William Kidd (pirate)
William Kidd (* 1645 in Greenock ; † 23 May 1701 in London ) was a Scottish-American privateer who was later sentenced to death as a pirate by the rope .
Life
Kidd was born in Scotland , later emigrated to America and settled in New York City . There he married Sara Bradley Cox Oort. They had two daughters together: Elizabeth and Sarah Kidd. The marriage brought Kidd a sizable fortune, and before he became a pirate he was a respected merchant.
During a trip to England, Kidd was offered a privateer license with which he was allowed to capture French ships. Four fifths of the costs were paid by noble lords, who were among the most powerful in the kingdom; the Earl of Orford , the Baron of Romney, the Duke of Shrewsbury and Sir John Somers. These acted on behalf of the British East India Company . Kidd and an acquaintance, Colonel Robert Livingston, paid the rest. Kidd had to sell his ship to Antigua to raise funds.
The new ship, the three-master Adventure Galley , was well suited for hunting pirates; it had 34 cannons and a crew of 150 men. However, Kidd's company was unsuccessful. He had great difficulty covering the costs; the contracts with his sponsors in England and America more or less condemned him to success. Legally, however, he was only allowed to attack French ships and pirates.
On October 30, 1697 there was a dispute with the gunner William Moore. In a subsequent fight, Kidd threw a metal-studded bucket at the head, causing Moore to fall down onto the main deck and die. Some interpret this as a turning point at which Kidd finally decided to embark on a pirate career. However, the incident can also be viewed differently. There are many indications that Kidd's team played a large part in the decision to pursue “pirate” ventures, e.g. B. the deployment of allied or neutral ships. The Kidds team did not sail on wages, as was gradually being established on merchant ships at the time, but on a share. This constellation meant that they could only benefit from their work if enough booty had been made in the end. If they did not hijack ships or only those with little loot on them, the trip was a losing proposition for them. It is therefore very possible that the crew pressured Kidd to bring up neutral or friendly ships as well, and the fatal argument with Moore was only the culmination of such arguments.
The Moore case is also important because at that time courts always tried to convict accused pirates not only of piracy but also of murder. Both were subject to the death penalty , but murder was considered the “more solid” basis for a conviction. The murder or manslaughter of Moore could be proven beyond doubt by statements of the team, so it plays a role especially in the later verdict against Kidd. What actually tipped the balance for Moore's death cannot be clarified beyond doubt. However, it can be assumed that the team has very likely put pressure on Kidd and perhaps even threatened to mutiny, and that Kidd, for his part, was certified in many sources as having a heated, quick-tempered disposition that would allow such a reaction with a fatal outcome.
As the journey progressed, Kidd's actions were more and more like those of a pirate than those of an agent of the Crown. On January 30, 1698, he hijacked the Quedagh Merchant - an Armenian ship that was apparently fully loaded with gold, silver, fabrics and other valuables from the East Indies. As he approached the ship, he hoisted the French flag. Thereupon the merchant ship also revealed itself as French because it was sailing under French protection. After capturing the ship, Kidd found that the captain was English, whereupon he tried unsuccessfully to persuade his crew to return the ship to its rightful owners.
Kidd reached Madagascar on April 1, 1698 . Here he met the first pirate during his sea voyage, Robert Culliford on the Mocha Frigate . He ordered the attack on the Mocha Frigate . Unfortunately for Kidd, his men not only refused to take action against Culliford, but ran over to him in droves, taking weapons and equipment with them. Only 13 of them remained loyal to him. After all, for the sake of his own safety, Kidd was forced to give Culliford a drinking bout to assure him that he had nothing to fear from him.
Then Kidd decided to return home. He left the Adventure Galley behind, ordered it to be lit and sailed homeward aboard the "Quedagh Merchant". On his return to New York City, he was arrested and taken to the Stone Prison . He was later sent to England to appear on trial for piracy and the murder of William Moore. Until the trial he was held in the notorious Newgate Prison . Found guilty of all charges, he was hanged in London on May 23, 1701 . The rope broke during the execution and Kidd could not be hanged until the second attempt. His body was tarred and chained in an iron cage hung over the Thames as a warning to future pirates.
Kidd's Whig Party supporters were put to shame by the trial. These political influences can also be considered the reason why Kidd's case became so well known in the first place and is still considered controversial today. To illustrate how important the overall political dimension was in Kidd's case, one can imagine that Kidd was the only pirate of his entire age who had to justify himself to the House of Commons. The secondary literature on Kidd accordingly deals a lot with the weighting of political influence in Kidd's judgment and reputation formation.
Kidd's sweetheart
From contradicting information about the value of the cargo of the Quedagh Merchant on the one hand and the different share of booty the crew on the other hand, the legend about Captain Kidd's buried treasure arose.
With the permission of the owner of Kidd buried a consisting of gold, silver and precious stones treasure on the island of Long Iceland upstream Gardiners Iceland . After his arrest in Boston in 1699, Lord Bellomont, then governor of Massachusetts , had the treasure excavated. According to popular opinion this is only a small part of the booty of the Quedagh Merchant . This speculation prompted numerous soldiers of fortune on Gardiners Island to continue searching for the rest of the treasure. Other hiding places are Charles Island (Connecticut) , Oak Island in Canada and the island of Sainte Marie off the east coast of Madagascar .
The legend was further promoted by the later literary confrontation with Kidd's treasure. B. in Edgar Allan Poe's short story Der Goldkäfer ("The Gold Bug"). A book for young people with the title “Captain Kidd's Treasure” has also adapted the theme.
At the beginning of May 2015, US amateur archaeologists claimed that a large number of silver bars had been found in a wreck off Sainte Marie and assigned them to Kidd, as the wreck was Kidd's ship Adventure Galley . This representation is considered to be refuted, the bar presented was ship ballast made of lead .
Research
In December 2007, a team of US underwater archaeologists found a wreck that was previously untouched by looters at just three meters below the Isla Catalina , a tiny island in the Dominican Republic , which they claim to have identified as the Quedagh Merchant .
The wreck represents a true “underwater museum”, as it still contains all of the ballast of the cargo - with valuable cannons and anchors. However, there are no parts of the treasure, as the precious cargo was apparently unloaded by Kidd before the ship was sunk. Historians hope the find will provide information about piracy in the Caribbean and about the life of Captain Kidd.
Movies
As early as 1922 there was a 15-part film adaptation with a length of 200 minutes. Directed this led JP McGowan . British actor Charles Laughton played William Kidd in two films. In 1945 he played William Kidd in the pirate film Under the Black Flag . However, the film does not claim to be historical. The same applies to Laughton's further film Abbott and Costello as Pirates Against Wills , which was made in 1952. This is a parody of pirate films. Laughton is referring here more to his role played in 1945 than to the historical figure William Kidd.
music
The German heavy metal band Running Wild dedicated a song called Ballad Of William Kidd to William Kidd in their album The Rivalry . The band Great Big Sea also dedicated the song Captain Kidd to the Scottish pirate.
literature
- Robert Bohn : The pirates. 2nd edition CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-48027-6 (Scientific literature on Kidd).
- Robert C. Ritchie: Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates. Harvard University Press, 1986. (Standard work on Kidd)
- Wolfram zu Mondfeld, Barbara zu Wertheim: Pirates: Horrors of the oceans. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2070-4 . (Poorly researched book, especially for this age. It claims that Kidd met Captain Mission. Mission never existed off-paper, and the authors of this book fail to provide any source references for their views in most cases.)
- Captain Charles Johnson : A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. Warner, London 1724, 1728. Reprint: The Lyons Press, Guilford Con 1925, 2002, ISBN 1-58574-558-8 .
German edition: Comprehensive history of the robberies and murders of the notorious pirates . Robinson, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-88592-009-3 . - Oldřich Růžička: Captain Kidd's treasure. Meyers, Mannheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-411-07073-2 .
- Frank T. Zumbach : William Kidd. About arch pirates, American privateers and corrupt gentlemen with high wigs. Koehler, Edition Compass, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-7822-0744-0
Web links
- Literature by and about William Kidd in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short biography (accessed on May 23, 2011)
- ^ Trial and Execution , information in English (accessed May 23, 2011).
- ^ Ruzicka, Oldrich: “The Treasure of Captain Kidd”, Bibliographisches Institut, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-411-07073-2
- ↑ Madagascar: Reportedly treasure discovered by Captain Kidd. In: handelsblatt.com. Retrieved August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Madagascar: Treasure discovered by pirate William Kidd - SPIEGEL ONLINE. In: spiegel.de. Retrieved August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Panorama: Treasure discovered by Captain Kidd? - badische-zeitung.de. In: badische-zeitung.de. Retrieved August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ "Pirate Treasure" off Madagascar was fake - news.ORF.at. In: orf.at. Retrieved August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ The silver treasure from pirate captain William Kidd is only lead. In: faz.net. Retrieved August 13, 2015 .
- ↑ The wreck is to become an underwater museum
- ↑ Film about diving work on the wreck
- ↑ Pirate ship discovered by Captain Kidd
- ↑ Captain Kidd. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kidd, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kidd, Captain |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish-American privateer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1645 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Greenock |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1701 |
| Place of death | London |