"That Pirate, Bouchard" - Bill reviews his entertaining and exciting book
Dr. William Briggs is former professor and director of the School of Journalism at San Jose State University and Dean of the College of Communications at Cal State Fullerton. He’s a graduate of Stanford, San Jose State and University of San Francisco. In retirement he has written five volumes of California history. A Bay Area native, he has lived in south Santa Clara County for 50 years.
NEW BOOK RECOUNTS CALIFORNIA’S PIRATE RAIDS
THAT PIRATE BOUCHARD, Revolutions, Redemption and the Plunder of Old California
By William Briggs, Bookstand Publishing (2023), 207 pgs.
Few Californians are aware that California was once the target of a series of pirate raids. This overlooked period of early 19th century history is the subject of a new book by regional author William Briggs, entitled That Pirate, Bouchard.
The book recounts the adventures of the French-born privateer Hipolito Bouchard, who sailed for Argentina during the South American wars of independence from Spain. Privateers practiced a form of government-sanctioned piracy and Bouchard sailed around the world searching for Spanish ships and coastal seaports to plunder. In 1818 he attacked and burned Monterey before raiding Santa Barbara and sacking the mission at San Juan Capistrano.
According to Briggs, a former California State University communications professor and dean, Bouchard’s California raids didn’t yield much plunder, but they did demonstrate the weak hold Spain held on Alta California in the last days of empire. Bouchard is revered as a national hero and Father of the Navy in three South American countries. But to Californios, he was “Ese Pirata, Buchar” (“That Pirate, Bouchard”), said with fear and scorn.
“He’s well known in Argentina, Chile and Peru, as well as France. This may be the most comprehensive English language version of the story,” Briggs says.
The book follows Hipolito Bouchard from his early days as a seaman in the Napoleonic Navy, to his disillusionment at the French attempts to put down the slave revolt on St. Domingue (Haiti) and his decision to join the independence movement in Rio de la Plata (Argentina) as both a soldier with Jose de San Martin and as a privateer. Following his around-the -world voyage and raids on California, Bouchard returned to South America expecting a hero’s welcome, only to face charges of piracy. He found redemption serving the cause of liberty in Peru with Simon Bolivar, eventually becoming Admiral of the new Peruvian Navy.
“It’s a fascinating story of global revolutions with an important California connection and a very human central character. He was one of the last great privateers in the Age of Sail. For one week in 1818, the flag of Argentina flew over California,” says Briggs.
The book follows another of the author’s books of less-well known episodes of our state’s history, Badass Lawman, the story of 19th century sheriff John Hicks Adams, published in 2022. That Pirate, Bouchard is available online on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and at local book sellers.