# Matthew Luke

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**Matthew Luke** (died 1722, occasionally named **Mateo Luque** or **Matteo Luca**)[1] was an Italian pirate and privateer active in the [Caribbean](/source/Caribbean).

## History

Luke, originally from [Genoa](/source/Genoa), had been cruising the Caribbean under commission from the Spanish Governor of [Puerto Rico](/source/Puerto_Rico) as a *[guarda costa](/source/Guarda_costa)* [privateer](/source/Privateer). With his sloop *Vengeance* (or *Venganza*) he had earlier captured four English vessels and murdered their crews.[2] In April 1722 he spotted a merchant ship off of [Hispaniola](/source/Hispaniola) and moved alongside to attack it. The ship turned out to be Captain Candler's 40-gun [fifth-rate](/source/Fifth-rate) [frigate](/source/Frigate) *HMS Launceton* (or *Lauceston / Lanceston*),[3] sent to the Caribbean to replace the scrapped *HMS Ludlow Castle*.[4]

Candler's men boarded the *Vengeance*, whose sailors claimed she was a merchant trader. The paper wrap from a [powder cartridge](/source/Paper_cartridge) was determined to be a page from the journal of a [snow](/source/Snow_(ship)) named *Crean*, whose crew had been murdered.[5] In the ship's hold they found the rest of the 58-man crew in hiding, all of which were arrested and returned to [Port Royal](/source/Port_Royal).[6] The Launceton's logbooks note, "25 Apr 1722 - Cape Tiberon - captured boat from Puerto Rico with hiding crew."[7] The crewmen were tried and shown to be pirates, one of whom confessed to killing twenty English men with his bare hands.[5] Despite Spanish objections that the vessel had a legitimate privateering commission,[6] over forty of the pirates were hanged.[3]

## See also

- [Augustin Blanco](/source/Augustin_Blanco) and [Simon Mascarino](/source/Simon_Mascarino), two other Spanish *guarda costa* privateers caught by English pirate hunters.

## References

1. Travers, Tim (2012). [*Pirates: A History*](https://books.google.com/books?id=gu8SDQAAQBAJ). Stroud UK: The History Press. ISBN 9780752488271. Retrieved 28 July 2017.

1. Gosse, Philip (1924). [*The Pirates' Who's Who by Philip Gosse*](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19564/19564-h/19564-h.htm). New York: Burt Franklin. Retrieved 23 June 2017.

1. Cordingly, David (2013). [*Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates*](https://books.google.com/books?id=fnoi6SM1u5cC). New York: Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307763075. Retrieved 28 July 2017.

1. Shipley, John (2015). [*Little Book of Shropshire*](https://books.google.com/books?id=S2QTDQAAQBAJ). Stroud UK: The History Press. ISBN 9780750963428. Retrieved 28 July 2017.

1. Johnson, Captain Charles (1724). [*A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE PYRATES*](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40580/40580-h/40580-h.htm). London: T. Warner. Retrieved 18 June 2017.

1. Earle, Peter (2003). [*The Pirate Wars*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VkPb_vEg1aQC). New York: Macmillan. pp. 199–200. ISBN 9780312335793. Retrieved 28 July 2017.

1. ["HMS Launceton 1721-1722"](http://baylusbrooks.com/index_files/Page23292.htm). *baylusbrooks.com*. Retrieved 22 December 2018.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Matthew Luke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Luke) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Luke?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.