Christopher Condent

Edward Congdon (died 1734), born in Plymouth in Devon, was an English pirate who was best known for his piracies in the Indian Ocean.

His name is often confused by modern additions. French and English sources confirm his name as "Edward Congdon."

History

Around 1718, when Woodes Rogers became governor of the Bahamas, and was tasked with ridding the Caribbean of pirates, Congdon and his crew left New Providence. During a trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Congdon killed an Indian crewmember, who threatened to ignite the ship's powder magazine. Shortly after, the ship captured a merchantman, the Duke of York. After a dispute, the crew split up between the two ships, with Congdon elected captain of the sloop. At the Cape Verde Islands, Congdon and his men captured a ship carrying Portuguese wine. Congdon then sailed to Brazil, where he took more prizes, occasionally cutting off the ears and noses of Portuguese prisoners. He then returned to the area around Cape Verde, where he captured a flotilla of twenty small ships and a Dutch war sloop off Santiago. Congdon kept the warship, and named it Dragon. Congdon and his crew returned to the island of Sainte-Marie, dividing their haul into around £3,000 each. While there he traded with visiting British slavers and merchants, one of whom reported that Congdon and his crew had so much treasure, they "need not go to sea again as long as they lived". In 1723 Congdon travelled to France, where he settled down with his wife in Brittany and became a wealthy merchant in Saint-Malo. The last of his surviving crew died in the Mascarene Islands in 1770. However, a UNESCO analysis of Clifford's discovery reported that Clifford had instead found an unrelated ship of Asian origin.

Flag

A more likely version of his flag as described by witnesses.The Jolly Roger flag generally associated with Congdon - three skulls-and-crossbones on a black flag or banner - first appeared in Mariner's Mirror in 1912, though it was not attributed to Congdon and was dated to 1704. A similar design was printed in Basil Lubbock's "Blackwall Frigates" in 1922 and F. Bradlee's "Piracy in the West Indies and its suppression" in 1923, again not attributed to Congdon. Charles Grey attributed it to him in 1933 in "Pirates of the Eastern Seas" but without citing any evidence. The only period source describing his flag is an article in The St. James Post from June 1718 describing his ships "who appear'd with flags having a Deaths Head on them."