George Dew

George Dew, George Hout or George d'Hout (c. 1666–1703) was a pirate, privateer, and buccaneer. He once sailed alongside William Kidd and Thomas Tew, and his career took him from Newfoundland to the Caribbean and the coast of Africa.

Biography Starting as a sailor aboard slave ships bound for west Africa, Dew took part in buccaneer raids on Panama City in 1686. Alongside Francois Grogniet and Pierre Le Picard in 1687 he sacked the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, leading the English contingent after their commander Townley had been killed off Panama. As a privateer he sailed alongside Thomas Griffin, using their commission as pretense to loot non-French ships. Dew and Griffin were chased by Christopher Goffe (himself a former pirate turned pirate-hunter) in the Swan out of Boston on suspicion of piracy, but their fast sloops outraced Goffe: “they could sail two feet to his one.”

Back in Bermuda in 1693, he married and started a family but soon left to sail again. Tew then ignored his commission to attack the French and sailed instead for Madagascar, pioneering the Pirate Round route. Dew's Amy lost its mast and struggled to reach Saldanha Bay in southern Africa.

By 1695 he was back in the Caribbean aboard the brigantine Marigold attempting to sail from Barbados to Africa. With his ship again damaged by a storm, the crew refused Dew's request to sail on to Africa and he was forced to return to Barbados empty handed. Local legend holds that the Old Rectory is haunted by Dew's ghost, who can occasionally be heard playing a harpsichord.