Chapter 3
The last of the South Sea Pirates
Hayes spent many more years in the South Pacific, where he engaged in native slave labour recruitment, or ''blackbirding'', among the many islands and atolls in the South Pacific Ocean. He later teamed up with an even more notorious American pirate named Captain Ben Pease, where together, they pillaged trading company's warehouses, carrying off the stores of copra and valuable coconut oil at gunpoint, but this is the subject of another tale.
Like all buccanneers, both men were to meet their fate in a violent way
In the year 1876, Hayes had been deported back to America aboard the Whittaker after serving a term in jail in Guam, where he had been caught by the Spanish authorities after he had kidnapped several natives to make up a crew for a small schooner he had stolen.
Helped by Captain Ogden, an old friend of his in San Francisco, Hayes bought a small yacht called the Lotus from a Captain Moody.
On October 8th he sailed from San Francisco bound for the islands of Hawaii.
Aboard he had a Scandinavian cook and a Dutchman named Peter Radeck, also known as Dutch Pete. He had come aboard to have a good time but became surly when ordered by Captain Hayes to take his watch and go about the tasks of running a ship.
Hayes called on him to take the tiller but the man responded that this wasn't his duties. Hayes eyes narrowed as he tied off the tiller. He strode up to the Dutchman and struck him a stunning heavy blow on the head with a clenched fist.
Later, after their arrival at Jaluit, Dutch Pete made an attempt to desert ship but was brought back by Hayes native friends. Desertion was regarded as a serious offence by seafarers and Hayes ordered him to be tied to the mainmast and flogged.
The Lotus left Jaluit on the 31st March, 1877, bound for Samoa.
The last moments of Captain Hayes life were made in a statement to the American authorities in Jaluit, when the mate, Charles Elston, returned about a month later.
Describing the incident, he wrote:
"Captain Hayes moved about constantly that afternoon and night, making ready for the blow that he knew would soon strike the Lotus...........the wind came from the northwest and had whipped up a tremendous sea; the night was black and the rain fell in heavy showers.......On watch with Hayes was the Dutchman.....Peter lived in fear of the Capatain who had punished him pretty severely for deserting.
In the stern of the Lotus was a little cockpit, a couple of steps leading from it into the cabin. Inside the pit stood the helmsman. A narrow deck space ran around it, while about this deck rose a bulwark about 12 inches in height.
I went below about ten o'clock, tired out. For perhaps two hours I slept.
Suddenly I woke, sitting in my bunk. Some sort of sharp report had waked me. At first I thought it was thunder. Then 'Bang! Bang!' I knew a revolver was being fired.
The captain has killed that Dutchman at last ! ' I exclaimed, bounding out of the cabin.
Though the might of a gale struck my face, fear oppressed me so I couldn't get air into my lungs. I can see that scene as if it were last night. When my feet landed me in the cockpit, the night seemed as black as if the black of a hundred nights were crowded into that moment.
Before me were two forms-the big frame of Hayes, the figure of Peter. Both stood on the deck above the cockpit. High in the air the sailor held a strange object that looked like a cross. But for only a second did I see them there.
Before I could stir or utter a cry, the cross fell full upon the skull of the captain. Instantly his clenched hands dropped to his sides, his head fell on his bosom, his knees sagged, and as the Lotus swept into the trough of the sea, his massive body lurched backward into the water.
'What have you done?' I yelled. The Dutchman stood trembling with fright. ' He try kill me!"
A second later I jumped for the tiller, shoved it hard aport, and brought the vessel up into the wind.
Captain! Captain! ' I shrieked. 'Hold on a minute! We're coming for you!”
But full well I knew Hayes had gone where no human voice or hand could reach him.
'Why did you kill the captain?' I demanded.
'Oh! Don't go back!' Peter kept pleading. 'Captain may kill me!'
Though beside himself with terror, Peter managed to tell incoherently of the murder. When he failed to obey an order promptly Hayes had started toward him, declaring he would kill the sailor and toss his body overboard.
Peter, standing just forward of the cockpit, had prepared himself. As Hayes leaped for him, the sailor drew a revolver and fired in rapid succession.
How many bullets struck Hayes or how many mortal wounds were inflicted, none can say. Some of the shots must have caused that mighty strength to rush out of Hayes' body, else the trembling sailor would never have had time to snatch up the boom-crutch and strike the blow that crushed in the skull of the buccaneer and send his body to its grave in the Pacific.”
Charles Elson, Mate, Yacht Lotus,
March 31st, 1877.
The Dutchman, Peter Radeck, was never charged over the murder of Captain Bully Hayes. The Lotus remained at Jaluit for some time; she passed into several hands before being bought by a native chief, who left her to rot on the reef of Jaluit Harbour.
American Captain Bully Hayes, was perhaps, the last of the South Seas 'pirates'. His life was no worse than many other Pacific ship's Captains, who took whatever fortune came their way.
Hayes Index | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3