1717 in piracy

Events

January â HMS Scarborough bombards and destroys several pirate vessels careening on St. Croix, stranding the pirate crew.
Late February â Samuel Bellamy in the Sultana takes the Whydah Gally near Jamaica and keeps it for his own use.
April 1 â Benjamin Hornigold and a pirate named Napping capture a large armed sloop, the Bennet, out of Jamaica.^[1]
April 4 â At Bluefield's Bay in Jamaica, Hornigold and Napping capture the sloop Revenge carrying a load of Spanish gold.
September 29 â "Gentleman Pirate" Stede Bonnet, who has traded plantation life for a pirate ship, transfers command of his sloop, the Revenge, to Blackbeard.
November 28 â Blackbeard captures the French slave ship La Concorde near Martinique, equips her with 40 guns, and renames her the Queen Anne's Revenge.
December 10 â Blackbeard overtakes and ransacks the merchant sloop Margaret off the coast of Anguilla near Crab Island.^[2]

Spring â Edward Teach and Benjamin Hornigold take two sloops to Virginia, robbing three vessels en route, then return to Nassau, Bahamas.
April â Bellamy seizes a merchant vessel off South Carolina.
April 26 â The Whydah Gally wrecks in a nor'easter off Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Bellamy and 143 men are drowned. Over 4 tons of treasure is lost under just 14 feet (4.3 m) of water â it would elude discovery for over 260 years.
July â Stede Bonnet's pirates in the Revenge plunder the Anne, Turbet, Endeavour, and Young off the coast of Virginia, burning the Turbet.
August â Bonnet raids two vessels off South Carolina, firing one.
October â Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet raid shipping in the mouth of Delaware Bay.
October 12 â Blackbeard captures a Captain Codd and his vessel off the Delaware capes. He later captures and loots the Spofford and Sea Nymph.
October 22 â Blackbeard, on the Revenge, stops and plunders the Robert and Good Intent of their cargo.
November 5 â The surviving Whydah Gally pirates are hung in Boston.^[3]

September 5 â King George I of Great Britain issues a royal decree, known as the Act of Grace, pardoning all pirates who surrender to the appointed authorities by 5 September 1718.^[4]

April 27 â Samuel Bellamy, pirate commander captain (born February 23, 1689, aged 28), along with 143 of his crew.^[5]