1 HAPPENED IN NEW YORK i ae mess eee aed ClaTHE NOTORIOUS CAPTAIN KIDD Manhattan TERRIBLE WERE THE TALES TOLD OF Captain Kipp, the greatest pirate ever to sail from New York City: tales of ransom letters written in the blood of women and children he kidnapped and murdered, legends of climbing onto honest men’s ships with evil in his blackened heart in a quest for gold and jewels, and stories of buried treasures found in Gardner's Island at the end of Long Island. But these tales weren't necessarily true. In 1696 Captain William Kidd, a successful shipmaster, at the request of the governor of New York, was given two commissions from the King of England addressed to “our trusty and well-beloved Captain Kidd.” One commission was to suppress the ravages of piracy and save commercial ships from these unmerciful mongrels, The Navy was too weak and low on manpower to patrol the seas, so brave, bold men had to be brought in to protect the innocentmerchants. The second commission was to cruise as a privateer against the French. The only drawback to being a privateer was there was no pay under contract unless pirate ships were taken. No pay, no food. His life depended on ic. Captain Kidd's secret desire was to become captain of the King's Royal Navy warships, not a pirate hunter. He had been approached once prior for this purpose by the powerful Whig polit- ical party, at the time in charge of the trade commission, but he had declined. His options were narrowing, He realized he would never be a captain, so he sailed to England, agreed to become a pirate hunter, and aligned himself with the powerful men of the day, the Whigs. One February morning in 1696, heading for the pirate-filled waters of Madagascar, Malabar, and the Red Sea region in his ship the Adventure Galley, with its thirty-four powerful guns and crew of seasoned men, a boastful Captain Kidd failed to give a mariner's salute to the royal yachts as he left the dock. Instead, his crew mem- bers “clapped their backsides in unison,” thus insulting the lordships. Shortly after a small boat arrived with orders from the king to take one hundred of Kidd’s best men away from him as punishment. Kidd tried to recruit other men while in England, but the navy had taken all the available men, Kidd sailed back to New York to look for more sailors. His little prank had backfired. In New York he ran into the same problem. He had to take men from jail to make up the rest of his crew-——beggars and thieves who gratefully were willing to go on the ship and sign a contract on a “no prey-no pay” basis. Some of these unsavory men knew about ships and sailing, but most of them were inexperienced. Kidd had to make the best of it. On September 6, 1696, he kissed his wife and daugh- ters goodbye, left his house on Pearl Street, and ser sail with 132 men to capture pirates and fulfill his commission.