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The Hidden History of Jewish Pirates, Part 2: Famous Privateers · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye
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Speaker 1: Yo ho Ho Ridiculous Historians. I'm sorry, I just had
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Speaker 1: to get it out of my system. All right, Well,
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Speaker 1: I'm ben. This is part two of our exploration of
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Speaker 1: the little known story of Jamaica and Jewish pirates. Hi,
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Speaker 1: I'm nol bent. Was that just a drawn out yo?
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Speaker 1: Or were those meant to be ho ho hoes in between?
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Speaker 1: As a as a a piratey ref? Yeah? Priate ref?
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Speaker 1: Did it? Did it sound like a yo or yo
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Speaker 1: ho ho? I just was making sure that we're on
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Speaker 1: this zoom and then I was a little bit it
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Speaker 1: dragged it out, did that thing where it digitally kind
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Speaker 1: of stretched it so on my end it is kind
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Speaker 1: of light. Sounded like you were saying, yo, ridiculous historians
1:05
Speaker 1: and welcome to the show. But no, I I kid,
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Speaker 1: but yeah, today you know, we we we did. We
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Speaker 1: did this intentional two parter and uh, I know the
1:15
Speaker 1: first one seemed a little on the short side, but
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Speaker 1: we felt like it was a good kind of primer
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Speaker 1: to now get you into some like really cool dives
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Speaker 1: into some of the most notable Jewish pirates and privateers
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Speaker 1: from throughout history. So what do you say we we
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Speaker 1: we jump right in with signon yes a k a.
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Speaker 1: The Great Jew. Yes, let's walk the plank of the
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Speaker 1: podcast with the help of our super producer, Casey Pegrov,
1:45
Speaker 1: no doubt, brandishing a scimitar behind us forcing us along.
1:49
Speaker 1: You're right, this guy was known as the Great Jew. Also,
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Speaker 1: as we go through this episode, please, if you're played
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Speaker 1: along at home, let us know what your ideal pirate
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Speaker 1: nickname would be. I think that's the coolest thing. If
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Speaker 1: you're a pirate, you get a nickname. Right. We've talked
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Speaker 1: about cool professional nicknames in the past, but yes, had
2:10
Speaker 1: the Moniker the Great Jew. He and his family, like
2:15
Speaker 1: so many of the people you mentioned in part one
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Speaker 1: of the show, they fled the Spanish Inquisition in the
2:19
Speaker 1: early fifteen hundreds, and first they went to Turkey and
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Speaker 1: then it was in modern day Ismir Turkey where sNaN
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Speaker 1: became the right hand man of a fellow named Hayredden Barbarossa,
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Speaker 1: one of the most famed pirates of all time. Barbarosa
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Speaker 1: would eventually go on to become a sultan and a
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Speaker 1: commander in the Ottoman Navy. And uh, these guys had
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Speaker 1: their own interesting take on the pirate flag. Uh, they
2:46
Speaker 1: sure did. And and just one quick little little snippet
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Speaker 1: of backstory on Sanan Um he was born to Sephardic
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Speaker 1: Jewish parents who fled Spain and then look like you said,
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Speaker 1: located into the auto An Empire. Um. But I just
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Speaker 1: I thought the distinction of Sephardic Jews was interesting because
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Speaker 1: I wasn't intimately familiar with this tradition, and it specifically
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Speaker 1: refers to descendants of Jews who lived in Spain and
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Speaker 1: Portugal uh, from the later centuries of the Roman Empire
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Speaker 1: until they were essentially forced out um of those countries
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Speaker 1: in the last decades of the fifteenth century. And that's
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Speaker 1: from Britannica. They're just to just to give credit where
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Speaker 1: credit is due. But this is something I wasn't wasn't
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Speaker 1: intimately familiar with, so always interesting to learn about new
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Speaker 1: kind of cultural offshoots. But yes, to your point, Ben,
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Speaker 1: about their kind of interesting spin on the Jolly Roger,
3:45
Speaker 1: which we we heard from you last episode, did have
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Speaker 1: some variations. Um. There's had a six sided star very
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Speaker 1: much seeming to be a reference to the Jewish Star
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Speaker 1: of David in place of that smiling skelets boy, and
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Speaker 1: they were a dynamic duo on the high seas. Probably
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Speaker 1: their biggest victory came in fifteen thirty eight during something
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Speaker 1: called the Battle of Provezza, right off the coast of Greece.
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Speaker 1: Ottoman forces led by these two guys defeated an entire
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Speaker 1: flotilla of armed ships from Christian countries that have been
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Speaker 1: kind of assembled or justice leagued by Pope Paul the Third.
4:26
Speaker 1: This victory, there's ensured that the Ottoman forces would dominate
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Speaker 1: the Mediterranean for generations to come. And this is where
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Speaker 1: sNaN earned his nickname, his street name, the Great Jew.
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Speaker 1: You know who gave it to him, his enemies on
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Speaker 1: the Spanish side of the conflict. Totally, Yeah, it makes
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Speaker 1: me think of It makes me think of the character
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Speaker 1: and inglorious bastards um, the one with the baseball bat.
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Speaker 1: You know, he's bashing and heads all the time. He
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Speaker 1: gets his nickname from his enemies too. It was the
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Speaker 1: Ared you right, because he was known for bashing head stuff.
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Speaker 1: You always know, if you get a pretty cool sound
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Speaker 1: of nickname from your enemies, you're doing something right. You're
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Speaker 1: striking fear into the right hearts, you know what I mean?
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Speaker 1: I still think that, you know, the Spanish forces at
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Speaker 1: this point, we're like, why not throw in some hate speech. Yeah, well,
5:18
Speaker 1: while we're here, let's just also being sold. I don't
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Speaker 1: know what they you know what I mean, I don't
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Speaker 1: know how they meant it to be received, but I
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Speaker 1: agree with you it is a very badass nickname. Uh.
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Speaker 1: People were so intimidated by this guy or looked up
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Speaker 1: to him, depending on where they stood in the conflict,
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Speaker 1: that they began spreading rumors of his sorceress powers. He
5:40
Speaker 1: was so good at navigating the seas that people started
5:44
Speaker 1: saying he had to use magic to do it. They're like,
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Speaker 1: there's only one way. I love picturing this conversation. It's
5:50
Speaker 1: a bunch of other sailors meeting up and they're like, look, guys,
5:54
Speaker 1: we know we're just mainly winging it out there. How
5:57
Speaker 1: does sNaN know where he's going all the time? And
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Speaker 1: someone else that I think it's magic, bro, And they
6:02
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, because that was a sufficient explanation of
6:05
Speaker 1: things at the time. Well, and if I'm not mistaken,
6:08
Speaker 1: wasn't part of that kind of anti Semitic attitude and
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Speaker 1: almost fear of Jews as having some kinds of being
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Speaker 1: like witches or something, or as as possessing some kind
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Speaker 1: of magical powers. You often hear kind of outdated jokes
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Speaker 1: about even like you know, the of that that fantastic
6:28
Speaker 1: film Jojo Rabbit by Taiko A Titi, there's a character.
6:33
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil anything about the movie, but
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Speaker 1: there's a child who refers to Jews as being like
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Speaker 1: having the ability to hypnotize you or something like that,
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Speaker 1: like vampire rules or whatever. And I think that sort
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Speaker 1: of attitude about like they they're using witchcraft to do
6:48
Speaker 1: this navigation was probably a pretty widespread idea and another
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Speaker 1: way to further dehumanize people when you really think it
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Speaker 1: all the way through. So in ristinely enough, you can
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Speaker 1: read more about Barbarossa and Snan's adventures in the five
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Speaker 1: volume book of Barbarossa's memoirs that he dictated to Sonan.
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Speaker 1: They currently reside in the Istanbul University Library. So this
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Speaker 1: guy is having an adventure that most people don't know about,
7:23
Speaker 1: which is crazy. I would love to see the film,
7:26
Speaker 1: which I know I've been saying, and like every episode
7:28
Speaker 1: we do, but so many of these stories are just perfect.
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Speaker 1: They're so cinematic. Okay, we can't spend all our time
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Speaker 1: on this guy though. Uh what say we move on
7:37
Speaker 1: to another great nickname, the pirate rabbi. Yeah, Samuel Palash
7:46
Speaker 1: or Palachet. I'm gonna go with Blash. What do you
7:49
Speaker 1: think We're probably gonna get corrected either way. Let's just
7:51
Speaker 1: stick with it. Uh. Yeah, this guy wasn't just your
7:55
Speaker 1: run of the mill son of Abraham Um. He was
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Speaker 1: actually a rabbi. His name was a Rabbi Schmool Palacci,
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Speaker 1: and he is said to have taken part in some
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Speaker 1: pretty serious pirate raids against Spanish and Dutch ships, which
8:11
Speaker 1: would have been under the privateer side. Isn't that right then? Yeah? Yeah,
8:15
Speaker 1: he was working for the Dutch government, and then he
8:17
Speaker 1: was also working for the Sultan of Barbary and Morocco.
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Speaker 1: He was instrumental in one of the very first treaties
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Speaker 1: between European and Middle Eastern powers, that's the six Agreement
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Speaker 1: that guaranteed peace between Morocco and the Netherlands. So despite
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Speaker 1: the fact that he had trained as a rabbi, he
8:38
Speaker 1: obviously felt more called to this life on the high
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Speaker 1: seas as a privateer, but he was still a man
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Speaker 1: of faith he was still pious, and one of the
8:50
Speaker 1: rules on his ship was that the members of the
8:54
Speaker 1: crew had to donate a tenth of their loot. I'll
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Speaker 1: just say, a cut of their booty to charity. Yeah,
9:02
Speaker 1: lean into it, dude, I love it. And he also
9:06
Speaker 1: kept things kosher on his ship, which, if you think
9:09
Speaker 1: about that, that seems like at some point it could
9:11
Speaker 1: get a little to right. I mean, you know, it
9:16
Speaker 1: takes a lot of effort, uh, and certainly you don't
9:19
Speaker 1: have the luxury of having access to like all the
9:23
Speaker 1: things when you're you know, uh far far away at sea.
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Speaker 1: But that whole aspect of like donating to charity, that's
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Speaker 1: the real kicker for me. That's fantastic. So in sixteen fourteen,
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Speaker 1: Morocco and Spain went to war with each other, and
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Speaker 1: Plash was responsible for heading up a small Moroccan fleet
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Speaker 1: UM that was destined for a conflict with Spanish ships
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Speaker 1: and actually was able to be successful and capture them. Um.
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Speaker 1: He was though arrested by the Spanish ambassador and then
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Speaker 1: tried under Spanish law for piracy. There's a letter to
10:01
Speaker 1: a Dudley Carlton, who is the British ambassador to Venice.
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Speaker 1: Then um. And he summed up the life of this
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Speaker 1: Jewish pirate thusly. And this comes from a I s
10:15
Speaker 1: h dot Com. I'm not familiar with the words, so
10:17
Speaker 1: forgive me if I'm I had rather spell it than
10:19
Speaker 1: mispronounced it. Which is a really great resource for Jewish
10:22
Speaker 1: culture and heritage and all kinds of history and cool storytelling.
10:26
Speaker 1: Highly recommended. Um. But eight little known facts about Jewish pirates. Um.
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Speaker 1: And they have this quote from Dudley Carlton. And keep
10:35
Speaker 1: in mind that maybe some of this language might sound
10:37
Speaker 1: a little charged. I'm just reading it from historical record. Quote.
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Speaker 1: Here is a jew pirate arrested that brought three prizes
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Speaker 1: of Spaniards into Plymouth. He shall likely pass out of
10:48
Speaker 1: here well enough, for he has league and license under
10:51
Speaker 1: the King's hand for his free egress and regress, which
10:55
Speaker 1: was not believed until he made proof of it. Okay, yeah,
10:59
Speaker 1: so eventually they had They realized he is approved by
11:04
Speaker 1: the highest authority to basically do what he wants. Right.
11:09
Speaker 1: It's it's imagine, you know, we talked about it sometimes
11:12
Speaker 1: in spy novels, right, the idea of a license to kill.
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Speaker 1: But imagine if there was a country where you literally
11:18
Speaker 1: got a printed letter that you can whip out that
11:21
Speaker 1: says something like, uh, superproducer Casey Pegram has the express
11:26
Speaker 1: authorization of the US government to do whatever he wants.
11:30
Speaker 1: Let me go. Uh. I would love that. I would
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Speaker 1: I would probably get into some really poorly thought out
11:37
Speaker 1: high jinks, you know what I mean. Uh. Plash was acquitted.
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Speaker 1: He was set free. When he passed away in sixteen sixteen,
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Speaker 1: he was given a heroes funeral. Every single member of
11:50
Speaker 1: the Jewish community in Amsterdam got together and marched in
11:53
Speaker 1: his funeral procession. And they were not alone. They were
11:57
Speaker 1: joined by royalty, and they were joined by elders of
12:01
Speaker 1: the city itself. So this person had had an immense
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Speaker 1: amount of support and recognition in his time. Yeah, for sure.
12:10
Speaker 1: And like we said, bust another myth about pirates. And
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Speaker 1: this guy seemed like a pretty benevolent pirate at the
12:16
Speaker 1: end of the day and had a bit of a
12:18
Speaker 1: moral code, which I appreciate because you think of pirates
12:21
Speaker 1: is just you know, being wanton and uh and not
12:24
Speaker 1: following the rules. And this guy was definitely a different
12:27
Speaker 1: spin on that. All right, let's move on to another
12:30
Speaker 1: uh amazing nickname. I'm not a nickname, but like a
12:33
Speaker 1: gang name. Uh this was This one's about sub at
12:37
Speaker 1: all and the Brotherhood of the Black Flag, which sounds
12:41
Speaker 1: like definitely a Black Flag tribute band. Right, I'm not
12:46
Speaker 1: alone in that, Okay. So this guy was a Jewish
12:50
Speaker 1: physician living in the sixteenth century, an educated man, and
12:56
Speaker 1: he was an explorer of what would now known as
13:00
Speaker 1: the America's He's also credited by some with introducing the
13:06
Speaker 1: potato to Europeans, which nice one, man. I've been thinking
13:12
Speaker 1: about this during quarantine. You know what I miss? I
13:14
Speaker 1: miss having fries, French fries that I didn't cook. Yeah,
13:17
Speaker 1: so you haven't really been doing much. You haven't done
13:19
Speaker 1: like a drive theory. Have him been to a Chick
13:20
Speaker 1: fil A or any any of that? Uh? Yeah, I
13:22
Speaker 1: went to I went to a drive through once, but
13:25
Speaker 1: usually usually I've been staying in and cooking. It's a
13:29
Speaker 1: little healthier, it's something to do. I've been I've been
13:31
Speaker 1: cooking some weird stuff. You guys know. I know. And
13:33
Speaker 1: you're talking about You're gonna have a seafood uh extravaganza
13:38
Speaker 1: with your little Japanese grill after we get done recording.
13:41
Speaker 1: And I think you've inspired me to go a seafood
13:43
Speaker 1: route myself for dinner and my mom visiting. But well,
13:46
Speaker 1: speaking of the sea and food, uh, we we were
13:49
Speaker 1: talking about potatoes a minute ago, um, and now we're
13:52
Speaker 1: talking back about Subatol and the Brotherhood of the Black Flag.
13:55
Speaker 1: He formed a bond uh some something of an alliance
13:59
Speaker 1: with another, their famous explorer's son, Um who realized as
14:04
Speaker 1: well that the profession of piracy was a pretty good racket,
14:08
Speaker 1: and that was the son of Sir Francis Drake Henry Um.
14:12
Speaker 1: So the two became inseparable and they started this organization,
14:17
Speaker 1: if you want to call it, that known as the
14:19
Speaker 1: Brotherhood of the Black Flag. It was absolutely a band
14:23
Speaker 1: of pirates that was hell bent on attacking as many
14:28
Speaker 1: Spanish ships as they could right off of the coast
14:31
Speaker 1: of a place that I think you have very recently
14:33
Speaker 1: been a modern day Chile. Yeah, that's right. They are
14:38
Speaker 1: said to have buried six thousand pounds of Spanish gold
14:43
Speaker 1: and an even larger amount of silver near harbor In
14:48
Speaker 1: in Chile. At this time, no one has found that
14:52
Speaker 1: buried treasure. However, treasure hunters have found some documents that
14:58
Speaker 1: were partially written in Hebrew that they believe may have
15:02
Speaker 1: been written by Subatol himself. So, and it's quite possible
15:07
Speaker 1: that someone off the coast of Chile may one day
15:09
Speaker 1: find the hidden treasure of the Brotherhood of the Black Flag.
15:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely ben and and just for reference, if you wanted
15:17
Speaker 1: to check out this area in Chile today, if you
15:21
Speaker 1: ever find yourself back on a plane and maybe you
15:23
Speaker 1: live there, it is near the guy a Can Harbor today.
15:27
Speaker 1: And that's spelled g u a y a c a N.
15:30
Speaker 1: I think guy I Can. It's probably a decent pronunciation there.
15:33
Speaker 1: But let us know who do we have next? Been? Ah,
15:41
Speaker 1: here we go. We've been, We've been setting up for this.
15:44
Speaker 1: We talked about heist, talked about pirates. Now we're talking
15:48
Speaker 1: about a pirate heist. It comes to us courtesy of
15:52
Speaker 1: Mosha Cohen Anarkis or Moses going Enriquees, depending on where
15:56
Speaker 1: you go with the translation. He was one of the
15:59
Speaker 1: most famous of the revenge seeking Jewish privateers and pirates.
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Speaker 1: He started his life living in secrecy as a Jewish
16:11
Speaker 1: person because he grew up under the Inquisition in Portugal.
16:15
Speaker 1: He was at a time one of the most well
16:19
Speaker 1: known prominent successful merchants in the capital of Portugal, Lisbon,
16:24
Speaker 1: and then he was discovered to be Jewish and to
16:27
Speaker 1: be practicing his faith. In sixteen o five, he and
16:31
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty other people were publicly tortured and
16:36
Speaker 1: this changed Cohen's life. He decided that he was going
16:41
Speaker 1: to work against Spain and Portugal and fight against the
16:46
Speaker 1: injustices of the Inquisition. First he had to escape. Yeah,
16:50
Speaker 1: that'll certainly do it, um. And he did that thing.
16:53
Speaker 1: He got out of Amsterdam, and he pretty quickly seemed
16:57
Speaker 1: to find his way into the good grace is of
17:00
Speaker 1: the Dutch and he became essentially a spy for them,
17:03
Speaker 1: for the Dutch Navy, and he settled in Jamaica, which
17:07
Speaker 1: was already starting to become this kind of safe haven
17:11
Speaker 1: for these Jewish expats uh. And he worked with the
17:15
Speaker 1: Dutch on behalf of the Netherlands to attack these Spanish
17:20
Speaker 1: vessels UM and just kind of be a thorn in
17:23
Speaker 1: the side of these UH colonial ambitions to take over
17:28
Speaker 1: the New World, because everyone was vying for a lot
17:31
Speaker 1: of that real estate. Right, Yeah, that's right. This is
17:34
Speaker 1: part of a massive land and resource grab on the
17:37
Speaker 1: part of the European powers. Cohen even teams up with
17:42
Speaker 1: one of the most feared pirates of the day, a
17:46
Speaker 1: man named Sir Henry Morgan. And Sir Henry Morgan is
17:50
Speaker 1: a dangerous, dangerous dude, right. But this land grab, this
17:56
Speaker 1: age of expansion, panic that so many European powers going through,
18:01
Speaker 1: uh makes them bend the rules a little bit more.
18:03
Speaker 1: And so the Dutch and British governments, actually they're not
18:08
Speaker 1: very loud about it, but they back up Cohen and
18:11
Speaker 1: Henry Morgan. Would that be Captain Henry Morgan of the
18:15
Speaker 1: of the Rum fame, the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Yeah,
18:20
Speaker 1: I remember, you know Captain Morgan's surely it's named after him, right, Yeah,
18:24
Speaker 1: I mean what would what would imagine? Uh? Captain Morgan
18:28
Speaker 1: was a Sir Henry Morgan, I guess is a Welsh privateer,
18:32
Speaker 1: and it was a plantation owner who eventually became the
18:34
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. So he was in the halls
18:38
Speaker 1: of power. But to be clear that what I'm talking
18:43
Speaker 1: about when I say the quiet support is the Dutch
18:46
Speaker 1: and British government's quietly supporting Cohen in his partnership. Sir
18:51
Speaker 1: Henry Morgan was already kind of like above the reproach
18:55
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways because he was so powerful
18:58
Speaker 1: and just for the record, confirmed cap To Morgan Rum
19:01
Speaker 1: is named after Sir Henry Morgan for his adventures in
19:05
Speaker 1: the in the Caribbean. Yeah, I mean it makes sense
19:08
Speaker 1: to me, right, and drink responsibly, and you too can
19:12
Speaker 1: live like the Captain. You know, I wonder why they
19:15
Speaker 1: never had a tagline like promote yourself or even use
19:20
Speaker 1: that I'm the captain now meme. That would be great,
19:23
Speaker 1: That would be good. You know what I was thinking
19:25
Speaker 1: in my mind, I was confusing the uh, the Captain
19:28
Speaker 1: Morgan's tagline with the Captain Crunch tagline, which I think
19:31
Speaker 1: is superior. Is you and the Captain make it happen? Uh?
19:35
Speaker 1: There we go. Yeah, and drink responsibly and eat your
19:39
Speaker 1: sugary cereals responsibly. Kids, Right, eat your breakfast candy responsibly.
19:44
Speaker 1: That still baffles me. So here let's fast forward to
19:48
Speaker 1: the heist. We promise you a heist. There is a
19:49
Speaker 1: heist e vault in Cohen helps the Dutch West India
19:54
Speaker 1: Company pool one of the most profitable sea heist in
19:58
Speaker 1: the entire history of piracy. They steal like over a
20:03
Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of gold, and silver from a Spanish
20:06
Speaker 1: fleet off the coast of Cuba. And when we say
20:10
Speaker 1: a billion, that's US roughly adjusting for how much this
20:14
Speaker 1: gold and silver would be worth in today's age. But
20:17
Speaker 1: it's still it's still kind of tough to get a
20:21
Speaker 1: super accurate calculation there. Just it was a lot of money.
20:25
Speaker 1: But wait a minute, Ben, I thought the Dutch West
20:27
Speaker 1: India Company was a legitimate business. What do they do
20:30
Speaker 1: in pulling off heists? Dutch West India Company. Well, they okay,
20:37
Speaker 1: specifically Cohen helped Admiral Pete Hind And so if we're
20:41
Speaker 1: gonna be all unfun and factual about it, the Dutch
20:44
Speaker 1: West India Company was not. It's probably not officially sanctioning
20:49
Speaker 1: this heist, but without doing a whole episode about them. Yet,
20:53
Speaker 1: I wouldn't put it past a man. They are a
20:56
Speaker 1: very bad group. Oh but no, no, no, there's a
20:58
Speaker 1: thing and I used you look up dust West India
21:01
Speaker 1: and Britannica. Dutch West India Company, It says, using booty
21:04
Speaker 1: acquired from the capture by the Dutch seaman Pietre Heine
21:08
Speaker 1: of part of a Spanish treasure fleet, the company challenged
21:12
Speaker 1: the Portuguese hold on Brazil beginning in six thirty and
21:16
Speaker 1: attained his greatest success during the administration of Count John Maurice.
21:20
Speaker 1: So they definitely ran on it, and they're definitely sanctioning it. Yeah,
21:25
Speaker 1: we should do at some point a story about some
21:29
Speaker 1: of the many crimes of those organizations, because even if
21:33
Speaker 1: you know a lot about them, you might not know
21:35
Speaker 1: the whole terrible story. So, not long after successfully pulling
21:40
Speaker 1: off this massive sea heist, Cohen starts his own pirate
21:45
Speaker 1: island because off the coast of Brazil you mentioned earlier.
21:48
Speaker 1: And then once Portugal takes over the area, Cohen becomes
21:53
Speaker 1: this adviser to Captain Henry Morgan drink responsibly indeed, and
21:59
Speaker 1: then know Cohen does finally kind of retire. I guess
22:03
Speaker 1: uh he's getting up there in years, Um, Sir Henry
22:06
Speaker 1: Morgan becomes the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, uh and actually
22:10
Speaker 1: pardoned Cohen. So Cohen was living in the clear um
22:13
Speaker 1: and he stayed in Jamaica until he passed away, living
22:16
Speaker 1: the life of a civilian, you know, but having had
22:19
Speaker 1: some hell of adventures. The pirates life was certainly for him.
22:24
Speaker 1: But um, he knew when to say when, just like
22:26
Speaker 1: you should when you're drinking Captain Morgan's rum. That's right,
22:29
Speaker 1: and that's a lovely pirate stereotype to bust. Not all
22:33
Speaker 1: pirates died on the high seas in you know, a
22:37
Speaker 1: wave of treasure and blood falling to cannon fire. Some
22:41
Speaker 1: people were actually able to retire, which I thought was
22:43
Speaker 1: pretty cool. And now I think we have time for
22:46
Speaker 1: one more. Someone who's been called occasionally the most famous
22:51
Speaker 1: Jewish pirate Jean Lafitte. He was born in France in
22:55
Speaker 1: about sevent I had no idea John Lafitte was was
22:59
Speaker 1: jew spirate. UM certainly heard of him from Lafitte's blacksmith
23:03
Speaker 1: shop in uh in, New Orleans, which I believe is
23:05
Speaker 1: the oldest bar still an operation there or possibly in
23:10
Speaker 1: the United States. It's it's been around for a very
23:12
Speaker 1: very long time, um, and it's a pretty fun little
23:15
Speaker 1: dive bar to check out. They have really good hurricanes.
23:17
Speaker 1: But yeah, John Lafitte was born in France about seventeen eighty,
23:20
Speaker 1: like you said, And there is a pretty controversial work
23:24
Speaker 1: called The Journal of Jean Lafitte. Controversial in it may
23:27
Speaker 1: or may not have been written by him, um, or
23:31
Speaker 1: it could be some kind of forgery. It could be
23:33
Speaker 1: it could have been written by a third party. Um.
23:35
Speaker 1: He does claim that his mother's father was a Spanish
23:39
Speaker 1: Jew who was subjected to torture under the Inquisition UM And,
23:46
Speaker 1: much like some of the previous entries in this list,
23:48
Speaker 1: seeing that happened to his family created a lifelong hatred
23:52
Speaker 1: for Spain um and for obviously the Spanish Inquisition UM
23:57
Speaker 1: and decided that he wanted to wreck their shop man
24:01
Speaker 1: like just absolutely be another thorn in the side of
24:05
Speaker 1: the Spanish Armada, right um. So he wanted to mess
24:09
Speaker 1: with their money because they have these holdings in the
24:11
Speaker 1: New World um and that's where the Inquisition was absolutely
24:14
Speaker 1: like burning their way across the lamb. So Jehan moves
24:18
Speaker 1: to New Orleans to escape the Inquisition. He doesn't move alone.
24:22
Speaker 1: He brings his brother Pierre, and together they found a
24:26
Speaker 1: blacksmith shop and they do pretty well. But there's a
24:30
Speaker 1: conspiracy of foot because they have a second secret profession.
24:35
Speaker 1: They have commissions from the Republic of Cartagena to intercept
24:40
Speaker 1: Spanish boats. So while they're operating their blacksmith shop, they
24:44
Speaker 1: carry on this secluded interdiction career from a secluded colony
24:51
Speaker 1: in Barrataria Bay off the coast of New Orleans. That's cool.
24:55
Speaker 1: Secret pirates. It is super cool. And from that same
24:58
Speaker 1: article from j host dot com Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean,
25:03
Speaker 1: they have a really great quote from a professor by
25:05
Speaker 1: the name of Edward Bernard Glick who wrote an article
25:08
Speaker 1: called Lafitte's Jewish Origins in the Jerusalem Post back in
25:12
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, and he says Lafitte was also
25:14
Speaker 1: a Sephardic jew along with his first wife, and Glick
25:18
Speaker 1: points out that not only did Lafit run a single
25:21
Speaker 1: pirate ship, he had a whole fleet of them that
25:24
Speaker 1: he kind of ran like kind of like a mob
25:27
Speaker 1: boss almost from his blacksmith shop, which also was a
25:31
Speaker 1: site for fencing stolen pirate loot. That's my favorite part,
25:35
Speaker 1: by the way. You know, you come for the horse
25:38
Speaker 1: shoes and then you stay for the emeralds, right or
25:41
Speaker 1: maybe like a cursed skull. I don't know. I don't
25:43
Speaker 1: know what kind of stuff they're fencing in this pirate shop.
25:51
Speaker 1: So years before the Battle of New Orleans and before
25:56
Speaker 1: the War of eighteen twelve, he's already got beef with
26:00
Speaker 1: the authorities, and there's there's very strange flex, a weird
26:04
Speaker 1: flex that he does. I bet Myles and Jack would
26:06
Speaker 1: love this. The Louisiana Governor, William C. C Clayboard place
26:11
Speaker 1: as a reward of five hundred dollars on the fite's head.
26:15
Speaker 1: And what does he do. He retaliates by putting a
26:19
Speaker 1: five thousand dollar bounty on the head of the governor.
26:23
Speaker 1: He's telling the governor of Louisiana stopped playing with broke
26:26
Speaker 1: boy rules. You know what I mean? Seriously, Holy cow,
26:30
Speaker 1: that is a that I wouldn't say that's a weird
26:32
Speaker 1: flex as much as it's just a power move of
26:34
Speaker 1: epic proportions. Um, so, okay, we we know where this
26:38
Speaker 1: guy stands. But then, in the War of eighteen twelve, Lafitte,
26:42
Speaker 1: in his capacity as a spy, actually warned American troops
26:45
Speaker 1: of the British invasion. But not like the Beatles one.
26:49
Speaker 1: This is like, you know, a military invasion. And he
26:51
Speaker 1: offered to help out Andrew Jackson, who is the general
26:54
Speaker 1: defending New Orleans at the time, with some of his
26:56
Speaker 1: top guys from his pirate crew up and he said,
27:01
Speaker 1: we'll do this, will help you out Andy, which I'm
27:04
Speaker 1: sure I'm sure. He called Andrew Jackson. Andy, right, he said,
27:08
Speaker 1: we'll help you out. Andy. All you have to do
27:11
Speaker 1: is give us a full pardon for anything we ever
27:14
Speaker 1: may have or may have not done. Deal. And Andy says, yeah, deal.
27:21
Speaker 1: The pirate gang does a great job Jackson. In fact,
27:25
Speaker 1: later in life, Jackson goes on to call la Fit
27:28
Speaker 1: one of the ablest men of the Battle of New Orleans.
27:32
Speaker 1: So it sounds like he earned that pardon. And you know,
27:35
Speaker 1: he uh, he takes it easy for a little while.
27:37
Speaker 1: But a couple of years after this massive, you know,
27:40
Speaker 1: hero moment, he starts back up into pirating, piracy, pirating.
27:45
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with pirate pirating. It's just fun to say. Um.
27:48
Speaker 1: But he moves shop to Galveston, Texas and brings close
27:52
Speaker 1: to a thousand buccaneers along with them, and he established
27:56
Speaker 1: like a pirate community that he referred to is his kingdom.
28:01
Speaker 1: Uh named campesh on the Barrier Island of Galveston's um,
28:07
Speaker 1: which is a thing. It's on the Gulf coast. I
28:08
Speaker 1: didn't realize Galveston was an island, and they lived under
28:14
Speaker 1: the rule of at the time, the Nueva Espana Colony
28:19
Speaker 1: of Mexico. And he partnered up with a Portuguese jew
28:24
Speaker 1: um by the name of Jao Huau de la Porta,
28:29
Speaker 1: and some of their biggest named you know, heist buds
28:33
Speaker 1: were folks like Jim Bowie of the Alamo fame um
28:37
Speaker 1: also known for the knife that was named after him.
28:41
Speaker 1: So until he passed away in eighteen twenty five, Jean
28:47
Speaker 1: Lafitte remained one of the most feared pirates of the
28:53
Speaker 1: Spanish Main, and the Spanish Main is the eastern coast
28:56
Speaker 1: of Spain's possessions in the New World. At this time.
29:00
Speaker 1: You can see traces of his story everywhere in New Orleans.
29:03
Speaker 1: There there's a national park named after him. Uh. The
29:06
Speaker 1: author we mentioned part one of this series even posits
29:11
Speaker 1: that this man was the inspiration for Johnny Depp in
29:15
Speaker 1: the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. But I still I
29:20
Speaker 1: still feel like the inspiration is Um, that guy from
29:24
Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones, not Keith Stewart. Keith Stewart is a
29:27
Speaker 1: guy I went to high school with. And if you're
29:29
Speaker 1: hearing this, Keith, I hope you're well the other Keith, yes,
29:32
Speaker 1: and he was. He'd be played his father in one
29:34
Speaker 1: of the movies. I think that was a nod to
29:36
Speaker 1: how he definitely was. I think he's probably inspired like
29:38
Speaker 1: maybe Lafitte was part of the historical president, but certainly
29:42
Speaker 1: his mannerisms were all Keith Richards. Yeah. So maybe in
29:46
Speaker 1: that point we're talking about the creative uh inspiration of
29:50
Speaker 1: the screenwriters for the script writers and the creative inspiration
29:54
Speaker 1: of the actors. But there, there you have it, folks.
29:58
Speaker 1: For a long long time time, the stories of these
30:03
Speaker 1: privateers and pirates were rarely explored in the history books,
30:08
Speaker 1: and that began to change in the last decade or
30:13
Speaker 1: so when historical graveyards were unearthed in the Caribbean. That revealed,
30:18
Speaker 1: you know, the extent of the Jewish population that had
30:21
Speaker 1: gone their seeking safety from the Inquisition, and also helped
30:26
Speaker 1: us understand that several individuals in these communities were indeed pirates. Yeah,
30:33
Speaker 1: that's right. And back in two thousand seven, the Caribbean
30:35
Speaker 1: Volunteer Expeditions, which is a nonprofit cultural preservation society in
30:40
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, has started to take a lot of steps
30:43
Speaker 1: and compiling a lot of these research materials and artifacts
30:48
Speaker 1: and inventorying these grave sites like you mentioned, ben Um
30:51
Speaker 1: to really shine a light on this mainly you know,
30:55
Speaker 1: kind of lost part of history transcribing epitaphs and is
31:00
Speaker 1: creating a wealth of information that folks that are interested,
31:03
Speaker 1: that want to find out more about the the Jewish
31:06
Speaker 1: pirate community um that was forced out of Spain largely
31:10
Speaker 1: due to fear of being persecuted and tortured by the
31:13
Speaker 1: absolutely horrific Spanish Inquisition. I say this with sincerity. What
31:18
Speaker 1: an astonishing story, and how fortunate we are to be
31:22
Speaker 1: able to learn more about it in the present day.
31:26
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm pretty happy that we made this
31:27
Speaker 1: two parter. Oh I am too, And I did want
31:30
Speaker 1: when I had one last little thing that that I
31:32
Speaker 1: think it's super interesting and I always wondered about because
31:35
Speaker 1: of this master Let's let's not forget like this was
31:38
Speaker 1: about uh Jamaica specifically about about these Jewish pirates that
31:43
Speaker 1: got their start after immigrating to Jamaica Um in addition
31:47
Speaker 1: to other places. But that was sort of the big
31:49
Speaker 1: one in terms of like how much of the you know,
31:51
Speaker 1: parliament they made up in terms of the seats um
31:55
Speaker 1: and that has a lot to do with maintains a
31:58
Speaker 1: big part of the heritage of Jamaica Um, which you
32:02
Speaker 1: think of oftentimes intertwined with Rastafarianism UM and as it
32:06
Speaker 1: turns out, the concept of Rastafarianism has a lot of
32:10
Speaker 1: connections with Judaism. Their messiah UH, the Ethiopian emperor highly Selassie,
32:17
Speaker 1: was said to have been descended from King Solomon UM
32:20
Speaker 1: and obviously one of their most powerful symbols in Rastafarianism
32:24
Speaker 1: is the Lion of Judah. And Rastafarians also keep kosher. Yeah,
32:29
Speaker 1: there are so many misconceptions about Rastafarianism here in the West,
32:35
Speaker 1: it probably deserves its own episode as well. There is
32:40
Speaker 1: fascinating history there. Of course, piracy is not over. Piracy
32:46
Speaker 1: continues in different parts of the world. Right. You've probably
32:49
Speaker 1: seen stories about piracy in the Middle East or off
32:53
Speaker 1: the coast of Somalia recently. But this age of piracy
32:59
Speaker 1: seems to be unique because of the way it meshed
33:04
Speaker 1: and involved in concert with the age of maritime expansion
33:08
Speaker 1: from Europe and the UH, one of the many waves
33:12
Speaker 1: of anti Semitism that Europe experienced at the time. So
33:17
Speaker 1: Tricorn hats off to you pirates of history. I don't know,
33:21
Speaker 1: I'm in a weird spot with this because I don't
33:22
Speaker 1: want to completely condone the you know, the behaviors of
33:27
Speaker 1: these people, which at times had to be brutal and
33:29
Speaker 1: violent and bloody. But also I I love the idea
33:33
Speaker 1: of fighting back against this institutional evil of the Inquisition,
33:38
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And you've got to give
33:41
Speaker 1: them props for their open mindedness culturally and allowing folks
33:45
Speaker 1: that were basically cast off, if not outright, you know,
33:48
Speaker 1: hunted by by certain individuals in power and bringing them
33:53
Speaker 1: into their ranks and not judging them for their heritage
33:56
Speaker 1: or any of that stuff. So that's pretty cool and
33:59
Speaker 1: very punk rock if you ask me. Yeah, oh oh,
34:01
Speaker 1: that's great. That's that's a great way to to segue
34:05
Speaker 1: into this Noel Casey, we would be doing a terrible
34:09
Speaker 1: job if we didn't include some of the cool parts
34:13
Speaker 1: of real life pirate code. Uh. This comes to us
34:16
Speaker 1: from Mark Mancini over at Mental Flaws. Some of these
34:20
Speaker 1: rules might surprise you. So we talked about voting, mentioned voting.
34:23
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Uh. They also said you can't steal from
34:26
Speaker 1: other pirates. I guess honor among thieves. Oddly enough, they
34:30
Speaker 1: said nobody can gamble, which which feels like a weird
34:34
Speaker 1: vice to isolate, but I guess it was bad for
34:36
Speaker 1: life on the ship. Uh. Everybody had a bedtime that
34:40
Speaker 1: a curfew lights out, you get a spanking. Yeah. Uh.
34:48
Speaker 1: They also had to uh also had to always be
34:51
Speaker 1: ready to tangle. Each man must keep his peace, cutlass,
34:56
Speaker 1: and pistols at all times, clean and ready for action.
34:59
Speaker 1: I just love this piece cutless and pistols. Yeah. I
35:03
Speaker 1: like how they say piece cutless and pistols because you
35:05
Speaker 1: gotta wonder what's the piece? What's the piece? I thought
35:08
Speaker 1: the piece was the pistol. Yeah. Maybe it's like a
35:11
Speaker 1: bolow or or a side piece, maybe like a like
35:15
Speaker 1: a little when you keep in your pirate boot, yeah,
35:18
Speaker 1: or like a mace, or like a frisbee. I don't know.
35:23
Speaker 1: Tell us what you think the best pirate piece would be. Uh.
35:26
Speaker 1: They also did it never bring your date home? Right.
35:29
Speaker 1: Most of these things did not have instant fatal punishment.
35:33
Speaker 1: But if you brought a person of any sort with
35:37
Speaker 1: you for romantic purposes onto the ship, you would be
35:42
Speaker 1: put to death. Yeah, a lot of a lot of
35:44
Speaker 1: things punishable by death or maroon ng, which I guess
35:47
Speaker 1: this means abandoning you on a desert island with nothing
35:49
Speaker 1: but maybe a mixed tape of your favorite songs, and
35:53
Speaker 1: one last one I left to point to because it
35:55
Speaker 1: is kind of progressive. Is the way that Mental Flaws
35:58
Speaker 1: puts it is lose a lem, get workers comp And
36:01
Speaker 1: here's the code. Every man who shall become a cripple
36:03
Speaker 1: or lose a limb in the service shall have eight
36:06
Speaker 1: hundred pieces of eight from the common stock and for
36:10
Speaker 1: lesser hurts proportionately. And pieces of eight being a very
36:14
Speaker 1: popular and widely accepted Spanish coin. Um that I think
36:19
Speaker 1: we're even American legal tender until eighteen fifty seven. What
36:24
Speaker 1: a ride, oh man. I you know, we busted a
36:28
Speaker 1: lot of stereotypes here, uh, and we talked a little
36:31
Speaker 1: bit about the complex cultural situation. But still, you know,
36:36
Speaker 1: like the six or seven year old in me is
36:39
Speaker 1: so into the idea of just hopping on a boat
36:42
Speaker 1: and living life on the high seas. I don't think
36:44
Speaker 1: I would want to do it with a crew though.
36:46
Speaker 1: I want to be like Kevin Costner in water World
36:49
Speaker 1: and just have like my own thing in a system.
36:52
Speaker 1: You guys remember water World. That's one of Casey's favorite films,
36:54
Speaker 1: right yeah. Jean Triple Horn turned in a Tour de
36:58
Speaker 1: forest performance as to Dennis Hopper and I hear the
37:01
Speaker 1: ride at the Universal is pretty cool. Um, but wait
37:04
Speaker 1: a minute, Ben, what how would you feel about like
37:08
Speaker 1: more of like a like a Tom Hanks and castaway
37:11
Speaker 1: kind of situation. What would be your unanimate object that
37:14
Speaker 1: you would anthropomorphize? M m. That wouldn't be a computer
37:19
Speaker 1: with a satellite link. Uh. You know that's a good question.
37:23
Speaker 1: If you had to anthropomorphize something on a desert island,
37:27
Speaker 1: I would try. I would try to make like a
37:29
Speaker 1: really cool sculpture or something, you know, leave a mark
37:33
Speaker 1: after I'm done. As far as companionship, I'd probably see
37:36
Speaker 1: if I could befriend some of the native fauna, you
37:39
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and have like a sidekick bird
37:43
Speaker 1: or uh, mammal of some sort, because I don't know,
37:46
Speaker 1: if you could be a friend of fish. Perhaps there
37:48
Speaker 1: would be corvidds on this island where you where you
37:50
Speaker 1: wind up. I know you have a real kinship with
37:53
Speaker 1: those little guys. Uh what about you know? What would
37:57
Speaker 1: you uh, what would you do a while away the
38:00
Speaker 1: lonely days on a desert islands. I'm gonna go with coconut,
38:05
Speaker 1: just because it's obvious. You know, you can draw a
38:08
Speaker 1: little face on it. I mean, I might not have
38:10
Speaker 1: a volleyball. Volleyball seemed good because it's like sort of,
38:13
Speaker 1: you know, squishy, you can put your head on it,
38:15
Speaker 1: maybe maybe a pillow, but then it would get dirty.
38:18
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm I'm gonna stick with coconuts. Yeah,
38:20
Speaker 1: a tiger. I want a tiger. I wouldn't be friends
38:22
Speaker 1: with the tiger. Be friends of the tiger that would
38:25
Speaker 1: let you ride around on his back and potentially also
38:28
Speaker 1: talk to you once you started going mad and hallucinating,
38:30
Speaker 1: and then eventually it would also probably eat you. Um,
38:33
Speaker 1: but dared to dream, is what I say about all
38:36
Speaker 1: of this stuff, as did many of these incredible pirty characters. UM.
38:42
Speaker 1: Huge thanks to super producer Casey Pegraham for being here
38:45
Speaker 1: and through all of this, through this intentional two parter,
38:48
Speaker 1: even though god it could have been a three partner man.
38:51
Speaker 1: The length of these are way out of whack, But
38:52
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? UM, gotta get a vacation
38:55
Speaker 1: at some point. Huge thanks to Alex Williams told posted
38:58
Speaker 1: our theme, Christopher Haciotes Here in Spirit, John Strickland the Quister,
39:01
Speaker 1: Thanks to Gabe Lousia. Thanks to the authors, mentioned in
39:05
Speaker 1: today's episode, Who doesn't love to learn more about pirates? Uh,
39:11
Speaker 1: thanks of course to Eve's Jeff Coat and a behind
39:14
Speaker 1: the scenes peak here folks. Uh, this is one of
39:17
Speaker 1: the last things we're recording before some of us hit
39:21
Speaker 1: the figurative road for a week's vacation. UH. And this
39:25
Speaker 1: was a little bit uphill. We've got I've got some
39:27
Speaker 1: gremlins on the wings of the internet connection. So I
39:30
Speaker 1: want to thank you Casey and you know for bearing
39:33
Speaker 1: with me as we were sorting out some of the
39:34
Speaker 1: technical difficulties. Uh, and all the various strange sounds that
39:39
Speaker 1: happened today. All good man, All good. It was a pleasure.
39:42
Speaker 1: As always. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
39:53
Speaker 1: podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
39:56
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.