Charles Bellamy
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Charles Bellamy (fl. c. 1717–1720) was an 18th-century English pirate who raided colonial American shipping in New England and later off the coast of the Carolinas, to which he himself would later quote "making war on the whole world". Operating in the same area as the more widely known Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, the two have often been confused for the same man.
Bellamy's career first began during the summer of 1717 when he raided three ships off the coast of both New England and New Brunswick, before sailing northwards to establish a fortified encampment somewhere in the Bay of Fundy (most likely Saint Andrew's where he continued attacking fishing and raiding ships off the southern coast of Newfoundland. Bellemy justified his actions in comparison to the corrupt legal system of the day to which he refused to respect or acknowledge later observing "They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference; they rob the poor under the cover of the law, forsooth, we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage."
After mistakenly attacking a French warship in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Bellamy's ship was severely damaged with a loss of 36 crew members. Bellamy would later raid fishing vessels based in Placentia Bay however, by 1718, Bellamy was forced to flee to the safe havens of Madagascar of the Gulf of Guinea like so many other pirates of the region.
Further reading
- Botting, Douglas. The Pirates (The Seafarers; v.1). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1978. ISBN 0-8094-2652-8
- Mitchell, David. Pirates, An Illustrated History. New York: Dial Press, 1976.
- Rankin, Hugh F. The Golden Age of Piracy. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969.
- Sherry, Frank. "Raiders & Rebels, A History of the Golden Age of Piracy". Harper Perennial 1986.
External links
- Charles Bellamy at The Salacious Historian's Lair
- Robert Newton: "Blackbeard the Pirate" vs. History, includes description of early career.
