Home » History » Pirates and Privateers » Notorious Pirate Havens - Part 5: Tortuga and New Providence

Notorious Pirate Havens - Part 5: Tortuga and New Providence

© Cindy Vallar

When the Spanish drove the French boucaniers (hunters of wild pigs and cattle who smoked meat on boucans) from Hispaniola, they migrated to an island shaped like a turtle. Named Tortuga by Christopher Columbus, the island also attracted others of equally unsavory character. All of them hated Spain and at times, preyed on Spanish ships using canoes and other small vessels. Eventually, these pirates became known as buccaneers.

According to Alexander Exquemelin, Pierre LeGrand was the first buccaneer to use the island as a base of operations. Tortuga, which is twenty miles long and measures four miles at its widest point, possessed a good harbor. Cuba, the last stop for treasure fleets bound for Spain, provided pirates with rich pickings. In time, the buccaneers referred to themselves as the Brethren of the Coast. Anyone who wished to join them swore to adhere to a strict set of articles known as the "Custom of the Coast." Most were French or English, but some were Dutch. Both Henry Morgan and L'Ollonais spent time in this pirate haven.

The French claimed the island and appointed Jean Le Vasseur as its first governor. He welcomed any buccaneer to Tortuga as long as the pirate gave Le Vasseur a share of plundered booty. In 1650, he brought several hundred prostitutes to the island to accommodate the buccaneers. After his death, the French lost control of the island to Spain. The buccaneers fled. In 1656, the English seized Tortuga and invited the pirates to return. Three years later, the French regained control and since they were at war with England, they depended on the buccaneers to defend the island.

In the early 1670s, Petit Goave replaced Tortuga as the pirates' main base of operations. Some continued to stage raids from Tortuga, but by 1688 its use as a haven for the buccaneers had ended.

The last pirate haven to gain prominence in the Caribbean was New Providence in the Bahamas. The colony was first founded in 1656, but those who owned its charter had little interest in it and so few settlements prospered. By 1670, New Providence had become a safe haven for pirates. According to A General History of the Pyrates, the "[i]sland is about 28 Miles long, and eleven where broadest, and has a Harbour big enough to hold 500 Sail of Ships; before which lyes a small Island, which makes two Inlets to the Harbour; at either Way there is a Bar, over which no Ship of 500 Tun can pass." This meant most pirate vessels could shelter in Nassau Harbor, but warships could not.

The copyright of the article Notorious Pirate Havens - Part 5: Tortuga and New Providence in Pirates and Privateers is owned by . Permission to republish Notorious Pirate Havens - Part 5: Tortuga and New Providence in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.