A pirate once attacked a ship and stole hats instead of treasure.
Benjamin Hornigold was a powerful fleet captain during the golden age of piracy — the period in the late 17th and early 18th centuries when most of the pirates you’ve heard of were doing their plundering. Blackbeard, for instance, started his career under Hornigold’s command, eventually becoming his second before going out on his own, as did many other notorious pirates.
It’s easy to imagine a fearsome pirate captain like Hornigold filling his ships’ coffers with booty from wealthy merchant ships, but in reality, not every trading ship targeted by pirates was carrying high-value goods. Often, ransacking a vessel was just a means to run errands — picking up rum, foodstuffs, ammo, ship repair parts, and other basics that were critical to maintaining the swashbuckling lifestyle.
Hornigold’s crew had a pretty short shopping list when they boarded a sloop off the coast of Honduras one day. According to the journal of one passenger, “They did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us.” The pirates explained that they’d gotten very drunk the previous night and thrown their hats overboard, and simply needed replacements.As far as pirates went, Hornigold was among the more polite; according to Woodes Rogers, the English governor of the Bahamas known for bringing pirates to justice, “Most people spoke well of his generosity.” Eventually, Hornigold accepted a royal pardon and made a drastic career change from pirate captain to pirate hunter.
