Pirate Hunter: Captain Kidd

The Mission Ahead

Converted for the Web from "Chapter One: Mission in New York City" from Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd."

The pair of ships headed onward; Kidd was just beginning his 3,100-mile nonstop voyage to Madeira, a Portuguese island, famous for its wine. The captain followed the standard southeasterly trade route of that age. From there, he planned to head around the tip of Africa to the Indies where pirates such as Captain Avery feasted on treasure-laden Moslem ships.

Four days out of port, as the seasick landsmen such as forty-two-year-old Jewish jeweler Benjamin Franks still spewed over the side, Captain Kidd fulfilled his whispered promise to the crew to let them sign new and more favorable ship's articles.

On September 10, man after man came into the captain's cabin to sign. Most merely applied an X; some had learned their initials; some tried to sign and made a mess of it.

The document has survived: "ARTICLES of Agreement . . . between Capt. William Kidd Commander of the good ship the Adventure Galley on the one part and John Walker Quarter M.er to the said ships company on the other part, as followeth, vide . . ."

This contract acts like a kind of negotiated treaty between 150 men on one side and the captain on the other. On a Royal Navy ship, the captain's authority is reinforced by a troop of armed marines; on this privateer, Kidd's power comes mainly from this piece of paper (and the force of his personality and a mere handful of loyal officers).

The articles also provide a foreshadowing of life at sea aboard the Adventure Galley privateer.

• Incentive Bonus: "The man who shall first see a Saile. If she be a Prize shall receive one hundred pieces of eight."

• Workman's Compensation: "That if any man shall lose an Eye, Legg or Arme or the use thereof . . . shall receive . . . six hundred pieces of eight, or six able Slaves."

• Discipline: "That whosoever shall disobey Command shall lose his share or receive such Corporall punishment as the Cap.t and Major part of the Company shall deem fit." (Captain Kidd could not punish his men without the consent of the majority.)

• "That man is proved a Coward in time of Engagem.t shall lose his share."

• "That man that shall be drunk in time of Engagement before the prisoners then taken be secured, shall lose his share." (A drunken post-victory celebration was obviously expected.)

• "That man that shall breed a Mutiny Riot on Board the ship or Prize taken shall lose his shares and receive such Corporall punishment as the Capt. and major part of the Comany shall deem fitt." (Again, Kidd rules by permission.)

• "That if any man shall defraude the Capt. or Company of any Treasure, as Money, Goods, Ware, Merchandizes or any other thing whatsoever to the value of one piece of eight . . . shall lose his Share and be put on shore upon the first inhabitted Island or other place that the said ship shall touch at."

• Sharing: "That what money or Treasure shall be taken by the said ship and Company shall be put on board of the Man of War and there be shared immediately, and all Wares and Merchandizes when legally condemned to be legally divided amongst the ships Company according to Articles" (Kidd reserved 40 shares for himself and the owners, with the rest to go to the crew.)

Captain Kidd signed the document, with his signature featuring a large slashing W and a large oversized swirling K. It was with a confident hand that he agreed to give away his right to order up lashes for this uneven crew.

"When [Captain Kidd] was here, many flocked to him," Governor Fletcher later observed, "men of desperate fortunes and necessities, in expectation of getting vast treasure. He sailed from hence with 150 men . . . great part of them from this province. It is generally believed here that they will get money per fas aut nefas [one way or another], and that if he misses the design named in his commission he will not be able to govern such a herd of men."

As if that threat weren't enough, Kidd was faced with another more insidious problem. The ship was but a week out of the harbor when his New York partner, Robert Livingston, wrote to the Duke of Shrewsbury, secretary of state. "I am just now informed that Captain Kidd was constructed to make new conditions with his men, and to allow them the usual shares of privateers, and hath only reserved 40 shares for the ship, but this wants confirmation, the captain not having acquainted me therewith . . . I hear he designs to make [New York] his port and to be here in 18 months' time. I am therefore of the opinion it would not be amiss if your Grace and the rest of the owners do take care that orders be sent to the Governors upon the Main and the West Indies, that if Captain Kidd on the Adventure Galley should come there to take care that the ship be seized, that the owners interests be secured." Not a week out of port, Robert Livingston wanted to alert the governors throughout North America to be on the lookout to seize Kidd. (Devious Livingston almost certainly knew about the change in shares; he was merely double-crossing his friend.)

So here it is: Captain Kidd's mission is to go chase pirates -- men who would rather die than surrender. He is to travel in a lone ship manned with a desperate crew, some of whom are former pirates. His ship's articles do not allow him to punish his crew, except by vote of the entire crew. As a private man of war, he will be deeply distrusted by the Royal Navy; as a commercial rival, he will be despised by the English East India Company. He is a Scot lording it over an English and Dutch crew. Once he rounds the Cape of Good Hope, he will find no welcome ports of call, except pirate ports. On the immense Indian Ocean of twenty-eight million square miles, he must find some of the five currently active European pirate ships, many of them carrying relatives and friends of his crew. And he has a one-year time limit and some of the most powerful men in the world waiting for him to return. It would be a fool's errand -- except for the treasure.

Copyright © 2002 Richard Zacks.