Woodes Rogers

Woodes Rogers (c. 1679 – 1732) was an English privateer, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas, and a member of the West Indies Rite of the Templar Order during the early 18th century.
Born into a wealthy seafaring family, Rogers took to the sea as a young man. He later inherited his father's shipping company, though financial problems prompted him to become a privateer in the New World. After an eventful three-year expedition, during which he gained his trademark facial scar, Rogers returned to England in 1711.
Gaining much fame and wealth thanks to his memoirs, Rogers decided to return to the sea after only two years, in part to escape his turbulent home life. From 1713 to 1714, he led a successful expedition to Madagascar to rid the island of its pirate occupants, and later attempted to do the same in the West Indies. In the process, he met Cuban governor Laureano de Torres y Ayala, who inducted Rogers into the Templar Order in 1715.
In 1718, Rogers was appointed Governor of the Bahamas by King George I of Great Britain and traveled to Nassau to offer the King's pardon to its inhabitants. His mission was a success and resulted in the collapse of Nassau's nascent Pirate Republic, whereupon Rogers set about restoring order to the city. He also aided the Templars' efforts to locate the Observatory, until an attempt on his life by the Assassin Edward Kenway in 1721 left him grievously wounded.
That same year, Rogers was recalled back to England by the King due to his lackluster performance as governor. His time as a Templar also came to an end, for he was expelled from the Order for his slave trading. Bankrupt and humiliated, Rogers languished in a debtor's prison for some years before attempting to rebuild his fortune and reputation. He was eventually successful and was granted a second term as Governor of the Bahamas in 1728, dying in office four years later.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Woodes Rogers was born into a wealthy seafaring family with roots in both and Bristol. By age 18, he had taken to the sea himself as an apprentice Mariner. He subsequently joined the Royal Navy and rose through the ranks to become a captain.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Woodes Rogers
After his father's death in 1706, Rogers inherited his family's prosperous shipping company, which he took to managing with great passion. Between 1704 and 1707, his fortunes and family grew, and by the time he was twenty-seven, his marriage to Sarah Whetstone had produced one son and two daughters.
By the end of 1707, Rogers' company had suffered major losses due to raids by French forces, prompting Rogers to look for ways to regain his wealth. While in Bristol, he met William Dampier, an old friend from his time in the Royal Navy, who suggested setting out on a privateering expedition to the New World. Intrigued by the idea, Rogers accepted and started his voyage in 1708, one that would last over three years.
===Life as a privateer===
During his time as a privateer, Rogers was met with both successes and failures. In 1709, off the western coast of South America, he found and rescued , a marooned sailor who had been living in isolation for the past four years. This story would later serve as the inspiration for the book .
According to soldiers stationed in Kingston, Jamaica, it was during this period of time that Rogers' ship engaged the Spanish Navy in a ferocious multi-day battle, during which the captain was shot through the left cheek. However, he was reported to have kept on commanding his men until he was wounded by a wooden shard becoming lodged in his foot. The latter wound healed, but the facial damage left a terrible scar that would never go away.
In late 1711, Rogers returned to England and began writing and publishing his memoirs, which brought him much fame and allowed him to regain his fortune. However, the death of his son and estrangement from his wife left him bitter. This was worsened when his former crew sued him for unfairly distributing goods during his career as a privateer.
In 1713, Rogers took back to the sea and set his sights on Madagascar, which housed a pirate colony known as Libertalia. After months of hard sailing, Rogers secured passage to Madagascar by claiming to be a slave merchant, but discovered that the legends of Libertalia's greatness had been vastly exaggerated. The pirates there were few and sickly and Rogers was able to easily parlay with them, giving them the same ultimatum he would later employ in the West Indies: accept the King's pardon and return to England penniless, but free; or be hung by the neck until dead.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Mister Walpole, I Presume?
After roughly fourteen months spent around the African island, the pirate threat was eradicated and Rogers set sail for England, discouraged by the miserable state of the so-called "pirate utopia" he had found. However, he soon changed his mind and decided to head to the West Indies instead and continue his fight against piracy, having heard rumors of a nascent pirate republic in Nassau.
===Induction into the Templar Order===
By July 1715, Rogers had arrived in Havana, Cuba and became acquainted with Governor Laureano de Torres y Ayala, the Grand Master of the Templar Order in the West Indies. Torres offered Rogers a place in the Order alongside two other potential recruits: the French arms dealer Julien du Casse, and the Assassin turncoat Duncan Walpole, who was to deliver a blood vial and several maps of Assassin encampments to Torres. While awaiting Duncan's arrival outside the governor's residence, Rogers and du Casse decided to engage in a friendly shooting competition to pass the time.
However, the two Templars found themselves waiting longer than expected, as the man they believed to be Duncan Walpole arrived a week late. In actuality, the man that joined them was the pirate Edward Kenway, who had assumed Duncan's identity in order to claim his promised reward. Although Rogers' wife had allegedly met Duncan at a masquerade ball years prior, Rogers was none the wiser and jokingly claimed that his wife had lied to him about Duncan's "good looks" to stir his jealousy.
As Torres was not yet ready to meet with them, Rogers and du Casse resumed their shooting competition and invited "Duncan" to participate. After Edward beat a challenge set by Rogers, he and du Casse requested that "Duncan" show his skills in assassination techniques; thanks to Edward's freerunning abilities, he was able to mimic these techniques with very little effort. The trio then went to meet Torres who, after inspecting the blood vial delivered by Edward, officially inducted them into the Templar Order.
Torres subsequently revealed his plans of locating the Observatory, an Isu site, with the help of the Sage Bartholomew Roberts, which would further the Templars' goal of establishing a New World Order. When Rogers pointed out that the Assassins would surely try to stop them, Torres claimed that, thanks to the information delivered by "Duncan", the Assassins would not be a "problem for much longer". After toasting their schemes, the Templars made arrangements to convene the next day at the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta and then retired for the night.
The following day, Rogers met Edward near the Havana docks, where Roberts was being held captive. As they prepared to go retrieve the Sage, Rogers heard Stede Bonnet call Edward by his real name and questioned him about it. Edward claimed that Bonnet was the one who had brought him to Havana and that he had given him a false name out of caution, allaying Rogers' suspicion.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – A Man They Call the Sage
Meeting with the other Templars, Rogers and Edward prepared to escort Roberts back to the governor's mansion for interrogation. Along the way, the group was forced to fend off an Assassin attack, during which Roberts was nearly able to escape. After Edward recaptured the Sage, Rogers informed his fellow Templars that he had to sail to England to attend to private matters, though he promised to return to the West Indies, hopefully in the position of governor.
True to his word, by 1717, Rogers was back in the Caribbean, where he attempted to restore trade and eradicate the remaining Assassin presence. His mission was deemed crucial to the Templar Order, although his superiors tasked him to focus on the search for the Observatory and the Fragment of Eden,Assassin's Creed: Pirates – Lost files: "Woodes Rogers – The hunter" a Piece of Eden which had been stolen by the Assassin Samuel Bellamy and his pirate associates, Alonzo Batilla and Olivier Levasseur.Assassin's Creed: Pirates – The Whydah's Secret 
===Negotiating with pirates===
On 22 July 1718, Rogers, having been appointed Governor of the Bahamas, arrived in Nassau to restore British rule to the city. He offered the King's pardon to the pirate leaders Edward Thatch, Benjamin Hornigold, and Charles Vane, as well as ordering a blockade of Nassau by the Royal Navy.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – We Demand a Parlay However, Vane and Edward Kenway escaped Nassau after killing Rogers' associate, Commodore Peter Chamberlaine, who had intended to disregard Rogers' orders and sink every pirate vessel in the city.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Commodore Eighty-Sixed
Shortly after his affairs in Nassau, Rogers visited the Caicos Islands to deal with remaining pirates who had turned down the King's pardon. With a British war fleet under his command, the governor encountered the pirates Alonzo Batilla and Olivier Levasseur who, upon seeing Rogers' fleet appear on the horizon, decided to split up.Assassin's Creed: Pirates – The Way Out
In response, Rogers sent six of his vessels to attack Batilla, but the pirate managed to sink all the ships, delaying the British fleet and giving Levasseur time to flee. Rogers subsequently faced Batilla himself and, after a short battle in which the former's vessel proved superior, Batilla fled the fight. Rogers did not care to pursue the pirate and ordered his fleet to return to Nassau.
===First term as Governor===
Having successfully reclaimed Nassau in the name of the British Crown, Rogers set about restoring order to the city. He rid it of any remaining pirates and hung a number of men who refused to take the King's pardon yet had remained in Nassau. However, Rogers' tenure as governor was soon faced with several difficulties, as a significant portion of his crew became sick and died, likely of . Another large portion of the soldiers who had accompanied him to Nassau left with little warning and headed to the colonies in the north.
In March 1719, Rogers received word that a Spanish fleet was on its way to attack Nassau, as Spain and England were at once again. Although Rogers had spent much of his own fortune renovating Nassau's decrepit fort, the fragile town was still unprepared for a full assault. Fortunately, the Spanish fleet turned away at the last minute and instead a French to the north.
Two months later, Rogers and Benjamin Hornigold – the only one of Nassau's three pirate leaders to accept the King's pardon – traveled to Kingston in search of Bartholomew Roberts, who had escaped the Templars' custody during Rogers' absence. Learning from a Royal African Company employee that Roberts' ship, the Princess, was due to arrive soon, the two met up with Torres to inform him of these developments. As Hornigold had already sent his men, Josiah Burgess and John Cockram, to Príncipe in search of Roberts, the Templars decided to await their return and left Kingston.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Imagine My Surprise
In late 1719, Rogers was sent back to England by Torres on a secret mission to collect blood samples from members of the British Parliament, for eventual use when the Templars discovered the Observatory's location.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – The Observatory
===Dealings with Edward Kenway===
In November 1720, Rogers and Torres learned that Edward Kenway had been imprisoned in Port Royal after a short-lived alliance with Bartholomew Roberts, and traveled to the prison to interrogate him. As they observed the sentencing of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, the two Templars made what Edward perceived as veiled threats towards his estranged wife Caroline Scott-Kenway. They then offered the pirate his freedom in exchange for the Observatory's location, but Edward refused to talk.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – To Suffer Without Dying
While Rogers threatened Edward by pointing a pistol at his back, Torres warned him that they could only prevent the British authorities from executing him for a time. However, Edward remained silent and was eventually returned to his cell while Rogers and Torres took their leave. Five months later, Edward would managed to escape Port Royal with the Assassins' help, before the Templars could obtain the information they were after.
By early 1721, Rogers had been recalled to England by King George I, who was unhappy with his performance as Governor of the Bahamas. Dwindling finances and a general apathy among the population meant that Nassau had seen little improvement in the past three years, and Rogers decided to travel back to London to defend himself. However, the governor fell deathly ill before he could make the trip, and was later wounded in a duel gone bad, delaying his departure by six weeks.
After recuperating in Charles-Towne, South Carolina, Rogers decided to host a party in Kingston to celebrate the end of his term as governor. At the feast, Rogers addressed his guests with a speech, during which he made it apparent that he was displeased with the King's decision to recall him, so much that that he cursed the man several times and continued to do so throughout the rest of his time at the party.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – A Governor No Longer
Unbeknownst to Rogers, Edward Kenway had slipped into the party by impersonating the visiting Italian diplomat Ruggiero Ferraro. Positioning himself on a bench, Edward leapt off it as Rogers passed him and stabbed the Templar in the abdomen with his Hidden Blade.
Interrogating the injured Rogers, Edward confronted him about the Templars' plans for the Observatory and demanded information about Bartholomew Roberts' location, to stop the Sage from misusing the Observatory. Amused at the irony of having found an ally in his killer, Rogers told Edward that his men had sighted Roberts near Príncipe, before seemingly succumbing to his wounds.
===Later life===
Rogers ultimately survived the injuries inflicted by Edward and returned to England, bankrupt and humiliated, but still dangerous in the eyes of the Assassins.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – The End However, his attempts to convince King George to fund his term as governor failed and, by 1723, he languished in a debtor's prison. To make matters worse, Rogers' continued slave trading and hot temper saw him being expelled from the Templar Order.Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
Eventually, Rogers was released from prison after his debts were absolved and spent the next few years trying to rebuild his wealth and reputation. He found some success thanks to the publication of Charles Johnson's , which painted Rogers in a heroic light for his quest to rid the West Indies of pirates. With his reputation restored, Rogers was granted a generous pension by the King and was appointed Governor of the Bahamas for a second term, a post he held from 1728 until his death in 1732.
==Behind the scenes==
Woodes Rogers is a historical figure and character introduced in the 2013 video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, where he was voiced by the English actor Shaun Dingwall.
Historically, Rogers only arrived in the West Indies in 1718, heading straight back to England after his expedition to Madagascar from 1713 to 1714. Additionally, he set sail from the Bahamas to London in March 1721, and not in May as it is depicted in the game.
Rogers' flagship, the Delicia, makes an appearance in a trailer for Black Flag, but is never seen in-game.
==Trivia==
*Concept art of Rogers depicts him with a peg leg, referencing his injury of a wooden shard embedded in his foot.
*Rogers is one of the few assassination targets throughout the series to say their final words in the Memory Corridor and then ultimately survive their wounds.
*Even after Rogers' recall from his post as governor, British Regulars in Nassau could still be heard saying that "Rogers'll sort them (pirates) out soon enough."
*Rogers' database entry incorrectly lists his year of death as 1731 rather than 1732.
*In Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye included Rogers amongst the people that Adéwalé reportedly "rubbed elbows with" during his time in the West Indies, despite the fact that Rogers was never seen interacting with Adéwalé in Black Flag.
==Gallery==
Concept Art - Woodes Rogers.jpeg|Concept art of Woodes Rogers
ACP Woodes Rogers.png|Rogers as he appears in Assassin's Creed: Pirates
ACIRogers.jpg|A 1729 painting by depicting Rogers receiving a map from his son
Mister Walpole I Presume 1.png|Rogers and Julien du Casse having a shooting competition
Mister Walpole I Presume 6.png|Rogers with his fellow Templars and Edward
We Demand A Parlay 8.png|Rogers and Peter Chamberlaine meeting with the pirates in Nassau
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 
*Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
*Assassin's Creed: Initiates 
*Assassin's Creed: Pirates
*Assassin's Creed: Rogue 
==References==
de:Woodes Rogers
es:Woodes Rogers
fr:Woodes Rogers
it:Woodes Rogers
pl:Woodes Rogers
pt-br:Woodes Rogers
ru:Вудс Роджерс
zh:伍兹·罗杰斯
Category:1679 births
Category:1732 deaths
Category:Individuals
Category:English people
Category:Privateers
Category:Sea captains
Category:Slavers
Category:Pirate hunters
Category:Governors of the Bahamas
Category:Royal Navy personnel
Category:Templars
Category:Caribbean Templars