Captain Kidd : a true story of treasure and betrayal / Samuel Marquis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marquis, Samuel (Novelist), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pirates--New York (State)--Biography.

Pirates.

Pirates--Great Britain--Biography.

Kidd, William, -1701.

Kidd, William.

Great Britain--History--Stuarts, 1603-1714.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Biography.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 355 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Diversion Books edition.

Place of Publication:

[New York] : Diversion Books, 2025.

Summary:

"Captain William Kidd stands as one of the most notorious "pirate" outlaws ever, but his legend is tainted by a bed of lies. Having captivated imaginations for more than three hundred years and inspired many stories about pirates, troubling questions remain. Was he really a criminal or is the truth more inconvenient: that he was a buccaneer's worst nightmare, a revered pirate hunter turned fall guy for scheming politicians? In Captain Kidd, his ninth-great-grandson, bestselling author Samuel Marquis, reveals the real story. Kidd was an English American privateer and leading New York husband and father. The King of England himself dubbed Kidd "trusty and well-beloved," and some historians describe him as a "worthy, honest-hearted, steadfast, much-enduring sailor" who was the "victim of a deliberate travesty of justice." With honors far more esteemed than the menacing Blackbeard, or any other sea rover at the turn of the seventeenth century, how can Kidd be considered both gentleman and pirate, both hero and villain?"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cast of historical figures (1689-1701)

Maps

Part I: The making of a sea captain. The Caribbean privateer ; Fighting for the crown ; In victory and defeat

Part 2: The New York gent and king's pirate hunter. Mr. and Mrs. Captain Kidd ; The Red Sea men ; The scheme of English lords

Part 3: The fateful voyage. A shifting world ; Narrow escape and false clamors ; The pirate hunter ; Heart of darkness ; Quedagh merchant ; The war on Captain Kidd and piracy

Part 4: Treasure fever. The best-laid plans ; The axe falls ; The pirate's wife versus the treasure-mad earl

Part 5: The trial of the century. The corporation of pirates ; Stacking the deck ; Premeditated murder by wooden bucket ; The innocentest person of them all ; The snap of the rope

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Endnotes and bibliography

About the author.

ISBN:

163576968X

9781635769685

OCLC:

1463507458

Publisher Number:

90102326356