Benjamin Hornigold

Benjamin Hornigold (1680s – 1719) was an English privateer, pirate and member of the West Indies Rite of the Templar Order in the early 18th century. He was most famous for mentoring Edward Thatch and Edward Kenway and for being one of the founders of the Pirate Republic in Nassau.
By 1718, Hornigold became dissatisfied with the state of Nassau, viewing it as a lost cause, and secretly joined the Templars to restore order to the region. He became a pirate hunter, pursuing many of his former brethren, and sought to help the Templars locate the Observatory by capturing the Sage Bartholomew Roberts. However, his ambitions were cut short during a fateful encounter with his former protégé Edward Kenway, who killed Hornigold on the Swan Islands in 1719.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Hornigold was born in England in the 1680s, and at some point made his way across the ocean to the West Indies as a privateer. His first known act of piracy was in the winter of 1713 or 1714, when he used several small canoes and a sloop to raid ships and settlements in the Bahamas, eventually capturing a thirty-gun brig that he named the Ranger. This ship would eventually be given to his fellow pirate Charles Vane.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Benjamin Hornigold
During Hornigold's first years as a pirate, his second-in-command was former privateer Edward Thatch.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch Soon their fleet expanded to five warships, led by the flagship Benjamin, pirating everywhere from Nassau to the Honduran coast. However, Hornigold was known not to attack British ships, leading some to believe that he was actually a privateer instead of a pirate. Sometime during this period he met Edward Kenway, who was recruited by Thatch during their career as privateers.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
===Leader of the Pirate Republic===
Eventually, Hornigold helped establish a Pirate Republic called "the Brethren of the Coast" in Nassau, sharing the responsibilities of leadership with Thatch, Vane, and James Kidd.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Now Hiring When Kenway made his way to Nassau in 1715, Hornigold taught him how to successfully plunder ships, upgrade the Jackdaw,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Prizes and Plunder and lower his notoriety. Hornigold also tried to persuade Edward to give up on his estranged wife, Caroline Scott, and settle in Nassau.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Raise the Black Flag
In July 1716, Hornigold was deposed as the captain of his ship and the Assassin Samuel Bellamy took his position as pirate leader. The pirate Alonzo Batilla then arrived to take Hornigold away, dropping him on an island free of pirates. There, Hornigold told Batilla about Nassau, and insisted that he visit the place.Assassin's Creed: Pirates
Over the next three years, word reached Nassau that a pardon was being offered by Governor Woodes Rogers to any pirate who would accept it. Hornigold kept the pardon in mind as Nassau was ravaged by disease without an available cure.
While Thatch wished to steal medicine from British warships, Hornigold suggested that they temporarily halt their pirating activities until the British no longer deemed them a threat. This resulted in an argument between the two until Kenway proposed a third solution: search for medicines in old wrecks without attracting British attention.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Diving for Medicines
While Hornigold and Thatch were both initially satisfied with this approach, it was soon revealed that medicines found in the shipwrecks were in unusable condition. Frustrated by their lack of success, Thatch used the Queen Anne's Revenge to assault a British Man O' War, which left Hornigold's ship damaged. While his crew were repairing the ship, Hornigold met with Kenway and informed him of Thatch's decision. Before Kenway sailed off to look for Thatch, Hornigold told him to leave Thatch be, saying the man should take responsibility for his actions.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Devil's Advocate
Although Kenway and Thatch were eventually able to recover medicines for the colony, the British arrived months later and blockaded Nassau. After meeting with Woodes Rogers and Commodore Peter Chamberlaine to discuss the King's pardon, Hornigold, Josiah Burgess and John Cockram accepted the offer and became pirate hunters for the British, tasked with bringing their former allies to justice. This led to many pirates, Kenway included, deeming them traitors and cursing their very names.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – We Demand a Parlay
===Joining the Templars===
As a newly appointed pirate hunter, Hornigold became more notorious than he had ever been before, capturing several pirates who refused to take the pardon. Under Roger's command, Hornigold grew to respect his superior, and soon became a member of the Templar Order along with Burgess and Cockram.
In December 1717, Hornigold sailed to Mayaguana to attend a Templar meeting regarding the whereabouts of Olivier Levasseur, a French pirate who was in the possession of an artifact known as the Fragment of Eden. On his way there, he unexpectedly came upon Alonzo Batilla. Thinking the young pirate as a potential trouble maker to the Templar cause, he got rid of him by luring him into a trap. Hornigold then attended the Templar meeting, where he and Christopher Condent interrogated captain Barnes. The latter had no useful information about Levasseur and was shot by Condent. Surprisingly, Batilla then showed up and engaged a battle with Hornigold, to which Hornigold eventually retreated.
In May 1719, Hornigold and Rogers met in Kingston. Hornigold questioned the purpose of collecting blood samples and Roger's tactics when dealing with pirates in Madagascar. Upon hearing that the blood would be used for the purposes of spying, Hornigold expressed some concern, as he had given a sample of his blood as well. However, Rogers assured Hornigold that his sample would not be used in this manner; rather, it would act as a display of trust.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Imagine My Surprise
They later met with Grand Master Laureano de Torres y Ayala, telling him that Burgess and Cockram were close to locating the Sage Bartholomew Roberts in Príncipe. In the midst of their conversation, Hornigold spotted the Jackdaw anchored in the harbor, and realized that Kenway was spying on them.
Forced out of hiding, Kenway admonished Hornigold for his betrayal; Hornigold defended himself by claiming that the Templars' actions were just, and that Kenway could never understand their cause. He then made his escape with the other Templars, leaving Kenway to deal with his men.
===Death===
Hornigold later followed Kenway and Roberts to the Yucatán Peninsula, but was detected by the pirates and sailed into a rocky, fog-covered formation known as "the Devil's Backbone". Kenway's Jackdaw managed to avoid British ships looking for him and traded blows with the Benjamin before forcing the schooner to retreat.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Murder and Mayhem
Lost in the fog and badly damaged, the Benjamin ran aground on the deserted island of Santanillas. Hornigold climbed to the top of an abandoned Maya temple on the island, creating a makeshift perimeter with his soldiers, but Kenway was able to scale the building and air assassinate his former friend.
Collapsing, Hornigold berated Kenway for how far he had fallen, disregarding the man's retort that Hornigold was no better than he was. With his dying words, Hornigold expressed regret that Kenway was too enamored with glory and bloodshed to see the wisdom of the Templars, and told Kenway that he would die alone and disgraced if he kept his present course.
===Legacy===
Despite Hornigold's betrayal of the pirate way, Edward still felt remorse for killing him and, when fondly recalling old friends prior to his return to England in 1722, Hornigold appeared amongst them.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – The End
In 2023, when Edward's descendant Noa Kim came into contact with a crescent-shaped Piece of Eden in the SS Ourang Medan's shipwreck, the artifact's powers, combined with the Bleeding Effect, caused Noa to experience several hallucinations of Edward's memories. One of these visions depicted Hornigold alongside Edward's other friends, including Charles Vane, Mary Read and Edward Thatch.Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple – Episode 77
==Personality and traits==
Though Hornigold's early ambitions did not include piracy, he was forced to take up the life due to privateers being rendered unnecessary after the War of Spanish Succession. A patriotic man, Hornigold chose not to attack any British ships, likely out of loyalty toward his home country. In addition, Hornigold had a military bearing, valuing order and behaving more like British soldier than a pirate.
In spite of these factors, he was respected by his crew and peers alike and took to the pirate life enthusiastically, helping found the Pirate Republic in Nassau. For this, he had strong faith that the community would grow and thrive. However, after Nassau succumbed to disease, poor governance and economic difficulties, Hornigold became disillusioned with the pirate cause.
Hornigold stood out from his compatriots in his strong idealism. He had extremely high hopes for Nassau, believing the settlement provided a rare chance to put their societal ideals to practice and create a civilization without the corruption and bigotry of the old empires. Even from the beginning, Hornigold's idea of freedom was different to that of Kenway's, with Kenway only considering freedom to be a license to live without rules and rebel against authority, whereas Hornigold possessed far more lofty ideas of civilization.
It was this idealism that ultimately swayed him to join the Templars, to build a civilization and realize his ideals instead of living aimlessly as he thought was the case with the inhabitants of Nassau. Hornigold was deeply embittered by how much Nassau had degraded and deviated from his dream and willingly joined the Templars out of disgust for that failure and the life of piracy in general. Hornigold was also a good friend to his compatriots, tutoring Kenway in the ways of captaincy, and even warning him of the dangerous path he was taking.
==Trivia==
*In real life, Hornigold was incredibly skilled at boarding ships, and this is reflected in-game by him teaching Edward how to board a ship.
*Historically, Hornigold died when his ship was struck by a hurricane between New Providence and Mexico in an uncharted reef. The location of this reef is still unknown.
==Gallery==
Concept Art - Benjamin Hornigold.jpg|Concept art of Hornigold
ACMHornigold.jpg|Assassin's Creed: Memories art of Hornigold
ACMHornigoldBattle.jpg|Memories art of Hornigold in battle
Hornigold Pirates.png|Hornigold as he appears in Assassin's Creed: Pirates
Blackbeard's Journal sketch of Benjamin Hornigold.jpg|The sketch of Hornigold in Thatch's journal
Now Hiring 2.png|Hornigold among other pirates
Now Hiring 4.png|Hornigold with Thatch and Kenway
Prizes and Plunder 8.png|Thatch, Edward and Hornigold at Nassau's beach
Diving for Medicines 12.png|Vane telling Hornigold and Thatch about the King's pardon
Raise the Black Flag 1.png|Hornigold, Kenway and Thatch in Salt Key
We Demand A Parlay 9.png|Hornigold arguing with Charles Vane
Imagine My Surprise 7.png|Edward confronting Hornigold
Murder and Mayhem 6.png|Hornigold's final moments
ACFT - Noa confronted by Edward's past.png|Noa Kim seeing an apparition of Hornigold alongside Edward's other friends
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 
*Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
*Assassin's Creed: Initiates 
*Assassin's Creed: Pirates
*Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Blackbeard – The Lost Journal
*Assassin's Creed: Memories
*Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple 
*Echoes of History 
==References==
de:Benjamin Hornigold
es:Benjamin Hornigold
fr:Benjamin Hornigold
hu:Benjamin Hornigold
it:Benjamin Hornigold
nl:Benjamin Hornigold
pl:Benjamin Hornigold
pt-br:Benjamin Hornigold
ru:Бенджамин Хорниголд
zh:本杰明·霍尼戈尔德
Category:1680s births
Category:1719 deaths
Category:Individuals
Category:English people
Category:Privateers
Category:Royal Navy personnel
Category:Pirates
Category:Pirate captains
Category:Entrepreneurs
Category:Pirate hunters
Category:Flying Gang members
Category:Templars
Category:Caribbean Templars