page_title: Samuel Bellamy
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Bellamy / Career
caption_attribution_description: Real pirate treasure at the Houston Museum of Natural Science This is part of a special exhibit - "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah Gally from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship" Captained by "Black Sam" Bellamy, the Whydah was laden with over 4.5 tons of gold, silver and precious treasure, the spoils from conquering 50 ships, when on April 26, 1717, she encountered a nor'easter off the coast of Cape Cod and wrecked on the shoals off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Bellamy and all but two of his 145 crewmen were killed. This is just a sampling of the gold coins that have been recovered from the wreck by Barry Clifford, who discovered the wreck of the pirate ship in 1984; it was the first authenticated pirate ship ever to be discovered. For info about the exhibit: http://www.whydah.com
context_page_description: Captain Samuel Bellamy, later known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century. He is best known as the wealthiest pirate in recorded history, and one of the faces of the Golden Age of Piracy. Though his known career as a pirate captain lasted little more than a year, he and his crew captured at least 53 ships. Called "Black Sam" in Cape Cod folklore because he eschewed the fashionable powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men".
  Bellamy was born in England in 1689, and began sailing for the British Royal Navy as a teenager. After traveling to Cape Cod around 1715, he then went south to the Florida coast in an effort to locate a sunken treasure fleet. From there he made his way to the Bahamas, sailing under Benjamin Hornigold and his second-in-command, Edward Teach.
context_section_description: The treasure hunters apparently met with little success, as they soon turned to piracy in the crew of pirate captain Benjamin Hornigold, who commanded the Marianne with his first mate, the soon to become famous Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.
  In the summer of 1716, the crew became irritated by Hornigold's unwillingness to attack ships of England, his home country. By a majority vote of the crew, Hornigold was deposed as captain of the Marianne and left the vessel with his loyal followers, including Teach.  The remaining 90-man crew then elected Bellamy as captain.
  Upon capturing a second ship, the Sultana, it was made into a galley, and with approval of the crew, Bellamy took it as his own and assigned his friend Palsgrave Williams as commander of the Marianne. They sailed briefly alongside Olivier Levasseur, who left early in 1717 to raid South America. However, Bellamy's greatest capture was to come in the spring of 1717, when he spotted the Whydah Gally (pronounced "WID-uh") sailing through the Windward Passage between Hispaniola and Cuba. Built in England in 1715 as a state-of-the-art, 300-ton, 102-foot-long (31 m) English slave ship with 18 guns (cannons), and with speeds of up to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), the Whydah was on its maiden voyage in 1716 and had just finished the second (Africa to Caribbean) leg of the Atlantic slave trade, loaded with a fortune in gold, indigo, Jesuit's bark, ivory and other precious trade goods from the sale of 312 slaves.  Bellamy chased the Whydah for three days before getting close enough to fire. After a single shot, Captain Lawrence Prince surrendered the Whydah by lowering its flag. True to his reputation for generosity, Bellamy rewarded Prince's lack of resistance by trading the Sultana for the Whydah. Removing the captain's quarters and upgrading the ship to 28 guns, Bellamy turned his new flagship northwards along the eastern coast of the Carolinas and on to New England.
  Captain Charles Johnson (possibly a pseudonym) wrote what became the first standard historical text on pirates, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. That source relates the story of the Whydah overtaking a sloop commanded by Captain Beer.  Bellamy had wanted to let the captain keep his ship, but his crew had just voted to burn it, and the captain of the merchant vessel had just declined an invitation to join the pirates.  Bellamy is attributed with making this now-famous speech:
  I am sorry they won't let you have your sloop again, for I scorn to do any one a mischief, when it is not to my advantage; damn the sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of use to you. Though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security; for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make then one of us, than sneak after these villains for employment?
       [Beer replied that his conscience would not let him break the laws of God and man, and Bellamy continued]
  
  You are a devilish conscience rascal! I am a free prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field; and this my conscience tells me! But there is no arguing with such snivelling puppies, who allow superiors to kick them about deck at pleasure.
  — Captain Bellamy, quoted by Captain Charles Johnson (1724), A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
  Johnson attributes these speeches to "Captain Bellamy" without naming Samuel Bellamy specifically; other writers like Philip Gosse attribute the speeches to Charles Bellamy, a separate pirate unrelate
caption: Silver recovered from the wreck of the Whydah. Forbes Magazine ranked Bellamy #1 in its list of "Top-Earning Pirates".[2]
exif: {}