Show SCOTT WATSON captain kidda fatal mistake IP HE die had been cast and capt william kadd whom king wll had sent out to itch pirates had decided to be a pirate himself and hid announced his intention of ballasting his ship with gold and silver from the mocha fleet so to tho port of babb s key where the mocha fleet was loading its cargo captain kidds ship the adventure sailed and then the mocha fleet one nh ht stole out of the harbor outfitted the would be pirate and got clean aw ay I 1 but captain kadd was soon in hot pursuit and catching up with it tills daredevil seaman pushed his little galley into the midst of the big merchantman merchantmen merchant men and opened the battle but alas for the crew s dream of rich looth the adventure was round ly peppered bi the merchantman merchantmen merchant men s guns and forced to fall back while ohp fleet continued on its way to in dla so grumbling arose among the crew captain kadd tried in vain to recoup his fortunes but the few captures which he made after the es cape of the mocha fleet were the climax came in a bittle alth the portuguese ship alie I 1 oval captain for five hours the two ships hanged at each other then the guese sailed away and all the pirates had to show for their work was ten badly wounded men the grumbling among the crew increased it came to a head in the person of gunner moore who made so bold aa to say that he could have shown captain kadd a way to have taken the loval captain and that without any risk there was a sting in those three words with their insinuation of cowardice on the captain s part which wiy could you have put me in a way to tike that ship with out risk he demanded the gunner sought refuge in a lie sir he protested 1 I never spoke such a word nor ever thought such a thing you lousy dog roared the captain if I 1 am a lousy dog you hive made me so cried moore desperately you have brought me to ruin and many more this last a subtle appeal for the support of his mates have I 1 then ruined you ye dog cried the infuriated pirate then take that I 1 captain kadd selled a heavy wood en basket bound with iron hoops and struck the gunner a blow upon the head gunner moore died Us words and actions had been in mutiny and as such his cap biln was Justl fled by the harsh rule of the sea in punishing tt thus but that one blow proved to be captain s fatal mistake for it he ladd in execution dock the end of captain kadd as was the killing of gunner moore in determining the antl fate of captain add it also marked a turn tor the better in hla fortunes for soon after this incident he scored his first successes the capture of two moorish ships although he h id to resort to the subterfuge of lying the I 1 rench flag to do it then ime the climax of hla career he captured 0 ship named the que dah merchant commanded by an ang lesti skipper but chartered by a coin pany of armenians Armen ians its cargo was valued at more than pounds sterling one of the roost valuable prizes eve taken by a pirate and tor the first time kadd was able to keep his promise to alb crew to ballast his vessel with gold and silver und make lliam all rich men when their of the loot was distributed tills capture vas followed by others none however so valuable then kadd decided to turn for home und give an to alie partner in his oreg inal enterprise particularly lord bell anions in the meantime had been coming back to I 1 aland about kadd s doings in the south st as and in december a general par don had been offered for all pirates who would su nender themselves with two exceptions alerv and kadd so when captain kadd arrived in new york in may 1699 lord who was then visiting in boston was placed in an extremely ie was the partner of a man whom lie must arrest before going to boston kadd put in at gardeners island at the end of I 1 ong island sound and there burled a part of the treasure which has formed the basis for so many romantic stories and which has been bought for eo vainly for so long this of the treasure may have anul something to do with the which Is said to have arisen between kadd and bell aimont and his other partners the upshot of which was that kadd was arrested and sent to london for trial the case became a great scandal and it was easy to predict who would he the scapegoat kadd was formally charged with piracy and murder he could have met the charge of piracy by proving that the ships which he hid taken were lawful prizes had it not been for the fact that certain documents to substantiate his claims disappeared he had given them to bellemont incidentally thase docu ments were found years later in the public records office years too late to save an innocent man but almost nav excuse was good enough for the authorities so they found him guilty of murder the killing of gun tier moore and for that lie died at on may 23 1701 |