Neither Blackbeard nor Drake: the ‘King of the Caribbean’ was Enríquez, the Spanish privateer who struck terror into the English
For over 30 years, during the golden age of piracy, the true master of the Caribbean was not an English pirate, but a mixed-race man from Puerto Rico who made the British Empire tremble.
When we talk about pirates, privateers, buccaneers, or filibusters, the same British names always come up: Henry Morgan, Blackbeard, Calico Jack... ruthless, unscrupulous men who ravaged the Caribbean Sea with blood and fire, seized immeasurable treasures—real or imagined—and became legends of popular culture.
However, during the golden age of piracy, between 1700 and 1730, there was only one privateer who was dubbed the ‘King of the Caribbean,’ who struck fear into English, French, and Dutch ships, who was labeled “The Great Archvillain” by the English Parliament, and who rose to become a hero of the Spanish Empire. His name was Miguel Enríquez, likely the greatest privateer in history, and the one who amassed the most wealth and power. He was also the true captain of La Perla, the name of one of his flagship vessels.
A mixed-race man rejected by the nobility
He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1674. His mother was the daughter of a white father and a Guinean or Angolan enslaved woman. His father, an aristocrat or a member of the clergy, was never identified—likely to avoid scandal. These origins would haunt him throughout his life. The Spanish nobility of the time refused to associate with a mixed-race man who was also vastly wealthier and more powerful than they were. As a result, they spent his entire life trying to undermine him, strip him of his power, and seize his fortune.
From a very young age, he began working as a shoemaker’s apprentice, but he also showed exceptional intelligence. He learned to read and write—unusual for someone of his social class. He also had a talent for numbers and eventually became a master shoemaker, tanner, and boilermaker. His versatility was rare: “It was uncommon to be a master of so many trades,” notes historian López Cantos.
The Crown’s top hunter
He served in the military, dabbled in smuggling, and in 1701, at the age of 27, was hired by Governor Gabriel Gutiérrez de la Riva as a merchant in his service following the outbreak of the War of Spanish Succession. Two years later, he became a “coast guard,” the term Spain used for its privateers. Within months, he had become the Crown’s most effective hunter, and the British began to worry: “he is a constant threat to English trade in the Caribbean,” stated British documents of the time.
At first, he relied on just a couple of small, fast ships with a few dozen men, but as he captured vessels, he added them to his fleet, which eventually grew to over 30 ships and 1,500 sailors. Over his lifetime, he is believed to have commanded more than 300 vessels and even built his own shipyards. He constantly replenished the ships and crews he lost in battle. The English couldn’t keep up as he seized their merchant ships and sank their privateers. “This Enríquez behaves as if he were the viceroy of these islands. He has more ships than the Navy and more gold than the king’s treasury,” wrote a Spanish official in 1725.
The most successful privateer in the world
In 1707, he was named Captain of Sea and War and personally commended in writing by King Philip V. In 1712, he was knighted—a rare honor for a mixed-race man. His spy network was vast; nothing happened in the Caribbean without his knowledge. His fleet became even more powerful in those waters than the Crown’s own navy. But his exploits weren’t limited to the Caribbean. He pursued the English into the Atlantic and even captured ships in New England. According to historian Salvador Brau, he was “the most successful privateer in the Hispanic world.”
But as is often the case in Spain, his success earned him envy, conspiracies, and a long list of enemies. He was repeatedly accused of smuggling, abuse of power, and corruption. In 1713, for example, the new governor of Puerto Rico, Juan de Ribera, tried to create a rival privateering network to enrich himself, confiscating Enríquez’s assets. This caused part of Enríquez’s fleet to stop obeying him, turn to piracy, and sow chaos in the region. Two years later, Ribera was removed from office, imprisoned, and Enríquez regained his power.
A forgotten legacy
For the next 20 years, Enríquez continued to destroy pirate strongholds throughout the Caribbean, capturing British merchant ships at a staggering pace and evading or sinking the British vessels sent to hunt him down. No other privateer in history had such a long and successful career. His only real problem was at home. When the sitting governor of Puerto Rico allowed him to do his job, he was unstoppable—sometimes even needing to be reined in to avoid diplomatic incidents. But he also had to endure governors who used their power to imprison him and attempt to seize the wealth he had accumulated.
In 1729, after the end of the Anglo-Spanish War, Enríquez was no longer essential to the Crown’s control of the Caribbean, and his decline began. In 1733, Matías de Abadía was appointed governor of Puerto Rico and seized all of Enríquez’s ships, properties, and fortune. The privateer tried to resolve the situation as he always had—by appealing to King Philip V—but received no reply. The Crown no longer needed him, and the nobility of the time took advantage of his vulnerability to bring him down. To avoid imprisonment, he entered the Santo Tomás convent in Puerto Rico, where he spent the final years of his life.
He died in 1743 at the age of 60, poor and forgotten. And inexplicably, the Crown erased the legacy of a privateer whose name alone once made English pirates—now legends—pale in comparison.
Note: The image at the beginning of this article does not depict Miguel Enríquez. No known portrait of him has been preserved. It was generated using AI.
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