Jeremiah Garland

Jeremiah Garland (c. 1710 – 2 July 1757), also known as Count Klaus von Wroclai (Клаус фон Вроклай) was a pirate active in both the Caribbean and the Baltic Seas from 1735 until his death. He served in both the 8th and 9th Brethren Courts, representing the Baltic Sea, and briefly held the title of Binder of the Seven Seas in the latter court. For his active and long-lasting career of piracy in both the Caribbean and Baltic, he has often been nicknamed the "Scourge of Two Worlds".

Born into a middle class English family, Garland initially served as a clerk and later foot soldier in the British East India Trading Company, a job which saw him relocated to the Caribbean. After stealing company secrets and escaping on board a company vessel whilst on guard duty one evening in 1735, Garland was branded an outlaw and a pirate. He subsequently had one of the largest bounties in pirate history placed on his head, an amount which only grew following his ten year career in the Caribbean alongside the likes of Richard Cannonwalker. Following Cannonwalker's successful coup in the pirate republic of Padres Del Fuego in 1746, Garland became involved in the island's politics, even briefly becoming leader of the self-proclaimed commonwealth, before abandoning the isle after a British invasion.

Among the most wanted men in the New World, Garland resolved to leave the Caribbean. Due to several personal and family connections with the imperial court of Russia, Garland sought refuge in the Russian Empire, posing as a German émigré named Klaus von Wroclai (pronounced VROH-kleh), a name he operated under for the remainder of his life. In Russia he was granted land and allowed to resume his pirate activities in the Baltic Sea. Over the next nine years he devastated shipping throughout Northern Europe – being branded a national threat by the likes of Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia – and was responsible for sparking a new era of piracy in the Baltic and North Seas. Following the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1754, he was directly drafted into the Russian imperial navy with the rank of fleet admiral, gaining control of the Russian Baltic Flotilla. He was killed during the Siege of Memel in 1757.

Early Years and Education
Jeremiah Garland was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, to parents Charles Garland and Anne (née Selkirk). The exact date of his birth is disputed, though is generally considered to be in or around the year 1710. His mother died when Garland was less than a year old. He had one brother, Elias, two years his senior.

Charles Garland had a prominent upbringing and was a diplomat for the British government, serving various roles, though most notably as an attaché to the British ambassador to Russia. Though he fulfilled the duty well and was even a popular figure throughout St Petersburg, he was removed from the post and subsequently took up quaint municipal positions in the county of Hertfordshire.

Both Jeremiah and Elias attended Eton College from the age of 12 until 14, at which point their father urged them to enlist in the service of either the Royal Navy or the East India Trading Company, as means for them to "see the world" (in reality, Charles Garland could no longer afford to send his boys to Eton). Whilst Elias enlisted in the Royal Navy, eventually gaining the rank of lieutenant, Jeremiah opted to join the East India Trading Company.

Career in the East India Trading Company
Initially serving the lowly role of deckhand, Garland saw his career in the company begin on board the HMS Anglesey, one of the company's largest freight ships. According to the ship's log, from 1724 – 1726, the Anglesey made three voyages: two to West Africa and one to India. During a second voyage to India in early 1727, Garland, now a captain's aide, had his first-run in with piracy. On March 8, 70 miles off the coast of Madagascar, the Anglesey was boarded by a gang of notorious Malagasy pirates. Because the company ship was ill-equipped to deal with pirates, little resistance was made against the pirates – though two company soldiers were killed amidst the chaos. Badly damaged and stripped of all cargo and valuables, the Anglesey was forced first to seek repairs at Cape Town before returning to Portsmouth, its port of call.

Arrival in the Caribbean
From July 1727 to February 1728, Garland, now 18, worked a desk job in the Company headquarters in London. Elias, recently returned from garrison duty in Calcutta, attempted to persuade his brother to enlist in the Royal Navy and begin his military career. Reluctant to leave the Company, Jeremiah Garland decided instead to join the Company's Presidency Armies, a colonial military force directly under the EITC's control. He enlisted February 11 into the 9th Company Rifles, a regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Frederic Stratham.

That summer, the regiment saw its first assignment in the form of combatting the growing trend of piracy primarily in the West Indies. The regiment sailed for Port Royal, Jamaica, that year, where Garland – now a corporal – would be stationed in the nearby Fort Charles. As fate would have it, Elias Garland's own unit, the 44th Royal Marine Division, was relocated to the Caribbean as well, stationed on the nearby island of Nevis.

Lieutenant Colonel Stratham, famously nicknamed "the Pirate Hunter" was renowned throughout the Spanish Main for his dedication to tracking down and executing top pirates in the Caribbean; it was he who captured and sentenced to death the notorious Calico Jack. Thus, the 9th Company Rifles too dedicated itself to routing out piracy from the Caribbean. In the summer of 1729, the regiment set out on a three-month trek to hunt down Captain Hector Barbossa. Garland, since promoted to sergeant, accompanied Stratham on the mission, leaving his guard post at Port Royal. Stratham and his men managed to track Barbossa to an uncharted island off of Cuba, but following a brief yet intense skirmish with the Pirate Lord's crew, Barbossa managed to escape.

At the start of 1730, Garland was briefly reassigned to Padres del Fuego – a volcanic island sitting on the unstable fringes of Britain's maritime frontier – splitting his time between overseeing the main garrison at Fort Dundee and patrolling the cavernous mines of Beckett's Quarry. Due to both the high rate of piracy in the island's vicinity, and the likelihood of a Spanish invasion, the British garrison on Padres del Fuego was larger than normal; Elias Garland was briefly reassigned here as well, reuniting the two brothers.

Capturing the Black Pearl
In November of 1730, Stratham once more set out on a pirate hunt, and once more Garland was assigned to his division. This time the division's target was the notorious Jack Sparrow, a Pirate Lord and captain of the legendary Black Pearl. After capturing and interrogating Sparrow's first mate Joshamee Gibbs on Tortuga, Stratham, Garland, and a handful of other men from the division set out on board a fourty-two gunned frigate the HMS St George, and the smaller twenty-eight gunned brig the HMS Duke of Essex, to intercept the Black Pearl, anchored off of Isla Tormenta. Garland sailed on the former ship, under the command of Captain Stratham.

In the early hours of the morning on November 9, the St George and the Duke of Essex came upon the Pearl, floating in the shallow waters as Gibbs had reported. The Pearl's nightwatch having spotted the two approaching British vessels, the cursed ship set full sail as means to escape. A lengthy chase occurred. Captain Stratham was aware he would normally not be able to match the Pearl's superior speed and catch her; however, fortunately for the EITC, a southerly wind hindered the Pearl's escape. An intense battle between the Pearl and the two Company warships ensued.

Though the Duke of Essex took considerable damage in the firefight, the Pearl could not take on both ships at once, and was subject to a crushing broadside from the St George. Seeing all hope was lost, and deciding it best to abandon ship as a last ditch effort to escape, Sparrow ordered his crew into the dinghies and left the Pearl for the British soldiers. The British ships damaged from the battle and the crewmen exhausted, Stratham decided not to pursue the Pirate Lord, but rather jump on the opportunity to seize the ''Pearl. He gave Garland the distinguished honour of sailing the Black Pearl ''back to Port Royal. From there it was relocated a week later to an unknown British naval fort complex, where it was placed under heavy security, the fort's harbour guarded by the massive HMS Goliath.