Spending nearly his entire seafaring career in the Caribbean, wild tales of adventure swirl around the real life Morgan from 1655, his first noted appearance in the area, up until his death in 1688. One of the most intriguing mysteries concerning this hard living, sword-fighting sailor of the seven seas is how he actually came to be in the Caribbean. One particularly dashing story involves Morgan actually being shanghaied and sent on a boat against his will to become an indentured servant in the Americas.
When Oliver Cromwell, then the Puritan leader of England, sent an army to the island where Morgan was enslaved, Henry escaped his captors and threw in his lot with Cromwell’s army in their battle against the Spanish. Regardless of how he started on his life upon the sea, Morgan definitely made a name for himself, a true terror of the oceans in the eyes of the Spanish fleets and a raucous hero to his own countrymen. Knighted in 1675, Morgan held several government positions on the island of Jamaica.
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