@SimpleStacker's post sent me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out who wrote the original pirate code. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a Portuguese fellow, Bartolomeu Português!
Bartholomew Portugues was a Portuguese buccaneer who raided the Spanish Main in the late 1660's. He was also one of the founding pirates of the fabled pirate code that was later used by the 18th century outlaw pirates such as John Phillips, Edward Low and Bartholomew Roberts. At least these were the only surviving codes, it was rumored nearly everyone except Charles Vane had a code.Reputed to arrive in the Caribbean in the early 1660's, Bartholomew operated much as many other buccaneers did in the late 1660's such as Francois L'Ollonais and raided the Spanish off the coast of New Spain between the years of 1666 and 1669.Eventually he captured a large Spanish galleon off the coast of near Cape Coriente, Cuba using a small sloop with 4 cannons and a crew of thirty men. The ship was traveling from Maracaibo and Cartagena de Indias to Havana and was equipped with twenty state of the art cannons and 70 crew. The pirates tried attacking the ship but were initially pushed back. The pirates tried again and after a brutal assault that left his crew numbered in half, the buccaneers emerged victorious.