Woodes Rogers who had not yet accepted it, and started to rebuild the island's fortifications, which had fallen into decrepitude under pirate domination. Less than a month into his residence on New Providence, Rogers was faced with a double threat: Vane wrote, threatening to join with Edward Teach (better known as Blackbeard) to retake the island, and Rogers learned that the Spanish also planned to drive the British out of the Bahamas. Rogers' expedition suffered further setbacks. An unidentified disease killed almost a hundred of his expedition members, while leaving the long-term residents nearly untouched. Two of the three navy vessels, having
John Russell (pirate) John Russell (pirate) John Russell (fl 1722-1723) was a pirate active from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean to the African coast. He is best known for his association with Edward Low and Francis Spriggs, and for his involvement with two well-known and well-documented maroonings. Most commonly known as Englishman “John Russell”, his real name may have been Juan or John Lopez; he was in reality a Portuguese Catholic. Like a number of other pirates of the Golden Age, he was a Jacobite who professed support for England’s ousted Catholic King James II over his Protestant successors. Various sources paint him