The notoriety that the Captain Kidd achieved has to this day compelled treasure hunters to go to the depths of the oceans.
Since records were not kept of people of common birth in the 1600's his early years are undocumented. He was born a Scot around 1645. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister. The town he lived in was near the docks and Kidd soon found the life of a sailor more interesting than that of a minister.
The first records of his life date from 1689, when he was about 44 years old and was a member of a French English pirate crew that sailed in the Caribbean. Kidd and other members of the crew had mutinied, ousted the captain of the ship, and sailed to the English colony of Nevis. There they renamed the ship the Blessed William. Kidd became captain, either the result of an election of the ship's crew or appointment by Christopher Codrington, governor of the island of Nevis. Captain Kidd and the Blessed William became part of a small fleet assembled by Codrington to defend Nevis from the French, with whom the English were at war. In either case, he must have been an experienced leader and sailor by that time. As the governor did not want to pay the sailors for their defensive services, he told them they could take their pay from the French. Kidd and his men attacked the French island of Mariegalante, destroyed the only town, and looted the area to the tune of 2,000 pounds Sterling.
Shortly after he and the crew of the Blessed William joined the British navy in a battle against French warships. His crew thought this was a dangerous waste of time since there was no treasure to steal on the enemy warships and they turned against Kidd. While the ship was anchored at Nevis Kidd went ashore only to have his crew steal the ship as well as his fortune. This Caribbean Pirate had seen better days.
Governor Codrington provided Captain Kidd with another ship named the Antigua. He gave him permission to hunt down his disloyal crew. Kidd sailed from Nevis but changed his mind a short while later. He decided to sail to New York , which was a British colony. New York was in revolt against the British. Loyal to the crown, Kidd offered to carry guns and ammunition for the British, who were trying to assert their authority over the colony. In reward for his loyalty, the provincial assembly gave him 150 pounds and praised his efforts
While in New York, Kidd met Sarah Bradley Cox Oort, who was married to John Oort. He was a rich gentleman and owned several docks, as well as what is now Wall Street. Two days after John Oort's mysterious death, Kidd and Sarah Oort applied for a marriage license. Although no one discovered the truth behind John Oort's death, some historians believe Kidd killed him possibly with Sarah's help. She inherited her deceased husband's fortune and Kidd gained control of it.
This Caribbean Pirate, immediately became a very rich man, with both land and docks. He loved his wife and her two daughters but was restless. He took the Antigua and set out to sea. He and his friend Robert Livingston had put together a plan in the early part of 1695. Pirates were continually disrupting the English shipping traffic. Captain Kidd would sail and take pirates into custody. He would recover the treasures the pirates had taken from other ships and it would be divided between Kidd, Livingston and their several investors. One of which was King William of England. King William supported this plan, because the pirates were cutting off shipping and he would receive a cut of the profits. The answer, Kidd and Livingston knew, was to leave untouched English ships but to prey only on those of other countries like Portugal, France, and Spain. Under this scheme, they could continue to enjoy a life of piracy while remaining protected by the official sponsorship of the King of England. King William granted power to Kidd to apprehend all pirates, freebooters and sea rovers. He was not allowed to attack English ships or those of her Allies
In February 1697, Captain Kidd left Plymouth, England and set sail for Madagascar. The ship Adventure Galley had been purchased the previous August by the investors. It had been trimmed down and outfitted with 30 cannon. He had a crew of around 80 men.
There was dissension among the crew about capturing only non–English ships. After a confrontation between Captain Kidd and a crew member named Robert Moore, in which Moore was killed, Captain Kidd set aside the rule concerning attacks on English ships and her Allies. From now on any ship was fair game.
Captain Kidd and his crew sailed continuously, taking one ship after another. They rarely put into port for repairs and in time the Adventure Galley was close to sinking. Being past the point of repairs, they ran her aground and transferred all crew possessions and treasures to the Quedah Merchant. It was a ship which had recently been captured.
After arriving in the Indian Ocean, however, he soon became known and feared by other captains They started complaining to the king about Kidd's piracy acts in the Indian Ocean .
Though never admitting to the original commission he had given Kidd, King William ordered Captain Kidd be put to death when caught. He had left the Indian Ocean and set sail for the English colonies. Kidd was in time was taken into custody and imprisoned in Boston. After spending a considerable amount of time there he was transferred to England and jailed in Newgate Prison, the worse of all prisons.
In the spring of 1701 Captain Kidd was finally brought to trial for piracy and the murder of the sailor Moore. His trial began on May 8, 1701, and was over the next day. He maintained he was not a pirate and had only plundered French ships. He had not murdered Moore, only struck him in the heat of the argument. He proclaimed his love for his wife and daughters.
Captain Kidd was to be executed for his crimes on May 23, 1701. When they attempted to hang him the rope broke and Captain Kidd fell to the ground. The pastor and the condemned man prayed together for a short time before the hangman completed his work. His body was then strung up along the banks of the Thames River in London for all to see. His pirate days were over and now he was a warning to other who might consider a life of piracy. His ship was abandoned and left in the shallow water of the harbor to rot. It too was a reminder to passing ships of the consequences of the life of a pirate. The decaying ship finally slipped below the surface and was forgotten for over 300 years.
After Casptain Kidd's death, stories were spread about his vast treasure that was left behind. People started conducting searches anywhere Kidd had come ashore. In the 1800's companies were formed for the same purpose. They mainly focused on New York 's lower Hudson River valley.
Barry Clifford had found the remains of the Whydah, off the coast of Massachusetts in 1984. She is the only authentic pirate ship then known to be in existence
A search was conducted in 1999 by Barry Clifford in Madagascar for the Adventure Galley. He did discover a pile of porcelain, metal and other debris. The porcelain turned out to be from Ming vases made between 1666 and 1722. It was verified by existing historical records, that Kidd's ship would have had such items as cargo. They also found ship fittings, cannons and rum bottles. The debris was is the correct location where the ship had been run aground. At Kidd's trial one of the crew members had written a description of the location. On June 22, 1999 two gold coins were found, they too could have been from Captain Kidd's ship. One of the coins was Islamic and the other Ottoman. Before conclusive proof could be made about these artifacts the expedition members were forced to leave the country by the Malagasy government.
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