Born in Scotland in 1645, Kidd became a merchant and a licensed Privateer. In those days, if you were a pirate, you could essentially become a legal pirate with a licence from the Crown, which meant you were then a "privateer." Kidd got himself a licence, and went about the business of attacking French merchant ships. He was apparently pretty good at it. Sometime around 1695 he made a deal that gave him command a 34 gunship. Along with the gunship he was given a letter of Marque from King William III that allowed him to pirates and ships of the French East India Company. He plied his trade in the Indian Ocean, but also the Caribbean, and often found himself along the east coast of the United States.
Whether he was actually a pirate or privateer is questionable. He certainly did his job well, and became pretty well known on the high seas. It appears he may have turned to pirating of his own volition, perhaps because it was safer and more lucrative to attack merchant ships instead of pirate ships. Whatever the case, he collected a fair amount of 'treasure' or 'booty' as pirates call it.
Eventually, Kidd fell out of favor with the government in England, and they lured him home under false pretenses. I suspect his privateering vs pirating lifestyle may have become a little embarrassing, or perhaps there was some jealousy about his perceived amassing wealth. He was tried for the murder of one of his crew and several piracy charges. Eventually he and 9 members of his crew were found guilty, 8 were pardoned, but Kidd and another were sentenced to be hung, which they eventually were in 1701.
So how does this relate to Oak Island in Nova Scotia? Well, after his arrest, his ship was commandeered by the British who found and forfeited the jewels aboard estimated to be worth millions by todays money.
What was documented was the following:
*1,111 ounces of gold,
*2,353 ounces of silver,
*rubies and diamonds
*57 bags of sugar, and
*41 bags of miscellaneous goods
There are those who are convinced that what was found was only a little of the fortune he had actually amassed, and that he must have hidden his treasures somewhere before he was arrested. This of course, has led to many theories and searches for his 'buried treasure.'
Personally, I have trouble with the pirate treasure theory. First of all, some say Kidd did not spend much time around Nova Scotia, although he was on the Eastern Seaboard of North America, so Nova Scotia wouldn't have been that far to sail. But, would he have the time and ingenuity and equipment to build such an elaborate hiding spot? And why would he? Wouldn't he just bury it somewhere he could retrieve it when needed? It would take a lot of time and men to complete such a task, what happened to them?
It turns out he did bury some of his captured prizes on Gardener's Island in New York, but that was easily retrieved by Governor of New York. So it figures that if he buried some of his treasure on other islands, it too would be fairly easy to retrieve if you knew where to look. It just doesn't seem plausible that he would build such an elaborate hiding spot, and one that seems so hard to get open.
However, in keeping with the pirate theory, it seems that the story of Daniel McGinnis and his buddies finding the block and tackle hanging from a tree over a depression in the ground in 1795 sounds plasible in terms of pirate activity timelines. But what they found would have had to have lasted in the harsh salt air and climate of an island for almost 100 years. It seems to me that in that amount of time, the depression is all that would have been there, the rest of the ground should have been covered again with vegetation and trees. So whatever they found, it seems to me must have been fairly recent. It's unlikely it lasted from the days of Henry Sinclair's time in Nova Scotia.
But...suppose someone came back to Oak Island to retrieve something that had been buried there. And suppose that someone knew how to outwit the famous "money pit" traps that have thwarted recent treasure hunters?
Perhaps sometime after Henry Sinclair visited Nova Scotia or even after William Kidd was hung in 1701.That might mean the depression in the ground, the tackle block and so forth hadn't been there long. It's quite likely that someone besides the person who buried the treasure knew about it. Captain Kidd, and other pirates had crews, who might have known. I know the legends say the diggers were killed and buried with the treasure, as "dead men tell no tales" but Kidd would have had a confidant I'm sure. And Henry Sinclair, if he was hiding something as important as the Holy Grail, surely others would know, surely he would have told his fellow Knights Templar where to find it....
I'm just saying......
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Did you know that Captain Kidd's ship was found off the Dominican Republic?
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