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One of the few of Jean Lafitte’s ships to visit south Louisiana that we know by name was the Hotspur, which sailed up the Mermentau River in November 1820 to refill its water casks.
Fifteen-year-old cabin boy Charles Cronea thought he had been ill treated by the captain, Jim Campbell, and jumped ship there. Young as he was, Charlie had already begun to collect tales of adventure that would make him, according his Galveston News obituary in 1893, a man “whose history is as romantic as that of any man of the nineteenth century.”
When he died at 88, he was remembered as the last member of Lafitte’s band, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and of the Mexican-American war, and a colorful storyteller who “reeled off his yarns … taking pains to punctuate his assertions with the choicest profanity.”
“Uncle Charlie,” as he came to be known, was born in France in 1805 and went to sea as a cabin boy when he was 13. He got into trouble on his first voyage, and that’s partly how he ended up on the Hotspur.
“I was full of mischief,” he said many years later, “and one day I cut up some trick that got me a round dozen [lashes] on the bare back. … The bo’sun gave me a good dozen with the cat. … How it stung! and then they doused my back with sea water, and it stung worse. … I made up my mind to run away when I got a chance.”
He deserted the French ship in New York, sailed from there to Charleston, South Carolina, and then signed on a ship bound for Liverpool. But he never saw England.
“When we sailed out of Charleston … we hadn’t cleared the bar two hours when … a schooner [drew next to them and] sent a boat aboard. … The schooner wanted 15 or 20 men to go on a cruise on the Gulf of Mexico,” he recounted.
Cronea was one of the volunteers, and almost immediately suspected it would be no ordinary cruise. The ship “kept out of the way of everything” and had way too many crewmen. When it reached the Texas coast, 40 men were sent ashore on a desolate beach near Corpus Christi.
“The next day the schooner was gone, but in the afternoon a … brig hove to off the beach and sent a boat ashore,” he said. “The officer in charge told us we were to sail on the brig, which he said was a privateer.” It was the Hotspur.
“We cruised up and down the gulf, capturing nothing but Mexican craft,” Cronea remembered. “We’d break out as much of the cargo as we needed, taking particular pains to get tobacco. Then we’d … set the … ship on fire. The crew we would set ashore. … A good many think that we used to cut throats and make [captives] walk the plank; but that’s all a lie. … I never saw a man murdered while I was with … Campbell.”
Charlie’s problems with the Hotspur began one day when he was running across the deck with a bucket of water.
“I slipped and spilled it over Campbell’s foot,” he said. “He grabbed me by the ears … and jounced me up and down on the deck a few times. Then he stood me on the breech of the pivot gun and made me [balance] there about a half hour. … Right then I made up my mind to run away as soon as I had a chance. … [When] the brig put into the Mermentau … I did run away from him.”
Cronea bounced around Louisiana for a while, living in Plaquemines Parish, Grand Chenier and other places, before going to fight for Texas. After San Jacinto and other adventures, he settled on a farm on the Bolivar peninsula near Galveston. It wasn’t reported how successful he was at raising crops, but it was enough to support a large family. His obituary said he left 94 direct descendants — sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Contrary to what one might think of a one-time pirate, the obituary also claimed that “as a character Charles Cronea was unique, childlike and lovable.”
His adventurous life might have been much shorter if he hadn’t jumped ship in 1820. After it filled its casks with water, the Hotspur wrecked on a mud flat at the mouth of the Mermentau. The captain salvaged part of an alleged fortune in pirate treasure, but most of it — and several men — washed out to sea, never to be found.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

January 12, 1949 ~ June 19, 2021

ABBEVILLE — A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 2:00 PM on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic Church honoring the life of Veliar Joseph Duhon, 72, who died Saturday, June 19, 2021 at his residence. He will be laid to rest at St. Mary Magdalen Cemetery with Reverend Matthew Barzare officiating the services.
V.J. was employed as a forklift operator with Riviana Foods, Inc. for over 36 years. Farming and raising cattle was a big part of his life. 
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Julia Ann Becker Duhon; son, Bradley J. Duhon and his wife, Liz; daughter, Janie Choate and her husband, Arvie; grandchildren, Brooke Muehr, Caitlin Guidry, Cody Duhon, Clay Choate, Nicholas Choate, Elijah Merritt, Isaiah Merritt, Levi Merritt, and Russell Merritt; and great grandchildren, John Patrick Muehr and William Muehr.
He was preceded in death by his father, Francis Duhon, Sr.; mother, Nee Madria Hebert Duhon; brother, Francis Duhon, Jr.; and great grandson, Camden Guidry.
The family requests that visiting hours be observed at Vincent Funeral Home - Abbeville, 209 S. St. Charles St., on Thursday, June 24, 2021 from 9:00 AM until 1:45 PM when the procession will depart for the church.
The Duhon family wishes to extend a special thank you to Acadian Hospice team for their care and compassion shown to V.J. these past 4 years.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.vincentfuneralhome.net.
All funeral arrangements are being conducted by Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, (337) 893-4661.

Mary Harris’s life has been turned upside down after trying to better herself.
In April, 52-year-old Harris applied for a job online in hopes of making extra money. In the application process, she gave the company her personal information because she thought the company was real.
After learning she got the job, the company sent her a check for $2,950 to purchase the items she needed to start her new job, plus an advance for her salary. However, the first red flag went up when she tried to cash the check, and her bank did not cash the check because it was a fake company.
No problem, because she was not out of anything, at least she thought.
Harris is on disability and receives a check each month. The check is put on a debit card and mailed to her. Section 8 also helps pay her rent because she is on a set income after having a stroke a few years back.
At the beginning of June, she received her disability card and tried to cash it at an ATM in Abbeville. She put it in, and it showed a zero balance. She thought there was something wrong with the ATM, so she went to another store and the result was the same. No money on the card.
“I freaked out,” said Harris, who volunteers at the Christian Service Center. “I called the credit card company to find out why. I learned a bunch of transactions were made on the card. I hurried and blocked the card, but it was too late.
The news gets worse.
She also had a prepaid debit card called a “Green Dot Card” with around $3,500. She put her Green Dot Card in an ATM and got the same result, zero balance.
In a week, Harris learned someone withdrew $4,000 from her Green Dot Card and disability card.
Her bad news does not stop there.
Not long after learning about being broke, she received word from Section 8, which helps pay her rent, that they were going to stop helping her pay rent because she was able to receive $20,800 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program. The money was to be used to help pay for her catering business.
First of all, Harris never applied for the loan because she does not own a catering business.
Since the beginning of June, she has been on the phone trying to correct the false information out there and explain to Section 8 that her name and personal information were stolen.
With the help of friends, family and the Christian Service Center, she has been able to keep her head above the water.
“I have not been able to sleep,” she said. “Last night was the first night I slept well. It has been a financial strain this month. I am now trying to piece everything together.”
After sitting down and backtracking, Harris figured out that someone could have stolen her identity when she applied for turned out to be a fake job online.
“They say if it sounds too good to be true, pay attention to that because it is,” said Harris. “I trusted this company and thought they were real. Now, I have to start over. I want to warn people and tell them to be careful when applying for a job online and giving out your personal information. I am really upset because I have to deal with this.”
Harris, who lives in Abbeville, said this is the second to worst feeling she has experience in her lifetime. The worst was in 2009 when her son Ernest Guidry was shot and killed north of Abbeville.
“All this has almost put me into depression,” she said. “I am very angry and hurt. Someone violated my private information, and I am trying to get it back. Everyone, be careful with who your give information to because it could turn your life upside down as it has done to me.”

ERATH — Residents who live in the Erath Housing Authority were looking for answers about the hold-up in elevating their houses.
It is known that the streets of North Lahasky and Dronet Street, north of the bypass, flood when there is a five to six-inch rain or a storm surge. A lot of rain means the streets flood, and the residents are trapped because there is only one way in and one way out of the Housing Authority.
There are around 100 people (26 families) who live in the housing authority.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that Erath would receive $2.2 million to elevate the 13 homes in the housing authority. Elevating the homes at least five to eight feet high would solve the houses from flooding; however, it would not solve the streets from flooding, stated Erath Mayor Taylor Mencacci.
Mencacci explained to the residents that elevating the houses would not solve the flooding problem. He said the residents would still get trapped inside their homes when a six-inch rain occurs. He also added that the town does not have the money to elevate the roads.
And, FEMA’s money would not pay to elevate the roads. Mencacci also said each lifted home would have to be made handicap accessible, and the $2.2 million would not be enough to pay to raise the homes and make each home handicap accessible.
Mencacci’s solution to the flooding issue would be to move the housing authority to higher grounds in Erath, away from the bowl it now sits in.
Lynette Hebert, a resident in the housing authority, explained to the Mayor and aldermen that the people living in the housing authority do not have the funds to evacuate to a hotel each time there is a threat of rain or a tropical storm.
“Everyone feels like they are sitting ducks and no way to get out,” said Hebert. “For heavy rains, we can not get out.”
One by one, the residents said they are fed up with the street flooding and were looking for answers. There was even talk about building a new road north of the housing authority that would give the residents another way in and out.
“We have nowhere to go,” said a resident. “There are disabled people who live here and have nowhere to go. We want to know what we can do. Everyone is fed up with this for years and years.”