Benjamin Hornigold

[citation needed] In December 1718, Hornigold accepted a King's Pardon for his crimes and became a pirate hunter, pursuing his former allies on behalf of the Governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers.

[citation needed] By 1717, Hornigold had at his command a thirty-gun sloop he named the Ranger, which was probably the most heavily armed ship in the region, and this allowed him to seize other vessels with impunity.

The merchantman escaped by running itself aground on Cat Cay, and its captain later reported that Hornigold's fleet had increased to five vessels, with a combined crew of around 350 pirates.

[7] In April 1717 Hornigold is recorded as operating alongside Captain Napin (or Napping), looting several ships off Jamaica, Puerto Bello, and Cuba before being chased away by the warship HMS Winchelsea.

[9] Hornigold is recorded as having attacked a sloop off the coast of Honduras; one of the passengers of the captured vessel recounted, "they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard".

[11] This scrupulous approach was not to the liking of his lieutenants, and in the summer of 1716[citation needed] a vote was taken among the combined crews to attack any vessel they chose.

[citation needed] He continued piracy operations from Nassau until December 1717, when word arrived of a general pardon for pirates offered by the King.

[citation needed] Rogers commissioned Hornigold to hunt down any and all recusant pirates, including some ex-comrades such as his former lieutenant, Teach (Blackbeard).

In December 1718 Governor Rogers wrote to the Board of Trade in London commending Hornigold's efforts to remedy his reputation as a pirate by hunting his former allies.