Notorious Pirate Havens - Part 3: Madagascar

Madagascar lies 250 miles off the southeast coast of Africa and was close to two trading routes: the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Small bands of native peoples populated the island, but none lived in close proximity to each other and some welcomed the pirates to their shores. The fact that no European power held the island also made Madagascar appealing to pirates because it lacked laws and religious morals. It also met the other criteria of a perfect haven because it had sheltered coves, abundant supplies of food and fresh water-including limes and oranges needed to prevent scurvy-and beaches ideal for scraping barnacles from ships' hulls.

Madagascar became a particular favorite of pirates before the Golden Age of Piracy. French privateers, who preyed on ships sailing the Red Sea, first used it as a base of operations sometime before 1614. Later, the island attracted more pirates in part because plundering the Caribbean became less and less profitable. Voyages by Spanish galleons laden with treasure grew infrequent. Port Royal never regained its popularity with the pirates after the devastating earthquake that struck Jamaica in 1692. Tortuga became a quiet reputable port under French control. Peace finally came to Europe, so countries ceased to offer letters of marque permitting pirates to legally prey on enemy ships. Perhaps of more import to pirates was the fact that fewer countries tolerated piracy. More naval ships patrolled Caribbean waters with the express purpose of hunting down and prosecuting any who dared to attack ships at sea.

Bands of pirates established a variety of bases on Madgascar. Usually each was under the command of a single pirate referred to as a "king." The primary enclaves included Ranter Bay, Saint Augustine's Bay, Réunion Island, Mauritius, Johanna Island, Fort Dauphin, and Île Sainte Marie. The last proved very popular with pirates, and by 1700 around 1,500 of them lived there and seventeen vessels made it their home port. Within five years, the pirates were well-entrenched, so much so that European nations began to worry about the effect buccaneers like Thomas Tew, Henry Every, and William Kidd were having on trade.

Perhaps the most famous pirate haven on Madagascar was Libertalia. Yet to this day no evidence exists that such a place ever existed or that its founder, a pirate captain by the name of Misson, ever lived. The only mention of either of them occurs in Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates.

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