governor spotswood of virginia and the priviteer ( later pirate) henry jennings

[ivan salis]

humm thru a bit of research and reading I have done --- it seems that once the tales of spanish ship wrecks and the booty that contained leaked out from the pirate strong hold of jamaica and reached govenor spotswoods ears that he wanted to "see what was about" and he sent the then semi respectible privateer capt henry jennings to check things out --this was in 1715 shortly after the wrecks occured --jennings found out the information and relayed it to spotswood (including the fact* that about 40 miles to the northward of st augustine a spanish barcalonga type vessel was wrecked carrying much silver --(as remarked in spotswood letter of Oct 24.1715) -- humm one has to wonder how would jennings know of this wreck ? and with no survivors of the wreck who could have told the spanish or english what happened , who they were ,where the wreck occured at ect? --- here is my theory *** on his way back going north to virgina after scouting the fleet wrecksites for the govenor of virginia--- jennings spots the wreck at amelia island and goes to check it out --- any spanish survivors from it gladly approach his vessel thinking their being rescued (since spain and england are at "peace")--- he pulls up to them and loads them all aboard in a freindly manner and then pumps them for info after finding out what he needs to know --- jennings figgering out that the spanish have no ideal of the wreck site and knowing that it was carrying a highly valuible "treasure" cargo -- decides to "dispose' of the survivors and thus keep the cargo and wrecksite secert -- after wiping out the survivors only he and his crew are the ones that know of the wrecksite and what she is carryingand none but he and his crew know of the foul deed they have done. --and their not talking cuz its the rope for them if they do .---- with this info in hand he heads back to his crony and partner in crime --good ole governor spotswood --he tells him of his "information" but not the details of how he came by it (and even if he did tell him he wiped out the spanish survivors--its doubtful spotswood would have cared at all provided it didn't leak out --never mind that england and spain has just signed a peace treaty recently --there still was a lot of "bad" blood out there from the long bitter war ) -- spotswood in his ;etter then ask for the english kings "royal" ok and "backing" to "loot / salvage" the spanish wreck since it was "offically" in spanish waters at the time - in his letter of oct 24, 1715 in a PS at the end of the letter. spotswood ask britishhome sec stanhope to see if he can get him the "royal" ok and "backing" to go after the loot since it was a spanish vessel and it was "offically" in spanish waters.m --- spotswood was covering his butt . --- jennings was not a salvage type guy --he let others do the "salvage" work then just ripped them off (see the spanish camp
--raid) salvage work took too much time and effort and was slow --ripping off the camps after all the work was done was much easier and smarter in jennings veiw.

jennings true "pirate" nature was made even clearer once he raided the spanish main camp in july of 1716 with his 5 ship fleet ---2 brigatines and 3 luggers --he hit the camp with its mere 60 man guard group with about 300 men --the spanish guards wizely fled --jennings took 350,000 pieces of 8 --- after that there was no choice for the english to avoid problems with spain jennings was called a "pirate" out right --- he later took a spanish brigatine for $60,000 in goldand $40,000 in cargo ($100.000 total) --- jenning avoided the fate of most pirates -- in 1717 when the king of england sent roger woods to offer any pirates that would quit his ways a "full pardon" -- jennings took the deal ---he "retired " and lived the good life in peace --- making the pirate "dream" come true ---one of the very few who did make it work out in the long haul. ---seems the spanish got him in the end however in 1745 humm around the time of the second scottish rebellon (was he out to sea trying to help gather finds to bankroll the revolt of 1745 ?)--- seems like jennings could not get pirating out of his blood. --twas his nature . and it seems jennings was loyal to king charles stuart of scotland over king george 1st of england .

http://www.republicofpirates.net/Hamilton.html --ah jennings "mentor" so to speak

http://www.republicofpirates.net/Jennings.html ----- interesting item

humm was the ideal to get king george the 1st to ok the looting of the spanish vessels in writing and then show it to spain to get the spanish to assist the scottish loyalist in the revolt and put charles stuart back on the throne ---or was it to get the ok to salvage and then lie about what was found $$$ wize and use the funds to support the scottish loyalist against king george the 1st.? humm the plot thickens

so what do you think folks?

 

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[ScubaFinder]

Nice theory Ivan. I've always known there was more going on between Spotswood and Jennings than meets the eye. The lack of survivors on a large shipwreck that close to shore still puzzles me. Your theory certainly solves several of the mysteries in an interesting and plausible way. I've found good info on Jennings visits to the salvage camps, but never found anything about his adventures or time frame for his trip up north.

Did he make any stops at Cape Canaveral? You know, there is a little known survivor account that puts a ship somewhere far out on the shoals off the cape too. It took 3 survivors 7 days to cross the shoals on some flotsam. If that account eluded most researchers, I wonder what else there may be out there about your area? If it's there, I know you'll dig it up...and if you ever run into any obscure nuggets of info from around the cape, I'd sure like to hear about it. I only have the one survivor account, and it's vague at best. Basically the poor guys didn't know and hardly cared where their ship was...they were just happy to finally be on shore.

Your explanation is certainly plausible, keep digging! You might just re-write a portion of Jenning's history...nice work.

Jason

 

[ivan salis]

well according to the account told by the pilot of the fleet the french prize (el cervio) --offical cargo was 96 tons of brasilwood and the nao san miguel officak cargo mainly tabacco and 2 smaller vessels broke away from the fleet on a more northly course a day before the main storm struck --one of these vessels very well could be the source of the sailors that drifted offthe cape for several days before making shore due too the reefs --- adsmireal salmon said thast there is little doubt that the frech prize and the sam nmiguel went down in deeop waters since wreckage was found on the shore north of st augustine .