10 Most Violent Pirates In History

Spriggs was a British pirate who first surfaced in historical records while serving as a quartermaster under another famous captain, Edward Lowe. The two men had a falling out, and Spriggs would eventually wind up in charge of his own ship.

Like his former comrade, the ex-quartermaster was also known for torturing his captives. After capturing a Portuguese ship, the British pirate put the crew through what is known as "the sweats." The sweats involved placing a ring of candles around a ship's mast and making the victims run around the circle while stabbing them with forks, knives, or whatever other sharp objects might be lying around. It was fairly common for prisoners to obtain fatal wounds during the exercise. The sadistic captain was also known to make his captives eat candle wax as a form of torture.

There isn't a lot of information regarding the latter portion of Spriggs' career and his ultimate fate is unknown. The last surviving newspaper that mentions him is dated 1726.