Ralph Stout (died 1697) was a pirate active in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. He is best known for rescuing fellow pirate

Robert Culliford Robert Culliford (c. 1666 - ?, last name occasionally Collover) was a pirate from Cornwall who is best remembered for repeatedly ''checking the designs'' of Captain William Kidd. Early career and capture Culliford and Kidd first met as shipmates ...

after each of them spent separate 4-year periods in

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the ...

prisons.

History

James Kelley had been a sailor aboard the ''Batchelor’s Delight'' with

George Raynor George Sidney Raynor (13 January 1907 – 24 November 1985) was an English professional footballer and one of the most successful international football managers ever. One of his greatest achievements was taking the Sweden national football te ...

and Edward Davis. In 1692 he was given command of the captured ship ''Unity'' but was arrested along with Ralph Stout and several others while ashore in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. They remained in prison until early 1696 when they stole a small boat and made their way to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

. There they signed aboard the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

ship ''Mocha'' under Captain Edgecombe. A few days later Stout led a mutiny, murdering Edgecombe and renaming the ship ''Defence'' (some records still refer to it as ''Mocha''). Stout was elected Captain for his role in the mutiny. Off of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

they captured a ship with

’s crew aboard, who had only recently staged their own escape and mutiny. Near the Nicobar Islands, Stout picked up the rest of the crew and Culliford himself, who had been marooned when prisoners on Culliford’s captured ship rebelled and ejected the pirates. Stout gained a reputation for cruelty, one occasion trapping prisoners in their ship and burning them alive, on another mutilating a captured

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

priest. Later in 1696 Stout was sailing alongside

Richard Bobbington Richard Bobbington (died 1697?, name occasionally Philip or Babbington) was a pirate active in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf in the late 1690s. History Adam Baldridge ran a trading post for pirates off Madagascar, and was willin ...

and later

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomina ...

’s ship ''Charming Mary'', looting a dozen ships. They separated soon after; Stout took the ''Mocha'' to the

Laccadive Islands The Laccadive or Cannanore Islands are one of the three island subgroups in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, India. It is the central subgroup of the Lakshadweep, separated from the Amindivi Islands subgroup roughly by the 11th parallel ...

, where he was killed in June 1697. Conflicting reports have him either slain by angry natives, or by his own crew when he announced he wanted to retire from piracy. Robert Culliford was given command of the ''Mocha'' after Stout’s death, later sailing alongside Nathaniel North and

Dirk Chivers Dirk Chivers (, last name occasionally Shivers) was a Dutch pirate active in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Early career Dirk Chivers is first recorded as a crew member of the ''Portsmouth Adventure'', , under Captain Joseph Faro (or Farrell) around ...

, and meeting

William Kidd William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd ( – 23 May 1701), was a Scottish sea captain who was commissioned as a privateer and had experience as a pirate. He was tried and executed in London in 1701 for murder a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stout, Ralph Year of birth missing 17th-century pirates English pirates 1697 deaths Piracy in the Indian Ocean

History

See also

References