Benito de Soto

A man with crossed arms.
1830 lithograph of Soto.

Benito de Soto Aboal (March 22, 1805, Mouriera, a hamlet now a suburb of Pontevedra, Spain - January 25, 1830, Gibraltar.)[1] was a Spanish pirate who operated in the Atlantic during the early 19th century. He was the captain of the pirate ship Defensor de Pedro, sometimes incorrectly named as the Burla Negra ("Black Joke"), that was responsible for several piracies in the Atlantic in 1828, in a period of increased piracy following the independence of the new states of South America.[2]

The most notable attacks were on the British Indiaman Morning Star and the American ship Topaz, which involved great violence.[1] De Soto was captured and tried in Gibraltar on 20 January 1830 and he was hanged on 25 January. Other members of his crew were captured in Spain. Their trial there began on 19 November 1829  and ten men were executed on 11 and 12 January 1830.[1][3]

  1. ^ a b c Craze, Sarah; Pennell, Richard (2020). "The pirates of the Defensor de Pedro (1828–30) and the sanitisation of a pirate legend". International Journal of Maritime History. 32 (4): 823–847. doi:10.1177/0843871420974039. S2CID 230714174.
  2. ^ McCarthy, Matthew (2013). Privateering, Piracy and British Policy in Spanish America, 1810–1830. Woodbridge: Boydell press.
  3. ^ Craze, Sarah (2022). Atlantic Piracy in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Shocking Story of the Pirates and the Survivors of the Morning Star. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.