8 Historical Figures That Deserve To Be Remembered

8. Benjamin Hornigold (1680 - 1719)

Benjamin Hornigold was born in 1680.

He began his life of piracy in 1713, when he began attacking merchant ships in the Bahamas. He would use canoes, turning a profit by attacking much larger vessels. He helped establish the 'Republic of Pirates' in Nassau, and it was around this time that he met Edward Teach, more famously known by the name of Blackbeard, who he took under his wing as his second-in-command.

Hornigold refused to attack British ships, believing that this would give him grounds to claim he was operating as a privateer. By 1716, his crew grew bored of this, and they mutinied. He returned to Nassau with his most loyal followers in tow, Blackbeard among them.

In 1717, word spread of the King's pardon. Hornigold decided to take it, receiving his pardon in 1718. He quickly turned from pirate to pirate hunter.

Hornigold spent the next year and half hunting his former friends and associates across the Bahamas. He achieved some success, although notably less than the success he had enjoyed in his days of piracy. At the height of his career, his pirate gang had numbered over 200 men; now he was hunting down his down former allies.

Hornigold obtained a commission from Rogers in 1719, and sailed out against the Spanish. He was soon captured, and was never heard from again.

Although it seems that Hornigold's loyalties were been fickle, he achieved a great amount in his time as a pirate. He also played mentor to Blackbeard, as well as founding the infamous 'Republic of Pirates'. His later decision to take the King's pardon may seem like a betrayal of his former allies, but it seems that his lack of any notable captures points to one simple fact: Hornigold had always been a better pirate than pirate hunter.