Calico Jack Rackham was an English pirate in the Caribbean in the 18th century. He wore colorful calico shirts and is known for his association with female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. He became captain after a crew vote and later accepted amnesty but resumed piracy with Anne. They were eventually caught and hanged. The character of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean may have been inspired by Calico Jack.
Calico Jack Rackham was an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean area in the early 18th century. His name comes from his practice of wearing colorful patchwork shirts made from printed calico fabric. Calico Jack is best remembered for his association with the Caribbean’s two most famous female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Calico Jack originally served as quartermaster under another pirate, Charles Vane. When Vane decided to flee a battle with a much larger ship rather than fight, his crew became enraged. The crew members voted to relieve Vane of captaincy and promote Jack Rackham in his place. Whether this constituted a mutiny or not is debatable, as many ships operated under a democratic system in which a simple vote, rather than a conspiracy or coup, could remove the captain from office. Vane was given a small vessel and departed peacefully.
In 1719, Jack Rackham decided to accept a pirate amnesty offered by Woodes Rogers, the governor of New Providence in the Bahamas. Calico Jack may have intended to retire from the pirate life, but instead has entered into a torrid affair with Anne Bonny, the wife of a local sailor. When the romance was discovered and brought to the governor by Anne’s husband, Jack Rackham offered a divorce by purchase, which would have effectively ended the marriage and saved Anne from legal punishment. Anne, horrified that she might be bought and sold, and refusing to return to her husband, fled aboard Calico’s ship and probably persuaded him to resume his piracy.
Calico Jack and Anne Bonny began raiding small merchant ships for plunder with some success. Accounts vary, but both as a prisoner and already working on the ship in disguise was another woman named Mary Read. The stories of the relationship between Anne, Mary and Jack are many, and none considered definitively historical. Some suggest that Jack discovered Mary’s gender when he, jealous of her, confronted her about how much time he spent with Anne about her. Others suggest that Mary and Jack were at one time lovers, and her pregnancy at the time of their capture was a result of their affair.
Whatever the truth about the three pirates’ relationship, most accounts suggest that they steered the ship in much the same way. When the ship was finally taken by a notorious pirate hunter, Anne and Mary fought almost to exhaustion, while Calico and his men silently surrendered. This led to a clear rift between them, which has never been mended. Calico was convicted of piracy and sentenced to death, but was allowed to see Anne briefly before her execution. Indifferent, Anne told him that if he fought like a man, he wouldn’t be hanged like a dog. On November 19, 1720, Calico and much of his crew were hanged on an islet and their bodies left as examples for other pirates.
In the recently successful Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy several elements suggest that Captain Jack Sparrow was based in part on the legends of Jack Rackham. Every historic pirate captain had their own version of the Jolly Roger flag, yet the one chosen for Sparrow’s ship is identical to Calico Jack’s. In the first film, Jack Sparrow is portrayed as an unsuccessful little pirate, whose captain is constantly in question. Calico Jack never got past middling success, and his rise to captaincy is tainted by charges of mutiny. While this theory has never been confirmed by the filmmakers, it’s possible that Calico Jack has been resurrected, at least as the inspiration for a great movie character.
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