14. Becoming Calico Jack
John Rackham was nicknamed Calico Jack because of the colorful calico clothes he favored. In 1718, he was quartermaster aboard the pirate sloop Ranger, when she encountered a French warship twice her size. The pirate captain, choosing discretion over valor, fled. The pirate crew decried what they viewed as cowardice, voted the captain out of the command, and replaced him with Calico Jack.
As captain, Calico Jack specialized in plundering small vessels engaged in coastal trade, but fell upon larger ships when the opportunity presented itself. In 1719, he accepted a royal pardon, renounced piracy, and accepted a commission from the governor of the Bahamas to hunt pirates. However, a love triangle involving Anne Bonny, the future pirate, grew complicated, and ended with the lovers stealing a sloop to slip out of the Bahamas. That voided Calico Jack’s recent pardon.