Francis Hume
Francis Hume (unknown – 1717) was a captain in the Royal Navy and a member of the Templar Order, who was sent to the West Indies during the early 18th century.
Biography
An officer in the Royal Navy, Francis Hume was sent to America with the mission of stopping the pirate attacks on British ships and finding wanted individuals, from pirates to escaped slaves. As a member of the Templar Order, Hume was also secretly tasked with preventing any Assassin disruption on the Templars' naval activities in the Caribbean Sea.
As such, in November 1716, Hume devised a plan in order to lure Samuel Bellamy into a trap and spread the rumor that galleons of the Spanish Treasure Fleet carried a Templar artifact. Hearing the rumor, the Assassin convinced two fellow pirates, La Buse and Alonzo Batilla, to attack and seize the Spanish ships, promising a rich bounty to them. Catching two galleons and their escort off the coast of the islands of Los Martires, near Florida, the pirates discovered that the first one was a decoy and ran after the second. However, an ambushed Hume attacked Batilla when the pirate caught up to the Spanish ship, overwhelming him with his powerful frigate. As Hume was on the verge of sinking Batilla's ship, La Buse came to his comrade's rescue, allowing Alonzo to flee and Bellamy to pursue the second galleon, while he was holding the British at bay, before fleeing himself.
Two months later, having discovered that the prize he was unsuccessfully looking for on the Spanish galleons was in fact carried by Laurens Prins, Bellamy tasked Batilla with finding the route of Prins' ship, the Whydah, in Havana. Having recovered the information, Batilla spotted Hume's ship in the harbor of the city and decided to follow him. Hume was in fact on his way to a meeting with the Grand Master of the Caribbean Templars, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, whom was worried by Bellamy's attacks on the Templars' interests. Torres ordered Hume to intensify his efforts to kill the Assassin and his allies. Hume then informed Torres that he had discovered Bellamy's location and that he would no longer be a threat to them, having sent a fleet to take care of the Assassin. Hearing the conversation, Batilla raced to help his friend and managed to sink the five ships commissioned by the Templars. Following the French pirate, Hume arrived soon after the loss of his vessels and engaged Batilla. Hume lost his frigate in the ensuing confrontation but managed to survive.
In January 1717, Bellamy successfully captured the Whydah with the help of his friends and recovered the Piece of Eden entrusted by the Templars to Prins. The Assassin then explained to his companions the device's potential for misuse and the purpose of the Templars, which prompted Batilla and Levasseur to agree on escorting Bellamy and the Whydah to a safe place. Unfortunately, Hume attacked the pirates and in command of a Man O' War, the King George, tried to secure the artifact for his Order once more. The King George being a powerful ship, Hume had the advantage against the combined forces of La Buse and Batilla, who desperately tried to avoid the fire of Hume's numerous canons while shooting him. The situation flipped to the detriment of Hume, when Edward Thatch joined the fight and overwhelmed the Templar, sinking the ship.