José Joaquim Almeida

His brilliant performance as a sailor and tactician also enriched his funding partners and made him a war hero, especially when, in the winter of 1814, Kemp successfully attacked a convoy of nine British ships.

In total Kemp captured 11 enemy ships, including the packet Lady Mary Pelham and brig Portsea, vessels Ottawa and Princess, the sloop P. W. Mynes, and the schooner Resolution.

While in New Orleans he heard from the Spanish expedition under General Pablo Morillo, and wanting to take advantage of trade restrictions in the area, went to Cartagena de Indias, Viceroyalty of New Granada, to smuggle.

On May 14, 1816, Almeida left from Baltimore in command of the schooner Congress, the former Orb, measuring 165 tons, and bearing copper-lined helmets, armed with 7 to 9 long guns, one of them rotating, and manned with 75 men.

Meanwhile, he requested citizenship but was denied by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, the Supreme Director of the United Provinces, on October 25, 1816, stating that the letter of marque was sufficient for the purpose of proving that he acted in the service of the nation and not as a mere pirate.

As part of its mission, they carried the Colonel Manuel Dorrego to the United States, by order of Pueyrredón, but being found sick and at his request they moved him to the captured schooner San Antonio in the vicinity of Cuba.

The Spanish ambassador in Washington D.C., Luis de Onis, on March 30, 1817, informed the Secretary of State, Pedro Cevallos Guerra, that on 26 February "there are nine ships armed to arrive in the Santiago de Cuba port by an American captain who came from Cartagena to Cuba, had summoned the governor of that city, to hand him over 30 prisoners who belonged to the insurgents, and persuaded me that the Anglo Americans will be taken in by one of the pirates they had captured in that port, on the understanding that if they are not delivered, later they would hang in sight of the strong Spanish men they brought with them, and all who would be caught hereinafter.

While Judge James Houston in private not believe in the veracity of the arguments, and even joked about the changing the crew list to Anglo-Saxon names, dismissed the cause for insufficient evidence and ordered that his ship be returned to him.

The postmaster, John Skinner, had been " accused of being involved in the corsair pirates"; the customs collector, James McCulloh, was "an American enthusiast, and easily fooled by scoundrels," inspectors that "were in the habit to receive import merchants gifts", etc...

However, although it was difficult to succeed in the fight against pirates in a city where many of his neighbors were involved in these activities, Zamorano and other agents, besides pressuring Spanish authorities and judicial officers, were following the trail of the effects stolen to burden them and incentivized local lawyers by offering them 10% of the true seizures that were made.

But Almeida did not wait to be arrested again, and working at an unnatural speed to ready his ship and crew, started to sail for Cadiz, or in the Spanish ambassador's words "took advantage of the first favorable wind to go out to sea with great fury and continue his atrocities."

In his 1817 campaign the ship carried 22 British, 17 Americans, 9 locals, 7 Irish, 6 French, 3 Swedes, 2 Spaniards, 2 Italians, 2 people from Mallorca, 1 from Cartagena de Indias, 1 Dutchman, 1 from the West Indies, and 1 Portuguese from the Azores Islands.

After selling his load in the Azores, he followed Juan Griego to the port of Margarita Island where the ship was deemed fair game and bought by Almeida, who renamed it Luisa Cárceras (Louisa), proceeding then to lead them to the shipyards of Fells Point for enlistment.

Likewise, Congress amended the legislation so that it could be processed as piracy to " all persons " who were found in the territory of the United States, regardless of nationality, taking the privateers' main defenses, which was "foreign citizenship" .

Four days before leaving, Luisa anchored at the mouth of the Patuxent River, underneath Calvert Cliffs State Park, to transfer 6 guns, 26 rifles, 18 pistols, 17 sabers, and 30 barrels of gunpowder and ammunition.

Before the departure Almeida told reporters from the Niles' Weekly Register that he planned a trip to the Pacific via Cape Horn to fish for seals, but quipped that it would be with "16 heavy guns and 101 men."

But Almeida called for all the men on deck, ordered them to close the hatches, and armed with a knife in his right hand and a hatchet in his left, said that anyone who was not satisfied could return to the first neutral ship that could be boarded but until then, they would remain chained in the coal pit that had been prepared as a prison.

The new Spanish consul, Juan Bautista Bernabeu, hired John Purviance, a prominent lawyer and friend of President Monroe, to claim Arrogant Barcelones on behalf of its owners.

Purviance presented to the judge, again James Houston, essentially the same argument: Luisa was an American ship and was equipped in the United States to operate in privateering against Spain, in violation of the neutrality laws.

Almeida, tired of the courts, and now without the protection granted to him by the Congress financiers, traveled to Washington and visited the Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, trying to persuade him to recommend to Glenn to suspend the proceedings.

As Houston did not recover, the appointed replacement was Theodorick Bland, who was suspicions of collusion of the pirates with their financiers, and taking advantage that at this time Almeida already did not have corporate backing, immediately ordered the return of the vessel to its Spanish owners.

On appeal, Justice John Marshall, after accepting the constitutionality of the norm of the state of Virginia, determined that Wilson had not missed her and that the sailors' landing could not be considered an import, especially when the ship was going to re-embark, but had not had the opportunity to.

Accused of boarding a Spanish ship, Santiago, along the cape of Chesapeake Bay, 6 miles (9.7 km) from the coast and within the limits of the United States, taking $5,000 in goods belonging to merchants of Baltimore, forcing eight crew to go to his service and flee from the United States, the Supreme Court intervened again, posting jurisprudence and President Monroe mobilized his naval forces, maintaining the public's attention with newspaper dispatches from Savannah, Georgia to Portland, Maine.

In 1827 Almeida's ship Pichincha, under Captain Andersen and flying a Colombian flag, took several prizes in Canary Islands waters, including the Spanish schooner Antonia (Antonio Perdomo) which was captured in March.

Almeida also planned to sell the Portuguese slaves and even free blacks who formed the crews of captured ships, all of which was expressly forbidden by the Argentine laws and his privateering regulations, even since independence campaigns forced them to release him.

The captain, with three head injuries and a broken arm, and the three survivors who supported him, were locked in the chamber to defend themselves with firearms that were stored there, but the rioters threw buckets of water on the weapons and wet the gunpowder.

Vera excused himself by claiming that he did not deliver it because the captain had asked him not carry him to Puerto Rico because he was sworn not to take up arms against Spain: he had been a prisoner in the privateer Anguilita and had been taken to that place, where he vowed never to return to Colombia's service.

He also betrayed his comrades, in proceedings brought by the authorities to decide on the prize "Don Jose Vera, a resident of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Practical Sea" requested "to have full credit of the brig called Pichincha arrested in the harbor of St. Eustatius by that Portuguese will see and also several free blacks and slaves."

He remained a prisoner while they created his trial: "There imprisoned in Morro Castle the corsair Jose Almeyda, the person who continued to be the cause of the Marina Court, he was accused and charged with various heinous acts of piracy by the English, French and Portuguese governments.

This man was in very good shape, rather thick thin, broad-shouldered, very white, blue eyes, small and very expressive, blond hair, dark and curly, falling over the nape, with teeth and hands that some ladies might envy".