| John Ward | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Other Names |
Jack Ward, Birdy, Sparrow or Yusuf Reis |
|
Born |
1553 |
|
Died |
1622 |
Origin[]
John Ward or Jack Ward (c. 1553 – 1622), also known as Birdy, Sparrow or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English pirate who later became a Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century.
Ward seems to have been born about 1553, probably in Faversham, Kent, in southeast England. Like many born in coastal areas, he spent his youth and early adult years working in the fisheries. After the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588, Ward found work as a privateer, plundering Spanish ships with a license from Queen Elizabeth I of England. When James I of England ended the war with Spain upon assuming the throne in 1603, many privateers refused to give up their livelihood and simply continued to plunder. Those who did were considered pirates because they no longer had valid licenses – called letters of marque – issued by the state.
Around 1604, Ward was allegedly pressed into service on a ship sailing under the authority of the King (the Royal Navy had yet to become a formal institution), where he was placed in the Channel Fleet and served aboard a ship named the Lyon's Whelp.
Ward and his colleagues deserted and stole a small 25-ton barque from Portsmouth Harbour. Ward's comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader. They sailed to the Isle of Wight and captured another ship, the Violet, a ship rumored to be carrying the treasure of Roman Catholic refugees. The ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Ward used her to capture a much larger French ship.
Ward and his men sailed for the Mediterranean where he was able to acquire a Dutch 32-gun flyboat, which he renamed The Gift. Ward first sailed for Algiers, but several of his men were arrested upon entering the city. Algiers had been attacked by another English mariner, Richard Giffard, only months earlier. They sailed to the Moroccan Atlantic port city Salé, Morocco where in 1605 several English and Dutch sailors, including Richard Bishop and Anthony Johnson, joined Ward's crew.
In the summer of 1606, Ward captured a dhow in the Strait of Gibraltar allegedly carrying Catholic slaves. In August 1606 Ward arranged with Uthman Dey to use Tunis as a base of operations. Uthman Bey, or Kara Osman Bey, was the commander of the Janissary corps in Tunis. That garrison supplanted the Pasha of Tunis as the rulers of Tunis in 1598, making Uthman Bey the military dictator of the city. According to their arrangement, Uthman Bey would have first refusal of all goods, up to ten percent of all goods captured.
In early November 1606 Ward captured the English merchantman John Baptist under Captain John Keye. He renamed the merchantman Little John after the English folk hero. From this base, Jack Ward was easily able to capture many ships from several European states. Ward's top lieutenant, William Graves, captured a small English merchantman called the York Bonaventure captained by Andrew Barker. The richest hauls on these early cruises were the valuable Venetian ships Rubi (taken on 16 November 1606) and Carminati (taken on 28 January 1607).
Following his return to Tunis in June 1607, Ward outfitted Reniera e Soderina into a powerful Man-o-War. The crew cut at least 20 new gun ports into her hull to accommodate all 60 brass guns. He set out to sail in early 1608. Then, in March, a ship spotted wreckage of a ship off the coast of Greece, and rumors began to spread that it was Reniera e Soderina and John Ward was dead.
Ward asked James I of England for a royal pardon which was refused, due to a threat of war from Venice, as Ward had attacked many Venetian ships, and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. Uthman Dey, an Ottoman officer of Tunis, kept his word and granted him protection. He accepted Islam along with his entire crew and changed his name to Yusuf Reis, with a nickname of Chakour or Chagour, because he used an axe in his piracy acts. He used the city of Aquilaria (El Haouaria) as an acting port, and married an Italian woman while continuing to send money to his English wife. I
Ward continued raiding Mediterranean shipping, eventually commanding a whole fleet of corsairs, whose flagship was a Venetian sixty-gunner. After 1612 he ended his career in piracy, electing to teach younger corsairs gunnery and navigation. He profited greatly by his piracy, retiring to Tunis to live a life of opulent comfort until his death in 1622, at the age of 70, possibly from the plague.
Personality and appearance[]
Jack Ward was described as "Drunk from morn till night...The habits of a thorough salt. A fool and an idiot out of his trade." and as wearing "curious and costly" apparel. He was also said to be “Very short, with little hair. Bald in front; swarthy face and beard. Speaks little and almost always swearing.”[1]
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of John Ward from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
- A Christian Turn'd Turk
- Nevves from Sea, Of two notorious Pyrats Ward the Englishman and Danseker the Dutchman
- Captain Ward and the Rainbow
- A True and Certain Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrows, and Now Present Estate of Captain Ward and Danseker, the Two Late Famous Pirates from their First Setting forth to this Present Time
Notes[]
- According to writer Giles Milton, Jack Ward was the inspiration for Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.