The Rise of Piracy in Canada (Part 1)

Take to the lawless seas in search of treasure and tall tales in a veritable “who’s who” of pirates and privateers on Canada’s East Coast.

When we think of swashbuckling tales of pirates and plunder, we think of Blackbeard, palm trees, and the sun-scorched shores of the Caribbean. Yet, some of the most ruthless men and women of the seven seas razed hell up North, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the jagged coasts of the Maritimes. Take to the lawless seas in search of treasure and tall tales in a veritable “who’s who” of pirates and privateers on Canada’s East Coast.

Isle Haute is a protected conservation area with unique species of plants and animals. You cannot go there without permission, which we received from the Canadian Wildlife Service, Atlantic Region. There is absolutely zero chance there is treasure there. Pirates did not bury treasure; there was no justification for doing such a thing. Crews would never have allowed it. Pirates collected their booty and they used it. Robert Louis Stevenson’s massive hit, Treasure Island (1883), singlehandedly generated the concept. We're also sorry to say that Oak Island has no treasure either--though a fun myth.

Like every episode, we pour over dozens of resources during our research phase. For this episode, there were contradicting accounts and myths from Philip Gosse's famous 1925 anthology that we needed to sort through. We relied on reported accounts from the time periods, as well as contemporary historians like the great Dan Conlin. We suggest that you look to discovering these sources yourselves--treat our videos as stepping stones. Our number one recommendation would be to start with Dan Conlin's Pirates of the Atlantic, a thrilling read that delves far deeper into the history of piracy on the East Coast than we could ever hope to.

Extra Tidbits:

The most significant myth surrounding Peter Easton is that of the Irish Princess Sheillagh NeGeira (or Shelia O’Connor). According to legend, Peter Easton took a Dutch pirate ship in 1603 (which had taken Shelia on her way to a French convent). Shelia fell in love with one of Easton’s lieutenants, Gilbert Pike. They were married by Easton and he allowed them to stay in Bristol’s Hope NFLD when Pike didn’t want to take the pirate oath. Sheila supposedly gave birth to the first English child born in NFLD (maybe NA) which started the prominent Pike family tree in the Maritimes. Historians think the story might have been invented in the early 1900s--but Sheila remains on the city crest of Carbonear, a town not far from Harbour Grace.

In reality though, Easton’s operation truly dwarfed the nearby colony of Cupids with its 40 settlers. He didn’t attack the people of Cupids, because he wanted to stay in good-standing with British Crown, the governor there confirmed as much. But, Easton was smart. At one point he captured the world's most unlucky man, Richard Whitbourne (who would be captured by pirates on 3 separate occasions). Easton convinced him to sail to England to get him a pardon from the Crown. While he waited, Easton set up to attack the annual convoy of Spanish ships bringing treasure back to Spain--he picked off four of them. Whitbourne collected his pardon, but when he returned, he'd come to realize that, in the end, Easton thought it silly to ask for a British pardon, since he was basically a king of the seas himself.

The Tordesillas Line:

Portugal and Spain, rulers of the world in late 1400s, early 1500s, set the stage for piracy to run rampant in the North Atlantic.

Spain got the Pope to divide the entire globe, including the areas not yet found, between Spain and Portugal. The Tordesillas Line was the result. “No peace over the line,” was the phrase. It was a north-south line that gave Spain almost all of North and South America, in 1494. Spain immediately became the richest empire in the world and doubloons became the global currency for a while. Pirates loved the chaos the Line brought.

DISCLAIMER: When we refer to "Canada," long before it was officially recognized as such, it is a narrative device to help tell the story in an engaging way. While Canada wasn't a country, or even a colony, for a long time, (and Newfoundland didn't join until 1949) the place we now call Canada remains significantly affected by the events that predate Confederation.

Episode Transcript

This is Isle Haute, the place the Mi'kmaq called Maskusetkik. It's a strange place, a giant wedge of land that seems to float out here in the Bay of Fundy, eight kilometres offshore. At least that's where Isle Haute is now.

According to legend, this entire island moves every seven years by magic. And if you're out here when it does people say you'll bear a witness to a chilling spectacle.

A headless ghost engulfed in flames rises from the earth, marking the spot where a pirate's buried treasure awaits but no one has ever managed to claim it.

According to the stories, only three people have ever even seen the ghost. It killed two of them and drove the other one mad. But that hasn't scared off the treasure hunters. They've been coming to Isle Haute for decades, searching for hidden gold, digging holes, leaving behind craters like this one as the evidence of their failed quests.

And Isle Haute is far from the only place in the Maritimes with a story like this. You'll find them all over the Atlantic provinces, tales of ghost ships cursed coves, haunted beaches, and an island filled with treasure.

And while the east coast isn't actually filled with pirate gold, they never really buried their treasure. Those myths and legends are more than just tall tales - they're clues. Hinting at a real history, pointing to a time when swashbuckling pirates really did sail Canadian seas when buccaneers and privateers transformed the east coast through terror, daring and dastardly deeds.

This is the true story of the real pirates who once ruled these waters.

This is Canadiana.

This is Conception Bay, Newfoundland it's home to some of the oldest towns on the continent, settlements dating back centuries to the time when the first European sailors were plying these waters and trading with the local Beothuk.

Today, it's a picturesque place dotted with quaint seaside villages and charming trails. But 400 years ago, it was far from friendly. This was one of the most notorious places on the continent. Conception Bay was a haven for pirates. And it all started the way so many stories on the east coast begin with this, cod.

Local First Nations like the Mi'kmaq and the Beothuk had been feasting on the fish for thousands of years by the time the Italian Explorer, Giovanni Kuboto, came into the place we now call Canada. He was blown away by how many fish there were. He claimed there were so many he could barely sail through them. Schools so thick you could walk across the water on their backs. And word got out fast.

Soon, the seas of the east coast were filled with hundreds of European ships, British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, all looking to make a fortune off the cod. But as strangers to the continent they struggled to establish permanent settlements along the coast. The winters were especially brutal. And when the merchant John Guy, founded the first British colony in Canada, here at Cuppers Cove now called Cupids. He had to deal with more than just starvation scurvy and the elements.

He had to contend with Peter Easton, the pirate admiral. Easton was a British Naval commander who had broken bad. He'd originally come to Newfoundland while Britain and Spain were at war. Queen Elizabeth The First, sent east and west to guard the fishing fleet and hunt Spanish ships as a legal pirate, what they called a privateer.

And when the war ended Easton decided to stay and go into business for himself. He knew all too well the Atlantic coast was the wild west of the seas, a place where European authorities had no real control, a lawless frontier where pirates could rule the waves through terror and might. Peter Easton will become the mightiest of them all.

While John Guy struggled to build a colony, Easton built an armada, forcing any fishermen he came across to join his crew. He sailed at the head of an entire fleet patrolling the coast of Newfoundland with 10 ships and 1,000 men.

And with them, he impeded colonial expansion for years, ransacking and raiding fisheries all over Conception Bay. Easton was cunning, ruthless but he wasn't your typical brazen, debaucherous pirate. He was an organised practical criminal.

He turned nearby Harbour Grace into his headquarters, transforming it from a seasonal fishing village into a fortress where he could protect his wealth. It was from there that he launched his raids including his most famous one.

Easton and his crew of Newfoundland fishermen headed all the way south to Puerto Rico but they did what no one had ever been able to do before, storm The Impenetrable Citadel of El Moro. They seized an incredible bounty; silver from Spanish mines, Incan, Mayan and Aztec ornaments encrusted with jewels. And to top it all off a Spanish treasure ship filled with riches. It was one of the largest halls ever plundered. And when they sailed home to Harbour Grace only to be ambushed by the French and Basque pirates who filled the power vacuum while they were gone.

Well, they fought their way in. Easton lost 47 men but he saved or captured every single enemy ship, recapturing his base and cementing his place in the lore of Conception Bay. By the time he retired to a life of luxury in France, Peter Easton had amassed one of the biggest pirate fortunes ever, and he'd ushered in a new age. For the next century and a half, the world's oceans would be overrun by rogues and briggins.

They would pray on the horrific slave trade in West Africa. The riches of the Indian Ocean's trade roots and the spoils of colonialism, the Caribbean. And though Easton was retired, it was thanks to his blueprint that Canada's east coast was going to become a critical part of it all.

The golden age of piracy was just getting started.

This is Trepassey, Newfoundland and 300 years ago, this is where a man named Thomas How worked. His days were an endless slog, up at dawn and out in a small boat hand lining for cod, one at a time until his haul was full and he could head back to shore to gut it, salt it and dry it. It was a horrible job and he made very little money but his life would soon change forever.

In June, 1720 a Galleon sailed into this harbour. Cannon's blasting, trumpets blaring, war drums beating, and black flag waving. On deck was a strange captain dressed in the finest clothing with gold chains a diamond encrusted crucifix and a red feather in his hat. It was none other than the dreaded Black Bart Roberts, arguably history's most successful pirate. The one who basically invented the stereotype we know so well today.

And he'd come to Trepassey looking for recruits.

The 1600s had been a time of war but when those wars ended, it left sailors unemployed or facing gruelling, low-paying work. The swashbuckling life of a pirate was much more alluring. The seas were flooded with them. Legendary names like Black Beard, William Kid, Anne Bonnie and Captain Morgan. They all needed crews and Peter Easton had proven that Canada's east coast was the perfect place to get them, with an endless supply of experienced sailors who really hated their day jobs.

When Black Bart Roberts made his dramatic entrance, here at Trepassey, men fled in terror abandoning their fishing boats.

But over the weeks he spent here, some grew intrigued. Roberts offered them adventure, riches, and his famous Pirate Code. Keep your cutlass and pistols clean at all times, No gambling, candles out at 8:00 PM, musicians must be playing at all times unless it's the Sabbath. But the most attractive rules were about the division of booty and power. Pirate ships were more democratic than most governments. Everyone had vote and wealth was evenly distributed.

Every ordinary crew member got one share of the loot, while the captain got a modest two. They were even given payouts in case of injury, 800 pieces of eight for example, if you lost a limb. Healthcare on Canadian shores centuries before Tommy Douglas.

So when Black Bart left Trepassey, Thomas How went with him. All along this rugged coast Roberts captured ships and added to his crew. And while some were forced to join him many were happy to give up their barrels of cod for chests of gold, becoming loyal rogues who would gladly follow him from Newfoundland to the ends of the Earth. Their pirate fleet, terrorised the shallow card rich seas of the Grand Banks, then sailed south to the sun scorched beaches of the Caribbean, where they ransacked harbours, murdered governors and hoarded Spanish gold. Then east to the bustling Indian Ocean in the west coast of Africa, where they raided slaving ships.

It was there that the one thing that could stop Black Bart, finally caught up with them - The British Royal Navy. It was a bloody battle. Thomas How, loyal to the end, fought alongside his flamboyant captain, but they were doomed. Black Bart was killed in a blade glory by grape shot to the neck. And then his men obeyed his final, most crucial rule. They tossed his body into the ocean so the authorities couldn't string it up as warning to other pirates.

Thomas How, having come all the way from this simple fishing life In Trepassey, was sentenced to seven years service in the Royal African company. A listing few survived. He was never heard from, again. All told Black Bart Roberts had taken 400 ships a bigger haul than Captain kid and Black Beard combined.

He turned poor fishermen into wealthy barons and cemented his legacy as one of the most feared pirates of all time. But his death signalled the beginning of the end for the high-flying devilish buccaneers of legend. The golden age of piracy was about to turn crimson.

We had to make this episode two parts because there are so many fascinating stories from the history of piracy on the east coast that we couldn't fit them all into one episode. In part two, we'll share some of the grizzliest and most gruesome of them all.

In fact, we weren't even able to fit all the stories into part one that we wanted to, including the tale of another interesting member of Black Bart's crew. He's a man they called Miss Nanny. And I'll tell you all about him in a second but I also wanna thank you so much for watching.

This episode is the first in a whole new season of Canadiana, a season we weren't sure was ever gonna happen. It's been years since we posted our last video because this series is an incredible amount of work. And there are mostly only the three of us doing it, four on the rare occasions we can afford the extra help.

We do all the writing and all the research, we travel across the country filming and then do all the editing and animations too. And this season was especially challenging because it was all delayed by the arrival of the pandemic.

In the months to come, we'll be rolling out a whole new slate of episodes. We'll head to Grasslands, National Parks, and Saskatchewan, on the hunt for prehistoric beasts. We'll travel to the Northern reaches of the Klondike to meet dancers, gamblers, and thieves. And to the streets of Ottawa where the cold war started.

We also have even more episodes, we've only half filmed. To finish those, we'll need your help, thanks to your support that we're able to do all of this. So if you're able, you can head to the Patreon link below and send us a few dollars a month. But even if you can't, you can follow us on social media at "This Is Canadiana" and spread the word which then helps us attract funding from other sources. Funding we need to keep this all going.

But now back to Miss Nanny.

His real name was John Walden and he was just 20 years old when Black Bart found him floating in a fishing boat off Cape Spear. That's the Eastern tip of the continent, the first place, the light touches every morning. It's where we filmed part of this episode and its lighthouse is a national historic site. Walden was a mountain of a man, so he became Black Bart's key, his muscle, the guy in charge of breaking down doors and cracking open chests of treasure.

That's why his crew gave him the ironic nickname of Miss Nanny. And in that final battle against the British, his leg was blown off by a cannonball. He along with many other members of the crew was hanged.

It was just a few months later that a new pirate arrived on the scene. One of the most notorious pirates in Canadian history We will begin Part Two with his story and with a fortress on high alert,

I'm Adam Bunch and this is Canadiana.