{"product_id":"hunting-the-last-great-pirate-benito-de-soto-and-the-rape-of-the-morning-star-by-michael-edward-ashton-ford","title":"Hunting the Last Great Pirate Benito de Soto and the Rape of the Morning Star by Michael Edward Ashton Ford","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe true story of the pirate attack against the unarmed Quaker ship, Morning Star, in 1828.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1827 the Duke of Wellington - former Commander-in-Chief of the British Army and British Prime Minister - ordered the withdrawal of British soldiers from the island of Ceylon after years of bloody conflict there. English cargo vessels, including the unarmed English Quaker ship \u003ci\u003eMorning Star\u003c\/i\u003e, were dispatched to sail to Colombo to repatriate wounded British soldiers and a cargo of sealed crates containing captured treasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy January 1828, \u003ci\u003eMorning Star \u003c\/i\u003ewas anchored at Table Bay, Cape Town, before joining an armed British convoy of East Indiamen, heading north. Heavily laden, she struggled to keep up with the ships ahead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe notorious pirate Benito de Soto was the master of a heavily armed pirate ship, lying in wait off Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic to pick-off stragglers from passing convoys. \u003ci\u003eMorning Star\u003c\/i\u003e was easily overhauled by the pirate and stopped with cannon fire. Her captain and officers were executed and the attackers fled to Spain with cargo stolen from the stricken ship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLater de Soto buried the treasure and traveled to British-ruled Gibraltar with forged identity documents to sell the spoils. The authorities, however, discovered his identity and he was arrested. Despite the absence of eyewitness evidence that he was the pirate captain, he was convicted of piracy before a British judge and jury and hanged at Gibraltar in early 1830. It is clear that proof of de Soto's guilt in court was lacking, but astonishingly, when renovations were being carried out at de Soto's former home village in Galicia, Spain, in 1926, much of the treasures he had plundered from \u003ci\u003eMorning Star\u003c\/i\u003e were found buried in the grounds there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlmost 100 years later, British justice administered in London and Gibraltar was vindicated...\n\u003cp\u003eISBN: 9781526769305\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pen \u0026 Sword Books Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43255816880191,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0647\/8626\/8223\/files\/16200563482731.jpg?v=1778715806","url":"https:\/\/bookconnection.com.au\/products\/hunting-the-last-great-pirate-benito-de-soto-and-the-rape-of-the-morning-star-by-michael-edward-ashton-ford","provider":"The Book Connection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}