Admiral Sir Henry
Morgan (Harri Morgan in Welsh), (ca. 1635 – 25
August 1688) was a Welsh
privateer, who made a name in the Caribbean
. He was one of the most notorious and
successful privateers from Wales, and one of
the most dangerous pirates who worked in the Spanish Main.
Early life
Henry
Morgan was reportedly the oldest son of Robert Morgan, a squire of Llanrumney
in the Welsh county of
Monmouthshire
. Other sources suggest he was from Abergavenny
within the same county. An entry in the
'Bristol Apprentice Books' showing 'Servants to Foreign
Plantations': February 9, 1655, included "Henry Morgan of
Abergavenny, Labourer, Bound to Timothy Tounsend of Bristol,
Cutler, for three years, to serve in Barbadoras on the like
Condiciouns".
There was no record of Morgan before 1665. He later said that he
left school early, and was "more used to the pike than the book".
Exquemelin says that he was indentured in Barbados
.
After Morgan sued the publishers for libel and was awarded £200,
Exquelmin was forced to retract his statement. Subsequent editions
of his book were amended.
Richard Browne, Morgan's surgeon at
Panama, said that Morgan came to Jamaica
in 1658 as a
young man, and raised himself to "fame and fortune by his
valour". Recent versions of his life claim that,
despite having had little experience as a sailor, Morgan sailed to
the Caribbean to take part in the Western Design, Cromwell's plan to
invade Hispaniola
. His first battle at Santo Domingo
ended in a failed attempt to take the
island. The fleet moved on to Jamaica, which the
English force successfully invaded and occupied.
His uncle
Edward Morgan was
Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica after the
Restoration of
Charles II of England in 1660. Henry
Morgan
married his uncle's daughter
Mary, a cousin. Morgan was reportedly the "Captain Morgan" who
joined the fleet of
Christopher
Myngs in 1663.
He was part of the expedition of John Morris and Jackman when they took
the Spanish settlements at Vildemos (on
the Tabasco
river
); Trujillo
, (Honduras
) and Granada (in
Coahuila
, Mexico
).
In late
1665, Morgan commanded a ship in the old privateer Edward Mansfield's expedition sent by Sir
Thomas Modyford, the governor of
Jamaica. They
seized the islands of
Providencia
and
Santa Catalina
Island, Colombia. When Mansfield was captured by the
Spanish and executed shortly afterward, the privateers elected
Morgan as their admiral.
Career under Mansvelt
By 1661 Commodore
Christopher
Mings appointed Morgan captain of his first vessel. He
plundered the Mexican coast under
Lord Thomas Hickman
Windsor’s commission in 1665. When Lord Windsor, governor of
Jamaica, refused to stop the pirates from attacking Spanish ships,
the Crown relieved him, and appointed Sir
Thomas Modyford in his place. Although
Modyford proclaimed loyalty to the Crown, he became a critical
element of Morgan’s exhibitions by going against the word of the
king and granting Morgan letters of marque to attack Spanish ships
and settlements. Modyford was originally appointed governor of
Barbados for both his loyalty and service to King Charles II during
the English Civil War and his familial relation to the First Duke
of Albemarle, but he was later removed from this position. Modyford
was then appointed Governor of Jamaica as an attempt to save his
dignity. This, along with the Royalist’s defeat at Worcester,
decreased Modyford’s loyalty to the crown. As governor, Modyford
was required to call in all pirates and privateers of the West
Indies because England and Spain were temporarily at peace.
However, the majority of these buccaneers either refused to return
or did not receive the message that there was a recall, including
Morgan.
When Morgan did return, Modyford had already received letters from
the King of England warning him to force all of the pirates to
return to port. Modyford chose to neglect these warnings and
continue to issue letters of marque under the guise that it was for
the King’s best interest to protect Jamaica, and this was a
necessary element in that goal. Because Modyford desired to get rid
of the Dutch presence in the Caribbean he issued a letter of marque
to Captain Edward Mansvelt to assemble a fleet of fifteen ships
which was manned by roughly 500-600 men. Having just returned from
a successful expedition of the Mexican Coast, where he captured
several ships off of the coast of Campeche , Morgan was appointed
vice admiral of the fleet.
Mansvelt was given orders to attack the
Dutch
settlement
of Curaçao, but once the crew was out at sea it was decided that
Curaçao was not lucrative enough for the impending danger
associated with attacking it. With this in mind, a vote was
taken and the crew decided that attacking a different settlement
would be a safer and more lucrative alternative. Unhappy with this
decision, many of the buccaneers deserted the expedition and headed
back to port while others continued on with Admiral Mansvelt and
Vice-Admiral Morgan to attack the Spanish island of
Providence.
When Morgan and Mansvelt’s fleet arrived at Providence, the Spanish
were unprepared. Unable to form a defense, the Spanish surrendered
all of their forts. Mansvelt and Morgan ruthlessly decided to
destroy all but one of these forts.
The buccaneers lived in the city and
collected all of its wealth while Morgan and Mansvelt sailed around
Costa
Rica
. Eventually, they spotted a Spanish
man-of-war on the horizon and decided to return to Jamaica to
gather reinforcements so that the island of Providence could be a
town run and inhabited by pirates. As a sign of his sympathy toward
pirates Modyford appointed his brother, Sir James Modyford, as
governor of Providence. In the mind of Mansvelt, the idea of a
pirate-run settlement was brilliant. However, he and Modyford both
overlooked the true essence of a pirate: a pirate is not a soldier
who is disciplined and prepared to fight the world’s best armies
when the armies were ready for them. Rather, Mansvelt’s pirates
were conditioned to raid a town, then leave. Thus, the pirate reign
in Providence was short-lived as the island was quickly recaptured
by the Spanish. After this expedition, Modyford was again
reprimanded by the King of England and asked to recall all of his
pirates and privateers. Once again, Modyford refused.
After learning of a rumor that the Spanish planned to attack
Jamaica in retaliation for the sack of Providence, Modyford
provided yet another commission to the buccaneers. This time, he
gave the commission directly to Morgan to take Spanish citizens
prisoner in order to protect the island of Jamaica. Modyford used
the excuse of protecting the King’s influence in the Americas, but
this was most likely simply a guise for his own personal agenda of
gaining money and keeping his post as Governor of Jamaica.
Nonetheless, Morgan assembled a fleet of ten ships in a way that
was quite different from most Admirals of the time. Instead of
sending out a flyer and allowing willing buccaneers of the region
to come to him, Morgan sailed to the places where the most daring
pirates could be found. When he arrived at the ports, he dressed
himself in red silk and wore fancy gold and jewels so that he
appeared to be extremely successful so that more swashbucklers were
drawn to him. Using a word-of-mouth approach, he was able to
acquire five hundred of the best pirates in the area.
Puerto Principe: first independent command
In 1667,
he was commissioned by Modyford to capture some Spanish prisoners
in Cuba
in order to
discover details of the threatened attack on Jamaica.
Collecting 10 ships with 500 men, Morgan
landed on the island and captured and sacked Puerto Principe
(Camaguey
).
Modyford
almost immediately entrusted Morgan with another expedition against
the Spaniards, and he proceeded to ravage the coast of Cuba. In a
meeting held by Morgan prior to the start of their journey, he
proposed that the fleet attack Havana. Although this suggestion
showed his arrogance, after much debate it was decided that they
did not have enough men to take Havana, so they decided instead to
take Puerto Principe. While on their quest for Spanish ships,
Morgan’s fleet encountered heavy storms that brought them to the
south shore of modern-day Cuba as opposed to the north shore where
they had originally aimed. Due to the rough journey, Morgan’s men
had very little food and water and were forced to land on the south
shore to search for provisions instead of continuing on to the
north shore of Cuba. Once on land, the crew met a French crew that
had also been driven ashore in search of provisions and decided to
join forces. A Spanish prisoner that Morgan held hostage escaped
and warned the citizens of Puerto Principe of the impending attack.
The citizens quickly deserted the town with their valuables,
leaving very little for the buccaneers. After searching the town
and torturing its residents for information regarding the location
of their riches, Morgan’s fleet was only able to gather
fifty-thousand
pieces of eight.This
was not enough to pay off the debts that the buccaneers had
accumulated back in Jamaica, so they were required to find more
riches before returning to Port Royal.
Attack on Porto Bello
In order to cover their debts, Morgan and his men decided to aim
for a city that harbored lots of valuables. As the third most
important Spanish city in the New World, Porto Bello was an obvious
choice for the buccaneers. Furthermore, Porto Bello was considered
the center of Spanish trade in the Americas, so it contained
warehouses of the goods and valuables of many wealthy merchants.
Because of its enormous concentration of wealth, Porto Bello was
extremely well protected by three Spanish forts.
However, the French crew refused to take part in this voyage
because they did not get along with Morgan’s English crew. It was
reported that there was a dispute between a Frenchman and
Englishman that had been decided to be solved in a duel when the
Englishman stabbed the other in the back before the duel could take
place. In addition to this, the French believed that they had been
cheated out of their fair share of the loot by Morgan. Whereas the
reputation of most pirates would have been ruined by this rumor,
Morgan set sail to sack Porto Bello with his original fleet of ten
ships and five-hundred men.When the fleet reached the settlement on
the northern coast of South America, the buccaneers found the
fortresses very intimidating. With this in mind, Morgan gave them a
rousing speech in which he reminded them that the Spanish did not
know of their presence and promised them gold and silver. When the
sun went down, the ships began to sail towards Puerto do Naos where
there was a river that could lead them to Porto Bello. With
information gained from a prisoner, the buccaneers were able to
quickly destroy the first fort. Seeing how easily the first two
castles were taken, the third castle surrendered, enabling Morgan’s
buccaneers to overrun the city. Not long after this, the Spanish
counterattacked in an attempt to protect their wealth and center of
trade but the buccaneers were ready for the battle and Morgan
organized an ambush of the fleet in a narrow passage. After
defeating the much larger and more powerful Spanish fleet, Morgan
and his men continued to inhabit Porto Bello for two months while
they collected all of the wealth of the city that they could find
before ransoming the Spanish for the safety of its town and
citizens. From the ransom alone, Morgan and his men collected
roughly 100,000 pieces of eight to bring their total loot from
Porto Bello to over 200,000 pieces of eight. In a foreshadowing of
Morgan’s future endeavors, the governor of Panama asked him how he
had beaten the Spanish army sent from his city along with an
emerald ring and a request that he not attack Panama. Soon after,
England sent Port Royal HMS
Oxford (as a gift meant to
protect Port Royal); Port Royal gave it to Morgan to help his
career.
Because Modyford had already been warned to recall his pirates, his
recent commission to Morgan once again put him under enormous
pressure from the Crown. Modyford officially denounced the attacks
on the town by citing that he sanctioned only attacks on ships.
Modyford attempted to justify his commission by emphasizing the
rumored Spanish invasion of Jamaica. However, he did not believe
that merely talking of a rumored attack would be enough to save his
governorship and dignity, so he decided to try to provoke the
Spanish into actually attacking Jamaica. Although seemingly
illogical, Modyford hoped to cover up his last commission by
granting Morgan yet another one.
The Maracaibo Raid
In the same fashion as before, Morgan set out to assemble a fleet
of buccaneers that would be willing to engage in a bold attack on
the Spanish Main and was able to attract nine-hundred men to his
eleven-ship fleet. Once gathered, Morgan brought his men to the
Isla Vaca, also known as Cow Island, to decide on a city to attack.
After deliberation it was decided that the Spanish settlement of
Cartagena would be their intended target because of the riches it
contained. It was one of Spain’s most important cities, and held
all of the gold that was in transit from Peru to Spain, so sacking
Cartagena would not only provoke the Spanish into an attack while
weakening one of their strongest cities, but it would also make for
a very large loot.
The night that the final decision to attack Cartagena was made,
there was a celebration. During this rum-filled celebration, a few
intoxicated sailors accidentally lit a fuse that ignited explosives
on-board Morgan’s flagship, the Oxford, which was originally a gift
given to Modyford to help protect Jamaica from privateers like
Morgan. However, the ship ended up in Morgan’s possession and
became his flagship. When the Oxford was destroyed, many men lost
their lives, and many others chose to desert seeing the tragedy as
an omen of bad luck, so the fleet was decreased to only ten ships
and eight-hundred men. However, Morgan still continued onto the
Spanish Main to attack Cartagena in March of 1669.
The voyage to Cartagena proved to be just as disastrous to the
strength of the fleet. Because the crew was forced to sail into the
wind the entire way to the Spanish Main, many of the vessels were
unable to continue on because the either the sailors were too
exhausted from working day and night or the ship was under too much
stress. When Morgan finally made it to the Spanish Main, his
original crew of nine-hundred had been diminished to only five
hundred: a force far too weak to overtake the highly-protected city
of Cartagena. A French captain onboard suggested to Morgan that
they attempt to sack a town named Maracaibo that he had been to
three years prior.
Reaching the town of Maracaibo, however, was no easy feat. The town was located on Lake Maracaibo, but to reach the lake they had to go through a narrow and shallow channel. Although the channel was only twelve feet deep, narrow, winding, and sprinkled with islands and sandbars, the French captain claimed that he could direct the ships safely through it. Unbeknownst to him, the Spanish had built a fort at the channel’s narrowest point since the last time the captain had been there three years ago. When the fleet reached this point, they were unable to navigate the rough terrain because of the cannon and gun fire coming from the fort. Morgan was left with no choice but to order his men to land on the beach despite their lack of protection from the Spanish gun fire. Once nightfall arrived, Morgan and his men slowly entered the fort but only found that there were no Spaniards there at all. Instead, the Spanish had left a slow-burning explosive as a trap for the buccaneers.
In order to protect his fleet for their voyage back through the channel, Morgan stole all of the supplies from the fort and ordered his men to bury the cannons in the sand. Because the Spanish already knew about Morgan’s plan to attack Maracaibo, the men took canoes and small vessels through the channel to the town as opposed to the lengthy process of bringing the larger vessels. This modified plan was still not quick enough and the residents of Maracaibo were able to escape with their valuables before the buccaneers arrived. After searching the area and torturing any citizens they could find for three weeks, Morgan and his men loaded the large vessels with their provisions and booty, as well as prisoners to be used as messengers, and set off to attack the nearby town of Gibraltar.
On January 1669, HMS
Oxford was blown up accidentally when
the ammunitions depot was lit during a party, with Morgan and his
officers narrowly escaping death.
In March he sacked Maracaibo
, Venezuela
which had emptied out when his fleet was first
spied, and afterwards spent a few weeks at the Venezuelan
settlement of Gibraltar on Lake Maracaibo
, torturing the wealthy residents to discover hidden
treasure.
After collecting the wealth of the town and ransoming its citizens,
Morgan loaded the ships to return home.
Returning to
Maracaibo, Morgan found three Spanish ships, the
Magdalena, the San Luis, and the
Soledad, waiting at the inlet to the Caribbean; he destroyed the Magdalena, and captured
the Soledad, while the San Luis's crew burned
down their ship to stop the pirates from having it. In the
time that Morgan was ransacking the two towns, the Spaniards had
reinforced the fort located at the narrowest point of the passage
and barricaded the passage with three Spanish warships. Morgan and
his men were given a choice to either surrender or be arrested, so
they decided to fight for their freedom.
The buccaneers were outmanned by the Spanish, so they were forced
to devise a clever plan to outsmart the Spanish. Morgan ordered the
pirate’s largest ship, the Satisfaction, to be turned into a “fire
ship” that would be sailed directly into the Spanish Flagship, the
Magdalen. Hollowed out logs were filled with explosives and dressed
to look like a pirate crew, and the twelve men that manned the ship
were instructed to throw grappling hooks into the riggings of the
Magdalen so that it couldn’t sail away. Miraculously, Morgan’s plan
worked and the Magdalen was destroyed. The second largest Spanish
ship, the Santa Louisa, was run ashore by the ship Morgan was now
in control of. The final ship, La Marquesa was taken by the pirates
after the ropes tangled. After the battle, Morgan was still unable
to cross the channel because of the fort, but the Spanish had no
ships with which to attack Morgan. Finally, by an ingenious
stratagem, he faked a landward attack on the fort which convinced
the governor to shift his cannon, allowing Morgan to slowly creep
by the fort using only the movement of the tide.In doing so, he
eluded the enemy's guns altogether and escaped in safety.
On his
return to Jamaica he was again
reproved, but not punished by Modyford.
The Spaniards for their part started to react and threaten Jamaica.
A new commission was given to Morgan as commander-in-chief of all
the ships of war in Jamaica, to levy war on the Spaniards and
destroy their ships and stores - the booty gained in the expedition
being the only pay. Thus Morgan and his crew were on this occasion
privateers, not
pirates.
After ravaging the coasts of Cuba and the
mainland, Morgan determined on an expedition to Panama
.
Burning of Panama and loss of English support
Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la
Asunción at Panamá Viejo
He
recaptured the island of Santa Catalina on December
15, 1670, and, on December 27, he gained
possession of the fortress of San
Lorenzo in the Caribbean coast of Panama
, killing 300 men of the garrison and leaving 23
alive. Then with 1,400 men he ascended the Chagres River
towards the Pacific coast and Panama City
.
On
January 18, 1671, Morgan discovered that Panama had roughly
1,500 infantry and cavalry. He split his forces in two, using
one to march through the forest and flank the enemy. The Spaniards
were untrained and rushed Morgan's line where he cut them down with
gunfire, only to have his flankers emerge and finish off the rest
of the Spanish soldiers. Although Panama was at the time the
richest city in
New Spain,
Morgan and his men obtained far less plunder than they had
expected.
Much of the city's wealth had been removed
onto a Spanish ship that then stood out into the Gulf of
Panama
, beyond the looters' reach. Most of the
inhabitants' remaining goods were destroyed in a fire of unclear
cause. Morgan's men tortured those residents of Panama they could
catch, but very little gold was forthcoming from the victims. After
Morgan's attack, the Panama city had to be rebuilt in a new site a
few kilometres to the west (the current site).
The former site is
called Panamá
Viejo
and still contains the remaining parts of the old
Panama City.
Because
the sack of Panama violated a peace treaty between England
and Spain
, Morgan was
arrested and conducted to the Kingdom
of England in 1672. He proved he had no knowledge of the
treaty.
Instead of punishment, Morgan was knighted in 1674 before returning to Jamaica the
following year to take up the post of Lieutenant
Governor.
By 1681, then-acting governor Morgan had fallen out of favour with
the English king, who was intent on weakening the semi-autonomous
Jamaican Council, and was replaced by long-time political rival
Thomas Lynch. He gained
considerable weight and a reputation for rowdy drunkenness.
Retirement
In 1683, Morgan was suspended from the Jamaican Council by the
machinations of Governor Lynch. Also during this time, an account
of Morgan's disreputable exploits was published by
Alexandre Exquemelin, who once had been
his confidante, probably as a barber-surgeon, in a Dutch volume
entitled
De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (History of the
Buccaneers of America). Morgan took steps to discredit the book and
successfully brought a
libel suit against the
book's publisher, securing a retraction and damages of two hundred
English pounds (Campbell, 2003). The book nonetheless contributed
much to Morgan's reputed fame as a bloodthirsty pirate over
time.
When Thomas Lynch died in 1684, his friend
Christopher Monck
was appointed to the governorship and arranged the dismissal of
Morgan's suspension from the Jamaican Council in 1688. Morgan's
health had steadily declined since 1681.
He was diagnosed with
"dropsie", but may have contracted tuberculosis in London
, and died
August 25, 1688. It is also possible that he may have had
liver failure due to his heavy drinking.
He is buried in
Palisadoes
cemetery, which sank beneath the sea after the 1692
earthquake. [15467]
Morgan had lived in an opportune time for pirates. He was
successfully able to use the conflicts between England and her
enemies both to support England and to enrich himself and his
crews. With his death, the pirates who would follow would also use
this same ploy, but with less successful results. He was also one
of the few pirates who were able to
retire from his
piracy, having had great success, and with little legal
retribution.
Popular culture
Film
- The 1935 film Captain
Blood, starring Errol Flynn,
adapted from Rafael Sabatini's novel
(see below), was loosely based on Morgan's life. This film provided
Flynn with a star-making role.
- The 1942 film, The Black
Swan, based on the novel of the same name by Rafael
Sabatini, had an account of Henry Morgan after his becoming the
governor of Jamaica. Morgan was portrayed by Laird Cregar in the film.
- The 1947 film Forever
Amber, adapted from the novel by the same name, featured
Morgan as a character.
- The 1952 film Blackbeard
the Pirate features Henry Morgan as an antagonist,
portrayed by Torin Thatcher.
- The 1961 film Morgan, the
Pirate, starring Steve Reeves,
gave an account of how Morgan became a pirate and was courted by
the British to work for them.
- The 1961 film, Pirates of
Tortuga, Robert Stephens
portrayed Morgan's having set up an independent pirate kingdom on
Tortuga instead of answering Charles II's summons to England.
- In 2006, The History Channel
premiered the documentary True Caribbean Pirates, which
told the known facts of Henry Morgan's life and death through
re-enactments. Morgan was portrayed by Lance J. Holt.
Literature
- John Steinbeck's first novel,
Cup of Gold (1926), is about
Henry Morgan's life.
- Book 1 of Nicholas
Monsarrat's The Master Mariner has anti-hero Matthew
Lawe sailing with Morgan as Mate.
- Kathleen Winslor's romance
novel, Forever Amber (1944),
featured Morgan as a character.
- F. Van Wyck Mason's 1949 novel "Cutlass
Empire" romanticized Morgan's life, loves and battles.
- Josephine Tey's 1952 novel The
Privateer dramatized Morgan's life.
- Kerry Newcomb's swashbuckler Mad Morgan, written in
2000, is based on Morgan's life and times.
- Kage Baker's short novel "The Maid on
the Shore," published in the short story collection Dark Mondays, features Henry Morgan during
his expedition to Panama.
- Berton Braley's 1934 poem This
is the ballad of Henry Morgan
- Dudley Pope's Harry Morgan's
Way: The Biography of Sir Henry Morgan combines firsthand
sailor's knowledge of the Caribbean and use of primary documents;
noted in the bibliography of James Stuart Olson and Robert Shadle
Historical Dictionary of the British Empire 1996
- Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue Water, written in 2007,
is a biography of Morgan and partial history of the conflict
between the buccaneers and the Spanish Empire.
- Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue
Water: Henry Morgan and the Pirates Who Rule the Caribbean
Waves is a non-fiction book describing the life and times of
Henry Morgan.
Music
Other products
References
- Cordingley, David (1995). Life Among the Pirates.
London: Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11314-9
- ODNB: "Sir Henry
Morgan"; mentions a third undocumented conjecture that he came as
one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers. Exquemelin from
p.62, online reproduction of 1984 English edition.
- Mansfield was disguised as "Mansvelt" in Exquemelin's account,
according to Clarence Henry Haring, The Buccaneers in the West
Indies in the XVII Century, (London: Methuen, 1910), note 242,
noting Beeston's journal.
- Michener, James A., "Caribbean" (1989), p. 211 ff
- Campbell, Russ. "Sir Henry Morgan". 2003. [15468]
External links
, Honduras
are both
named after the pirate.
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