1717 in piracy

Events

Caribbean Sea

• January – bombards and destroys several pirate vessels careening on St. Croix, stranding the pirate crew.
• Late February – Black Sam Bellamy in the Sultana takes the Whydah Gally near Jamaica and keeps it for his own use.
• April 1 – Benjamin Hornigold and a pirate named Napping capture a large armed sloop, the Bennet out of Jamaica.
• April 4 – At Bluefield's Bay in Jamaica, Hornigold and Napping capture the sloop Revenge carrying a load of Spanish gold.
• September 29 – "Gentleman Pirate" Stede Bonnet, who has traded plantation life for a pirate ship, transfers command of his sloop, the Revenge, to Blackbeard.
• November 28 – Blackbeard captures the French slave ship La Concorde near Martinique, equips her with 40 guns, and renames her the Queen Anne's Revenge.
• December 10 – Blackbeard overtakes and ransacks the merchant sloop Margaret off the coast of Anguilla near Crab Island.

  North America

• Spring – Edward Teach and Benjamin Hornigold take two sloops to Virginia, robbing three vessels en route, then return to Nassau, Bahamas.
• April – Bellamy seizes a merchant vessel off South Carolina.
• April 26 – The Whydah Gally wrecks in a nor'easter off Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Bellamy and 143 men are drowned. Over 4 tons of treasure is lost under just of water – it would elude discovery for over 260 years.
• July – Stede Bonnet's pirates in the Revenge plunder the Anne, Turbet, Endeavour, and Young off the coast of Virginia, burning the Turbet.
• August – Bonnet raids two vessels off South Carolina, firing one.
• October – Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet raid shipping in the mouth of Delaware Bay.
• October 12 – Blackbeard captures a Captain Codd and his vessel off the Delaware capes. He later captures and loots the Spofford and Sea Nymph.
• October 22 – Blackbeard, on the Revenge, stops and plunders the Robert and Good Intent of their cargo.

  Europe

• September 5 – King George I of Great Britain issues a royal decree, known as the Act of Grace, pardoning all pirates who surrender to the appointed authorities by 5 September 1718.

  Deaths

• April 27 – Black Sam Bellamy, pirate commander captain, along with 143 of his crew.