View source for Jack Ward

{{Short description|English-Ottoman Barbary pirate (1553–1622)}}
{{for|the Canadian ice hockey player|Jack Ward (ice hockey)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox pirate
|name               = Jack Ward, later Yusuf Reïs
|nickname           = Birdy, Sharky, Chakour (also spelled Chagour)
|birth_date         = c. 1553
|death_date         = {{death year and age|1622|1553}}
|image              =
|caption            = 
|birth_name         = John Ward
|type               = [[Barbary pirate|Barbary Corsair]]
|birth_place        = [[Faversham, Kent]], [[Kingdom of England|England]]
|death_place        = [[Tunis]], [[Ottoman Tunisia]]
|allegiance         = {{flag|Kingdom of England}} (until 1604)<br> [[File:Tunisian flag till 1831.svg|23px]] [[Ottoman Tunis|Tunisia]] (from 1605)
|serviceyears       = fl. 1605–1610
|base of operations = [[La Goulette]], Tunis
|rank               = Admiral, [[Reis (military rank)|Reïs]]
|commands           = Gift, Little John, Reniera e Soderina
|battles            = 
|wealth             = £500,000 - £2,000,000
|laterwork          = 
|nationality=English}}

'''John Ward''' or '''Jack Ward''' ({{c.}} 1553<ref name="wilson55">{{cite book|last=Lamborn Wilson|first=Peter|authorlink=Peter Lamborn Wilson|title=Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs and European Renegadoes|year=2004|publisher=[[Autonomedia]]|page=55|isbn=1-57027-158-5}}</ref> &ndash; 1622), also known as '''Birdy''', '''Sparrow'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Sparrow: Which Real Pirate Inspired The Pirate of the Caribbean? {{!}} HistoryExtra |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/pirate-john-ward-the-real-captain-jack-sparrow/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=www.historyextra.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Leer |first=Miranda |date=2023-10-24 |title=The Life of the Pirate John Ward |url=https://www.historydefined.net/pirate-john-ward/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |language=en-US}}</ref> or later as '''Yusuf Reis''', was an [[English people|English]] [[pirate]] who later became a [[Barbary pirates|Corsair]] for the [[Ottoman Empire]] operating out of [[Ottoman Tunisia|Tunis]] during the early 17th century.

According to writer [[Giles Milton]], though unverified, Jack Ward was an inspiration for [[Jack Sparrow]] of the [[Pirates_of_the_Caribbean_(film_series)|''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film franchise]].<ref name="Sparrow2">{{cite news| title=Jack Sparrow da Türk çıktı! | trans-title=Jack Sparrow turns out to be Turkish as well! | language=Turkish| date=1 March 2013|work=Yeni Şafak|access-date= 15 August 2019|url=https://www.yenisafak.com/kultur-sanat/jack-sparrow-da-turk-cikti!-494959}}</ref><ref name="Sparrow3">{{cite web|title=Mart 2013 – Derin Tarih| access-date= 15 August 2019 | url=http://www.derintarih.com/sayilar/mart-2013/}}</ref><ref name="Sparrow4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/elizabethan/pirate-john-ward-the-real-captain-jack-sparrow/|title = Pirate John Ward: The real Captain Jack Sparrow}}</ref>
==Biography==

===Early life===
What little is known about Ward's early life comes from a pamphlet purportedly written by someone who sailed with him during his pirate days. Ward seems to have been born about 1553, probably in [[Faversham]], [[Kent]], in southeast England.<ref>{{cite book|last=Firth|first=C.H.|title=Naval songs and ballads, selected and edited by C.H. Firth|publisher=London: Printed for the Navy Records Society|year=1908}}</ref> Like many born in coastal areas, he spent his youth and early adult years working in the fisheries. After the failed invasion of England by the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588, Ward found work as a privateer, plundering Spanish ships with a license from [[Queen Elizabeth I of England]]. When [[James I of England]] ended the war with Spain upon assuming the throne in 1603, many privateers refused to give up their livelihood and simply continued to plunder. Those who did were considered pirates because they no longer had valid licenses &ndash; called [[letter of marque|letters of marque]] &ndash; issued by the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barth |first=Jonathan |title=The currency of empire: money and power in seventeenth-century English America |date=2021 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5578-1 |location=Ithaca London}}</ref> [[File:England Lions.Whelp pinnace 1628.jpg|thumb|right|upright|250px|{{center|Lion's Whelp, 1628}}]]

Around 1604, Ward was allegedly [[impressment|pressed]] into service on a ship sailing under the authority of the King (the [[Royal Navy]] had yet to become a formal institution), where he was placed in the [[Channel Fleet]] and served aboard a ship named the ''[[Lyon's Whelp]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tinniswood|title=Pirates of Barbary by Adrian Tinniswood|publisher=Vintage Books|year=2010}}</ref>

===Turn to piracy===
According to Andrew Barker, a captive of Ward's who wrote ''A True & Accurate Account of the beginning, proceedings, overthrows, and now present estate of Captain Ward and [[Zymen Danseker|Danseker]]'', Ward was drinking in a Plymouth tavern with thirty of his shipmates. He is alleged to have said:

{{Quote
|text=My mates, quoth he, whats to be done? Here's a scurvy world, and as scurvily we live in't, we feed here upon the water, on the Kings salt beef, without ere a pence to buy us a bissell [bushel of grain] when we come ashore. Revel, supp, and be merry, every one at the proper charge of his own purse. This night, when the Captain and Officers shall conjecture nothing but that we are drawing dry the pot, we'll be diving arm deep in the Fugitives bags.
|author=Andrew Barker
|source=''A True & Certaine Report of Captain Ward''
}}

Ward and his colleagues deserted and stole a small 25-ton [[barque]] from [[Portsmouth]] Harbour.<ref name="private">{{cite web|url=http://www.privateerdragons.com/pirates_famous9.html#W|title=Pirate History and Reference Famous Pirates and Privateers|publisher=Privateer Dragons' Island}}</ref> Ward's comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader.<ref>{{cite book|last=Earle|first=Peter|title=The Pirate Wars|publisher=New York: [[St. Martin's Press]]|year=2005|page=28|isbn=0-312-33579-2}}</ref> They sailed to the [[Isle of Wight]] and captured another ship, the ''Violet'', a ship rumored to be carrying the treasure of Roman Catholic refugees.<ref>Clive Malcolm Senior, [https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34506574/544142.pdf An Investigation of the Activities and Importance of English Pirates, 1603-40] (University of Bristol, PhD thesis, 1972), p. 59 footnote 3</ref> The ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Ward used her to capture a much larger French ship.<ref name=":1">Breverton, Terry. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Gross_of_Pirates/SLCIDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 A Gross of Pirates]: From Alfhild the Shield Maiden to Afweyne the Big Mouth. United Kingdom, Amberley Publishing, 2018.</ref>

Ward and his men sailed for the [[Mediterranean]] where he was able to acquire a Dutch 32-gun [[flyboat]], which he renamed ''The Gift.''<ref>Tinniswood, 33</ref> Ward first sailed for Algiers, but several of his men were arrested upon entering the city. Algiers had been attacked by another English mariner, Richard Giffard, only months earlier.<ref>Tinniswood, 25</ref> They sailed to the Moroccan Atlantic port city [[Salé]], [[Saadi Dynasty|Morocco]] where in 1605 several English and Dutch sailors, including Richard Bishop and Anthony Johnson, joined Ward's crew.<ref name=":1" />[[File:Goleta800 mapoftunis.jpg|thumb|left|upright|250px|{{center|An [[Early Modern]] map of Tunis <br>by Willem Jansz Blaeu}}]]

In the summer of 1606, Ward captured a [[dhow]] in the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] allegedly carrying Catholic slaves. In August 1606 Ward arranged with [[Uthman Dey]] to use [[Tunis]] as a base of operations. Uthman Bey, or Kara Osman Bey, was the commander of the [[Janissaries|Janissary]] corps in Tunis. That garrison supplanted the Pasha of Tunis as the rulers of Tunis in 1598, making Uthman Bey the military dictator of the city.<ref>Tinniswood, A. (2010). [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pirates_of_Barbary/IBSVMivndEQC?hl=en&gbpv=0 Pirates of Barbary]: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean. United States: Penguin Publishing Group.</ref> According to their arrangement, Uthman Bey would have first refusal of all goods, up to ten percent of all goods captured.

In early November 1606 Ward captured the English merchantman ''John Baptist'' under Captain John Keye. He renamed the merchantman ''Little John'' after the English folk hero.<ref>Tinniswood, 35</ref> From this base, Jack Ward was easily able to capture many ships from several European states. Ward's top lieutenant, William Graves, captured a small English merchantman called the ''York Bonaventure'' captained by Andrew Barker. The richest hauls on these early cruises were the valuable Venetian ships ''Rubi'' (taken on 16 November 1606) and ''Carminati'' (taken on 28 January 1607).

===The ''Reniera e Soderina''===
John Ward outfitted ''Gift, Little John, Rubi, & Carminati'' for piracy over the late winter and early spring of 1607. His fleet headed for the [[Adriatic Sea]] when they were scattered by a terrible storm. Ward, onboard ''Gift'', found only the ''Rubi'' before heading for the Eastern Mediterranean. On 26 April 1607, between Cyprus and Turkey, Ward spotted "a great argosy of fourteen or fifteen hundred tons",<ref name=":0">Barker</ref> a Venetian ship named ''Reniera e Soderina.''

Rubi was 400 tons, and Gift only 200 tons, yet the crew elected to attack the ''Reniera e Soderina.'' They fought a three-hour firefight, but ''Reniera e Soderina'' was too large to maneuver in the light winds, so her guns never scored a hit. Ward's ships managed to pierce her hull five times, lighting bales of hay aflame inside. Finally, Ward ordered his ships to close and prepare to board.

The crew of ''Reniera e Soderina'' voted to fight and repel the boarding party, and the captain handed out small arms. However, a well-timed volley of [[chain shot]] from ''Rubi'' hit at least two defenders, tearing them apart. The carpenter aboard ''Reniera e Soderina'' confronted his captain, telling him to surrender or face a mutiny. The captain consented, and Ward captured ''Reniera e Soderina'' with no further fighting. According to Andrew Barker her cargo was "esteemed to be worth two millions in the least."<ref name=":0" />

The English government didn't concur. They estimated the cargo to be worth only £500,000. Still, a report from the Venetian Ambassador in London told the privy council that Venice was close to declaring war on England due to Ward's piracy. That ambassador, Secretary Esposizioni, wrote:<blockquote>That famous pirate, Ward, so well-known in this port for the damage he has done, is beyond a doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England. He has refitted a Venetian ship ''Soderina'' and turned her into a berton, with forty pieces of bronze artillery on the lower, and twenty on the upper deck. He has given his old ship to Captain [Graves] and these two and some other four ships form six fighting ships in all.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Earle |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkPb_vEg1aQC&dq=%22venetian%22+%22jack+ward%22&pg=PA28 |title=The Pirate Wars |date=2005 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-312-33579-3 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The English Ambassador in Venice assured the Council "As to Ward, who captured the ''Soderina'' and transformed her into a berton, he will meet with a warm reception if he comes into these waters."<ref>Lehr, P. (2019). [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Pirates/t0WeDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Pirates]: A New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders. United Kingdom: Yale University Press.</ref>

[[File:Nautical Chart of the Mediterranean Sea.jpg|thumb|right|upright|250px|{{center|Nautical Chart of the Mediterranean Sea (1600)}}]]

===Conversion to Islam===

Following his return to Tunis in June 1607, Ward outfitted ''Reniera e Soderina'' into a powerful Man-o-War. The crew cut at least 20 new gun ports into her hull to accommodate all 60 brass guns. He set out to sail in early 1608. Then, in March, a ship spotted wreckage of a ship off the coast of Greece, and rumors began to spread that it was ''Reniera e Soderina'' and John Ward was dead.{{cn|date=December 2021}}

Ward asked [[James I of England]] for a [[royal pardon]] which was refused, due to a threat of war from Venice, as Ward had attacked many Venetian ships, and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. [[Uthman Dey]], an Ottoman officer of Tunis, kept his word and granted him protection. He converted to Islam along with his entire crew and changed his name to Yusuf Reis, with a nickname of Chakour or Chagour, because he used an axe in his piracy acts. He used the city of Aquilaria (El Haouaria) as an acting port, and married an Italian woman while continuing to send money to his English wife. In 1612 a play called ''[[A Christian Turn'd Turk]]'' was written about his conversion by the English dramatist [[Robert Daborne]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2vA05yf5p4C&dq=A+Christian+Turn'd+Turk,+daborn+john+ward&pg=PA31 |title=Traffic and Turning: Islam and English Drama, 1579-1624 |date=2005 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=978-0-87413-913-6 |language=en}}</ref>

It is doubtful that English converts to Islam in Tunis had to follow the religion strictly: French traveller [[Laurent d'Arvieux]] visited the city later that century, and made note of its liberal attitude to religion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Senior |first=Clive M. |date=1976 |title=A Nation of Pirates |url=https://archive.org/details/a-nation-of-pirates-clive-senior/page/95 |location=[[Newton Abbot]] |publisher=[[David & Charles]] |isbn=0-7153-7264-5 |page=95}}</ref>

===Later years===
An English sailor who saw him in Tunis in 1608 allegedly described Ward as "very short with little hair, and that he's quite white, bald in front; swarthy face and beard. Speaks little and almost always swearing. Drunk from morn till night...The habits of a thorough salt. A fool and an idiot out of his trade."<ref>Earle, p. 29.</ref>

During the next few years [[ballads]] and [[pamphleteer]]s condemned John Ward for turning [[Barbary corsairs|corsair]].

Ward continued raiding Mediterranean shipping, eventually commanding a whole fleet of corsairs, whose flagship was a Venetian sixty-gunner. After 1612 he ended his career in piracy, electing to teach younger corsairs gunnery and navigation. He profited greatly by his piracy, retiring to Tunis to live a life of opulent comfort until his death in 1622, at the age of 68 or 69, possibly from the [[Bubonic plague|plague]].

==Legacy==

From 1609 until 1615 dozens of plays, ballads, memoirs, pamphlets, and books would be written about England's Arch-Pirate. The most prominent include ''[[A Christian Turn'd Turk]]'' by Robert Daborne, [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A14719.0001.001?view=toc ''Nevves from Sea, Of two notorious Pyrats Ward the Englishman and Danseker the Dutchman''], ''[[Captain Ward and the Rainbow]]'', and [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A04099.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext ''A True and Certain Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrows, and Now Present Estate of Captain Ward and Danseker, the Two Late Famous Pirates from their First Setting forth to this Present Time by Andrew Barker''.]

It has been suggested that his nickname was "Sharkey" and was the origin of this nickname, now given to anyone in the [[Royal Navy]] with the surname "Ward".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Naval Surnames Vaughan - Young |url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090418145128/http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/training-and-people/rn-life/navy-slang/naval-surnames-(adams-cooper)/vaughan-young/ |access-date=2025-09-23 |website=UK Government Web Archive. Ministry of Defence}}</ref>

To his contemporaries, Ward was an enigmatic figure, in some ways like a Robin Hood, but in the 16th and 17th centuries, many English pirates operated out of the mouth of the [[Sebou River]] and preyed on Mediterranean shipping. Ward was supposed to have spared English ships while attacking "papist" vessels. John Ward and [[Simon de Danser|Simon Danseker]] are credited with introducing Barbary corsairs to the use of [[Square rig|square-rigged ships]] of northern Europe.

The ballad "[[Captain Ward and the Rainbow]]" is very likely based on Jack Ward.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ward the Pirate|url=http://www.contemplator.com/sea/ward.html|publisher=Songs of the Sea}}</ref>

A fictionalized account of Ward's career appears in [[Thomas Costain]]'s historical novel ''For My Great Folly'', which was published in 1942.

In the 2010s, various Turkish newspapers and websites popularised an unverified hypothesis put forth in the monthly Derin Tarih that John Ward could be the inspiration for the character [[Jack Sparrow]] from the film series [[Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)|''Pirates of the Caribbean'']].<ref name="Sparrow2"/><ref name="Sparrow3"/> The BBC ''History Magazine'' also presented John Ward as an inspiration for the character.<ref name="Sparrow4"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Bak, Greg. ''Barbary Pirate: The Life and Crimes of John Ward, the Most Infamous Privateer of His Times''. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing Ltd. 2006. {{ISBN|0-7509-4350-5}}
* Costain, Thomas, ''For My Great Folly'', 1942
*Tinniswood, Adrian. ''Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean''. Riverhead Hardcover, 2010. {{ISBN|1-59448-774-X}}
*Peter Lamborn Wilson. ''Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJEg0p4RCP4C&q=Peter+Lamborn+Wilson+james+ward&pg=PA63|title=Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes|last=Wilson|first=Peter Lamborn|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Autonomedia|isbn=9781570271588|language=en}}</ref>

==External links==
*[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A04099.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext A True and Certaine Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes, and Now Present Estate of Captaine Ward and Danseker by Andrew Barker]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050326235929/http://www.vleonica.com/ward.htm Captain John Ward]
*[http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/ward.htm Ward the Pirate] by [[Timothy Winter|Abdal-Hakim Murad]]
*https://anonhq.com/captain-jack-sparrow-real-muslim/
{{Barbary Corsairs}}
{{Pirates}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Jack}}
[[Category:1550s births]]
[[Category:1622 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Faversham]]
[[Category:English pirates]]
[[Category:English privateers]]
[[Category:17th-century pirates]]
[[Category:Barbary pirates (people)]]
[[Category:English Muslims]]
[[Category:Converts to Islam]]
[[Category:17th-century deaths from plague (disease)]]

[[Category:16th-century English people]]
[[Category:17th-century English people]]