Philip Fitzgerald (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1672–1675, alias Felipe Geraldino or Philip Hellen) was an Irish pirate and
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
who served the Spanish in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
.
History
Fitzgerald obtained a commission as a Spanish privateer (''guarda costa'') out of
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. in 1672. Late that year he captured the English ship ''Humility'' under Matthew Fox, abusing the captured crew until several of them died.
Fox testified that when Fitzgerald was asked why he was so barbaric to English captives, he exclaimed: “giving no reason but that his countrymen were ill-used by the English 24 years ago, and he should never be satisfied with English blood, but could drink it as freely as water when he was adry; and he had commission to sink or take all ships trading from
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 ...
, and kill those.”
Early in 1673 he captured the 130-ton logwood hauler ''Virgin'' of
Edmund Cooke, putting him and his crew in a longboat with no provisions. Cooke survived, and incensed at losing a second ship to the Spanish some time later, finally turned to piracy against the Spanish.
Fitzgerald captured more English ships near
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
in late 1673 alongside
Jelles de Lecat (“Yellows”) and
Jan Erasmus Reyning, the three of them accounting for more than 40 captures.
Finally in early 1674 both English officials and
King Charles II issued proclamations offering pardons to Lecat and Fitzgerald if they surrendered and abandoned the Spanish, but calling for their death or capture if they refused: “and in regard Captains Yellows and Fitzgerald, two of his Majesty's subjects, appeared to be the chief instruments of said depredations, That a Proclamation be issued for recalling his Majesty's subjects from the service of any foreign Prince between the tropics in America, with promise of pardon if they render themselves within a convenient time; and that the
Governor of Jamaica
This is a list of viceroys in Jamaica from its initial occupation by Spain in 1509, to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. For a list of viceroys after independence, see Governor-General of Jamaica. For context, see History of Jamai ...
receive speedy order for securing both said persons if found so offending after the time limited within his Government, and cause them to be sent prisoners to England.”
Fitzgerald sailed his 12-gun
man-of-war
The man-of-war (also man-o'-war, or simply man) was a Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. Although the term never acquired a specific meaning, it was usually reserved for a ship armed wi ...
into Havana with yet another captured English prize ship in summer 1674, this time with English prisoners hung from the yardarms. After depositions regarding more of Fitzgerald's crimes came to light, and after Spain refused to compensate some of his English victims, in September 1675 the order was given to hunt him down: "Ordered, that Mr. Attorney-General hasten the Proclamation for bringing in the head of Fitzgerald the Pirate from the Havana."
Fitzgerald's ultimate fate is unknown.
In 1687 navigator and explorer
William Dampier
William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnav ...
was in the
Luconia Shoals
The Luconia Shoals, divided into the North and South Luconia Shoals, and sometimes known as the Luconia Reefs, are one of the largest and least-known reef complexes in the South China Sea. Some geographers classify the shoals as the southernmos ...
, part of a crew which had mutinied and abandoned buccaneer
Charles Swan at
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
in the Philippines. He encountered several pirates who had also been part of Swan's crew; they reported meeting "an Irishman who went by the name of John Fitz-Gerald, a person that spoke Spanish very well."
This Fitzgerald "had in this time gotten a Spanish
Mestiza
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ...
woman to wife, and a good dowry with her" and "being an Irish Roman Catholic, and having the Spanish language, he had a great advantage of all his consorts; and he alone lived well there of them all." Whether this was a later adventure of Philip Fitzgerald is not certain.
See also
*
John Bear, another Englishman who sailed for the Spaniards as a ''guarda costa'' privateer.
Further reading
King Charles II's royal proclamation for the capture of Fitzgerald, issued October 1675
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Philip
17th-century pirates
Caribbean pirates
Irish mass murderers
Irish pirates
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing