Joseph Wheeler (pirate)

Joseph Wheeler (fl. 1696-1698) was a pirate active in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. He is best known for sailing alongside Dirk Chivers and Robert Culliford.

In 1696 Robert Colley took over captaincy of the 18-gun Pelican from the late Captain Lovering in Rhode Island. Ignoring his commission to return to Jamaica, he sailed for Madagascar to attack Moorish ships in the Red Sea. Aboard were Nathaniel North and Joseph Wheeler. After cruising against the Moors, Colley returned to Ile Saint Marie in early 1698 to divide their plunder; Wheeler's share amounted to over two thousand pieces of eight. While ashore Colley and thirty of the crew fell ill and died. The remaining crew couldn’t return to sea because the Pelican’s water barrels were all rotten. Wheeler was the ship’s cooper (barrel-maker and carpenter); with the help of local natives he repaired the ship’s water casks, and the grateful crew in return elected him Captain. North was chosen as the ship’s quartermaster.

At Madagascar they took aboard additional crew, now totaling over 100 men, and agreed on division of shares. Sailing to the Red Sea in August, they encountered Ralph Stout’s former ship Mocha, now under command of Culliford, alongside Dirk Chivers’ Soldados. The three captains agreed to sail together and split any prizes taken. Wheeler lent Culliford water and crewmen, plus wood to repair the Mocha. In September they located the treasure ship Great Mohammed transporting Turkish pilgrims. Chivers and Culliford attacked and looted it in what would become on one of the richest prizes ever taken by pirates. The Pelican was a slower ship, and though Wheeler fired cannons at the Great Mohammed, the others refused to share the plunder. They gave Wheeler a little money and some water and the Pelican departed.

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