Benjamin Hornigold

Benjamin Hornigold (c. 1680–1719) was an English pirate of the Bahamas. From 1713 he raided shipping off New Providence and helped make Nassau a self-styled Republic of Pirates.

By 1717 he commanded the thirty-gun sloop Ranger and had made Edward Teach, later Blackbeard, his second-in-command. After he refused to rob British ships, his crew voted him from command. In December 1718 he took the King's Pardon from Governor Woodes Rogers and hunted former comrades until a hurricane wrecked his ship on a reef in 1719.