John Read (pirate)

1683-1688) was an English buccaneer, privateer, and pirate active from South America to the East Indies to the Indian Ocean.

Along with navigator and chronicler William Dampier, Read was a crewman aboard John Cook's 1683 privateering expedition which captured a prize ship they renamed Bachelor's Delight.

[3] Cook took them around Cape Horn to raid Spain's Pacific territories, joining a flotilla of other buccaneers including Charles Swan's Cygnet.

[4] After some unproductive raids Swan headed west across the Pacific in early 1686, his lack of success causing the crew to grow unruly.

[5] Dampier, tired of sailing with Read and his crew, asked to be put ashore in the Nicobar Islands in 1688.