Pedro Gilbert
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Pedro Gilbert [Don Pedro Gibert] (c. 1800-March 11, 1834) was an early 19th century pirate, who was one of the few remaining pirates continuing to raid shipping on the Atlantic coast.
A former privateer in the service of the Columbian government, Gilbert began raiding American merchant vessels off the eastern coast of Florida in early 1832 and, with his schooner the Panda, held the distinction of taking part in the last recorded act of piracy in Atlantic waters. On September 21, 1832, Gilbert boarded the Mexican, an American brig bound from Salem to Rio de Janeiro carrying $20,000 in silver. Following the crew's surrender, a crew member asked Gilbert what was to be done with their captives to which the pirate captain reportedly remarked "Dead cats don't mew. You know what to do."
Locking the crew inside the focsle, Gilbert's crew ransacked the ship looting the Mexican's stores. Slashing the rigging and sails, the pirates filled the ship's galley with combustibles and set the ship afire with the crew trapped inside.
However, the crew managed to break out after an hour and eventually doused the fire (although they continued to let enough smoke billow until the pirates were out of sight). After six weeks at sea, the crew finally made it back to Salem where they were able to report the incident. Captured in West Africa after his ship was sunk was sunk in a naval engagement with the HMS Curlew two years later, Gilbert was extradited to the United States where, in Boston, Massachusetts, he was tried with three of his crew members and executed on March 11, 1834.
[edit] Further reading
- Gilbert, Pedro. A Report of the Trial of Pedro Gilbert. Boston: Russell, Oridorne and Metcalf, 1834.
- Gilbert, Pedro. Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, A Guinea Slaver... For Robbery and Piracy, Committed on Boards the Brig Mexican, 20th Sept. 1832. Boston: Lemuel Gulliver, 1834.
[edit] References
- Bottling, Douglas. The Pirates. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books Inc., 1978.
- Pickering, David. Pirates: From corsairs and cutlasses to parrots and planks. Collins, 2006.
