John Read (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1683-1688) was an English

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688 ...

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

, and pirate active from South America to the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

to the Indian Ocean.

History

Along with navigator and chronicler

William Dampier William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavi ...

, Read was a crewman aboard John Cook's 1683 privateering expedition which captured a prize ship they renamed ''Bachelor's Delight''. Cook took them around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramír ...

to raid Spain's Pacific territories, joining a flotilla of other buccaneers including Charles Swan's ''Cygnet''. Cook died in 1684, replaced by Edward Davis; Read, Dampier, and others soon transferred to ''Cygnet''. After some unproductive raids Swan headed west across the Pacific in early 1686, his lack of success causing the crew to grow unruly. After a stop at

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

they arrived at

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

in the Philippines in June 1686. The crew soon mutinied, ejecting Swan and electing Josiah Teat as Captain, who was himself soon replaced as Captain by Read, setting sail in early 1687. Read sailed Cygnet through the East Indies with little treasure to show for the voyage. In early 1688 they landed on Australia. Dampier, tired of sailing with Read and his crew, asked to be put ashore in the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian ...

in 1688. Read sailed to the Indian Ocean, capturing their first lucrative prize ship in the process. On India's southwestern

Coromandel coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

the crew broke up, with many of the crew leaving to serve on Mughal ships. Read then took ''Cygnet'' to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

where more of his sailors joined other pirate crews; Read himself took his earnings and boarded a ship bound for New York to retire from pirate life. The remaining sailors under Teat sailed back to Coromandel “where Captain Teat and his own men went ashore to serve the Mogul,” though ''Cygnet'' itself was in poor condition and finally sank at Madagascar.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John 17th-century pirates Year of birth missing Year of death missing English pirates Piracy in the Indian Ocean

History

See also

Notes

References