Chui A-poo

BornDied1851
Piratical careerTypePirateYears activemid-1800sRankfleet commanderBase of operationsSouth China SeaCommands50 ship Chinese fleet

Chui A-poo^[1] (Chinese: 徐亞保;^[2] died 1851) was a 19th-century Qing Chinese pirate who commanded a fleet of more than 50 junks in the South China Sea.^[3] He was one of the two most notorious South China Sea pirates of the era, along with Shap Ng-tsai.^[4]

In September 1849, his fleet, which was based in Bias Bay east of Hong Kong, was defeated by British and Chinese warships.^[5] More than 400 pirates were killed and Chui was seriously wounded. Although he managed initially to escape, he was betrayed by his own crew and handed over to the British authorities. He was wanted with a bounty of £500^[6] for the murder of two British officers.^[7] His punishment was lifelong exile to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), but he hanged himself in his cell before it could be carried out.^[8]

See also

• Battle of Tysami

Notes and references

• Is the namesake of the One Piece character Scratchmen Apoo.

Further reading

• Beresford Scott (1851), An account of the destruction of the fleets of the celebrated pirate chieftains Chui-apoo and Shap-ng Tsai, on the coast of China, in September and October 1849 (in German), London{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Magazine, University (January–June 1850), "Expedition against the Chinese Pirates", The Dublin University Magazine. A Literary and Political Journal (in German), no. XXXV, Dublin, pp. 521-531, retrieved 18 May 2008