Thomas Tew lived in Newport, Rhode Island, with a wife and two daughters before moving to Bermuda in 1691. In 1692 he took a letter of marque from the governor of Bermuda and, with local investors behind him, sailed the 70-ton sloop Amity, with eight guns and 46 men, alongside George Dew to destroy a French factory in the Gambia. A storm separated the ships; Dew was dismasted and later arrested by the Dutch. Alone at sea, Tew put piracy to his crew as a proposal, and they agreed and elected a quartermaster to check the captain's power. In late 1693 in the Red Sea they took an Indian dhow bound for the Ottoman Empire without casualties, worth 100,000 pounds in gold and silver before the ivory, spices and silk.
Each man received between 1,200 and 3,000 pounds and Tew about 8,000, and when he wanted to chase the rest of the convoy the crew outvoted him and sailed home by way of Madagascar. Back in Newport by April 1694, he befriended New York's governor, Benjamin Fletcher, then bought a new commission and sailed again in November 1694. At the Bab-el-Mandeb in 1695 he found Henry Avery's Fancy and other captains drawn by his success, and in September the combined fleet chased a 25-ship Mughal convoy. Attacking a ship believed to be the Fateh Muhammad, Tew was disemboweled by a cannon shot and his crew surrendered.
The black flag with an arm holding a sword, long linked to Tew, is a 20th-century invention.
His crew reportedly answered his piracy pitch with "a gold chain or a wooden leg, we'll stand with you."
Colonial officials welcomed pirate gold because British mercantile policy left the colonies short of hard currency.
Joseph Farrow, Thomas Wake, William May and Richard Want joined Avery at the strait for the second voyage.
The Mughal emperor threatened to expel the East India Company, and William Kidd was sent to hunt the culprits without knowing Tew was dead.
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