ITIG CC \ ',:•:. P ROV Please handle this volume with care. The University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/piratesbuccaneerOOsnow PIRATES AND BUCCANEERS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST BY EDWARD ROWE SNOW AUTHOR OF The Islands of Boston Harbor; The Story of Minofs Light; Storms and Shipwrecks of New England; Romance of Boston Bay THE YANKEE PUBLISHING COMPANY 72 Broad Street Boston, Massachusetts Copyright, 1944 By Edward Rowe Snow No part of this book may be used or quoted without the written permission of the author. FIRST EDITION DECEMBER 1944 Boston Printing Company boston, massachusetts PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN MEMORY OF MY GRANDFATHER CAPTAIN JOSHUA NICKERSON ROWE WHO FOUGHT PIRATES WHILE ON THE CLIPPER SHIP CRYSTAL PALACE PREFACE Reader—here is a volume devoted exclusively to the buccaneers and pirates who infested the shores, bays, and islands of the Atlantic Coast of North America. This is no collection of Old Wives' Tales, half-myth, half-truth, handed down from year to year with the story more distorted with each telling, nor is it a work of fiction. This book is an accurate account of the most outstanding pirates who ever visited the shores of the Atlantic Coast. These are stories of stark realism. None of the arti- ficial school of sheltered existence is included. Except for the extreme profanity, blasphemy, and obscenity in which most pirates were adept, everything has been included which is essential for the reader to get a true and fair picture of the life of a sea-rover. Bold, daring adventurers, whose deeds are still dis- cussed from the far reaches of North America to the tropical islands of the West Indies, parade through the pages of this volume. There is hardly a square mile of sandy beach from the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland to Key West, Florida, which has not felt the imprint of the buccaneer's boot. In gathering material for the pages ©f this volume, there were many persons who were very generous in their assistance. Anna-Myrle, my wife, deserves my sincerest thanks and appreciation for her unselfish part in the work, while Dr. Robert E. Moody was ever willing; to read the various chapters with a critical eye. Dorothy Carmichael generously gave her talent and time. My mother, Alice Rowe Snow, read many galley sheets with her expert 10 PIRATES AND BUCCANEERS nautical eye. Raymond Hanson's assistance was priceless. Whenever a critical technical problem presented itself, Nathan R. Krock was ever capable in solving it. Others to whom I am grateful include: Elizabeth L. Adams, William Alcott, Warren 0. Ault, Doris Bean, Alton Hall Blackington, Alice Powers Blackington, Dorothy Blanchard, James L. Bruce, Clarence S. Brigham, Kath- erine Clark Bislher, Madeleine Connors, Elizabeth Earle, Robert J. Egles, Laura Gibbs, Francis F. Haskell, Marion Haskell, Emily Heittman, Vincent Holmes, Helen Hope, Flora V. Livingston, Eleanor G. Metcalf, Robert I. Nesmith, Foster M. Palmer, Ernest D. Sproul, Irwin Smith, Donald B. Snow, Edward D. Snow, Eunice T. Snow, Harriet Swift, John G. Weld, and Warren G. Wheeler. While in England I was helped considerably by Mrs. Kathleen Baber of Harrow and Mr. Frederick Penfold of Bristol. I shall not forget their kindness. The following institutions were generous in their assistance: The Bostonian Society, The Boston Public Li- brary, the Marine Museum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the United States Coast Guard, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the Massachu- setts Archives, the Suffolk Court House, the Boston Marine Society, the Harvard College Library, the Boston Athe- naeum, the Peabody Museum, the Essex Institute, and the American Antiquarian Society. If I have neglected to mention any person or any organization in the stress of publication, I trust that I shall be forgiven. E. R. S. WINTHROP, MASSACHUSETTS OCTOBER 7, 1944 — CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 13 PART ONE—New England Pirates 21 Captain Bellamy, Wrecked at Cape Cod. ... 21 Captain Quelch, Who Brought Gold to New England 43 William Fly, Hanged in Boston 55 Ashton, Whose Story Surpasses Robinson Crusoe . 68 Thomas Pound, Who Escaped the Hangman's Noose . 91 ThomasTew of Newport, Aided by New York's Governor 109 Captain Phillips, Whose Head was Pickled . 123 Other New England Pirates . ' . 138 Dixie Bull, the First New England Pirate . 138 Thomas Veal, the Pirate of Dungeon Rock . 145 First Pirates Hanged in Boston 149 Joseph Bradish 150 The Last Pirates Executed in Boston .... 152 PART TWO—Chesapeake Bay to Florida .... 167 Captain George Lowther 167 Captain Edward Low, the Infamous Buccaneer . 183 Captain Francis Spriggs, Active Off Florida's Coast 203 Charles Harris, Hanged With His Crew at Newport 216 PART THREE—New York, Philadelphia, and Southward 225 Captain William Kidd, "Innocentest" of Them All . 225 Teach, Alias Blackbeard, the Most Ferocious Pirate 251 Major Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate . 269 Charles Gibbs, Who Was Hanged at New YoRxf. 273 The Pirates Executed at Philadelphia .... 288 PART FOUR—The Women Pirates 295 Alwida and Mrs. Ching 295 Mary Read and Ann Bonney, Who Loved and Fought 296 PART FIVE—Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 307 Bartholomew Roberts, the Pirate Cavalier . 307 The Husband and Wife Pirates 319 PART SIX Searching for Buried Pirate Treasure . 326 The Lure of Pirate Gold 326 Pirate Treasure Found Near Boothbay, Maine. 329 A Successful Cape Cod Pirate Treasure Hunt. 332 ILLUSTRATIONS Captain William Kidd in the Boston Jail . Frontispiece Major Stede Bonnet Stepping to his Death ... 37 Pirate Treasure Map by Cyprian Southack .... 38 Reverend Cotton Mather who was Interested in Pirates 38 Captain Edward Low of Boston 71 Alice Rowe Snow and Edward R. Snow with the Pirate's Dagger 72 Samuel Sewall 105 Governor Joseph Dudley 105 Mary Bead, the Woman Pirate 106 Thomas Tew's Descendant, Mrs. Johnson Sims . 139 Lord Bellomont, who Betrayed William Kidd . 139 Pirates Torturing a Prisoner 140 Pirates and Women Captives 140 Captain George Lowther ......... 173 Pirates Boarding a Ship 174 Pirates Carousing Ashore 174 Crew Member of Captain Low Killing a Spaniard . 175 Portuguese Captain Cutting Away the Money Bag . 176 Russel and Roberts 176 Ann Bonney, Who Fought and Loved 209 Nix's Mate Island, Boston, Where Pirates were Strung Up 210 Blackbeard and His Men Ashore at the Plantation . 211 Blackreard's Head Dangling Over the Water After His Death 211 The Silver Oar, Emblem of British Admiralty . 212 The Body of William Kidd Hanging in Chains . 245 The French Pass of the Quedah Merchant . 246 Long Ben Avery, Who Brought Jewels to Boston . 247 Blackbeard, Alias Teach, the Most Ferocious Pirate . 248 Pirates Seizing the Brig Vineyard 281 Gibbs Shooting Pirate Attempting to Kill His Sweetheart 281 Captain Bartholomew Roberts, the Cavalier Pirate . 282 The Ppobable Fate ©f Dixie Bull 283 John Hcward Nickerson with Trunnion from the Whidah 283 Spanish Pirates Bemoving Silver from the Brig Mexican 284 Thomas Fuller Striking Pirate Ruiz in Court . 284 E. R. Snow Pointing Out Location of Pirate Ship Whidah. 317 Tbeasure Seekers at Cape Cod 317 Pirate Treasure From Cape Cod 318 INTRODUCTION Pirates were the most picturesque and romantic figures who ever sailed the seven seas. They were also the most terrible. Old as the history of commerce, piracy was one of the first activities connected with early travel and trade, for wherever people go with goods and gold rob- bery inevitably follows them. The Greeks had a word for piracy— XEiQaxry;. The Romans called these adventurers of the Mediter- ranean pirata. Spellman in his Glossarium, Dr. Cowel in his Interpreter, and Blount in his law dictionary recount the history of the modern development of piracy. In ancient days the name pirate denoted a maritime knight. Gradually the word came to mean an admiral or commander at sea. Lord Edward Coke calls such an individual a man accus- tomed to the practice of "Roving upon the sea." Another term for pirate is buccaneer, which comes from the French word boucanier, "a drier of beef." Men went ashore on West Indian islands where the Spaniards had already murdered most of the population. Here they captured and killed great herds of cattle which were roaming the islands, running wild because of the death of so many of the inhabitants. Drying the beef, they sold it to various traders and merchants. Since the Spanish dis- approved of this practice, the buccaneers began to carry arms for defense. Gradually, the buccaneers changed from drying beef to killing the Spanish crews of ships they encountered, pillaging and looting as they went. They eventually organized themselves as "Brethren of the Coast." 14 PIRATES AND BUCCANEERS One branch of buccaneering was filibustering. The men who practiced this type of piracy were military ad- venturers operating as freebooters along the American Coast without the backing of any country. As a rule the term did not apply to buccaneering north of Cuba. Pirates, buccaneers, filibusters, and freebooters ap- peal to the imagination of both young and old. Children have always enjoyed building a raft or manning a leaking rowboat to sail or drift to an uninhabited island not too far from shore, where they pretend to be either Blackbeard or Kidd to their heart's content. Was it not Mark Twain who said that a boy never had a real childhood unless he played as a pirate or buccaneer? The strange wild thrill from reading pirate tales is nearly always inherited from childhood. If as Wordsworth says "the child is father of the man," everyone has in his heart a desire for romantic adventure. Age makes little difference in this respect.