Speaker 1: Everyone loves a good story, and since you're listening, chances
Speaker 1: are you're also fond of pirates. From sailing the high
Speaker 1: seas and buried treasure to swilling rum and singing shanties,
Speaker 1: pirates have come to represent a lot about the human spirit.
Speaker 1: Through the centuries, we've fallen in love with adventure, danger
Speaker 1: and exploration. Honestly, we never tire of hearing about pirate life.
Speaker 1: In Sweden, for example, there's a story that's been handed
Speaker 1: down from generation to generation, and like other pirate tales
Speaker 1: the world over, people love it so much they don't
Speaker 1: care whether it's true or not. The story goes that
Speaker 1: back in the fifth century, there was once a mighty
Speaker 1: Scandinavian king with a lovely daughter, young Princess a Wilda's
Speaker 1: beauty was such that her father, King Sanartis, locked her
Speaker 1: away in a tower for her protection, of course, and
Speaker 1: to ensure that no ordinary man could easily scale the tow,
Speaker 1: or he surrounded it with deadly snakes and traps. While
Speaker 1: many men failed, Prince Alf of Denmark succeeded in breaching
Speaker 1: the castle and then asked the king for his daughter's
Speaker 1: hand in marriage, to which the king agreed. They had
Speaker 1: a problem. Though the princess had vanished from the tower,
Speaker 1: you see, a Wilda's beauty was matched only by her
Speaker 1: feistiness and sense of independence. With her mother's help, the
Speaker 1: princess had made her escape, accompanied by her strong willed
Speaker 1: handmaidens and other young women, who, much like the princess,
Speaker 1: were also promised to men they'd never met. They dressed
Speaker 1: as sailors and made off with a ship, deciding to
Speaker 1: explore the world, and during their travels, the women came
Speaker 1: across a pirate ship that had recently lost its captain.
Speaker 1: Enamored with a Wilda and her crew, the men voted
Speaker 1: her to be their new leader, knowing that her father
Speaker 1: still searched for her. A Wilda and the other women
Speaker 1: wore helmets to hide their long hair. The princess, pirates
Speaker 1: and her crew earned a fierce reputation raiding many merchant
Speaker 1: ships on the Scandinavian seas, and like all pirates, they
Speaker 1: soon had a bounty on their heads. The King of
Speaker 1: Denmark placed his son alf in charge of the navy
Speaker 1: and sent him to eliminate the troublesome pirates. The prince
Speaker 1: quickly located them, and a great battle ensued. While his
Speaker 1: crew engaged with a Wilda's, He and the princess faced
Speaker 1: each other, swords drawn. They dueled, neither of them getting
Speaker 1: the better of the other. Having become impressed with her
Speaker 1: rival and seeing something familiar about him, Awilda removed her helmet.
Speaker 1: The prince instantly recognized the princess and dropped to one
Speaker 1: knee to propose, which she accepted. Of course, the battle
Speaker 1: ended and a wedding took place instead. A Wilda's pirate
Speaker 1: ship and Alf's naval fleet returned side by side to Denmark.
Speaker 1: The newlyweds were welcome to Denmark with a lot of fanfare.
Speaker 1: A message was sent to King Sanartis, who was also
Speaker 1: pleased with the marriage. A Wilda and Alf went on
Speaker 1: to have a daughter together, and it was said that
Speaker 1: she was just as beautiful and fierce as her mother,
Speaker 1: and when the king died, the couple ruled long and well.
Speaker 1: And while our fictional introduction story is the stuff worthy
Speaker 1: of a Disney movie, we're about to embark on a
Speaker 1: different sort of journey, a historical adventure into the most
Speaker 1: legendary real life rogues of the seas. I'm Aaron Mackey,
Speaker 1: and welcome two pirates. Piracy has been around for about
Speaker 1: as long as there have been oceans to sail. But
Speaker 1: not every pirate belonged to bands of renegades who pillaged
Speaker 1: and plundered. Some had a softer title. Governments employed privateers,
Speaker 1: men who raided and harassed ships belonging to a competing power.
Speaker 1: And if you're thinking it's the same thing, it was.
Speaker 1: Governments on the receiving end didn't differentiate between the two.
Speaker 1: Piracy government sanctioned or otherwise remained an act of war.
Speaker 1: And there was no more tumultuous time than the Golden
Speaker 1: Age of piracy, which started in the late seventeenth century.
Speaker 1: And the rise in piracy began with what might be
Speaker 1: the most successful pirate most of us have never heard of.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of english men of his time, Henry
Speaker 1: every got his start with the Royal Navy. But he
Speaker 1: was different from other sailors who spent their meager earnings
Speaker 1: on liquor or tobacco. He sent money home to his family.
Speaker 1: Eventually he moved working aboard the Charles the Second, a
Speaker 1: privateering ship sent to pray on French ships in the
Speaker 1: West Indies. Like those aboard most British ships, Every lived
Speaker 1: in squalid conditions and suffered from poor treatment. The last
Speaker 1: straw for the men aboard the Charles The second came
Speaker 1: when they didn't get paid, so the crew mutinied and
Speaker 1: Every took control as captain and set a course for
Speaker 1: the southern tip of Africa. Along the way, he led
Speaker 1: raids on three English merchant ships and several more from
Speaker 1: other European countries. But his real popularity with the crew
Speaker 1: happened when he led a capture of a mogul ship
Speaker 1: full of treasure and women. When the raid was complete,
Speaker 1: Every split the wealth equally among his men. Pirating, as
Speaker 1: you probably know by now, was a dangerous business, and
Speaker 1: because of his success, Every had a price on his head.
Speaker 1: Two years in he gave up the pirates life he
Speaker 1: could afford to, having raked in what amounted to tens
Speaker 1: of millions of pounds in late six hundreds currency not modern,
Speaker 1: Henry Every is only one of a few pirates to
Speaker 1: retire and live to tell the tale. In literature, he
Speaker 1: became the inspiration for characters in books and plays. People
Speaker 1: saw him as a sort of Robin Hood, or at
Speaker 1: least a man who had fought back against the corruption
Speaker 1: and unfair practices of English ship captains. He became the
Speaker 1: most talked about pirates in the world, until that is,
Speaker 1: a newcomer showed up and perfected whatever he had started.
Speaker 1: Edward Teach had come from a comfortable family, or so
Speaker 1: it's theorized, he was educated, unlike many of the sailors
Speaker 1: of the time. Tall and thin with broad shoulders, he
Speaker 1: sported a heavy black beard. People found him charismatic and
Speaker 1: highly intelligence. Those qualities helped him rise through the ranks
Speaker 1: in the British Navy. During the Queen Ann's War, the
Speaker 1: French and Spanish mercilessly attacked the Queen's ships, forcing the
Speaker 1: British to hire their own privateers, including men like Benjamin Hornegal,
Speaker 1: Henry Jennings, Woods Rogers, and Charles Vane. But more on
Speaker 1: them later. Their jobs came to an end in seventeen
Speaker 1: fourteen after Queen Anne died When her Catholic heir was
Speaker 1: found unacceptable to rule, Many of the men loyal to
Speaker 1: the Queen's House of Stuart remained in Nassau in the
Speaker 1: Bahamas instead of returning to England. Known as the Pirate Republic,
Speaker 1: the area became popular among privateers and pirates alike, Hornegold
Speaker 1: and Teach oversaw the development of the base a few However,
Speaker 1: men like Jennings remained loyal to England and continued to
Speaker 1: raid Spanish ships. That's when Teach paired up with Captain
Speaker 1: Hornigold once again, this time as his lieutenant. Before long,
Speaker 1: the two acquired additional ships, one of which was entrusted
Speaker 1: to Edward Teach. By seventeen seventeen, the captain retired from piracy,
Speaker 1: leaving his lieutenant to venture out on his own and
Speaker 1: make his own mark. Now a captain of his own fleet,
Speaker 1: Edward Teach set out to perfect the art of piracy.
Speaker 1: He grew his beard even longer, giving him a wilder appearance,
Speaker 1: and he wore a long sling over his shoulder, where
Speaker 1: he kept not one, but three pistols. Now referred to
Speaker 1: as black Beard, he also put Litton matches in his beard.
Speaker 1: It said that he looked like the devil himself, and
Speaker 1: the merchant ships he challenged became so frightened they willingly
Speaker 1: surrendered without a fight. It was a great strategy. Firepower
Speaker 1: damaged ships and potential cargo, and fights risked as men.
Speaker 1: His strategy of shock and awe had a way of
Speaker 1: keeping everyone and everything a bit safer, which put more
Speaker 1: money into their pockets. Clearly, he had become formidable, but
Speaker 1: Blackbeard wanted to take piracy to the next level, and
Speaker 1: to do that he needed a better ship. That better
Speaker 1: ship presented itself on November sevent of seventeen seventeen, when
Speaker 1: the French slave ship the lack Concord appeared on the horizon.
Speaker 1: The two fifty tons ship had a strong, oaken hull
Speaker 1: and ports that accommodated forty cannons. Under ordinary circumstances, black
Speaker 1: Beard's crew wouldn't have presented much of a problem. However,
Speaker 1: most everyone on board the lach Concord had scurvy. With
Speaker 1: his crew sick and aware of the pirate's reputation, the
Speaker 1: captain surrendered the moment the first warning volley landed in
Speaker 1: front of his ship, and with that Blackbeard now had
Speaker 1: a proper flagship that could stand up to any English vessel.
Speaker 1: He left the French captain and his crew with one
Speaker 1: of his own sloops, and then he offered some of
Speaker 1: the healthy slaves a place among his men. Then he
Speaker 1: christened his new ship the Queen Anne's Revenge, and went
Speaker 1: on to raid several British vessels throughout North American colonies
Speaker 1: and those traveling in the Caribbean. Pirating became such a
Speaker 1: problem that King George the First offered clemency for all pirates. Naturally,
Speaker 1: there was a catch. They'd have to give up their
Speaker 1: marauding ways forever. The deal attempted to weaken or disband
Speaker 1: pirate cruise through attrition, and of course those who refused
Speaker 1: were still hunted. What the King didn't offer was away
Speaker 1: for the men to make a living or provide better
Speaker 1: conditions and pay aboard British ships, and frankly, conditions treatment
Speaker 1: and pay we're far better aboard pirate ships. That said,
Speaker 1: many captains and crewmen did take the King up on
Speaker 1: the offer. Pirating was still a dangerous way to make
Speaker 1: a living. Storms, disease, and months or even years at
Speaker 1: sea made for a less than desirable way of life.
Speaker 1: The deal, coupled with Nassau's new governor, Woods Rogers, put
Speaker 1: the pirate Republic into a state of chaos. Blackbeard didn't
Speaker 1: stay in Nassau long and chose to decline Governor Rogers offer.
Speaker 1: You see, he had at least one bounty in mind,
Speaker 1: so the Queen Anne's revenge set out once more. It
Speaker 1: had been his friend and fellow pirate Steed Bonnets, who
Speaker 1: had given Blackbeard the idea block the port of Charleston
Speaker 1: and capture incoming and outgoing vessels. The township had no
Speaker 1: guardian fleet, making it easy to overtake the pilot boat
Speaker 1: and challenge anyone moving through the port. The crew stopped
Speaker 1: the Crowley, an English bound ship with several prominent Charleston
Speaker 1: citizens on board. Instead of raiding the ship, though, Blackbeard
Speaker 1: chose to take the passengers hostage, including women and children.
Speaker 1: But he did release a single passenger, one Mr Marks,
Speaker 1: to relay a message to the governor. You see, by
Speaker 1: now Blackbeard's crew were sick. He no longer wanted gold
Speaker 1: or valuables. Now he needed medicine. Two healthy members of
Speaker 1: his crew accompanied Mr. Marks, and if they didn't all
Speaker 1: return in two days, he threatened to execute the passengers
Speaker 1: and send their heads to the governor. The plan went
Speaker 1: sideways quickly, the boat carrying his crewman and Mr Marks capsized,
Speaker 1: forcing them to swim ashore. En route to the Governor's office,
Speaker 1: the crewman stopped at a tavern for drinks with other
Speaker 1: fellow pirates. Imports now drunk and behind schedule, the group
Speaker 1: finally made their way to their destination. The governor offered
Speaker 1: the pirates clemency, and seeing the unfolding situation, they took
Speaker 1: him up on it. Then the governor agreed to Blackbeard's
Speaker 1: demands and Mr. Marks made his way back to the
Speaker 1: dock alone. By the time he arrived, he was past
Speaker 1: the deadline and the Queen Anne's Revenge had pulled into ports.
Speaker 1: Crewman ran through the streets. Men, women and children screamed
Speaker 1: and fled for their lives. Picturing this scene, I can
Speaker 1: only imagine the terror that Mr Marks felt. The most
Speaker 1: feared and formidable pirate had unleashed an angry and diseased
Speaker 1: crew upon the town. Hoping to stop the attack, he
Speaker 1: rode back to the ship after handing over the medicines.
Speaker 1: Marks relayed a message from the governor surrender and received clemency,
Speaker 1: but Blackbeard refused, and even though the deadline had passed,
Speaker 1: he held up his end of the bargain. He returned
Speaker 1: the ship undamaged and released all the prisoners unharmed, although
Speaker 1: he did take some of their finer clothing. After loading
Speaker 1: the clothes and medicines onto the Queen Ann's Revenge. Blackbeard
Speaker 1: and his crew left port. He had a new plan,
Speaker 1: this time one he shared with his trusted quartermaster, William Howard.
Speaker 1: It was time to give up the pirate life, well
Speaker 1: sort of. Blackbeard and Howard met with North Carolina as
Speaker 1: governor Charles Eden, Charismatic as always, they negotiated a deal,
Speaker 1: a pardon for the crew. The best part, though, they
Speaker 1: would continue as privateers, sanctioned by King George the First.
Speaker 1: Shortly afterward, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran into a sandbar,
Speaker 1: damaging her main mast, forcing them to switch to a
Speaker 1: Spanish ship. Black Beard simply called the Revenge. While he'd
Speaker 1: retired from piracy, word of his vicious nature endured, although oddly,
Speaker 1: in all his time as a pirate, he never actually
Speaker 1: killed anyone. He'd created a persona that did the work
Speaker 1: for him. Captain and crew aboard the Revenge left Port
Speaker 1: and headed up the Delaware River to sell off some
Speaker 1: of their goods before leaving for the Caribbean. There they
Speaker 1: captured two French ships laden with cocoa and sugar, a
Speaker 1: valuable command city in the colonies. On the return trip,
Speaker 1: they stopped for repairs and to unload the cargo at
Speaker 1: Ocracoke Island, part of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Speaker 1: There he met up with Charles Vane, a pirate who
Speaker 1: hadn't taken the King's pardon, and invited him to stay
Speaker 1: on Ocracoke for a while. Meanwhile, in Virginia, Lieutenant Governor
Speaker 1: Alexander Spotswood, who not only hated pirates but had a
Speaker 1: fear of them that bordered on irrationality, heard of Blackbeard's
Speaker 1: return and his current company. He claimed that Blackbeard planned
Speaker 1: to make Ocracoke the new pirate republic. When no one listened,
Speaker 1: he took matters into his own hands and planned an attack.
Speaker 1: He had no authority over Ocracoke and understood that he'd
Speaker 1: beheld accountable for his actions and for violating North Carolina's sovereignty.
Speaker 1: To further justify his plan, he also claimed that Governor
Speaker 1: Eden had become corrupt and was in league with the
Speaker 1: pirates for personal gain. Of course, he had no proof,
Speaker 1: but that didn't really matter. Step one was to send
Speaker 1: out an expedition to capture both Beard and Governor Eden.
Speaker 1: Then he convinced Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy
Speaker 1: to hunt down the Queen Anne's Revenge at sea. Since
Speaker 1: he knew he wouldn't get approval from Virginia's governor, Spotswood
Speaker 1: paid all expenses out of his own pockets. He purchased
Speaker 1: the Ranger and the Jane, two vessels capable of handling
Speaker 1: the shallow waters that were common along the outer banks.
Speaker 1: Well not as big as other ships, they still carried cannons,
Speaker 1: and accompanying them was the h M. S. Pearl. With
Speaker 1: a plan in motion, spots would kept the ambush secret
Speaker 1: from the governor, who would most certainly have called off
Speaker 1: the attack. Maynard arrived on the southern tip of okrah
Speaker 1: Coke after dark on the night of November one, seventeen eighteen.
Speaker 1: By the morning of the surprise attack took a turn
Speaker 1: when the Ranger and the Jane ran ashore, giving black
Speaker 1: Beard time to ready his crew and a ship. It
Speaker 1: wouldn't be enough, though Maynard's men unbeached the two boats
Speaker 1: and the chase was on. The Revenge had superior firepower.
Speaker 1: A short barrage of cannon fire killed the Ranger's captain
Speaker 1: and sent several men on the deck of the Jane overboard.
Speaker 1: Realizing that a head to head battle with black Beard
Speaker 1: wouldn't work. Maynard instead chose to set a trap. He
Speaker 1: ordered the remaining men on board the Jane to go
Speaker 1: below deck and hide, and then they quietly waited, hoping
Speaker 1: that they'd be boarded instead of taking more fire, and
Speaker 1: it worked. Black Beard and his men boarded, not expecting
Speaker 1: many survivors. Maynard and his crew charged from below. For
Speaker 1: ten minutes, both sides engaged in brutal and bloody battle.
Speaker 1: Swords clashed and guns were fired. Men without weapons took
Speaker 1: the fist fighting. Maynard managed to draw a pistol and
Speaker 1: he shot Blackbeard once in the chest. Seemingly unfazed, the
Speaker 1: infamous pirate lunged forward, forcing Maynard to retreat. A crewman
Speaker 1: from the Jane rounded the corner and slashed black Beard
Speaker 1: across the throat. Finally, another man fired four additional shots,
Speaker 1: and black Beard fell to the blood soaked deck. With
Speaker 1: the famous pirates and most of his crew dead, Maynard
Speaker 1: took everything of value. Then he severed black Beard's head
Speaker 1: and tossed the body overboard. Finally, he mounted the head
Speaker 1: on the bowsprit and returned to Virginia, proudly displaying his
Speaker 1: prize like a ghoulish hunting trophy. Naturally, Governor Eden was outraged,
Speaker 1: and it's no surprise that Spots would denied any personal
Speaker 1: involvement in the attack. He hated Blackbeard, and the one
Speaker 1: thing the Lieutenant Governor couldn't do was stop people from
Speaker 1: immortalizing the pirates. I can only imagine how furious that
Speaker 1: made him. In seventeen twenty four, Captain Charles Johnson published
Speaker 1: a general History of the robberies and murders of the
Speaker 1: most notorious pirates Pirates spelled with the y instead of
Speaker 1: an eye. He took literary license with the life and
Speaker 1: times of all pirates, stating that they always buried their treasures.
Speaker 1: With black Beard in particular, though, Johnson turned him into
Speaker 1: a ruthless, thirsty killer, and from that point on, Johnson's
Speaker 1: fictional depiction of black Beard would obscure the equally dramatic truth,
Speaker 1: and in doing so, it would accomplish the opposite of
Speaker 1: what Spots would had hoped, because while normal men can die,
Speaker 1: legends live forever. For centuries, people have searched for black
Speaker 1: beards reportedly buried treasure. Sadly, it appears to be a
Speaker 1: stereotypical myth. Sorry fortune hunters, but in private salvagers came
Speaker 1: across a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina. The
Speaker 1: nearly three year old ship looked to be the Queen
Speaker 1: Anne's revenge. It wouldn't be until two thousand eleven before
Speaker 1: evidence revealed without a doubt that the ship had once
Speaker 1: belonged to Blackbeard. Originally built in seventeen ten in England,
Speaker 1: the French had stolen the ship a year later, only
Speaker 1: to have it taken from them by Edward Teach. Johnson's
Speaker 1: version of black Beard has overshadowed history centuries after his death.
Speaker 1: The stories surrounding his brutal end took on a supernatural flare.
Speaker 1: Soon after his demise, reports of his ghost haunting the
Speaker 1: coastline scared people half to death. As one British report stated,
Speaker 1: he frightened America more than any comment, and in all honesty,
Speaker 1: I can understand why it would have scared people too.
Speaker 1: You see, according to the folklore, that final day, Blackbeard's
Speaker 1: severed head called out to his body, and in response,
Speaker 1: his body swam around Maynard's boat three times before plunging
Speaker 1: into the ocean. Depths on Ocrah Cooke, there's a small
Speaker 1: channel of water where it said Blackbeard anchored the Queen
Speaker 1: Anne's revenge. People report seeing him there, swimming in the
Speaker 1: waters in search of his head. On stormy nights. They
Speaker 1: say you can still hear his voice calling out to
Speaker 1: his body. Later in the twentieth century, moviegoers became obsessed
Speaker 1: with black Beard and piracy as a whole. Soon all
Speaker 1: pirates took on the stereotype men with black hearts who
Speaker 1: spared no one who crossed their path. Pirates were lawless, bloodthirsty, drunkards,
Speaker 1: and they lived without rules. Hollywood and popular fiction also
Speaker 1: romanticized piracy. In reality, most pirates met a fateful end
Speaker 1: soon into their careers. Blackbeards lasted just two years. Historians
Speaker 1: have long since pointed to documents and journals of the
Speaker 1: day that portrayed Edward Teach as a cunning strategist, a
Speaker 1: brilliant marketer, and a relatively nonviolent man. In two thousand fourteen,
Speaker 1: a historian combing through Jamaican maritime records stumbled across a
Speaker 1: name Feach, a common variant of the surname Teach. This document,
Speaker 1: from seventeen oh six revealed a letter from a man
Speaker 1: named Edward Feach aboard a sixty gun ship called the Windsor,
Speaker 1: a Royal Navy vessel. The sailor's father had died, leaving
Speaker 1: his Alafa state to his eldest son. Typical for the time,
Speaker 1: Feach Senior had owned a sugar plantation in Jamaica, and
Speaker 1: back in the seventeen hundreds sugar was known as white gold.
Speaker 1: This young man had written to the lawyer handling the
Speaker 1: execution of his father's will back home in Bristol, England.
Speaker 1: He stated his love and affection for his stepmother Lucretia,
Speaker 1: his sister Rachel, and his brother Thomas, and asked that
Speaker 1: the estate be divided among them. Essentially, Edward Teach gave
Speaker 1: up a considerable fortune and instead chose a hard life
Speaker 1: on the seas, also that his family back home could
Speaker 1: be comfortable. Quite a different picture from the bloodthirsty rogue
Speaker 1: that Johnson painted for all of us. But Teach painted
Speaker 1: his own picture as well. He did such a good
Speaker 1: job of instilling fear into the hearts of his adversaries
Speaker 1: by making himself out to be the devil, and perhaps
Speaker 1: that's why today we still think of him first as
Speaker 1: Blackbeard rather than Edward Teach. One thing is certain, though
Speaker 1: years later, the real history doesn't stop us from loving
Speaker 1: the legend any less. I think we can all agree
Speaker 1: that the world of historical pirates has the potential to
Speaker 1: deliver both thrills and chills. Hopefully today's walk through the
Speaker 1: Man behind the Legend of Blackbeard give you a little
Speaker 1: bit of both. And if you were hoping for more,
Speaker 1: then boy, do I have a treat for you. Today's
Speaker 1: episode kicks off a brand new season that will take
Speaker 1: us all the way to the end of the year,
Speaker 1: exploring all the water logged corners of this unique culture
Speaker 1: and cast of characters. But before we wrap things up
Speaker 1: for today, my grim and mild teammate Ali Steed has
Speaker 1: one last treasure to unpack for you. Stick around through
Speaker 1: this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. When
Speaker 1: it comes to buried treasure, there's one myth that stands
Speaker 1: out from all the rest. Little is known about William
Speaker 1: Kidd's early life. He was born in Scotland somewhere around
Speaker 1: sixteen fifty four, either January or October, depending on the source.
Speaker 1: By Kid's own account, he had been born in Greeneck.
Speaker 1: He ventured to New York City in search of new opportunity.
Speaker 1: Some time after the British took over the area from
Speaker 1: the Dutch. Shortly after his arrival, Sarah Bradley cox Ort,
Speaker 1: a young and wealthy widow, caught his eye. Though they
Speaker 1: briefly courted, the sea called and he left again. In
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty nine, William Kidd sailed with the privateering crew
Speaker 1: who rated ships in the Caribbean. During this particular trip,
Speaker 1: the crew mutinied over poor treatment and made sail to
Speaker 1: the British colony of Nevus, a small island neighboring Saint KITT's. Willing,
Speaker 1: Kidd became the captain and renamed the ship the Blessed William.
Speaker 1: While not fully sanctioned or supported by the British government,
Speaker 1: as long as Kidd and other privateers only rated French
Speaker 1: supply ships, the King looked the other way for a
Speaker 1: ten percent fee. Of course, the cruel board the Blessed
Speaker 1: William became quite successful, once taking in what amounted to
Speaker 1: two thousand pounds sterling in a single raid. After months
Speaker 1: at sea, Kid returned to New York to find Sarah
Speaker 1: had been waiting for him. He showered her with gifts
Speaker 1: and courted her with long walks, and on May sixteenth
Speaker 1: of six The two wed and settled into a tall
Speaker 1: house on Wall Street. The couple had two daughters and kids.
Speaker 1: Privateering ways ensured his beloved family wanted for nothing. They
Speaker 1: were the perfect couple except for one thing. Kid had
Speaker 1: another love. Let see, he wanted to hunt the pirates
Speaker 1: that attacked British trade ships in the Red Sea and
Speaker 1: the Indian Ocean. After earning his commission, Kids set sail
Speaker 1: out of Portsmouth in sixte on a galley ship named
Speaker 1: the Adventure. The ship boasted thirty four guns and a
Speaker 1: crew of a hundred men. He lived his dream life,
Speaker 1: and yet he is about to lose everything. While sailing
Speaker 1: down the Thames in England, Kid failed to salute a
Speaker 1: naval yacht. In response to the snub, the yacht fired
Speaker 1: a warning shot to remind those on board the Adventure
Speaker 1: of their duty. Crewman on the Adventure turned their backs
Speaker 1: and slapped their backsides, but the insult didn't go unpunished.
Speaker 1: The British Navy took the crew and impressed them on
Speaker 1: navy ships. Essentially, impression is a dressed up term for
Speaker 1: forced servitude. They didn't take Kid, however, He was sent
Speaker 1: back to New York, where he hired a new crew
Speaker 1: and set sail again, arriving at the Cape of Good
Speaker 1: Hope in Africa in September of six. Unfortunately, that crew
Speaker 1: fell ill with cholera, and they're bad luck didn't and
Speaker 1: there the ship began to leak, and worst of all,
Speaker 1: the pirates they'd been hoping to hunt down never even materialized,
Speaker 1: which was bad news because if he returned home with nothing,
Speaker 1: he would have to personally cover all the costs of
Speaker 1: the trip out of his own pocket. A short time later,
Speaker 1: they came across two ships, but Kid refused to attack.
Speaker 1: Both ships were flying the British flag, which meant they
Speaker 1: were off limits, but a gunner named William Moore fought
Speaker 1: with Kidd, trying to get him to attack anyway. The
Speaker 1: men ended up in a brawl and the gunner he
Speaker 1: wand up dead. The crew on the Adventure sailed on,
Speaker 1: eventually raiding an indianship hired by Armenian merchants. It was
Speaker 1: only after they were on board this newcomer that Kidd
Speaker 1: learned the captain was an Englishman, which meant the ship
Speaker 1: had the protection of the Crown. Unfortunately, his men refused
Speaker 1: orders to leave the ship and its valuables alone. When
Speaker 1: the news reached England, the king declared Kid a pirate.
Speaker 1: Once a servant of the Crown, now the king's naval
Speaker 1: commanders were on the search for the adventure. Though the
Speaker 1: Crown had begun to offer clemency to pirates, Kid learned
Speaker 1: the offer didn't extend to him, so he abandoned the
Speaker 1: adventure in the Caribbean and headed home to New York,
Speaker 1: hoping to find protection with Governor Belmont, who had financed
Speaker 1: his privateering endeavors. Along the way, he stopped at Gardner's
Speaker 1: Island to stash a small treasure, but not for the
Speaker 1: stereotypical reasons. Kid was arrested in six He told Belmont
Speaker 1: where he'd hidden the treasure, hoping to exchange it for
Speaker 1: his life. Instead, the governor distanced himself, fearing he'd be
Speaker 1: implicated as well. A year later, Kid was sent to
Speaker 1: England and put on trial for piracy and murder. On
Speaker 1: May eighth, sev one, the court sentenced him to hang.
Speaker 1: After his death, they tarred his body, wrapped it in chains,
Speaker 1: and placed the corpse in a steel cage, where it
Speaker 1: remained on display for years. Throughout time. The worth of
Speaker 1: his treasure and the location have changed. Whatever its value
Speaker 1: and precise location was, will never know. Belmont dug up
Speaker 1: the treasure and offered some or all of it to
Speaker 1: the British courts to be used as evidence against William Kidd.
Speaker 1: When it comes to legends, Sometimes the hunter became the hunted,
Speaker 1: and the more we learn about Pirates, the more buried treasure.
Speaker 1: Will find. Pirates was executive produced by Aaron Manky and
Speaker 1: narrated by Aaron Manky and Alexandra Steid. Writing for this
Speaker 1: season was provided by Michelle Mudo, with research by Alexandra
Speaker 1: Steed and Sam Alberty. Production assistance was provided by Josh Than,
Speaker 1: Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more
Speaker 1: about this and other shows from Grimm and Mild and
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit grim and Mild dot com