His intentions may not be so honorable, though. Today, Kidd is sometimes said to guard the Statue of Liberty. The prime location continues to keep this tale alive in the minds of treasure hunters to this day, as do the stories of Kidd’s ghost haunting the site to defend his supposed treasure. With Kidd owning a magnificent home in the area, it’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that he may have done so. Perhaps most interestingly of all, though, some of his booty is said to have been buried on one of the world’s most famous islands: Liberty Island. If Kidd did hide a secret treasure horde on Block Island, he certainly hid it well! In 1955, a search of Block Island was conducted using sophisticated equipment that could detect treasure beneath the ground. While we know this happened during the days he spent on Gardiner Island, he is also said to have done the same on Block Island, where he’s known to have spent some time as he sailed towards his fateful encounter with Boston’s governor. The story goes that Kidd dispensed much of his accumulated wealth in this fashion-with friends and associates taking away portions of it for him to hide it from the authorities. The governor ordered that these items were retrieved by the Gardiners and presented at Kidd’s trial.
It’s claimed that Kidd threatened to slaughter the Gardiner family should these valuables go missing before he returned. Among this bounty were all the pirate treasure clichés in the book: coins, precious stones, gold dust, and scarce commodities, like sugar. There, in June 1699, he hid $30,000 in treasure in an out-of-the-way place, having obtained the permission of the Gardiner family to do so. One of these locations was Gardiner’s Island in East Hampton, New York. On his way to Boston, surely knowing he was being hunted, Kidd stopped in various places to secrete some of his valuable bounty for safekeeping.
#CAPTAIN KIDD DEATH SERIES#
So, you might think that Kidd’s story would end there: hanged on May 23, 1701-his body grotesquely left on display alongside the River Thames as a warning to any others who may be considering piracy as a ‘career path.’ The crux of his legend only begins here, though, as tales of ghostly sightings and mysterious buried treasure continue to be told to this day!Īllen Ginter (American, Richmond, Virginia)Ĭaptain Kidd, Burying Treasure, from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series He was sent back to England to face trial-a kangaroo court that would reach a foregone conclusion, as tended to be the case with such trials at the time. He fought for a pardon for his actions, on the grounds that his men had forced him to commit acts of piracy, but was arrested in Boston by New England’s governor, Lord Richard Bellomont. In the time since Kidd had set sail, the authorities had come to fear and loathe privateers and pirates alike. Of course, a ship of this magnitude and value was owned by a powerful minister who had his fair share of connections when it came to scouting out privateers like Kidd. This 500-ton Armenian ship was loaded with valuable cargo including sugar, opium, and silk, claimed it for its own. While voyaging near India, Kidd and his crew were pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the Quedah Merchant.
Howard Pyle’s painting of William “Captain” Kidd and his ship, the Adventure Galley, in a New York City harbor.Įarly in 1698, came one of Kidd’s most notable attacks.
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Remarkable loot it would turn out to be, too, but a swift upswing in the law would soon mean that Kidd had no time to enjoy it! And, in exchange for this service, the country also expected a generous share of the loot he collected. He was essentially a pirate authorized by the government to cause mayhem and protect their investments.Īs a privateer, Kidd could reap the bounty from the loot confiscated by enemy ships. In his position as a privateer, it was Kidd’s job to defend the country’s own valuable ships and pursue wealth, dominance, and control of the seas. Kidd enjoyed a lucrative life during the war between France and England in the following decade, now commanding the Blessed William. He could never have imagined what a colorful life it would turn out to be, or how the city of New York would tie into the impossible legends that still surround him. By his mid-thirties, William Kidd was the Captain of the Antigua and had moved to New York to begin a new life. His father, John Kidd, was a sailor himself, and it was clear that the young boy would grow up to follow in his footsteps.
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