Real Pirates Of The Seven Seas Quiz

Answer: William Kidd

As a member of a joint French and English crew that sailed in the Caribbean, William Kidd and other members of the crew mutinied and removed the captain of the ship on which they sailed and renamed it the "Blessed William".

It is disputable if he was actually a pirate or a privateer, but at any rate he was hanged in chains in England as a pirate in 1701. The belief that he left buried treasure "somewhere" has enhanced the legend of Captain Kidd.

Answer: Queen Anne's Revenge

Blackbeard was born sometime during the latter 1600s, although no one is certain as to an exact date. His life of piracy began somewhere around 1716, when he joined the crew of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, an already well-known pirate.

Ocracoke Island in North Carolina was one of Blackbeard's favorite places to lay anchor and it was there that he was killed during a battle with Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl in November 1718.

Answer: pirates themselves

Of course, it was the pirates who dreamed this one up! Men like Bartholomew Roberts, Henry Morgan, John Gow and John Phillips (and others) came up with governing codes similar to articles of confederation on their ships. Viewed as a combination of job description and penalties for disobedience, these codes dictated small and large expectations to their crews. One of these articles forbade the musicians from being required to play on the Sabbath, and another one spelled out the policy of payment to be received after a raid. Put simply, it stated, "No prey, no pay."

Answer: Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan became a member of a group led by English Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, either through indentured servitude or by his own volition. In either case, Cromwell failed in his efforts to successfully wrest the island of Hispanola (the island shared by modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), from Spanish control, so his group turned its attentions to the relatively undefended island nation of Jamaica.

After the British decided as a matter of cost-effectiveness to use pirates who became "privateers" to help control their colonies, Henry Morgan became one of their best leaders. The Spanish lived in constant fear of encounters with the man who became known as the undisputed "king of the bucaneers".

(The Spanish Main was the Spanish-rule mainland round the Caribbean).

Answer: False

Forcing people to "walk the plank" is largely folklore. Generally, the pirates' favorite form of punishment was "keelhauling", which involved tying their victims to the boat with a length of rope, tossing them overboard, and then dragging them underneath the ship!

Answer: The West Indies

Francis Spriggs commanded the "Delight" and set sail immediately for the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. Later he made journeys up the east coast of the U.S. and after an excursion into Honduras, he hid away for awhile in South Carolina before returning to the Bay of Honduras.

Answer: False

While it is true that there was only a handful of women who dared become pirates, a few of them include Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Lady Killigrew, Grace O'Malley, Jacquotte Delahaye, Anne Dieu-le-veut, and Mary Crichett.

Answer: an Arawak Indian word meaning a wooden frame to smoke meat

The term "buccaneer" originally came from the Caribbean Arawak word "buccan", which was a wooden frame for smoking meat, which was often the flesh of an ocean creature called the manatee. From this it became known in French as the word "boucaine" and from that it was a logical step to call the French hunters who used such frames to cook the wild pigs of Hispanola "boucainers". Later, English colonists anglicised the word "boucainer" to "buccaneer".

Answer: Calico Jack

Calico Jack was the more commonly used name for John Rackham. He took a brief break from pirating, accepting a pardon in 1719, but resumed pirating in 1720. After this brief period of renewed activity, he was hanged as a pirate in Jamaica later that same year.

(He acquired the name Calico Jack because of his taste in wearing clothing made of calico.)

Answer: Stede Bonnet

Since his crew knew from Stede Bonnet's own admission that he knew absolutely nothing about sailing, they eventually begged the pirate Blackbeard to take over the Revenge from their captain. Blackbeard was more than happy to oblige, until he obtained his own flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard kept Bonnet on board as a guest on his own ship, where he read books, muttered to himself and generally displayed signs of a mental disorder. No one has ever been quite certain as to why a man of such vast wealth as Bonnet would be tempted to turn to a life of piracy, especially when he wasn't very good at the job.

In 1718, Stede Bonnet and his entire crew were hanged on December 10 and he was buried next to his crew.