BUCCANEERING DAYS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 11 September 1926, Page 11

BUCCANEERING DAYS

TN his “Dead Aren’s Tales, ’’ Bonnet Copplestone has -served lip from the original doc-umenis the 'authentic stories of some of England’s legendary heroes; and an admirable banquet he makes of them. There is much disillusion in the process, of course; though it is mighty hard to separate the exact lineaments of an ancient face from the lavishly bedecked product of a century’s adulation or disapproval, both strong stimulants to the romantic imagination. Here is our beloved Captain Kidd, for example; the kind of pirate who thought a day illspent when a Spanish galleon or an East lndiaman did not cumber his decks with gold and jewels., and a hundred sailors did not walk the plank. There, must be few boys that have not at some time hoped that, a beneficent providence would give them a'chance to follow in Kidd’s footsteps; and many men of mature years have trioto locate his treasure, buried,*,so tradition emphatically affirms, on some lone islet of the tropic seas.

Ami the historian proves (says “Kotare” in tl-c N.Z. Herald) that poor Kidd was a mild man of gentle manners, who never hoisted the .Jolly Roger, and who never had a treasure that would be worth digging over your quartcr-acro to find. Kidd did have something-to do with pirates. He was appointed by the English Government to hunt them down.. But lie was a poor hand for the job. and his crew at last decided he was hopeless. They i;o----lieved him of his office, abandoned him and did a little piracy on their own account.

AVhen Kidd returned to America, he discovered that England was experiencing one of her periodical spasms of virtue. When England is in this mood she has to have a victim. Kidd was the nearest approach to a pirate the authorities could lay their hands oa.

LEGEND OF CAPTAIN KIDD

WHAT HAWKINS DID FOR ENGLAND.

He was" condemned to death after what is probably the most outrageous trial in the records of English justice, and was duly hanged at Execution Dock in the first year of the eighteenth century. 8o much for the dreams of our vouth.

But,.“Dead Men’s Tales” is of-par-ticular" interest because of its valiant attempt jto correct publie opinion on the merits of the great Elizabethan. Hawkins. The author believes that history had done a grave injustice to Hawkins. No legends, have clustered round his name. He. has become tip* hero of no mythical bowling match while the Armada was beating its way up the Channel. He has had no tales of magical drum's associated with his name. Somehow no poets have found their inspiration in him. He has never become the symbol of anything-. In his youth lie took a prominent part in the slave tirade, and that is about, the only tiling that is remembered about him. . -

“Hawkins improved the design of the war galleon, lengthening the keel. 1 and cutting down the top-hamper’ and the fore ami aft castles. lie was a believer in the fast, handy-sized e!i:'< ol' some ’'DO to 900 tons. Hawkins iiii--proved the conditions of the men as lie... iiii proved the lines of the ships. • He raised the rates of pay,, seeking to attract to the Queen’s regular service better and more capable marines, and he would have fed the men better,' too. could Elizabeth have been persuaded to pay for better fgod .and to have hanged a few of the speculators* who profiteered in ships’ stores. The un- , changing commercial Englishman lias always been a profiteer in the days of his country’s need.” . , . . .V<

It is about time Hawkins was reeog : nised as the simple-hearted, devoted Englishman who in her day of greatest peril placed in her hands’ the weapon, that saved England.