The Portuguese sent two warships to track down Kidd’s ship, now considered a pirate. The Adventure Galley then seized a merchant ship flying the English flag, the turning point in Kidd’s career. The Charles Galley, a ship of similar build and contemporary of Adventure GalleyĪfter months of no action, the crew became mutinous, and Kidd decided to attack the “pilgrim fleet” moving toward the Red Sea. The 34-gun Adventure Galley set sail in April 1696 for New York to recruit the 152-man crew described by the Governor of New York as “men of desperate fortunes, and necessitous of getting vast treasure.” Serving under Captain Kidd was no picnic, for he was “a very lusty man, fighting with his men on any occasion, often calling for his pistols and threatening any one that durst speak anything contrary to his mind to knock out their brains, causing them to dread him.” Letters of marque were obtained to hunt down “Pirates, Freebooters, and Sea Rovers,” especially Captains “Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Mace.” The King (William III), allowed for Kidd to skip the Admiralty Courts so he could receive direct payments himself!Īn artist’s rendition of a scene aboard Captain Kidd’s ship while anchored in New York Harbor The usual financial arrangements for paying the crew and the investors hinged on selling captured ships and contents in prize courts.

Several Whig peers-and even the King-invested in Kidd’s scheme, forming a syndicate to enable him to purchase a large fighting ship, hire another tough buccaneering crew, and sail to the Indian Ocean to take both pirate ships and French merchantmen. In 1695 William Kidd returned to London to raise money for another privateering venture, hoping to open an entirely new enterprise supported by men of wealth and influence. He soon married a local heiress and established himself in several local business ventures. Within two years, Kidd landed in New York with a new ship and crew. He fought the French in the Caribbean on behalf of the co-monarchs William and Mary, though his crew hijacked the ship, leaving him stranded on the Island of Nevis. Kidd went to sea at an early age, and by 1689 commanded a privateering ship, The Blessed William. William Kidd was born to a Presbyterian minister in Greenock, Scotland, at the height of the Second Scottish Reformation. Greenock, Scotland, and across the Firth of Clyde towards Kilcreggan And it was all recorded in detail, unlike most piratical activities of the 17th and 18th Centuries some historians believe Captain Kidd a victim of politics and misunderstanding. It began with letters of marque for privateering against the French, which quickly spun out of control to include the taking of prizes outside the law, mutinies, seizing English ships, hidden treasure and finally, arrest, incarceration, a sensational trial, and execution. His case involved or implicated Lords of the highest rank in England, including the King himself, as initial investors in his enterprise. N the golden age of piracy, no pirate left a bolder trail, more details of his career, or more loot unaccounted for after his capture, than William Kidd.

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