Early 1700s pistol, Courtesy Army Museum, Halifax Citadel
Pirate Life

Pirates always adapt and subvert the weapons of their age. In the 18th century they preferred small fast ships and the crude boarding weapons of the age. They also evolved a unique outlaw culture of their own, incorporating 18th century death symbols into the unmistakable pirate flags or "jolly roger" and less well known shipboard constitutions, known as “the articles” to regulate their behavior and share loot equally.

Pirate Flag of Steed Bonnet

Jordan

Edward Jordan was typical of the violent but short-lived pirates of the period. In 1809, desperate to avoid debts, he slaughtered the crew of a merchant who came to seize his ship but was captured a few weeks later.

Jordan was executed and his body was covered in tar and hanged from chains in an iron cage called a gibbet at Point Pleasant as a warning to others. His skull was eventually deposited in the Museum's collection and serves as a grim reminder of the reality of piracy.


Skull fragment - Edward Jordan
Nova Scotia Museum History Collection, Z6198

Saladin

The last piracy trial in Canada was in 1844 when a gang of six pirates were brought to Halifax after their ship, the barque Saladin, was shipwrecked on the Eastern Shore. Saladin had a cargo of silver bars and a large shipment of coins. They had mutinied and killed the captain and half the crew before falling out among themselves despite swearing pirate oaths.

After an investigation, involving some of the first detailed forensic work in Atlantic Canada, the mutineers were put on trial. Initially charged with piracy, they were subsequently convicted of murder. Four of them were hanged near the old VG hospital on South Park Street.

Figurehead thought to be from the Barque Saladin
Pirate Folklore

Nova Scotia is rich in pirate folklore where imagination takes over from history. Pirate legends exist for almost every major island in the province.

Learn more with the
MMA Pirate
Fact Sheet