{{Short description|Caribbean pirate (d. 1719)}} {{Infobox pirate | honorific_prefix = | name = Joseph Thompson | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | baptised = | disappeared_date = | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date =1719 | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Pirate | years_active = | era = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = A single incident involving grenades | notable_works = | style = | home_town = | salary = | net_worth = | height = | weight = | television = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charge = | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | callsign = | awards = | website = | nickname = | alias = | type = | allegiance = | serviceyears = | base of operations = Caribbean | rank = | commands = ''Eagle'' | battles = | wealth = | laterwork = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}
'''Joseph Thompson''' (died 1719) was a pirate from Trinidad, Cuba,<ref name="Little">{{cite book|last1=Little|first1=Benerson|title=Pirate Hunting: The Fight Against Pirates, Privateers, and Sea Raiders from Antiquity to the Present|date=2010|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|location=Washington DC|isbn=9781597975889|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MW8wMof8MGgC|accessdate=28 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> (then part of New Spain) and was active in the Caribbean. He is primarily known for a single incident involving grenades.
==History==
Thompson was among 209 pirates on New Providence who declared to Captain Vincent Pearse their intention to accept a 1718 offer of amnesty and pardon. Along with Charles Vane and a few others, he soon returned to piracy.<ref name="Brooks - Pearse">{{cite web |title=Pearse to Admiralty 3 Jun 1718 |url=http://baylusbrooks.com/index_files/Page972.htm |website=baylusbrooks.com |accessdate=7 December 2018}}</ref> After picking up additional crew for his sloop ''Eagle'' (some of whom had served with William Moody), he captured and looted several ships in the vicinity.<ref name="fox - own words" /> In December 1718 in full view of Port Royal<ref name="Republic of Pirates" /> Thompson captured a ship called ''Kingston'' whose cargo was worth over £20,000. The ship's owners complained to Jamaican Governor Nicholas Lawes, but there were no Royal Navy warships available.<ref name="Headlam">{{cite book|last1=Headlam|first1=Cecil|title=America and West Indies: January 1719 {{!}} British History Online|date=1933|publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|pages=1–21|edition=January 1719|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol31/pp1-21|accessdate=28 July 2017|language=en}}</ref>
Instead Lawson issued commissions to two sloops in the harbor,<ref name="Republic of Pirates">{{cite book|last1=Woodard|first1=Colin|title=The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down|date=2008|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|location=Orlando FL|isbn=978-0547415758|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5sIuoBrFwYC|language=en}}</ref> promising them a share of the pirates' treasure in addition to the rewards guaranteed by King George's September 1717 proclamation to combat piracy.<ref name="Headlam" /> The two sloops sailed before year's end, encountering the pirate ship and another captured vessel. The pirate vessel under Captain Thompson raised a black flag and moved to attack.<ref name="Little" />
Thompson's ship came alongside one of the pirate-hunters and "threw vast numbers of powder flasks, granado shells, and stinkpots into her which killed and wounded several, and made others jump overboard."<ref name="Headlam" /> The other pirate-hunter picked up the survivors, whose stories of the fight "{{lang|enm|italic=no|so disheartned the men on board ye other vessell, the pyrate having a superior force, that they made the best of their way back to Port Royal}}."<ref name="Headlam" /> Thompson's 150-man crew, "banditti of all nations," marooned the remaining sailors on the Cayman Islands.<ref name="Headlam" />
Jamaica's merchants pleaded again with Lawes to do something about Thompson. Lawes commissioned four more 10-gun, 80-man sloops with help from the merchants,<ref name="Curtin">{{cite book|last1=Curtin|first1=Marguerite R.|title=The Story of Hanover - A Jamaican Parish|date=2012|publisher=BookBaby|location=Portland OR|isbn=9781623098483|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1tdDQAAQBAJ|accessdate=28 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> and after refitting another in Port Royal plus the arrival of the fifth-rate frigate<ref name="Shropshire">{{cite book|last1=Shipley|first1=John|title=Little Book of Shropshire|date=2015|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud UK|isbn=9780750963428|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S2QTDQAAQBAJ|accessdate=28 July 2017|language=en}}</ref> ''HMS Ludlow Castle'', divided his forces to protect incoming merchants and hunt down Thompson. Four of the sloops soon cornered Thompson's ship, killing him and recovering the ''Kingston''.<ref name="Curtin" /> Some of his surviving crew were captured to await trial in Bermuda, where they were found guilty and hanged in 1720.<ref name="fox - own words">{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=E. T. |title=Pirates In Their Own Words |date=2014 |publisher=Lulu Press, Inc |location=Raleigh NC |isbn=9781291945218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCpRCAAAQBAJ |accessdate=7 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== *Fifth-rate, the ship class of ''HMS Ludlow Castle'' (which was itself scrapped in 1721).<ref name="Shropshire" />
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Joseph}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:18th-century pirates Category:People executed for piracy Category:1719 deaths Category:Caribbean pirates Category:Pirates from New Spain