Hunting the Last Great Pirate

In 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 _Morning Star_, were despatched to sail to Colombo to repatriate wounded British soldiers and a cargo of sealed crates containing captured treasure. By January 1828 , _Morning Star _was 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. The 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. _Morning Star_ 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