Shiver me timbers, there were, indeed, pirates along the Hammock Coast®

Shiver me timbers, there were, indeed, pirates along the Hammock Coast®

Long before European settlers arrived on our shores, what is now known as South Carolina’s Hammock Coast® was the “Wild West” of piracy.

That’s according to a local boat captain from Murrells Inlet, who estimated that between the 16th and 18th centuries, there were more than 2,000 privateers navigating our coastline in Georgetown County.

While few sources exist to support that theory, historian George C. Rogers wrote in “The History of Georgetown County South Carolina” that, “The line of trade between Winneau and Charleston followed the Black River into Winyah Bay (in Georgetown County), then out into the Atlantic Ocean past the mouth of the Santee to Seewee Bay, whence by Awendaw Creek the Wando River and Charleston were reached. Letters and stores passed to and fro along this route.” 

Further, according to Carolana.com, in July of 1526, Spanish explorers “sailed with three ships and about 600 settlers, landing at what is presently known as Georgetown, South Carolina on the Winyah Bay and started the first colony in the Carolinas,” which they named San Miguel de Guadalupe. 

Along the aforementioned waterways, the Spaniards likely traded with native Waccamaw Siouan Indians. Indeed, waccamaw-siouan.org verified that, “The first written mention of the Waccamaw Siouan Indians appeared in historical records of 1521 by the Spanish explorer, Capt. Franciso Gordillo, while visiting the South Carolina coast.” 

As the Spanish explorers easily navigated these waterways as early as the 16th century, it is possible that piracy could have flourished along the Hammock Coast inlets up until the 18th century, as posited by the captain. 

In one source that corroborates the local pirate culture, “Planters, Pirates, and Patriots,” author Rod Gragg described their ships in the sea-lanes surrounding Murrells Inlet as favoring “small, fast vessels that could easily overtake a large quarry, then escape into the coastal shallows, where heavy warships could not follow.”

The tributaries “made ideal haunts for the Carolina pirates. In secluded places like Little River and Murrells Inlet, they could careen their ships – tilt them to one side in the shallows – and scrape off the barnacles that reduced a ship’s speed. Freshly scraped and resupplied with drinking water, pirate vessels would leave the inlets and trowel the waters” off the coast, “searching for merchant ships ferrying goods between the northern and southern colonies. When a ship fell into pirate hands, all valuables would be removed, and everyone aboard, if lucky, would be set adrift in boats or marooned on shore while the pirates sailed away with the plundered ship in tow. Merchant ships could sometimes escape if the wind was in their sails or if they could muster enough gunfire. Pirates seldom liked a brisk fight, so they tortured and murdered seamen who resisted, as examples to others. Often merchant crews promptly surrendered their ships when overtaken, unwilling to die and hopeful that the pirates would be satisfied with booty instead of blood.” 

While records such as Gragg’s argue that piracy reigned along the Hammock Coast during the early proprietary years from 1670-1700 through the end of the Golden Age of Piracy from 1716-1720, other accounts suggest that pirates stayed far out to sea. According to “A General History of Pyrates,” written in 1724 by Capt. Charles Johnson, “Pyrates generally shift their Rovings, according to the Season of the Year; in the Summer they cruise mostly along the Coast of the Continent of America, but the Winters there, being a little too cold for them, they follow the Sun, and go towards the Islands.”

Without much written documentation outside of these two sources, local pirate history is guided mostly by oral tradition, which has it that the infamous Capt. Kidd loitered around the Winyah Bay section up to Murrells Inlet. As the story goes, Kidd buried treasure on Goat Island, but none has ever been found. 

Another story tells of Blackbeard and his crew hiding stolen booty in Murrells Inlet, a secluded spot and safe refuge from stormy seas. The legend says that the pirates hijacked such an impressive inventory of Caribbean rum that it slowed their ship. To lighten their load, they disembarked on a small island off the inlet and stashed dozens of the casks. That night, they feasted on oysters, crab and the rum. One of the drunken pirates named Jack crawled into some bushes and passed out. He woke up the next morning to find that the ship had sailed and he had been stranded on the beach, forgotten by Blackbeard and his crew in their haste to take advantage of the high tide. 

One version has it that “Drunken Jack,” as he’s come to be known, was marooned. He couldn’t go inland in fear of warring Waccamaw natives and he couldn’t swim out to sea where he would drown. As Johnson explained in his book, “Pyrates be reduced to take Refuge in some of their lurking Holes about the uninhabited Islands, where their Fate would be like that of the Fox in his Den, if they should venture out, they would be hunted and taken, and if they stay within they must starve.” 

Jack chose his fate as death by rum. When Blackbeard and his crew returned two years later to replenish their inventory and save him, they discovered a skeleton lying next to 32 empty casks. 

Another interpretation says that Jack was left behind because he was too drunk to hear the call to board the ship. Years later, his body and the empty bottles were discovered by treasure hunters.

Yet a third theory poses that as a consistent drunk, Sailor Jack was often cast ashore on that strip of beach for punishment. 

No matter which account of the tale is correct, it seems that Jack did indeed enjoy his rum. And that’s how Drunken Jack Island, to the right of the jetties off the MarshWalk in Murrells Inlet, got its name.

Today, one of the iconic restaurants on the MarshWalk is named after the wayward pirate. Drunken Jack’s has welcomed diners for years, and continues to keep his name alive. And, of course, many of the restaurant’s signature drinks feature rum. The Rum Runner, for example, features premium spiced and gold rums with orange and pineapple juices and a dash of grenadine. Sailor Jack would surely have approved.

By the 1720s, the Golden Age of Piracy began to wane with colonial authorities pushing pirates out of the Caribbean because of increased opposition to their dangerous practices. As the South Carolina Gazette confirmed in February of 1763, “As we hear nothing more of the privateers that block’d up the port of Georgetown Winyah from time past, it is supposed they have now quitted the coast.”

As scarce as they are, conflicting, oral and written traditions indicate that pirates did, in fact, have a presence along this stretch of the Atlantic. Maybe someday, the sands of one of the Hammock Coast beaches will yield pirate treasure, revealing the true stories of Kidd, Blackbeard, Sailor Jack and the others who took advantage of our beautiful shores.

By Sarah Rose / Special correspondent for South Carolina’s Hammock Coast and the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce