Calico Jack Architect of Rackam’s downfall definitely a Bristolian

It’s exactly 300 years since the execution of one of the most famous Caribbean pirates, a man who reputedly came from Bristol. But as Eugene Byrne explains, whether we can count him as a local lad or not, he’s not nearly as interesting as two of his crew

JACK Rackam was executed exactly 300 years ago tomorrow: On November 17 1720 he and some of his accomplices were hanged at Gallows Point at Port Royal in Jamaica. His body was later taken down and hung in an iron cage from a gibbet at Dead Man’s Cay, at the entrance to the harbour.

How long Rackam’s rotting remains stayed there we don’t know, but it was not uncommon for gibbeted corpses to be on display for years.

In this case, as with others, the idea behind the gruesome exhibition was to act as a deterrent to anyone else contemplating a life of crime. Whether or not Rackam served as a useful example, we can’t be clear. But what we do know is that by the time he was on show on the tiny islet nowadays known as Rackam’s Cay, the golden age of Caribbean piracy was almost over, partly thanks to the efforts of Bristol’s own Woodes Rogers.

John Rackam – “Calico Jack” – was among the last of the infamous Pirates of the Caribbean.

John Rackam, also Rackham, sometimes Rackum, was born in 1692. According to various sources he was from Bristol, but there does not seem to be any firm evidence of this.

The most authoritative account we have of his life comes from A General History of the Pyrates (its full title is rather more long winded), a book published in 1724 and purportedly written by one Captain Charles Johnson.

Researchers have not been able to find anything about this putative author and it has been suggested that the writer was, in fact, Daniel Defoe. This would fit with what we know about Defoe’s talent for sensationalism, and for his rackety private life, in which he had to always