Fortunatus Wright

Fortunatus Wright (c.1712–1757) was a British merchant and privateer, notable for his activities in the Mediterranean Sea during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.

Early life Wright was apparently a native of Wallasey, then in Cheshire, England. He was the son of master mariner and ship owner John Wright (d. 1717). After going to sea as a boy, he settled down as a brewer and distiller and married Martha Painter in 1732. They had several children, including a daughter, Philippa. His wife died shortly after Philippa's birth, and in 1736 Wright married Mary Bulkeley, a daughter of William Bulkeley of Anglesey. Their daughter Ann was born the next year. The marriage was unhappy, and in 1741, Wright abandoned his wife and travelled to Italy.

War of the Austrian Succession After being arrested in Lucca for refusing to give up his guns and pointing one at a guard, Wright settled in Livorno and became a merchant. In January 1744, his ship Swallow was captured and ransomed at sea. Wright and other Livorno merchants fitted out the privateer Fame and by 1746, he had reportedly captured sixteen enemy ships worth as much as 400,000 pounds (a number perhaps greatly exaggerated, as Wright was never rich). Another capture by the Fame, that of the French Hermione on 26 February 1746/7, led to a dispute over Turkish property on board. Wright was jailed by authorities in Tuscany in December 1747 for refusing to turn over profits from the sale, but was freed in June 1748. while Gomer Williams in his 1897 History of the Liverpool Privateers wrote "...he strikes the imagination as the ideal and ever-victorious captain, around whose name and fate clings the halo of mystery and romance." He is mentioned in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.