With the end of the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic wars in 1815, an unprecedented wave of piracy swept the American seaboard and the Caribbean when some of the hundreds of captains who were privateers in the wars, now with free time on their hands, began preying upon the growing numbers of merchant vessels.
One such pirate was Roberto Cofresi, a tall blond giant of a man with piercing blue eyes who wrecked havoc on the merchant fleets other than those of Royal Spain. Today there is a monument to him in Puerto Rico. Read about the fascinating real pirate who is a character in my seafaring Regency, WIND RAVEN, HERE.