*Captain William Kidd* -Historical Pirate
Captain William Kidd seems to have buried the most treasure of any pirate that existed. Hundreds of tales abound of him burying vast hoards all over the Caribbean and all along the northeast coast of America. For decades, if not hundreds of years, treasure hunters have scoured his known or suspected haunts in hopes of finding these caches, with little success. Recently some historians have claimed that Kidd was a victim of political struggles among his financial backers, and not more than a privateer with letters of marque.
Bloodthirsty pirate, or political scapegoat? And where did he really bury his treasure?
William Kidd was born in Scotland around 1645, but was taken to New York as a child after the death of his father. History has scant record of the intervening years, but he apparently made contacts within the city and made some influential friends who would both help him and hinder him in later years. By 1689 he was captain of a ship commissioned to protect the Caribbean colonies from the French. He was moderately successful at this, until Captain Culliford, a notorious pirate, captured his ship while he was ashore on Antigua. Kidd returned to New York, and the governor there, Richard Coote, convinced him to go to England to obtain a formal letter of marque and become a privateer. Coote, Kidd, and the English crown would split any spoils Kidd gathered hunting pirates and enemy ships.
In 1695 Kidd set out on his mission with a new ship, the Adventure Galley, and a hand-picked crew. On his way down the Thames to the sea, Kidd and his crew failed to acknowledge or salute a Royal Navy warship, as was customary. Some even said that when the Navy ship fired its cannon in warning, Kidd’s crew “showed their backsides” to the ship in contempt. One has to wonder at Kidd’s reasoning, or perhaps at how much control he had over his crew. The Navy ship forced Adventure Galley to stop and then took half of Kidd’s crew, in retaliation for their insolence and to refill their own berths made empty by scurvy and other disease.
Thus with an ill-omened beginning to his venture, Kidd sailed to New York to refill the empty berths on his ship. Much of New York at the time was a pirate haven, and many of this replacement crew were pirates and criminals, unfortunately for Kidd.
Kidd then set out for the Indian Ocean, adhering to his letter of marque and hunting pirates, but for one reason or another, failed to find them. As months went by his ship became leaky and rotten, and his crew became restless and unhappy and pressured him to attack any ship. Kidd is said to have killed one man in an argument over a proposed attack on a Dutch ship. Thereafter no man openly threatened him, but they were still angry with him.
In 1698 Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant, which was loaded with silks, muslins, gold and silver. It was a rich prize and satisfied his crew, but Kidd was horrified to learn the captain was English. The ship had been flying French colors, however, and his crew convinced him that he had been in the right to attack her. That and their threat of mutiny made Kidd keep the ship and treasure. Further complicating matters was the fact that an important Indian nobleman owned the Quedagh Merchant and demanded restitution from the East India Company.
England had been hearing accounts of Kidd’s “piracies”, and this incident was the last straw. The crown declared him a pirate. Kidd realized the Quedagh Merchant would be recognizable and abandoned her, emptying her hold and scuttling her in shallow waters. Then he made his way to New York, where he hoped to call in favors from his friends there and be able to argue that he had only been doing the job for which the English crown had hired him.
He buried a cache of treasure on Gardiner’s Island nearby, some say in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip with the authorities. He then spent several days negotiating with his friends, during which time some historians and treasure hunters believe he may have buried other treasure caches up and down the nearby coast. His friends, who included governors and noblemen, had no intention of going down with Kidd’s ship, however. The men who had funded his venture tricked him into coming in to Boston, where they arrested him and shipped him off to England to stand trial. The treasure cache on Gardiner’s Island was removed and sent to England as evidence against Kidd.
At his trial Kidd was accused of piracy and murder; the documents showing the Quedagh Merchant to be traveling under French authority were mysteriously missing, and none of his former friends and backers would testify in his behalf. He was convicted and sentenced to hang.
Captain William Kidd was hanged at Executioner’s Dock in Wapping, London, on May 23, 1701. The hangman’s rope broke initially, and he was hanged a second time, after which his body was tarred and hung in a cage over the river Thames. For two years Kidd’s body served as a warning to any other would-be pirates, and as a testament to greed and betrayal.
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