Howell Davis

Overview

Howell Davis was a Welsh pirate whose eleven-month independent career on the West African coast in 1718–1719 ended in an ambush at Príncipe; he is principally remembered now as the captain under whom Bartholomew Roberts was forced into piracy and from whom Roberts inherited command. Davis was a skilled deceiver: several of his prizes were taken not by combat but by impersonating a Royal Navy officer or a merchant captain in distress.

Origins

Davis was born in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, around 1690. He went to sea young and was serving as mate on the slaver Cadogan out of Bristol when she was taken by Edward England off Sierra Leone in 1718. England offered Davis command of the Cadogan as a pirate consort, which Davis accepted; the original crew, however, voted to take the offered pardon at Barbados rather than continue piratically. Davis was briefly imprisoned at Barbados while the case was sorted out, was released, and signed on as mate of a sloop bound for Martinique. There he organised a mutiny of the crew, was elected captain, and renamed the vessel.

Career

Davis’s independent career ran from the autumn of 1718 to his death in June 1719. He operated principally on the West African coast between Sierra Leone and the Bight of Biafra, where the slaving traffic provided both prizes and recruits. His most documented operation was the May 1719 capture of the Royal African Company fort at Gambia Castle: Davis sailed in flying the British colours and presenting himself as a Royal Navy captain pursuing pirates, and persuaded the fort’s governor to invite him to dinner. The governor was held at gunpoint over the meal while Davis’s men, ostensibly his honour-guard, took control of the fort and removed the contents of the strong-room.

Davis was joined at Anomabu on the Gold Coast in June 1719 by the slaver Princess of London, on whose crew was a Welsh second mate named John Roberts. Roberts was forced into Davis’s crew — according to Johnson, against his strenuous protests — and six weeks later succeeded Davis as captain under the new name Bartholomew Roberts.

Fate

Davis put into Príncipe in mid-June 1719 under the false colours of a Royal Navy man-of-war on anti-piracy duty, presented himself to the Portuguese governor with a request to refit and reprovision, and was invited to a formal dinner at the fort. The governor — whether through suspicion or through intelligence from a deserter is not clear in the sources — arranged an ambush. Davis was shot dead on the path between the harbour and the governor’s house on 19 June 1719, along with several of his officers. The crew, returning to the ship under fire, elected Roberts captain by acclamation six weeks later.

Associates & contemporaries

• Bartholomew Roberts — Forced into Davis&rsquo;s crew at the taking of the <em>Princess of London</em>, 1719; elected captain after Davis&rsquo;s death weeks later.
• Edward England — Pirate captain under whom Davis first served, briefly, on the <em>Cadogan</em>.