Francis Farrington Spriggs is supposed to have sailed from London with Lowther, in March, 1721, in the ship “Gambia Castle,” and to have willingly followed him in his piratical venture. When Lowther joined forces with Ned Low in January, 1722, Spriggs was with him and when Lowther parted company with Low the following May, Spriggs seems to have thought Low a man after his own heart for he left his old commander and followed Low in the recently captured brigantine “Rebecca,” where he was made quartermaster. With Low he sailed along the New England coast and north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; then across the Atlantic to the Western Islands and back to the West Indies where, late in the year 1722, a Rhode Island-built sloop was captured which Low took over for his own command and Spriggs was given command of the Marblehead schooner “Fancy,” that had been taken at Port Roseway, Nova Scotia, in June. When Low and Spriggs had their narrow escape from capture by the man-of-war “Mermaid,” in February, 1723, Spriggs determined never to be taken and swore with a boon companion and pledged the oath in a bumper of rum, that when he saw there was no possibility of escaping they would set foot to foot and shoot one another and so cheat the halter.[136]
Before long there was a falling out between Low and Spriggs or, possibly, Spriggs may have been taken sick or been wounded; at any rate, Charles Harris was in command of a sloop called the “Ranger,” when the pirate vessel appeared off the coast of South Carolina on May 27, 1723, and fortunate it was for Spriggs, for later on this disastrous foray Low deserted his consort under fire near the Rhode Island coast and the “Ranger” was captured and Harris and many of his crew were tried and hanged at Newport. Spriggs served with Low on this voyage, in his old station as quartermaster, until the ship “Delight” was taken, off the Guinea coast, in the late fall. She was well suited to their needs so four more guns were mounted on her and Spriggs was given command with a crew of about sixty men. Within two days Spriggs deserted Low—slipped away in the night—and for this reason. One of the crew had murdered a man in cold blood and Spriggs was for executing him as a punishment. Low, on the other hand, would not agree and so there was a heated quarrel that embittered Spriggs and led to his desertion.
The next day Spriggs was elected captain of the company by popular vote, and a black flag was made with the same device as the ensign carried by Low, namely, a white skeleton holding in one hand an arrow piercing a bleeding heart and in the other hand an hour-glass. This flag they called the “Jolly Roger,” and when it was finished and hoisted to the masthead they fired all their guns in salute and sailed away to the West Indies in search of prey. Before long they overhauled a Portuguese bark that supplied some valuable plunder, but not content with that alone, Spriggs determined to torture the men by “sweating” them, a game that greatly diverted his piratical crew. Lighted candles were placed in a circle around the mizzenmast, between decks, and one by one the poor Portuguese were ordered to go inside the circle and run round and round the mast, while in a circle outside the candles stood the crew (as many as could crowd into line), armed with penknives, tucks,[137] forks, compasses, etc., and with roaring songs and boisterous laughter they pricked the terrified Portuguese as long as he was able to foot it. This usually lasted for ten minutes or more for the pirates took good care not to strike too deep and so kill their victims.[138] When the “sweating” was over the Portuguese were set adrift in a boat with a small quantity of provisions and their vessel was fired.
“SWEATING” ON CAPT. SPRIGG’S PIRATE VESSEL
From an engraving in “History and Lives of the Most Notorious Pirates,” by an old Seaman, London, n.d., in possession of Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.
Near the island of St. Lucia, Spriggs took a sloop owned in the Barbadoes, which was plundered and burned. Some of the crew were forced and others who absolutely refused to go with him were cut and badly beaten and set adrift in a boat. Captain De Haws was taken in sight of Barbadoes and two of his men were forced—James Rush and Joseph Cooper, both born in London, England. Some of Spriggs’ crew told Captain De Haws that they had come away from Captain Low “on account of the Barbarity he used those he took.”[139] A Martinico vessel was the next capture. The men were abused in the usual manner, but their vessel was not burned.
On March 22, 1724, a ship called the “Jolly Batchelor,” from Jamaica, commanded by Captain Hawkins, was taken near the island of Bonaco, as she was coming out of the Bay of Honduras. Her principal cargo was logwood, but her stores and ammunition were looted and what the pirates didn’t take they threw overboard or destroyed. In sheer mischief her cables were cut, the cabins knocked down and the cabin windows smashed. The first and second mates, Burrage and Stephens, and some of the men, were forced and on the 29th the ship was allowed to go. Two days before, however, a Newport, R. I. sloop, the “Endeavor,” commanded by Capt. Samuel Pike, Jr., came up and was ordered to lay by. The crew were forced and the mate Dixey Gross, “being a grave, sober man, and not inclinable to go, they told him he should have his Discharge, and that it should be immediately writ on his Back; whereupon he was sentenced to receive ten lashes from every Man in the Ship, which was vigorously put in Execution.”[140] Among those forced from the sloop were William Wood and Thomas Morris, a boy about twelve years old. Burrage, the first mate of Captain Hawkins’ ship, and a good navigator, is said to have signed their Articles.
On April 2d, a sail was sighted and Spriggs gave chase. After several hours they came close to her and fired a couple of broadsides when a cry for quarter came from the ship and soon she was found to be commanded by Captain Hawkins who had been looted and sent away only three days before. This was such a disappointment that when the captain came on board they laid for him with their cutlasses and soon he was flat on the deck. Before he received a fatal blow, Burrage pushed in among them and begged for the captain’s life and he having just shown himself the right sort by signing their Articles his request was heeded and Captain Hawkins was pulled to his feet. A bonfire was made of his ship, however, and a little later, desiring more diversion, the unfortunate Hawkins was sent down to the cabin for supper. This turned out to be a dish of candles which he was forced to swallow and then, in order to aid digestion, the poor man was thrown about the cabin until he was covered with bruises and afterward sent forward amongst the other prisoners.
Two days later Spriggs reached the small island of Roatan in the Bay of Honduras. It was uninhabited and here he put ashore Captain Hawkins, his boatswain, and an old man who had been a passenger on his ship and who afterwards died on the island of the hardships he had undergone. With them went Capt. Samuel Pike of the Rhode Island sloop and his mate Dixey Gross, Simon Fulmore, a sailor, and James Nelley, one of the pirate crew with whom Spriggs was at odds.[141] The marooned men were given an old musket and a small supply of powder and ball with which to make shift as best they could and Spriggs and his crew then sailed away. Captain Hawkins and his companions supplied themselves with fish and fowl and lived in comparative comfort for the next ten days, when two men in a dugout canoe came in sight and after a time answered their signals. These men conveyed them to another island which had better water and plenty of fish and twelve days later the sloop “Merriam,” Captain Jones, came in sight and answered their smoke signals. He stood in and took them off and by this timely rescue they all finally reached Jamaica safely. It is a curious coincidence that Captain Hawkins should have been marooned on the island of Roatan only four days after Philip Ashton, the Marblehead fisherman who had lived a solitary life on the same island for nine months, sailed from the nearby island of Bonaco, homeward bound, as is told in another chapter.
From Roatan, Spriggs sailed westward to another small island where he cleaned his ship and then steered a course for the island of St. Christopher, proposing to lay in wait for Captain Moore who had surprised Captain Lowther while his vessel was on careen at the island of Blanco. Spriggs had resolved to catch Captain Moore, if possible, and put him to death for being the cause of the death of Lowther, his brother pirate. Instead of Captain Moore, however, a French man-of-war was found by Spriggs to be on the coast and not fancying such company Spriggs crowded on all sail with the Frenchman after him. During the chase the man-of-war unfortunately lost her main-topmast and so Spriggs escaped the intended interview. Standing now to the northward, towards Bermuda, Spriggs overhauled on April 30th, a schooner owned in New York and commanded by Capt. William Richardson, who reported after reaching Boston, that Spriggs had told him that he intended to ravage the northern coasts and sink or burn all the vessels he took northward of Philadelphia.[142] Captain Durell, in His Majesty’s ship “Sea Horse,” was ordered to make sail at once in quest of Spriggs.