Everything about Henry Morgan totally explained
» This article is about the pirate. For the comedian, see Henry Morgan (comedian). For the rum brand, see Captain Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan (Hari Morgan in
Welsh), (
ca. 1635 –
August 25,
1688) was a Welsh
privateer, who made a name in the
Caribbean as a leader of
buccaneers. He is one of the most notorious and successful privateers from Wales.
Early life
Henry Morgan was supposedly the oldest son of Robert Morgan, a
squire of
Llanrumney in
Glamorgan,
Wales, however it has also been postulated that he was from
Abergavenny,
Monmouthshire, there being a record of an entry in the 'Bristol Apprentice Books' showing 'Servants to Foreign Plantations' : February 9th 1655; 'Henry Morgan of Abergavenny, Labourer, Bound to Timothy Tounsend of Bristol, Cutler, for three years, to serve in Barbadoes on the like Condiciouns' ; there's no record of Morgan himself before 1665. He said later that he left school early, and was "more used to the pike than the book."
Exquemelin says that he was
indentured in
Barbados but he was forced to retract and subsequent editions were amended after Morgan sued the publishers for libel and was awarded £200 against the publishers ;
Richard Browne, his surgeon at Panama, said that Morgan came to
Jamaica in 1658, as a young man, and raised himself to "fame and fortune by his valor". Jamaica had been conquered by the
English Commonwealth in May, 1655.
His uncle
Edward Morgan was
Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica after the
Restoration of
Charles II of England in 1660, and Henry Morgan married his uncle's daughter Mary. Therefore it's more likely that he was the "Captain Morgan" who joined the fleet of
Christopher Myngs in 1663 and accompanied the expedition of John Morris and Jackman when the Spanish settlements at Vildemos,
Trujillo and
Granada were taken.
In late 1665, Morgan commanded a ship in the old privateer Edward Mansfield's expedition sent by Sir
Thomas Modyford, the governor of
Jamaica, which seized the islands of
Providence and
Santa Catalina. When Mansfield was captured and killed by the Spanish shortly afterwards, Morgan was chosen by the buccaneers as their admiral.
Governor's commission, privateering career
In 1667, he was commissioned by Modyford to capture some Spanish prisoners in
Cuba in order to discover details of the threatened attack on Jamaica. Collecting ten ships with five hundred men, Morgan landed on the island and captured and sacked
Puerto Principe, then went on to take the fortified and well-garrisoned town of
Portobello,
Panama.
The governor of Panama, astonished at this daring adventure, attempted in vain to drive out the invaders, and finally Morgan consented to evacuate the place on the payment of a large ransom. These exploits had considerably exceeded the terms of Morgan's commission and had been accompanied by frightful cruelties and excesses, but the governor of
Jamaica endeavoured to cover the whole under the necessity of allowing the English a free hand to attack the Spanish whenever possible. In
London the Admiralty publicly claimed ignorance about this, whilst Morgan and his crew returned to their base at
Port Royal,
Jamaica, to celebrate.
Modyford almost immediately entrusted Morgan with another expedition against the Spaniards, and he proceeded to ravage the coast of
Cuba, Soon after, England sent Port Royal
HMS Oxford (as a gift meant to protect Port Royal), Port Royal gave it to Morgan to help his career. On January 1669',
HMS Oxford was blown up accidentally when the ammunitions depot was lit during a party, with Morgan and his officers narrowly escaping death. In March he sacked
Maracaibo,
Venezuela which had emptied out when his fleet was first spied, and afterwards spent a few weeks at the Venezuelan settlement of Gibraltar on
Lake Maracaibo, torturing the wealthy residents to discover hidden treasure.
Returning to Maracaibo, Morgan found three Spanish ships, the
Magdalena, the San Luis, and the Soledad, waiting at the inlet to the Caribbean; he destroyed the Magdalena, and captured the Soledad, while the San Luis's crew burned down their ship to stop the pirates from having it. Finally, by an ingenious stratagem, he faked a landward attack on the fort which convinced the governor to shift his cannon. In doing so, he eluded the enemy's guns altogether and escaped in safety. On his return to
Jamaica he was again reproved, but not punished by Modyford.
The Spaniards on their side were moreover acting in the same way, and a new commission was given to Morgan as commander-in-chief of all the ships of war in Jamaica, to levy war on the Spaniards and destroy their ships and stores - the booty gained in the expedition being the only pay. Thus Morgan and his crew were
privateers, not
pirates. Accordingly, after ravaging the coasts of Cuba and the mainland, Morgan determined on an expedition to
Panama.
He recaptured the island of
Santa Catalina on
December 15,
1670, and on
December 27, he gained possession of the castle of Chagres, killing three hundred of the garrison. Then with one thousand four hundred men he ascended the
Chagres River, some of the worst swampland in the area. When his force finally appeared outside of Panama they were very weakened and tired.
Burning of Panama and loss of English support
On
January 18,
1671, Morgan discovered that
Panama had roughly fifteen hundred infantry and cavalry. He split his forces in two, using one to march through the forest and flank the enemy. The Spaniards were untrained and rushed Morgan's line where he cut them down with gunfire, only to have his flankers emerge and finish off the rest of the Spanish soldiers. After looting and taking booty that exceeded a hundred thousand pounds, Morgan had his men burn the city and massacred all its inhabitants, an action considered, to this date, the most barbarous atrocity ever perpetrated by a British privateer against Spanish colonies in America.
However, because the sack of Panama violated a peace treaty between
England and
Spain, Morgan was arrested and conducted to
England in 1672. He was able to prove he'd no knowledge of the treaty, and in 1674 Morgan was knighted before returning to
Jamaica the following year to take up the post of Lieutenant Governor.
By 1681, then–acting governor Morgan had fallen out of favor with the British king, who was intent on weakening the semi-autonomous Jamaican Council, and was replaced by long-time political rival
Thomas Lynch. He gained considerable weight and a reputation for rowdy drunkenness.
Retirement
In 1683, Morgan was suspended from the Jamaican Council by the machinations of Governor Lynch. Also during this time, an account of Morgan's disreputable exploits was published by
Alexandre Exquemelin, who once had been his confidante, probably as a barber-surgeon, in a Dutch volume entitled
De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (History of the Buccaneers of America). Morgan took steps to discredit the book and successfully brought a
libel suit against the book's publisher, securing a retraction and damages of two hundred English pounds (Campbell, 2003). The book nonetheless contributed much to Morgan's ill-reputed fame as a bloodthirsty pirate over time.
When Thomas Lynch died in 1684, his friend
Christopher Monck was appointed to the governorship and arranged the dismissal of Morgan's suspension from the Jamaican Council in 1688. Morgan's health had steadily declined since 1681. He was diagnosed with "
dropsie", but may have contracted
tuberculosis in
London, and died
August 25,
1688. It is also possible that he may have had liver failure due to his heavy drinking. He is buried in
Palisadoes cemetery, which sank beneath the sea after the
1692 earthquake.
(External Link
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Morgan had lived in an opportune time for pirates. He was successfully able to use the conflicts between England and her enemies both to support England and to enrich himself and his crews. With his death, the pirates who would follow would also use this same ploy, but with less successful results. He also was one of the few pirates who was able to
retire from his piracy, having had great success, and with little legal retribution.
Appearances in popular culture
Film
- The 1935 film Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, based on Sabatini's novel (see below), is loosely based on Morgan's life. This film was Flynn's star-making role.
- The 1942 film, The Black Swan, based on the novel of the same name by Rafael Sabatini, contains a fictionalized account of Henry Morgan after becoming the governor of Jamaica. Morgan is portrayed by Laird Cregar in the film.
- The pirate code from the movie trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean was said to be created by the pirates Morgan and Bartholomew. "Morgan" clearly refers to Henry Morgan. However, Morgan's actual articles as reported by Exquemelin bear not the slightest resemblance to this code.
- In 2006, The History Channel premiered the documentary True Caribbean Pirates, which retells the known facts of Henry Morgan's life and death through re-enactments. The Morgan segment takes place in the first half hour of this two hour special that highlights the true exploits of the most famous pirates from the golden age of piracy. Morgan is portrayed by Lance J. Holt.
Literature
John Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, written in 1926, is about Henry Morgan's life. It is a historical fiction with Henry Morgan as the main character.
In the third episode of Book 1 of Nicholas Monsarrat's The Master Mariner anti-hero Matthew Lawe sails with Morgan as Mate.
Captain Blood, a novel about piracy by Rafael Sabatini, features a character, Peter Blood, whose adventures are reportedly based on the piratical exploits of Henry Morgan. Blood's attack on Maracaibo duplicates Morgan's in all essentials.
In the manga/anime One Piece, there's a villain called Axe-Hand Morgan, that Eiichiro Oda admitted was based on a real-life pirate. Although Axe-Hand Morgan was never a pirate and was originally a Captain from the Navy, now that he's an outlaw he may become a pirate.
F. van Wyck Mason's 1949 novel "Cutlass Empire" romanticizes Morgan's life, loves and battles.
Josephine Tey's 1952 novel The Privateer dramatizes Morgan's life.
Ian Fleming's 1954 novel Live and Let Die centres round events which follow from the discovery of treasure hidden by Morgan.
Kage Baker's short novel "The Maid on the Shore," published in the short story collection Dark Mondays, features Henry Morgan during his expedition to Panama.
Berton Braley's 1934 poem:
This is the ballad of Henry Morgan /
Who troubled the sleep of the King of Spain /
With a frowsy, blowsy, lousy pack /
Of the water rats of the Spanish Main, /
Rakes and rogues and mad rapscallions /
Broken gentlemen, tattermedallions /
Scum and scourge of the hemisphere, /
Who looted the loot of the stately galleons, /
Led by Morgan, the Buccaneer.
Albert Marrin's explanatory history for children Terror of the Spanish Main 1999. ISBN 0-525-45942-1
Dudley Pope's Harry Morgan's Way: The Biography of Sir Henry Morgan combines firsthand sailor's knowledge of the Caribbean and use of primary documents; noted in the bibliography of James Stuart Olson and Robert Shadle Historical Dictionary of the British Empire 1996
Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue Water, written in 2007 is a biography of Morgan and partial history of the conflict between the buccaneers and the Spanish Empire.
Music
Bob Marley and the Wailers have included Morgan in the song "You Can't Blame The Youth." Peter Tosh states, "You teach the kids about the pirate Morgan, and you say he was a very good man."
Jimmy Cliff mentioned "Henry Morgan" in his song "Oh, Jamaica".
Amadan, an Oregon-based Irish music band told of the night of Sir Henry Morgan's death in a song titled "August 24th, 1688" on their album "Hell-Bent 4 Victory."
Celtic rock band Tempest immortalized Henry Morgan in their song "Captain Morgan" which is featured on their albums Bootleg, The 10th Anniversary Compilation and 15th Anniversary Collection.
The song 'El Capitan' on OPM's album Menace to Sobriety mentions Captain Morgan
The album Good 'N' Cheap by Eggs Over Easy featured a song titled "Henry Morgan" written and performed by Brien Bohn Hopkins and inspired by the Novel Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck.
The Mighty Diamonds recorded a song named 'Morgan the Pirate'
Scottish heavy metal band Alestorm named their first album 'Captain Morgan's Revenge'
Other products
Sir Henry is immortalised now by Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, though it's produced in both Puerto Rico and Jamaica, and he's also preserved as a World Stars action figure.
In the video game Sid Meier's Pirates!, Henry Morgan is the most notorious pirate with whom the player competes.
Morgan's Revenge is the name of a popular game of chance manufactured in the USA by Channel Craft based on Sir Henry Morgan's travels and exploits.
The Hotel Henry Morgan, located in Roatan, the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands, and the Port Morgan resort located in Haiti; on the offshore island of Ile a Vache both bear the name of the notorious pirate.
The pirate-themed featured teams named Morgan and Drake (the latter after Sir Francis Drake).Further Information
Get more info on 'Henry Morgan'.
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