Who Was Captain Morgan?


Who Was Captain Morgan?

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Written by Administrator

Wednesday, September 06 2006

Not many people know the story behind the guy wearing the red cape, blue pants and funny hat on every bottle of Captain Morgan's Rum, probably not even people who love Captain Morgan's. This essay will clear things up for people who thought he was just created as a clever marketing ploy. He actually existed and he was one of the badest dudes to sail the Caribbean. Along with hurricanes and sea monsters, if you were a Spanish captain plying the waters of the Caribbean, an encounter with this guy and his crew would prove to be your worst nightmare.

Sir Henry Morgan was born in the Welsh town of Llanrhymni in 1635. Although most of his early childhood is unknown it is known is that he arrived in Barbados as young man. Some historians say that he was kidnapped from Bristol and shipped West to work as a slave boy on a plantation. This was not uncommon in those days, but unlike an African slave, Morgan was probably an indentured servant that would have had his freedom granted after seven years of employment. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell dispatched a large force from England to capture the island of Hispaniola from Spain. The flotilla arrived at Barbados and landed on the island to try to gain volunteers. The amount of soldiers grew as slaves and servants began to abandon their masters and join up. Nineteen year-old Morgan was one of these kids.

Other sources say that he was drafted in England for the invasion and then sent to the West Indies, not kidnapped. Anyhow, what is known is that Morgan was one of the 8000 soldiers who fought the Spanish for control of Santo Domingo. The English were routed and it proved to be an embarrassing defeat. The contingent dared not return to England empty handed. So later in that year the group took the sparsely inhabited island of Jamaica from the Spanish, making Port Royal it's capital.

Imagine the Jamaican town of Port Royal in the 17th century. The docks bustling with ships bringing furniture from Europe, raw materials from America and slaves from Africa. The smells wafting in the hot breeze. The sounds of horse hooves and curse words from drunks. The mud streets leading from the wharfs lined with taverns and general stores. Port Royal was ground zero for English pirates. There must have been a lot of scoundrels roaming the streets.

While living in Port Royal, Morgan started his buccaneering apprenticeship under various pirates. The British government preferred to call them privateers to make them sound more professional, but lets call a spade a spade. It wasn't long before Morgan was harassing Spanish galleons with his own crew of motley soldiers. In 1663, he joined up with the fleet of Captain Christopher Mings to conduct raids on the towns of Vildemos, Trujillo, and Granada and 1666 he had obtained control of a ship in Edward Mansfield's expedition to take over Spanish forts. When Christopher Mings was captured and killed by the Spanish, a quick meeting was held with all the boats lashed together in order to decide who would lead. The men chose Morgan to be their new admiral.

In 1668 he was commissioned by Sir Thomas Modyford to capture some Spanish prisoners in order to obtain information about a plot to capture Jamaica. Morgan with 10 ships and 500 men sailed to Cuba and wreaked havoc on the port town of Puerto Principe. Next Morgan got the order to go down to Portobelo. This is where things get real nasty. Landing in the cover of darkness, his men committed atrocious acts such as rape, murder, and torture. They even used Jesuit priests and nuns as human shields as they rushed the third most impenetrable fort. The grey haired Governor of Panama put up a futile resistance but became frightened at the brutality of Morgan's men. The Governor wisely consented to paying a ransom so Morgan would leave. After raiding all the gold that was in the counting house, Morgan set sail for home base in Jamaica with 300 slaves and 250,000 silver coins. When word of the atrocities at Portobelo reached London, the English monarchy feigned ignorance but knew full well what was going on. Without this brutality there would be no plunder for them to take, so Morgan was not reprimanded.

After the raid Morgan focused mainly on investing in his sugar plantation, but in 1670 he was called back into service. The Governor of Jamaica ordered Morgan to plunder the city of Panama. It became the most daring and audacious raids of his career. Upon Morgan's orders a multi-national group of 2000 French and English pirates assembled in 36 ships off the coast of Jamaica and set sail for Panama.

After weeks at sea, Morgan's men made it to the coast of Panama and landed 3 kilometers from Fort San Lorenzo which defended the mouth of the Chagres River. As they walked through the jungle they slowly approached the fort and burnt it by sending a flaming arrow over the top which landed on a thatch roof. It still took three days of fighting and it cost them 100 men. At the town of Venta Cruces the Chagres became to shallow for their boats, so Morgan left men to stay with them. The rest, about 1600, set off on foot on the camino cruces trail that led to Panama.

The march must have sucked. Morgan thought that he could obtain food by pillaging towns along the camino cruces and killing whatever animals they could find. But there were no towns and the men were probably so loud that they scared off all the animals. They were reduced to eating leather, insects, bark, and whatever plants they could find. They also encountered a jungle filled with poisonous snakes and many men fell ill with malaria. Much of the trail was covered by thick undergrowth which they had to hack through by cutlass. To make matters worse, they were harassed all the way down trail by stealthy Indians who fired volleys of arrows at their lines.

After about one week of travel, the men made it to the fields on the outskirts of town where they camped overnight and ate some of the free roaming cattle. In the morning a Spanish army of about 2000 infantry and 500 cavalry was organized by the Spanish Governor Don Guzman and made a show of force in front of the Morgan. Knowing full well that these men were untrained peasants and slaves, Morgan was unimpressed.

When Morgan's volley of muskets decimated Guzman's infantry, Guzman sent his secret weapon into work. He let loose a couple hundred head of cattle into Morgan's direction hoping Morgan's men would be trampled. Instead, the Cattle just scattered in the other direction. Idiot! The remainder of Guzman's men either surrendered or ran into the jungle as Morgan's men came up over a hill and attacked their flank. In less than six hours Morgan's men, half starved, started to cheer and plundered what was left of the town. Panama was torched, some say by the fleeing Spanish.

The Spanish had known about the attack ahead of time and warned the townspeople to flee. As a result, all of the wealthy landowners had fled with their valuables. So the profit was much less than expected, but still amounted to about 200,000 British Pounds in 1670, which is heck of a lot of money today. But on the march back to the boats the men grew rebellious as word spread that their take would be reduced to 200 coins. Morgan, instead of trying to quell their fears hopped on his boat with his take of the booty and headed home to Port Royal, leaving the rest of his men stranded in Spanish territory.

When news of the capture of Panama reached Madrid, the Spanish threatened war. Charles II wisely reacted by throwing Morgan and the Governor in the tower until the hoopla died down. Henry was later knighted in 1674 and then made the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. He died a wealthy man in Port Royal in 1688 after possibly contracting tuberculosis.

There is something about pirates that captures people's imaginations. Maybe it's the time period, the turquoise waters and palm trees, the treasure, the rum, the ships- I don't know. Those days are long gone now. But the next time you are drinking that Captain and Coke down here in Panama think about Sir Henry and the other guys, they were true pirates in every sense of the word.

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