Jack Ward seems to have been born about 1553, probably in Faversham, Kent, in southeast England.
19 Facts About Jack Ward
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2.
Around 1604, Jack Ward was allegedly pressed into service on a ship sailing under the authority of the King, where he was placed in the Channel Fleet and served aboard a ship named the Lyon's Whelp.
3.
Jack Ward's comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader.
4.
The ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Jack Ward used her to capture a much larger French ship.
5.
Jack Ward first sailed for Algiers, but several of his men were arrested upon entering the city.
6.
Jack Ward renamed the merchantman Little John after the English folk hero.
7.
From this base, Jack Ward was easily able to capture many ships from several European states.
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Little John 8.
Jack Ward's fleet headed for the Adriatic Sea when they were scattered by a terrible storm.
9.
Jack Ward's ships managed to pierce her hull five times, lighting bales of hay aflame inside.
10.
Finally, Jack Ward ordered his ships to close and prepare to board.
11.
The captain consented, and Jack Ward captured Reniera e Soderina with no further fighting.
12.
Jack Ward 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.
13.
Jack Ward has given his old ship to Captain [Graves] and these two and some other four ships form six fighting ships in all.
14.
Jack Ward asked James I of England for a royal pardon which was refused, due to a threat of war from Venice, as Jack Ward had attacked many Venetian ships, and he reluctantly returned to Tunis.
15.
Jack Ward accepted 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.
16.
Jack Ward used the city of Aquilaria as an acting port, and married an Italian woman while continuing to send money to his English wife.
17.
Jack Ward continued raiding Mediterranean shipping, eventually commanding a whole fleet of corsairs, whose flagship was a Venetian sixty-gunner.
18.
Jack Ward profited greatly by his piracy, retiring to Tunis to live a life of opulent comfort until his death in 1622, at the age of 70, possibly from the plague.
19.
Jack Ward was supposed to have spared English ships while attacking "papist" vessels.