Legend of Captain Kidd.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18283, 21 March 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

Legend of Captain Kidd.

(G. M. Thomson in John o’ London.)

CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD, one of the most distinguished sons of the manse, is also to be numbered among the comparatively few Scotsmen who have become eminent because Of their exploits at sea. Kidd, John Paul Jones, Sir Andrew Wood, and the famous Barton brothers practically complete the Scottish naval pantheon, and it must regretfully be confessed that about almost all of them (Wood being a glorious exception) the suspicion of piracy hangs. The skull and crossbones seems to be the Scottish maritime flag. In the case of Kidd, however, the most notorious of them all, there has always been a shadow of doubt as to whether he really was a Pirate or a Misjudged and 111-Used Man. >J{. has been said that he did not have a fair trial, and it is certain that material evidence was suppressed by the Admiralty in spite of his repeated complaints. It is also certain that a number of important personages of the Whlgoligarchy, including Lord Somers, the Imrd Chancellor, were financially interested in the venture which brought Kidd to Execution Dock. This gave to his trial the air of a political occasion. The Jacobites were determined to implicate the Government in a criminal undertaking, and the Government were equally determined to hush up their share and to prove their innocence by meting out stern justice to Kidd.

Mr Graham Brooks, in his excellent new editing of the “ Trial of Captain Kidd ’’ in the “Notable British Trials” series, leaves ns no room to doubt that Kidd's trial was as Impartial as the rules of evidence in the eaply eighteenth century permitted. The suppressed documents, though relevant, could not have saved Kidd from the gallows, for they referred to only two of the five charges of piracy against him. But, in spite of this, the, reader is left with the obstinate suspicion that there was more in the whole affair than meets the eye, and that Kidd was infamously deserted in his need by powerful friends who were willing enough to profit by his exploits while it was safe to do so. What an extraordinary career Kidd’s Is! Born at Greenock in 1G i 5. the son of a Scottish minister, he became a respected and prosperous merchant In New York, 'married, had children and property, and was rewarded for his courage and public spirit in saving the colony from rebels.- Altogether a man of Exemplary Life and Unblemished Character until that falal voyage of lf.’JT. The end of the story is not without its piquant touches, as. for example, that William 111. sent the royal yacht to bring the captive pirate more speedily to London; and that, after his execution, his effects, which had become Iho property of the Grown, were given l,v Queen Anne towards the establishment of Greenwich Hospital. The total sum was £Gt»7 1. It was probably only part of the treasure that Kidd found aboard his chief prize, the Qucdagh Merchant. As for the remainder, its fate has never been ascertained. “The story that has obtained most credenco is that the ship was brought up the Hudson North Hivcr, and scuttled mot

Was He a Pirate or a Misjudged Man?

abandoned near the Highlands.” If I am not mistaken, thebe Is also a persistent belief that the treasure was buried on Gardiner s Island, which is now a popular yachting resort near New York. A letter from “ John Gardiner of Gardiner's Island,” published in an appendix to this hook, says nothing about buried treasure. there, but hints that goods were landed in Oyster-pan Bay not far off. Kidd’s expedition was fitted out as a privateering venture against pirates, and It was laid down In his agreement with Lord Bellomont, Governor of New England, that master and crew were to be paid out of the proceeds of prizes they took. The Arrangement Was So Iniquitous that we can only suppose Kidd was as much a foci as a knave. One of those Interested in the affair was Edmund Harrison, a director of the New East India Company, who supervised the selection of the crew- by Kidd, and rejected all Scotsmen and colonists “ on the ground that their sympathies f would probably he with smugglers and pirates, and that therefore they were not to be relied upon." Unfortunately, however, as Kidd put out down the Thames from London, his ship was creamed of its best men by naval pressgangs, and Kidd was compelled to recruit at New York—that Is to say, in a colony where piracy was prevalent. Eventually he set sail for the headquarters of the pirates in Madagascar. For twelve months he had not had sight of a prize, a third of his crew were carried off by sickness, and the ship was beginning to leak. Needless to say, the crew were on the verge of mutiny, and If Kidd had not turned pirate of his own volition—if he really did so—he would have been speedily thrust aside in favour of a more desperate leader. But soon an event took place which changed Kidd’s outlook. The gunner, William Moore, who had been one of the ringleaders in the early piratical adventures, annoyed Kidd so much by his impudence that the captain picked up an iron-bound bucket and killed him with a blow on the head. This was murder, and no doubt Kidd felt that he had burned his boats and might as well become a pirate If he was already a murderer. Soon after that he took the rich prize, the Quedagh Merchant, which was the real cause of the extraordinary Indignation roused against him. This ship belonged to Armenian owners. Its capture Infuriated the Great Mogul and terrified the East Indian merchants, who feared reprisals on their own ships. But Kidd, instead of slaying In plunder and defy Ihe ships sent out against him. sailed back to America, learnt that he hud been proclaimed a pirate, and then tamely surrendered to Lord Bellomont at New York, so

'ended his one and only voyage as a pirate. Did he Hatter himself that ho would tie aide to bluff it out. or did lie think that Bellomont would stand by him in return for a share of the loot? We shall never no able to find the truth about this odd tin Mi. fop we do not know enough about Hie character of the man who lias, rather unjustly, become the most notorious of the UU'jl