John Gow

The pirate John Gow (* around 1698 , † 1725 ) was the son of Margaret Calder and William Gow, a wholesaler from Stromness on the Orkney . The family was originally from Caithness and owned property in Wick .

Young Gow became a seaman. In August 1724 he was hired on the Caroline in Amsterdam , where he was 2nd mate and gunner. On November 3rd, after leaving Santa Cruz , Gow and five of his comrades murdered the Caroline s captain , Oliver Ferneau, the 1st mate, the ship's doctor and an unskilled worker and Gow took command of the ship.

Over the next two months they hijacked ships off the Spanish coast. Two prizes were taken, but both ships only carried fish. When food and water became scarce, they went to Madeira , where they only received a few barrels of water, beef and chickens. An American timber ship was stopped next, followed by a wine truck from Cadiz . The last ship had loaded fish again. They then crossed the Atlantic and reached Stromness on Orkney in January 1725, where Gow named his ship the Revenge George and changed its name to Smith.

Two people who knew Gow from the Caroline were in Stromness at the same time with their ship and revealed his identity. Gow had to leave Stromness with ten men. He first raided the Hall of Clestrain at Orphir , the home of Sheriff Honeyman. From here he kidnapped two maids, but abandoned them the following day on Cava (Orkney Island). Meanwhile, one of the pirates has informed the authorities of Gow's intention to raid the Orkney coastal towns. A frigate was dispatched and Kirkwall was ready to attack. However, Gow decided to go to Eday, Orkney Island, where his school friend, James Fea, lived in Carrick House. In Calf Sound, between the islands of Eday and Calf of Eday, the ship ran aground. The Calf Sound was the orcadian final act of a pirate drama that was only one year old.

Without a dinghy, they couldn't escape and got stuck on the rocks. Negotiations with Fea failed and Gow and his crew were finally arrested by Fea and his men. John Gow and seven of his crew were hanged in London in June 1725.

One story goes that before he was arrested in Stromness, Gow made a vow to a Helen Gordon on Odinstein. It is said that she went to London to hold his tarred hand and that she had redeemed her vow.

In Kirkwall is the "John Gow's folly Monument" (or Groattie Hoose), built in 1730 from the ballast of Gow's ship, crowned with stumpy pinnacles . From its original location behind a house on Bridge Street, it was relocated to the public garden of Tankerness House in 2004 .

James Fea reportedly received £ 1,700 for Gow's arrest, but later lost it in legal proceedings. The events of 1725 were portrayed by Daniel Defoe in The Pirate Gow and used by Walter Scott as source material for his novel The Pirate .

literature

• Captain Charles Johnson : A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates . Ch.Rivington, London 1724.

Web links

• Memorial in Kirkwall