Henry Morgan - Cartagena Raid

Cartagena Raid

In the same fashion as before, Morgan set out to assemble a fleet of buccaneers that would be willing to engage in a bold attack on the Spanish Main and was able to attract nine-hundred men to his eleven-ship fleet. Once gathered, Morgan brought his men to the Isla Vaca, also known as Cow Island, to decide on a city to attack. After deliberation it was decided that the Spanish settlement of Cartagena would be their intended target because of the riches it contained. It was one of Spain's most important cities, and held all of the gold that was in transit from Peru to Spain, so sacking Cartagena would not only provoke the Spanish into an attack while weakening one of their strongest cities, but it would also make for a very large loot.

The night that the final decision to attack Cartagena was made, there was a celebration. During this rum-filled celebration, a few intoxicated sailors accidentally lit a fuse that ignited explosives on board Morgan's flagship, the Oxford, which was originally a gift given to Modyford to help protect Jamaica from privateers like Morgan. However, the ship ended up in Morgan's possession and became his flagship. When the Oxford was destroyed, many men lost their lives, and many others chose to desert seeing the tragedy as an omen of bad luck, so the fleet was decreased to only ten ships and eight-hundred men. However, Morgan still continued onto the Spanish Main to attack Cartagena in March 1669 after supplementing his loss with that of another great ship (a French vessel of 36 guns; 24 iron, 12 brass), which coincidentally he’d already designed to acquire on the night of the explosion.

Having previously desired to strengthen his fleet by joining this great vessel with that of his own (the “Oxford”), he knew the French would not join the English for mistrust. So using earlier news he had happened to learn of, this being that an English merchant ship had crossed paths with these French pirates and allowed them credit for desperately needed provisions they could not afford, he shrewdly but underhandedly plotted to have the bewildered French imprisoned for committing acts of piracy against the English, and subsequently seize their ship.

This he achieved, albeit in a manner he had not expected, after inviting the French Commander and several of his men aboard his great ship to dine, but with the deceptive intention to instantly take them prisoners under accusations of piracy against the English for their dealings with the aforementioned merchant ship. That same night, the unfortunate mishap with the lighting of that fuse occurred. Now Morgan desperately required the French vessel for himself, more so than before, and so deduced to add to his previous accusation that the French prisoners had also caused the explosion on the ship out of revenge for their imprisonment.

With Morgan’s accusation heard, the French ship was searched. Here, a commission given to the French from the Governor of Baracoa was uncovered. This stipulated that the French were permitted to trade in Spanish ports, etc., but crucially to also cruise on any English pirates due to the hostilities they had committed against Spain during a time of peace between the two nations (Spain and France). Morgan manipulated this letter’s intent into being a direct threat. That the French be allowed to exercise piracy and war against them. The French could not clear themselves of this accusation, and hence had their great vessel seized and themselves sent to Jamaica, where they continued to try to clear their names, but all in vain, as they were detained in prison and threatened with hanging.

Morgan and his men set out to continue their design for Cartagena, but the voyage proved to be disastrous to the strength of the fleet. Since the crew was forced to sail into the wind the entire way to the Spanish Main, many of the vessels were unable to continue on because either the sailors were too exhausted from working day and night or the ship was under too much stress. When Morgan finally made it to the Spanish Main, his original crew of nine-hundred had been diminished to only five hundred, a force far too weak to overtake the highly-protected city of Cartagena. A French captain onboard suggested to Morgan that they attempt to sack Maracaibo that he had been to three years prior under the leadership of the notoriously brutal pirate Francois L'Olonnais.