Black Sam Bellamy - also is remembered as the Prince of Pirates for his generosity to his victims - left his
home in England in the early 18th century to join the British privateering fleet during the war against the
Spaniards.
The war ended in 1715 and Sam and his mate Paul Williams - who he met when he was living in Cape Cod - were taken aboard a sloop called Postillion that was in company with the famous Mary Anne gun sloop.
Eventually Black Sam Bellamy became officer on the Postillion and soon the captain of Mary Anne - Hornigold
retired and his 90 men crew elected Bellamy the new captain of the sloop.
Black Sam and the captain of Postillion - Leboose - set off for St. Thomas. When they arrived Bellamy realized
that the Governor was an old friend from the privateering fleet - Captain Hall.
Captain Hall liked Black Sams ideas about looting big cargoes in Sir Francis Drake's Channel and suggested that they should make their base at the tiny island Blanco. Blanco Islet showed out to be a perfect place for a pirate shelter.
Black Sam Bellamy and his fleet looted over fifty cargoes in the Caribbean during one year but eventually he decided
to leave the area. It was too dangerous to stay now that the Navy knew his location. But when he was on his way from the Caribbean to New England his eye fell on the finest ship he had ever seen - the Whydah. He immediately became determined to capture the ship.
For three whole days the Prince of Pirates was following the Whydah. He prayed to the Devil that the ship wouldn't
force him to shoot back and damage it and the black powers may have heard him cause the Whydah suddenly surrendered to
him, without a scratch.
But at the end of April that year, Sam set his new ship, the Whydah on a northeastly course straight into a dense fog which eventually developed into a fierce storm, and Whydah and Marry Anne ran aground. Only two men survived. Black Sam wasn't one of them.