Who is Howell Davis

Howell Davis at a Glance 

A Short Career
Howell Davis started out in piracy after the slave ship Cadogan, on which he was serving with the rank of ship's mate, was captured by the pirate Edward England in 1718. Having agreed to join the pirates, Davis was given the Cadogan and set out for Brazil but his crew mutinied and sailed to Barbados instead. Here Davis was imprisoned on the charges of piracy, but was eventually released and sought shelter in the pirate den of New Providence in the Bahamas. With New Providence being cleaned up by Governor Woodes Rogers, Davis left on the sloop Buck and conspired with six other crew members, who included Thomas Anstis and Walter Kennedy to take over the vessel off Martinique. Davis was elected captain and conducted piratical raids from his base at Coxon's Hole.

Subsequently he crossed the Atlantic to terrorize shipping in the Cape Verde Islands. One of the prizes taken there became the new flagship of Davis' pirate fleet, the 26-gun Saint James. He then formed a partnership with a French pirate Olivier Levasseur, known as La Buse, and another pirate captain, Thomas Cocklyn, which lasted until they fell out in a drunken argument. Transferring to the 32-gun Rover, he sailed south and captured more riches prizes off the Gold Coast, his prisoners including fellow-Welshman Bartholomew Roberts, who was destined to become equally famous as a pirate.

Trickery and Deception

The death of Captain Davis in an ambush on PrincipeA clever and charming man, Davis pretended to be a legitimate privateer to deceive the commander of a Royal African Company slaving fort in Gambia and held him to ransom after capturing him at a welcome dinner.

He once seized a more powerful French vessel by flying a black pirate flag from another large but only lightly armed ship he had recently taken: the French ship quickly surrendered, thinking it was outgunned.

When Davis tried to repeat his earlier trick of pretending to be a privateer, for the benefit of the governor of the Portuguese island of Príncipe (whom he planned to kidnap), he was unmasked and killed in an ambush by Portuguese militia.

Captain William Snelgrave, the master of the Bird, a vessel captured by the pirates in 1719, wrote an account of the incident in 1734. His ship was taken by Thomas Cocklyn's men, who misused him. However Davis, when informed of this, protected Snelgrave and appears to have made a very favourable impression on him. Snelgrave concludes that Davis was a man "who (allowing for the Course of Life he had been unhappily engaged in) was a most generous humane Person".