Edward “Ned” Low

*Edward “Ned” Low* -Historical Pirate
 
If ye be faint of heart, read no further, for here follows the tale of the notoriously brutal…
 
Edward Low was born around 1690 in Westminster London, and showed a propensity for thievery and general mayhem from a young age. He went from petty theft, pickpocketing and gambling to burglary before perhaps deciding that things were too hot for him to stay in Westminster. He went to the New World, settling in Boston, Massachusetts as a young man. Historical records are quiet on Ned Low until about 1721, two years after the death of his wife in childbirth, and the year when he emerged as one of the most brutal pirates in history. 
Low started his pirating career after a failed mutiny, stealing a sloop off the coast of Rhode Island and running up a black flag. He hunted the shipping lanes for prize ships and loot, becoming quite successful in a short period of time. He preferred to keep a fleet of three or four ships, and worked with other notorious pirates at different points in his career to captain them all. His primary tactic consisted of running up false colors to get close enough to unsuspecting ships to attack them. Later on flying his own flag, a red skeleton on a field of black, would be enough to convince ships to surrender. 
Edward Low gained a reputation for extreme cruelty as stories emerged of him burning captives alive as well as cutting off noses and lips, and lighting a match, or twist of rope used as a fuse for cannon, between a captive’s fingers and burning them to the bones. He was accused of decapitations, disembowelings, and torture. He was said to be savage and unrelenting in battle, and equally unsparing of his crew, so much so that their fear of him may have eventually led them to maroon him on an island.

 
Oddly enough, he was said to be courteous and gentle to women, allowing them to return unharmed to port if he captured a vessel they were passenger on. The death of his wife, and his abandonment of his daughter, may have affected him quite deeply.

 
Low terrorized the Azores and the Caribbean until his success and his savagery grew too much for the authorities to ignore. A war-ship was dispatched to hunt Low and his crew down. Half his crew was defeated and hanged near Newport,Rhode Island, but Low apparently escaped. After that, history is unsure exactly what happened to Edward Low. Some say his ship sank in a storm with all hands. Others imply that he was caught by the French and hanged near Marseille. Still others say his own crew, pushed to their limits after he killed a subordinate while the man was sleeping, marooned him on an island and sailed away. A very, very few claim he was never caught, but escaped to Brazil and a new life.

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