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Roberts and the Bahia Treasure Fleet (1719)

The raid of 1719 in which Bartholomew Roberts, newly elected to command after the death of Howell Davis, brought his ship in among a Portuguese homeward fleet of about forty-two sail lying in the Bay of All Saints at Bahia, forced a captured master to point out the richest ship present, and carried off a forty-gun merchantman laden with sugar, skins, tobacco, about 40,000 moidores in gold and a diamond-set cross made for the King of Portugal.

Also writtenThe Bahia raid; The Bay of All Saints raid; Baia de Todos os Santos, 1719; The taking of the Sagrada Familia (a name from later tradition, not from the primary narrative)

In 1719 a pirate ship worked in among a Portuguese merchant fleet lying at anchor in the Bay of All Saints, the roadstead of Bahia on the coast of Brazil, and came out again with the richest vessel in it. The fleet was homeward bound for Lisbon and waiting on its escort. The pirate captain was Bartholomew Roberts, a Welshman who had held his command for a matter of weeks and had been a pirate for a matter of months. This is the raid that made him.1

How he came by the command

The pirate Howell Davis was killed in a Portuguese ambush on the island of Principe in the Gulf of Guinea, and the surviving crew held a council and elected Roberts to the vacant command, reportedly for his navigation and his force of personality, over men who had been aboard far longer. In A General History of the Pyrates, printed in 1724 under the name Captain Charles Johnson, he accepts with a line that has followed him ever since: "since he had dipp'd his Hands in Muddy Water, and must be a Pyrate, it was better being a Commander than a common Man."2

Forty-two sail waiting for a convoy

Coming into the Bay of All Saints, Baia de Todos os Santos, Roberts found, by one account, about forty-two Portuguese sail lying with their lading in for Lisbon, waiting on two men-of-war of seventy guns each that were to see them across. Both figures are round and memorable ones, orders of magnitude rather than a harbour return.3

Made to point out the richest ship

Roberts did not attack openly. He brought his ship in among the fleet and kept his men below and out of sight until a plan was settled, in some accounts under Portuguese colours to pass unremarked. He then ranged alongside one of the deeper-laden vessels, boarded her and took her, and had her master brought aboard under threat with one demand, that he point out the richest ship in the anchorage.4

Forty guns, and a cross for the King

The master pointed to a ship of forty guns. Roberts bore down on her and took her, and she proved to be everything the pointing had promised: sugar, skins and tobacco in the hold, about 40,000 moidores in gold, chains, trinkets and jewellery besides, and a cross set with diamonds designed for the King of Portugal.5

The complement, and the drift of a number

How many men were in her is unstable by the second telling. The 1724 narrative gives about 150. Later writers give 170. Nothing much turns on twenty men, but the number drifted inside accounts that were otherwise copying each other closely.6

Out of the bay

The alarm went up and one of the seventy-gun guard ships weighed to give chase. Roberts then had the problem that comes with a full hold, a prize that sailed heavily under him. The man-of-war followed and did not press the action home. He got clear of the bay with the prize.3

What the retellings added

Two of the details most often repeated about Bahia are not in the account everything else rests on. The prize is generally named the Sagrada Familia, the Sacred Family; the General History passage names no prize at all, and that name reaches later writing through tradition and the Portuguese side of the story. The date of September 1719 is a reconstruction by later hands: the year is firm, the month is not. A third piece of colour, the picture of Roberts wearing the diamond cross on a gold chain for the rest of his life, belongs with them: it is the kind of vivid particular Johnson's book supplies, and later writers repeat it without corroboration.7

It was one of the richest prizes of the whole career, taken in the first weeks of the command. The company came out of the bay wealthy and, more usefully to them, known. Roberts spent the next two and a half years taking ships in numbers nobody else in the period approached, north to Trepassey in 1720 and back to the African coast, until HMS Swallow caught him off Cape Lopez in February 1722. For the Portuguese government at Salvador the affair was a humiliation of a particular kind: a convoy assembled precisely against this danger had its best ship cut out of the middle of it.

What the sources cannot yet give is the Portuguese paper. Everything above rests on one chapter of the 1724 General History, a near-contemporary account that dramatises, supplies speeches and rounds its figures, and the later retellings agree with it largely because they descend from it. The governor's loss report and the cargo manifests that would fix the prize's name, her complement and the true value of her lading should sit in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino in Lisbon and in the correspondence of the Governor of Bahia for 1719. None of it has yet been read, and the day and the month remain open.

What the evidence does not settle

Name of the prize

  • Name Sagrada Familia is a later attributionUnverified

Complement of the prize

  • Prize's crew numbered about 150 men, or 170Disputed

Value and armament of the prize

  • Prize carried about 40,000 moidores plus goodsPossible
  • Independent evidence for a fleet of forty-two shipsUnverified

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. In 1719 Bartholomew Roberts brought his pirate ship into the Bay of All Saints (Baia de Todos os Santos), the anchorage of Bahia, that is Salvador, then capital of Portuguese Brazil, mingled with a Portuguese merchant fleet lying there laden for Lisbon and awaiting convoy, seized a vessel, compelled its master to identify the richest ship present, and carried that ship off as a prize. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, attributed to Captain Charles Johnson
  2. Roberts was elected captain by the surviving crew after Howell Davis was killed in a Portuguese ambush on the island of Principe; the General History attributes to him on that election the words that, since he had dipp'd his Hands in Muddy Water, and must be a Pyrate, it was better being a Commander than a common Man. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, for the election and the quotation
  3. Roberts found at Bahia about forty-two Portuguese sail lying with their lading in for Lisbon and waiting on two men-of-war of seventy guns each that were to serve as their convoy, and when the alarm was given one of those seventy-gun guard ships weighed and gave chase but failed to press the action home, so that Roberts got clear of the bay with his prize despite her sailing heavily. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, the single narrative carrying the fleet count, the escorts and the chase; the round figures are read as order of magnitude rather than as audited counts
  4. Rather than attack openly Roberts brought his ship in among the anchored fleet and kept his men hidden below until a plan was formed, in some accounts hoisting Portuguese colours to pass unremarked, then ranged alongside one of the deeper-laden vessels, boarded and seized her, and brought her master aboard under threat with the demand that he point out the richest ship in the anchorage. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative and secondary account: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, for the concealment, the seizure and the compelled master; the Golden Age of Piracy project narrative for the disguised entry under Portuguese colours; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
  5. The ship the master pointed out was a Portuguese merchantman of forty guns, and she proved to be carrying sugar, skins and tobacco, about 40,000 moidores in gold, chains, trinkets and jewellery of considerable value, and a cross set with diamonds that had been designed for the King of Portugal; the sterling worth of that gold is nowhere stated. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, for the forty guns, the lading, the moidores and the diamond cross
  6. The complement of the prize is given inconsistently, at about 150 men in the 1724 General History and at 170 by later writers, and this record carries both figures rather than choosing between them. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, for about 150 men; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
  7. The name Sagrada Familia, commonly attached to the prize in modern writing, does not appear in the General History passage and reaches later accounts through tradition and Portuguese-side sources, and the frequently cited dating of the raid to September 1719 is likewise a later reconstruction, the year being firm while the day and month are not fixed in the primary narrative; the tradition that Roberts kept the diamond cross and wore it on a gold chain is colour of the same kind, uncorroborated beyond the 1724 text and its descendants. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter on Captain Bartholomew Roberts, which names no prize and gives no day or month