The Whydah by Martin W. Sandler
Author:Martin W. Sandler [Sandler, Martin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9373-2
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2017-01-15T05:00:00+00:00
Smith’s first witness was Thomas Fitzgerald, who had been a mate aboard the wine-carrying Mary Anne. He testified that Bellamy and his men “all Armed with Mosquets, Pistols and Cutlasses” had “forcibly taken Command” of that ship. Fitzgerald then described how the Whydah’s pirates plundered the large cargo of wine and stole “some Cloaths which belonged to the Ship’s Company.” He made specific mention of how pirate Simon Van Vorst had threatened to break the cook’s neck “if he would not find Liquor” for the marauding pirates.
One of the next to testify was Thomas Checkley, who had been a sailor aboard the merchant ship Tanner, which had been captured by the Whydah in March 1717. Checkley testified that, despite anything the accused might say about being forced to become pirates, he had seen firsthand that Captain Bellamy and his men “forced no Body to go with them” and “would take no Body against their Wills.” As an example, Checkley described how his shipmate John Shuan had “declared himself to be now a Pirate” and “went up and unriggd the Main top-mast by order of the [Whydah] pyrates.”
There then followed other individuals, all of whom swore that they had been eyewitness to the fact that each of the accused was a member of the Whydah’s crew and, as such, had performed the types of crimes with which they were charged. When these witnesses completed their testimony, the pirates were told to step forward and asked “what they had to say for themselves.”
Before the trial had begun, the accused had decided that their only chance of saving themselves was to claim that they were not really pirates at all but had been forced, on pain of death, by Sam Bellamy to serve aboard his ships. Among the pirates who testified was Thomas Baker, who stated that after he had been captured and (according to him) forced to become a pirate, “he attempted to make his escape at Spanish Town” when the Whydah docked at what was then the capital of Jamaica. According to Baker’s testimony, “the Governour of that Place seemed to favour his design, till Capt. Bellamy and his Company sent the Governour word that they would burn & destroy the Town” if the governor helped Baker escape.
Thomas South swore that, as a member of a crew of a ship that had sailed from Bristol, England, he was captured by Bellamy and “threatened to be put upon a desolate Island, where there was nothing to support him” unless he became a member of the Whydah’s pirate crew. Peter Cornelius Hoof also testified that he had been taken aboard the Whydah against his wishes and told by its crew that “they would kill him unless he would joyn with them in their Unlawful Designs.” Hendrick Quintor also swore that he had been captured by Bellamy, who, after agreeing to release Quintor when they reached the coast of Venezuela, changed his mind, causing Quintor to be “unavoidably forced to Continue among the Pyrates.”
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