Captain William Kidd was born in Dundee, Scotland, around 1654, however, he resided in Massachusetts, where he owned a large home and began his career as a privateer. The corsairs were not pirates, but licensed fortune hunters hired by various countries and dominions, including the American colonies. Initially, William Kidd sailed to sea and soon made a name for himself as a skilled and hardworking sailor. It was during 1689, when he was hired as a privateer, to capture French ships, that he won his first prize. The ship was later renamed the Blessed William placed under the command of the Governor of Nevis. Then he arrived in New York just in time to save the governor from a conspiracy. While in New York, he married a wealthy widow. A short time later, when visiting England, he became friends with the Lord of Bellomont, who would be the new governor of New York. Such friendships allowed him to be well connected and as wealthy as any skilled sailor during the 17th century. In fact, it seemed that the sky was the limit for the young captain. Therefore, Lord Bellomont and some of his friends were influential in suggesting that Kidd receive a privateer contract that would allow him to attack both pirates and French ships. It was during a time when England was at war with France and due to the dangers in the open sea, piracy was common. The suggestion was not accepted by the government, but Bellomont and his friends decided to finance the adventure themselves and thus establish Captain Kidd as a privileged privateer to attack French ships or pirates on the condition that he share his treasure with investors. For this adventure, he was presented with the 34-gun Adventure Galley and set sail for the first time as a privateer in May 1696.

After about 18 months on the high seas, Kidd and his crew, unable to capture a French ship, were in distress. There was talk of a mutiny, but finally, in August 1697, it attacked a convoy of Indian treasure ships, but was repulsed by a warship of the East India Company. This was an act of piracy and is clearly not in the William Kidd statute. Also, around this time, Kidd killed a mutinous gunner named William Moore by hitting him on the head with a heavy wooden bucket.

On January 30, 1698, Captain Kidd’s luck finally turned. He captured the Queddah Merchant, a treasure ship heading home from the Far East. It really wasn’t fair game as a prize because the ship was a Moorish ship with cargo owned by Armenians, captained by an Englishman named Wright. Apparently he was sailing on French papers: this was enough for Kidd, who sold the cargo and shared the loot with his men. The merchant’s holds were crammed with valuable cargo, and the prize for Kidd and his pirates was 5,000 pounds, or more than two million dollars in today’s currency. Kidd and his pirates were rich men by those standards. Setting out for Madagascar and the Indian Ocean, a notorious island inhabited by pirates, he and his crew found very few French ships to take. About a third of its crew fell ill and died of diseases, while the rest became surly due to lack of awards. They had expired more than two years and the treasure was not released to Massachusetts investors.

Shortly after, Kidd came across a pirate ship captained by a famous pirate named Culliford. It is unknown what happened between the two men. According to Captain Charles Johnson, a contemporary historian, Kidd and Culliford greeted each other warmly and exchanged supplies and news. But during this exchange, many of his crew abandoned him, fleeing with their share of the treasure while others joined the pirate Culliford. At his trial, Kidd claimed that he was not strong enough to fight Culliford and that most of his men had abandoned him to join the pirates. He said he was allowed to keep the ships, but only after all weapons and supplies had been removed. Regardless, Kidd traded in the leaky Adventure Galley for the fit Queddah Merchant and sailed to the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the news that Captain Kidd had turned into piracy reached England. Bellomont and his wealthy friends, who were very important members of the Government, quickly distanced themselves from the company. Robert Livingston, a Scottish friend and companion who knew the King personally, was deeply involved in Kidd’s adventure. Meanwhile, Livingston turned on Kidd, desperately trying to keep the promoters’ names secret. Bellomont managed to publish an amnesty proclamation for the pirates, but Kidd and Henry Avery were specifically excluded from it. For this reason, some members of the old crew would later accept a pardon in exchange for testimony against Captain Kidd. When Kidd arrived in the Caribbean, he learned that the authorities now considered him a pirate and decided to go to New York, where his friend, Lord Bellomont, could protect him until he could clear his name. For this cause, he abandoned his ship and captained a smaller ship to New York instead. But as he approached the colonies, as a precaution, he buried his treasure on Gardiner Island, a site near Long Island in New York City. Upon reaching New York, he was immediately arrested and Lord Bellomont refused to believe his stories about what had happened. To save his reputation, he disclosed the location of his treasure on Gardiner Island and it was recovered.

After spending a year in prison, Kidd was sent to England to face trial. Meanwhile, certain members of his crew gave testimony in Charleston, South Carolina, in the form of statements. In 1701, John Dove (or Defoe), a sailor, swore he was a passenger on the Adventure Galley ship under Captain Kidd when they were in Madagascar and the St. Thomas Islands of the West Indies. Sam Bradley, Captain William Kidd’s brother-in-law, made an affidavit in Charleston, stating that he was opposed to becoming a pirate and that, although he was ill, he had been landed on the island of St. Thomas and left to die. . Therefore, a year later, Bradley was pardoned by Governor James Moore of Charleston.

The sensational trial occurred on May 8, 1701. Kidd swore that he had never become a pirate. But investors and other stakeholders had managed to exonerate themselves and the weak evidence of the affidavits, as well as the death of Mr. Moore, a rogue gunner, rode against him and he was found guilty. Kidd now attempted to bargain for his life in exchange for most of the treasure removed from the Queddah merchant. The authorities refused. Kidd was hanged on May 23, 1701, and his body was placed in an iron cage that hung along the River Thames, where it would serve as a warning to other pirates. The site of the true gold and silver treasure was never disclosed, although Kidd insisted until the end of his life that he had buried another treasure somewhere in the Indies.