The Pirate Ship 1660–1730

The most common method of pirate ship acquisition was capture. By working their way up the maritime ladder, longboats could be exchanged for sloops, and brigs for large armed merchantmen. A prime example of how a pirate began his career this way is Captain Worley, a character described by Johnson (1724) without mentioning his first name. In September 1718, Worley and eight fellow seamen rowed out of New York Harbor in a longboat, in search of a vessel to capture. They headed south, skirting the New Jersey shore, before entering the Delaware River. Off Newcastle (now a suburb of Wilmington, DE) ‘they fell upon a shallop belonging to George Grant, who was bringing household goods, plate, etc., from Oppoquenimi to Philadelphia.’
They looted the ship, but let the cumbersome merchantman go. Next, they ‘met with a sloop of Philadelphia, belonging to a mulatto whom they called Black Robbin; they quitted their boat for this sloop, taking one of Black Robbin’s men along with them … A day or two after, they took another sloop belonging to Hull homeward bound, which was somewhat fitter for their purpose … and enabled them to prosecute their design, in a manner more suitable to their wishes’.