Howell Davis (1690-19 June 1719) was a Welsh pirate who captained sloop "Royal Rover" from 1718 to 1719 for almost exactly a year. Famous for being the mentor of Bartholomew Roberts, Davis was killed in a Portuguese ambush on his men at Principe.
Biography[]
Howell Davis was born in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales and served on the slave ship Cadogan in 1718. He was pressed into the crew of Edward England, who captured his ship, and was made the captain of Cadogan. He planned to raid Portuguese shipping at Brazil but his crew mutinied and he was turned in to British authorities in Barbados. He later escaped and made Coxon's Hole, off Honduras, his base-of-operations.
Davis terrorized shipping in the Cape Verde Islands after crossing the Atlantic Ocean and he formed a partnership with Olivier Levasseur, a French pirate. He captured the frigate "Royal Rover" and moved to West Africa, plundering British, Spanish, and Portuguese merchant ships, capturing rich prizes off the Gold Coast. He took Bartholomew Roberts, the navigator for one of his prize ships, as his second-in-command, as he was a fellow Welshman whom he could trust.
Captain Davis continued to take prizes off of the Gold Coast, using deception to win his battles. He captured the British commander of a Ghana slave fort by pretending to be a pirate hunter before capturing him at a welcoming dinner, and he once tricked a French man-of-war into thinking that they were outgunned by flying a pirate flag on a nearby huge ship.
Death[]
Captain Davis dead
However, Captain Davis' deception plot in Principe would lead to his death. He pretended to be a Royal Navy pirate hunter in order to kidnap the Portuguese Governor of Principe, but the governor saw through the plot. Davis was invited to wine at the fort, and he went inland with a small party of troops. The Portuguese ambushed the pirates and Davis was shot dead, and most of the crew either killed or held in the Portuguese fort.
In revenge, Roberts and Captain Edward Kenway stormed the fort and killed the Portuguese troops, and Roberts claimed Principe's fort as a Pirate stronghold. He took over Davis' crew and became a famous pirate captain.