CAPTAIN KIDD: PIRATE OR PRIVATEER?

LOCATION: The Indian Ocean

PERPETRATORS: Captain William Kidd and his crew

MOTIVATION: Robbery, murder, Hijacking

BACKGROUND: The notoriety of Captain William Kidd, who was hanged in London on May 23, 1701, for piracy and murder, arose as much from the publicity surrounding the possibility of a royal and political scandal as it did from the nature of the crimes for which he was convicted.

Little is known of Kidd's early life, beyond the fact that he was born in the Scottish city ov Dundee. The first reliable records concerning him date to 1689, at which time we was about 35 years old and the captain of a ship arriving at the Caribbean island of Nevis, a British colony. He had been sent there on commission by the island's governor to provide protection against possible French attack.

Kidd led raids on islands held by the French in the Caribbean and captured French ships as prizes before moving further north to operate against the French along the coast of New England, sailing out of ports in the English colonies of New York and Massachusetts.

By the 1690's, some pirates from the Caribbean and western Alan tick had begun to look further afield, sailing round the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of the African continent and into the Indian Ocean in order to arrack merchant shipping that was carrying precious cargos from the Far East, leading to the company lobbying the English parliament to take action against the pirates.

The investment allowed Kidd to purchase a brand new ship, the Adventure Galley. In September 1696, alongside a French ship captured previously, he embarked on the voyage to the Indian Ocean.

Over the course of the following year, he had failed to find any pirates and therefore had not taken any prizes, leading to discontent among the remaining crew and raising the threat of mutiny.

It was about this time that rumors began to reach London and New York the Kidd had abandoned privateering for piracy.

Kidd was hoping to negotiate a deal with Lord Bellemont, one of his backers who was also the governor of the English colonies on New York and Massachusetts. When Kidd traveled to see Bellemont, who was in Boston, he was arrested and thrown into jail, where he would remain for over a year before being extradited back to England.

In March 1701, Kidd appeared before the members of parliament in the House of Commons. It remains the only occasion in which a man accused of piracy has been summoned in this manner.

On May 23, 1701, Kidd was hanged at Execution Dock on the bank of the River Thames.

OUTCOME: Kidd was hanged and gibbeted.