Ahoy, mateys! Today, we’re takin’ a plunder at the truly vile sea‑devils — the ones who didn’t just fly the black flag, but etched their names into it with other men’s bones. These weren’t your everyday rogues who preferred a clean prize and a quiet surrender. Nay… these were the brutes who laughed as the cannons roared, who decorated their decks with fear, and who left trails of blood, smoke, and shattered souls in their wake.

Most pirates were content to take a ship with a warning shot and a glare. But then there were the Scourges — the ones who relished pain like it was a fine rum, who believed cruelty was just another tool in their sea‑chest.

And Bartholomew Roberts — Black Bart himself — was one of these scallywags. Aye, he was a true Scourge of the Seven Seas, mateys… a gentleman‑devil in crimson, a terror who plundered with style, precision, and a cold smile that made even seasoned captains whisper prayers to the deep.

Sidenote: in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced (and in the original), Black Bart is the “Sage”, a protagonist that truly is a scurvy knave who will (and does) stab you in the back. Watch out for him!

If the Seven Seas ever had a pirate who felt carved from obsidian and etiquette, it was Roberts. He wasn’t the rum‑soaked brute of tavern tales — he was the strange, elegant terror who sailed like a storm wearing velvet.

He dressed in crimson coats, plumed hats, and a cross of diamonds that caught the sun like a signal flare. He held Sunday services aboard his ship. He wrote a pirate code so strict it could’ve been nailed to a church door. And he took over 400 ships — more than any other pirate of the era — with a calm, almost eerie precision.

Roberts didn’t just plunder. He curated chaos.

He was the kind of scourge who’d burn a governor’s ship to the waterline, then send a polite note explaining why.

He was the kind of shadow who made entire ports go silent when his black flag rose — not because he was the cruelest, but because he was the most inevitable.

And when he died, the sea didn’t roar. It exhaled — like a beast losing one of its favorite nightmares.

Next up, October 1720: Roberts captured a group of Dutch sailors. Instead of simply taking their valuables and sending them on their way — the usual pirate practice — Roberts ordered something far darker…

Til next time, Fair Winds!

To the ghosts that guide us, the storms that test us, and the gold that waits for those who dare — may our ink never run dry and our courage never fade. Raise your tankards, mates… for the sea still remembers our names.