This is a free excerpt from the book You Wouldn’t Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. It’s one on several stories in a chapter built around the theme, “Refuge of Scoundrels: Reedy Island.” In addition to pirates, there are tales in that chapter about bad-guy British war ships, infectious diseases, and … well … scads of pesky crows–all of whom set up camp on the island off of Port Penn, Del. The book is all Delmarva storytelling, fun and fascinating tales from days gone by from down in Virginia to up on the Upper Eastern Shore and in Delaware. Get it online here or ask for it in your favorite independent bookstore.
The Delaware Bay and River served as a commercial superhighway in colonial times. Philadelphia ranked back then among the most populous and prosperous cities in the nation, and the cargo aboard merchant ships bound for that city proved an irresistible target for piracy. Among the privateers who came calling on Delaware were a couple whose names live on in pirate lore today—Captain Kidd and Blackbeard.
But the pirate who probably struck the most terror into the local population was the lesser-known Don Vincent Lopez. This Spaniard’s reign of terror began in May of 1748 when he showed up at the mouth of the Delaware Bay with a handful of ships. The main brig in that fleet, Saint Michael, had 14 guns. His crew numbered 160, a mix of Spaniards, Englishmen, Irishmen, and black men.
Don Vincent’s timing was impeccable. The British man-of-war assigned to protect all the valuable cargo headed to and
from Philadelphia was undergoing repairs. Finding himself free to do what pirates do, Don Vincent captured one sloop called Three Brothers. That didn’t go so well, actually. The men he left in charge of the prize got drop-dead drunk, allowing the imprisoned captain to retake his ship and sail into Lewes.
Undeterred, Don Vincent captured several other sloops and schooners. In his History of Delaware, John Thomas Sharf writes:
The long list of outrages of this character was daily increased by reports of [new] outrages [even] more daring and impudent.
Then Don Vincent made a move that previous pirates hadn’t dared to do—he sailed brazenly all the way up the bay and into the Delaware River. He had his eye on the town of New Castle and the merchant ships docked there. As he approached town, one of the prisoners he had on board, George Proctor, jumped overboard and swam to shore. A couple of historians speculate that this was actually part of Don Vincent’s plan, that he wanted an escapee to go out and spread panic and fear among the population.
That’s exactly what happened. Writing a historical piece about this in the Wilmington Morning News in 1967, W. Emerson Wilson says that Proctor regaled the people of New Castle with “lurid tales about how the pirate would burn the town and massacre the inhabitants if they dared to resist.”
But the people of New Castle did not go weak at the knees. When Don Vincent sailed into range, four cannons opened fire. From Sharf’s History of Delaware:
Lopez, finding that his reception would be rather warm if he ventured nearer, slipped his cables and dropped down the
river.
The dastardly Don Vincent found refuge on … Reedy Island, a slip of land just off of Port Penn that’s rich in historical nuggets like this. Operating from this new base, his pirates soon boarded four ships. In one case, the “pirates stripped the ship and the crew, taking every bit of clothing they had” and then “put all the naked men ashore.” Don Vincent ventured over to the New Jersey side, too, putting men in longboats so that they could travel inland along smaller rivers to raid homes and towns. W. Emerson Wilson again:
[Don Vincent] was so successful in all of his ventures that some of his English prisoners were persuaded to join him, … trying their hand at a little piracy.
Traffic through the bay and river came to a standstill. As word spread of Don Vincent’s depredations, the British finally sent two Royal Navy men-of-war down from New England. Don Vincent exchanged fire with those warships, but soon realized that he didn’t stand a chance. Most of his fleet was captured or sunk, but Don Vincent himself managed to escape.
Ironically, he is in part responsible for ending the age of piracy in Delaware. Multiple British warships remained at the mouth of the bay in the wake of Don Vincent’s months-long reign of terror. Those ships beat back every pirate ship dumb enough to show its sails. Delaware’s newspapers contain sporadic reports about minor bits of piracy into the 1780s, after which the reports peter out altogether. Don Vincent was the last of the villains to cause a real ruckus.
–posted by Jim Duffy for Whimbrel Creations LLC and Secrets of the Eastern Shore in November 2024. Excerpted from the book You Wouldn’t Believe! 44 Strange and Wondrous Delmarva Tales. Thank you for spending a little time on this site!
