On June 28, 1820, Capt. John Jackson kept his eye on the horizon, searching for a sail. He had recently received a report of a pirate vessel anchored off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. According to the report, the brig carried not only illegal slaves but also young Cornelio Coppinger, the kidnapped son of the governor of Spanish Florida.
News came that the pirate captain tried to bribe the governor for a ransom, but Jackson had already directed his schooner down the St. Marys River to the sea. Saving the Spanish governor’s son wasn’t his job, but as a captain in the Revenue Marine Service, confiscating illegal U.S.-bound cargo certainly was.
