The Compendium
Ports
Free ports, pirate havens, and contested anchorages — the towns where loot was spent, ships were refitted, and the next voyage was schemed.
Port
Nassau
Republic of Pirates
From 1706 to 1718, the capital of the Bahamas was effectively under pirate self-rule — a free port where Blackbeard, Vane, Hornigold, and Bellamy laid in stores between cruises.
1706 – 1718
Port
Port Royal
The wickedest city on earth
A buccaneer boomtown on a sandspit at the entrance to Kingston harbor — until the 1692 earthquake dropped two-thirds of it into the sea.
c.1655 – 7 June 1692
Port
Tortuga
The buccaneers' island
A small turtle-shaped island north of Hispaniola whose rocky harbor and stubborn French-Dutch-English garrison made it the cradle of Caribbean piracy.
c.1625 – 1670