EXTRACTS: Pirates! Illustrators Special Edition © 2020 The Book Palace (128 PAGES in Full edition)

35 IV. Four-Fabled Sea Raiders “I presume we need make no apology for giving the name of a History to the fol‐ lowing sheets, though they contain nothing but the actions of a parcel of robbers.” ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most No‐ torious Pyrates’, 1724 Giving reasons why people appear to have made heroes of the followers of the black flag, Howard Pyle stated that “we admire the pirates’ desperate cour‐ age in their battle against the tremendous odds of all the civilised world of law and order”. However, he adds that there is something else that endears the pirate to our hearts: his lust for wealth. We revel in the stories of “the hiding of his godless gains somewhere in the sandy stretch of tropic beach, there to remain hidden until the time should come to rake the doubloons up again…” And, when we think of buried treasure, the name of one particular pirate comes to mind: Captain Kidd. Captain William Kidd began his career as a privateer with the King’s Com‐ mission to “bring pirates, freebooters and sea rovers to justice” and, in 1695, he set sail on the ship, Adventure Galley , the latest in fighting vessels. Unfortu‐ nately, Kidd seemed to have had no success at finding any pirates so became one himself, probably hoping that his privateer’s commission would save him from any punishment in the future. It didn’t and he was eventually arrested and executed – not for piracy but for killing one of his crew. During a mutiny on board ship, Kidd had struck one of his men with a heavy bucket and killed him. In his defence, he told the jury that “it was not designedly done, but in my pas‐ sion, for which I am heartily sorry”. Two pirates who may not have been the absolute Terrors of the Seas but have certainly captured the imagination of writers and illustrators alike are the two female buccaneers, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Daniel Defoe, author of ‘A General History of the Most Notorious Pyrates’, takes great delight in the titillat‐ ing stories of these two young women dressed in male attire. It seems there was much amour with regard to these two on the pirate ships: Anne Bonny became the mistress of the pirate captain, ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham, and Mary Reid, in order to save her lover from possible death at the hands of a fellow pirate, chal‐ lenged the latter to a duel with pistols and swords. She won, of course. During the trial of these two female pirates, witnesses swore that “in times LEFT: Captain Kidd , oil on board. A bold illustration by Graham Coton for Look and Learn . Captain Kidd was Scottish-born William Kidd (1645-1701). After a successful career as a privateer, he turned to piracy on an expedition to East Africa in 1696. He was arrested in Boston, Massachussetts, in 1699, and sent to England where he was tried and hanged not for piracy but for murder — he had killed a mutinous seaman with a heavy bucket! He was also hanged two times; on the first attempt, the hangman's rope broke and Kidd survived. His immortal fame rests mostly on his legendary buried treasure.