Benjamin Hornigold

Benjamin Hornigold (1680s – 1719) was an English pirate from 1715 to 1718, and a member of the Templar Order. He was most famous for mentoring Edward Thatch and for being one of the founders of the pirate republic at Nassau.

Biography
Although his early life is largely unrecorded, it is known that Hornigold was born in England in the 1680s, and at some point made his way across the ocean to the West Indies as a privateer. His first known act of piracy was in the winter of 1713-1714, when he used several small canoes and a sloop to raid both ships and settlements along the Bahamas, eventually capturing a thirty-gun schooner that he named the Ranger. This ship would eventually be given to his fellow pirate Charles Vane.

During his first years as a pirate, his second-in-command was former privateer Edward Thatch, and soon their fleet expanded to five warships, led by the flagship Benjamin, pirating everywhere from Nassau to the Honduran coast. However, he was known not to attack British ships, leading some to believe that he was actually a privateer instead of a pirate. Sometime during this period he met Edward Kenway.

Eventually, he established a pirate republic, named 'the Brethren of the Coast', in Nassau, sharing the responsibilities of leadership with Thatch and Vane. When Kenway made his way to Nassau in 1715, Hornigold taught his friend how to sucessfully plunder ships, upgrade his ship, and lower his notoriety.

As the next three years went by, the pirates in Nassau heard of the pardon being offered by Woodes Rogers to any criminal who would accept it. Hornigold kept the pardon in mind as Nassau became ravaged by disease without an available cure. While his former crewmate Thatch decided to steal the medicines from British warships, Hornigold stated instead that Nassau was no longer worth fighting for, and that accepting the pardon was the only way to survive in a changing world. Kenway proposed a third solution - searching for medicines in old wrecks without attracting British attention.

Although Kenway and Thatch were eventually able to recover medicines for the colony, the British arrived months later and extended their pardon to the pirates. After meeting with Woodes Rogers and Commodore Peter Chamberlaine, Hornigold, along with his associates Josiah Burgess and John Cockram, accepted the offer and became a pirate hunter for the British, tasked with finding his former allies and bringing them to justice. In 1718, Hornigold became a member of the Templar Order.

He later met with Templar Grand Master Laureano de Torres y Ayala in Kingston, telling him that Burgess and Cockram were close to locating the Sage Bartholomew Roberts in Principe. He was eavesdropped on by Kenway, but managed to escape.

Hornigold later followed Kenway and Roberts to the Yucatan Peninsula, but was detected by the pirates and sailed into a rocky, fog-covered formation known as "the Devil's Backbone". Lost in the fog, the Ranger ran aground on the deserted island of Santanillas. He climbed to the top of an abandoned Mayan temple on the island, but Kenway was able to scale the building and air assassinate his former friend.

In his dying words, Hornigold regretted that Edward was too enamored with glory and bloodshed to see the wisdom of the Templars, and told him that he would die alone if he kept his present course.

Final words

 * Hornigold: You could have been a man who stood for something. But you've a killer's heart now. With nothing but mettle to show for all your blunders.
 * Edward: A damn sight better than you have, Ben. The heart of a traitor, who thinks himself better than his mates!
 * Hornigold: Aye, and proven true! What have you done since Nassau fell? Nothing but murder and mayhem!
 * Edward: You threw in with the very kind we once hated!
 * Hornigold: No! These Templars are different. I wish you could see that. But if you continue on your present course, you'll find you're the only one walking it! With the gallows at its end.
 * Edward: It may be. But now the world has one less snake in it. And that's enough for me.

Trivia

 * Hornigold captained a schooner named the Benjamin.
 * Hornigold is one of the pirates featured in the forthcoming Abstergo Entertainment movie Devils of the Caribbean.

Reference

 * Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag