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John 'Calico Jack' Rackham - Pirate
(c1682 - 1720) |
Calico Jack was an English pirate, however little
is known of his life before piracy. He was active
during what was known as ‘The Golden Age of
Pirates’ and gained his notoriety from having
two female pirates,
Anne Bonny
and Mary
Read, serving under his command. His greatest
legacy was his flag, which has become the best
known of all pirate flags. Calico Jack appeared
as a character in the video game Assassins Creed
IV Black Flag.
This page details facts about Calico Jack's
life and the events that shaped his history.
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Calico Jack the Pirate - Fun
Facts for Kids ! |
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Calico Jack Fact
1: |
He was born as John Rackham in England
around 1682. |
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Calico Jack Fact
2: |
John Rackham became known as Calico Jack
because of his clothing, which was made from brightly coloured
Indian Calico cloth. |
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Calico Jack Fact
3: |
He served as a Quartermaster aboard the
sloop ‘Ranger’ under the pirate
Charles Vane. |
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Calico Jack Fact
4: |
While serving under Vane, Calico Jack,
along with the rest of the ship’s company, snubbed the offer
of the King’s Pardon. |
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Calico Jack Fact
5: |
On 24th November 1718 he was voted Captain
in place of Vane, who was branded a coward for ordering
them all to sail away from a French Man of War rather than
risk boarding her. |
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Calico Jack Fact
6: |
He had his own flag
which was to become the most recognized of all pirate
flags. His flag was a skull with two crossed swords
beneath it, now commonly known as the Jolly Roger.
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Calico Jack Fact
7: |
Several ships were
plundered by him including a ship from Madeira, which
they detained for two to three days before letting it
go.
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Calico Jack Fact
8: |
Calico Jack and his
crew spent Christmas 1718 ashore, drinking and merrymaking
until they ran out of liquor. He then returned to the
sea to get more.
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Calico Jack Fact
9: |
Although he was fairly
successful, he didn’t take any great prizes except for
a ship full of prisoners on their way from Newgate prison
to the plantations. A few days later, he lost this prize
to an English Man of War.
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Picture
of The Jolly Roger Flag
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Calico Jack Fact 10: |
Two more ships were taken by him before
he went to the Bahamas to refit his own ship using the stores,
pitch and tar that he’d plundered. He stayed there a little
too long, resulting in the Governor, Woodes Rogers, sending
a sloop out after him. The sloop managed to retake the ships,
however he managed to escape. |
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Calico Jack Fact 11: |
Calico Jack sailed for Cuba and stayed
there until his money and provisions ran out. As he was
preparing to leave, a Spanish Man of War approached, with
an English sloop they’d captured, and attacked them. As
evening came the Spanish ship stayed where it was, intending
to finish them off the next morning. Realising he was trapped
and his situation desperate, he waited until nightfall before
taking his crew, armed with pistols and cutlasses, to the
captured English Sloop. Calico Jack and his crew overcame
the Spaniards on the ship and took command. He then sailed
out to sea and escaped. |
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Calico Jack Fact 12: |
In August 1720, he had only a small crew
and was attacking small craft and fishing boats off the
coast of Jamaica. |
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Calico Jack Fact 13: |
In September 1720 he headed for Hispaniola
where he took on some French crew. Calico Jack went on to
plunder two sloops before returning to Jamaica, and on 19th
October 1720 he took a schooner. |
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Calico Jack Fact 14: |
The next day, he took a sloop, and the
sloop’s crew joined them. |
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Calico Jack Fact 15: |
The Governor came to hear of Calico Jack’s
exploits and sent a heavily manned sloop, commanded by Captain
Jonathan Barnet of the Royal Navy, to find him. |
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Calico Jack Fact
16: |
Barnet
caught up with Calico Jack at Point Negril and boarded
his ship. Calico Jack and most of the crew retreated
below the deck leaving
Anne Bonny,
Mary Read
and another crew member to fight. After a short
fight, his ship was taken. |
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Calico Jack Fact
17: |
On 16th November
1720 at an Admiralty court in St. Jago de la Vega,
Jamaica, Calico Jack and his crew were convicted
of piracy and sentenced to hang. |
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Calico Jack Fact
18: |
Calico Jack was
hung on 18th November 1720 at Gallows Point in Port
Royal. His body was later taken down and hung in
chains from a gibbet. |
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Picture
of Anne Bonny the Pirate
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Calico Jack Fact
19: |
Calico Jack has been included as
a character in the popular video game Assassins Creed
IV, Black Flag, along with
Blackbeard,
Anne Bonny,
Benjamin
Hornigold, Mary
Read and Charles
Vane. He has also appeared in the fictional TV series
Black Sails, which was released in the United States
in 2014. The series was created as a prequel to Robert
Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island and is set around
20 years earlier. |
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John 'Calico Jack' Rackham
the Pirate (c1682 - 1720) Fun Facts Info for Kids
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