07/04/2026
🏴☠️ Arghh matey! Do you like Pirates? Imagine if you will, early July in 1720, Trepassey harbour was ablaze!! Read on to learn that although the visit by Amelia Earhart and crew was most welcomed by the locals, Black Barts wasn't so much ...
Trepassey was a hopping place three centuries ago, with one of the most protected harbours on the island, it was an ideal location for a pirate and his crew to create a little chaos.
Time stood still for two weeks though, when the harbour was taken over by the world's most famous pirate.
Black Bart, born as Bartholomew Roberts, (b in Pembrokeshire, Wales c 1682; d 10 Feb 1722) was a legend in his time.
Although one would think that pirates are rum drinking hooligans, Black Bart was a teetotaler and was known as "the Puritan pirate" because he forbade immoral shenanigans on board his ships. No rum for him!
He was considered rather refined for a pirate even among those who wished him dead. The finery couldn't disguise that he was one of the fiercest pirates of the time. He and his crew sailed around the world capturing more than 400 vessels over the course of his career.
It was he who penned the "Pirate Code", essentially a rule book on the etiquette of what it takes to be a pirate.
On June 21st, 1720, he arrived in Trepassey, Newfoundland, where in a pre-dawn raid he captured 22 vessels with a single ship. Trepassey had a secure harbour and a booming fishery, and was a favorite port for the wealthy merchant vessels; an ideal spot for a pirate.
As the legend goes when he sailed into the harbour with his black flag flying, the various captains fled the scene.
Appalled at the initial cowardice of the men, every morning he summoned them to the ship and would let his cannon rip to show his displeasure.
He let it be known that he would stay as long as it pleased him. If one did not come to his galley every morning he would burn that captain's ship to cinders. They all showed up.
While in Trepassey, Roberts replaced his sloop "Fortune" with a bigger ship that he captured, which he loaded up with 16 guns and renamed it the "Good Fortune".
When he finally decided to leave in early July, he left with a bang, as he set fire to every ship in the harbour before departure.
He then sailed north along the southern shore, preying on ships and settlements, while also recruiting men for his crew and then made for the African coast.
He was killed only 2 years later in an engagement with a British ship off Cape Lopez in 1722.
His death marked the end of the "golden age" of piracy.
Although our harbour is a lot quieter these days, we still like to look out over the water and picture what this scene would have looked like to the people who lived here at the time.
What a story hey? We have so much to discover here on the Southern Avalon. Even pirates like to visit ... you should too!
📸 Photo Credit:
Black Bart Canadian Encyclopedia. Trepassey harbour: Genevieve Tina
