John Rackham[a] (hanged 18 November 1720),[2] commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas and in Cuba during the early 18th century.

Rackham deposed Charles Vane from his position as captain of the sloop Ranger, then cruised the Leeward Islands, Jamaica Channel and Windward Passage.

Vane declared that the captain's decision is considered final and despite the overwhelming support for Rackham's cry to fight they fled the man-of-war.

On 24 November 1718, Rackham called a vote in which the men branded Vane a coward and removed him from the captaincy, making Calico Jack the next captain.

[4] Rackham gave Vane and his fifteen supporters the other ship in the fleet, along with a decent supply of ammunition and goods.

In 1719, Rackham sailed into Nassau in the Bahamas, taking advantage of a general amnesty for pirates to obtain a royal pardon and commission from Governor Woodes Rogers.

Captain Charles Johnson describes how Rackham stole a sloop in his seminal 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

Rackham and his men made their way back to Nassau, where they appeared before Governor Rogers and asked for the royal pardon, claiming that Vane had forced them to become pirates.

James Bonny learned about the relationship and brought Anne to Governor Rogers, who ordered her whipped on charges of adultery.

[6] The pair (with a new crew) escaped to sea together, voiding Rackham's pardon, by stealing a sloop belonging to John Ham.

[7] In September 1720, Bahamian Governor Woodes Rogers issued a proclamation declaring Rackham and his crew pirates—although it was not published until October 1721.

[2] Barnet had the men put ashore at Davis's Cove near Lucea, Jamaica, where Major Richard James, a militia officer, placed them under arrest.

Patrick Carty, Thomas Earl, James Dobbin and Noah Harwood were executed the next day in Kingston.

[2] The skull-and-crossed-swords design likely dates to the early 20th century, and attaching it to Calico Jack can be traced to a 1959 book by Hans Leip, Bordbuch des Satans.