Captain Kidd Treasure Charts!!

Hi Goldminer,
Thanks for your knowledgable post,
I take your point on navigation, however from the late 16th century, most navigators, were able to determine their latitude!
Yet longitude, was another matter, they had the charts, with longitudinal lines, 15degrees for every hour, or line of longitude.
What they did not have was an accurate timepiece.
They therefore used a combination of navigation methods, Dead reckoning, Celestial navigation and knowledge of local geographical features.
Incidentally it was an Englishman, who won the ?20,000 prize for building the first timepiece to be used at sea and accurate to within 20 minutes of Longitude.

The charts, were allegedly drawn, by Captain William Kidd, while imprisoned in Newgate prison London England, while awaiting his trial for piracy.

Kidd was brought from New York on board Hms Advice, also on board was most of his Treasure which had been searched for and found by governor, Lord Bellomont!
This was the guy, who was instrumental in recommending Kidd to the King of England, William third, who along with certain other Lords. Built a new ship called the Adventure Galley, fitted her out, provisioned and crewed her and made Kidd captain.
His commission was to hunt the pirates, preying on shipping in the middle and far east oceans.

Kidd was on his cruise from 1696-1699, he returned to new York, after changing ships at Madagaskar, then sailing across, to the carribean, where he stopped off at Tortuga, changed to another ship, a Sloop named St. Antonio,
Kidd then left some of his crew, with the Adventure Prize, the ship he pirated and kept.
He was aware that he was wanted for piracy, so he stopped off at a number of islands, Namely Gardeners Island and a few others.
It was from here that Lord Bellomont and his men searched the Orchard and recovered a number of chests, belonging to Kidd.

In that era when a person was committed to prison, they had to pay for the priviledge, of being incarcerated. Kidd had his ships papers and logs taken from him, he had to pay for his own food and drink.
He was allowed his Bureaux and ships chest, as well as his personal clothing.

While Kidd was awaiting trial, he wrote two letters, asking for clemency, in return he promised to Be bound in chains and put aboard a stout ship, when he would show the King and or his servants an Island in the east indies where he had buried goods and treasure to the value of ?100,000.
One of these letters he sent to the House of Commons, where he was tried, the other letter he sent to the Lords of the Admiralty.
Neither of these groups of power accepted his proposal, Kidd was tried and convicted, he was executed at Tilbury Point London In May 1701.

As Kidd was convicted of piracy his belongings were the property of the crown, therefore his wife Sarah Kidd nee Oort.
Did not receive any of his belongings, they were auctioned below the Mast, as was the custom.

The charts came to light in 1930-32, one was  found in an old bureax, rumoured to belong to Kidd . The other was found in a false compartment within an old chest.

The only thing which can be confirmed, is that Kidd wrote the Letters knowing perfectly well that the Treasure he brought back with him had been found and indeed was brought to England on the same ship as himself.

Incidentally, the Treasure which came back with Kidd, was auctioned and the proceeds of that sale, which amounted to approx. ?8000.
Was used to construct Greenwich Hospital. This is now known as Greenwich Maritime Museum, also here is Greenwich Observatory.
Where all world Chronometers for maritime navigation are set, as Greenwich is the Zero meridian point.

This is just a  precis of this story.
Best wishes crowsnest

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Their was a very interesting story on PBS about the man who solved the problem of longitude by building a better clock that was seaworthy.
The mans name was John Harrison and he spent most of his life working on the problem and making improvements. Unfortunately- it took years before he was able to collect on the 20,000 pound prize. The first clock was called simply- H-4.

This was another watershed moment in history.

Steve

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Excellent research crowsnest1, facinating stuff.
Bill

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Hi Goldminer-Bill,

I also noted, from your navigation post to me, that you mentioned the Spanish use of Astrolabe/Rose!.

Before answering you, I checked a few items of my research, and found that the Spanish and Portuguese, were very meticulous, when plotting their routes.
They also used various methods of navigation, I only mention this, as their navigators also kept a seperate log, within this log, was kept their triangulations of trigonometry, which they used in conjunction with the astrolabe and dead reckoning.
As they were so secretive, the logs were called Rutters and were never included in the ships daily log.
If you could locate one of these, from any of the Spanish Treasure Fleets, which lost ships, then I am sure they would be able to pinpoint, a wreck or wreck sites, quite accurately.

PS. I am not sure, what your main interest of treasure hunting is!?
However, if you have looked at old charts or maps, which are reputed to locate a lost mine, if any of them are genuine, then perhaps it might be an idea, not to look at what the map shows, but to look at the position, from where it was drawn.
The thought behind this, is that, this is the position of the person who hid it.!
Does that make any sense to you??

Best regards crowsnest.

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		Quote:			Posted by crowsnest1
	Check out the shape of the island and its' orientation!! Best wishes Kevin.

Thanks, I've spotted it now - just as you described. I believe it was my Safari browser acting up earlier.

This answers a question I was going to ask you once - why the pirates were so plentiful along the E coast of the US.

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login  It's just an excerpt from a book, Pirate Soul and, as I was reading it, I thought of your comments about why the men resorted to becoming pirates. Sue

?Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.? ? H.L. Mencken


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