Qualla: Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The plan was never supposed to be Maracaibo. Henry Morgan had sailed from Port Royal in October 1668 with ten ships and 800 men, his sights set on Cartagena de Indias, the richest city on the Spanish Main. Then his flagship exploded. A drunken celebration aboard HMS Oxford ended with a spark reaching the powder magazine, killing over 200 men. Morgan survived by luck -- he and the captains sitting on his side of the table lived, while those across from him died. With his fleet crippled and his numbers dwindling as ships deserted, Morgan needed a new target. A French captain named Pierre Le Picard suggested repeating a raid on the towns around Lake Maracaibo, an inland sea eighty-six miles long in the Spanish Province of Venezuela. Morgan agreed. What followed became one of the most audacious episodes in the history of Caribbean piracy.

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: Through the Fortress Gate

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Morgan's reduced fleet -- eight ships, 500 men -- arrived at Lake Maracaibo on March 9, 1669. The Spanish had built the San Carlos de la Barra Fortress since the last raid on the lake two years earlier, positioning it to guard the narrow approach. It should have stopped Morgan co...

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: The Sacking of Two Towns

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Maracaibo fell without a battle. Its residents had been warned and fled into the surrounding jungle, but Morgan's men hunted them down across thirty miles of forest and swamp, taking roughly 100 prisoners. For three weeks the English occupied the town, with Morgan using the St. P...

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: Trapped Between Fleet and Fort

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When Morgan returned north to Maracaibo, disaster awaited. The Spanish Armada de Barlovento had arrived and now blocked the exit: the 48-gun flagship Magdalena, the 38-gun San Luis, and the 24-gun frigate Soledad, commanded by Don Alonso del Campo y Espinosa with 500 men and 126 ...

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: Fire on the Water

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The privateers' plan borrowed from Francis Drake: a fireship. They disguised a captured vessel with logs wearing hats to simulate crew, cut extra portholes and fitted log cannons, then packed her with gunpowder, tar, and dried palm leaves. On May 1, Morgan's fleet sailed directly...

Henry Morgan's Raid on Lake Maracaibo: The Wages of Audacity

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Morgan sailed into Port Royal on May 27, 1669, aboard the captured Soledad -- which he had renamed Satisfaction. Fort Charles fired a salute and crowds lined the beaches. The haul was immense: some 30,000 pounds, worth roughly 10 million pounds today, surpassing even his earlier ...