Details
[KIDD, William]. A Journall kept by me Thomas Longish Lieutenant of His Majestie's Ship Advice under command of Captaine Robert Wyne this 24: 10: 1699. Manuscript ship's log detailing the "Remarkable Observations and Accidents" on board. Folio, 325 x 210mm., mounted on modern laid paper and bound in full blue morocco.
KIDD'S LAST VOYAGE FROM THE COLONIES TO EXECUTION DOCK
A very interesting on-board account by an officer on the HMS Advice , the vessel specially sent to New York to return Kidd and other pirates to England for trial. The officer records when Kidd is taken on board in New York, his confinement in a cabin rather than a gun room and notes other pirates taken in Cape Cod and Boston.
That Kidd's name has endured for 300 years, placing him in the company of Blackbeard and Captain Morgan in popular culture, is a fine example of myth-making. Kidd was not a pirate at all in the common sense of the word, but a privateer with commissions from King William III, Lord Bellemont and numerous wealthy patrons in the colonies and England to raid French shipping. Originally given a ship and a commission to apprehend colonial pirates, Thomas Tew of Rhode Island, Thomas Wake and William Maze of New York and others, what is certain is that Kidd sailed to the Indian Ocean and began providing for his backers in the accepted fashion. Nothing was heard from Kidd after his 1696 departure for two years but ugly rumours, until he turned up in New York in a small ship rich with booty. In the interim an amnesty had been declared for all pirates who surrendered, with the exception of Kidd and Captain Avery (both of whom were involved with influential merchants not keen on having their affairs made public). Kidd was thus arrested by one of his chief backers, Bellemont, now governor, and sent on the Advice to England (while on the ship, the present lot records that Kidd was confined to own cabin in steerage and was not kept with the other prisoners).
Kidd was hanged on the basis of his raids on two Mogul ships, both of which were travelling under commissions from the French East India Company, making them lawful seizures under Kidd's own privateering commission to raid French shipping. Unfortunately, Kidd turned over the papers from the vessels he raided to Bellemont and the evidence was never produced at his trial. The papers that could have prevented his execution were found 200 years later in the public record office.
KIDD'S LAST VOYAGE FROM THE COLONIES TO EXECUTION DOCK
A very interesting on-board account by an officer on the HMS Advice , the vessel specially sent to New York to return Kidd and other pirates to England for trial. The officer records when Kidd is taken on board in New York, his confinement in a cabin rather than a gun room and notes other pirates taken in Cape Cod and Boston.
That Kidd's name has endured for 300 years, placing him in the company of Blackbeard and Captain Morgan in popular culture, is a fine example of myth-making. Kidd was not a pirate at all in the common sense of the word, but a privateer with commissions from King William III, Lord Bellemont and numerous wealthy patrons in the colonies and England to raid French shipping. Originally given a ship and a commission to apprehend colonial pirates, Thomas Tew of Rhode Island, Thomas Wake and William Maze of New York and others, what is certain is that Kidd sailed to the Indian Ocean and began providing for his backers in the accepted fashion. Nothing was heard from Kidd after his 1696 departure for two years but ugly rumours, until he turned up in New York in a small ship rich with booty. In the interim an amnesty had been declared for all pirates who surrendered, with the exception of Kidd and Captain Avery (both of whom were involved with influential merchants not keen on having their affairs made public). Kidd was thus arrested by one of his chief backers, Bellemont, now governor, and sent on the Advice to England (while on the ship, the present lot records that Kidd was confined to own cabin in steerage and was not kept with the other prisoners).
Kidd was hanged on the basis of his raids on two Mogul ships, both of which were travelling under commissions from the French East India Company, making them lawful seizures under Kidd's own privateering commission to raid French shipping. Unfortunately, Kidd turned over the papers from the vessels he raided to Bellemont and the evidence was never produced at his trial. The papers that could have prevented his execution were found 200 years later in the public record office.