Who was Captain Kidd

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Q.� How did he start out on this notorious career

A.� Not certain. He probably went to sea as a boy. By 1689 he was sailing as a privateer for Great Britain against the French in the West Indies and off the coast of North America.

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Q.� Remunerative work

A.� So it would seem. He wasn’t paid a salary, but would get a cut of anything he captured. A year later he was an established sea captain and shipowner in New York City. He was employed by both New York and Massachusetts to rid the coast of enemy privateers. In London in 1695, he received a royal commission to apprehend pirates who attacked the East India Company's ships in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean.

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Q.� So how did he become a bad guy

A.� Kidd sailed from Deptford on the Adventure Galley, on 27 February, 1696 and arrived at New York City on 4 July to take on more men. He arrived at the Comoro Islands off East Africa, by February 1697. But he had captured no prize ships - which meant no pay. The crew was suffering from scurvy and plague, and almost 60 men died. Kidd replaced his lost sailors - but unwittingly employed some former pirates. They became restless at Kidd's lack of success - and Kidd became more desperate to calm the mutinous crew. By October captain and his crew were fighting incessantly, which led to an argument between Kidd and his gunner, Thomas Moore. Kidd hit him in the head with a bucket, fatally injuring Moore.

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Q.� And it went downhill from then

A.� Yes. In August 1697 he made an unsuccessful attack on ships sailing with coffee from Yemen but later took several small ships. Kidd took his most valuable prize, the Armenian Quedagh Merchant - carrying silk, sugar, opium and iron - in January 1698 and scuttled his own unseaworthy ship. He regarded it as a legal capture, but when he reached Anguilla, in the West Indies, in April 1699, he found he had been denounced as a pirate.

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A.� He abandoned the Quedagh Merchant at the island of Hispaniola, bought a ship called the Antonio, and sailed to New York City. There he tried to persuade the Earl of Bellomont, colonial governor of New York, of his innocence. Bellomont, however, sent Kidd to England for trial. In May, 1701, he was convicted of murdering Moore and of five counts of piracy. Some observers later questioned whether the evidence was sufficient for a guilty verdict. He was hanged at the execution dock near Wapping.

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Q.� And what of his treasure

A.� Some of the booty from Quedagh Merchant was buried on Gardiner's Island, Boston, and found soon after Kidd's death. It is also rumoured that more treasure is buried on Clarke's Island, in the Connecticut River at Northfield, Massachusetts. According to the legend, Kidd and his men buried the chest of gold and then drew lots to see which of their number would be killed so that his body could be left on top of the chest to protect it from all treasure-hunters. Hence the expression 'deadman's chest'. Nobody's found it yet. Or if they have, they're not saying.

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by Steve Cunningham