Thursday, October 28, 2010

Captain Kidd

This is a place to comment or post any historical information about the infamous pirate Captain Kidd and any interesting stories about his legendary lost treasures. 

3 comments:

  1. 1877 excerpt on the background and activities of Captain Kidd from "The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism" by Frederick Whymper:

    "Among notorious pirates probably no one is better known in England than Captain Robert Kidd, whose trial and execution formed the subject of many once popular ballads. He commenced life in the King's service, and had so far distinguished himself, that we find him in the first month of 1695 receiving a commission from His Majesty William III to command a "private" man-of-war to "apprehend, seize, and take" certain Arrerican pirates.

    The privateer was actually fitted out at the expense of Lord Bellemont, at one time Governor of the Barbadoes and others, who knew the wealth that the pirates had acquired; and they obtained the King's commission, partly with the view of keeping the men under better command, and also to give their enterprise some sort of sanction of legality.

    Kidd sailed for New York, where he engaged more men, increasing officers and crew to a total of 150. Each man was to have one share in any division of spoil, while he reserved for himself and owners forty shares.

    This vessel was tbe Adventure galley of thirty tons. After calling at Medeira and the De Verde Islands for provisions and necessaries, he set sail for Madagascar, then a rendezvous of the Indian Ocean Pirates.

    After cruising on that and the Malabar coast, were he was not at first successful in meeting with any of the pirate vessels he touched at a place called Mabbee, on the Red Sea, where he helped himself to a quantity of natives' corn without offering payment.

    Hitherto he had acted strictly in his capacity as a legalised privateer, but he now began to show his true colours. The Mocha fleet was expected shortly to pass that way, and when he proposed to his crew that they should attack it, one and all agreed.

    He thereupon sent a well-manned boat to reconnoitre, which returned in a few days with the news that there were 14 or 15 ships about to sail. It will be understood that the Mocha fleet had nothing to do with the American pirates, but was a commerical fleet; in this case consisting of English, Dutch, and Moorish vessels, convoyed by a vessel or vessels of war, in the fashion of those days.

    The mast at the masthead soon announced its approach, and Kidd, getting into the midst of the vessels, fired briskly at a Moorish ship. Two men-of-war, however, bore down upon him, and knowing he was not a match for them, Kidd reluctantly put on all sail, and ran away.

    Shortly afterwards he took a small vessel belonging to Moorish owners, the master being an Englishman, who he forced into his service as pilot. He used the men brutally, having them hoisted by the arms and drubbed with a cutlass, to find out whether or not any valuables were on board. As there was next to nothing to be found, he seized some quantity of coffee and pepper, and let the vessel go.

    "When he touched shortly afterwards at a Moorish port he found that he was suspected, and soon after this he discovered that many places along the coast had become alarmed. A Portuguese man-of-war was despatched - after him, and met him ; he fought her gallantly for six hours, when he again became convinced that prudence, in this case, waa the better part of valour, and made good his escape."

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  2. TREASURE STORY: CAPTAIN KIDD'S GOLD IN A CAVE IN THE NOTCH NEAR PASSAIC, NJ. Excerpts from the April 8, 1878 NY Times.

    Capt. Kidd was a pirate. Some people spell it Kydd, but this is wrong... He made much money in a legitimate piratical way, put it in iron pots with tin lids, and buried it.

    There are many people in Passaic, N.J., just now who think that Capt. Kidd buried his doubloons in a cave, near that town...

    There is nobody now living in Passaic who will say positively that he saw Capt. Kidd go to the cave and bury the money; there is nobody who will even say that he ever saw Capt. Kidd in the State of New Jersey; but the cave is there, and that goes far to substantiate the story.

    The sandy soil of New Jersey is not favorable to the growth of caves. There are only two in the State. One is a beer-tunnel in Union Hill, the other is near Passaic. It is in this other one that Kidd is said to have buried his money, and it is a curious fact that Kidd's money is always in the other cave.

    A Times reporter went out to Passaic recently to see about this thing, and to get hold of one of the iron pots, if possible. Not even a pot-hook was in sight. There was a gentleman there, however, who answered the purpose of one of the iron pots admirably, for he professed to have had both his eyes and hands on the Kidd treasures.

    Said this gentleman: "Capt. Kidd did bury the treasure near Passaic. I have seen it. I am going to get it." In reply to the question whether he was going now," this positive gentleman replied in the negative. He then went on:

    "A long time ago, when I was a boy, a party went out to explore the cave. Another boy (named Rogers) and myself desired to go along, but the men would not let us go. We followed them, and while we were on the side of the mountain, near the cave, I noticed a handsome bunch of snake-root. I pulled it up and found a piece of iron under it. We got the earth off the iron and found that it was the upper part of an iron pot. The pot was nearly filled with papers which had evidently been buried for some time. Just as we were about to see what the papers were the men returned, and we had to cover up the place in a hurry. Next day I went back to the spot, as I thought, but it was not there, and I have never been able to find it since."

    This sincere gentleman paid no attention to the question whether the snakes of the Kidd Mountain grow with their roots upward, so that a boy would see them as he walked through the bushes. "What makes you think Kidd buried any money there?"

    "Oh, I'm sure he did. Its been common rumor here for nearly 100 years."

    Everybody will know just where the cave is when told that it is near the Montclair Railroad, at "The Notch." The notch is a large one, but the cave is inexcusably small. The entrance to it (the cave, not The Notch) is through a small hole in the side of a hill, and the further in you go the more the whole increases in diminutiveness.

    Iron pots are not scattered about promiscuously, and the floor is not strewn with gold. There was, however, a strong suggestiveness of snakes, which soon increased to such an extent as to induce the reporter to glide out backward on his hands and knees, dignity being increased by celerity.

    Capt. Kidd's gold lies as securely to-day as when it was buried, and if it lies as hard as the people who dig for it, it will never be found."

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  3. This site shows a map with 9 major caves in New Jersey, including a "Great Notch Cave" which I believe may be the one referenced in the last posted comment with the treasure story. (about "The Notch")

    http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin70.pdf

    I could find no other information regarding this cave near Passaic as it relates to some of Captain Kidd's gold being possibly stashed there. Has anyone visited the area or can anyone add anything else about this legend?

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