John Martel

John Martel (fl. 1713–1717, first name also Jean or James) was a pirate active in the Caribbean.

Name and nationality The majority of Martel's story appears in 1724's A General History of the Pyrates; he is called John Martel, and he and his crew are described as "some Privateer’s Men belonging to the Island of Jamaica," implying they were English. He forced a number of captured sailors to serve on his ships but let most of his captives go. At one point he swapped with the master of a captured ship, taking his vessel but giving him a prize ship in trade and setting him free.

With his new 22-gun, 100-man flagship and four other vessels he put into St. Croix in late 1716 to resupply and careen. Blackbeard is often cited as having fought Scarborough, though Royal Navy logs never mention such an incident; it is generally believed that later writers conflated Blackbeard's close encounter with HMS Seaford and Martel's fight against Scarborough.

Hume was rewarded for the action against Martel and others with command of the much larger warship HMS Bedford.