The money taken on the “Whidaw” was reported to amount to £20,000. It was counted over in the cabin and put up in bags, fifty pounds as every man’s share, there being one hundred and eighty men on board. “The money was kept in chests between decks without any Guard.”
The next day Bellamy and Williams sailed and shaped a course for the Capes of Virginia on the way taking an English ship, hired by the French, laden with sugar and indigo, and after an inspection dismissing her. Off the Virginia coast three ships and a snow were taken, two of them hailing from Scotland, one from Bristol, and the last, a Scotch ship from the Barbadoes with a little rum and sugar aboard, in so leaky a condition that the crew refused to go farther in her and so the pirates sunk her and put the crew on board the snow which was commanded by a Captain Montgomery. This vessel was taken over and manned by men from the “Whidaw.” The two other ships were plundered and discharged.
Just at this time a storm came up and Bellamy took in all his small sails and Williams double-reefed his main sail. It was a thunder-storm and the wind blew with such violence that the “Whidaw” was very nearly over-set. Fortunately it blew from the northwest and so drove them away from the coast with only the goose-wings of the foresails to scud with. Towards night the storm increased mightily “and not only put them by all Sail, but obliged the Whidaw to bring her Yards aportland, and all they could do with Tackles to the Goose Neck of the Tiler, four Men in the Gun Room, and two at the Wheel, was to keep her Head to the Sea, for had she once broach’d to, they must infallibly have founder’d. The Heavens, in the mean while, were cover’d with Sheets of Lightning, which the Sea by the Agitation of the saline Particles seem’d to imitate; the Darkness of the Night was such, as the Scripture says, as might be felt; the terrible hollow roaring of the Winds, cou’d be only equalled by the repeated, I may say, incessant Claps of Thunder, sufficient to strike a Dread of the supream Being, who commands the Sea and the Winds, one would imagine in every Heart; but among these Wretches, the Effect was different, for they endeavoured by their Blasphemies, Oaths, and horrid Imprecations, to drown the Uproar of jarring Elements. Bellamy swore he was sorry he could not run out his Guns to return the Salute, meaning the Thunder, that he fancied the Gods had got drunk over their Tipple, and were gone together by the Ears:
“They continued scudding all that Night under their bare Poles. The next Morning the Main-Mast being sprung in the Step, they were forced to cut it away, and, at the same time, the Mizzen came by the Board. These Misfortunes made the Ship ring with Blasphemy, which was encreased, when, by trying the Pumps, they found the Ship made a great Deal of Water; tho’ by continually plying them, it kept it from gaining upon them: The Sloop as well as the Ship, was left to the Mercy of the Winds, tho’ the former, not having a Tant-Mast, did not lose it. The Wind shifting round the Compass, made so outrageous and short a Sea, that they had little Hopes of Safety; it broke upon the Poop, drove in the Taveril, and wash’d the two Men away from the Wheel, who were saved in the Netting. The Wind after four Days and three Nights abated of its Fury, and fixed in the North, North East Point, hourly decreasing, and the Weather clearing up, so that they spoke to the Sloop, and resolv’d for the Coast of Carolina; they continued this Course but a Day and a Night, when the Wind coming about to the Southward, they changed their Resolution to that of going to Rhode Island. All this while the Whidaw’s Leak continued, and it was as much as the Lee-Pump could do to keep the Water from gaining, tho’ it was kept continually going. Jury-Masts were set up, and the Carpenter finding the Leak to be in the Bows, occasioned by the Oakam spewing out of a Seam, the Crew became very jovial again; the Sloop received no other Damage than the Loss of the Main-Sail, which the first Flurry tore away from the Boom.”[90]
While on the voyage to Rhode Island they came upon a Boston-owned sloop commanded by Captain Beer, who was ordered on board the “Whidaw” while the sloop was being plundered. Both Bellamy and Williams were for giving Captain Beer his sloop again but for some reason the company would not agree to it and so the sloop was sunk and later Captain Beer was set ashore on Block Island. He reached his home in Newport, the first of May.
After the vote to sink the sloop had been taken Bellamy announced the fact to the captain in a speech that has been preserved in the “History of the Pirates.”
“D—— my Bl——d,” says he, “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 for my Advantage; damn the Sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of Use to you. Tho’, damn ye, 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 their Knavery; but damn ye altogether: Damn them for a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them, for a Parcel of hen-hearted Numskuls. They villify 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 One of us, than sneak after the A——s of these Villains for Employment? Capt. Beer told him, that his Conscience would not allow him to break thro’ the Laws of God and Man. You are a devilish Conscience Rascal, d——n ye, replied Bellamy, 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 sniveling Puppies, who allow Superiors to kick them about Deck at Pleasure; and pin their Faith upon a Pimp of a Parson: a Squab, who neither practices nor believes what he puts upon the chuckle-headed Fools he preaches to.”[91]
On board the “Whidaw” was a man named Lambert, and John Julian, a Cape Cod Indian, both of whom knew the coast and who were to act as pilots. It was Bellamy’s intention to clean his ship at Green Island.
On Friday, April 26, 1717, early in the morning, about a fortnight after setting Captain Beer ashore, when halfway between Nantucket shoals and St. George’s banks, the pirates came up with a pink, the “Mary Anne,” of Dublin, Capt. Andrew Crumpstey, with a cargo of wine from Madeira. She had touched at Boston and was bound for New York. The pirate vessels came up “with King’s Ensign and Pendant flying” and after the pink had struck her colors a boat was hoisted out from the “Whidaw” and seven men were sent on board “armed with Musquets, Pistols and Cutlasses.” Captain Crumpstey, with five of his hands, was ordered to go aboard the “Whidaw” with his ship’s papers. The mate, Thomas Fitzgerald, and two seamen, Alexander Mackconachy and James Dunavan, were left on board the “Mary Anne.”
A little later, men from the “Whidaw” rowed over to get some wine from the cargo but finding it difficult to get at returned with only a small quantity, carrying back at the same time some clothing needed by the men from the pink. Soon after the boat was hoisted aboard, the ship hailed and ordered the pink to steer N. W. by N. and the little fleet followed this course until about four o’clock in the afternoon when it came up very thick, foggy weather and they lay to. Presently the snow came up under the ship’s stern and hailed Captain Bellamy and told him that they saw land. He then ordered the pink to steer north. A sloop from Virginia had also been taken that afternoon and as night came on all four vessels put out lights a-stern and made sail, keeping together. Soon Captain Bellamy hailed the pink, which was a slow sailer, and ordered them to make more haste, whereupon John Brown, one of the pirates, swore “that she should carry sail till she carryed her Masts away.”