Captain kidd biography

William barn was a privateer from Scotland whose narrative fryst vatten shrouded in fiction: was he truly a notorious pirate, or a wrongly accused sailor merely serving the English government? The young barn moved to New York in after the death of his father, but he was then lost to history until forty years later, when he reappeared among a crew of europeisk pirates who sailed throughout the Caribbean. Kidd and his fellow seamen ousted the captain and took control of the fartyg, which they renamed the Blessed William, before sailing to the English island of Nevis. There they met with Governor Christopher Codrington, who was at that time in the practice of hiring skilled sailors to defend the island from French invaders. Because he did not wish to pay them for their services, however, Codrington insisted that they take their dues from the French. Kidd was named captain of the Blessed William, and he and his crew quickly attacked the French island of

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William Kidd

Scottish privateer (–)

This article is about the Scottish privateer. For other uses, see William Kidd (disambiguation).

"Captain Kidd" redirects here. For other uses, see Captain Kidd (disambiguation).

William Kidd (c. – 23 May ), also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in New York City. By , Kidd had become a highly successful privateer, commissioned to protect English interests in North America and the West Indies.

In , Kidd received a royal commission from the Earl of Bellomont, the governor of New York, Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, to hunt down pirates and enemy French ships in the Indian Ocean. He received a letter of marque and set sail on a new ship, Adventure Galley, the following year. On his voyage he failed to find many targets, lost much of his crew and faced threats of mutiny. In , Kidd

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Greenock, Probable Birthplace of William Kidd

 

William Kidd, or Captain Kidd, lived from 22 January to 23 May He became one of the two or three best known pirates to emerge from an era in which piracy was rife and he gave rise to legends of buried treasure that still attract treasure hunters today; yet he never set out to become a pirate, and there is every reason to believe that his eventual trial and execution for piracy was the result of an establishment cover-up in which crucial documents that could have led to his acquittal were withheld by the authorities. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.

Kidd was born into a reputable family, probably in Greenock on the River Clyde (although some have made competing claims for Dundee as his birthplace). Kidd's father died when he was five, and as soon as he was able, the young William went to sea, serving on a wide var