A group of fifty
French Calvinists led by engineer
François le Vasseur leave
St. Kitts and eventually arrive in
Tortuga. Driving out the local Spanish inhabitants, the colonists begin the construction of a fort on the southeast end of the island overlooking the harbor.[3] Cutting steps into the rock cliff and used an iron ladder to reach the top of the cliff when the angle of the steps became to steep to climb. Building a near impregnable fortress called the Dove-cote, the fort was built to be inaccessible save for the steps cut into the rock cliff and an iron ladder to reach the top of the cliff when the angle of the steps became to steep to climb. The Calvinists successfully defended the island as the Spanish returned later that year sinking several ships before retreating.[4]
Spanish colonial authorities in
Hispaniola launch a campaign to drive out the pirates gathered in Tortuga, of whom were predominantly English and French, in an attempt to put a stop to the constant attacks on Spanish shipping in the West Indies. Although initially successful, the island would become a major haven for pirates later known as buccaneers throughout the late-1650s when Col. Edward Doyley invited the inhabitants to operate from Jamaica.[5]
May – A second attempt by the Spanish to capture the English
Providence Island colony, a joint Spanish/Portuguese fleet consisting of 700 men and thirteen ships including the Black Robin (the former HMS Robert, the captured flagship of the
Earl of Warwick), is led by Sergeant Major
Antonio Maldonado de Texeda. Although founded by
Puritans who had left the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, the island was regarded as a "den of thievery" by Captain General of Cartagena
Melchor de Aguilera and was used as a stopping point by privateers due to its natural harbors and close proximity to
Cartagena and
Portobello. English privateer
William Jackson had visited the island earlier that year before returning to England by the end of winter.[6]
Ali Bitchnin Reis, after demanding the
Ottomansultan pay in advance for Algerian support during wartime and failing to get support from the
Janissary, fled Algiers but was persuaded to return, dying soon after.[2]
William Cobb and William Ayres, English pirates, are briefly imprisoned.[2]
1644
Abraham Blauvelt (sometimes Blewfield), a Dutch pirate, after assuming command of his own ship, begins raiding Spanish shipping coming from
Dutch New Amsterdam and southwestern
Jamaica in a port now called Blewfields Bay.[2]
Due to the Ming dynasty being driven out,
Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese pirate, sets up a Ming emperor in his province,
Fukien.[2]
September - Boisbaudrant, with six galleys, attacks a heavily-armed Ottoman
galleon weighing over 1,100 tons containing the Sultan's favorite wife and their son. The captured galleon sinks off the coast of southern
Italy and the Sultan's favorite wife dies soon after arriving in
Malta.[2]
1645
Axe ends his tenure as second-in-command to William Jackson.[2]
Sultan Ibrahim, the Ottoman sultan at the time, attacks
Crete, then owned by
Venice, due to Boisbaudrant's actions and usage of Venetian ports.[2]
1646
A treaty is enacted by
British and Algerian forces but fails to end raids by corsairs from both nations.[2]
1647
January -
Bekir Reis, a Barbary corsair, commanding a 22-gun ship, gets captured by six galleys of the Knights of Malta near
Sicily.[2]
1648
Blauvelt was no longer welcomed in New Amsterdam as the Dutch had made peace with Spain.[2]
1649
After Blauvelt disposes of his loot in
Rhode Island the governor declares one of his prizes to be illegal but lacks the power to enforce said declaration.[2]
Arts and literature
1640
Francis Knight's A Relation of Seven Yeares Slaverie Under the Turkes of Argeire, suffered by an English Captive Merchant is published.
Births
1640
Chevalier D'Hocquincourt of the Knights of Malta
John Narborough, English navigator and admiral who took part in a privateering expedition against the Spanish in the South Seas between 1669 and 1671.[7]
^Lane, Kris E. Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas – 1500–1750. London: M.E. Sharp, 1998. (pg. 100)
ISBN0-7656-0256-3
^Bradford, Alfred S. Flying the Black Flag: A Brief History of Piracy. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007. (pg. 90)
ISBN0-275-97781-1
^Pestana, Carla Gardina. The English Atlantic in an Age of Revolution, 1640–1661. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. (pg. 199)
ISBN0-674-01502-9