Captain’s List — Woodes Rogers #1169

Corsair’s Profiles in Leadership Series

The captains of fiction and history have much to teach us. They are leaders who often serve in times of great challenge and turmoil. Articles in this series focus on an individual captain and utilizes their quotes, their writings, and their actions to inspire core leadership elements in all of us.

Woodes Rogers

No other figure may exemplify the Golden Age of pirates as much as Captain Rogers. This merchant turned privateer turned pirate hunter turned governor literally wrote the book of high adventure in the early 1700's.

He offers two very different lessons on leadership. They are a combination of both fame and misfortune and unlike some, Woodes battled with both throughout his career.

The Duke and The Dutchess

If you want to be viewed as a great leader in your time, do something noteworthy — then tell everyone about it. The cruise of the Duke and the Dutchess would place Woodes on the map. Actually, it would draw a good portion of the map.

Woodes would command his soon to be small fleet of privateers on a three year voyage around the globe. Along the way they would capture enemy ships, sack a town, rescue Robinson Crusoe (real name — Alexander Selkirk), capture the Spanish Treasure fleet, piss off the East India Trading Company, and all without losing a ship. It was a profitable and memorable voyage. To make certain, Woodes published his adventures. The book was a runaway success.

Captain Rogers had a motto or two. We will get to that shortly. But implicitly he lived by another — if you are going to lead, do something noteworthy.

Many privateers would sail from England during the War of Spanish Succession, but only Rogers had the audacity to consider circumnavigating the globe to assault the Spanish Treasure fleet. How many of today’s leaders consider such grand plans? How many leaders actually strive for greatness? How many would continue to do so after taking a bullet to the jaw… in an age of early 18th century medicine?

“Dum spriro, spero” — While I breathe, I hope

A bullet to the face was the least of Captain Roger’s misfortunes. While I personally find this difficult to fathom, it is by his own account. While his famous voyage would yield wonderful returns for him and his partners, the East India Company’s interference assured those returns would not be timely.

In his life, Woodes would battle the Spanish, pirates of Madagascar and the Bahamas, and an array of health issues. But Woodes’ financial struggles are probably less appreciated today despite their quite modern form. England in the 1700’s was a country of big corporations, venture capitalists, risky investments, stock market crashes, and delayed government invoicing. Even governorship's were a privatized affair that required investment partnerships and heavy personal liability. Woodes would have several stints in debtors prison.

Despite all the setbacks — political, health, financial, and otherwise — Woodes remained determined. His efforts would lead to the deterioration of piracy in Madagascar, an end in the Bahamas, and the early demise of some of the most notorious pirates in history. Charles Vane, Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonny were all chased from their haven in Nassau to their untimely ends.

He would lose his fortune, his health, and his governorship. In the end, only the timely publication of another book would reverse his deteriorating fortunes. He would return from the brink numerous times and truly lived his family motto — Dum spiro, spero.

For today’s leaders, there is much to take from Woode’s persistence. He dreamed big, he failed big, but he remained undaunted. While not the leadership style, perhaps, for every organization, it is certainly the one for those trying to be most noteworthy.

For more on Woodes Rogers consider: