Benito Bonito

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benito Bonito was allegedly a pirate who is said to have hidden a treasure of immeasurable value on Coconut Island, Costa Rica . Most likely, Benito Bonito is a fantasy figure, a pirate , privateer , privateer or buccaneer with this name has not been historically proven.

biography

There are, depending on the author, numerous different biographies of the pirate Benito Bonito, described as particularly cruel, with the nickname "Dom Pedro" or "Bloody Sword", which partly overlap, partly contradict one another. The following biography is based on the book "The Lost Treasure of Cocos Island" by the New York Times journalists Hancock and Weston:

After that, in 1814, Benito Bonito was the captain of a small Spanish privateer. Two years later he took over a Portuguese merchant driver by murdering the captain. Next he hijacked an English slave ship named Lightning (lightning), which he renamed Relampago (Spanish for lightning). All crew members who refused to join him were murdered. The Relampago operated for several years between the West Indies and in the Atlantic. When he got more and more distress off the North American coast, Bonito avoided the Pacific. In 1819, he ambushed a Spanish donkey caravan carrying gold from Mexico City to Acapulco for onward transport to Manila . Bonito hid this treasure in Wafer Bay on Coconut Island. Bonito was killed in the Caribbean in 1821 when the crew of his ship mutinied.

The grandson of a crew member of Bonito's ship sold a treasure map allegedly made by Bonito to the German treasure hunter August Gissler .

Benito de Soto

There is no historical record of a pirate by the name of Benito Bonito. There is probably a mistake with the Spanish pirate Benito de Soto (born April 22, 1805 in Pontevedra , † January 25, 1830 in Cádiz hanged). De Soto attacked the merchant ship Morning Star with his ship Burla Negra, the former Brazilian slave ship Defensor de Pedro , on February 19, 1828 off the island of Ascension in the South Atlantic . The captain was cruelly murdered, the female passengers raped and there were other atrocities that caused a great public stir. De Soto robbed other ships in the Atlantic . When he wanted to bring his booty to Spain, the Burla Negra broke down near Cádiz. The Spanish authorities arrested the entire crew and brought the pirates to justice. Benito de Soto was hanged in Cádiz and his crew in Gibraltar . De Soto limited his forays to the Atlantic and the Caribbean. There is no evidence that he was ever in the Pacific Ocean.

Bennett Graham

According to other sources, Benito Bonito is said to have been the pseudonym of the British captain Bennett Graham (also spelled Benett Grahame). He is said to have distinguished himself in the Battle of Trafalgar and, in recognition of his services, he was given command of the warship HMS Devonshire to capture Spanish ships in the Pacific as a privateer. Since he did not limit himself to the Spaniards, but also robbed ships of other nations, the Devonshire was finally sunk by three British warships off the coast of Costa Rica. Before that, however, Graham had managed to hide his prey on Coconut Island.

A captain named Bennett Graham (or Graham Bennett) is not on the payrolls of the Royal Navy for the 19th century. The HMS Devonshire, the fifth ship of this name, was a ship of the line (third rate of the line) with 75 guns. Built by Barnard in Deptford in 1812 , it had an unremarkable career. The abuse of a large British warship as a pirate ship would certainly have become public. The commanding officer from 1813 to 1814 was Captain (later Admiral) Sir Ross Donnelly (* 1761? † September 30, 1840), who distinguished himself in the naval battle on the 13th Prairial and had served under Lord Horatio Nelson in the Mediterranean. The Devonshire was in reserve in Chatham (Kent) as a harbor ship from 1848 and was used as a training ship from 1861 until she was scrapped in Sheerness in 1869 . It did not belong to the British Pacific Station, and no command is known in the Pacific.

In the late 17th century there was a Captain John Graham who commanded a sloop with a crew of 14 and, together with Captain Veale, robbed merchant ships on the coast of New England ( Rhode Island and Connecticut ). He's never been to the Pacific.

Dominico Pedro Benitez

Another author suspects that Benito Bonito was the Portuguese pirate Dominico Pedro Benitez. He is said to have instigated a mutiny on a frigate named Renaud in 1816 and then operated as a privateer in the Gulf of Mexico with little success. While fleeing from British warships, he circled Cape Horn and attacked a Spanish gold caravan on the Isthmus of Panama. He also captured the Galleon Rosario in the Pacific . Its prey is said to be buried on Coconut Island.

There is also no reference to a Portuguese privateer named Dominico Pedro Benitez in serious historical literature. A frigate by the name of Renaud is not known for the first half of the 19th century, and no ship of this name is in the Lloyd's Register of Shipping. In the 18th century there were three galleons with the name “Rosario”. The Nuestra Señora del Rosario y Santiago Apostol sank in a hurricane off Florida in 1705. The other two belonged to the so-called Manila galleons , which handled the movement of goods between Manila and Acapulco . On the way back from Acapulco to Manila, they usually carried a cargo of silver. The Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Juan Bautista was stranded with a cargo of silver in the Bay of Palapag ( Philippines ) in 1762 and the Nuestra Señora del Rosario y los Santos Reyes was scrapped in 1750. None of these ships were captured by privateers. In the 19th century, the time of the galleons was over.

The same story sounds different to another writer. The warship Renaud becomes the “dreaded French privateer ship Renard ” on which Benito Bonito, whose real name was Dominico Pedro Benitez, instigated a mutiny in order to make himself a pirate captain. Around 1817 Benitez captured the Lightning , a brig with 9 cannons, allegedly built in 1814 by the American Carterit Company in Liverpool. She initially carried freight between England and Newfoundland , then slaves from Africa to America. During a trip with slaves to Brazil, during a stopover in Matanzas ( Cuba ), she was boarded by Benitez and renamed Relampago . An American shipyard called "Carterit Company" is not known. The American Liverpool is a small town in the state of New York and is located on an inland lake, Onondaga Lake , not far from the city of Syracuse . Ocean-going ships were never built here. There are other places named Liverpool in the states of Illinois , Indiana , Pennsylvania , Texas and Ohio . They are all inland and have no direct access to the sea.

Another writer tells a similar story about Dominico Pedro Benitez, but doesn't mention the Lightning . Bonito's ship was an English (!) Slave ship with the name “ Relampgo , the lightning”. The lightning bolt is called “lightning” in English, but “relámpago” in Spanish (spelled “relâmpago” in Portuguese).

Benito Socarras Y Aguero

The name Benito Bonito may also be confused with Don Benito, a pirate of the early 18th century, whose actual name was probably Benito Socarras Y Aguero (or Benito Aguero). Don Benito shared the command of the Spanish Guarda Costa Sloop St. Francis de la Vela with the Irish-born Richard Holland . The ship patrolled the coastal waters around Cuba around 1724 and was authorized by the governor of Cuba to raise prizes . However, Socarras expanded its field of activity over the coast of Florida to the Virginia Capes on Chesapeake Bay . In June 1724 he captured the slave ship John and Mary from Virginia , the Prudent Hannah and the Godolphin in quick succession and took all three ships as prizes. The St. Francis de la Vela was pursued by the HMS Enterprise , but the pirates managed to escape the British warship. Don Benito was never in the Pacific Ocean, but went on forays into the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Don Pedro Gilbert

It could also be confused with the pirate Pedro Gilbert (* around 1800; † June 11, 1835 in Boston executed), who was also known under the name Don Pedro Gilbert (also Gibert). Gilbert was a pirate who robbed merchant ships off the east coast of Florida and in the Caribbean with his schooner Panda , including the American Brig Mexican on September 21, 1832 , which dealt with silver coins worth 20,000 dollars on the way from Salem (Massachusetts ) to Rio de Janeiro . The panda was caught off the West African coast by the Brig HMS Curlew , Captain Trotter, in June 1834, and the pirates then set their ship on fire themselves. The pirates had previously divided up the booty and buried a small part of it on the African coast. The HMS Savage brought Gilbert and eleven crew members to Boston, where they were hanged on June 11, 1835 after a sensational trial. Don Pedro Gilbert restricted his pirate trips to the Atlantic waters; as far as is known, he was never in the Pacific. There is no reference to coconut island.

Don Benito Derezans

In December 1857 the provincial government of Bahia had Benito Derezan (also Don Benito Derezan), captain of the slave ship Relampago , arrested. The Relampago had already been seized off the coast of Bahia for illegal slave trade in 1851 when the ship was bringing slaves from Lagos to Bahia. Derezans had managed to hide from the police and the authorities for more than five years. However, he was not a pirate who brought up ships and robbed them, but made his living by transporting slaves from Africa to Brazil. The owner of the Baltimore- built two-masted schooner Relampago was the Brazilian Marcos Borges Ferras ("Senhor Marcos"). As far as is known, the Relampago was never in the Pacific. It is also unlikely that Derezans could have amassed "treasures worth several million marks" through the slave trade, especially since he did not act on his own account but on behalf of Marcos Borges Ferras.

Bartholomew Sharp

Some details of the "life story" of Benito Bonito can be traced back to the biography of the pirate Bartholomew Sharp (* around 1650; † October 29, 1702). Together with other pirate captains, he attacked Spanish ships in the Bay of Panama . He was also able to raise several ships off the South American coast. On July 10, 1681 Sharp conquered the San Pedro and captured "twenty thousand" Pieces of Eight "(silver coins of 8 reales ) in eight chests and even more in sacks, as well as further silver". On July 27, 1681, Sharp boarded the Spanish merchant ship El Santo Rosario , which was loaded with numerous chests full of silver coins, 700 silver bars and lots of wine and brandy. Sharp is said to have hidden parts of his booty on Coconut Island.

Peter I.

The rather absurd assumption was also expressed that the pirate Benito Bonito, also known as Dom Pedro, was identical to Emperor Peter I of Brazil, who was also King of Portugal under the name Peter IV. Peter I (Portuguese: Dom Pedro I.), was called Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de Bragança e Bourbon and was Emperor of Brazil from 1822 to 1831. He was born on October 12, 1798 in Queluz (Portugal) and died there on September 24, 1834. In his biography there is no reference to a nautical activity, let alone to piracy. He had developed no interest in seafaring. His only stay at sea was in 1807/1808 as a nine-year-old boy during the flight of the royal family from the Napoleonic invasion army from Lisbon to Brazil and the later return to Portugal as a passenger.

L 'Espiègle

Bonito's ship is said to have been seized by the British warship L 'Espiègle during a pirate voyage to Valparaiso and the crew taken prisoner. Benito Bonito shot himself in the head in view of the hopeless situation.

The L 'Espiègle was originally a French corvette , built 1803/1804 in the Ethéart shipyard, Saint-Malo . It was raised on August 16, 1808 by the British frigate Sibylle , Captain Clotworthy Upton, and then integrated into the British fleet under the name HMS Electra . The Electra / ex L 'Espiègle was actually involved in a skirmish with a “pirate” under the command of Captain William Gregory during the British-American War (1812 to 1814). On July 7, 1813 set near Newfoundland American privateer (privateer) Growler Captain N. Lindsey.

Myth and Truth

Benito Bonito, as he is portrayed in the numerous publications about the “Treasure Island”, is a myth, a conglomerate of set pieces from different biographies of real people. As is often the case in the treasure tales about Coconut Island, half-truths are mixed up, combined with a lot of imagination and declared to be facts, mostly without giving any reliable evidence. If comprehensible dates or names are given, the information usually turns out to be incorrect or falsified.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ina Knobloch: The Secret of Treasure Island. Mare-Verlag, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86648-097-1
  2. ^ Ralph Hancock, Julian A. Weston: The Lost Treasure of Cocos Island. Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York, 1960
  3. ↑ Michael Groushko: Legendäre Treasures and Their Secrets, Augsburg 1995, pp. 24-27
  4. ↑ AB: A Narrative of the atrocities committed by the crew of the piratical brig "El Defensor de Pedro" , with a brief account of the trial and execution of the pirates. To which is prefixed the confession of the crew. E. Wilson, London 1830
  5. ^ Dying declaration of Nicholas Fernandez, who with nine others were executed in front of Cadiz Harbor, December 29, 1829 for piracy and murder on the high seas. 1830 (sine loco)
  6. ↑ Quoting from: Jerry Lockett: The Discovery of Weather: Stephen Saxby, the Tumultuous Birth of Weather Forecasting, and Saxby's Gale of 1869. Formac, London 2013, ISBN 978-1459500808 , p. 89
  7. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Index Number 101007823
  8. ↑ a b Philip Gosse: The Pirates' Who's Who - Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers. Burt Franklin, New York 1924
  9. ↑ Richard A. Radune: Pequot Plantation: The Story of an Early Colonial Settlement. Time Publications, 2005, ISBN 978-0976434108 , pp. 244-245
  10. ↑ Reinhold Ostler: Track of the gold. On the trail of hidden treasures. Pietsch Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3613503861
  11. ^ Peter Kirsch: The galleons - large sailing ships around 1600. Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-5470-9
  12. ↑ Georg Bremer: The Secrets of Coconut Island: Adventurers in search of the greatest pirate treasures in the world on Stevenson's true treasure island. Books on Demand GmbH, 2009, ISBN 978-3837096552 , p. 137 f
  13. ↑ PF Tico: The puma turtle, his jaguar face: 6000 years Costa Rica and Central America. AAVAA-Verlag, Neuendorf 2016
  14. ↑ Benerson Little: The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730. Potomac Books, Washington DC 2005, p. 101
  15. ^ Hugh Thomas: The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870. Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 978-0684835655 , p. 429
  16. ^ Theodore Corbett: St. Augustine Pirates and Privateers. St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine (Florida) 2012, ISBN 978-1609497217
  17. ↑ Trial of the twelve Spanish pirates of the schooner Panda, a Guinea slaver: consisting of Don Pedro Gibert, captain, Bernardo de Soto, mate, Francisco Ruiz, carpenter, Antonio Ferrer, the tattooed cook, Nicola Costa, Manuel Boyga, Domingo de Guzman, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velazquez, and Juan Montenegro, seamen: for robbery and piracy committed on board the brig Mexican, 20th Sept. 1832. L. Gulliver, Boston 1834
  18. ^ Edward Rowe Snow: The Last Pirates executed in Boston. In: Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast, Commonwealth Editions, 2004, p. 111
  19. ↑ José C. Curto, Renée Soulodre-LaFrance (eds.): Africa and the Americas: Interconnections During the Slave Trade. Africa World Press, 2005, ISBN 1-59221-271-9 , pp. 133 and 744
  20. ↑ Peter Disch-Lauxmann: The authentic story of Stevenson's Treasure Island. Rasch and Röhrig, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-89136-038-X
  21. ↑ Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin: De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Original edition 1678; English edition: John Esquemeling: The History of the Buccaneers of America, Sanborn, Carter and Bazin 1856, pp. 158 and 163
  22. ↑ Ralph Delahaye Paine: The Book of Buried Treasure. The Macmillan Company, New York 1922, p. 277
  23. ^ Joseph Allen: Battles of the British Navy. Henry G. Bohn, London 1852 pp. 243-244
  24. ↑ James Stanier Clarke, John McArthur (eds.): The Naval Chronicle, Volume 30, July-December 1813
  25. ^ Susan Goss Johnston: The First Voyage of the Schooner Growler: Salem Privateer in the War of 1812