One Piece: Real Life Pirates - Supernovas & Grand Fleet Edition

One Piece is a long manga, running more than one thousand chapters with hundreds and hundreds of characters. And with so many characters, it's actually kind of fun to go back and look at who the real-life inspirations of these fictional characters are. For the most part, One Piece just borrows their names and maybe a couple facets of their appearances... but it's kind of fun to take a brief look into the various real-life pirates that have inspired these characters. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and we'll be focusing mostly on the Worst Generation and members of the Straw Hats' Grand Fleet here, since they are the ones that come immediately to mind. There's a lot of inspiration that One Piece borrows from real life -- after Wano is over, I'll probably do a piece talking about Japanese folk-tales like Momotaro or Susano'o, which inspires many aspects of the Wano arc and the original three Marine Admirals. There are also a bunch of others (like Magellan, Kuma and 'Calico' Yorki) who I can immediaetly think of that are based on real-life people... but let's keep it simple and talk mostly about the Supernovas and the Straw Hat Grand Fleet!

Blackbeard,  Whitebeard & Thatch

So here's probably the most famous real-life pirate, at least in cultural media. The real-life Captain Blackbeard, whose real name was Edward Teach. I'm not going too in-depth into the history of these real-life people or we'll be here all day, but in short, he's an English pirate who roamed around the West Indies on his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, notably blockading the port of Charles Town. He was infamous for his thick, black beard and the fact that he lit slow-burning fuses under his hat to add to his fearsome appearance. He lived from 1680 to 1718, where he was killed by the British Royal Navy. Now I'm pretty sure a lot of Blackbeard's acts are exaggerated after his death, as is done to many, many other historical people, but I'm pretty sure having a very catchy cool name and being known for his fearsome gravitas and appearance is why he's so popular and basically became one of the biggest inspirations for the modern-day pop culture image of a pirate. In fact, the fact that Edward Teach is known more as 'Blackbeard' is probably one of the reasons that One Piece puts so much of an emphasis on epithets and nicknames, too. 

The real-life Blackbeard inspired three characters in One Piece, all of them connected to each other in their backstory. The first and most obvious one is, well, Blackbeard himself, whose real name is Marshall D. Teach. In addition to being based on the most archetypal, raggedy look of a pirate, One Piece's Blackbeard borrows the historical Blackbeard's last name (Teach). Blackbeard's similarly-nicknamed former mentor, Whitebeard, borrows the historical Blackbeard's first name -- Edward Newgate. A third character that's involved in both of their backstory, fourth division commander Thatch (who Blackbeard killed to get his devil fruit), borrows his name from the historical Blackbeard's alternate name, Edward Thatch. 

Also to note, Whitebeard's last name, Newgate, is taken from Newgate Prison in London, where many pirates were interred back during the real world's golden age of piracy, including Captain Kidd and many members of the crew of Henry Every (the real-life man who is called "Pirate King").

Gol D. Roger

Since we mentioned "King of the Pirates", we might as well as toss in Gol D. Roger in here as well. The name 'Roger' is honestly most likely just taken from the Jolly Roger, a term used to refer to a pirate ship's skull-and-crossbones, but the title 'Pirate King' is likely drawn from the historical pirate Henry Every (1659 - approx. 1696), also known as Henry Avery, Jack Avery or John Avery. Every was given the title "King of the Pirates" or "Arch Pirate" because of his skill in piracy, infamous for being able to escape with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle. Every's most famous deed was to raid a 25-ship convoy of Grand Mughal vessels and escaped unscathed, making him the richest pirate in the world and souring the relationship between England and the Mughal Empire. Various members of Every's crew was captured after the massive manhunt caused by this event, but Captain Every himself disappeared to quietly live the rest of his life somewhere, and the treasures he stole and where he died was not known to the world. Every's actions had inspired the next generation of pirates, which includes the historical Blackbeard. 

...which isn't what happened to One Piece's Gol D. Roger! Roger surrendered and got executed, but not before he yells to the world about his treasure, the One Piece, kickstarting a golden age of piracy. This is inspired by a different pirate's death, Captain Olivier Levasseur. When Captain Levasseur was about to be executed by hanging, he tossed a necklace with a mysterious cryptogram on it into the crowd, yelling 'find my treasure, those who may understand it'. This seems to have inspired multiple things in One Piece -- Roger's final act, as well as the Poneglyphs. 

Eustass "Captain" Kid

Another one who is one of the more famous names in piracy that often crops up in media is William Kidd, often-times known as simply 'Captain Kidd'. Born in 1655 and died in 1701, William Kidd was a sailor-turned-privateer who was infamous for his brutality not only to those he fought, but also to his own crew. Again, as with most of the reports on these historical figures, there has been a fair amount of questioning just how much of these records are accurate. Kidd's career is noted to be bloody and filled with mutiny, and at the end of his career he had to evade both the British Navy as well as mutinous former members of his crew. Ultimately, Kidd was lured by promises of clemency, captured, and ultimately hanged. The rope famously snapped the first time Kidd was hanged, which some took to be a sign from God that Captain Kidd was unjustly tried and his brutality exaggerated. Captain Kidd also famously left behind some buried treasure, which is probably one of the major sources for that particular trope in pirate fiction. 

In One Piece, Eustass "Captain" Kid not only shares the supposed brutality of the historical Captain Kidd, but also his famous nickname, which is just 'Captain'. His first name, Eustass, is probably based on the medieval-era pirate Eustace the Monk, a privateer that intermittently worked for England and later France, and is reported to know black magic. 

Urouge

Speaking of monks... well, Urouge is most certainly based on Japanese monks, and his epithet of 'Mad Monk' has been speculated to be based on either Grigori Rasputin from Russia or the legend of Ji Gong the Mad Monk from China. His name, however, is based on Oruç Reis (1474-1518), an Ottoman seaman who later joined the Ottoman Empire, raiding various ships of other countries. He is well-known for transporting large numbers of Morisco, Muslim and Jewish refugees from Spain to the safe lands of North Africa. Due to how he became widely known as Baba Oruç (Father Oruç), pronunciation of his name in Spain, France and Italy ended up changing it to Barbarossa, or 'Redbeard'. 

X-Drake

X-Drake is based on Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), an English privateer, sea captain and slave trader. Sir Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition that took place from 1577 to 1580. Drake's exploits in exploring the previously exclusively-Spanish-controlled Pacific Ocean would cause an era of conflict between England and Spain over the western coast of what is now the Americas. While known as a hero to the English, his privateering made him a wanted pirate to the Spanish, who dubbed him El Draque. Drake was also famous for burying much of his treasure. Drake is one of the more famous pirates in real life, in no small part due to how he is viewed as a hero by the British in his day. Various locations in Chile, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada are named after Drake.

Basil Hawkins

Basil Hawkins drew his name from two pirates. "Basil" came from Basil Ringrose, an English buccaneer who was most famous for his creation of extensive sea charts from his two voyages to sea. "Hawkins" comes from Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595), a naval commander, privateer and administrator who was famous for promoting the 'triangle trade', selling supplies to colonies that were ill-supplied by their home countries, and promoting the slave trade at the time. John Hawkins was also the mentor and second cousin to Francis Drake, who we talked about above. He was instrumental in the design of faster and more durable ships in the many conflicts that the British had against the Spanish Armada, and was instrumental as a wartime leader. 

Again, to note is that not a lot of these One Piece characters drew much from their real-life inspirations other than their names, except for maybe Kid. The historical Francis Drake most certainly does not have anything to do with allosaurs, and the historical John Hawkins probably wasn't able to transform into a giant voodoo scarecrow. 

Jewelry Bonney

Women don't do much in terms of sailing or pirating or privateering back in the day, so the two that actually did so were pretty famous and often crops up in any book about piracy. Jewelry Bonney is based on one of the two most famous ones, Anne Bonny (1697-1733), an Irish pirate that operated in the Caribbean. Meeting and falling in love with the pirate Calico Jack Rackham, Bonny abandoned her legal husband James Bonny and went on board Calico Jack's ship, becoming his lover. Anne Bonny disguised herself as a man on the ship, alongside fellow female pirate Mary Read. Only the two women and the captain knew of the two female pirates' true gender. Rackham's crew was ultimately captured when most of the crew was drunk, and it was reported that Bonny and Read fought more bravely than Rackham. Both women pleaded clemency due to their pregnancy, and their execution was delayed, but apparently they died in prison. 

Scratchmen Apoo

Apoo is based on the 19th century Qing Chinese pirate Chui A-Poo, a pirate commander that had a fleet of 50 junk ships in the South China Sea, being one of the most notorious pirates in that era. He would ultimately have his massive fleet sunk by British and Chinese warships in Bias Bay, east of Hong Kong. A-poo was able to initially escape, but with the massive losses done to his crew (some 400 men were killed), the rest of A-poo's crew betrayed him to the British authorities. A-poo was supposed to be sentenced to exile on an island, but he hung himself in his cell before it could be carried out. 

Trafalgar Law

Trafalgar Law is interesting among the Worst Generation because his name isn't based on a person, but a place -- Cape Trafalgar, a headland in South-Western Spain. The most famous battle that happened there was in 1805, where the Royal Navy of England led by Admiral Horatio Nelson soundly defeated Napoleon Bonaparte's combined Spanish and French fleet. The second part of Law's name, "Water Law", is also likely a reference to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the battle that was the final defeat of Napoleon and marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. 

Law's crew in One Piece famously used a submarine, a piece of technology that so far has only been displayed by Law's crew and one of the mini-vehicles the Straw Hats used. This is kind of a pun; the British Royal Navy has a type of submarine called the Trafalgar-Class Submarine. 

Capone Bege

Bege is another interesting one, because he's not based on a pirate! Not in the swashbuckling kind we think of, at any rate. Capone borrows his first name and the whole vibe on Italian mafioso, particularly the pop culture version popularized by the novel and movie The Godfather. One of Bege's crew, Vito, draws his name from Don Vito Corleone, one of the main characters of that novel. Capone's first name is taken from Al Capone, full name Alphonse Gabriel Capone and more popularly known by his nickname Scarface. Al Capone was born in 1899 and died in 1947, and was a notorious American gangster and a notorious crime boss who rose up the ranks of the gangs and mobs of the time. While initially popular with the masses and styling himself as a 'modern-day Robin Hood', some rather public massacres, most notably the St. Valentine's Day Massacre where Capone caused the murder of seven gang rivals in broad daylight, caused the government to crack down on Al Capone. He was ultimately and famously charged and convicted of tax evasion.

Cavendish

Well, this is a bit longer than I thought it'd be, but I'll briefly go through the members of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. Fortunately not all of them are based on real pirates. Cavendish is, though, borrowing his name from Sir Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592), an English privateer and explorer famously known as 'the Navigator'. Inspired by Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish planned to also circumnavigate the globe, and also set off to raid and pillage Spanish towns in his way. He famously captured a massive galleon during his first voyage, but died at sea during his second one due to unspecified reasons. 

Just to add an extra layer to this, Cavendish and Hakuba's whole 'evil sleep personality' thing is likely to be inspired by the famous horror novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The climax of that novel takes place in Cavendish Square, London.     

Bartolomeo

Bartolomeo is named after the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (1450-1500), a nobleman who was the first European to sail to the Southernmost tip of the continent of Africa. He would discover what is now known as the Cape of Good Hope, and eventually lead to the setting up of trade routes from Europe to Asia. While Bartolomeu Dias was instrumental in the original exploration and voyage, he would perish near the Cape of Good Hope during his second voyage. 

Orlumbus

Obviously, Orlumbus is based on Christophorus Columbus (1451-1506, anglicised as Christopher Columbus), the Italian explorer and navigator who completed multiple voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, which opened the way for the European colonization of the Americas. He landed in the Americas while trying to establish a trade route to the East Indies, and he was one of the people responsible for calling the Native Americans the term 'Indians', having believed that he had landed in India. His expeditions would eventually lead to a period of exploration, conquest and colonization that would shape the modern Western world. One of the most well-known figures from his period of time, in recent years Columbus has came under greater scrutiny due to his brutality -- and, as noted many times in this article, the extent of his deeds have been blurred by history and time. 

One Piece's Orlumbus is named so because... well, Columbus is read as 'Koronbusu' in Japanese, with 'ko' meaning small. Orlumbus has 'ou' as part of his name, meaning big. He's a big Columbus! Later on in the series we learn that Orlumbus has a 'Columbus' in his crew, and just like the ou/ko comparison, One Piece's Columbus is a tiny girl. Likewise, Orlumbus's fleet is called the Yonta Maria Fleet, a homage to one of the historical Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria. 'San' means three in Japanese, and 'Yon' means four in Japanese. 

Hajrudin

Unlike most of the Supernovas, we haven't had any real confirmation on whether these names are accurate, but hey! Hajrudin seems pretty much to borrow his name from Hayreddin Barbarossa (1478-1546), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha or Hızır Reis. Hayreddin is the younger brother to the original Barbarossa, Oruç Reis (who One Piece's Urouge is based on) and inherited the title of Barbarossa from his brother. He and his three brothers all became seamen, though the one to achieve the biggest success was Oruç. Khizr served under his brother's ship for years, but his two elder brothers were ultimately killed in combat against the Spaniards when they served under the Ottoman Empire. Khizr would continue as a leader of the Ottoman Navy, ultimately rising into the rank of Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) and given the honorary name Hayreddin (from the Arabic Khayr ad-Din, meaning 'goodness of the faith'). He has a long and recorded history as a leader of the Ottoman Navy, and his efforts would establish Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean region. 

Suleiman

Many people are called Suleiman in history (including the Ottoman Sultan that Hayreddin Barbarossa served under), but the most well-known pirate is Suleyman Reis. He was born Ivan Dirkie de Veenboer  and was a Dutch corsair that went from being a privateer into piracy. He was active mostly in the Barbary Coast. Later, he would convert into Islam and renamed himself as Suleyman Reis, and flew the colours of Algiers. He would ultimately be killed in combat after encountering a naval squadron consisting of Dutch, French and English warships. 

Not all the Straw Hat Grand Fleet members are based on real-life pirates. The Happo Navy and the Tontattas aren't based on any real-life seamen, while Ideo is based on... the robot from the 80's anime Space Runaway Ideon. Abdullah and Jeet, meanwhile, borrow their names from professional wrestlers Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh. Abdullah the Butcher in particular has been used as the basis of other manga/anime characters, like Mr. Heart from Fist of the North Star. 

And that's more or less about it for this time around! I'll maybe do a follow-up to this starring the other One Piece characters based on real-life pirates, though there are a lot of this (like Lip Doughty) that are just minor pirates. I do have a couple that I kind of want to do about One Piece, like a list of the puns in Zoro's techniques or something... we'll see.