Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Captain Johnson sparks a media storm
- 2 The day pirates attacked the Morning Star
- 3 A pirate bargain – women and sexual violence at sea
- 4 Pirates of the 1820s
- 5 On the Defensor de Pedro
- 6 Cashing in
- 7 The pirates on trial
- 8 The pirates who came next
- Epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
8 - The pirates who came next
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Captain Johnson sparks a media storm
- 2 The day pirates attacked the Morning Star
- 3 A pirate bargain – women and sexual violence at sea
- 4 Pirates of the 1820s
- 5 On the Defensor de Pedro
- 6 Cashing in
- 7 The pirates on trial
- 8 The pirates who came next
- Epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
As Benito de Soto and the pirates of the Defensor de Pedro traversed the Atlantic raiding ships, at least another four raiders were busily following in their wake. Two out of these four were never apprehended, so very little is known about them. One was believed to be an American pirate who spoke Spanish and operated between St Helena and the Brazilian coast around May 1828. He was allegedly responsible for attacks and murders on the British ships Clorinda, Cumberland, George Canning and Eliza, plus two unnamed Portuguese vessels. The other pirate operated further north around the Western Islands (Azores). He was reported to be using Colombian and Buenos Ayres colours and ‘attacking every vessel’. Lloyd's reports deemed him responsible for attacks on Caroline, Bustard, Vine and an unnamed Spanish privateer. There is no indication of his nationality.
The two who were caught were first mentioned in Chapter 6: Captain Taylor and Captain Buysan. Their trials provide an example of a fundamental development in piracy history that occurred in the nineteenth century: the divergence of American piracy law away from the centuries-old precedents set by British law. Joseph Lazaro Buysan, the captain of Las Damas Argentinas, and William Taylor, captain of the Federal, both stood trial for piracy for overstepping their privateering commissions from Buenos Ayres. However, they faced very different consequences.
The British took Buysan, a Spaniard, to British-owned St Christopher Island (St Kitts) for his attack on the neutral British-flagged Carraboo near the Canary Islands. Taylor, an American, was captured by American naval captain Daniel Turner near St Eustatius. Captain Turner took him to newly acquired Florida for prosecution under American piracy law.
Buysan, a former Spanish naval officer, became a privateer for Buenos Ayres in 1826 by taking over the commission of the Spanish brig Bolivar. He then renamed the ship Las Damas Argentinas and legitimately took five Portuguese vessels and a Spanish brig. Then his greed overtook him and he began raiding any ship he encountered, regardless of nationality or neutrality. Lloyd's held Buysan responsible for additional attacks on two British, one Dutch and one American vessel around the Canary Islands in the first half of 1828. He took the British-flagged Carraboo in July.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Atlantic Piracy in the Early Nineteenth CenturyThe Shocking Story of the Pirates and the Survivors of the Morning Star, pp. 149 - 173Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022