In the short history of piracy there must have been far more frightening figures than William Kidd. During his lifetime, the Scot was more of a tragic figure than a successful plundering lord of the seven seas. Kidd was no Samuel Bellamy. But after his death by hanging on May 23, 1701 in London, his fame grew year by year.
The legend of his life took on more and more fabulous features and soon provided the material for many adventures in literature, in the cinema and now also in video games. Of course, these only have a limited connection to the real events, for example in the pirate film “Under the Black Flag” with an agile Charles Laughton as Captain Kidd. One of the most famous literary embellishments is Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Goldbug”. It’s all about the treasure that Kidd is said to have buried but was never found.
“Surely you too have heard the adventurous stories – the thousand dark hints that Kidd and his comrades have buried a pot of gold somewhere on the Atlantic coast,” the quirky William Legrand addresses the narrator and continues: “This talk surely it must be based on a fact, and that it could last so long seemed to me proof that the buried treasure was still unexcavated Had Kidd only hidden his robbery for a time, and afterwards recovered it, it would have been so these treasure tales have hardly come down to us in their ever-changing form.” Poe sets his story on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Of course, in the end you find the treasure, which gives those involved more than one and a half million dollars when it is sold.
When his men threaten mutiny, Kidd kills one of the troublemakers
Poe’s story is too good to be true. The truth, however, is quite different: To this day, Captain Kidd’s legendary treasure fires the imaginations of adventurers and keeps them going in search of their fortune. For example on Oak Island off Canada, on the Vietnamese island of Hon Tre Lon or off the east coast of Madagascar.
William Kidd was born in Scotland around 1654. As a young man he went to sea and settled in New York. When he married the rich widow Sarah Bradley Cox Oort in 1691, he was already a deserving captain and privateer who fought against the enemy French on behalf of the British. In 1695 he met the 1st Earl of Bellomont, Richard Coote, who would become colonial governor of the provinces of New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay three years later. This begs Kidd to take action against both French ships and pirates. Behind it are the interests of the concentrated English nobility. Kidd accepts and soon holds one from King William III. signed letter of marque in hands.
With his new, very stately ship Adventure Galley Kidd sets course for Madagascar in 1696. At that time, the Indian Ocean was repeatedly plagued by pirates. But Kidd doesn’t encounter the pirates for months. Instead, parts of his crew get sick and die. Some break away, others threaten mutiny. They want to see wages. Kidd kills one of the troublemakers. This incident, later ruled a murder at the London trial, and a charge of piracy mean his death sentence. Because at the beginning of 1698 an event occurs that turns the buccaneer into an outlaw pirate.
Papers intended to prove his innocence disappear in court
The richly laden with gold, silver and jewels Quedagh Merchant crosses Kidd’s path and is captured. The Indian ship is commanded by an Englishman but sails under French protection. A dilemma for Kidd: did he behave legitimately in this action or was he guilty of piracy? The Crown’s position is clear: Kidd has become a pirate and should be punished. He considers himself innocent. Curiously, however, the French papers with which he wants to prove his innocence in court can no longer be found at the trial and were not to be found again until the 20th century. Who made her disappear? This question still stirs people’s minds today.
Kidd leaves after capturing the Quedagh Merchant burn his now ailing own ship and returns to New York. Before that he hides them Quedagh Merchant in the Caribbean where the wreck is actually found in 2007. Arrived in New York, he was arrested in 1699 by his client Richard Coote, who, like his supporters in England, did not want to be drawn into the affair, and taken to London, where he was put on trial. Before the sentence was carried out, however, he is said to have mentioned his immeasurable treasure in a letter of request, the hiding place of which he would reveal in return for a pardon. In vain. He was hanged twice – the first time the rope broke.
This is probably the beginning of the legend of Captain Kidd’s treasure. People have been searching for it on Oak Island since the late 1800s. Richard Knight, on the other hand, only believed that it could be found in Vietnam on Hon Tre Lon around 180 years later. He landed on the island in 1983 with the American Frederick Graham. But before they could start digging, they were arrested for entering the country illegally and detained for a good year. In 2015, treasure hunter Barry Clifford claimed to have fished a 50-kilo silver bar out of the sea off Madagascar, which came from Kidd’s loot, but the find was actually almost all lead. The search continues.