Joseph Thompson (died 1719) was a pirate from
Trinidad, Cuba
Trinidad () is a town in the province of Sancti Spíritus, central Cuba. Together with the nearby Valle de los Ingenios, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988, because of its historical importance as a center of the sugar trade in ...
,
and was active in the
Caribbean. He is primarily known for a single incident involving
grenades
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade gene ...
.
History
Thompson was among 209 pirates on
New Providence who declared to Captain
Vincent Pearse their intention to accept a
1718 offer of amnesty and pardon. Along with
Charles Vane
Charles Vane (c. 1680 – 29 March 1721) was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Vane was likely born in the Kingdom of England around 1680. One of his first pirate ventures was under the ...
and a few others, he soon returned to piracy.
After picking up additional crew for his sloop ''Eagle'' (some of whom had served with
William Moody), he captured and looted several ships in the vicinity.
In December 1718 in full view of
Port Royal Thompson captured a ship called ''Kingston'' whose cargo was worth over £20,000. The ship's owners complained to Jamaican Governor
Nicholas Lawes
Sir Nicholas Lawes (1652 – 18 June 1731) (sometimes "'Laws'" in contemporary documents) was Governor of Jamaica from 1718 to 1722.
Early life
Nicholas Lawes was born in 1652 to Nicholas and Amy Lawes.
Knighthood
He was a British kni ...
, but there were no
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
warships available.
Instead Lawson issued commissions to two
sloops in the harbor,
promising them a share of the pirates' treasure in addition to the rewards guaranteed by
King George's September 1717 proclamation to combat piracy.
The two sloops sailed before year's end, encountering the pirate ship and another captured vessel. The pirate vessel under Captain Thompson raised a black flag and moved to attack.
Thompson's ship came alongside one of the pirate-hunters and "threw vast numbers of powder flasks, granado shells, and stinkpots into her which killed and wounded several, and made others jump overboard."
The other pirate-hunter picked up the survivors, whose stories of the fight "."
Thompson's 150-man crew, "banditti of all nations,"
marooned Marooned may refer to:
* Marooning
Marooning is the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area, such as a desert island, or more generally (usually in passive voice) to be marooned is to be in a place from which one cannot escape ...
the remaining sailors on the
Cayman Islands.
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
's merchants pleaded again with Lawes to do something about Thompson. Lawes commissioned four more 10-gun, 80-man sloops with help from the merchants,
and after refitting another in Port Royal plus the arrival of the fifth-rate
frigate ''HMS Ludlow Castle'', divided his forces to protect incoming merchants and hunt down Thompson. Four of the sloops soon cornered Thompson's ship, killing him and recovering the ''Kingston''.
Some of his surviving crew were captured to await trial in
Bermuda
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, where they were found guilty and hanged in 1720.
See also
*
Fifth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal ...
, the ship class of ''HMS Ludlow Castle'' (which was itself scrapped in 1721).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Joseph
Year of birth missing
18th-century pirates
People executed for piracy
1719 deaths
Caribbean pirates