【简译】英国海盗查尔斯·范恩（Charles Vane）

2022-08-17 16:49 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

Captain Charles Vane was an English pirate active in the Caribbean and off the east coast of North America between 1716 and 1720. The pirate, who infamously refused a pardon and instead fired his cannons at the ship of Governor Woodes Rogers in the Bahamas, was eventually captured, found guilty of piracy, and hanged in Jamaica in March 1721.

查尔斯·范恩船长是1716年至1720年间活跃在加勒比海和北美东海岸的英国海盗。这名臭名昭著的海盗地拒绝了赦免，反而在巴哈马群岛向总督伍德斯·罗杰斯的船只开炮，最终被抓获，被判处海盗罪，于1721年3月在牙买加绞死。

Charles Vane was a relatively successful pirate, capturing merchant vessels and looting their cargoes from Hispaniola to New York. These attacks were noted for their cruel treatment of captured seamen. Less successful was his grip on his own crew. Vane’s second-in-command once sailed off with a captured ship and then his crew mutinied and replaced him with 'Calico Jack' Rackham. Vane was later shipwrecked on a desert island and when finally rescued he was handed over to the authorities who were keen to make an example of one of the most wanted men in the Caribbean.

查尔斯·范恩是一个比较成功的海盗，他从伊斯帕尼奥拉岛到纽约拦截商船并掠夺其货物。这些袭击因其对被俘海员的残酷待遇而备受关注。他对自己的船员的控制则不太成功。范恩的副手曾经带着一艘被俘的船出海，然后船员们叛变了，用 "卡里科·杰克" 拉克姆取代了他。范恩后来在一个荒岛上遇难，当他最终获救时，他被移交给当局，当局很想把他变成加勒比海地区帝国诏安的典型例子。

早期的职业生涯

Charles Vane first turned to piracy in 1716 when he joined the crew of the English pirate Henry Jennings who was then based in Jamaica and New Providence (now Nassau) in the Bahamas. Jennings and Vane also made retrieving silver from sunken Spanish galleons in the gulf of Florida something of a specialty, much to the annoyance of the Spanish Crown, which had sent its own salvage crews for that purpose.

查尔斯·范恩于1716年首次从事海盗活动，当时他加入了英国海盗亨利·詹宁斯的船队，詹宁斯当时在巴哈马的牙买加和新普罗维登斯（现在的拿骚）。詹宁斯和范恩还专门从佛罗里达湾沉没的西班牙大帆船上捞取银器，这让西班牙王室非常恼火，因为他们已经派出了自己的打捞人员。

In May 1718, one crew member of a captured ship escaped to testify against Vane to Governor Bennett of Bermuda. Called Nathaniel Catling, the mariner had been aboard the Bermudan sloop Diamond when Vane’s pirate crew attacked it in the Bahamas. Catling reported that he and all of his fellow crew had been beaten up and the ship looted and then burned. Catling had been hanged by the pirates and hacked at with a cutlass but miraculously survived his ordeal.

1718年5月，一艘被范恩俘虏的船只上的一名船员逃跑了，他向百慕大的贝内特总督指证范恩。这名水手名叫纳撒尼尔·卡特林，当范恩的海盗团在巴哈马袭击百慕大的 "钻石 "号时，他在船上。卡特林报告说，他和他所有的船员都被殴打，船被抢劫，然后被烧毁。卡特林曾被海盗绞死，并被人用弯刀砍伤，但他奇迹般地活了下来。

Within a week, Catling’s tale was repeated with even worse additions by another seaman who had escaped the clutches of Vane and his crew. One Edward North, captain of another Bermudan sloop, this time the William and Martha, testified to Governor Bennett that he, too, had been attacked, beaten, and robbed. North also recorded that one of his crew had suffered the ignominy of being tied to the ship’s bowsprit and then tortured with burning matches to reveal the location of the ship’s valuables.

一周内，另一位逃脱了范恩及其船员魔掌的海员重复了卡特林的故事，并加入了更多的内容。另一艘百慕大帆船（这次是威廉和玛莎号）的船长爱德华·诺斯向贝内特总督作证说，他也曾被袭击、殴打和抢劫。诺斯还记录说，他的一名船员遭受了被绑在船头桅杆上的耻辱，然后用燃烧的火柴折磨他，让他说出船上贵重物品的位置。

逃离新普罗维登斯岛

In August 1718, Vane made his first independent pirate raid and captured a French merchant vessel. Meanwhile, the new governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers (d. 1732), was just arriving at New Providence having been charged with the task of clearing out the notorious pirate den. Unlike his comrade Henry Jennings, Vane had no intention of accepting the pardon Rogers was offering all pirates as this would have meant giving up his recently acquired plunder. Vane was happy enough to keep on pirating and so he escaped New Providence in the fast sloop Ranger, audaciously sending his French capture as a fireship towards the governor’s vessel and firing a cannon shot as he passed for good measure. Vane’s escapade even became news in London, featuring in the press in December.

1718年8月，范恩进行了他第一次独立的袭击，俘获了一艘法国商船。与此同时，巴哈马的新总督伍德斯·罗杰斯（Woodes Rogers，卒于1732年）刚刚抵达新普罗维登斯，他的任务是清除当地臭名昭著的海盗窝。与他的战友亨利·詹宁斯不同的是，范恩无意接受罗杰斯对所有海盗的赦免，因为这意味着他必须放弃最近掠夺的货物。范恩很高兴继续从事海盗活动，因此他乘坐快速单桅帆船 "游侠 "号逃离了新普罗维登斯，并大胆地将他捕获的法国商船烧成一艘火船驶向总督的船只，在经过时向总督船只开了一炮以示警告。范恩的逃亡甚至成为伦敦的新闻，在12月的报纸上出现。

Within two days, Vane captured a bigger sloop and a few weeks later he stepped up again, this time to a slave ship brigantine captured off the Carolinas. The brigantine was renamed Ranger and boasted 12 cannons and a crew of around 80-90 men; the sloop was given to a second-in-command, Yeats. On his rampage of crime, Vane boldly flew two flags: the English flag and a black pirate flag, but this split loyalty was reflected in Vane’s own crew for Yeats soon decided to sail off on his own, slipping away from Vane in the night. Vane sailed in pursuit, caught up with Yeats, and fired a broadside at his sloop but then let him go, despite having a faster ship. The ultimate fate of Yeats is not noted in any historical records.

两天之内，范恩俘获了一艘更大的单桅帆船，几周之后，他再次出现，这次是在卡罗莱纳州附近俘获的一艘奴隶船双桅帆船。这艘双桅船被重新命名为 "游侠 "号，拥有12门大炮和大约80-90名船员；单桅船被交给了副手叶茨。在猖獗的犯罪活动中，范恩大胆地悬挂着两面旗帜：英国国旗和黑色的海盗旗，但这种分裂的忠诚反映在范恩自己的船员身上，因为叶茨很快决定自己出海，在夜里从范恩身边溜走。范恩航行追赶，追上了叶茨，向他的单桅帆船开了一炮，但随后就放他走了，他的船航速更快。叶茨的最终命运在任何历史记录中都没有被注明。

北美东海岸

The authorities pursued Vane, but his crew and ship were too fast. As one naval officer noted: "our sloops gave over the chase, finding he outsailed them two foot for their one" (Konstam, The Pirate Ship, 7). By September 1718, another force, this time sent by Governor Spotswood of Virginia, was in hot pursuit of Vane. This fleet did not manage to capture Vane, but they did assist in the search for another notorious pirate, Stede Bonnet, who was captured and hanged shortly after.

当局追捕范恩，但他的船员的驾驶技术和船只航速太快了。正如一位海军军官所指出的。"我们的双桅船放弃了追逐，因为他以一敌二"（Konstam, The Pirate Ship, 7）。到1718年9月，另一支部队，这次是由弗吉尼亚州长斯波茨伍德派出的，正在紧追范恩。这支舰队没抓到范恩，但他们另有收获，找到另一个臭名昭著的海盗斯泰德·邦尼特，后者被抓后不久就被绞死。

Captain Vane visited Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, in October 1718, spending some time at his pirate base on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. The two pirate crews were said to have enjoyed a week-long party at what was the largest pirate gathering ever to occur in North American waters. Vain then sailed as far north as New York, plundering ships along the way, including two off Long Island. The pirate then turned back to the Caribbean, where he raided ships sailing through the Bahamas. Vane had by now built up quite a pirate fleet and haul of booty, but his return to the Caribbean would soon turn sour.

范恩船长在1718年10月访问了爱德华·蒂奇，也就是众所周知的黑胡子，在他位于北卡罗来纳州奥克拉科岛的海盗基地呆了一段时间。据说，这两个海盗团队在北美水域有史以来最大的海盗聚会上享受了一个星期的聚会。随后，范恩向北航行至纽约，沿途掠夺船只，包括长岛附近的两艘船。然后，这艘海盗船转而回到加勒比海，在那里袭击驶过巴哈马群岛的船只。至此，范恩已经建立了一支相当大的海盗舰队、搜刮了一大批战利品，但他回到加勒比海后很快就变了味。

叛变、海难和被俘

Vane was known as a cruel pirate captain, dishing out punishments such as keelhauling, which involved tying a person with rope, throwing them overboard, and then dragging them either under the ship from one side to the other or along the entire length of the ship. More seriously for his captaincy, Vane faced accusations of not sharing out his plunder fairly. There might not have been all that much honour amongst thieves but one point on which pirates were sticklers for the rules was the distribution of booty.

范恩是著名的残酷的海盗船长，他实施的惩罚包括：用绳子绑住一个人，把他扔到海里，然后把他从船底拖到另一边，或者沿着船的整个长度拖。更为严重的是，由于其船长身份，维恩不公平地分享其掠夺物。盗贼之间可能没有那么多的荣誉，但有一点，海盗们对规则的执着是战利品的公平分配。

On a charge of cowardice based on their leader’s reluctance to attack a well-armed French frigate in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola, Vane was relieved of his captaincy in November 1718 by his crew. The mutineers then promoted John Rackham to the role of leader. Otherwise known as 'Calico Jack', Rackham had been Vane’s quartermaster and second-in-command, captaining the captured English vessel Kingston. It may have been that the quarrel was not about cowardice but really because Rackham did not want to share the Kingston’s cargo of liquor. Now independent, Rackham famously acquired the women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read for his crew, but he was not any more successful than his predecessor; all three were captured by the Jamaican authorities in 1720.

由于范恩不愿意在古巴和伊斯帕尼奥拉之间的向风海峡攻击一艘装备精良的法国护卫舰，他被他的部分船员指控为懦夫，范恩于1718年11月被其船员解除了船长职务。哗变者随后将约翰·拉克姆选举为领导者。拉克姆被称为 "卡里科·杰克"，他曾是范恩的军需官和副手，担任被俘的英国船只金斯敦号的船长。这场争吵可能不是因为懦弱，而是因为拉克姆不想分享金斯敦号上的酒。现在，拉克姆独立了，他的船员中出现了著名的女海盗安妮·邦尼和玛丽·雷德，但他并不比前任更成功：这三人都在1720年被牙买加当局抓获。

Meanwhile, Vane had been sent off in a small brigantine with a handful of men to sail it, but things went from bad to worse when a hurricane broke up the ship in the Bay of Honduras and deposited Vane and one other survivor on Baracho Island. The pair were kept alive thanks to some passing turtle fishermen. Fortunately for Vane, a ship stopped by the usually uninhabited island and spotted the marooned pirates. Unfortunately, the captain of the passing ship was Holford, a captain of a ship Vane had previously tried to take over, and when he identified Vane, he simply sailed on. Vane was rescued by another ship, but then he met Holford again, and it was not a case of third time lucky. Holford put Vane in chains and handed him over to the authorities in Port Royal, Jamaica. There Vane was tried for piracy by a Vice-Admiralty court and found guilty in March 1720. After a year in prison, Vane was finally hanged in March 1721. Like Captain Kidd almost 20 years before, Vane’s corpse was hung to slowly rot in a cage on the islet of Gun Cay as a stark and public warning to others of the perils of piracy.

与此同时，范恩被派到一艘小型双桅船中，与少数人一起航行，但事情变得更糟，一场飓风在洪都拉斯湾将船击碎，范恩和另外一名幸存者被安置在巴拉乔岛。由于一些路过的海龟渔民的帮助，这两人得以保住性命。幸运的是，一艘船在这个通常无人居住的岛屿上停泊，船员发现了被放逐的海盗们。不幸的是，这艘路过的船的船长是霍福德，他是范恩以前试图接管的一艘船的船长，当他认出范恩时，他就直接开走了。范恩被另一艘船救起，但随后他又遇到了霍尔福德。霍尔福德给范恩戴上了镣铐，并把他交给了牙买加皇家港的当局。在那里，范恩被一个海军副司令部法庭以海盗罪审判，并在1720年3月被判有罪。在监狱里呆了一年后，范恩终于在1721年3月被绞死。与近20年前的基德船长一样，范恩的尸体被吊在枪岛的笼子里慢慢腐烂，作为对其他人的海盗行为进行严正公开地警告。

In the celebrated pirate who’s who, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, compiled in the 1720s by Captain Charles Johnson or possibly Daniel Defoe, Vane has his own chapter. The author describes Vane as being cowardly at his execution and, although suffering agonies, being wholly unrepentant of his life of piracy.

在查尔斯·约翰逊船长（也可能是丹尼尔·笛福）于1720年代编撰的著名的海盗名人录《最臭名昭著的海盗的抢劫和谋杀通史》中范恩有自己的一章。作者描述说，范恩在被处决时很懦弱，虽然饱受痛苦，但对自己的海盗生涯完全不悔改。