{"id":8850,"date":"2022-01-20T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T08:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=198356"},"modified":"2022-01-20T09:49:09","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T08:49:09","slug":"did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga\/","title":{"rendered":"Did pirates really live on the island of Tortuga?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Kev Lochun\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 20 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Due to their position \u2013 perfect for plundering ships travelling between the New World and Europe \u2013 climate and a topography that offered plentiful coves to hide in, the cays of the Caribbean and islands of the Bahamas made ideal bases for buccaneers, privateers and pirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 1630s, buccaneers (French, Dutch and English fortune hunters, mostly former sailors, settlers and indentured servants) began inhabiting the French Island of Tortuga, which stars as the pirate town in the Pirates of the Caribbean <\/em>films.<\/p>\n

Read more| The golden age of piracy<\/a>: when pirates ruled the waves?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
From here they launched attacks on Spanish ships in the Windward Passage, and within a decade they\u2019d formed a community and culture known as the \u2018Brethren of the Coast\u2019.<\/p>\n
Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy and discusses how accurate pop culture portrayals of pirates are on this episode of the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div> <hr\/>This rogue settlement was constantly interrupted by Spanish invasions and reclamations by the French, but in 1657, the Governor of Jamaica, Edward D\u2019Oley, invited the Brethren over to help him protect Port Royal, in return for safe harbour. By 1671, the Welsh privateer Henry Morgan was based in Tortuga, preparing to launch an audacious attack on Panama City.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> Did X really mark the spot? Explore our series debunking common pirate myths:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/peg-leg-pirates-real-eyepatches"\">Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/walk-plank-real-punishment"\">Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/x-marks-spot-did-pirates-bury-treasure"\">X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/jolly-roger-skull-crossbones-pirate-flags"\">Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/victorian\/what-is-the-origin-and-meaning-of-the-pirate-expression-shiver-me-timbers\/"\">What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression \u2018shiver me timbers\u2019?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/english-pirates-accent-west-country-blackbeard\/"\">Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/p><\/div> <\/section>This content first appeared in the <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/magazine-issue\/issue-42-may-2017\/"\">May 2017 issue of BBC History Revealed<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kev Lochun Published: Thursday, 20 January 2022 at 12:00 am Due to their position \u2013 perfect for plundering ships travelling between the New World and Europe \u2013 climate and a topography that offered plentiful coves to hide in, the cays of the Caribbean and islands of the Bahamas made ideal bases for buccaneers, privateers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8851,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-pirates-really-live-on-the-island-of-tortuga.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kev Lochun Published: Thursday, 20 January 2022 at 12:00 am Due to their position \u2013 perfect for plundering ships travelling between the New World and Europe \u2013 climate and a topography that offered plentiful coves to hide in, the cays of the Caribbean and islands of the Bahamas made ideal bases for buccaneers, privateers…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/8850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}