Nassau: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:39, 6 November 2025

"A confederation of drunkards and dunces more like!... But free men!"

―Charles Vane on the Pirate Republic, 1717.^[src]^-[m]

Nassau is the capital, largest city and commercial center of the Bahamas, situated on New Providence Island.

New Providence was first settled around 1648 by English Puritans who had fled Bermuda for religious reasons.^[1] Originally called Charles-Towne, the city founded in the northeast of the island was renamed Nassau in 1695, in honor of King William III of the House of Orange-Nassau. After the city's officially appointed governor skipped town, it severed the British Empire's control over the Bahamas.^[2]

Pirate haven[edit | edit source]

"We had here a rare opportunity; a chance to take something base and shape it into a government, made and maintained by men of vision. But in two years we pissed it away."

―Benjamin Hornigold to Charles Vane, 1718.^[src]^-[m]

In 1696, the pirate Henry Avery sailed into the harbor at Nassau with shiploads of stolen loot. He bribed the governor into making Nassau a safe refuge for privateers; in essence, a protected pirate base.^[3]

In 1715, during the Golden Age of Piracy, Nassau became the capital of the self-declared Republic of Pirates. The proto-state operated under a paradoxically anarchic form of government and was commonly visited by pirates, including Edward Kenway, Charles Vane, Jack Rackham, and the Republic's three founders: Benjamin Hornigold, James Kidd, and Edward Thatch.^[2]

In May 1717, the pirates Alonzo Batilla and Olivier Levasseur arrived in Nassau, believing that it was the perfect place to store the Fragment of Eden they had acquired from Samuel Bellamy. They were greeted by the pirate Christopher Condent, who informed them about the lack of food, water, and rum in Nassau. This prompted Alonzo to attack a merchant convoy nearby, procuring food for the city's inhabitants.^[4]

Condent reminded Alonzo about the rum, which the latter proceeded to recover from a shipwreck. He then prevented Vane from attacking the Royal Navy to protect Nassau from British retaliation. After escorting Vane to the city, Alonzo learned that Levasseur had left, and he too departed Nassau to look for his friend.^[4]

By early 1718, the city was suffering from crippling famine and sickness. As a result, Kenway and Thatch set out to find medicine in order to help the city get on its feet.^[5] They were eventually able to retrieve two crates of medicine from Charles-Towne, and Edward brought them back to Nassau, along with the materials needed to mix additional doses.^[6]

In July of the same year, the newly appointed Governor of Nassau, Woodes Rogers, quickly asserted his control over the island. Headquartered in the city's fort, and working with his Navy attaché, Commodore Peter Chamberlaine, he established a blockade on Nassau's harbor, effectively imprisoning all pirates whether they accepted the King's pardon or not, and dissolved the young Pirate Republic.^[7] However, Kenway was able to eliminate Chamberlaine on his ship,^[8] and along with Vane and Rackham, destroyed the bulk of the blockade and escaped the island.^[9]

However, even with Chamberlaine dead and the fleet scuttled, the British still retained control of the island. Woodes Rogers remained as governor of the Bahamas until he was recalled by King George I in 1721,^[10] but returned for a second term, lasting from 1728 until his death in 1732.^[11]

Nassau also had its own Assassin bureau, headed by the brothers Upton and Vance Travers.^[12] Vance had designs to kill Upton and take control of the bureau and Upton's half of the treasure map that the siblings shared, with the help of the Templar Jing Lang,^[13] but the two were swiftly eliminated by Edward Kenway.^[14]

Trivia[edit | edit source]

In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, during Sequence 7, it is impossible to fast travel from or across Nassau, due to the British blockade and occupation.