The island of Tortuga appears in several books, movies, and other pieces of modern media in which pirates are featured, often depicted as a safe place for bandits and outlaws. This island really exists, it is located off the northwestern coast of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, and forms part of the country of Haiti. But was it really a lawless island visited by criminals and fugitives during the Golden Age of Piracy?
Position of Tortuga off the northern coast of Haiti (edited from a work by Rémi Kaupp, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tortuga (also known by its French name Île de la Tortue) was initially inhabited by indigenous peoples, and was one of the first islands discovered by the Europeans in the Caribbean. During his first voyage to the New World, Cristopher Columbus noticed the island on December 6, 1492, and called it “Tortuga” (turtle in Spanish) because of its resemblance to the shell of a turtle. The island was colonized by the Spanish, but French and English colonists also settled Tortuga in the early 17th century. During this time, Tortuga was near the main trade routes of the Caribbean, and this made it a strategic position coveted not only by European settlers, but also by pirates.
For decades, French, Spanish, and English colonists fought for control over the island, which was at times divided between the different communities. Meanwhile, French buccaneers who lived in northern Hispaniola moved to the more easily defensible Tortuga, which soon became their main base of operation. From here, they launched attacks on Spanish galleons making their return voyage to Spain with riches taken from their colonies in America.
The Spanish navy recaptured the island in 1635, but they soon left, so French and English pirates returned, and new Dutch settlers also arrived. Three years later, Spain again took control of Tortuga, but in 1640 French and Dutch colonists expelled the Spanish. The French built a fort on the southeastern coast of the island, called Fort Rocher, and this allowed them to the defend Tortuga from Spanish attacks.
Meanwhile, French and English buccaneers founded a loose coalition called Brethren of the Coast. They often had letters of marque from European governments that allowed them to attack vessels of other countries, and mostly operated out of Tortuga and Port Royal in Jamaica. Over time, they were joined by outlaws of various nationalities, including Dutch and Spanish pirates, as well as escaped slaves, and African sailors. They developed a code of conduct and a series of laws based on individual freedom and equitable division of revenues. According to this code, the capitain of every crew was democratically elected, and members were granted compensation in case of injury.
Drawing of Tortuga from the 17th century, when it was the main base of operation of the pirates of the Brethren of the Coast.
The pirates thrived during this time, and buccaneers operating out of Tortuga mostly attacked Spanish ships and colonies on Hispaniola and Cuba. In February 1654, the Spanish navy launched a punitive expedition to the island, capturing Fort Rocher. Hundreds of pirates were taken as prisoners and became slaves in Spanish plantations, while several others were able to flee before being captured. The Spanish installed a garrison in Tortuga to prevent the pirates from returning, but they had to withdraw in September, after the English invasion of Hispaniola.
In 1655, French and English buccaneers were already back in Tortuga, under the protection of the English governor of Jamaica. England lost the island five years later, after they appointed a Frenchman as governor of Tortuga, and he proclaimed suzerainty to the King of France. The English failed to retake the island, and hundreds of French colonists settled here, before expanding their domain to the mainland of Hispaniola, where they founded the colony of Saint-Domingue, which later became independent as Haiti.
Meanwhile, buccaneers were receiving letters of marque either by the English governor of Jamaica or the French governor of Tortuga, and kept raiding ships in the Caribbean, although many outlaws turned to log cutting and wood trading as a safer source of income. In the 1660s, pirates of the Brethren of the Coast were invited by the English to base themselves in Port Royal to attack Spanish ships. One of the most successful buccaneers during this time was Henry Morgan, who raided several Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and on the American coast.
In 1670, Morgan gathered thousands of pirates, mostly English and French, in Tortuga, and in December he launched an expedition against Panama, at the time one of the richest and largest Spanish colonies in the Americas. The expedition was highly successful, with the pirates managing to cross the isthmus and sacking Panama. The pirates gathered all the loot they could, and then returned to their hideouts either in Jamaica or Tortuga.
Drawing of Henry Morgan from 1681.
Despite this success, the era of the buccaneers was in decline, and so was Tortuga, as European governments started to introduce laws aimed at putting an end to piracy. Also, tensions between France and England ended the collaboration between English Jamaica and French Tortuga. While the colonial government moved to the mainland of Hispaniola, Tortuga remained a stronghold for French buccaneers. However, many pirates from other countries moved elsewhere, such as New Providence in the Bahamas, or even the Indian Ocean, which was richer and had less powerful navies. At the same time, Port Royal was also almost completely abandoned after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1692.
The last pirate expedition that set sail from Tortuga happened in 1697, when the French governor of Saint-Domingue gathered hundreds of buccaneers on the island. From here, they attacked the Spanish colony of Cartagena de Indias, now in Colombia, taking a huge loot.
Tortuga was mostly abandoned in the early 18th century, and only partially recovered with the establishment of sugar and tobacco plantations a few decades later. With the independence of Haiti in 1804, Tortuga was almost forgotten, and has only recently seen some tourism. However, thanks to its peculiar history, Tortuga has become synonymous with the Golden Age of Piracy and, since at least the late 19th century, it has appeared in countless works depicting piracy in the Caribbean, most notably in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.