Captain William Kidd

“ Captain William Kidd, famous for his knowledge of the haunts and practices of the buccaneers, will soon arrive in New York to lay in stores and take 151commissions for the South Seas. He sails under cover of a patent, granted by the Earl of Bellamont, Governor of His Majesty’s province of New York, granting him power to cruise against the buccaneers. This alleged purpose is a trick to deceive the people. Captain Kidd’s real purpose is to cooperate with the pirates, to evade the laws of the province, and to enrich the pocket of the governor. ”

“ To give character to the enterprise, a commission was issued under the great seal of England and signed by the king, William III., directed to "the trusty and well-beloved Captain Kidd, commander of the ship Adventure Galley." This vessel [368] carried thirty guns and sixty men. Kidd departed from Plymouth in April, 1696, and arrived off the American coast in July following. He occasionally entered the port of New York, where he was cordially received, as he was considered useful in protecting its commerce. ”

“ KIDD, Captain William, sometimes Robert Kidd or Kid.
In the whole history of piracy there is no name that has so taken the world's fancy than has that of William Kidd. And yet, if he be judged by his actions as a pirate, he must be placed amongst the second- or even third-rate masters of that craft. He took but two or three ships, and these have been, after two hundred years, proved to be lawful prizes taken in his legal capacity as a privateer. ”

“ Among the distinguished individuals who lurked about the colonies, was Captain Robert Kidd, [Footnote: His real name was William Kidd.] who in the beginning of King William's war, commanded a privateer in the West Indies, and by his several adventurous actions, acquired the reputation of a brave man, as well as an experienced seaman. But he had now become notorious, as a nondescript animal of the ocean. He was somewhat of a trader, something more of a smuggler, but mostly a pirate. He had traded many years among the pirates, in a little rakish vessel, that could run into all kinds of water. ”

“ That unknown route was unmistakably viâ Cape Horn.
Among the notorious pirates probably no one is better known in England than Captain Robert Kidd, whose trial and execution formed the subject of many once popular ballads. He commenced life in the king’s service, and had so far distinguished himself, that we find him in the first month of 1695 receiving a commission from His Majesty William III. to command a “private” man-of-war to “apprehend, seize, and take” certain American pirates. ”

“ Set aside all but Captain Kidd. William Kidd, you are now to be tried on the bill of murder. The jury is going to be sworn. If you have any cause of exception you may speak to them, as they come to the Book.
“Kidd. I shall challenge none. I know nothing to the contrary, but that they are all honest men.”
The greater part of the evidence in this trial has already been given verbatim in the narrative of the voyage of the Adventure Galley. It is clear from it that the crew for some time before the altercation, which led to Moore’s death, had been on the brink of mutiny ”

“ Kidd’s Own Journal 1852–4 re-issued in 5 vols.; built a fine aviary in the New road, Hammersmith, which was burnt down; delivered many lectures in the country from 1859; author of Kidd’s New guide to the lions of London 1832; Kidd’s Picturesque steam-boat companion to Herne Bay 1832; Kidd’s Picturesque pocket companion to Dover 1835. d. 3 Talbot villas, New road, Hammersmith 7 Jany. 1867.
KIDD, William John (son of W. H. Kidd, captain E.I.C.S.) . b. 1808 or 1809; ed. at St. Bees; C. of St. Anne, Manchester 1834–36; P.C. of St. Matthew, Manchester 1836–41; R. of Didsbury, Lancs. 1841 to death ”

“ Lordship and Countess, is what offers from, my Lord, your Excellency’s most humble and dutiful servant,
“William Kidd.”
On the first of July he brought the sloop and the remnant of his crew into the port of Boston, conscious of his integrity and relying on the word and honour of Bellamont. It may well be doubted whether any man in equally trying circumstances has ever been truer to his trust. ”

“ Few, if any, of such men have less deserved their fate than Captain Kidd, one of the unluckiest men that ever lived, who left this world on Friday the 23d of May, 1701, after woeful experiences at sea of the doings of an unruly crew, and on shore of the schemings of unscrupulous politicians and [4] lawyers at Boston, Newgate, the Old Bailey, and the Execution Dock at Wapping.
To most of those who woo her, reputation is a coy and fickle mistress. ”

“ She has clung most unfairly and pertinaciously for more than two centuries to poor Kidd, who in common with most men of his calling, had no desire whatever to obtrude himself on the public notice. This worthy, honest hearted, steadfast, much enduring sailor, a typical sea captain of his day, seems really to have done his best to serve his country and his employers according to his lights, in very difficult circumstances. ”

“ He is very fit to be made an evidence of the King. Perhaps there can be no other in this case than such who are in his circumstances.”
In other words, those of the crew who had faithfully stood by their captain, and helped [88] him to bring his prize home to America in the interests of their employers, one of whom was the King himself, could not be relied on as witnesses. The only witnesses who could be trusted to swear through thick and thin against Kidd, were two men who by their own admission had deserted their colours and joined Culliford in open piracy against the ships of all nations. ”

“ Even as it was, had he been in command of a disciplined crew, as determined as their captain was, faithfully to discharge the painful duties they had undertaken, his [78] finding the pirates at St. Marie’s would have given him a fair chance of crowning his patient efforts with a success which might have been handed down to posterity as a proof of the fortitude by which a great Scotch sea captain had been able to surmount apparently insuperable difficulties. But it would be hard to find in history, sacred or profane, an unluckier man than Kidd. ”

“ There fell betwixt Three and Four Bales to a Share: The Examinant had Three whole Bales and a Piece of a Bale, to his Share: some of which he disposed of at Madagascar, to buy Provisions; and left some in the Ship; the Remainder he had in his own Chest, and some in Martin Skinke’s Chest; which Chests were put on board a New York Sloop in the Sound, commanded by one Coster, and committed to his Care, to be carried to New York: Captain Kidd had Forty odd Shares [297] for himself, and his Ship; most of his men deserted. At St. Marie’s, a difference arose between the Captain and his Company ”

“ He overhauled a Moorish vessel which was commanded by an English captain, and as England was not at war with Morocco, and as the nationality of the ship's commander should have protected him, Kidd thus boldly broke the marine laws which governed the civilized world and stamped himself an out-and-out pirate. After the exercise of considerable cruelty he extorted from his first prize a small amount of money; and although he and his men did not gain very much booty, they had whetted their appetites for more, and Kidd cruised savagely over the eastern seas in search of other spoils. ”

“ All other pirates who made themselves notorious on our coast were known as robbers, pillagers, and ruthless destroyers of life and property, but Captain Kidd's fame was of another kind. We do not think of him as a pirate who came to carry away the property of American citizens, for nearly all the stories about him relate to his arrival at different points on our shores for the sole purpose of burying and thus [Pg 292] concealing the rich treasures which he had collected in other parts of the world. ”

“ That I will cruise on the coast for ten days' time; and if so that he is gone off the coast, that I cannot hear of him, I will then, at my return, take care and set what men on shore that I have had, and are willing to leave me or the Ship."
These records serve to show in what esteem Captain Kidd was held by the highest officials of the Colonies. Such men as he were sailing out of Boston, New York, and Salem to trade in uncharted seas on remote coasts and fight their way home again with rich cargoes. ”

“ There is nothing to prove that Captain Kidd ever had any considerable treasure and the little he had was secreted on Gardiner’s Island and recovered by the men who employed Kidd and for whom it was intended. No, your old hero Kidd was not a pirate nor a buccaneer. On the contrary, he was a much [198] maligned man, a weak, rather cowardly chap, who was the tool of unscrupulous adventurers and paid the penalty for crimes that never were proved against him. And yet, strangely enough, he became noted as the most famous of all pirates and his name is a household word and the epitome of piracy. ”

“ Well, Captain Kidd was cruising along this coast, with his ship full of treasure. He had been enjoying great luck on his last voyage. That means, of course, that a great many other people had been most unlucky. In those days about the unluckiest thing that could happen to anybody was to meet Captain Kidd on the high seas. Pirates were such greedy, cruel fellows,—I beg your pardon! I forgot that nearly every one here is a pirate. How careless of me!
Captain Kidd was a long way from shore when he ran into a fog,—a thick Maine fog; the kind that Islanders know so well. ”

“ If he could have kept them in his own possession, they would doubtless have been a great weapon of defence to protect him from the gallows. Indeed, when Captain Kidd was finally brought to conviction and hung, he was not accused of his piracies, but of striking a mutinous seaman upon the head with a bucket and accidentally killing him. The authorities did not dare try him for piracy. He was really hung because he was a pirate, and we know that it was the log-books that Tom Chist brought to New York that did the business for him ”

“ Now what does Captain Kidd say to all this? He has told you he acted pursuant to his commission: but that cannot be, unless [185] he gives you satisfaction that the ship and goods belonged to the French King, or his subjects, or that the ship had a French pass. Otherwise neither of them (sic) will excuse him from being a pirate; for if he takes the goods of friends, he is a pirate: he had no authority for that; there is no colour from either of his commissions to take them. And as to the French passes there is nothing of that appears by any proof ”

“ It was soon known in New York that the new governor was bent on suppressing piracy. Then some men of influence, who knew of Kidd as a successful, bold and skilful captain, who had fought against the French and performed some daring exploits, recommended him as commander of the expedition against the pirates. ”

“ Money, however, came in rapidly. Kidd, with all his crimes, possessed the elements of success in method, organisation, and power of command. His sailors forgot the horrors they had inflicted and their own degradation when they counted the pile of doubloons that constituted their share of plunder. Amongst the swarm of rovers who then swept the seas, Captain Kidd was considered the most successful, and even in a certain sense, notwithstanding his enormities, the most respectable of all. ”

“ The ship being driven back by the storm, gave rise to a rumour, that the ministry then in power were afraid of having Kidd brought to trial, on account of so many powerful Whig names being implicated in his piracy. This led to an impeachment of several of the adventurers in the House of Lords; but Kidd, and nine of his men, being easily found guilty, were condemned and executed for piracy and murder. The adventures and fate of Captain Kidd form the subject of one of the very few popular ballads which the history of America has given rise to in that country ”

“ The disastrous suggestion that Kidd should be sent out in command of a ship, provided at the expense of persons of consideration, and manned by a scratch crew of undisciplined men, emanated from Livingstone, and was assented to by the King as a pis-aller. At the worst the King could not lose a farthing by it. If it succeeded, he would not only gain his object, but pocket a substantial share of the plunder. The adventurers might pocket more, but they would run some risk of parting with their money and getting no return for it. ”

“ During the next two years the Company continued to receive repeated reports of the depredations of the pirates, and the excitement created thereby amongst the natives [114] of India, who had in some cases seized the Company’s factories and put the factors in irons. Meanwhile the absence of any news from Kidd had not unnaturally aroused the suspicions of the Company. Culliford, the captain of one of their own East Indiamen, the Moca Frigate, had run away with their ship from Madras and joined the pirates ”

“ It is to be feared that such views of the value of King’s evidence were by no means rare in those days. When questioned by the Judge, why, if he thought the Quedagh Merchant was a lawful prize, he did not have her condemned, Kidd’s simple answer was that his men would not allow him to do so. As a matter of fact he was on his way to the nearest Court of Admiralty competent to condemn her, when his men mutinied. “My lord,” he said, “there were ninety-five men that deserted my ship and took away what they pleased. We could not stand in defence of anything.” ”

“ Great consternation took place among the pirates on finding justice in pursuit of them, and their old haunts turned to places of peril. They secreted their money and jewels in lonely out-of-the-way places; buried them about the wild shores of the rivers and sea-coast, and dispersed themselves over the face of the country.
Among the agents employed to hunt them by sea was the renowned Captain Kidd. He had long been a hardy adventurer, a kind of equivocal borderer, half trader, half smuggler, with a tolerable dash of the pickaroon. ”