![]() Tew's pirates helped themselves to the ship's treasure, worth £100,000 (equivalent to £15,326,292 in 2021) in gold and silver alone, not counting the value of the ivory, spices, gemstones, and silk taken. The dhow surrendered without serious resistance, inflicting no casualties on the assailants. Tew reached the Red Sea and ran down a large Ghanjah dhow en route from India to the Ottoman Empire late in 1693. Tew's crew reportedly answered with the shout, "A gold chain or a wooden leg, we'll stand with you!" The pirates proceeded to elect a quartermaster, a common pirate practice to balance the captain's power. Not long out of Bermuda, Tew announced his intention of turning to piracy, asking the crew for their support since he could not enforce the illegal scheme without their consent. Dew's dismasted ship limped alone to Saldanha Bay in South Africa, where he was arrested by the Dutch. He set out alongside buccaneer, privateer, and pirate George Dew aboard the sloop Amy shortly out of port, they were separated in a storm. Tew set sail in December, ostensibly to serve as a privateer against French holdings in the Gambia. He and another captain obtained a privateer's commission from the lieutenant governor of Bermuda to destroy a French factory off the coast of West Africa. ![]() Various Bermudian backers provided him with the 70-ton sloop Amity, armed with eight guns and crewed by 46 officers and men. In 1692, Thomas Tew obtained a letter of marque from the Governor of Bermuda. Want became Tew's first mate on his first pirate cruise, and sailed his own ship Dolphin alongside Tew's Amity on the second. He was in close relations with fellow pirate Captain Richard Want, who was his closest ally. He may simply have engaged in privateering against French and Spanish ships. There is evidence that he was already reputed as a pirate at that time, but no modern historian has determined whether or not this reputation was earned. According to one source, his wife and children all greatly enjoyed the New York City social scene after Tew became rich, but there is no supporting evidence for this. He is reported as being married with two daughters. He lived at one time in Newport, Rhode Island. He may have been born in New England another hypothesis suggests that he was born in Maidford, Northamptonshire, England before emigrating to the American colonies as a child with his family, although there is only a little circumstantial evidence for this. It is frequently written that Tew had family in Rhode Island dating back to 1640, but it is not known where he was born. Other infamous pirates in his path included Henry Every and William Kidd. He embarked on two major pirate voyages and met a bloody death on the second, and he pioneered the route which became known as the Pirate Round. Thomas Tew (died September 1695), also known as the Rhode Island Pirate, was a 17th-century English privateer-turned- pirate. ![]() Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, and Indian Ocean
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