Re: Monday answer
Gary Smyth
Fred and Tom are winners with Fred getting the large gold forehead star for being first. The answer is Captain William Kidd (1645-1701). Captain William Kidd was either one of the most notorious pirates in history, or one of its most unjustly vilified and prosecuted privateers in an age typified by the rationalization of empire. Despite the legends and fiction surrounding this character, his actual career was punctuated by only a handful of skirmishes followed by a desperate quest to clear his name.
Interesting to me He started his career at age 44.
On May 16, 1691, at age 46, Kidd married Sarah Bradley Cox Oort, an English woman in her early twenties, who had already been twice widowed and was one of the wealthiest women in New York, largely due to her inheritance from her first husband.
It turns out I didn't know he was from the New York area which was a surprise to me. He was a victim of his time and a man on a ship in the middle of nowhere has to be expedient in his dealings with his crew. He also has to be able to trust that someone will stand up for him in times of trouble when lives are on the line. The latter didn�t happen. In fact the Governor , I man named Bellomont, did all that he could to save himself from being implicated with Captain Kidd. The fact that Kidd kept silent in order that his other backers were kept out of the mix didn�t help him. They didn�t bother to come forward to help him either.
In a sensational trial, Kidd was found guilty of a number of charges, including murder for hitting a crewman with a wood and iron strap bucket. The "papers" that he wanted to use to assist him in justifying his actions didn�t turn up until the early 20th century. He was hanged. One rope broke. He died with the second hanging. He was cut down, dipped in tar and rehung. His body was gibbeted�left to hang in an iron cage over the River Thames at Tilbury Point�as a warning to future would-be pirates for twenty years.
