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Back in the day, if someone took your ship they were either doing so under the auspices of a country (privateer) or for their own benefit (pirate, buccaneer, corsair, etc.)...either way, whomever it was, you will probably find him (or her) listed here...
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Captain Sales

bornactivedied
unknown1697unknown


Edward Salter

bornactivedied
unknown1710s1719
A member of Edward Teach's crew. Hanged in Williamsburg, Virginia, 1719.
Notes (2)


Thomas Salter

bornactivedied
unknown1669unknown


Captain Richard Sample

bornactivedied
unknown1710sunknown
Notes (1)


Robert Sample

bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
Ship: Flying King, (formerly Mercury) sloop 4 Gunsn
Notes (2)


Captain Samson

bornactivedied
unknown1620sunknown
English pirate who was active in the seventeenth century. Captured the ship the Vergulde Leeuw, Captained by Roeloff Jansen of Amsterdam, in 1624. Died of his wounds the day after the capture of this ship.


Abraham Samuel

aka: Tolinar Rex
bornactivedied
unknown1690s-17051705
a mulatto pirate, born in Martinique, of the Indian Ocean in the days of the Pirate Round in the late-1690s. Being shipwrecked on his way back to New York, he briefly led a combined pirate-Antanosy kingdom from Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, from 1697 until he died there in 1705.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Writers

Thomas Sanders

borndied
unknownunknown
An Elizabethan mariner who was taken prisoner by the Moors. He wrote a narrative of his life as a slave on a Barbary pirate galley.
Notes (1)


Sao Cheng I

aka: Ching Yih Saou
bornactivedied
unknown1810sunknown
South China Sea, commanded either 5 or 6 squadrons consisting of 800 large junks, about 1,000 smaller vessels, and between 70,000 and 80,000 men and women.


Cross-listed in Military

Paul Dudley Sargent

borndied
1745, Jun1828, Sep 28
a privateer and soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Sargent also had interests as owner or bonder in numerous privateer vessels, on his own behalf and in partnership with James Swan, Mungo Mackay, Joseph Barrell and others. Among these was one of the largest privateers ever commissioned, the 300-ton three-decker Boston, for...
more
Timeline (1)Links (2)


Cross-listed in PhysiciansCartographers

Richard Sawkins

bornactivedied
unknown1679-16801680, May 22
a British buccaneer who participated in the Pacific Adventure, a privateering expedition headed by Captain John Coxon. Participated, along with Coxon and Bartholomew Sharp, in the surprise attack on Santa Marta. Sawkins attacked Spanish shipping merchants and...
more
Timeline (2)Links (1)Notes (1)


Captain Sawney

borndied
unknownunknown
A pirate of New Providence Island in the Bahamas. In this pirate republic this old man lived in the best hut, and was playfully known as "Governor Sawney."
Notes (1)


Goole Janfe Schelvis

bornactivedied
unknown1780sunknown
Dutch privateer in the eighteenth century. He was the captain of the ship the Vliegende Vis. He captured two British merchant ships in 1782: the United Grocers that was commanded by Henry Beatfon and the Tyne, commanded by captain Philip Wilkenfon. The cargoe of these two brigs was sold on 15 July 1782 in Amsterdam. The cargoe of the United Grocers consisted...
more
Notes (1)


Pieter Schouten

bornactivedied
unknown1622-16251625
a 17th-century Dutch corsair and privateer. He was one of the first Dutchmen to explore to the Caribbean and, while employed by the Dutch West Indies Company, was involved in extensive reconnaissance to establish Dutch bases in the West Indies.
Links (1)


Lewis Scot

bornactivedied
1650s-166316631705
an English buccaneer who, according to writer Alexander Esquemeling, was the first Englishman to raid Spanish coastal settlements in the Caribbean and West Indies during the mid-seventeenth century. Scot is especially known for his raid of the Spanish city of Campeche on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. After receiving a ransom for the city, he is said to have re...
more
Links (1)Notes (1)


Roger Scot

bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
Born at Bristol. One of Captain Roberts' crew. Tried for piracy in April, 1722, at Cape Coast Castle, West Africa, after the great defeat of the pirates by H.M.S. Swallow.
Notes (1)


Thomas Scott

borndied
unknown1749, Jul 24
seaman. Hanged for mutiny at Newgate.
Notes (1)


William Scott

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, November 8, 1718.
Notes (2)


Christopher Scudamore

bornactivedied
1670 ca1703-1710 ca1742 ca
Christopher Scudamore *1670?? - +1710?? English pirate, he worked in the Caribbean. He was a member of the crew of the pirate ship The Charles, led by Captain Daniel Plowman. The Charles sailed from Boston in July 1703 on a pirate expedition agai...
more
Notes (2)


Peter Scudamore

bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
Notes (2)


Robert Searle

aka: John Davis
bornactivedied
unknown1650s-1660sunknown
one of the earliest and most active of the English buccaneers on Jamaica. Nothing, to date, is known of his early life. Searle’s career as a “gentleman of fortune” was marred by frequent quarrels with Sir Thomas Modyford, royal governor of Jamaica, who usually befriended buccaneers.
Links (2)Gallery (1)Notes (2)


Alexander Selkirk

aka: Alexander Selcraig
bornactivedied
16761690s-1710s1721, Dec 13
a Scottish sailor who spent more than four years as a castaway after being marooned on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean (also known as the South Sea). Selkirk was an unruly youth, and joined buccaneering expeditions to the South Sea. By the time that he was rescued, he had become adept at hunting and making use of the resources that he found ...
more
Timeline (1)Links (1)Notes (1)


J.W. Sextroh

bornactivedied
unknown1780sunknown
Sextroh, who lived in Zierikzee, was active as a privateer in the eighteenth century. A highly controversial action of Sextroh involved his capture on 28 October 1782 of the British packetboat the Dolphin. The capture was controversial because of agreements between the Dutch Republic and Great Britain to refrain from attacking such ships. Sextroh received pe...
more


Shap Ng-tsai

aka: Shap'n'gtzai
bornactivedied
unknown1845-1859unknown
a Chinese pirate active in the South China Sea from about 1845 to 1859. He was one of the two most notorious South China Sea pirates of the era, along with Chui A-poo. He commanded about 70 junks stationed at Tien-pai (Tienpak. Coastal villages and traders paid Shap Ng-tsai protection money so they would not be attacked. Chinese naval ships that pursued the ...
more
Links (1)


Captain Bartholomew Sharp

bornactivedied
16501679-16881702, Oct 29
an English buccaneer whose pirate career lasted only three years (1679–82). Sharp's career as a pirate captain began when the buccaneers with whom he was sailing round South America needed a new commander. Overall, he plundered 25 Spanish ships and numerous small towns.
Links (1)Notes (2)


Rowland Sharp

bornactivedied
unknown1710sunknown
Of Bath, North Carolina. Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Tried for piracy in Charleston, South Carolina, November, 1718. Acquitted
Notes (2)


Roger Shaster

bornactivedied
unknown1560s1564
One of Captain Heidon's crew of the pirate ship John of Sandwich, which was wrecked on the coast of Alderney. Shaster was arrested and hanged at St. Martin's Point, Guernsey, in 1564.
Notes (2)


John Shaw

bornactivedied
unknown1720s1722, Mar 11
Member of George Lowther’s crew. Hanged at St. Kitts, March 11, 1722.
Notes (2)


Henry Shergall

aka: Sherral
borndied
unknownunknown
Buccaneer. A seaman with Captain Bartholomew Sharp in his South Sea voyage. One October day he fell into the sea while going into the spritsail-top and was drowned. "This incident several of our company interpreted as a bad omen, which proved not so, through ...
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Notes (3)


Captain Shipton

bornactivedied
unknown1724 caunknown


Shirahama Kenki

bornactivedied
unknown1585-15991599
a Japanese pirate of the late 16th-early 17th centuries, one of the first Japanese with whom the southern Vietnamese kingdom of the Nguyen Lords made contact. He first arrived on the Vietnamese coast in 1585, with five ships, and began to engage in pirate raids and coastal assaults. Fourteen years later, in 1599, Shirahama's craft crashed near the port of T...
more
Links (2)


Elizabeth Shirland

bornactivedied
15771590s-1600sunknown
she was born around 1577 in Devonshire, England. Elizabeth and some of her family joined a group of settlers to live on a colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585. Elizabeth was known as a very beautiful yet vigorous and energetic girl, and maybe that is the...
more
Links (3)


Cross-listed in ExplorersWriters

Anthony Shirley

aka: Anthony Sherley
bornactivedied
15651590s-1600s1637
an English traveller, whose imprisonment in 1603 by King James I caused the English House of Commons to assert one of its privileges—freedom of its members from arrest—in a document known as The Form of Apology and Satisfaction. In 1596, he conducted a predatory expedition along the western coast of Africa and then across to Central America, but owing to...
more
Links (3)Notes (1)


Richard Shivers

bornactivedied
unknown1697 caunknown
This South Sea pirate cruised in company with Culliford and Nathaniel North in the Red Sea, preying principally on Moorish ships, and also sailed about the Indian Ocean as far as the Malacca Islands. He accepted the royal pardon to pirates, which was brought out to Madagascar by Commodore Littleton, and apparently gave up his wicked ways thereafter.
Notes (2)


William Shutfield

bornactivedied
1683 ca1720s1723, Jul
Of Lancaster. Hanged at Rhode Island in July, 1723, at the age of 40.
Notes (1)


John Siccadam

borndied
unknownunknown
Of Boston. One of Captain Pound's crew. Found guilty of piracy, but pardoned.
Notes (2)


Johan Sieuwertszoon

bornactivedied
unknown1570sunknown
Dutch privateer active in the 16th century. On 15 May 1570 he received a Letter of Marque from Willem van Oranje


Henry Simms

aka: Gentleman Harry
bornactivedied
17161740s1747, Jun 17
Pickpocket, highwayman, pirate, and Old Etonian.
Notes (1)


Dirck Simonszoon van Uitgeest

aka: Simonszoon van Uytgeest
bornactivedied
1590 ca1620s1635 ca
Dutch pirate, he worked at the northern coast of South America. Challenged the Spanish and Portuguese ships and colonies.......Dutch corsair who commanded a WIC expedition to Brazil bringing back over 12 Portuguese and Spanish prizes.


Martin Skines

bornactivedied
unknown1699 caunknown


Captain Skipton

borndied
unknownunknown
Commanded a pirate ship, in which he sailed in company with Captain Spriggs. Being chased by H.M.S. Diamond off the coast of Cuba, Skipton ran his sloop on to the Florida Reef. Escaping with his crew to an island, they were attacked by the Indians, and many of them were captured and eaten. The survivors, embarking in a canoe, were caught by the man-of-war an...
more
Notes (1)


James Skyrme

bornactivedied
unknown1720-1722 1722
Welsh pirate. Hanged at the advanced age—for a pirate—of 44. Commanded the Ranger, one of Captain Roberts's ships that cruised in 1721 and 1722 off the West Coast of Africa. In the fight with the King's ship that took him he was very active with a drawn sword in his hand, with which he beat any of his crew who were at all backward. One of his legs was sh...
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Notes (2)


Christina Anna Skytte

bornactivedied
16431650s-1660s1677
a Swedish baroness and pirate. From 1657 onward, her brother, baron Gustav Skytte, secrecy managed a pirate ship, by which he attacked and plundered ships in the Baltic sea. Christina Anna and her fiance, baron Gustaf Drake (1634-1684), were also initiated in this activity and became his partners.
Links (1)


Gustav Skytte

bornactivedied
16371657-16631663, Apr 21
a Swedish nobleman and pirate. Born as the child of Jacob Skytte and Anna Bjelkenstjerna, he became a pirate at the age of 20 and plundered ships in the Baltic Sea together with his noble accomplices. In 1662, their pirate activity was exposed. Gustaf Drake and Anna Christina fled the country, but Skytte was arrested and put on trial. He was convicted of pir...
more
Links (1)


Aaron Smith

borndied
unknownunknown


George Smith

borndied
unknownunknown
Welsh pirate. One of Captain Roberts's pirates. Hanged at the age of 25.
Notes (2)


Hugh Smith

bornactivedied
1545 ca1577 ca1589 ca
English pirate. He was a member of the crew by Francis Drake in 1560 and attended all his robberies expeditions to the Caribbean. Together plundered many Spanish ships, towns and villages. He was also on the ship GOLDEN HIND (PELICAN) Vice Admiral Francis Drake...
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Notes (1)


John Smith [1]

bornactivedied
1550 ca1572-15731570s
John Smith *1550?? - +1573. English pirate. In 1572 he became a member of the crew of Francis Drake. In the Caribbean and along the Atlantic plundered Spanish ships and settlements. In 1573 he participated in the attack on Nobre de Dios, where they seized a larg...
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John Smith [4]

bornactivedied
unknown1660s-16721672
One of the mutinous crew of the Antonio. Hanged at Boston in 1672.
Notes (1)


John Smith [5]

bornactivedied
unknown1699 caunknown


John Smith [6]

borndied
unknown1725


John Smith [7]

borndied
unknownunknown


John-William Smith

aka: John Williams
bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718, Nov 8
Crew member of Revenge/Royal James, commanded by Major Stede Bonnet. Hanged at Charleston, South Carolina, November 8, 1718.
Notes (2)


Major Samuel Smith

bornactivedied
unknown1640s-1660sunknown
Buccaneer. At one time a buccaneer with the famous Mansfield. In 1641 he was sent, by the Governor of Jamaica, with a party to reinforce the troops which under Mansfield had recaptured the New Providence Island from the Spanish. In 1660 he was taken prisoner by the Spanish and carried to Panama and there kept in chains in a dungeon for seventeen months.
Notes (1)


Stephen Smith

bornactivedied
unknown1699 caunknown


Cross-listed in Naval

George Somers

bornactivedied
1554, Apr1570s-16101610
an English naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston that plundered Caracas and Coro in 1595 during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. He is remembered ...
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Timeline (1)Links (11)


Jan Marinus van Sommelsdijk

aka: Assan Reis
bornactivedied
unknown1620sunknown
Former Dutch privateer turned Barbary corsair. He attacked the Dutch ship St. Jan Babtista under Jacob Jacobsen of Ilpendam on March 7, 1626......Corsair who was active in the 17th century. Attacked a Dutch ship on 7 March 1626, called the St. Jan Babtista and captained by Jacob Jacobsen of Ilpendam........ Alias: Meinart Dircxsen, family of more


Soren

borndied
unknown1723?
"The Bloody"


Joseph Sound

bornactivedied
1695 ca1720s1723
Of the city of Westminster. Hanged, at the age of 28, at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1723.
Notes (1)


John Sparkes

bornactivedied
unknown1690s1696
A member of Captain Avery's crew, and described by one of his shipmates as being "a true cock of the game." A thief, he robbed his fellow-shipmates, and from one, Philip Middleton, he stole 270 pieces of gold. Hanged at Execution Dock in 1696.
Notes (1)


James Sparks

bornactivedied
unknown1720sunknown
A Newfoundland fisherman. In August, 1723, with John Phillips and three others, ran away with a vessel to go "on the account." Sparks was appointed gunner.
Notes (2)


Bernard Claesen Speirdyke

bornactivedied
unknown1663-16701670
a 17th-century Dutch buccaneer. Commander of the 18-gun Mary and Jane, he was a longtime privateer active in Cuba throughout the 1660s and, on his first voyage, successfully attacked and looted the town of San Tomas while sailing along the coast of Venezuela.
Links (1)Notes (1)


Robert Spratlin

bornactivedied
unknown1680sunknown
Was one of William Dampier's party which in 1681 crossed the Isthmus of Darien, when he was left behind in the jungle with Wafer. Spratlin was lost when the little party attempted to ford the swollen Chagres River. He afterwards rejoined Wafer.
Notes (1)


Captain Francis Farrington Spriggs

bornactivedied
unknown1721-17251725
a British pirate who, associated with George Lowther and Edward Low, was active in the Caribbean and the Bay of Honduras during the early 1720s. Although much of his ...
more
Links (4)Notes (2)


Captain Springer

bornactivedied
unknown1680sunknown
He fought gallantly with Sawkins and Ringrose in the Battle of Perico off Panama on St. George's Day in 1680. He gave his name to Springer's Cay, one of the Samballoes Islands. This was the rendezvous chosen by the pirates, where William Dampier and his party f...
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Notes (1)


George Spurre

bornactivedied
unknown1683 caunknown


Jean St. Faust

bornactivedied
unknown1800sunknown
Frenchman who was the Commander of a fleet of Dutch eight privateer ships in 1803. The ships sailed out in small squadrons in order to cause the most damage to the enemy. In September and October of 1803 several British merchant ships were captured by the Dutch privateers under his comman On 3 March 1804 the British man-of-war the Amethis under the command o...
more


Richard St. Quintin

bornactivedied
unknown1760s1765, Dec 19
Member of Peter M'Kinlie's gang. Captured and executed at Newgate for the theft of the Earl of Sandwich (and cargo) and murder of eight.
Links (1)Notes (3)


Captain Stanley

bornactivedied
unknown1650s-1660unknown
Buccaneer. With a few other buccaneers in their stronghold at New Providence Island in 1660, withstood an attack by a Spanish fleet for five days. The three English captains, Stanley, Sir Thomas Whetstone, and Major Smith, were carried to Panama and there cast into a dungeon and bound in irons for seventeen months.
Notes (1)


Captain Stedman

bornactivedied
unknown1666unknown
Buccaneer. In 1666, with Captain Robert Searle and a party of only eighty men, he took and plundered the Dutch island of Tobago. Later on, after the outbreak of war with France, he was captured by a French frigate off the Island of Guadeloupe. Stedman had a small...
more
Notes (1)


William Stephens

bornactivedied
unknown1670s-16821682, Jan 14
Died on January 14th, 1682, on board of Captain Sharp's ship a few days before their return to the Barbadoes from the South Seas. His death was supposed to have been caused by indulging too freely in mancanilla while ashore at Golfo Dulce. "Next morning we threw overboard our dead man and gave him two French vollies and one English one."
Notes (2)


John Stephenson

bornactivedied
unknown1721-17221722
Sailed as an honest seaman in the Onslow (Captain Gee) from Sestos. Taken in May, 1721, by the pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts, he willingly joined the pirates. When Roberts was killed on board the Royal Fortune, Stephenson burst into tears, and d...
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Notes (2)


Richard Stiles

bornactivedied
unknown1710s-17181718
A member of Edward Teach's crew. Tried and hanged in Williamsburg VA in 1718.
Notes (2)


William Stoke

bornactivedied
unknown1710sunknown
a member of Edward Teach's crew.


Thomas Storey

bornactivedied
unknown1689-1690unknown
One of William Coward's crew which stole the ketch Elinor in Boston Harbour. Condemned to be hanged on January 27th, 1690, but afterwards reprieved.
Notes (2)


Ralph Stout

bornactivedied
unknown1690s1697
In 1692 Stout was arrested in India while serving with James Kelley. The prisoners escaped by boat four years later and made their way to Bombay. There, they enlisted as crew members under the command of Captain Edgecumbe aboard the Mocha. Eight days after ...
more
Links (2)Notes (1)


Thomas Stradling

bornactivedied
unknown1703 caunknown
Captain of the Cinque Ports under the overall command of William Dampier. Marooned Alexander Selkirk (at his request), who became the basis for Rob...
more
Notes (1)


Henry Strangways

aka: Strangwish
bornactivedied
unknown1552-15601562
an English "Gentleman Pirate" who attacked Spanish and other shipping. He was repeatedly imprisoned, and pardoned by highly placed friends, during his approximately eight-year piratical career, from about 1552 to 1560. Strangways began his career as a pirate in 1552-53, plying the Irish Sea for plunder. There he joined forces with the Cornish Killigrews, suc...
more
Links (2)


Captain Sturges

borndied
unknownunknown
An Elizabethan pirate, who had his headquarters at Rochelle. In company with the notorious pirate Calles, he in one year pillaged two Portuguese, one French, one Spanish, and also a Scotch ship. His end is not known.
Notes (1)


Robert Surcouf

bornactivedied
1773, Dec 121798-18091827, Jul 8
a French privateer and slave trader who operated in the Indian Ocean between 1789 and 1801, and again from 1807 to 1808, capturing over 40 prizes, while amassing a large fortune as a ship-owner, both from privateering and from commerce for a time.
Links (3)


Thomas Sutton [1]

bornactivedied
16991720s-17221722, Apr
Born at Berwick in 1699. Gunner in Bartholomew Roberts' ship the Royal Fortune. At his trial he was proved to have been particularly active in helping to take a Dutch merchantman, the Gertruycht. Hanged in chains at Cape Coast Castle in April, 1722, ...
more
Notes (1)


Captain Swan

bornactivedied
unknown1680sunknown
Commanded the Nicholas, and met William Dampier when in the Batchelor's Delight at the Island of Juan Fernandez in 1684. The two captains cruised together off the west coast of South America, the Nicholas leaving Dampier, who returned to England b...
more
Notes (2)


Charles Swan

bornactivedied
unknown1671-16871690
a reluctant buccaneer. Captain Swan was forced into piracy by his crew in the 1680s, and proceeded to write letters to the owners of his ship Cygnet in London, begging them to intercede with James II of England for his pardon - even as he looted his way up and down the coast of South America.
Links (1)Notes (1)


John Swann

bornactivedied
unknown1699 caunknown


Joseph Switzer

borndied
unknownunknown
Of Boston in New England. Tried for piracy at Rhode Island in 1723, but found to be "not guilty."
Notes (1)


David Sympson

bornactivedied
unknown1720s-17221722
Born at North Berwick. One of Roberts's crew. Tried and hanged at Cape Coast Castle in 1722. On the day of execution Sympson was among the first six prisoners to be brought up from the ship's hold to have their fetters knocked off and to be fitted with halters, and it was observed that none of the culprits appeared in the least dejected, except Sympson, who ...
more
Notes (1)

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