Benito Bonito

The romantic adventures of the Blood Blade were widely publicized in 1853, when an interview from Mary Welch or Welsh was published in the San Francisco newspaper . This woman, who came with her husband from Australia, stated that in 1820 she was abducted in Panama by captain Benito Bonito - "a pirate whose name terrified the hearts of all who lived in those terrible places." According to her, under the pseudonym Benito Bonito was hiding "a real English gentleman of fortune," Alexander Graham, the British captain who commanded the Devonshire brig during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. However, Horatio Nelson did not award him properly, and Graham took his brig into American waters with the intention of becoming a pirate. Most of the team supported their captain, the rest landed on the Panamanian coast.

His first known prey was the Relampago galleon , captured from Acapulco . After this attack, the pirate delivered the booty to the uninhabited island of Cocos. On the shore of Weifer Bay, sailors dug a mine into an underground cave, where they hid the loot. Six months later, the Bloody Blade returned to Cocos Island again with the extraction, “which was no less than the first,” the gold was unloaded onto the shore and again sheltered in a cave.

During the third campaign, Benito Bonito was not lucky: he was overtaken by two British royal frigates off the coast of Costa Rica, who drove his ship to the sandbank , and was captured. He managed to give Mary a map with the place of hidden treasures marked on it. After that, Benito Bonito and most of the crew were hanged without a trial (according to another version, they were executed in England ), and the British “sailors” repented Mary and several robbers were taken to London . The royal court sentenced Mary to hard labor on the island of Tasmania , where she married John Welch, with whom, after the end of her sentence, she moved to California .

The veracity of Mary Welch's story is called into question. According to her, Graham Bonito allegedly became a pirate shortly after the Battle of Trafalgar - that is, in 1805. And he stole the young beauty when she was eighteen years old - in 1820, and this allegedly happened at the beginning of his pirate "career". In the British archives, historians were unable to track down the lawsuit in the trial of the Bloodblade friend and other Devonshire pirates brought to London. Moreover, in no document related to the case of the pirate Alexander Graham, the name "Mary" is not mentioned.

However, according to the main version, the pirate Benito Bonito was indeed Alexander Graham. The exact date of birth of this person has not been established. He began his career in the English Royal Navy , rose to the rank of captain of the Devonshire brig and distinguished himself in the famous Battle of Trafalgar. In 1818, the Devonshire was on a long hike off the Pacific coast of America , where there was a war for the independence of the Spanish colonies . The reason Alexander Graham decided to become a pirate is not exactly known. According to some sources, the decision to become a sea robber was influenced by the valuable information received by the Devonshire captain about the Spanish transporting gold and silver mined in the mines of Mexico to the port of Acapulco.

Off the coast of America, Captain Graham announced to the team that he intends to forget about the military oath forever, capture the Spanish good and from now on care only for his own good.

According to this version, in order not to endanger his relatives who remained in England, he took the name Benito Bonito. He made several successful pirate raids, the first of which was the capture of a caravan of gold. The Spaniards delivered gold and silver on horses and mules to the sea, where in a predetermined place, before loading onto the ship, they were transferred to the guards in a special form according to the inventory. Having accurate information about the route and destination of the “golden” caravan, Graham landed and attacked a guard detachment awaiting valuable cargo.

Having dressed his sailors in the form of the killed guards, the pirate waited for the caravan to arrive, unexpectedly attacked and interrupted the Spanish soldiers accompanying him. Placing gold and silver on his ship, the Blood Blade hid. According to other sources, Bonito landed on land, captured a convoy, dressed his people in their uniforms, and in front of everyone, loaded gold on the ship, and this crime passed without bloodshed.

According to other sources, the name Benito Bonito was not Alexander, but Bennett Grahame, and although this version of the legend agrees that he commanded the Devonshire brig, Graham decided to become a pirate later, in 1818, when the Devonshire was sent on a South American coast exploration mission. Third sources identify Benito Bonito and Benetta Graham, considering them to be different people, who, however, acted together for some period.

According to Australian treasure hunters, Benito Bonito, after robbing several Spanish treasure ships, did not go to Cocos Island, but went straight to the shores of their continent . They believed that a pirate was heading to Melbourne , but when he entered Port Phillip Bay , he was suddenly attacked by an English royal frigate. The Bloody Blade managed to escape, landed ashore at Cape Queenscliff (Victoria), where he hid a treasure worth £ 30 million. The treasure was hidden in a cave, the entrance to which was blocked up, blowing up a barrel of gunpowder . After some time, the pirates were caught and hanged - all but the young man who managed to escape to the island of Tasmania. It is alleged that this young man had a tattoo on his left forearm, on which a cave with Benito Bonito's treasure was marked with a cross. The ending of this story is traditional for most of the treasure stories: many attempts to find the treasure transported by the pirates to Australia ended to no avail.

• Victor Gubarev - "Benito Bonito and His Treasures . "
• "Lure of Pirate Treasure . "
• "Benito Bonito . "
• "Legends and lore of the Sharks Island . "