winstonebooks1@gmail.comHUNTING THE LAST GREAT PIRATE
Available from Winstone Books in Sherborne.
Details are: Telephone 01935 816128; email winstonebooks1@gmail.com and twitter: @winstonebooks
REVIEWS -
Hunting the Last Great Pirate by Michael E.A.Ford
Pen and Sword Books, 2020, pp.234
This is a story of crime and punishment - a savage attack on the unarmed Morning Star followed by the hunting down and bringing to justice of the perpetrators - but it is also a telling tale for our times, showing how politics, commercial interests and failed diplomacy created the conditions that led to the outrage and then impeded the search for justice.
In the 1820s a campaign by the US Navy drove pirates from the north Atlantic and Caribbean to the eastern seaboard of South America where they were well placed to prey on shipping returning from the Indies. The Royal Navy was in no position to provide much protection having lost over 1000 ships in defence cuts after the defeat of Napoleon; the East India Company had the resources to protect its own ships but less well-connected small traders were often left to shift for themselves.
Outrage at the rape of the Morning Star compelled the British authorities to act but the author reveals that they withheld vital information from the Spanish authorities for political and commercial reasons, and were duly paid back in the same coin. Even worse, both governments concealed evidence that could have secured justice for the crew of an American ship, the Topaz, every one of whom was murdered by the same pirates. Even so the pirates were soon caught, tried and executed, though their leader was only convicted after the authorities brought in a judge who was more compliant and less particular than his predecessor. As the author shows, justice and politics make poor bedfellows, then as now.
Hunting the Last Great Pirate by Michael E.A.Ford
Pen and Sword Books, 2020, pp.234
Benito de Soto was brutalised by conflict while still a child, became a pirate at thirteen, stole a ship and set up on his own before he was twenty and became infamous at the age of twenty-two. In February 1828 his ship was lurking off the British base on Ascension Island (which had lost its naval protection in defence cuts) and fell upon the Morning Star which was coming in to take on water. She was alone and unarmed - her owner and captain were both Quakers - and in short order she was stopped, boarded and pillaged, the women on board were raped and the captain and four others were shot dead. Astonishingly the attack took place in full view of a patrol of British marines on shore but there was nothing they could do. That night with the men locked below decks the pirates drilled holes in the ship’s hull and left it to its fate but they had not reckoned with the women who broke out of the cabin where they had been confined and freed the men. They plugged the holes and pumped out the hold but the ship was virtually unsailable and they were adrift for three weeks before being rescued 600 miles away off the coast of West Africa.
The outrage caused a huge public and political scandal but the two men who might be thought most responsible managed to escape without censure. Captain Archibald Hamilton was in command of the convoy which included the Morning Star but he went on ahead with the faster, armed East Indiamen leaving the laggard to her fate. And John Croker as First Secretary of the Admiralty had pushed through the defence cuts which left the south Atlantic sea lanes almost devoid of naval protection. The author builds a powerful case against the two men and the influence of the East India Company which helped protect them.
The real heroes of the book are the men who hunted down the pirates, not sailors or marines but insurance agents, consular officials, merchants and lawyers whose sharp eyes and diligence led to the identification, arrest and arraignment of the pirates after they landed in Spain to splash the cash and sell the loot. De Soto almost got off when a key witness failed to pick him out in an identity parade, but eventually the same witness claimed to recognise him from his height and posture and that was enough for a compliant judge, so justice of a sort was served.
This is an enthralling read, especially the later chapters dealing with the political and legal shenanigans where the author, a retired barrister, is clearly in his element. His characterisations can be pretty adversarial, like “complacent nabobs” or “ageing Lords of the Admiralty, clinging to their privileged posts”, but there’s no harm in adding a bit of ginger to the mix. And to the very end there is a mystery about this drama’s central character. One of the key sources is a detailed description by his oldest friend of all they went through together, but as the author remarks it “is striking how little one gleans about Benito de Soto himself”, even from his closest friend. He remains a hidden presence for us too, but this only adds to his story’s appeal.
Pen and Sword Books, 2020, pp.234
Benito de Soto was brutalised by conflict while still a child, became a pirate at thirteen, stole a ship and set up on his own before he was twenty and became infamous at the age of twenty-two. In February 1828 his ship was lurking off the British base on Ascension Island (which had lost its naval protection in defence cuts) and fell upon the Morning Star which was coming in to take on water. She was alone and unarmed - her owner and captain were both Quakers - and in short order she was stopped, boarded and pillaged, the women on board were raped and the captain and four others were shot dead. Astonishingly the attack took place in full view of a patrol of British marines on shore but there was nothing they could do. That night with the men locked below decks the pirates drilled holes in the ship’s hull and left it to its fate but they had not reckoned with the women who broke out of the cabin where they had been confined and freed the men. They plugged the holes and pumped out the hold but the ship was virtually unsailable and they were adrift for three weeks before being rescued 600 miles away off the coast of West Africa.
The outrage caused a huge public and political scandal but the two men who might be thought most responsible managed to escape without censure. Captain Archibald Hamilton was in command of the convoy which included the Morning Star but he went on ahead with the faster, armed East Indiamen leaving the laggard to her fate. And John Croker as First Secretary of the Admiralty had pushed through the defence cuts which left the south Atlantic sea lanes almost devoid of naval protection. The author builds a powerful case against the two men and the influence of the East India Company which helped protect them.
The real heroes of the book are the men who hunted down the pirates, not sailors or marines but insurance agents, consular officials, merchants and lawyers whose sharp eyes and diligence led to the identification, arrest and arraignment of the pirates after they landed in Spain to splash the cash and sell the loot. De Soto almost got off when a key witness failed to pick him out in an identity parade, but eventually the same witness claimed to recognise him from his height and posture and that was enough for a compliant judge, so justice of a sort was served.
This is an enthralling read, especially the later chapters dealing with the political and legal shenanigans where the author, a retired barrister, is clearly in his element. His characterisations can be pretty adversarial, like “complacent nabobs” or “ageing Lords of the Admiralty, clinging to their privileged posts”, but there’s no harm in adding a bit of ginger to the mix. And to the very end there is a mystery about this drama’s central character. One of the key sources is a detailed description by his oldest friend of all they went through together, but as the author remarks it “is striking how little one gleans about Benito de Soto himself”, even from his closest friend. He remains a hidden presence for us too, but this only adds to his story’s appeal.
Hunting the Last Great Pirate by Michael E.A.Ford
Pen and Sword Books, 2020, pp.234
How well do we really know our neighbours? You might not associate a retired barrister living in Queen Camel with one of the most infamous acts of piracy in the age of sail, but as Mike Ford’s new book shows we can always learn from each other. And he has little time for the romantic view of pirates as daring, independent and resourceful rascals – buccaneers, literally. It is clear from this book that most of them were every bit as vicious and nasty as other violent criminals, and judging by their actions many of them were psychopaths avant la lettre.
The centrepiece of the book is a voyage of the Morning Star carrying teak, coffee, spices, government treasure, convalescent soldiers and other passengers from Ceylon to London in the winter of 1827-8. What happened to her in the South Atlantic caused a public sensation but the author is equally interested in the bigger picture and what came next. Along the way he tells us about the history of Ceylon, Cape Town, St Helena and the hazards and rewards of maritime trade in the early nineteenth century but we end up in the deeper and muddier waters where diplomacy, politics, patronage and the press meet and mingle with corruption and organised crime in high and low places, and where the Honourable East India Company holds sway. Think Patrick O’Brien meets John Grisham meets John Le Carré: it would make a great movie.
Commercial shipping was plagued by piracy at the time and in a nine-month period from the end of 1827 there were eighteen other cases reported to Lloyds of London alone. Four ships suffered even more dreadfully than the Morning Star but her fate stands out for three main reasons: prurient interest in what the women on board endured at the hands of the pirates, the speedy arrest and bringing to trial of the perpetrators, and the publication of a unique and detailed account by one of the major actors, a pirate’s-eye view of everything that had happened. Skilful use of this testimony along with other eye witness accounts, official papers, court records and historical sources gives the story depth and feeling, drawing the reader in.
The author’s approach is scholarly but when he turns from the pirates to the authorities it becomes clear where his sympathies lie. He acknowledges the dilemma facing the commander of a convoy in which the fastest and most valuable ships are racing ahead of a single, lowlier laggard but then he concludes, “The invalids and the wounded men aboard Morning Star meant nothing to someone of Commander Hamilton’s social standing”, and it was simply “greed to maximise profits for himself and the East India Company that caused him to abandon the slow sailing Morning Star”. Really? More persuasive is his account of how the British and Spanish governments and high-placed individuals sought to cover up the truth and obstruct justice in pursuit of national, political, commercial and individual interests. But there are heroes in this story too, notably the presiding judge who resigned rather than oversee a perverted judicial process - though had he seen the claim in the publisher’s blurb that finally “British justice…was vindicated” he might have raised an eyebrow!
P.P-C.
Pen and Sword Books, 2020, pp.234
How well do we really know our neighbours? You might not associate a retired barrister living in Queen Camel with one of the most infamous acts of piracy in the age of sail, but as Mike Ford’s new book shows we can always learn from each other. And he has little time for the romantic view of pirates as daring, independent and resourceful rascals – buccaneers, literally. It is clear from this book that most of them were every bit as vicious and nasty as other violent criminals, and judging by their actions many of them were psychopaths avant la lettre.
The centrepiece of the book is a voyage of the Morning Star carrying teak, coffee, spices, government treasure, convalescent soldiers and other passengers from Ceylon to London in the winter of 1827-8. What happened to her in the South Atlantic caused a public sensation but the author is equally interested in the bigger picture and what came next. Along the way he tells us about the history of Ceylon, Cape Town, St Helena and the hazards and rewards of maritime trade in the early nineteenth century but we end up in the deeper and muddier waters where diplomacy, politics, patronage and the press meet and mingle with corruption and organised crime in high and low places, and where the Honourable East India Company holds sway. Think Patrick O’Brien meets John Grisham meets John Le Carré: it would make a great movie.
Commercial shipping was plagued by piracy at the time and in a nine-month period from the end of 1827 there were eighteen other cases reported to Lloyds of London alone. Four ships suffered even more dreadfully than the Morning Star but her fate stands out for three main reasons: prurient interest in what the women on board endured at the hands of the pirates, the speedy arrest and bringing to trial of the perpetrators, and the publication of a unique and detailed account by one of the major actors, a pirate’s-eye view of everything that had happened. Skilful use of this testimony along with other eye witness accounts, official papers, court records and historical sources gives the story depth and feeling, drawing the reader in.
The author’s approach is scholarly but when he turns from the pirates to the authorities it becomes clear where his sympathies lie. He acknowledges the dilemma facing the commander of a convoy in which the fastest and most valuable ships are racing ahead of a single, lowlier laggard but then he concludes, “The invalids and the wounded men aboard Morning Star meant nothing to someone of Commander Hamilton’s social standing”, and it was simply “greed to maximise profits for himself and the East India Company that caused him to abandon the slow sailing Morning Star”. Really? More persuasive is his account of how the British and Spanish governments and high-placed individuals sought to cover up the truth and obstruct justice in pursuit of national, political, commercial and individual interests. But there are heroes in this story too, notably the presiding judge who resigned rather than oversee a perverted judicial process - though had he seen the claim in the publisher’s blurb that finally “British justice…was vindicated” he might have raised an eyebrow!
P.P-C.
Mike Ford (husband of Morwenna) in Queen Camel has just written and has had his first ever book published at the weekend.
This is a true story that takes place in 1828 when the Duke of Wellington was then the Prime Minister.
After years of painstaking research into his ancestry, Mike discovered that he had an ancestor who owned and built sailing vessels in Scarborough. One of these vessels was called Morning Star.
The vessel was sent out to Ceylon to repatriate wounded British soldiers from the fighting there and also to bring back a considerable Prize Fund.
The ship was attacked by pirates led by Benito de Soto off the coast of North Africa with horrific consequences for those on board the vessel.
It is a truly fascinating story.
The book is available to buy online at Pen & Sword Books
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Hunting-the-Last-Great-Pirate-Hardback/p/17787
as well as Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Hunting+the+Last+Great+Pirate+by+Michael+E+A+Ford&rh=n%3A772016&ref=nb_sb_noss