Extraordinary Life: Robert Culliford, Pirate Captain - Part 2

Yo, ho, ho my hearties! It’s back to the high seas for a bit more piracy with Robert Culliford, pirate captain extraordinary.

Last September, in the first half of my look at Robert Culliford, we ended with him leaving his life in the Americas and heading into the Indian Ocean in the 1690s.

The Indian Ocean trade routes were heavily policed by the European powers. The Dutch East India Company and the East India Company of Great Britain were in control of virtually the whole of the Asian continental coastline from the Philippines and down the east coast of Africa. These companies had their own militia and fleet and were treated as semi-independent nations in their own right. Together they provided a more diligent defence against piracy than any power controlling the Caribbean or American trade routes, where there was no unified anti-piracy strategy.

Things didn’t start well for Robert Culliford. The ship on which he was serving headed to Gujarat on the north western coast of the India. Anchoring the ship at the port of Mangrol, the crew began what can best be described as a wild rampage by drunken yobs. No doubt they were desperate to get off the ship after the long voyage from the Americas around the bottom of Africa (there was no Suez Canal until nearly 200 years later) and wanted to enjoy themselves as much as possible with lots of alcohol. The crew abused local women, attacked local men, and stole whatever they wanted.

Understandably, the locals were angry. So, one day a local boy swam out and cut the anchor free. The ship drifted ashore where the local Indians boarded easily and seized the crew. Culliford and eighteen others were on board and they were all put in shackles and taken before the local Indian authorities, who promptly locked them all up in jail.

They remained there for four years.

It was in jail that Robert Culliford met John Swann, another prisoner. Whether Swann was already a crewmember of Culliford’s, or a separate captive, I’m not sure, but the special relationship between them probably began in that Gujurati jail.

The behaviour of the prisoners must have instilled a degree of trust in the captives, because after a couple of years some of them, including Culliford, were allowed to do menial work on ships of the Indian Mughal Empire.

You don’t need to be a fortune teller to know what came next!

In 1696 Culliford and his fellow prisoners overpowered their too-trusting guards and made their escape. Rather than hijack a ship and sail off into the distance, the escapees made their way to Bombay (modern Mumbai), a distance of 600 miles (966 km). There, most of them signed on as crewmembers on board the ship “Josiah” belonging to the British East India Company.

After being cooped up in an Indian jail for four years, Robert Culliford decided it was time to get back to what he had sailed half way round the world for. So, as soon as the “Josiah” had got far enough away from Bombay and out to sea, Culliford, John Swann and their fellow ex-jailbirds hijacked the ship.

But Culliford should have thought this through. The majority of the “Joshua”s crew were the original East India Company crew. They had spent their careers fighting off pirates. They waited until the crew had put ashore on one of the Nicobar Islands just north of Sumatra to gather (or pillage for) provisions. Only two pirate crewmembers were left on board. It didn’t take long for the East India men to take ship and sail off, leaving Culliford and everyone else stranded.

A month later the marooned crew were picked up another pirate ship called the “Defence” (formerly an East India Company ship called the “Mocha”) and joined them. A few months after that, in May 1697, the “Defence” stopped off at Sumatra and a shore party went to collect fresh water. Here we encounter differing versions about the fate of the “Defence”s captain. Some documents say that he and the shore party were killed by local tribes, while others say that his own shipmates rebelled and killed him. Either way, the captain was gone and the crew elected Robert Culliford to take his place. Culliford renamed the ship “Resolution” and spent the next year sailing from one end of the Indian Ocean to the other plundering any ship that took his fancy.

In the summer of 1697 the “Resolution” encountered the East India Company ship “Dorrill” in the Straits of Malacca. This led to what was probably the biggest sea battle Culliford had ever fought. A cautious stand-off between the vessels on the first day of their encounter only built up tension and eagerness to fight among the pirates, despite Culliford’s order to wait, and it allowed the “Dorrill” to prepare to defend itself.

On day two, cannons started firing from both sides. Masts, sails and bulk heads were smashed, smoke and shouts filled the air, and there were many casualties. These included several teenage cabin boys on the “Dorrill”. One of the Master Gunner’s boys had his leg blown off and he died several days later in agony. Extensive damage to the “Resolution” forced Culliford to pull back and retreat, without capturing any prize.

By May 1698 the “Resolution” docked at the island of Sainte-Marie (now called Nosy Baraha) a couple of miles off the east coast of Madagascar. Sainte-Marie had recently become a haven for pirates and Culliford probably wanted to take stock of his vast wealth obtained from piracy. He and John Swann lived together, and this is where records of them being referred to as consorts is mentioned by contemporaries. This could mean that they were regarded as a same-sex couple, of course. But “consort” had another meaning at sea.

In sea-faring terms, a “consort” was a ship that sailed with or accompanied another. Culliford himself had used his ships as consort several times. So, you could say that John Swann was merely Culliford’s travelling companion, in naval terms. We’ll never know for sure what their relationship was, but it is generally believed that they were in some form of romantic same-sex relationship. Anyway, the couple had only just got settled on the island when a familiar face arrived – Captain Kidd.

As related in part one, there was an unpleasant rivalry between these two captains. This was heightened by the fact that that Captain Kidd was no longer a pirate. The king of England had recruited Kidd as a pirate-hunter, and Culliford knew this. Cautious courtesies were exchanged between Culliford and Kidd, but Kidd was not ready to capture Culliford, because he thought Culliford had a full crew and not just 20 men under his command. Kidd, however, had 150, but he waited until more ships had arrived from England, but this was a mistake.

The wait was to contribute to Kidd’s eventual downfall. On Sainte-Marie he set about sharing out the loot he captured from an Arabian vessel as few weeks earlier. Kidd’s crew looked at Culliford’s wealth and thought piracy was a better option, and for a second time most of Kidd’s crew, 97 men in all, abandoned him to join Culliford.

By September, “Resolution” sailed towards the Arabian Peninsula. It encountered an Arabian merchant ship heading for China called “Great Mahomet”. There was another great sea battle. Some reports say that 300 crew and passengers on “Great Mahomet” lost their lives, and Culliford’s crew was down to just 20 men. The reward for the pirates, however, was £800-worth from the defeated ship’s cargo – that’s around £150,000 in today’s money! Each!

In the meantime, Captain Kidd was having difficulty recruiting crewmembers on Sainte-Marie, and most of the remaining 40 crewmembers and some other pirates wanted to go back to the Americas. So Kidd limped off in a leaky ship and headed for New York. On arrival he was arrested – his attack on the Arabian ship was not authorised and he was declared a pirate once more.

In 1699 more visitors arrived at Sainte-Marie, four British man-of-war ships. The pirates expected the worst, but were surprised when they were offered a Royal Pardon to all British-born pirates if they returned home with them. They were probably offered death if they refused. Two dozen pirates accepted the offer, including Robert Culliford. It is unclear if John Swann was still on the island. He may have been one of the men who went with Captain Kidd to America. There’s no record of him after the references to him being Culliford’s consort.

Culliford’s return to England turned into a nightmare. There was indeed an Act of Parliament offering Royal Pardons to pirates, but there was a time limit. By the time Culliford and his comrades arrived back in England the time limit had expired, so as soon as they set foot on British soil they were all arrested for piracy and put on trial. All of them were hanged, as was Captain Kidd – except one. Culliford agreed to turn King’s Evidence against another pirate who had carried out a particularly nasty attack on a friendly ship, and in return Culliford’s Royal Pardon was reinstated. He was one of the few lucky ones, one of the traitors against the pirate community, depending on whose side you were on.

Like his partner Swann, Robert Culliford disappears from the records. Whether he settled down in England or went back to sea is unknown. It is unlikely that he was allowed to keep the massive fortune he made from piracy. We don’t even know if he was reunited with John Swann, or decided to settle down and get married and have children.

Believe it or not, all this is just the edited highlights. It amazes me that no-one has turned the life of Robert Culliford into an action film, or even a factual documentary. It would make “Pirates of the Caribbean” look as action-packed as the Teletubbies. There’s even very little on YouTube, except for the one video above (others are not particularly well made or detailed). So, until someone decides to make a full-length film or documentary, I hope you enjoyed my little look at the Extraordinary Life of Pirate Captain Robert Culliford.