The Quartermaster, a Second Power

The company kept a second power beside the captain, the elected quartermaster, who held the civil, economic and disciplinary authority of the company between actions. The room leads on a captured captain's firsthand account of the office the retellings flatten.

the captain of a pirate ship is chiefly chosen to fight the vessels they may meet with, and besides him they choose another principal officer whom they call quartermaster, who has the general inspection of all affairs and often controls the captain's orders, and is the first man in boarding any ship they attack.

besides the captain and quartermaster the pirates had all other officers as is usual on board men of war.

The 1723 depositions put the office in acts. William Magnes, a quartermaster of Roberts's company, ordered provisions out of a prize, took first for the company's use what he thought fit and then allotted each man his share, forced men into the pirate boat with violence, set sentinels over a captured ship, and once stepped in to stop another pirate beating a prisoner. As early as 1696 the quartermaster of Every's company is on record transacting for plunder, offering bills for what he took.

The captain was chiefly there to fight, and the quartermaster held the general inspection of affairs the rest of the time, with the company able to depose either. Very likely

The quartermaster led the boarding and judged the smaller offences of the company. In its fuller form the office is a civil magistracy and a trusteeship for the whole company, with a share the equal of the captain's.

The pirate quartermaster is a different office from the petty officer of the same name aboard a merchantman or a man of war, and the retellings that flatten him into a second in command pass over the civil power the sources give him.

• The captain: his authority near absolute in chase and in battle, and reserved to fighting.
• The quartermaster: elected and revocable, first aboard a prize, keeping the company's use and allotting the shares, judging the smaller offences, leading the boarding, and raised to captain when a captain fell. The specific powers stand on the 1723 and 1696 depositions; the divided authority itself is very likely.
• The company: the power to elect and to depose both lay with the whole company.
• The civil magistrate label, and the parity of the quartermaster's share with the captain's, are Charles Johnson's and possible, set apart from the rest and carrying no figure.

The named quartermasters and the trap against the naval petty officer belong to the gallery of the quartermasters, and the quartermaster's elevation when a captain is deposed to the gallery of crew voting and councils. Magnes and Simpson are named because the depositions name them; the titles given to Hardy, Corner and Rackham are Charles Johnson's and possible; Bellamy's quartermaster is not named in the sources read. What the cross-company view adds is a second elected office, holding the civil and economic power of the company, set against the captain's command.