Charles Vane, The Anarchist

Charles Vane was a strong advocate of creating a society living in Nassau free from European oversight and bureaucracy and funded by piracy. He supported the Jacobite cause not through any loyalty to the Stuarts but because he was against the perceived loss of freedom under King George. He became the de-facto leader of the pirates who refused to accept the king’s pardon and led them out of Nassau harbor by sending a fire ship into the British navy blockade.

Realizing the Jacobite cause was lost, Vane nevertheless continued to recruit ships and crew from the merchant vessels he raided and telling them they would be fighting for King James.  In reality, he was building a fleet in order to re-take Nassau from Rogers and establish himself as the head of an anarchist nation.

He was deposed of his captaincy by his quartermaster, Jack Rackham, however, after refusing to attack a French ship. Rackham put Vane and those loyal to him aboard a small sloop, which was later shipwrecked in a storm.  Vane survived, marooned on a small island, until he was picked up and turned over to the authorities in Port Royal, Jamaica, where he was hanged.