At Portsmouth, the vessel was repainted; at Amsterdam, she was painted anew. Her French master, Peter Tartoue, was no longer able to reclaim his ship: he had been cast into the sea alongside his chief mate. Philip Roche, the man to whom he had entrusted the watch whilst he slept, now commanded the survivors. The cargo was disposed of, and a fresh passenger took passage without inkling of the fate that had befallen the ship’s former occupants. The chronicle of Roche thus opens upon a betrayed confidence; it was to conduct the new captain to Execution Dock, where he was hanged for piracy on 14 August 1723, being then about thirty years of age.
His father, likewise named Philip Roche, dwelt in Ireland in modest circumstances. He afforded his son the rudiments of reading and writing, then sent him to sea. The young man made several voyages along the Irish coast and sailed once or twice to Barbados. Frugal and industrious, he gathered sufficient means to become mate aboard a merchant vessel bound for Nantes. This station permitted him to venture upon private trade; he earned enough thereby to establish himself among seafaring men. The chronicle depicts him at this juncture as well on the way to that competence which his honest labor might in time have secured him.
This steady advancement did not content him. He fell in with Neal, an Irish fisherman, and Pierce Cullen, whom Neal recommended to him as confederates. The account characterizes Neal as bold and violent, while presenting Cullen as the man more capable of carrying their designs into execution. According to Neal’s own relation, he and Cullen had previously had a hand in the scuttling of a ship insured in London and Amsterdam. Their scheme of recovering the insurance miscarried because Cullen was already known or suspected of a similar villainy. The London underwriters caused Cullen to be arrested and tried rather than paying out the expected sums. This mischance ruined the projects of both men.
Cullen brought his brother into their knot and, after much solicitation, prevailed likewise upon Francis Wise. They resolved to make prize of some light vessel, and subsequently to exchange her, if opportunity offered, for a craft of greater force. Their choice fell upon the ship of Peter Tartoue, a French captain noted for his open-handed nature. Roche and his associates related to him a pitiable tale of misfortune; Tartoue received them on board and, relying upon Roche’s seamanship, occasionally entrusted him with the direction of the vessel.
One night, Tartoue and his chief mate were at rest with the remainder of the French crew. None remained upon deck save a man and a boy. Roche commanded them aloft to furl the sails. He then assembled his Irish confederates upon the quarterdeck. Francis Wise hesitated. Roche threatened those who should refuse their aid in ridding the ship of the French and in repairing the losses the company claimed to have suffered at sea; to those who obeyed, he promised an equal share of the booty. The butchery then commenced. The boy was thrown overboard; the mariner who had accompanied him was slain upon the deck. Those of the French who came up on hearing the tumult were attacked in their turn. Tartoue and his mate were bound and cast over the side, despite their entreaties to be allowed time for prayer. Not a soul was spared.
These acts of violence accomplished, the Irishmen went below into the cabin, broached the rum, and refreshed themselves before searching the vessel. They took from the chests whatever appeared of use. Their design was to make for the West Indies with a more suitable ship and thereafter to subsist upon prizes taken from other craft. For the present, they put into Portsmouth, caused the hull to be repainted, and set sail for Amsterdam. Roche was acknowledged as captain by the rest of the company, who engaged to obey him in their future undertakings.
At Amsterdam, they caused the ship to be repainted a second time and began the sale of Tartoue’s cargo, trusting thereby to efface every vestige of their capture. They then took aboard a lading of goods for England on account of a Mr. Annesley, who embarked as a passenger. The night following his arrival, when a brisk gale was blowing, the pirates dragged him from his bed and flung him into the sea. Annesley offered to yield up all his merchandise if they would but take him back on board, declaring that he possessed friends and substance in England sufficient to repair the loss. Roche and Cullen were in the great cabin. According to the narrative, they returned no answer to his supplications. Having divided the plunder, they shaped their course for England.
Intelligence of their crimes had already reached the authorities. After their arrival, Roche wrote to his wife. The letter was intercepted at the post-office, and a messenger was dispatched to apprehend him. Brought before the Council, he denied being Philip Roche and protested that he knew no person of that name. Letters written in his own hand to his wife were produced against him, whereupon he could no longer persist in that denial. The chronicler marks this falsehood as the first collapse of the defense he would endeavor to maintain.
The authorities subsequently tendered him his life upon one condition: that he furnish information leading to the apprehension and conviction of three of his accomplices. Roche failed to satisfy this stipulation and gave no testimony against them. Such of his confederates as were taken remained in custody. Neal died in the Marshalsea, where he had petitioned in vain for the restoration of a chest containing apparel, money, and other goods seized in Ireland. The chronicler affirms that these effects proceeded from the plunder of the murdered crew. He regards the deaths of Neal and the others as visitations of Providence, recording severe hemorrhages; the precise medical causes are not supplied in the account.
In Newgate, Roche was a constant attendant at chapel. His penmanship likewise enabled him to assist his fellow prisoners in drawing up letters and writing upon various matters. Some persons concluded from this deportment that he could not be the perpetrator of the bloody outrages laid to his charge. Roche took advantage of this favorable impression to advance an altered version of events. He alleged that a quarrel had arisen between an Irishman and a Frenchman aboard the vessel; that Tartoue had taken the part of his own countrymen and threatened to have the Irishman whipped, though he was innocent. From this circumstance, he claimed, a general fray ensued, wherein the Irishmen, proving the stronger, threw the French overboard in the heat of passion. This line of defense attributed the deaths to an unpremeditated affray, whereas the earlier relation set forth a deliberate capture executed under Roche’s command.
During his confinement, Roche was informed that Neal was dead. He observed that it was a just judgment upon one who had lived in blood, as the chronicler records. When told that another confederate had taken poison, Roche lamented that a wicked life should find such an end. He professed a desire to submit himself to Providence, adding that he had rather die by the most ignominious sentence than add self-murder to his other sins. Several of his accomplices perished in prison before the Admiralty held its appointed sessions. Roche now conceived himself secure, being persuaded that no living witness remained to testify against him. He accordingly pressed for his trial.
At the bar, he appeared less perturbed than many men in his desperate situation. The chronicler imputes to him this calculation: that the evidence would prove insufficient to convict him of murder, though he could not hope to be acquitted of piracy. This distinction accounts for his bearing before the court, which arose from no acknowledgment of the killings. After sentence of death was pronounced, Roche declared that he was of the Church of Rome and could no longer attend the services of the Church of England in the chapel. He still flattered himself that the offer of mercy made him at the outset of the inquiry would screen him, notwithstanding his failure to deliver the required intelligence.
When the messenger returned from Hanover bearing the order for his execution, Roche was deeply moved. He protested against the hardship of being included in the dead-warrant after having received a promise of life. The chronicle observes that this promise had been tethered to conditions he had never fulfilled. He arrived at Execution Dock faint, bewildered, and incapable of addressing the concourse or even those who stood nearest him. The resolution he had displayed within the prison walls had vanished; the chronicler lays stress upon his profound dejection. The account records no dying confession: it leaves him under his condemnation for piracy, his denials touching the murders, and the conditional offer of grace he had failed to redeem.