John Taylor
English pirate
1680 CE to 1730 CE
John Taylor is a pirate who lived in the early 18th century.
At Reunion Island (off the coast of Madagascar) in April 1721, he together with Olivier Levasseur captures the most valuable prize in pirate history, variously described as "Nostra Senora della Cabo", "Nostra Senhora do Cabo", or "Nossa Senhora do Cabo" (Our Lady of the Cape).
World
The Indian Ocean Lands
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Olivier Levasseur from late 1720 launches his raids from a base on the island of Sainte-Marie, just off the Madagascar coast, together with pirates John Taylor and Edward England.
The pirates Levasseur, Taylor, and England first plunder the Laccadives, and sell the loot to Dutch traders for seventy-five thousand pounds (adjusted for inflation to 2008: ten million three hundred and fifty pounds).
England and Lavasseur had attacked an East Indiaman under the command of James Macrae; they were beaten off, but succeeded in running Macrae's vessel ashore and capturing him.
England had ordered Macrae's life spared; England's quartermaster, John Taylor, resenting this choice, leads a vote to depose England from command.
England is subsequently marooned on Mauritius with two other crew members.
England and his colleagues fashion a small raft and make it to St. Augustine's Bay in Madagascar.
England survives for a while by begging for food and dies around the end of 1720.
Levasseur and John Taylor now perpetrate one of piracy's greatest exploits: the capture of the Portuguese great galleon Nossa Senhora do Cabo (Our Lady of the Cape) or Virgem Do Cabo (The Virgin of the Cape), loaded full of treasures belonging to the Bishop of Goa, also called the Patriarch of the East Indies, and the Viceroy of Portugal, who are both on board returning home to Lisbon.
The pirates are able to board the vessel without firing a single broadside, because the Cabo had been damaged in a storm, and to avoid capsizing the crew had dumped all of its seventy-two cannon overboard, then anchored off Réunion island to undergo repairs. (This incident will later be used by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel "Treasure Island", where the galleon is referred to as The Viceroy of the Indies in the account given by the character Long John Silver).
The booty consists of bars of gold and silver, dozens of boxes full of golden Guineas, diamonds, pearls, silk, art and religious objects from the Santa Catarina Cathedral in Goa, including the Flaming Cross of Goa made of pure gold, inlaid with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
It is so heavy that it requires three men to carry it over to Levasseur's ship.
The treasure is so huge (estimated one hundred million pounds in 1968) that the pirates do not bother to rob the people on board, something they normally would have done.
When the loot is divided, each pirate receives at least fifty thousand golden Guineas (adjusted for inflation to 2008: seven million five hundred thousand pounds), as well as forty-two diamonds each.
Levasseur and Taylor split the remaining gold, silver, and other objects, with Levasseur taking the golden cross.