Title: Thomas Anstis
Author: David Stapleton
1718 to 1723. English. Ships: Good Fortune. Anstis and his crew deserted from Bartholomew Roberts in 1721. After killing Anstis in 1723, most of his crew surrendered to the Dutch authorities on Curacao. In 1718, Anstis left the Bahamas with Howell Davis. After Davis' murder in June 1719, Anstis sailed with Bartholomew Roberts. When Roberts captured an 18 gun brigantine in the West Indies (renaming her the "Good Fortune") he made Anstis captain of her. As they approached Africa in April 1721, Anstis made off with the Good Fortune. Anstis went to the Caribbean where he plundered 3 or 4 small merchant ships. According to Daniel Defoe in his "General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates", the pirates were especially brutal to the passengers of an English ship taken off Martinique. The pirates beat and wounded one man who tried to save a woman from rape. They then forced the woman each in turn, afterwards breaking her back and flinging her into the sea.
Later, Anstis captured a large ship, giving her command to John Fenn. Fenn and Anstis could not get along so they decided to quit pirating. They petitioned the king
claiming that they were forced by Bartholomew Roberts. They camped on an uninhabited island off Cuba waiting for a response. For nine months they waited before
returning to piracy August 1722.
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