Captain Kidd, Was He Really a Pirate?

Many people know about captain Kidd as the fearsome pirate that roamed the seas and searched for innocent victims to kill, but was he really that way…did he really kill so many people and steal that much treasure? Maybe he was just an innocent victim of the English and their lies. Maybe he was just a victim of circumstance and all he did was either an attempt to spare his own life or to keep his crew. Maybe though, he was a pirate that deserved what he got, I don’t know, that will be for each of my readers to decide.

There are conflicting accounts as to where Kidd was born; one of them states that he was born in 1645, in Greenock, Scotland to a family of good reputation whose head was a minister, the other theory is that he was in Dundee to the poor family of a fisherman.

The first theory is held by the older historians while the new generation that is coming up seems to like the second theory more…but which one is true? Who knows, does it even really matter that much? One thing that might interest you is the fact that when Kidd was on death row he claimed to be from Greenock.

At five years of age captain Kidd’s father died and he was moved to the colony of New York; as he grew up in that city, he got to know the prominent citizens and also three governors. It is there where Kidd drops out of sight for a while until the war of the Grand Alliance, it was then when Kidd captured an enemy privateer off the coast of New England and this was the very start of his career, which rapidly moved forward when he received money for privateering in the Caribbean.

Captain Kidd was not only in the privateer business at the time, he also helped to build a Church in New York, although it was a humble church, Kidd gave his time and effort in the building of it; that was noble of him.

In 1695, the governor of New York, Massachusetts, asked the trustworthy Captain Kidd to attack various people who associated themselves with pirates and with that any French ships, which at the time were enemies. This is the voyage before Kidd became associated with pirates and probably the one that really set him out in the life of a privateer.

Kidd’s expenses were paid for by noble lords and it is said that the king of England himself helped pay for the ship. Captain Kidd sold his old ship to be able to get the proper amount of funds and bought a new one much more suitable to the task of catching pirates. Kidd hand picked 150 crew members, but soon lost most of them when a captain got mad at him for not giving the proper salute and as punishment, he took over half of Captain Kidd’s crew.

The bad luck did not stop there because cholera took about a third of his crew and then no matter where he went he couldn’t find any pirates. He went to Madagascar and to the Red Sea but no matter where he went he could not find any pirates, I think it is obvious that he would become quite desperate. Later on, Kidd accidentally killed one of his crew members when the man accused Kidd of turning him into a lousy dog.

There were numerous reports of prisoners being tortured when they were aboard Captain Kidd’s ship, but this was likely his crewmen. It wasn’t the only thing that his crewmembers did, they also looted and tortured the crewmembers of a friendly ship while Kidd was with the captain talking. Things were just getting out of control.

It was not long after that and Captain Kidd realized he was wanted for piracy, he went on the run but was betrayed by a trusted friend into the hands of the English.

Captain Kidd received a bogus trial and the people who hired him to privateer in the first place, never came to his defense, rather they hid the only evidence that would have given him a chance to live…they hung Captain Kidd and set his hanging corpse on display for two years as a warning to all pirates.

So was he a pirate or wasn’t he…well, judge for yourself.