Nassau, Bahamas French allied forces briefly occupied Nassau. From 1703 to 1718 there was no governor in the colony and by 1713, the sparsely settled Bahamas had become a pirate haven. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants of the town. They proclaimed Nassau a pirate republic, establishing themselves as "governors". Examples of pirates that used Nassau as their base are Charles Vane, Thomas Barrow (who declared himself "Governor of New Providence"), Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the infamous Edward Teach, better known
Edward Coates (pirate) Edward Coates (pirate) Edward Coates was a colonial American privateer in English service during the King William's War and later a pirate operating in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the mid-1690s. In 1689, Coates originally signed aboard the "Jacob" as a sailor in a privateer expedition, then under the command of Captain William Mason, and commissioned by the colonial officials in New York to raid French shipping off the coast of Quebec ""to war as in his wisdom should seem fit"". However, unable to find French vessels, Mason began raiding English shipping and distributing the spoils among his