Daniel Johnson (pirate)
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Daniel Johnson (1629–1675) was an
Biography
Born in
Johnson soon rose through the ranks and was soon promoted to chief, within two years, had become a lieutenant by 1659. However, they soon began to quarrel over the distribution of spoils, and eventually fought a duel in which Van Vin was seriously wounded.
Leaving Van Vin soon after, he signed with Pierre le Picard and later participated in Sir
During the following year, commanding a 24-gun brig, he attacked a 56-gun Spanish galleon which had been carrying a shipment of gold from Guatemala to Spain and, despite being outmanned and outgunned, the 900-ton vessel surrendered to Johnson after an hour of fighting. Gaining a considerable amount of notoriety following the incident, Spanish authorities offered a reward of $25,000 for his capture (one of the largest bounties ever offered at the time).
In 1666, after joining other buccaneers in pillaging the coast of Venezuela, his ship sank near the western coast of Cuba on his return voyage to Tortuga and escaped with several others in an open boat.
After being informed of his presence in the area, the Spanish governor of Havana sent out a 15-gun brig to capture him. However, upon encountering the vessel, Johnson instead captured the Spanish brig after a fierce battle. With his crew far too small to guard the 200 captured prisoners, he supposedly had them murdered with their heads sent to the Havana governor.
After several years of evading Spanish authorities, he was finally captured by a small fleet of four Spanish men-of-war. Sustaining seventeen wounds during the battle, he was brought to Panama where he was nursed to health by physicians so he would be able to stand trial, and he was publicly hanged in the city square in 1675.
References
- "Johnson, Daniel." Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. Ed. James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Vol. III. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887. (pg. 441).