An American Pirate in Hong Kong

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Pearl River Delta was notorious as a playground for ruthless pirates. For generations, the Qing, British, and Portuguese navies struggled to protect merchant shipping lanes.

In pre-colonial Hong Kong, pirates like Zheng Yi, his wife Zheng Yi Sao, and their adopted son Cheung Po Tsai acquired legendary status. Following the cession of Hong Kong Island to the British, pirates such as Lai Choi San continued to harass merchants well into the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, few people know that an American pirates, infamous for his horrifying cruelty, was also active in Hong Kong waters.

During the 1850s, Eli Boggs—then in his twenties—commanded a fleet of fourteen to fifty pirate war junks that patrolled the entrance to Victoria Harbour. Exceptionally violent, he reportedly threw captives overboard with their hands and feet bound. One account even details an incident where he sent a victim's severed body parts to their family in buckets, aiming to terrorise the relatives of other captives into paying ransom money.

Eventually, in early July 1857, Boggs was captured through an alliance of rival Chinese pirates and the British Royal Navy. The ensuing trial triggered one of Hong Kong’s first and most explosive political scandals, exposing widespread corruption among merchants and colonial officials who frequently colluded with pirates.