William Kidd
William 'Captain' Kidd (January
22,
1654 –
May 23,
1701) is often remembered in
infamy as a
cruel, bloody
pirate. Indeed, he, along with his crew, has been
accused of every crime in pirate history by popular
tradition. He achieved perhaps more fame in
song,
story, and
legend than any other pirate to sail the
seven seas. However, historical record calls this
characterization into question. It is more likely that Kidd
earned his reputation through circumstance and did not
consider himself to even be a pirate.
Early life and career
Kidd was born into a reputable family in Greenock,
Scotland. However after the death of his father when he was
five, Kidd's family's income was severely reduced. As a
young man he chose to head out to sea, and bounced around
freely from ship to ship for three decades. After war broke
out between England and France, he showed courage,
patriotism, and a bit of lucky timing in winning a French
ship and saving English troops from destruction. With his
newfound prestige, he finally settled in New York in
1691, at the age of thirty-seven. There he married the
20-year-old twice widow, Sarah Bradley Cox Oort. They had
two daughters: Elizabeth and Sarah Kidd. The marriage
eventually brought to Kidd a considerable amount of property
(after the legal dispute around her inheritance from her
first husband was resolved.) During this time Kidd was
respected as an honest, hard-working ship
captain. He befriended many prominent
colonial citizens, including three
governors.
Later that year, on orders from the province of New York,
Massachusetts, he captured an enemy
privateer on the
New England coast. Shortly thereafter, Kidd was awarded
£150
for successful Privateering in the
Caribbean. One year later,
'Captain' Culliford, a
notorious pirate, stole Kidd's ship while he was ashore
at
Antigua in the
West Indies. In
1695,
William III of England replaced the
corrupt governor
Benjamin Fletcher, known for accepting
bribes of one hundred dollars to allow
illegal trading of pirate
loot, with
Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont.
Preparing his expedition
On
December 11 that same year, Coote, who was now governing
New York, Massachusetts, and
New Hampshire, asked the 'trusty and well beloved
Captain Kidd'
[1]to attack
Thomas Tew,
John Ireland,
Thomas Wake,
William Maze, and all others who associated themselves
with pirates, along with any enemy
French ships. This preceded the
voyage which established his reputation as a pirate, and
cemented his image in history and
folklore.
Four-fifths of the cost for the venture was paid for by
noble lords, who were amongst the most powerful men in
England; the
Earl of Orford, The Baron of Romney, the
Duke of Shrewsbury and
Sir John Somers. According to Henry Gilbert writing in
The Book of Pirates, Kidd's backers were rumoured to
include King William himself. In fact, according to a time-honoured
practice, the King would receive a tenth share of everything
captured. Kidd and an acquaintance, Colonel
Robert Livingston paid for the rest. Kidd had to sell
his ship the Antigua to raise funds.
The new ship, the
Adventure Galley, was well suited to the task of
catching pirates; weighing over 284
tons, it was equipped with 34
cannons, oars, and 150
men. The oars were a key advantage as it would enable him to
manoeuvre in a
battle when the
winds had calmed and other ships were floating free.
Kidd took pride in personally selecting the crew, choosing
only those he deemed to be the best and most
loyal
officers. Unfortunately, soon after setting sail he was
stopped by the
HMS Duchess, whose captain enlisted much of Kidd's crew
for service in the
navy, despite rampant
protesting. To make up for the lack of officers, Kidd
was sent replacement crew, the vast majority of which
consisted of known hardened
criminals, undoubtedly some of which had been former
pirates.
Hunting for pirates
In
September of
1696, Kidd finally set sail again. However, more
bad luck struck and a third of his crew soon perished
due to the uncontrolled spread of
cholera. To make matters worse, the brand-new ship
developed many leaks. According to Gilbert, after taking a
single French ship (which was legal under his commission) on
the first leg of his voyage, he proceeded eastward to
Madagascar but was not able to find pirates to take in
that vicinity. Kidd then sailed to the
Malabar Coast. During this time Kidd never attacked a
single richly-laden
Indian ship that passed before him, and probably was not
yet pirate at the time. However, as it became obvious his
ambitious enterprise was failing he became understandably
desperate to cover its costs. But, once again, Kidd failed
to attack several ships when given a chance, including a
Dutchman and New York privateer. Some of the crew now
deserted Kidd the next time the Adventure Galley anchored
offshore, and those who decided to stay behind made constant
open-threats of
mutiny.
On
October 30,
1697, as William Moore, the ships
gunner and strong follower of the mutinous crew, was
sharpening a
chisel on the deck, he saw Kidd walk by and furiously
shouted “You have brought us to ruin and we are desolate!
I could have put you in the way of taking that ship [the
Dutchman] and be none the worse for it!”
[2]After an exchange of strong words, Kidd
snatched up and heaved an ironbound bucket at Moore. Moore
fell to the deck of a
fractured skull, and died the following day.
Turning pirate
Finally, under pressure from his men, and perhaps in
shock over what he had done, Kidd finally made the
fatal decision of turning pirate. He started taking any
vessels which were not English. So the
Dutch,
Moorish, Indian,
Portuguese and French were not safe from the onslaught.
As the voyage progressed Kidd’s actions became increasingly
more like those of a pirate than an agent of the English
King. Acts of
savagery on Kidd’s part were reported by escaped
prisoners, who told of being hoisted up by the arms and
drubbed with a
naked
cutlass.
On
January 30,
1698 he raised French
colours and took his greatest
prize, an
Armenian beast of a ship, the 400 tons Quedagh
Merchant, which was loaded with
satins,
muslins,
gold,
silver, an incredible variety of
East Indian
merchandise, as well as extremely valuable
silks. The captain of the Quedagh Merchant was an
Englishman named Wright, who was sailing under the
promised protection of the French government. However, after
realizing the captain of the taken vessel was an Englishman,
Kidd tried to persuade his crew to return the ship to its
owners but they refused. Thus, Kidd changed his focus and
took his prize claiming it was legal prey for an English
privateer. Unfortunately, when news of the deed reached
England, along with horrifying tales of
torture, the
British East India Company declared Kidd a pirate.
Various naval commanders were ordered to “pursue and
seize the said Kidd and his accomplices” for the
“notorious piracies”
[3]they had committed.
On
April 1,
1698 Kidd reached
Madagascar. Here Kidd found the first pirate of his
voyage,
Robert Culliford, (the same man who had stolen Kidd’s
ship years before) and his crew sailing the Mocha Frigate.
Kidd ordered his men to capture the Mocha Frigate.
Instead his men mutinied and joined the pirates of the
Mocha Frigate. Only 13 of Kidd’s men remained loyal to
him.
Deciding to return home, Kidd left the Adventure
Galley behind ordering her to be burnt because she had
become worm-eaten and leaky. By burning the ship, he was
able to salvage every last scrap of metal, for example
hinges. With the loyal remnant of his crew, he returned home
in the captured Quedagh Merchant, renamed
Adventure Prize.
Trial
When Kidd returned to New York City, he learned that he
was a wanted pirate, and that several English
men-of-war were searching for him. The governor (an
investor) was away in
Boston, Massachusetts. With the help of his
lawyer, he
negotiated with the governor in Boston and eventually
agreed to come in to town. Regardless, he was
arrested with his crew and placed in
Stone Prison, spending most of the time in
solitary confinement.
He was eventually (after over a year) sent to England to
stand
trial, and on
May 8 he was tried by
High Court of Admiralty in London for the charges of
piracy on high seas and the
murder of William Moore. Whilst awaiting trial, Kidd was
imprisoned in the infamous
Newgate Prison and wrote several letters to the joint
sovereigns,
William III of England and
Mary II of England, demanding
clemency.
He stood trial without representation and was shocked to
learn at trial that he was charged with Murder. He was found
guilty on all charges (murder and five counts of piracy)
and was
hanged on
May 23,
1701 at 'Execution Dock', Wapping, in London. During the
execution, the hangman's rope broke and Kidd was hanged
on the second attempt. His body was
gibbeted — left to hang in an iron cage over the
River Thames, London, as a warning to
future would-be pirates for two years. All his
associates except his slaves were also convicted and hanged.
Kidd's Whig backers were embarrassed by his trial.
Gilbert indicates that they participated in the effort to
convict him by depriving him of the money and information
which might have provided him with some legal defence. In
particular, his two sets of papers that showed that the two
ships he had taken were French, were missing at his trial.
These French papers (and others dated
1700) resurfaced in the early 20th century, misfiled
with other government papers in a London building. These
papers call the extent of Kidd's guilt into question.
Mythology and legend
The belief that Kidd left a buried
treasure somewhere contributed considerably to the
growth of his legend. This belief made its contribution to
literature in
Edgar Allan Poe's
The Gold Bug and
Robert Louis Stevenson's
Treasure Island. It also gave impetus to the
never-ending treasure hunts on
Oak Island in
Nova Scotia, in
Suffolk County,
Long Island in
New York where
Gardiner's Island is located,
Charles Island in Milford,
Connecticut, and in the
Thimble Islands in
Connecticut.
Kidd also visited
Block Island around
1699, where he was apparently supplied by Mrs. Mercy
(Sands) Raymond, daughter of the mariner James Sands. The
story has it that, for her hospitality, she was bid to hold
out her apron, into which Kidd threw gold and jewels until
it was full. After her husband Joshua Raymond died, Mrs.
Raymond removed with her family to northern
New London, CT (later Montville), where she bought much
land. This Raymond family was thus said to have been
'enriched by the apron'.
References
- Hamilton, Cochran. et al.
Pirates of the Spanish Main, 1st Edition, American
Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1961.
LCCN 61010676
- Gilbert, H. (1986). The Book of Pirates.
London: Bracken Books.
- Zacks, Richard (2002). The Pirate Hunter: The
True Story of Captain Kidd. Hyperion Books (ISBN
0786884517).
See also
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd |
