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removed Category:Dutch pirates; added Category:Pirates from the Dutch Republic using HotCat

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{{Short description|Dutch pirate}}
'''Dirk Chivers''' ({{floruit|1694–1699}}, last name occasionally Shivers) was a Dutch [[piracy|pirate]] active in the [[Red Sea]] and [[Indian Ocean]].<ref name=Dictionary/>

==Early career==
Dirk Chivers is first recorded as a crew member of the ''Portsmouth Adventure'', {{citation needed span|a privateering ship|date=December 2021}}, under Captain [[Joseph Faro]] (or Farrell) around January 1694. Soon after leaving [[Rhode Island]], Chivers saw action in the [[Red Sea]] as Farrell and [[Henry Every]] successfully captured two ships in June 1695. On its return voyage to Rhode Island, the ''Adventure'' ran aground on [[Mayotte]] in the [[Comoro Islands]]. Chivers stayed behind with several others while Farrell and the others continued on with Every.<ref name=Dictionary>{{cite book |last=Rogozinski |first=Jan |date=1999 |title=Dictionary of Pirates |url=https://archive.org/details/wordsworthdictio00rogo/page/47 |url-access=registration |location=Ware, Hertfordshire |publisher=[[Wordsworth Editions]] Ltd |page=72 |isbn=1-85326-384-2}}</ref>

==Chivers in the Red Sea & India==
Chivers eventually signed aboard the 18-gun ''Resolution'' after being picked up by Captain [[Robert Glover (pirate)|Robert Glover]] near the end of the year.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UqvyAwAAQBAJ&q=Robert+Glover++Resolution&pg=PA63 |title=Pirates of Colonial Newport |pages=63–64 |first=Gloria |last=Merchant |date=May 13, 2014 |publisher=History Press |location=[[South Carolina|SC]] |isbn=978-1626192508 |access-date=July 9, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://books.openedition.org/pum/523?lang=en |title=Relation des avantures de Mathieu Sagean, Canadien |language=fr |chapter=Chapter III. Robert et Richard Glover |page=179 |publisher=[[Presses de l'Université de Montréal]] |editor-first=Pierre |editor-last=Berthiaume |date=October 1999 |isbn=9782760617414 |access-date=July 9, 2016}}</ref> After several months in the Red Sea however, Chivers took part in a mutiny against Glover and had him and his 24 supporters placed onto the recently captured Arab ship ''Rajapura''. Elected captain by the crew after the mutiny, he had the ship renamed the ''Soldado'' which, during the next year, was successful in capturing a number of valuable prizes before joining up with privateer [[John Hoar (pirate)|John Hoar]].{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Together they captured, and subsequently ransomed, two [[British East India Company|East India Company]] ships. However, the ships were burned when the governor of [[Aden]] refused to pay the ransom. {{citation needed span|According to popular lore|date=December 2021}} one of the captured sailors, a Captain Sawbridge, was said to have had his lips sewn shut with a sail needle in response to his constant complaining.<ref name=Dictionary/>

Chivers and Hoar sailed with four captured prizes into the harbour of [[Calcutta]] in November 1696, where they demanded a ransom of £10,000 for their release sending a message to the governor stating ''"We acknowledge no country, having sold our own, and as we are sure to be hanged if taken, we shall have no scruple in murdering and destroying if our demands are not granted in full."''<ref name=Dictionary/>

The governor of Calcutta disregarded their threats and sent out ten ships against the privateers and, as they appeared in the harbor, Chivers and Hoar fled without their prizes (burning two of them)<ref name=Dictionary/> and made their way to [[Adam Baldridge]]'s settlement at [[Île Sainte-Marie|Saint Mary's Island]] for repairs (dismantling [[Thomas Tew]]'s old ship ''Amity'' for parts and supplies after capturing it from Hoar's brother-in-law [[Richard Glover (pirate)|Richard Glover]]) arriving in the summer of 1697 where the two parted company as Hoar sailed for the Red Sea. Glover was still there and asked them to return to America; Chivers offered to let him aboard if he'd continue piracy of Moorish ships. Glover refused and Chivers left him there, where Glover was killed in a native uprising.<ref name="Jameson">{{cite book|last1=Jameson|first1=John Franklin|title=Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period by J. Franklin Jameson|date=1923|publisher=THE MACMILLAN COMPANY|location=New York|pages=175–177|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24882/24882-h/24882-h.htm#DOC_68|access-date=26 May 2017}}</ref>

==Later career==
In April 1698, Chivers captured an English ship, the ''Sedgwick'', and struck a deal with the ''Sedgwick''{{'s}} captain: He would be allowed to keep his ship if he agreed to supplying the privateers crew with rum.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

In September, Chivers joined up with [[Robert Culliford]] (who had recently left [[Captain Kidd|William Kidd]]) and [[Joseph Wheeler (pirate)|Joseph Wheeler]] with his quartermaster [[Nathaniel North (pirate)|Nathaniel North]]. Together Chivers, Culliford, Wheeler, and North captured the ''Great Mohammed'' along with £130,000. Taking command of his new prize, the ship was renamed the ''New Soldado'' (or the ''Soldado II'') and returned to Saint Mary's Island where they stayed at a settlement run by [[Edward Welch (pirate)|Edward Welch]].<ref name="CSP17">{{cite book |last1=Headlam |first1=Cecil |title=Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698 |date=1908 |publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |pages=283–291 |edition=Vol.17 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol17/pp283-291 |access-date=29 June 2022}}</ref>

The following year, however, Chivers was forced to sink the ''New Soldado'' to block the harbor passage of Saint Mary's with the appearance of four British battleships in September 1699. Despite his efforts, he and Culliford eventually accepted a royal pardon (under the [[1698 Act of Grace]], in spite of its expiration<ref>{{cite book |last=Grey |first=Charles |date=1933 |title=Pirates of the Eastern Seas |url=https://archive.org/details/PiratesOfTheEasternSeasCharlesGrey/page/n199/ |location=London |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. |page=174}}</ref>) and arranged passage home on the merchantman ''Vine''.<ref name=Dictionary/> Several members of Chivers' crew returned to America separately, offering [[Giles Shelley]] large sums to take them as passengers aboard his ship ''Nassau''.<ref name="Jameson" />

==Further reading==
*Pennell, C. R. ''Bandits at Sea: A Pirates Reader''. New York: NYU Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8147-6678-1}}
*Rogozinski, Jan. ''Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean''. Stackpole Books, 2000. {{ISBN|0-8117-1529-9}}

{{pirates}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chivers, Dirk}}
[[Category:Pirates from the Dutch Republic]]
[[Category:17th-century pirates]]
[[Category:Pardoned pirates]]
[[Category:17th-century births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1699 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch criminals]]

Dirk Chivers - Revision history

imported>Marcocapelle: removed Category:Dutch pirates; added Category:Pirates from the Dutch Republic using HotCat