Without a chance to maneuver and sail away, I gave up the Henrica Sophia to the Captain of The Revenge, which was the name of Captain Gustavus Cunningham’s ship.
Tensely, but with no violence, he imprisoned my men in our own cellar. After taking control of my ship he put his second officer in command and kept me to one side without shackles as he did with the others.
I was sorry for my boys but there was no other choice but surrender to the corsairs.
The Revenge and its Captain headed south toward the Canary Islands and I remained imprisoned in my own ship.
From the south of Portugal, where we were, the Master corsair headed for the Port of Philadelphia to sell my ship and the goods chartered from London by my Canary customers and now, friends, Peter Russell of Las Palmas and Tomás Cólogan of Tenerife.
After seven days, sailing south of New Scotia, a British warship with 73 canons sighted us and opened fire, obliging the corsair to make my precious Henrica Sophia come to a sudden stop.
The British, violent and cruel as is their way, rifle-whipped everyone and boarded us, the formidable ship towing us to Halifax, the main base of the British Navy in North-America.
There we were made to prove that we had been imprisoned and had nothing to do with our captors, the American corsairs. In fact, I am Swedish and therefore neutral. I also had to prove that my goods were owned by Canarians, and therefore Spanish, thus neutral in the confrontation between the British and the American settlers.
It took me four long months of discussions in the Court of the British Admiralty in Halifax and, thanks to documents I was sent from Tenerife and London, I managed to demonstrate the plausibility of my arguments.
The Americans were sent to New York in a hideous prison boat and I was able to return to Tenerife to dispatch what little survived in my cellars after the British plunder.
On entering the port of Santa Cruz and having anchored there, all came to greet me euphorically since they had thought me dead. The old man Patricio Murphy helped me and, on that very afternoon, I accompanied him to the villa of La Paz in Puerto de la Cruz, where Tomás was anxiously expecting to be given a detailed account of what had happened.
I did so, but what really impressed me was what he told me about the corsair when he landed on the islands…, but this other story should be better told by Tomás himself.
Peter Heldt
Captain of Henrica Sophia
Captain Heldt begs me to tell you the other part of this episode and so I will.
After the boarding and theft of Henrica Sophia, Captain Conyngham decided that it would be a good idea to approach the Canary Islands further to see if they found some other prey that would bring them good benefits.
In each European port, both he and the other American Corsairs had secret agents, to whom they handed their preys and Teneriffe was no exception. The Frenchman, Mr. Casalón, played this role on the island.
Meanwhile, time passed and two weeks later we already anxiously suspected that the Swede’s delay was due to a pirate attack. Our fears were confirmed when one morning the corsair was seen in Anaga waving his meandering flag and we immediately alerted Commander Tabalosos to arrest it. Needless to say he paid no heed arguing that we had no evidence and he was right.
While we were deciding what to do, we were shocked to see the daring captain casting anchor in the bay facing the town. The merchants urged the Commander even more, but to no avail; either too cautious or too cowardly, but he did not move.
In the night, destiny favored us. At two in the morning a Swedish sailor, who had managed to free himself from the ropes that tied him down, managed to swim ashore. On arrival, he alerted the guard, and the soldiers awakened the Commander. He had no choice but to attack the ship with several launches.
Unfortunately, he failed. The Corsair Captain managed to weigh anchor and let out sails so fast that he was out of our reach before having been hit by one single cannon shot. There was mutual recrimination between us and the Commander, but three days later we heard from a small boat coming from La Palma that the corsair had anchored in that port next to another vessel just arrested. We never ceased to be surprised by this captain who was always ahead of us!
This was our chance, Commander Tabalosos sent a little brig to La Palma with orders to accost the vessel stealthily so as not to miss it again. Two boats with heavily armed marines were released in the night towards TheRevenge and TheCountess of Moreton– the captured British boat. The corsair again managed to cut ropes and escape. However, his prey remained there unprotected.
The Captain in command of The Countess of Moreton was a somewhat insolent Frenchman, called Graciano Silvanne, who was brought to land while having to endure his foolishness.
The following day both he and his followers were transferred to Tenerife to face charges for the theft of a Spanish property. The Frenchman was a mercenary who had come on board in La Palma and complained that the arrest was illegal.
The traders denounced him for the theft of The Revenge but he denied his relationship with our boat and the Corsair Conyngham. Then he put himself in the hands of the French Consul and they wrote letters to Benjamin Franklin in Paris who, we all knew, was the one in charge of assigning the letters of marque.
I quickly wrote a brief and sent it to my brother Juan in London, who travelled to Paris to speak with the American. My brother, who is usually very convincing became even more so once he knew he had the backing of the Count of Aranda, our Ambassador in Paris. Spain was neutral and our boats should not be attacked.
A few days later, Franklin exiled his corsair and sent him back to America. Franklin could not risk his secret negotiations with Spain because of a reckless Corsair. Some boxes of Orotava wine that we had in store in Paris were taken to the American and there is evidence that he enjoyed it.
Thomas Cologan