Excerpts from The Pirates Caesar pt. 3: Black Caesar

(Author’s note: This is a fictional supplementary for the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novels. While the legend of Black Caesar, exists outside of this narrative, the information below is a product of my own imagination, and shouldn’t be taken as historically accurate.

Another Author note, while we are dealing with a fictional pirate story. The fiction is based upon an established legend of a Pirate named Black Caesar. He was a pirate, and not a nice, Robinhood type. So read with discretion, and if you are young get your parents permission.

The fiction starts. . . Now!)

From The Pirates Caeser, written by William T. Howard

Black Caesar.

Legends of pirates, and pirate treasure abound in southern Florida and the Caribbean. For centuries Spanish Treasure Fleets, European traders, aspiring colonists, and exploratory vessels plied the waters around southern Florida with marginal success. Ships were lost in hurricanes, smashed upon the shallow corals hidden below the waves, sunken due to poor navigation or captaincy, and pillaged by privateers flying enemy flags.

Over those centuries wreckers in the keys would fatten their accounts on the wealth of salvage which recovered near their shores. At one point, Key West was the richest town in Florida due to the amount of salvage recovered from the Strait of Florida. In addition, to European sailors and colonists, the new world was a wide open place, far removed from the laws and justice represented by the flags they flew from thier ships masts and in their port cities.

Opportunity abounded, and to those with less scruples and more firepower, wealth could be seized from the weakly defended. So, in this world of wealth and freedom, it’s no surprise that pirates came to represent a large portion of Florida’s history. Men like Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, and Gasparilla of Tampa, have strong ties to Florida, pillaging ships along the coast, illegally scavenging wrecks from the 1715 treasure fleet, and even setting up base in Florida, to use her shallows and islands to hide from naval reprisal.

But around Biscayne Bay, near the area we now call Miami, there is, perhaps, no greater pirate of legend than Black Caesar. He is not as widely known as some of his ilk, but he has prominent ties to the men listed above, and has left his mark on these lands, in the form of Names, stories, and legends. Caesar’s Rock sits in an area called Islandia. Caesar’s creek, once called Black Caesar’s Creek, is one of the few navigable channels through the narrow Florida Keys north of Key Largo. Stories about the treasure he left behind still mark and island called Elliot key, and countless men have scoured all of the northern keys looking for it.

But, who was the man?

Before I step into historical critiques, let’s talk about the legend.

While there are earlier rumors of pirates named Caesar in the Caribbean, Black Caesar is perhaps the first, and definitely the most prominent figure to bear that name. In the early 1700s he terrorized many, amassed a great fortune, and even teamed up with Blackbeard, sailing with him to the end, and fighting alongside him in the final battle aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Betrayal

His legend started with a tale of tragic deception. A strong leader somewhere on the coast of Africa, he and his men were tricked aboard a sailing vessel by a conniving captain and crew. We do not know what his name was at this time, what he called himself, or was called by his men. But whatever title he held, it was lost in a moment of drunk deception, as he and his men were coaxed to drinking too much, and awoke in chains.

The ship they had visited was a slave ship, and after kidnapping Caesar and his men, it was headed to the new world. It is unknown if this is when he was rechristened Caesar, or if that moniker came later in life. What is known is that Caesar had bearing and charisma reminiscent of a leader, so perhaps it was the men aboard the slave ship who gave him the title. Or, perhaps, he took it for himself.

While aboard the slave ship, enduring nearly unimaginably terrible conditions, Caesar managed none-the-less, to befriend some of the crew, earning their respect and their trust. (This alone might be enough to justify the moniker, as Julius Caesar, from whom the name was plucked from history, was said to have befriended a crew of pirates who had kidnapped him. The fate of those pirates, upon Julius Caesar’s release is surprisingly poignant when considering what became of the men who had kidnapped Black Caesar nearly two millennia later.)

This friendship with the crew would prove incredibly important, as, while nearing the Florida Coast, east of Biscayne Bay, the slave ship was hit by a massive hurricane and sunk. Most of the crew and the captured men doomed to slavery went down with the ship. But one of the sailors freed Caesar from his chains, and the two men escaped aboard a rowboat ending up someone along the Florida Keys.

There they survived for a time, presumably becoming close, as the other sailor is described then as Caesar’s friend. Eventually, they saw another ship on the horizon, and flying a white flag, they approached the boat for rescue. The ship, obeying the laws of the sea, turned course and brought them aboard.

Betrayal Repaid

But here is where the story takes a turn towards piracy. Instead of accepting the benevolent recue from the merchant ship, Caesar and his companion drew weapons recovered from the remnants of their shipwreck, and demanded supplies and tribute instead of safety. Ransom loaded aboard their lifeboat, they returned to the island they had inhabited with the spoils, and let the ship sail on.

This was a pattern they repeated for some time, amassing more wealth, weapons, and eventually a captive, a woman. Where it not for her, perhaps this would have been their life, until they were eventually caught as rumors of their pattern reached the ears of more compitently armed ships in the Caribbean. Instead, the woman captive caused a falling out, as both men became enamored with her, and jealous of each other. Eventually, those feelings lead to a deadly confrontation.

From the title of this chapter, you can guess the result. Black Caesar killed his former friend over the woman. And while her fate is unwritten we can guess from later encounters. With his friend’s death, Black Caesar’s life was soon to change. He repeated the former con a few more times, sailing his lifeboat out under flag of rescue, and seizing wealth instead. But he also began to actively recruit from amongst the sailors of these ships, with the promises of freedom and sharing the captured wealth. And either he was very convincing, or the life of a pirate seemed more appealing to some. (many sailors were indentured, or disillusioned with life aboard a vessel forced to cross the Atlantic. Some would probably jump at the chance for freedom and base on a dry land, not to mention an opportunity to collect more of the wealth they were transporting.)

Eventually, Caesar was able to amass enough men through the longboat scheme to form a proper pirate crew, and they were able to seize a smaller, sailing vessel for themselves. The smaller sailing vessel was important, as the channels around the Florida Keys are shallow and hard to navigate, which would become part of Black Caesar and his crew’s new strategy.

Image from: The Pirates Caesar. Fig. Shows Caesars Rock, an island of great use to Black Caesar.

The Legend, and Treasure , Grows

No longer would they pretend to be shipwrecked sailors in need of rescue aboard a lifeboat. Now they would fly the black flag of pirates, and seize a larger measure of the wealth aboard the ships they targeted. Then, with the shallow draft of their stolen vessel, and Black Caesar’s knowledge of the channels he had called home for years, they would retreat to the shallows of Biscayne Bay and hide from any Naval reprisal which may come looking for them.

This was a winning strategy for a while, as Black Caesar’s crew, fortune, and legend grew. He expanded his small island base into a proper port, so that he and his men could repair their vessel from any injury sustained in battle. The island where this happened was, for a time, named Black Caesar’s island. (now it is called Mieg’s Key) He and his men captured people as well as goods, holding the men for ransom, and the women for their own desires. They kept the women on Elliot Key, a place with little food and less water. It is said that those women, and later their children, were often left to starve or dehydrate while the pirates sailed the seas in search of their next quarry. The ghosts of those forgotten children are still said to still haunt the island.

Despite this terror, for Black Caesar and his crew, things seemed to be going well. They continued to attack ships and accrue more wealth. They revised their strategy for hiding from ships of war, eventually installing a large hook on a rock next to their port. Using the hook and chains they could keel their vessel to the side, hiding its mast from sight. This allowed them to better ambush ships now warry of the nearby waters, and to keep out of sight from the various navies who patrolled the Florida Strait.

This was a winning strategy, but perhaps Caesar and his crew grew board with it, or maybe they were tempted by the lure of even more wealth, because around 1717, Black Caesar and his crew abandoned their base on Elliot Key—hiding their treasure and leaving their home behind.

Sketch from from: The Pirates Caesar. Black Caesar Sails into Battle.

Biscayne Bay Abandoned

We do not know what happened to Black Caesar’s crew or ship. Perhaps they sailed into port somewhere in the Caribbean and were lost to obscurity. Perhaps they scuttled the ship and walked away with a small portion of the wealth they had accrued over the years. Perhaps they joined one of the pirate flotillas operating in the West Indies, and met their fate in battle. We simply do not know.

What we do know is that Black Caesar, captain and legendary pirate in his own right, decided to team up with another, far more famous pirate: Blackbeard. We don’t know much about their relationship, or what mischief they got up to together, but we can surmise that they became close—perhaps because Caeasar’s charisma. We can surmise this because Caesar was one of the last men to sail with Blackbeard, and he was there for the final battle aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

And when Blackbeard determined that the battle would be lost, he entrusted Caesar with one final task: retreat to the hold and set the gunpowder ablaze. This desperate measure would have destroyed the ship and taken Blackbeard and his enemies with him. Caesar attempted to complete the task, but was waylaid by two other pirates who did not want to go down with their ship.

Blackbeard was killed in the confrontation, and the surviving sailors, including Caesar, were captured. They were tried, and with two exceptions not pertinent to this story later the pirate were hanged. Thus the ignoble death of a man in Carolina, who had built up fame and fortune in Florida.

Legacy

Still, the legend continues. There sits a tiny island just south of Elliot Key named Caesar’s Rock where Black Caesar was rumored to have sunk the hook which helped hide his ship. Caesar’s Rock rests inside a channel now known as Caesar Creak. (Once Black Caesar’s Creek,) An island named Meigs Key also rests in that channel, and is rumored to be the port where Black Caesar’s Crew would repair their ship after battle. There are stories on Elliot Key of children’s voices and the smell of coffee wafting through the air. (Coffee was one of the riches often plundered in pirate attacks. It would have been kept on the base with the women and children, and when they were starving, they might have tried to eat the beans to survive.) The ghosts of those abandoned children still linger. As do rumors of treasure.

There are some stories of people discovering small amounts of coins, gold and silver, on Elliot Key, but no one has, as of yet, found the mother load. For all the pirating that Black Caesar did, there is no accounting for the money he would have left behind to embark upon his final voyage with Blackbeard. So, perhaps it is still out there, and perhaps it can be found.

Or, perhaps it already was.

Because one hundred years after Black Caesar abandoned Elliot Key, his hiding place in Caesar Creek, and the treasure he’d fought hard to build, another pirate appeared, in the same waters, and took up residence as the Terror of Biscayne Bay. But more about him in the next chapter.

The story of Black Caesar ends abruptly, his time cut short and his legacy undermined because he chose to team up with a man history has deemed more famous. Yet his footprint lingers, and legends still abound about the man who once ruled the waters of Biscayne Bay.

You can sail the same waters once roamed by those pirates, and explore the islands where they had their base. Keep your eye out for glints of gold buried beneath mangrove roots, listen for the sound of children’s voices. Prepare your nose for the smell of coffee. And look out to sea and imagine what it would have felt like to spot a new mast cresting the horizon and the excitement the men of the time must have felt when new prey had entered their territory.

The hook on Caesars Rock is long gone, but the story of the man lives on. Thus continues the legend of the pirate called Black Caesar.

Image from The Pirates Caesar: Picture of on Caesar Creek (formerly Black Caesar's Creek. From left to right: Southern tip of Elliot Key. The small island known as Caesars Rock. (in the Distance:) North tip of Old Rhoades Key. (In the foreground:) Meig's Key, formerly Black Caesar's Key, rumored ship port of pirate Black Caesar. The water in this photo is all part of Caesar Creek, a channel between Elliot, and Old Rhoades Key. The view is looking East to the Atlantic Ocean. Black Caesar may once have taken in this scene looking out to the horizon for sign of the next ship to become his prey.

End of the Chapter

(2nd Author’s note here! This whole deal has been part of the leadup to the release of Treasure of Biscayne Bay. Lookout for the third title inte Junior Rangers Investigative Club series soon! In the meantime, (if you are reading this within the few weeks after it’s release, come get a signed copy of the 2nd book in the series The Specters of Mammoth Cave @ the Barnes and Noble in Bowling Green Kentucky, where I will be having a book signing on October 19th, 2024.

If you’ve missed it, and want a signed copy, there might still be some on the shelves. If not look out for future signings!