User talk:HollyHedges

Benito de Soto
This page on Benito de Soto is a huge problem: it is inaccurate or incorrect in most of the facts. There is no evidence that de Soto renamed his ship Black Joke - that seems to be a confusion that came later as the story developed. Very few of the crew of the Morning Star were killed. The women passengers were not locked down in the hold with the crew, but were secured separately in a deckhouse, which allowed the women to escape and free the crew and male passengers after the pirates left. The Morning Star was not rescued the following day but over a month later on 13 March by the Guilford. The Defensor de Pedro left the Morning Star and then plundered four other ships (not one) before reaching Pontevedra, which was their first port of call not La Coruna. The man de Soto forced to steer the ship came from the Topaz. De Soto was not captured with his men in Gibraltar becasue he and one other were the only members of the crew who went to Gibraltar. The others were captured in Cadiz tried and executed there. De Soto was executed in Gibraltar alone (the other man escaped) and although he was hanged, his head was not put on a pike. Another editor has corrected the assertion that de Soto died in Cadiz in the first para but not in the final para - so the article contradicts itself. The other editor refers to a Spanish account of the trial by Lazaga, which is a good source, although it is not listed in the article. There is recent writing by Stephen Constantine and Sarah Craze and Richard Pennell that gives a much more reliable account because it is based on archival records (mainly of the trials in Cadiz and Gibraltar, but also eyewitness accounts. So what do we do? Rewrite the whole article from the beginning? What is the procedure for this? - it's not just a few details that need cleaning up.

HollyHedges (talk) 22:12, 4 August 2021 (UTC)