José María Pinedo (21 June 1795 – 19 February 1885) was a commander in the navy of the United Provinces of the River Plate, one of the precursor states of what is now known as Argentina.

José María Pinedo was born on 21 July 1795 in Buenos Aires, then part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata of the Spanish Empire.

His father, José Agustín de Pinedo, was a colonel in the Spanish army; his mother was Juana Albizuri y Echaurri.

[1] On 1 April 1816, Pinedo began his naval career as an unranked officer in the crew of the corvette Vigilancia, under the command of Major Jorge Ross.

On 26 December 1819, Fortuna took part in the Battle of Boca del Colastiné where Hubac was mortally wounded and replaced by Captain Manuel Monteverde.

In March 1820, Monteverde's squadron under the auspices of the Treaty of Pilar came under the command of Francisco Ramírez and joined the forces fighting against those of Caudillo José Gervasio Artigas.

On 6 November 1820, he was promoted to acting 1st Lieutenant and after the campaign he was transferred to the port of Buenos Aires as a staff officer, where he established the headquarters of the navy's Service of Hygiene.

As part of Brown's continued aggressive campaign, on May 2, Pinedo participated in the Battle of the Ortiz bank and in the same month exchanged fire with the Maceió and on May 23 his ship was hit flush with the waterline.

Following the USS Lexington raid of 1831, Luis Vernet refused to continue as military and civil commander in the Falklands Islands.

[10] Governor Juan Rosas conferred upon Major Esteban Mestivier the appointment of interim military and civil commander on 10 September 1832.

This, combined with the Lexington raid of 1831 spurred the British to send a naval patrol to re-assert sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

[11] On 21 November 1832, Sarandí departed on patrol around the Falkland Islands, where she encountered the American sealer The Sun under the command of T.P.Trott[15] on 7 December 1832.

[11] The mutiny was suppressed by armed sailors from the French whaler Jean Jacques, whilst Mestivier's widow was taken on board the Rapid (a British sealer).

He had twenty five soldiers at his disposal,[25] although nine men had been implicated in the mutiny as had the adjutant, captain Juan Antonio Gomila (Mestivier's second-in-command).

[27] One concern was that a large number of his crew were British mercenaries,[26] which was not unusual in the newly independent states in Latin America, where land forces were strong, but navies were frequently quite undermanned.

He was found guilty with a split decision between execution and being expelled from the service being decided by the Judge Advocate in favour of expulsion.

He commanded the Brig General Rosas[33] between April and June 1834 patrolling the River Plate before transferring to the Schooner San Martin until September, when he joined the squadron of colonel Tomas Espora, which patrolled the Paraná river against any attempts of infiltration by the Paraguayan fleet, after threats made by Paraguayan dictator Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia.

[37] Pinedo participated in riverine action against the forces of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi,[37] whose squadron was eventually destroyed at the battle of Costa Brava.

Pinedo later served again in the Argentine Navy, being tasked to organise a squadron by Rosas as part of a naval academy, he hoisted his flag in the schooner Julio in 1850.

[40] The following day Commodore John Halstead Coe followed suit, both receiving an award of two million pesos in ounces of gold, to be distributed among the officers.