Searching Cargo

After a capture, pirates searched the prize for anything they could use or sell: coin and silver plate, but far more often cloth, sugar, rum, tools, medicine, sails, rope and gunpowder. Chests and barrels were opened on deck, the quartermaster took charge of the plunder, and it was shared out under the ship's articles.

When pirates took a ship, the search began at once. The prize's crew was questioned about where money was hidden, and chests, barrels and bales were opened on deck. Coin and silver plate were rare. Most cargo was ordinary: cloth, sugar, rum, wine, flour, tools, nails, medicine, and the things pirates needed most to keep sailing, such as sails, rope, anchors, powder and shot.

The quartermaster, elected by the crew, took charge of the plunder so that no one could keep a share for himself. Useful stores went into the pirate ship; goods worth selling were kept for trade; the rest might be thrown overboard. Shares were divided under the articles. Bartholomew Roberts's articles gave the captain and quartermaster two shares, the master, boatswain and gunner one and a half, other officers one and a quarter, and every other man one.

Parts & Labels

Note
A captured ship.
Title
Prize
Note
Goods taken from it.
Title
Plunder
Note
A crew member's part of the plunder.
Title
Share

Historical Overview

Note
On a pirate ship the quartermaster spoke for the crew, judged small quarrels and guarded the common stock of plunder.
Title
The quartermaster
Note
In May 1718 Blackbeard blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, and released his hostages only after the town sent him a chest of medicines.
Title
Medicine

Timeline

1718Blackbeard's blockade of CharlestonMedicine chest demanded.

1719–1722Roberts's cruises

1724Johnson prints Roberts's articles

Comparison Panel

Note
Privateers carried a government commission and brought prizes to a court to be sold; pirates divided them on their own.
Title
Pirates and privateers
Note
Stories stress buried gold; trial records and ship papers show mostly everyday goods.
Title
Treasure legend and record

Interesting Facts

Note
Roberts's articles said a man who robbed the company even of a dollar's worth would be marooned.
Title
Cheating punished
Note
Pirates sold goods to traders in ports that asked few questions, such as some in the Bahamas and the Carolinas before 1718.
Title
Selling plunder
Note
A fast prize ship might be kept and armed as a new pirate vessel.
Title
Ships too

Sources

Note
Bartholomew Roberts's articles and accounts of pirate crews.
Title
Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (London, 1724)
Note
Plunder and its uses.
Title
David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag (Random House, 1995)
Note
The quartermaster and shares.
Title
Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations (Beacon Press, 2004)
Note
The Charleston blockade.
Title
Angus Konstam, Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate (Wiley, 2006)