The cleverest people are usually the least credited in history. Take English Sea Captain Woodes Rogers, for instance, the man on the far right. Rogers had been ordered to put an end to the pirates in the Caribbean who were attacking British ships. Pardons, bribery and military action had not worked, so Rogers came up with a new twist. It was so simple it is surprising no one had done it before – except for Alexander the Great and Emperor Pompey. Woodes promised every pirate who took a pardon 120 square feet of land in the Bahamas.
For free.
It worked like a charm.
Pirates had never owned anything and now they had land to live on and grow food. Then Rogers went a step further. He announced the Spanish were on their way to the Bahamas and men were needed to protect the settlement. Suddenly the former pirates had something to lose so they joined forces with the British against the Spanish – who never came because the threat had been a fraud – and fortified the fort overlooking the city.
At no cost to the British Navy.
Rogers fortified his clever approach to solving piracy by becoming the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas, from 1718 to 1721.