The dead of a Scottish Pirate Captain William Kidd 17th-Century (1654-1701).
☞Today in History -- On today’s date 322 years ago during the Golden Age of Piracy on Friday, May 23, 1701, famous 17th-Century Scottish Pirate Captain William Kidd (1654-1701) met his earthly demise at the age of 47 when he was hanged for the crime of piracy at Execution Dock near the shoreline of the River Thames in the district of Wapping in East London, England.
☞RequiΓ©scat in Pace, Captain Kidd.
☞William Kidd, who was born at Dundee, Scotland in 1654, established himself as a sea captain before settling in New York City in 1690, where he bought property, married, & was commissioned by New York to rid the coast of enemy privateers. In 1696, Kidd set sail for the Indian Ocean, but he met with little success & failed to capture a major prize until February 1698, when the Quedagh Merchant, an Indian vessel sailing under a French pass, was taken. Word of Kidd’s capture of the ship, which was heavily laden with treasure, aroused controversy in Britain, as the ship had an English captain.
☞Suspicions that Kidd had turned to piracy were apparently confirmed when he sailed to St. Mary’s, Madagascar, an infamous pirate haven. Upon learning of the piracy charges against him, he sailed to New York in hopes of clearing his name; instead, he was arrested & taken to London. In 1701, he was tried on five charges of piracy & one charge of murdering a crewman. Convicted on all counts, he was executed by hanging on May 23, 1701. In later years, a colorful legend grew up around the story of Captain Kidd, including reports of lost buried treasure that fortune seekers have pursued for centuries.
☞ “The Ballad of Captain Kidd” is an English song about Captain William Kidd, who was executed for piracy in London on May 23, 1701. The song was printed in Britain in that same year, & it traveled to the overseas colonies “almost immediately.”
☞The 1824 book “Tales of a Traveller” by noted American author Washington Irving (1783-1859) makes mention of the Ballad of Captain Kidd:
“There’s a fine old song about him, all to the tune of --
My name is Captain Kidd,
As I sailed, as I sailed --
And then it tells the story of how he gained the Devil’s good graces by burying the Bible:
I had the Bible in my hand,
As I sailed, as I sailed,
And I buried it in the sand
As I sailed.
☞The photograph depicts an Early-Victorian-Era woodcut illustration entitled “William Kidd Hangs in a Gibbet at Tilbury Point, on the River Thames” -- from an 1837 book entitled “The Pirates Own Book, Or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, & Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers” by noted Boston stationer, almanac maker, & author Charles Ellms (1805-1851).
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