The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730 by George Francis Dow John Henry Edmonds

Author:George Francis Dow, John Henry Edmonds [George Francis Dow, John Henry Edmonds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Transportation, Ships & Shipbuilding, History, United States, State & Local, General
ISBN: 9780486290645
Google: 0kEftr23bFAC
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Published: 1996-01-01T01:08:38+00:00

CHAPTER XIII

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON

ON Friday, June 15, 1722, a number of the vessels of the fishing fleet hailing from Massachusetts Bay, were at anchor at Port Roseway near what is now Shelburne, Nova Scotia. It was the custom of these God-fearing fishermen, when possible, to come into some harbor not too remote from their fishing grounds and there to spend the Sabbath. On this occasion thirteen schooners and shallops were lying peacefully at anchor when a strange brigantine hove in sight and soon found an anchorage near them. She seemed to be an inward bound vessel from the West Indies and little attention was paid to her at first, even when a boat put off from her side with four men in it. When this boat’s crew reached the side of the nearest fisherman, the men climbed boldly on board and drawing pistols and cutlasses demanded a surrender.

The brigantine turned out to be the “Rebecca,” owned in Boston, but recently captured and then commanded by Capt. Edward Low, the Boston man who had become a pirate and whose bloody excesses were becoming more notorious every day. One by one the fishermen surrendered and were pillaged.129 On Tuesday, the 19th, Low decided to take for his “privateer,” the new schooner “Mary,” owned by Joseph Dolliber of Marblehead. He fitted her with ten guns, renamed her the “Fancy,” and went aboard with a crew of fifty men, including eight whom he forced from among the fishermen. The forced men were Philip Ashton and Nicholas Merritt, masters; Joseph Libbie, one of Ashton’s crew; Lawrence Fabens, one of the crew of the schooner “Rebeckah,” all of Marblehead, and four other men belonging to Piscataqua and the Isles of Shoals, all nimble young men, about twenty years of age and unmarried. Low shipped the prisoners he designed to send home, on board his late brigantine, the “Rebecca,” of Boston, which he and his consort Lowther had taken May 28th, and gave her to her former master, Capt. James Flucker, with orders to take them to Boston. On their arrival the news was duly published in the Boston News-Letter of July 2d, with the customary advertisement as to the forcing, but in order to make the matter doubly sure, a further advertisement, in more legal form, appeared in the News-Letter, of July 9th, viz:—

“Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England, Essex, ss. Anno Regni Regis Georgij nunc Magna Britaniæ, &c. Octavo.

“The Depositions of Thomas Trefry late Master of the Scooner Mary; Robert Gilford Master of the Shallop Elizabeth; and John Collyer, one of the Crew belonging to the Scooner Samuel, William Nichols Master, all of Marblehead in the County of Essex, Fisher men, Testify and say, That as they were upon their lawfull Imployment nigh Cape Sables, on or about the 14th, 15th and 16th Days of June last past, they were taken Prisoners by Captain Edward Low a Pirate then Commander of the Brigantine [Rebecca] but since removed himself into the before

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