The Hunt for Privateer Cohen

Port of Santa Marta (1845) by Edward Walhouse Mark

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February 2024 update: I located Juan Cohen's death certificate, saying "Señor Juan Bautista Cohen (John Cohen), de ochenta y tres años de edad, casado, natural de Bristol, [...] Reino Unido de la Gran Bretaña" (John Cohen, 83 years of age, native of Bristol, UK) died on July 16, 1869 in El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia. See my latest findings on my Cohen y Herrera Leiva family history page.

After two centuries, Juan Cohen still knows how to capture the imagination. Six of his distant descendants — Claudia, David, Gina, Patricia, Veronica, and I — have recently formed a WhatsApp group to compare notes on our search for clues about our 19th-century Colombian ancestor's life. 

Last year I wrote a post on Juan Cohen, and how there are many sources on the latter half of his life as a British trader in Colombia, but so far no definitive proof of his origins. Family lore says Juan was a Jew from London, England who came to Colombia during its war for independence. I found an 1815 article referring to a British subject named John Cohen taken captive by the Spanish in Cartagena, and I believe this could be the same man. 

Some family stories say Juan Cohen was a ship captain, and since last year my distant cousins and I have found an increasing amount of sources about a Captain Cohen who plundered and traded across the Caribbean in the 1810s and 1820s. 

The most intriguing mention is the "Captain Cohen, Sephardic Jew of Curacao" that historian Enrique Otero D'Costa says took part in the 1821 naval siege of Cartagena that retook the city from the Spanish. This naval battle took place on the Feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1821, and I wonder if Juan's full name of "Juan Bautista Cohen" was in homage of this day?

I have compiled a list of privateering voyages and naval battles between 1813 to 1825 involving Captain Cohen and/or ships he commanded. Most of my sources came from extensive Google Books searches. Please note that Captain Cohen was a privateer, meaning he had government papers legalizing his theft on the high seas. Pirates, on the other hand, lack the legal paperwork granting permission to steal, even though technically all stealing from ships can be considered piracy. Historian Jane Lucas De Grummond writes that Cartagena's licenses to legally plunder Spanish ships were only good for three months, so this privateer Cohen probably renewed his license many times over.  

April - June 1813: Two men named Philips and Cohen lead a privateering ship called the Kingston Packet, which flies the flag of independent Cartagena. A Jamaican newspaper describes the crew as "Americans, Frenchmen and Spaniards," and adds that the ship took two prizes. Source: Itineraries of Freedom: Revolutionary Travels and Slave Emancipation in Colombia and the Greater Caribbean 1789-1830 by Edgardo Pérez Morales. 

December 1815: Four British subjects who are residents of Cartagena are held captive by the Spanish General Pablo Morillo: John Cohen, John Macpherson, John Welsh, and Leonard Hebden. The Hispanic-Anglosphere's extensive Database of Volunteers in Gran Colombia indicates that John MacPherson later settled in Venezuela and John Welsh tried to form a cavalry militia unit in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1821. 

December 1815 - January 1816: American-born privateer Renato Beluche's ship La Popa accompanies a brigantine from Cartagena, El Centinela, and they capture "two Spanish brigs from Cádiz bound to Havana, laden with silks and other valuable goods." They also take several items from a third ship, Dos Amigos, which they release. El Centinela leads the two captured ships to Aux Cayes, Haiti, where the seized cargo is valued at $40,000 and sold for $30,000. El Centinela would later be commanded by Captain Cohen. Source: Renato Beluche: Smuggler, Privateer, and Patriot, 1780-1860 by Jane Lucas De Grummond. 

November 1819: The scientist Joaquín Acosta travels on Captain J. Cohen's schooner to the coast of San Blas in modern-day Panama. Cohen trades with a local cacique, Cuipana, and has him swear allegiance to Gran Colombia. Source: Biografía Del General Joaquín Acosta by Soledad Acosta de Samper, his daughter.

June 24, 1821: As mentioned above, Captain Cohen, a Sephardic Jew from Curacao, sails a brigantine named El Centinela during the naval siege of Cartagena led by Admiral José Prudencio Padilla. 

October 16, 1821: The U.S. brig Enterprise and Captain Charles C. Hopner's ship Centilla defeat four pirate ships off Cape San Antonio, Cuba. Source: Our Navy and the West Indian Pirates: A Documentary History by Caspar Frederick Goodrich.

November 1821 - March 1822: El Centinela [misspelled "Centinella" and "Centinelle"], owned by "Kirkland and Cohen," captures a French slaving ship, the brigantine La Pensée, and its 240 enslaved African people. A U.S. ship named the Hornet, commanded by Captain Robert Henley, captures the Centinela and brings the Colombian ship, French ship, and the enslaved African people to New Orleans. A New Orleans district court judge rules that Kirkland and Cohen are legal privateers and are the rightful owners of the French ship and enslaved people, but then President James Monroe orders the French ship and enslaved people be returned to the French. Historian Jonathan Bryant says by the time the French legal system condemned the illegal slavers in July 1822, "only 160 captives remained alive of the 270 La Pensée loaded in Africa." Sources: Dark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Antelope by Jonathan M. Bryant and Annals of the Congress of the United States.

July 12, 1822: Captain Charles C. Hopner's schooner Centella [misspelled "Centinella"] and Captain Cohen's schooner Padilla attack a ship named Culloden. The Centella "had chased a small Pirate on shore on the Florida Reef the day before." Source: Lloyd's of London (Google Books). 

September 13, 1822: The Padilla, commanded by Captain Cowan, captures the Protector, a ship bringing "valuable cargo" from Cádiz to Havana, at Cape San Antonio, Cuba. This Captain Cowan lands at Charleston, South Carolina on November 5th. Source: Lloyd's of London (Google Books). 

November 23, 1822: The brig Waterloo runs aground on the Tortuga Shoals on the coast of Florida, and Captain Charles C. Hopner, commanding La Centilla, brings the Waterloo to Savannah, Georgia, where it is repaired. Source: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Exchequer and Exchequer Chamber.

February 1823: Captain J. Coen sails his schooler Padilla back to Cartagena after a privateering cruise. Source: Itineraries of Freedom by Edgardo Pérez Morales. 

February - June 1823: Captain Charles C. Hopner's ship Centilla captures several Spanish ships, including the schooner Bella Dolores and the brig Rosalie. Hopner takes the loot to Captain Joshua Appleby at Port Monroe in the Florida Keys, who resells the goods in U.S. ports. The business arrangement between Hopner and Appleby ends in a legal case that stretches from 1824 to 1828. In the meantime, Hopner became a privateer in the tiny Mexican Army and was briefly in U.S. custody on charges of piracy. Sources: The Florida Keys: A History of the Pioneers by John Viele and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

August 1, 1824: The armed Spanish brig Mariner battles the Padilla in the Salt Key Bank between Florida and Cuba. The Mariner then explodes and sinks, drowning 49 crew members, and the surviving 31 crew members are rescued by the Padilla. Source: Wikipedia, "List of shipwrecks in August 1824"

September 1824: The acting Spanish Charge d'Affairs in Washington, D.C. writes the U.S. State Department about privateers, and says the Padilla was last in Charleston, SC and it is commanded by Gaston Daverac but its "true captain" is a U.S.-born mariner named Bradford. The Centella wrecks a ship on Key West, and Captain Appleby sells $15,000 of its stolen cargo, including sugar, cigars, cochineal, and indigo. The captain of the Centella sells the rest of the stolen merchandise. 

January 3, 1825: Centilla, a "pirate schooner" that was "formerly a Colombian privateer," captures the Spanish brig Maceas and its cargo of tobacco. Source: Piracy in the West Indies and Its Suppression by Francis B.C. Bradlee. 

Recreation of U.S. brig Enterprise and pirate schooners in 1821. Source: "On the Account: Piracy and the Americas, 1766-1835" by Joseph Gibbs. 

The first record that I can confidently link to my Colombian ancestor Juan Cohen is a letter written by Commodore Walter Dawes Chitty on September 19, 1825, saying his agent in Cartagena, Juan Cohen, received a payment from the Intendente of Magdalena Department. "Gualterio Chitty," as he was known in Gran Colombia, was an associate of Simón Bolívar and Admiral José Prudencio Padilla and the brother-in-law of Admiral William Brown, the founder of the Argentinian Navy.    

It's possible that Commodore Chitty turned to a privateer with an extensive maritime career for his business dealings. Hopefully more documents can definitively prove whether or not Captain Cohen is the same person as my ancestor Juan Cohen. 

Read my first post on Juan Cohen, "Sailor John and Trader Juan."

Note: This blog post is updated to reflect that the Colombian schooners El Centinela and Centella were separate ships. 

Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut (at) gmail.com.