Jack Rackham) turned pirate again, capturing a Jamaican sloop. Vane sailed back to Nassau and harassed Pearse repeatedly, trading their sloop for the Lark. Vane left Nassau on 4 April; four days later Pearse left with HMS Phoenix, and Nassau was again controlled by the pirates. After leaving Nassau, Vane raided ships around the Bahamas. He gained a reputation for cruelty; he and his crew would often beat or torture captured sailors to force them to surrender their valuables. Around this time Vane's crew renamed the Lark, calling it the Ranger. Vane cruised again in May and June, capturing, among other ships, a twenty-gun French ship that became Vane's new flagship. Vane was back at Nassau on 22 July 1718 when Woodes Rogers reached Nassau to take office as the new governor. Rogers' ships trapped Vane in the harbor; Vane's ship was too large to pass one of the harbor's two entrances, and the other was blocked by Rogers' fleet. That night, Vane turned the French ship into a fireship, setting it on fire and sailing it towards Rogers' ships. The fireship failed to damage any of Rogers' fleet except one, but the ships were forced to pull away, unblocking the channel. Vane commandeered a small 24 gun sloop, the Katherine, and escaped out the smaller entrance as Rogers' ships returned. Vane took ships off the Bahamas in July, working with Charles Yeats, the original captain of the Katherine. A brigantine that Vane captured became his new flagship. In August he sailed to Charleston and took eight ships there. After seizing a slave ship, he put the slaves aboard Yeats' ship; Yeats sailed off with the slaves and surrendered to the governor of South Carolina in exchange for a pardon. The merchants of Charleston outfitted two sloops to hunt Vane, under the command of William Rhett. Rhett failed to find Vane, but his ships located and captured the pirate Stede Bonnet. In August Vane careened his ship near Abaco, where his accomplice Nicholas Woodall smuggled him supplies and ammunition. Hornigold had turned pirate-hunter along with his associate John Cockram and followed Vane, who escaped; Hornigold and Cockram instead captured Woodall, who was imprisoned by Rogers. Vane returned to Nassau in September to marry, threatening to retake the city. In October Vane sailed to Ocracoke Inlet, and met with Blackbeard, perhaps attempting to convince Blackbeard to join forces with him; the