BLACKBEARD AND KIDD

BLACKBEARD was known in his home port of Bath, North Carolina, as the respectable mariner Captain Edward Teach (he had several other names). A large and powerful man, he cultivated a frightening look at sea, never cutting his hair but braiding it in fantastic ringlets and pigtails. He commanded a small fleet of pirate vessels. When he attacked a ship, he threaded a slow burning fuse through ­beard and hair to look even scarier.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD was a mild family man who owned merchant ships, property, and a pew at Trinity Episcopal Church in New York City. A group of English earls and dukes persuaded him to capture pirates in the Arabian Sea aboard the Adventure Galley. Most of Kidd's American crew was pressed (forced into service) by the Royal Navy, leaving him criminals and lubbers. Kidd was hopeless, he insulted Royal Navy officials and attacked the wrong ships. His crew hated him. In frustration, Kidd whacked William Moore, his gunner, with a heavy bucket, killing him. He took the rich Quedah Merchant, an Armenian ship, and sold some of the cargo to payoff his crew. But the Quedah Merchant's captain was English. From another "prize," he got only a sack of peppercorns and a sack of coffee beans. When Kidd's crew
deserted him for a more successful pirate ship, he left for America with his share of the Quedah Merchant's loot.

He buried his treasure on Long Island before seeking a pardon in Boston. He was arrested and thrown in jail. Officials dug up his treasure. After three years alone in
a London prison, lawyers finally consulted him two hours before his trial. None of the earls or dukes spoke up for him. He was sentenced to be hanged, for piracy and for killing his mutinous gunner.

Hanging Kidd was as messy and ridiculous as his pirate cruise. He emerged from prison drunk. The first rope broke. The second held. His body was tarred and hung in chains for years beside the Thames River as an example of piracy and stupidity.

THE PIRATE ROUND was a profitable round trip between the American coast and the pirate lairs of Madagascar. The freebooters cruised the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, snapping up Arab and Indian merchant vessels. It was not considered illegal or even immoral to plunder Muslim and Hindu ships. Some of the prizes were rich indeed. Pirate captain Henry Every captured the Gang I'Sawai in the Red Sea as it returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca. The booty was close to two million gold and silver pieces, plus jewels and the ransom for important Arab and Indian prisoners.