Dirk Chivers

Dirk Chivers was a Dutch pirate active in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean during the 1690s.

Dirk Chivers is first recorded as a crew member of the Portsmouth Adventure, a privateering ship bound for the Red Sea, under Captain Joseph Faro (or Farrell) in early 1694. Soon after leaving Rhode Island, Chivers saw action as Farrell and Henry Every successfully captured two ships sometime around June 1695. On its return voyage to Rhode Island, the ship ran aground on Mayotte in the Comoro Islands and chose to stay behind with several others while Farrell and the others continued on with Every.

Chivers eventually signed aboard the 18-gun Resolution after being picked up by Captain Robert Glover near the end of the year. After several months in the Red Sea however, Chivers took part in a mutiny against Glover and had him and his 24 supporters placed onto the recently captured Arab ship Rajapura. Elected captain by the crew after the mutiny, he had the ship renamed the Soldado which, during the next year, was successful in capturing a number of valuable prizes before joining up with privateer John Hoar.

Together they captured, and subsequently ransomed, two East India Company ships. However, the ships were burned when the governor of Aden refused to pay the ransom. According to popular lore one of the captured sailors, a Captain Sawbridge, was said to have had his lips sewn shut with a sail needle in response to his constant complaining.

Chivers and Hoar sailed with four captured prizes into the harbour of Calcutta in November 1696, where they demanded a ransom of £10,000 for their release sending a message to the governor stating "We acknowledge no country, having sold our own, and as we are sure to be hanged if taken, we shall have no scruple in murdering and destroying if our demands are not granted in full."

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