One of the British Admiralty’s tactics was to commission or charter civilians like Kidd to “privateer” and profit-share spoils with the uppers. It was a strategic way of paying for war costs and subduing the enemy at the same time. The British Lords decreed (with the King’s royal assent) that all goods aboard French, Spanish, and pirate vessels could be commandeered for the financial benefit of the Crown. As well, the age of piracy was at its peak, and the King wanted to take advantage of the situation. England was at war with France and Spain. Several events were going on where the King needed civilian help in the naval department.
However, King George III had different designs for William Kidd’s seagoing talents. Kidd temporarily boxed-up his sexton and settled into land-based businesses. He seemed to be in the King’s favor when he returned to normal life and married a wealthy American socialite. He had given service to England’s King George III as a “privateer” commissioned to hunt down “buccaneers” and “pirates”. This was the historical period when piracy ruled the Seven Seas, and civilian vessels needed all the protection they could get.Ĭaptain Kidd relocated to New York City around 1690. He was not a Navy man, but he was well-skilled with navigation and vessel armaments. William Kidd received a Captain position within the British merchant marine. From the time Kidd was a kid and could put on boots and a slicker, he was onboard sailing ships that crossed the Atlantic. He was born in 1655 to a seafaring family. Are Kidd’s real valuables-precious gems, coins, ivory, opium, and ornaments-buried somewhere and lost in time? Let’s look at who Captain Kidd truly was and the highly-suspicious circumstances that led to his easily-convertible, common commodities of gold and silver being found for the Crown while priceless pieces somehow disappeared. But the legend of his remaining treasure lives on, and there may be some real truth to folklore that the bulk of Kidd’s bounty was never seized by authorities. You could say Kidd got royally shafted.Ĭaptain Kidd is long dead. No, Captain Kidd was a gentleman of high status who got sucked into the job by the British King and got screwed in the end. Kidd wasn’t a swashbuckling Johnny Depp-Jack Sparrow character, nor was he a homicidal psychopath like Blackbeard or Black Bart. Then, his body was garroted and suspended in public display as a warning to other pirates.īy all accounts, William Kidd was not your typical pirate. Captain Kidd was convicted and hung in 1701.
#Captain kidd long island trial#
Kidd’s treasure was inventoried, forfeited to the British Crown, and entered as evidence during his trial for murder and piracy. That’s an indisputable fact, as his chests containing gold, silver, and a few emeralds were dug up on Gardiners Island in now-New York State in 1699.
There’s no doubt Captain William Kidd buried some treasure. Such is the lure of Captain Kidd, the infamous pirate, whose hoard of richness may still be out there, stashed in some secret site and silently awaiting discovery. There’s something magical about lost treasure whether sunken, hidden, or buried beneath the earth in a clandestine location. The very word is intriguing, invigorating, and-to some-even intoxifying.
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