Black sailors, slave and free, mingled with white sailors to make up pirate crews. One horrible story that comes from Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates and which I used fairly frequently in my book, The Pirate Menace, tells about Captain Bartholomew Roberts.

“Roberts was a tall man with a dark complexion who was born in Pembrokeshire, and was now about 40 years old, a once law-abiding man who embraced piracy with a dreadful cynicism. Fresh recruits were exposed to his philosophy, which ... did not justify a piratical life but dwelt only on the pleasures to be enjoyed: in an honest service there is thin commons, low wages and hard labour. In this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worth, is only a sour look or two at choking. No, a merry life and a short one shall be my motto.”

The dreadful episode — and Roberts’s death — took place at Whydah on the African shore, where merchant ships were loading slaves to carry them to the Americas, the dreaded Middle Passage. Whydah itself was the scene of Roberts’s greatest triumph, says Captain Johnson ...

He continues: “The pirates came to Whydah Roads, flying the ensign of St George from one mast, but from another a black silk flag with death on it, an hourglass in one hand and crossbones in the other, as well as a dart and a heart dripping three drops of blood. They also showed a jack, again of black silk, with Roberts’s particular heraldry — the man with a flaming sword in his hand standing on two skulls with ABH (a Barbadian’s head) and AMH (a Martiniquan’s head) underneath them.

“There were 11 ships lying at anchor, with most of the captains and crews ashore trading their cargoes for slaves, ready to go back to their ships to sail them out to sea if the weather changed. This was a piece of good fortune for Roberts, for among the vessels were three Frenchmen of 30 guns and 100 men apiece — but as it was, every ship surrendered. Roberts set ransom terms at eight pounds weight of gold dust per ship, and all agreed except the master of the Porcupine. Some of the masters sought receipts, which Roberts gave, signed by himself and Harry Glasby.

“The Porcupine was treated in a different and horrible manner. Her captain was ashore when the ship surrendered, and he sent word to Roberts that his owners had given him no orders regarding such a situation, and that the ship without her cargo — for she had nearly her full complement of slaves — was not worth as much as eight pounds of gold dust. Roberts decided to set the vessel on fire and sent boats to remove the cargo, but the pirates, wearying of freeing the Africans from their irons, set fire to the vessel with 80 shackled slaves still aboard, who all died, either from the fire or from the sharks voraciously circling the sinking ship.

“Captain Ogle took the Swallow herself back to Cape Lopez, and on the evening of February 9 spotted the Royal Fortune sailing into the bay with a prize. On February 10 she proceeded toward the bay, eventually being recognised by pirate Thomas Armstrong, who was a deserter from her. Armstrong told Roberts that the Swallow sailed best when making her way upwind — they would be more likely to get away going downwind.

“But to get to sea Roberts had to pass the Swallow. As most of his men were suffering from a carouse the night before on liquor from the prize, he decided to accept a broadside from the warship and then return it, and try to get past. Failing that, they would either have to run for shore and try to escape on land individually or would have to board the Swallow.

“Roberts himself,” Johnson said, “made a gallant figure at the time of the engagement, being dressed in a rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his hat, a gold chain round his neck, with a diamond cross hanging to it, a sword in his hand and two pair of pistols hanging at the end of a silk sling flung over his shoulders ... and is said to have given his orders.

“The Royal Fortune stood out to the Swallow and took a broadside from her and returned it — then the pirates spread all the sails they had and stood on, against the deserter’s advice, hard into the wind — and had the ill fortune, either from bad steering or a wind shear, of coming head-on to the wind. Caught in irons, the Royal Fortune came to a stop and lay dead in the water as the Swallow closed the range and fired a broadside of grapeshot. One of the shots caught Roberts in the throat.

“The man at the helm, seeing Roberts seat himself next to one of the guns, left his post and ran to him to upbraid him and tell him to stand up and fight like a man. When he came close, he saw that the captain was dead, and burst into tears.

“Roberts had said that if he died he wished to be thrown overboard, and this was done. His death dispirited the pirates and they surrendered soon afterwards, although they had lost only three out of the crew of 45 black men and 112 white men.”

• William S. Zuill Sr is a former Editor of The Royal Gazette and the author of The Pirate Menace, from which this episode was contributed for Black History Month