Friday, July 6, 2018

    Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.

    Falling afoul of your government can be bad for your health. In a dictatorship, they simply shoot you. In a democracy you should be safer because of the rule of law, but if you get in the middle of a political catfight, you could end up hanging from a gibbet. Take William Kidd for example. On this day in 1699,  he was arrested in Boston for piracy and murder. 

     William  Kidd was born in Scotland around 1654, the son of a ship captain who was lost at sea. The family was supported thereafter by a charitable society and Kidd eventually made his way to New York. He went to sea on a merchant ship. He liked to be in charge, so he led a mutiny against his captain, changed the name of the ship and sailed to a British island in the Caribbean. England was at war with France at the time and Kidd was given a commission to take French ships. 

     Later in the war, a pirate stole Kidd's ship while he was ashore. He made his way back to New York and had enough money left over to help with the building of Trinity Church. He also married a young and wealthy widow.

     The British were having a lot of trouble with pirates and Kidd was commissioned to hunt them down. Most of the financing for his new ship built in London came from wealthy noblemen who expected a cut of the take. These were Whig noblemen. Keep that in mind.  Kidd headed for the Cape of Good Hope, but on the way a third of the crew died of cholera, the ship sprang leaks, and no pirates were found. They saw other ships, but they were allies of England and not fair game. His crew egged Kidd on to attack one of these ships and, in a fit of anger he threw a heavy bucket and killed a crewman. At the next port, several of the crew deserted.

    Kidd's ultimate downfall resulted from attacking an Indian ship hired by Armenian merchants. The ship's captain was English so Kidd should have let the ship go. On the other hand, the ship was using French passes to get through the French blockade. It was a real grey area, and Kidd, needing cash, took the ship. Thereafter, he was declared a pirate by the British.

   Knowing he was a wanted man, Kidd sailed for the Caribbean, where he traded his ship for another the British navy would not recognize. He headed north, hiding some of his treasure on an island at the tip of Long Island. One of Kidd's investors was now governor of Massachusetts and he lured Kidd to Boston with a promise of clemency.  This investor realized he might be implicated in Kidd's piracy and thought it prudent to lock him up and turn him over to the Crown.

    Back in London, Kidd refused to name his investors, those Whig noblemen, confident that they would protect him. But the government was now in Tory hands, and when Kidd refused to give evidence, the Tories turned him over to stand trial. Kidd was convicted, hanged, taken down and tarred, then hanged again in a gibbet for three years along the Thames River as a warning. The treasure near Long Island was found shortly after Kidd buried it. The rest of his treasure. if it exists, has never been found. Kidd was kind of a spend-as-you go businessman, not a hoarder.

Captain Kidd's cannon, now on display at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis of all places.