01/08/2022
John ‘Black Jack’ Anderson was and African American Sealer and Pirate active in the Recherche Archipelago of the South Coast of Western Australia. Black Jack is Australia’s only known resident pirate. There was nothing romantic about this murderous thug. Anderson was a violent African American who came to Australian in 1826
Anderson was originally a whaler from Massachusetts he arrived in the fledgling KING GEORGE SOUND Colony (Modern day Albany) aboard the American whaling vessel the Vigilant in 1826 (Perth was colonised in 1829) while the crew were drinking ashore, a fight broke out and a man was killed. Accused of murder, Anderson and several crew mates fled in a small vessel and hid out in the Recherché Archipelago approximately 400 kilometres to the east.
Anderson and his fellows astablished an encampment on Middle island in Western Australia the largest in the Archipelago as the soli was good and the vegitation healthy it was also one of the few islands with a source of fresh water. The archipelago was heavily populated by Australians sea lions and New Zealand fur seals and Anderson’s band soon enriched them selves by trading furs to settlements along the coast for ten years which they sold for six shillings each: they are noted as visiting Kangaroo Island (where I was born) and the Althorpe Islands in South Australia. They supplemented their sealing income by robbing vessels travelling between Western Australia and the east coast colonies of Sydney or Hobart. They are also said to have murdered Indigenous “Kaurna” men and abducted women to take as s*x slaves. The Recherché Archipelago was treacherous and uncharted, making it an ideal hide out for pirates. In September 1834 Anderson and another black man, John Bathurst arrived at Kangaroo Island from Long Island and clashed with the whalers and Aboriginals.
According to an 1842 report complaining about the lawlessness of sealers’
One is the most daring of these was a man of colour of the name Anderson, and lawless men they were. They looked up to him with a sort of dread. Anderson usually carried a brace of pistols about him, knowing that he held his life by a very precarious tenure. By persevering exertions he had amassed a considerable amount of money, and usually kept one or two black women to attend on him and minister to his wants, when not engaged in sealing.
Anderson was eventually murdered by his fellow pirates, and is though to be buried somewhere on middle island according to a contemporary report: ‘They were eventually quite disgusted with Anderson’s harshness, and determined to remove him, but were puzzled how to accomplish it as he was a stout powerful man, and being armed was always on hairs. At last, one day when he was asleep in a tent, one of them entered and taking deliberate aim ‘blew his brains out’ this happened on Christmas Day 1837 it has also been noted that his throat was slit ‘from ear to ear’ They shared the b***y and killed the native women (he was with) in case she would afterward tell the tale. after the event the crew scattered out of gear for being charged for murder.
The limestone cave on Middle Island has chambers and deep tunnels which according to local legend was the perfect place for black Jack the pirate to hide his treasure.
Western Australian archaeologist have been to the remote area and surveyed what is to believed to have been Anderson’s cave.
Black Jacks Bay and his cave can only be accessed in rare good weather. Peoples have searched for the pirates loot and obvious items would have been illegally removed by now. Perhaps Black Jacks treasure was ‘not’ buried on the island Accordingto local legend’ his body certainly was!
