Member
Legendary Pirates During the Time of Skull & Bones - John Bowen
The Developers making Skull & Bones at Ubisoft Singapore have already mentioned in interviews that we may be bumping ships with some Pirates who actually sailed the Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Unlike the Caribbean however, the Pirates of the Indian Ocean aren’t as frequently portrayed in pop culture. In fact most of us probably wouldn’t be able to name a famous Indian Ocean Pirate.
Well you might be surprised to hear that some of these Indian Ocean Pirate’s were just as fabled and as wealthy, if not moreso, than their Caribbean counterparts. One of these Pirates was John Bowen.
John Bowen was of Creole descent which very simply means that he was the son of European Immigrants. Typically the term Creole means that someone is partially or fully descended from*white European colonial settlers. Their language, culture and*racial origin*represents the*creolisation*resulting from the interaction and adaptation of colonial-era*emigrants*from Europe with non-European peoples, climates, and cuisines.
Bowen sailed the seas with other notable Pirates of the time like Nathaniel North who I believe has one of the most amazing Pirate names I’ve heard in a while, and George Booth who was once Bowen’s captain.
Over a four year period John Bowen would go on to steal, loot and plunder £170,000’s worth of goods before retiring. Now if you don’t think that sounds like a lot, remember, that’s 18th Century Currency. In todays currency that works out at a staggering 13.5 million pounds.
But how did John Bowen become such a successful Pirate, and with all this success why did he decide to retire?
Born on Bermuda, Bowen later moved to the Carolina colony in what would later become the United States of America. Seeking employment most likely, rather than adventure, he joined the crew of an English ship as a Petty Officer but shortly after setting sail the ship he was a crew member of was attacked by French Pirates. Bowen and some other crew members were taken captive by the French Pirates and they set sail across the Atlantic Ocean towards Madagascar, most likely to sell the crew in a foreign port. Before they could reach port however the French ship ran-aground on the south side of Madagascar. Bowen and the other English prisoners managed to escape and seize the ships longboat before sailed 45 miles to the safe refuge of St Augustine. Here Bowen would rest for just over a year before he finally decides to become a Pirate himself.
He joined the crew of William Read, the captain of a 60 ton Brigantine ship, and was elected sailing master by the crew. This would make John Bowen responsible for the navigation of the ship and shows that Bowen commanded at least some respect and admiration from Read’s men in order to be voted in to such an important role on the deck. Bowen would later return to Madagascar and join the crew of George Booth, Bowen served under Booth until 1700 when Booth was killed by Arabs off the coast of Zanzibar while negotiating for the resupplying of his ship.
This was when John Bowen really came into his own, George Booth had captured a 450-ton, 50 gun slave ship called the Speaker in 1699, on Booth’s death Bowen took command of the ship. I wasn’t able to find out how he took captaincy however given the fact he had been voted as Sailing Master while under the captaincy of William Read it is likely safe to say that Bowen was looked upon to be an experienced sailor at least, who commanded the respect of men.
During his Captaincy of the Speaker he had some initial success, he attacked a 13-strong fleet of Moorish vessels and managed to come out victorious. A number of the vessels escaped under the cover of darkness but Bowen and his crew came away with approximately £100,000 worth of loot. Capitalising on this initial success Bowen attacked an English East Indiaman in 1701 off the coast of Malabar. Even though Bowen attacked trading vessels like the East Indiaman vessel, he was still allowed to trade in local ports. In fact, Bowen was so brazen he actually towed the vessel into the port of Callicoon and sold her in three parts to local merchants.
His initial success though eventually wore off and in late 1701, not long after capturing the English East India Trading Company vessel his ship, the Speaker, ran aground in Mauritius. After three months he and his remaining crew managed to save up enough money to buy a sloop, which they converted into a Brigantine, ships notable for their speed and maneuverability. Bowen continued his journey towards Madagascar and upon arrival he actually established a Pirate haven, building a town and fort at Maritan.
Bowen continued his pirate career for another few years managing to capture, plunder and repurpose other, much larger ships. After 1703 Bowen met with his sailing partners and divided up the plunder, he and 40 others then left his ship the Defiant and made for Madagascar to retire and live in peace.
Within six months, Bowen died of an unspecified intestinal disease and was buried on Bourbon, now modern day Reunion, a small island off the coast of Madagascar.
This is one story of many from the Pirates that sailed the Indian Ocean, if you’ve enjoyed this be sure to check out the video and channel above, I’ll be covering Skull & Bones as well as Sea of Thieves on the run up to their release so if those are two games that you’re excited for then you’ll fit right in here at the channel.
In the meantime though I hope you’re all having a great week and I’ll speak to you all soon.
Member
Thanks man!Originally Posted by Ubi-Ligario Go to original postGreat video as usual
Member
Member
Glad to hear itOriginally Posted by Horus.36 Go to original post
