Famous Pirate: Edward England

Merciful Pirate

He was born in Ireland. His real name was Edward Seegar. Edward England's career as a pirate began while he was working on a sloop as a first mate. During a trip from Jamaica to Providence, the ship was taken by a pirate Captain Winter. Soon after, he gained pirates confidence and became one of them.

While the other pirates from his crew surrendered to King's pardon, Edward England refused and he was forced to leave the Caribbean. It was Woodes Rogers, a former privateer and the governor of Bahamas that attacked his stronghold. So, Irishman was forced to sail to the Africa and continue his plundering.

He was successful and took several ships there. Particularly interesting was the “Cadogan", ship from Bristol, commanded by Captain Skinner. That man had owned debts and had been in bad blood with some of England’s crew. Therefore, he was insanely tortured and killed afterwards. Edward also encountered Howell Davis on that ship, who became a very famous and successful pirate later. England saw a lot of potential in Davis and gave the command of the "Cadogan" to him.

Some time after, Captain England made his first exchange of the flagships. He swoop his sloop for a ship called the “Pearl". The new flagship was fitted and renamed to the "Royal James". It was a good decision because pirates were even more successful in this powerful ship. Soon, he built a whole fleet.

In spring of 1719, the pirates returned to the Africa, and seized several ships at the coast of Cape Corso. Some of them were just robbed and allowed to leave, some of them were added to pirate's fleet, and the others were burned. During that period, the two ships from pirate fleet, the "Queen Anne's Revenge" and the "Flying King" were separated from England’s flagship and sailed to the Caribbean.

Once again, Edward England exchanged his flagships. The "Fancy" replaced the "Royal James". It was even a more powerful Dutch ship.

Captain England’s next harassment took place in Madagascar where he had a couple of successful "actions" and increased his power. It was 1720 in Johanna, an island not far from Madagascar when the pirates encountered and attacked two English and one Dutch ship. Those ships belonged to the East Indies Company.

Two of the ships managed to escape. However, the Captain James Macrae's "Cassandra", stayed to engage Captain England’s force. The battle lasted for hours, even when ships ran aground. Finally, Captain Mecrae was forced to escape to the shore, leaving his precious ship behind. The "Fancy" was totally demolished, and pirates had much more casualties.

After a few days starving in woods, Captain Mecrae finally surrendered to the pirates who were waiting for him. England’s first mate, John Taylor wanted to kill him, in order to revenge around 90 men from the "Fancy". However, Captain England did not agree. He knew Mecrae was a courage man and wanted to spare him. After hours of persuading and several shots of rum, Captain Taylor finally agreed. The pirates took the "Cassandra" as a consolation.

However, Captain England’s crew was not so happy about this decision. They were pirates after all, and to let Captain Macrae was something imaginable to them. Mutiny was raised against England and they marooned him on Mauritius with three Captains' loyal followers.

England somehow managed to make a boat and sailed to the Saint Augustine’s Bay, Madagascar. Nevertheless, Edward England died as really poor men in a short time period. Perhaps he did not deserve the cruel destiny as he was the most generous pirate who had ever lived.