John Ward or Birdy ( 1553 – 1622), also known as Jack Ward or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English-Ottoman pirate who later became a Barbary Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century. According to writer Giles Milton, Jack Sparrow, of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, was inspired by the seventeenth-century English pirate Jack Ward. Biography Early life What little is known about Ward's early life comes from a pamphlet purportedly written by someone who sailed with him during his pirate days. Ward seems to have been born about 1553, probably in Faversham, Kent, in southeast England. Like many born in coastal areas, he spent his youth and early adult years working in the fisheries. After the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588, Ward found work as a privateer, plundering Spanish ships with a license from Queen Elizabeth I of England. When James I of England ended the war with Spain upon assuming the throne in 1603, many privateers refused to give up their livelihood and simply continued to plunder. Those who did were considered pirates because they no longer had valid licenses – called letters of marque – issued by the state. Around 1604, Ward was allegedly pressed into service on a ship sailing under the authority of the King (the Royal Navy had yet to become a formal institution), where he was placed in the Channel Fleet and served aboard a ship named the Lyon's Whelp. Turn to piracy According to Andrew Barker, a captive of Ward's who wrote A True & Accurate Account of the beginning, proceedings, overthrows, and now present estate of Captain Ward and Danseker, Ward was drinking in a Plymouth tavern with thirty of his shipmates. He is alleged to have said: Ward and his colleagues deserted and stole a small 25-ton barque from Portsmouth Harbour. Ward's comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader. They sailed to the Isle of Wight and captured another ship, the Violet, a ship rumored to be carrying the treasure of Roman Catholic refugees. The ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Ward used her to capture a much larger French ship. Ward and his men sailed for the Mediterranean where he was able to acquire a Dutch Flyboat of thirty-two guns, which