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By the time he got out of prison, Alexander Tardy’s exploits had sufficiently tarnished his reputation that he found it difficult to find legitimate employment in the US. So in January 1827, he made his way to the one place that asked few questions of nefarious enterprising opportunists like Tardy: Cuba.
While the British were actively trying to suppress the Atlantic slave trade, there was little they could do to stop the immense profits of slavery flowing through the Cuban capital, Havana. Havana in 1827 was a popular pirate haunt. The Spanish, still severely financially weakened by Napoleon’s invasion over a decade earlier and the loss of most of its Spanish American colonies, could do little to stop attacks on the ships of British and American merchants.
In Havana, Tardy befriended two Spaniards of dubious reputation: Blasco and Felix Barbeito. Together, the three men concocted a plan to persuade a local gentleman of sufficient capital to fund a voyage to Africa for a shipment of slaves. When this idea failed to gain traction, Tardy proposed gaining passage onto a ship sailing from Mantanzas and using his poisoning expertise to eliminate the crew and steal the ship.
This was not a bad idea because Mantanzas at this time was even more wild than Havana. American and British merchants constantly complained about pirates openly walking the streets after robbing their ships. However, the idea of pre-meditated murder was too much for Blasco and he removed himself from the trio.
Felix, who had engaged in the brutal local piracy industry in the past, was willing to participate. He recruited a friend of his called Hilario Jose Casares who went by the name ‘Pepe’. Tardy, Felix and Pepe bribed a clerk at the custom-house for the necessary paperwork and set off for Mantanzas. There, they gained the acquaintance of an American Captain called Brightman and selected his brig Crawford as the most suitable target. Along the way they recruited another of Felix’s piracy colleagues called Jose Morando.
Fortunately for Tardy, Captain Brightman suffered from asthma. He quickly gained the Captain’s good favour by helping relieve his symptoms. Morando came onboard as Tardy’s ‘assistant’ and Felix and Pepe joined as cabin passengers. Concerned about their lack of baggage and clothing, the men had already concocted a story they were travelling to New York to buy a vessel. They had even procured a box filled with iron and lead to pass as $17,000 worth of gold.
Tardy’s original plan was to poison the crew immediately and then his pirate colleagues would take over the ship. But he had not counted on them being afflicted with debilitating sea-sickness. As he waited for them to recover, he attempted to befriend the ship’s cook. He tried to persuade the cook to let him teach the ‘French’ way of cooking by including special ‘spices’ from the West Indies he carried with him.
The cook rebuffed all Tardy’s attempts to interfere with the food.
Frustrated that nothing was going according to plan, Tardy decided instead to poison the food as it was served. He ensured Captain Brightman was indisposed and presided over a breakfast of bacon, fried eggs and chocolate that resulted in a near unanimous bout of violent illness onboard. The first mate, Edmund Dodson told later how he was ‘attacked with a violent head-ache, throbbing about the temples, and sickness of the stomach.’ He spent the entire day vomiting.
One of the passengers noted at the time that it seemed strange that such an experienced sailor as Dodson would suffer from sea-sickness.
Alexander Tardy, who was not a particularly experienced seafarer, remained curiously unaffected by the mysterious illness.
Up next: the taking of Crawford