John Auger (c. 1678 – 1718, occasionally spelled Augur or Augier) was a

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

active in the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

around 1718. He is primarily remembered for being captured by pirate turned pirate-hunter

Benjamin Hornigold Benjamin Hornigold (c. 1680–1719) was an English pirate towards the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bahamas. He helped to e ...

History

John Auger had been a minor pirate in Nassau; upon hearing Governor

Woodes Rogers Woodes Rogers ( – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer and colonial administrator who served as the List of governors of the Bahamas, governor of the Bahamas from 1718 to 1721 and again from 1728 to 1732. He is remembered ...

' offer of the King's Act of Grace pardoning all pirates who surrendered by 1718, he accepted and retired from piracy. Rogers pardoned Auger ("a steady and respectable old pirate"), entrusted him with a sloop named ''Mary'' - owned by a David Soward and outfitted for trading - and allowed him to leave on the sloop ''Mary'' with two other ships on a resupply voyage. Soon after, Auger and his crew met with the other vessels at sea, including fellow pardoned pirate Phineas Bunce. Abandoning their trading mission, they reverted to piracy and plundered the two ships. Auger and Bunce debated whether to kill cargo master James Kerr, pilot Richard Turnley, and other officers Rogers had placed on board, but instead voted to maroon them. Benjamin Hornigold had also accepted Rogers' pardon and had turned to hunting his former pirating comrades. He had been lying in wait for pirate Charles Vane; he captured Vane's accomplice Nicholas Woodall but missed Vane and returned to Nassau, where Rogers sent him after Auger and others in the area. Hornigold captured Auger and his crew later in 1718 after Auger's sloop was attacked by Spanish ''

guarda costa ''Guarda costa'' or ''guardacosta'' ("coast guard") was the name used in the Spanish Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries for the privateers based off their overseas territories, tasked with hunting down piracy, contraband and foreign private ...

'' privateer vessels led by Turn Joe, returning them to

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital, national capital city of Nassau, Bahamas, Nassau; it had a population of 246 ...

in the Bahamas. Rogers had no commission from England to hold an Admiralty Court to try captured pirates. Improvising, he held his own court, sending detailed court records back to England in lieu of waiting for official royal orders. Auger testified that Phineas Bunce (who died of his injuries before he could be tried) was the mutiny's mastermind and that Auger himself had been "in Liquor" at the time, but could produce no evidence. The Court pardoned one man found to have been forced into piracy and ordered that all of the other pirates should "be hanged by the neck till you shall be dead, dead, dead".

Captain Charles Johnson Captain Charles Johnson was the British author of the 1724 book ''A General History of the Pyrates, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates'', whose identity remains a mystery. No record exists of a captain b ...

describes Auger's trip to the gallows:

... knowing himself guilty of the Indictment, he all along appeared very penitent, and neither wash'd, shav'd, or shifted his old Cloaths, when carried to be executed; and when he had a small Glass of Wine given him on the Rampart, drank it with Wishes for the good Success of the Bahama Islands and the Governor.

but the virtue of the condemned was firm, and the only consolation the criminals obtained was the advice that "lead their thoughts to the other world and repent of the evils they had committed in this one." "Yes," replied Auger, furious and not ashamed, "I deeply regret not having committed greater evils and not having cut the neck of the comrades who betrayed me, and I regret even more that all of you do not hang up Auger and his crew had been captured, tried, convicted, and hanged within a year of returning to piracy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auger, John Year of birth uncertain 1718 deaths 18th-century pirates American pirates British pirates Pardoned pirates People executed for piracy Caribbean pirates

History

See also

References