Who Was William Kidd The Pirate?
- Imagining History
- Jul 14
- 2 min read
William Kidd's Pirate Reputation
Most pirates have a reputation for being deadly, fearsome rule-breakers. But William Kidd's pirate reputation is quite different. He has the unfortunately reputation for being the most unlucky of all the pirates; he only ever managed one act of piracy.
William Kidd's Origin Story
William Kidd was born in 1645, in Greenock, Scotland, and went on to become a successful privateer. A privateer is essentially a legal pirate, you do most of the things a regular pirate would do but you only do it to the ships of other nations, which makes your king or queen a very happy chappy or chappella.
Climbing The Privateer Ladder
William Kidd kicked off a successful privateer career in New York City and did so well that he was invited to serve the new governor of New York and Massachusetts, Sir George Bellomont. Georgie, as he wasn’t known, gave Kidd command of the warship ‘Adventure’. His mission was relatively simple: to hunt French ships and pirates.
Things Go A Little Awry
Unfortunately things didn't go well for Kidd from here. His crew – many of them unscrupulous individuals – wanted to attack just about anything insight. Kidd refused. But given that the group hadn't managed many other successful raids, his crew were getting pretty grumpy.
It soon became clear that Kidd was losing his touch. He was also losing his crew. To keep order, a hot-headed and angry Kidd even shot his own gunner. Kidd only just managed to quash the mutiny amongst the crew that quickly followed.
William Kidd Gets Desperate
In 1698, in a desperate attempt to keep the crew on side, Kidd attacked and captured a treasure ship which held many goods belonging to the British East India Company. Silly man! If there’s anything we learned from Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s that you don’t mess with the British East India Company – and that pirates that wear mascara are much cooler than pirates who don’t.
Kidd tried to appeal to his wealthy and powerful friends in New York but they were no help. Kidd was sentenced to death in 1701 and was hung, not once, not twice, but three times! How can you be hanged three times I hear you cry? Well, the rope broke the first and second time, (hanging can be weird like that) Luckily, the third time's always the charm.
Buried Pirate Treasure
The rumours were that Captain Kidd buried much of his loot before being captured.
On a side note, this lead to the popular myth that all pirates bury their treasure. This myth isn't strictly true, mostly because pirate treasure was often made up of stuff they could trade, like food, which would just go rotten if you buried it!
But I digress.
If William Kidd did bury his booty, nobody has ever found it. Could his treasure still be hidden out there somewhere? Will anyone ever find Kidd's booty? Is it still attached to his leggies? We may never know.
