Calico Jack commanded the sloop William when he was captured in 1720.
John Rackham, better known as Calico Jack, seized the William in the Bahamas after escaping aboard another vessel. The sloop became associated with his final period of piracy, during which Anne Bonny and Mary Read were members of his crew.
In October 1720, the privateer Jonathan Barnet attacked the William near Jamaica. Rackham and most of his crew were reportedly drunk and offered little resistance. Barnet brought the pirates to Jamaica, where Rackham was tried and executed at Port Royal in November 1720.
The William is often confused with other ships linked to Rackham, especially the Ranger. Ship names changed frequently during the period because pirates captured, renamed, and refitted vessels. The distinctive crossed-swords flag commonly associated with Calico Jack is also a later visual tradition, although historical accounts connect his flag with a skull and crossed swords.