John Cole (pirate)

Governor Robert Johnson of the Province of South Carolina was worried about retaliatory attacks from pirates after the capture of Blackbeard’s associate Stede Bonnet.

In October 1718 Johnson heard rumors that pirate William Moody was heading to Charles Town and commissioned four vessels to oppose him, including Stede Bonnet’s former ship Revenge.

[1] Scouts reported two ships anchored nearby and Johnson’s fleet sailed to meet them.

The smaller sloop was not Moody; it had been the New York’s Revenge captained by Richard Worley, another pirate well-known in the Carolinas.

[1] Worley was killed in the fighting; Cole was tried, convicted, and hanged off Charles Town in November 1718 with the remainder of their crews.