Kidd

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Kidd, or Kid, Captain William (c.1645–1701), an English merchant seaman who became noted for his piracy. He was first heard of in 1696 when a syndicate of some of London's most powerful men backed his request to hunt down the pirates that were causing such trouble at the time in the Indian Ocean. He was placed in command of the Adventure Galley and received a commission as a privateer from the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, who just happened to be one of his backers. However, he and his crew soon turned to piracy themselves. In January 1698 they captured the Quedah Merchant which belonged to a rich and powerful merchant, Muklis Khan. They divided up their booty, disposed of the Adventure Galley, by now in a poor state of repair, and sailed in the Quedah Merchant to the pirates' stronghold off Mauritius where they drank with the very people they were supposed to be arresting.

Most of his crew were wise enough to stay there but Kidd decided to go to Boston in the hope that the governor, who had been one of the backers of his expedition, would overlook his lapse into piracy. This was a serious misjudgement on his part as, in his absence, the powerful men who had backed him had fallen from power and the government's attitude towards piracy had hardened. He was promptly arrested and sent to London, and in May 1701 he was tried for piracy and for the murder of his gunner William Moore whom he had killed with a blow from a bucket. He was found guilty and hanged immediately at Execution Dock.

The money raised from his effects, valued at £6,472, was given to help fund Greenwich Royal Hospital and part of it was used to purchase what is now the National Maritime Museum. Kidd certainly buried other treasure when operating as a pirate in the West Indies and many later expeditions were mounted to search for it. Some of it, worth £14,000, was reputedly found on Gardiner's Island, off the eastern end of Long Island, USA, during the 19th century. Ritchie, R. , Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates (1986).

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