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Legend of Captian Kidd

He goes to sea with royal approval to attack
England's enemies, and returns accused of
piracy.

By Steve Wick
Staff Writer at Newsday, Long Island

Copied from Newsday. To view the original, click here,

He was a respected member of his church in
Manhattan and passed the collection plate on
Sundays. He was an accomplished sailor and a
businessman whom the king of England said was
"well beloved." He was hired by powerful political
figures to stop marauding vessels from preying on
commercial ships. He buried a fortune in stolen
treasure on Long Island.

His given name was William but he is better known
by his title -- Capt. Kidd. He is one of the most
famous pirates in history.

Born in Scotland in 1645, Kidd went to sea as a
young man, working on a merchant vessel between
New York and London. He also served as a
privateer -- a commander of an armed private ship
with official permission to prey on French and
Spanish shipping in the Caribbean. By the
mid-1690s, Kidd and his family were living in an
elegant home on Pearl Street in Manhattan.

"The 17th Century was a tumultuous time," said
Mildred DeRiggi of the Long Island Studies
Institute at Hofstra University. "There was a gray
area between being privateers attacking enemy
shipping with government sanction as part of the
war effort versus those plundering and smuggling
purely for profit."

At that time, New York profited handsomely from
the pirate trade. Goods were smuggled into the
colony and many powerful public figures shared the
booty. Pirates also used the harbors around Long
Island to refit their ships and sell their loot -- slaves,
sugar, textiles, jewels and spices seized on the high
seas.

In 1695, Kidd traveled to London in search of a
royal commission as a privateer. There, he met up
with a New York friend, Robert Livingston. A
political figure and entrepreneur, Livingston was
himself engaged in illegal trade with the French,
England's mortal enemy.

Livingston introduced Kidd to the earl of
Bellomont, who as a member of Parliament had
manuevered to get himself named governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later, he would be
named governor of New York. Bellomont and
Livingston threw their support behind Kidd's plan
to be a privateer, with the booty divided among the
principals.

To give the plan the seal of approval, Bellomont
persuaded King William to grant a royal
commission. Some historians believe that the king
was also to receive a share of whatever loot Kidd
collected from pirates he captured -- in other
words, his majesty was now a partner in Kidd's
venture.

Kidd set sail on a ship named the Adventure Galley.
He returned to New York, where he loaned
equipment from his ship to help in the building of
Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, which opened
in 1698 under a royal grant. To this day, Kidd's
name is engraved on pew No. 16: "Captain William
Kidd, Commander Adventure Galley."

The truth of Kidd's venture is lost in the fog of
history. What is known is that he sailed for the
Indian Ocean to seek treasure. In May, 1698, the
Adventure Galley with its 150-man crew dropped
anchor off Madagascar. But 90 of his men
deserted. Kidd abandoned the ship, which needed
repair, and seized a rich Moorish vessel, the
Quedah Merchant. By spring 1699, he was in the
West Indies.

Meanwhile, back in England, sentiment had
changed. Unbeknownst to Kidd, he had been
declared a pirate by the British government.
Bellomont, ensconced in Boston as governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, became a new man --
turning against pirates and Kidd in particular. In
May, 1699, Bellomont wrote that the inhabitants of
Long Island were "a lawless and unruly people"
protecting pirates who had "settled among them."

When Kidd learned that he had been declared a
pirate, he transferred some of his loot to a sloop,
the St. Anthony, and leaving the Quedah Merchant
behind, set sail for New England to clear his name.
He seems to have gone directly to Oyster Bay,
where he contacted an attorney, James Emmot,
whom he asked to approach Bellomont.

That July, Bellomont wrote:

Captain Kidd in a sloop richly laden, came to
Rhode Island, and sent one Emot to Boston to treat
about his admission and security. He said Kidd
had left the great Moorish ship he took in India,
called the Quedah Merchant, in a creek on the
coast of Hispaniola, with goods to the value of
30,000 pounds.

Kidd was no fool. He sent jewels to Bellomont's
wife, and he buried a large amount of his treasure
on Gardiners Island, a half-mile inland from its
western coastline. He did this with the permission
of the island's owner, Jonathan Gardiner, the
grandson of Lion Gardiner. Kidd marked the burial
spot with a cairn, a large pile of rocks. The
vine-covered cairn still stands on the island, near a
granite marker erected in the 19th Century. Kidd
also gave Gardiner an expensive silk fabric -- a
piece hangs on a wall of the island's manor house.

With his bargaining chips in place, Kidd traveled to
Boston. His best bet was the Quedah Merchant
back in the Caribbean. He also carried proof that
the ships he seized were French. But on July 6 he
was arrested on piracy charges. Bellomont, his
partner at the beginning, was now his enemy.

After arresting Kidd, the governor sent a messenger
to Gardiners Island to seize the buried loot --
estimated at the time to be worth 20,000 pounds
(more than $1 million in today's value). All the
treasure is believed to have been removed.
Gardiner -- who some historians have suggested
was in league with Kidd -- gave a statement to
Bellomont in which he said that on the day he
buried the treasure, Kidd convinced him to "take
three negroes, two boys and a girl, ashore, to keep
till he, the said Kidd, should call for them . . ."

Kidd gave Gardiner gifts of cloth and "four pieces
of Arabian Gold." Gardiner said Kidd also buried "a
chest and a box of Gold, a bundle of quilts, and
four bales of goods." Two members of Kidd's
crew, "who went by the names of Cook and
Parrot," gave Gardiner "two bags of Silver . . .
which weighed thirty pounds . . . a small bundle of
gold, gold dust of about a pound weight . . . a sash
and a pair of worsted stockings."

In February, 1700, Kidd arrived in London for trial.
He was first charged with murdering one of his
crewmen, William Moore. Two crewmen who had
deserted testified against him. He was convicted
and sentenced to hang.

To put another nail in Kidd's coffin, officials then
tried him for piracy. He testified that the ships he
seized in the Indian Ocean were French ships, but
he was not allowed to introduce evidence to prove
it. He was convicted again.

On May 23, 1701, Kidd stood on the gallows.
When the floor fell out from under him, the rope
broke and he survived. He was carried back up and
hanged again. This time it worked.

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