El Pirata Cofresi
4 MARCH 1825
EL PIRATA COFRESI
Following the War of 1812, our Navy’s missions shifted to those of policing the slave trade off West Africa and combating piracy in the Caribbean. By 1825, our West India Squadron had nearly completed this latter mission. The wanton plundering of American merchant ships and the brutal murders of crewmen had largely been contained. Only a few hold-outs remained, including the dreaded El Pirata (Roberto) Cofresi, known simply as “Cofrecinas,” who operated out of Spanish Puerto Rico. When LT John D. Sloat of the 12-gun topsail schooner USS GRAMPUS in St. Thomas, learned that Cofrecinas had taken several vessels near Foxardo (modern Fajardo), Puerto Rico, and was employing two sloops in further piracy, Sloat set sail on 1 March 1825. Accompanying GRAMPUS were two smaller sloops obtained from the governor of St. Thomas, who also wanted Cofrecinas’ reign of terror ended. Reaching Ponce on March 3rd, Sloat’s sailors spied a sloop fitting the pirate description slipping to sea to the eastward. Sloat dispatched LT Garret J. Pendergrast with 23 men and two officers in one of the sloops in pursuit. At 1500 on the 4th Pendergrast reached Boca del Infierno, in which harbor they fell upon the suspicious sloop. Pendergrast opened fire, and for 45 minutes a heated exchange ensued. American gunnery proved accurate, the pirates beached their wrecked sloop and ran for the jungle. Two fell dead on the shore, but eleven escaped into the forest.
Fortuitously, Spanish authorities were waiting in the jungle, and the pirates were captured, five of whom were wounded. Both Americans and Spanish were heartened to find one of the captives to be none other than Cofrecinas, himself! The pirate sloop was found to be armed with a 4-pounder gun and various muskets, cutlasses and knives. Pendergrast was able to re-float her and take her into our Navy’s service as a tender. His actions were praised by the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Don Miguel de la Torres–laud that was remarkable in that Torres had not heretofore been particularly cooperative with US anti-piracy efforts.
On April 4th Sloat returned to St. Thomas and there learned the fate of the eleven captured pirates. Found guilty at a quick trial, they were promptly executed by firing squad. When asked if he wanted to be blindfolded for his execution, Cofrecinas declined stating he had murdered 300-400 by his own hand and had certainly learned how to die properly by now. From the confessions of these pirates, 28 others were captured, tried, and executed. Their bodies were beheaded, quartered, and sent to all the corners of the island by the Spanish authorities. Following this, piracy along the Puerto Rican coast came to a halt almost completely.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 9 MAR 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Allen, Gardner W., Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates. Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1929, pp. 82-84.
Earle, Peter. The Pirate Wars. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2003, p. 246.
Naval Register for the Year 1822. AT: http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/usn/1822/navreg1822.html, retrieved 4 April 2013.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 38.
