Talk Like A Pirate Day coming this September 19th!
Arrrgh!
I thought is was buried on Oak Island - guess I can stop watching ...
50 kg = 1786 ounces which is a fairly decent chunk of change.
As far as I know, William Kidd was not related to his American near-namesake, Billy the Kid.
They are going to need some real solid verification for this claim. The area they found it in is notorious for shipwrecks, because it was right along the “India passage” used by Portuguese sailors for centuries. They would try to navigate through the center of the Mozambique channel, while keeping Madagascar in view, so they would not get too close to the dangerous waters near the African coast, but if they strayed too close to Madagascar, they would run aground on the reefs.
Eventually, the Portuguese made their ships start going around Madagascar because that channel was so dangerous.
Capt Kidd was not a pirate he was a privateer operating under the authority of the King of England to harass and attack French shipping and confiscate it. He was basically a pirate for the crown. That is until he attacked a ship that was under a French flag that was actually captained by a British Citizen with ‘connections’.
At that point he was branded a pirate returned to England, tried , convicted and hung. He was actually hung more than once and then put on display as a ‘warning’ to others against piracy. The true warning was that the King would hang your ass if you crossed one of his friends or benefactors. Kind of like Bill and Hillary.
The money quote:
“Capt Kidd was captured and brought back to London. He was found guilt of piracy and the murder of one of his crewmen during a row in 1697, and sentenced to death.
During his execution in Wapping in 1701, the first rope put around his neck broke, so he was strung up a second time. That rope also snapped, but the third one held.
Afterwards, his body was dipped in tar and hung by chains along the River Thames to serve as a warning to would-be pirates.”
TV documentary on Pirate Treasure off Madagascar on cable today on one of the History channels or maybe the Smithsonian.
They were diving on a wreck they hoped was the Fiery Dragon from the early 1700s. They had found some Chinese pottery and a few gold coins when it closed.
I don’t know if this was the wreck from the story on this post.