difficult to distinguish.