The Action of 10 June 1723 was a famous British victory over two pirate ships under Captain Edward Low. When off Delaware Bay of North America Low attacked a Royal Navy man-of-war which he mistook for a whaler. The resulting combat lasted several hours and ended with the capture of one pirate vessel.

Edward Low was an eighteenth century pirate from New England known for his extreme cruelty. He personally killed over fifty-men and committed several atrocities such as forcing prisoners he captured to cannibalism. By summer of 1723 Low commanded the eighty ton schooner named Fancy and was the most feared pirate in the Atlantic so the British dispathched several warships on counter-piracy patrols. Accompanying Fancy was the sloop-of-war Ranger under Captain Charles Harris. Fancy was armed with ten guns and had a crew of forty-four, many of whom were forced into service. Ranger was a former French sloop which was captured by Low off Grenada earlier in 1723. Her armament and number of crew is not known. Some accounts cite Low as having commanded the sloop Fortune during the encounter with the British warship HMS Greyhound under Captain Peter Solgard. The sixth-rate mounted a twenty gun armament and a complement of about 120 officers and crewmen.

Low was headed due northwest from the Azores on the right side of the Atlantic to attack shipping off the British North American colonies. Searching for Low was HMS Greyhound. While cruising off Delaware's mouth Low and his pirates sighted the man-of-war and gave chase. Low hoisted his Jolly Rodger fully suspecting his prey to be an English whaler so when the pirate ships drew near the Royal Navy ship opened fire. HMS Greyhound revealed herself with the raising of her colors and released a broadside into the Fancy as the pirates were preparing for boarding.

Low's schooner took damage and began returning shot while Harris in the Ranger maneuvered into firing posistion. Ranger opened fire briefly with her guns but after only a few minutes both the sloop and schooner chose to flee. A running battle then continued for several hours. Fancy was dismasted by well placed cannon fire and fled while Captain Harris in the Ranger could not escape the British sixth-rate. Wind was not in favor of the pirates so they used oars to help steer their ships away from the British. The use of oars proved to be pointless when the faster Greyhound came along side the Ranger and the two crews began skirmishing with small arms. Grappling hooks were thrown and the British sailors boarded the sloop. After a few more moments of intense close quarters combat; the pirates surrendered and were taken prisoner. Low's schooner Fancy is said to have carried around £150,000 in gold during the engagement.

Thirty-seven white and six black pirates were captured. Twenty-five of whom, including the young Harris, were hung near Newport, Rhode Island on June 19th, 1723. Captain Solgard became famous in New York and in England and also received prize money for the sloop he captured which also carried gold during the time of battle. Solgard eventually rose to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy. Ned Low continued his life of piracy and took several more ships including a twenty-two gun French man-of-war. He seemingly grew more cruel after his defeat particularly to his English captives. Circumstances of his death are unknown though he perished sometime in 1724. Charles Harris ended up joining forces with the Barbary pirates of North Africa and became captain of a Moorish ship before being captured off Ireland and hung in Wapping.

Diabolito or Little Devil (d. July 1823) was a 19th century Cuban pirate. One of the more violent of the era, he actively engaged the United States Navy and was one of the main fugitives pursued during later American naval expeditions in the Caribbean during the 1820s.

The Cuban-born Diabolito became known as a particularly dangerous pirate operating from his home island during the early 1800s. He among others including Charles Gibbs, Pedro Gilbert and Roberto Cofresí were identified as key figures in piracy when President James Monroe authorized the formation of an anti-piracy squadron to combat attacks on American shipping and naval forces occurring off the Florida coast. Based in Key West under Commodore David Porter, a veteran of the Barbary expedition and the War of 1812, the Mosquito Fleet soon began patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Diabolito and other Cuban-based pirates were easily able to escape from American vessels, either escaping into the back country of the Florida Keys or retreating to Cuba where Porter's forces were unable to pursue. As the years past however, Cuban ship owners and other businessmen petitioned for authorities to cooperate with The United States. Spanish officials were unable to continue turning a blind eye to piracy, which often amounted to attacks on lone merchant vessels and fishing boats, and agreed to assist in hunting down Diabolito and others.

In April 1823, Diabolito encountered Porter and cornered off the northern coast of Cuba. After a brief fight, he and his crew abandoned their ships and fled inland.  Out of his 70-man crew, 30 were either killed during the fighting or drowned while trying to swim to land. He managed to elude authorities and, acquiring another ship, he set sail for the Yucatan. He again encountered the Mosquito Fleet when the USS Gallinipper and the USS Mosquito, commanded by Lieutenant William H. Watson and Lieutenant William Inman respectively, pursued him upon finding him in Cuba once again. Although outnumbering the Americans, whose total force numbered 31 men compared to the 70 or 80 pirates, Watson gave the order to attack and sailed towards the pirates driving them into the sea. The men began abandoning their ship, the 4-gun schooner Catalina, and the American vessels were "soon in the midst of the swimmers, and, laying about right and left, exterminated dozens of them". All of his men were either killed or were captured by local authorities, Diabolito himself being killed in the water when he refused to surrender.

On April 9, 1554, a Spanish convoy set sail from the Veracruz, Mexico, port of San Juan de Ulua, on their homebound voyage to Spain, where anxious merchants awaited the treasury on board. The fleet included four ships—the San Andrés, San Esteban, Espíritu Santo, and Santa María de Yciar—and carried more than 400 people. Among them were prisoners, old conquistadors, merchants, and wealthy citizens returning home to Spain. En route the convoy was to stop off in La Havana, Cuba.

Of the four ships, only the San Andrés was to reach Havana. The remainder met a disastrous fate off the Texas coast. The story of the shipwrecks and the harrowing trials of the survivors provides one of the earliest and most interesting accounts in Texas history.

The convoy was halfway to Havana on April 29, 1554, when a storm hit. San Esteban, Espíritu Santo, and Santa María de Yciar were swept off course and ran aground on the sandbars off Padre Island, about 50 miles south of Corpus Christi Bay. More than 300 people died during the tragic event, which has become known as “The Wreck of the Three Hundred.”

The three ships wrecked within 2½ miles of each other, and it is believed that their crews and passengers banded together for comfort and safety. Master of San Esteban, Francisco del Huerto, salvaged a boat and sailed for Veracruz with a few seamen. Other survivors from the ship started walking southward, believing a Spanish outpost was within only a few days walk. Their assumption proved wrong. Of this group, only a few were to make it to Tampico, which was actually 300 miles away.

Local Karankawa Indians picked off the survivors during their torturous journey. At first, the natives offered some of the injured survivors fish to eat. Once at the campsite, they attacked them. Other Spaniards stripped off their garments along the trail, thinking the Indians wanted their clothing. Without even that meager protection, the group faced even greater hardships—mosquitoes and hot sands. Many traveled with wounds from Indian arrows, including Fray Marcos de Mena, who was shot seven times. His companions, thinking death was imminent, buried him in the sand, leaving only his head exposed. Revived by the warmth of the sand, he crawled from his "grave" and made his way along the coast. Friendly natives helped him make his way to Panuco.

Captain Huerto reached Veracruz safely, and there he told his story to Spanish officials. On June 6, a rescue mission, led by Angel de Villafañe, set out by sea to search for survivors. Meanwhile, a salvage expedition was organized and outfitted in Veracruz. On July 15, 1554, six salvage vessels under Captain García de Escalante Alvarado left Veracruz for the site of the wrecks. The ships had carried a valuable cargo from Spain to Mexico—resins, sugar, wood, cowhides and cochineal (insects from which a red dye could be produced) valued at $9.8 million in Spanish currency, gold bars and silver bullion and bound for the coffers of Charles V, and reales from trade in the New World. In the face of this lost wealth, the ships demanded salvage efforts.

Spanish salvage operations began on July 21, 1554 at San Esteban; Villafañe located Espiritu Santo. According to Spanish accounts, Villafañe's divers found a trunk belong to Pedro Milanes, a man they knew. Milanes' possessions included black satin tunic with blue velvet sash, a cape of sailcloth, a pair of shoes, three small silver disks, and 100 pesos in coin. Alvarado found Santa María de Yciar on August 20. A storm sank her salvage vessel, but uncovered seven boxes of the treasure she carried.

When the recovered treasure arrived in Veracruz it totaled 35,805 pounds. At least 51,000 pounds in precious metals, jewelry and coins was not accounted for by the Spanish auditors. The divers may have overlooked it�or they may have found some of it. As for the rest of the treasure, for four centuries it remained buried undersea, disturbed only by passing hurricanes, or sometime a drifting fishing line.

Modern salvage efforts began in the 1960’s when Platoro, Inc., a private enterprise from Indiana began removing artifacts from Espíritu Santo. This destructive salvage effort by private enterprise alarmed Texas officials because they felt that the recovered artifacts were rightfully the property of the citizens of Texas. They were also concerned that significant historical and archeological data were being destroyed in this unscientific process. Their position was strengthened considerably with the adoption in 1969 of the Texas Antiquities Code, a major protection act directly related to the Platoro controversy. Under this Code, the Texas Antiquities Committee conducted scientific excavation and recovery of San Esteban. The shipwreck has considerable significance; it is among the oldest scientifically recovered shipwreck sites in the Western Hemisphere.

The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin was given temporary custody of a large portion of the recovered materials in order that they might be properly conserved and catalogued. Thousands of artifacts were processed and classified during the project. Layers of encrustation had to be painstakingly removed from metal artifacts, many of which had formed into large conglomerates. X-rays were taken to discern what lay inside these masses. Analysis and identification of many of the artifacts was successfully completed. In 1984, the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History was named repository of the San Esteban collection. Two years later, the Museum was named repository for the Platoro, Keenan, and Purvis Collections.

Among the collections are weaponry, coins, supplies, personal items, and navigational devices. One of the astrolabes is dated 1545 and is the oldest dated mariner's astrolabe in the world.

Japan's Toei Animation  is planning to theatrically release computer-graphics (CG) works in Western countries and other locales in 2012. Another anime studio, Production I.G, is also planning to release Titan Rain, a joint production with Singaporea's Storm Lion Pictures (Yona Yona Penguin), in Asia. According to the Nikkei news source, the companies are aiming for theatrical releases overseas in part because the number of anime programs on television has declined, and anime DVD shipments have also dropped.

Toei Animation is making two CG anime works, with 3D animation techniques, in 2011. One of the titles is Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and the other is Daikuu Maryuu Gaiking . Each will have a production budget of several billion yen (about several tens of millions of U.S. dollars), which Toei plans to raise by soliciting capital from multiple companies. Toei Animation is planning to release these works theatrically in Europe, North America, Asia, and elsewhere in 2012 or later.

Abraham Blauvelt  was a Dutch privateer and explorer mapping much of Central America in the 1630s, after whom both the Bluefield River and the neighboring town of Bluefields, Nicaragua were named.

One of the last of the Dutch corsairs of the mid 17th century, Abraham Blauvelt was first recorded exploring the coasts of present day Honduras and Nicaragua in service of the Dutch West India Company. He later traveled to England in an effort to gain support to establish a colony in Nicaragua near the city where Bluefields, Nicaragua presently stands. Around 1640 Blauvelt became a privateer serving the Swedish East India Company and in 1644 he commanded his own ship successfully raiding Spanish shipping from a base in southwest Jamaica, today known as Blewfields Bay, and selling the cargo and prizes to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (New York). After peace between Spain and the Netherlands was reached with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Blauvelt, unable to stay in New Amsterdam, instead sailed to Newport, Rhode Island in early 1649 to sell his remaining cargo. 

However the colonial governor seized one of Blauvelt's prizes and with his crew arguing over their shares, the local colonists, fearing that Rhode Island acquire a reputation of trading with pirates, forced Blauvelt to leave the colony. For the next several years Blauvelt commanded a French ship called La Garse, later living among the natives of Cape Gracias a Dios near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua, until the early 1660s when he was recruited for Christopher Myngs' raid on the Spanish colony of Campeche Bay in 1663. However, nothing more is known about his activities after this time.