Charles Ellms, Pirate Story-teller

Although Charles Ellms’s print house no longer stands today, in the first half of the nineteenth century, 91 Cornhill Street would have found his presses hard at work. Born on June 21, in 1805, on the south shores of Massachusetts Bay, Charles Ellms had one older sibling. His father died in 1813, when he, holding a young Charles, was struck by lightning.[1] Shortly thereafter, Ellms moved to Boston for schooling and determined to follow his inclination for literature rather than join the merchant marines.

Before he composed books, however, Ellms worked as a Boston Stationer (someone who sold books and paper), likely with a printer named Samuel N. Dickinson.[2] Eventually Ellms started writing comic almanacs, which were used by farmers to figure out moon cycles and how long days would be. In addition to the astrological information, Ellms’s almanac offered stories, illustrations, and songs, including, in The American Comic Almanack for 1831, the sea song “Blow high, blow low.”[3] This mix of different items helped keep the reader engaged and looked forward to Ellms later efforts with two best-selling compilations of varied stories about the sea: the Pirates Own Book (1837) and Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (1841).

The Pirates Own Book, Or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers featured the piratical exploits of North American pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Blackbeard as well as Danish, Spanish, and English pirates. Each chapter has its own little story within it and the book was peppered with engravings. “The Adventures of Captain Robert Kidd,” for example, talked about how Captain Kidd was ruthless: “His piracies so alarmed our merchants that some motions were made in parliament, to inquire into the commission that was given him, and the persons who fitted him out.”[4] (Kidd’s given name was William but changed to Robert through popular American ballads about Kidd.) Kidd took over ships, ransomed villages, and murdered people. He was tried for the murder of crewman and was eventually hanged in chains for all to see. Despite this humiliating end, Kidd maintained his innocence according to Ellms: Kidd “had been sworn against by perjured and wicked people. And when [his] sentence was pronounced, he said, ‘My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the most innocent person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.”[5] Although he did not include any accounts of slavers in his famous book, Ellms was an abolitionist and, as he said in the introduction to The Pirates Own Book, believed the slave trade to be piracy.[6]

Before he published any book, Ellms did intensive research, incorporating ideas from multiple sources into his write-ups to assure that the book he was publishing was accurate.[7] Along with his lucky timing, Ellms’s general accuracy helped make his books popular, provided an alternative take on adventures out in seas with shipwrecks and treasure which peaked people’s interest.

By the early 1840s Ellms was struggling with writing; he published three more books and then left Boston. Little is known about his subsequent life, though it is thought he died on March 13, 1866.[8] What is certain is that his memory lives on in the pirate stories that brought him fame and illustrate Boston’s long-standing fascination with pirates.

— Kaili Shorey

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[1] Michael Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs: Charles Ellms Packages Books in Nineteenth-Century America,” Printing History (Jan 2011): 3.
[2] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 8.
[3] Charles Ellms, American Comic Almanack for 1831 (Boston: Charles Ellms), 16.
[4] Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book. (Portland, ME: Francis Blake,1859), 348.
[5] Ellms, The Pirates Own Book, 375.
[6] Sonja Schillings, Enemies of All Humankind: Fictions of Legitimate Violence. (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 2017), 27.
[7] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 9.
[8] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 15.

Pictured: Title page of The Pirates Own Book (first edition, Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837; the pictured edition is from Maine and 1856, which shows the collection's popularity). Detail from The Pirates Own Book (first edition Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837). Title page of Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (compiled by Charles Ellms, 1839). Detail from Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (compiled by Charles Ellms, 1839).

**To go to Boston’s News Letter (Site 4), head south on South Market Street towards Congress Street. Take a left onto Congress Street. At the intersection of Congress and State Street, take a right onto State. Turn left onto Washington Street. At the corner of Washington St. and School St. the destination will be on your right.**