"300 years ago the Golden Age of Piracy began in the Caribbean. Many fateful occurrences came together to provide the right environment for it to occur, a war ended, heightening the grievences of many out of work privateers and making them think back to the great pirates of bygone times. Nations began to rebuild their economies, sending treasure convoys across the sea and cracking down on illegal practices and industries that had flourished during the war. And on the 30th of July 300 years ago, a hurricane smashed onto the Florida coast at precisely the wrong time.
The example of Morgan and Avery.
Henry Morgan and Henry Avery were legends in their own time. Like Drake and Raleigh before them. In the case of Morgan, he defies a simple categorisation. He was both pirate and privateer, but most importantly he was an example of a man from relatively humble (though respectable) origins, who made his fortune in the new world, retired with more money than he could spend, was knighted by the King and became governor of Jamaica. Even better, he was hero material because he exclusively fought the enemies of England. In a dramatic series of raids he looted the gold rich ports of the Spanish Main and lived high off the proceeds until he died. For the oppressed hard worked and under paid crews of merchant ships, this was a tale to live up to.
Henry Avery started life as a privateersman, but fed up with his lot, he joined a mutiny and became the captain of his band. He acted with a broadly similar ethos as Morgan, trying not to attack English ships, in this he failed slightly, until he sailed to Madagascar and picked up two consorts with whom he sailed into the Indian Ocean and by a great stroke of fortune, ended up pillaging a treasure ship belonging to the Great Mughal, an act that nearly brought the East India company to its knees. Though Avery is remembered as something of a benign pirate, he can actually be proved to be crueller than Blackbeard, as Edward Teach was never recorded to have murdered anyone and Avery committed terrible atrocities to the passengers of the Ganji al Sawai. What made Avery a legend was the fact that he managed to get one big score, and then retired with it, he sailed to the Caribbean, bribed the governor of the Bahamas to dock in Nassau, then sold him his ship and promptly fell off the map. Wether he lived his life a rich man or lost it all and ended up poor and desperate, he was a prime example of the benefits of piracy.
Merchant crewmen and privateers, (even navy men) alike lived lives of great privation and danger, making profit for other men and whether they be bad or good, the names of Morgan and Avery were a sou…"
Full article here
link
Amicalement
Armand
goes beyond the straight line.