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Kidd Departs England (1696)

The manning and departure of the Adventure Galley in 1696: out of the Thames under a letter of marque and a pirate-hunting commission, part of the company pressed for the fleet at the Nore, the Atlantic crossing, and the re-manning at New York on no purchase no pay terms before sailing for the Indian Ocean in September.

Also writtenThe departure of the Adventure Galley, 1696; The press at the Nore, 1 March 1696; The re-manning of the Adventure Galley at New York, September 1696

Two pieces of paper are said to have gone aboard the Adventure Galley before she left the Thames. One was an Admiralty letter of marque against French shipping, the ordinary licence of a privateer. The other was a royal commission under the Great Seal, dated 26 January in the seventh year of William III, empowering him to seize four pirates by name, Thomas Too, John Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Mace alias Maze in the commission's spellings, together with all other pirates, freebooters and sea rovers wherever found. William Kidd held it, and sole command of the ship the syndicate of 1695 had built for the purpose.1

The press at the Nore

Kidd's own narrative is flat about it. About the first day of March 1696, at the Buoy in the Nore, his men were pressed for the fleet, and the press kept him there nineteen days. He protested that Captain Steward of the Duchess had taken away all his ship's crew and that Admiral Russell had caused them to be restored to him. The Earl of Orford was First Lord of the Admiralty and one of the four great backers; the service he headed took seamen out of the ship he had helped to fund.2

The salute story

Several accounts have Kidd failing to salute a naval vessel on the Thames, his men in the tops turning up and slapping their backsides in derision, and the press following as retaliation. They disagree on the vessel: a Navy yacht at Greenwich, the ninety-gun HMS Duchess under a Captain Steward, or unnamed ships of the Royal Navy. Neither Kidd's narrative nor his protest gives a cause, and both speak only of the Nore.3

The passage west, and a French prize

Her departure is dated 6 April 1696 from Deptford and 23 April from Plymouth, or the end of April, or plain April 1696; New York has her about 4 July, in July, or in August. On the crossing Kidd took a small French vessel carrying salt and fishing tackle for the Newfoundland fishery, lawful quarry under the letter of marque, and the New York vice-admiralty court condemned her as prize. In Kidd's words, "the produce thereof purchased provisions for the Adventure Galley for her further intended voyage". It is the only capture of the voyage known to have gone through a prize court, and it bought the stores that carried the ship to Madagascar.4

Re-manning at New York

Benjamin Fletcher had governed New York since 1692 and had made it a receiving port for Red Sea men, a commercial strategy against Boston and Philadelphia. His successor reported that pirate ships were owned and fitted out in the port under Fletcher's commissions and that the men about him had grown rich by it. Kidd re-manned on that waterfront, and Fletcher's own removal followed, on evidence gathered by the Crown's trade agent Edward Randolph.5

Fletcher reported the recruits to the Board of Trade: "Many flocked to him from all parts, men desperate of fortunes and necessities, in expectation of getting vast treasure. It is generally believed here that if he misses the design named in his commission, he will not be able to govern such a villainous herd."

By September 1696 the complement stood at about 150 to 155, given as 152 in one account and as about 155 on the colonial crew list. Popular retellings call the New York intake the dregs of the dockside taverns, hardened criminals, virtually pirates. The detailed muster is duller: a mixed body in which only 21 men were described as experienced seamen.6

No purchase, no pay

The company shipped on no purchase no pay: no wages, a share of what was taken, or nothing. One tenth went to the Crown; of the rest, 60 per cent went to the backers, 15 per cent to Kidd and Robert Livingston, and 25 per cent to the company. A privateer's crew expected better, and Kidd is reported to have struggled to enlist men until he softened the terms, and to have had about a year to show results or owe the backers twenty thousand pounds by 25 March 1697. Hunting pirates paid nothing. Prizes paid. The arithmetic fixed on a New York wharf is one explanation for the killing of William Moore and the taking of the Quedagh Merchant.7

The articles of 10 September 1696

The agreement was drawn "between Capt. William Kidd Command.er of the good ship the Adventure Galley on the one part and John Walker Quarter M.er to the said ships company on the other part". Walker is the only named man of the lower deck at the re-manning, and his office is the quartermaster's, the office privateers and pirates shared, the crew's man against the captain across a set of articles.8

The paper survives at The National Archives, with a list of the company, as CO 5/931; a further text of it sits in the High Court of Admiralty records at HCA 1/15/8 (reverse), catalogued with the 1701 indictments, reaching the court by way of Joseph Palmer. One source gives the sailing from New York as 6 September 1696, four days before the date on the articles.8

What 1696 cost the backers

Nobody in London recorded the departure as a scandal at the time. It became one after 1698, because four of the backers were Whig junto men: Sir John Somers, Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney, and Orford. The Dictionary of National Biography calls Somers one of the undertakers who procured the commission and equipped the ship. On 10 April 1700 the Commons moved that he be removed from the King's presence and counsels for ever; the motion failed narrowly, and on 17 April he surrendered the Great Seal on the King's warrant, the King having judged it expedient that he retire. The charge returned among fourteen impeachment articles in May 1701, and he was acquitted on 17 June.

A ballad on Kidd was printed in Britain in 1701 and reached the colonies almost at once, its refrain reported by Washington Irving in 1824 as "My name is Captain Kidd, / As I sailed, as I sailed". The General History of 1724, under the name Captain Charles Johnson, embellishes Kidd. What the ballad fixed was a captain sailing, not one arrested at Boston.

What the sources cannot yet give is the muster. No muster book or pay list for the Adventure Galley has been located, so the number pressed at the Nore, the number who crossed the Atlantic and the number shipped at New York all stay unfixed; nor is there an archival citation for Fletcher's letter, a condemnation record for the French prize, or a contemporary document for the salute. Robert Ritchie's 1986 study, the standard scholarly treatment, was identified but not read for this pass. What is said here of Fletcher's New York comes from the Earl of Bellomont, his successor and his accuser, rather than from a disinterested paper, and his despatch names no merchant. Kidd's narrative and his protest are quoted at second hand, from Cornelius Neale Dalton's vindication of 1911; the letter of marque has not been read; and the muster analysis behind the figure of 21 experienced seamen is single sourced.

What the evidence does not settle

Numbers pressed and shipped

  • The number of men pressed at the Nore is unfixedLikely
  • The exact crew count reached at New York is unresolvedUnverified

The salute anecdote

  • Which vessel went unsaluted, a yacht or HMS Duchess, is unclearUnverified

Condemnation of the French prize

  • Whether the French prize was formally condemnedLikely

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The Adventure Galley was ready to sail from the Thames at the end of February 1695/6 and sailed from Plymouth on 23 April 1696, William Kidd carrying a royal commission under the Great Seal dated 26 January in the seventh year of William III that empowered him to seize four named pirates, Thomas Too, John Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Mace alias Maze, together with all other pirates, freebooters and sea rovers wherever found. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Royal commission recited in a grant under the Great Seal, with the captain's own narrative: Royal grant of pirates' goods to the Earl of Bellamont and others, reciting Kidd's commission, printed in C. N. Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London, 1911), Appendix A: "We did, by our Commission under our Great Seal of England, bearing Date the 26th Day of January, in the Seventh Year of our Reign... give and grant full Power and Authority to Captain William Kidd, Commander of the Ship Adventure Galley... to apprehend, seize and take into Custody, the said Thomas Too, John Ireland, Tho Wake, and William Maze, and all other Pirates, Free-booters, and Sea Rovers, of what Nation soever". The Earl of Bellamont's sailing orders to Kidd, London, 25 February 1695/6, same appendix, open "You being now ready to sail". Narrative of William Kidd, 7 July 1699, Public Record Office C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXV, printed in J. F. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Washington, 1923), doc. 76: "on the 23d Day of the said month of April he sailed from Plymouth on his intended Voyage". The separate letter of marque against French shipping was not read and is not relied on here.
  2. Men were pressed out of the Adventure Galley into the fleet before she cleared home waters, Kidd's own narrative placing the press at the Buoy in the Nore about the first day of March 1696 and saying it detained him nineteen days; the narrative gives no number, Kidd's protest says Captain Steward of the Duchess took away all his ship's crew and that Admiral Russell caused them to be restored, and no muster located settles how many were lost. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. The captain's own narrative and protest: Narrative of William Kidd, 7 July 1699, Public Record Office C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXV, printed in J. F. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Washington, 1923), doc. 76: "about the latter end of February the said Gally came to the buoy in the Nore, and about the first Day of March following, his men were pressed from him for the Fleet, which caused him to stay there 19 Days". Kidd's protest, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Manuscripts of the Duke of Portland, VIII. 80, quoted in Jameson's note to that document: "At the Buoy in the Nore Captain Steward, commander of the Duchess, took away all my ship's crew; but Admiral Russell... caused my men to be restored to me".
  3. The account that the press at the Nore was retaliation for an unreturned salute to a naval vessel rests on no primary document traced: no salute appears in Kidd's own narrative of the voyage or in his protest, which name only Captain Steward of the Duchess as the officer who took his crew. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Documented absence in the captain's own narrative and protest: Narrative of William Kidd, 7 July 1699, Public Record Office C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXV, printed in J. F. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Washington, 1923), doc. 76, read in full for the passage from the launch to the sailing from Plymouth, which carries the press at the Nore but no salute: "about the first Day of March following, his men were pressed from him for the Fleet". Kidd's protest, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Manuscripts of the Duke of Portland, VIII. 80, quoted in Jameson's note to that document, likewise gives a cause of no kind: "At the Buoy in the Nore Captain Steward, commander of the Duchess, took away all my ship's crew".
  4. On the Atlantic crossing Kidd took a small French vessel carrying salt and fishing tackle bound for the Newfoundland fishery and had her condemned as prize at New York, the produce buying provisions for the Adventure Galley. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Secondary work quoting Kidd's narrative: C. N. Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (1911), quoting Kidd's narrative
  5. New York under Governor Benjamin Fletcher was an accommodating port for Red Sea men, his successor reporting that pirate ships were owned and fitted out there under Fletcher's commissions and that the men about him had grown rich by it, and that was the labour market in which Kidd manned the Adventure Galley for the East Indies. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Governor's despatch and a deposition: The Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, New York, 8 and 18 May 1698, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16, 1697-1698, no. 472, pp. 221-224 (Board of Trade, New York, 52, pp. 312-320): "This city has likewise been a nest of pirates, and I already find that several of their ships have been (and now are) out, are owned and were fitted out in this port and received commissions from the late Governor here", and "They have grown rich together with him by fitting out pirate-ships and trading with Madagascar". Deposition of Benjamin Franks, 20 October 1697, Public Record Office C.O. 323:2, no. 124 I, printed in J. F. Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Washington, 1923), doc. 71: "came to New York and there finding Captain Kid comeing out with a full Power to the East Indies to take the Pyrates, which he shewed me by the means of my Friends, so resolved to go with him", and "Wee sailed from New York the 6th September 1696". Bellomont was Fletcher's successor and his accuser, and no merchant is named in the passage.
  6. By September 1696 the ship's complement at New York stood at about 150 to 155, given as 152 in the fullest account located and as about 155 on the colonial crew list cited by Jameson, a mixed body in which only 21 men were described as experienced seamen. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Secondary narrative: Cindy Vallar, Pirates and Privateers: Captain William Kidd, single source for the muster composition; Samuel Marquis, Captain Kidd and the Trial of the Century, Sea History 192 (2025), for the complement figure
  7. The company served on no purchase no pay, with one tenth of the proceeds reserved to the Crown and about a quarter of the remainder to the crew, terms Kidd is reported to have softened before New York men would sign. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Secondary narrative: Cindy Vallar, Pirates and Privateers: Captain William Kidd; Samuel Marquis, Sea History 192 (2025); C. N. Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd (1911)
  8. Articles of agreement between Kidd and John Walker, quartermaster for the ship's company, were drawn at New York and dated 10 September 1696, and survive with a list of the company at The National Archives as CO 5/931, the Archive's record of pirate articles also noting a further text of them, reaching the High Court of Admiralty by way of Joseph Palmer, at HCA 1/15/8 (reverse). Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Admiralty court record with secondary narrative: The National Archives, HCA 1/15/8 (reverse), Kidd's articles of the Adventure Galley drawn up in New York, via Joseph Palmer; Cindy Vallar, Pirates and Privateers: Captain William Kidd, quoting the articles