Born: ?
Died: May 9, 1800

A ruthless mutineer, Joseph Baker was duped by the captain of the ship he intended to claim. Returned to the port he departed from, he was hanged in a public execution.

Mutiny on the Eliza

Born in Canada, Baker was a pirate and murderer who sometimes worked as a merchant seaman out of the American colonies. On his last voyage he signed onto a merchant ship named Eliza. With Captain William Wheland at the helm, the vessel left the harbor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the warm waters of the Caribbean.

Baker did not intend to help Eliza reach its final destination in the Caribbean. Before departing on the voyage, he had recruited two other sailors—Joseph Berrouse and Peter LaCroix—to join him in a mutiny (open rebellion against authority). The three men waited until the ship was far from land...