My favorite pirate

Hands down (or hand and hook down) Captain "Red Legs" Greaves. You'll see why shortly.

Why was he called "red legs"?

There are two possible answers. One popular one is that he always wore a kilt (he supposedly had Scottish ancestry) and that his legs were always sunburnt by the Caribbean sun. The less interesting answer is that "red legs" was a term used for poor white trash on Barbados, like the current "red neck". But as a lot of pirates were technically "red legs" I don't see why they single just him out. I lean towards the skirt-wearing-pirate version (a nautical Eddie Izzard). By the way, no one seems to know his actual first name.

He was born in 1650 (ish), and raised in Barbados. His parents had been sent there as indentured servants, the story being that they were on the losing side of a British political or religious upheaval. As a boy, initially he was the servant to quite a kind man, who may have helped instilled in Greaves some of his values he held throughout his life, but unfortunately his master died while he was still a boy, and his next patron was a crueler despot who beat him. To escape, Greaves crept out of his master's house and swam across Carlisle Bay, and climbed onboard, and stowed away upon, what he assumed was a merchant ship.

Unfortunately for Red Legs it wasn't.

It was actually a pirate vessel run by the infamous Captain Hawkins. Red Legs was found, and forced to sign articles joining the pirate crew (being handed a platter with the articles and a pistol - the choicer being one or the other). Now Hawkins, even amongst pirates, had a particularly bad reputation for cruelty and sadism, torturing and murdering prisoners, and being particularly foul to women captives. This did not go down well with Greaves, who eventually challenged Hawkins to a duel over the treatment of a particular prisoner. Luckily Greaves was triumphant and killed Hawkins. Moreover, the crew elected Greaves (pirates were a surprisingly democratic bunch) to be their new Captain, and one of his first moves was to re-write their ship’s articles, prohibiting the mistreatment of prisoners and allowing the surrender and honorable treatment of captured captains. According to tales, he never robbed the poor and, famously, was courteous to, and didn't mistreat women.

His most piratical success was his raid on the island of Margarita, first capturing the local Spanish fleet, and then turning their guns on the military defenses of the island. He plundered the Spanish’s gold, but unlike other pirates he did not raid nor loot the local town and let the civilians be.

With this substantial booty, he retired to the island of Nevis, where he settled down to live the life of a gentleman, on a plantation (where story tells that he was a kindly and generous employer).

However, he was recognized by a former piratical victim, and was turned into the authorities for the bounty money. He was duly found guilty of piracy and sentenced to be hung.

Now, the story almost takes on the quality of an adventure movie. An earthquake hit the island of Nevis, and the coastal town where Greaves was incarcerated sunk beneath the sea, although during the earthquake the prison was damaged enough that old Red legs managed to escape. He was found clinging onto some wreckage by a passing whaling ship, and signed onto the ship’s crew.

Now, it just so happened that that local whaling ships were being targeted by a band of pirates (at the time whale oil was an extremely valuable commodity), and Greaves either convinced the crew to turn pirate hunter, or was onboard when they were raided by pirates and led a spirited defense – either way, he was involved in the capture of the local marauders, earning himself a pardon in the process.

He finally retired (again) to the life of a plantation-owning gentleman, and became a pillar of the community. Some reports say that he even became a local politician or mayor – like a maritime Jean Valjean. In his later years he (apparently) donated much of his wealth to help set up of support local schools, orphanages, and local charities.

Did this honorable, and extremely lucky, pirate actually exist? Well, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that he did, mainly from court proceedings and his later charitable works, also, thanks to the work of genealogists and relatives tracking down the history of their famous relatives. So it goes to show that sometimes real life can have a plot better than the movies.

As a final note – there is also a beer named after him, which is apparently reasonably tasty.