According to the legends preserved by the old timers on Cape Cod, Samuel Bellamy
was a young English sailor who arrived in the new world colonies seeking fame and fortune.
In 1715 he persuaded a wealthy patron to finance a ship and crew and sailed South to
search for sunken Spanish treasure off the coast of Florida.
Treasure was not the only thing on young Bellamys mind as he promised local
beauty Maria Hallet that he would return one day sailing the longest, tallest ship ever
seen. He made no predictions on speed records, however, as he hoped the ship would be so
laden with gold and silver.
The treasure hunt failed but Bellamy was loath to return to Massachusetts and
Maria empty-handed, and the step to piracy was a small one. In little more than a year
Samuel, now known as Black Bellamy, was captain of a notorious pirate crew that had
plundered more than 50 ships.
One morning off Cuba, Bellamy and his buccaneers captured the Whydah, a 100-foot
three-masted galley packed with ivory, indigo and thousands of silver and gold coins.
Excited with his prize, he designated it as his flagship.
His fortune secured, Bellamy headed for home. By April 1717 he was off Cape Cod
when his fleet was stuck by a stormy tempest completed with 70 mph gales and 40 foot tall
waves. The Whydah was top heavy and highly susceptible to the driving winds blowing her
ever closer to the shore. Amid scenes of mayhem the Whydah capsized, breaking her back
with a heart-rendering crack.
According to local legend, Bellamy was returning to Cape Cod for his lover,
Goody Hallett, when he met his doom. Condemned as a witch, her spirit is still said to
walk the clifftops of Wellfleet near the wreck.
Only two men survived the natural holocaust. One was an Indian pilot who quickly
disappeared into the mists of history, the other Thomas Davis, a Welsh carpenter, whose
vivid account of the shipwreck was preserved and passed from generation to generation
through Cape Cod folklore. Recently the wreck of the "Whydah" along with much of
its treasure was discovered by Barry Clifford in the shallow waters off of Wellfleet.
c1910. Frederick Judd Waugh
Other Pirates, Other Lore:
Notorious pirate captains, such as; Kidd, Blackbeard, Bellamy and Quelch, roamed
the waters off Boston's North Shore, known as the Gold Coast, while so-called witches were
being hanged at Salem. Like many of today's New Englanders, pirates spent their winters in
the tropics and their summers here. Most 17th and 18th-century pirates were, in fact, New
Englanders and New Yorkers, with gold and silver from Central America and merchandise from
Europe. Many buried their ill-gotten treasures off shore on the islands much of which has
never been found.
PHILIP ASHTON. In June of 1722, Ashton, a nineteen year old
Marblehead fisherman was forced to join the pirate company of Ned Low off the coast of
Nova Scotia. Beaten, whipped, kept in chains, and threatened with death many times, Ashton
still refused to sign the articles and become a pirate. In March of 1723 he managed to get
ashore on the island of Roatan in the Bay of Honduras where he hid in a dense jungle until
the pirate ship sailed away. For the next sixteen months, Ashton survived by eating crabs,
fish, and seabird eggs until the "Diamond", a ship from Salem, stopped at the
island for water and rescued him. Ashton arrived home in May of 1725.
DIXIE BULL. In June 1623, Dixie Bull was trading for furs in
Penobscott Bay, Maine, when a roving company of French pirates seized all of his
provisions, leaving him destitute. He persuaded other fishermen, traders and seamen to
join him in plundering trading vessels and attacking trading posts along the New England
coast - thus becoming New England's first pirate. The authorities sent five vessels on an
expedition against Bull, but he was nowhere to be found. Bull disappeared from the New
England area in 1633. Some claimed that he had joined the French; others maintained that
he had returned to his native England. According to a popular poem of the 1600's, Dixie
Bull was killed in a sword fight.
NED LOW. Described as a "maniac and a brute" by his own
men, Ned Low was a Boston ship rigger who turned to piracy. He earned a reputation for
extreme cruelty. After capturing a Nantucket whaler, Low made her commander eat his own
sliced off ears, sprinkled with salt, before he killed him. When he captured the Spanish
galleon "Montcova", he personally slaughtered fifty-three officers and made one
Spaniard eat the heart of another before killing him. His own crew finally set him adrift
in an open boat without provisions. Two days later a French ship rescued him, but upon
discovering who he was, the French gave him a short trail and hanged him.
THOMAS TEW. Rhode Island born Thomas Tew was a licensed
privateersman, but everyone knew that he was actually a pirate. In the Red Sea he
successfully plundered Arabian and Indian cargoes. Governor Thomas Fletcher of New York
described Tew as "... a very pleasant man who tells wonderful stories ..." And
Fletcher was eventually fired by the king for being too friendly with the Pirate Tew. In
June of 1695, Tew was shot and killed while boarding a prize ship owned by the Great Mogul
of India.
WILLIAM KIDD. America's most famous pirate, William Kidd was a
wealthy man. He was a privateersman hired by Lord Bellomont, Royal Governor of
Massachusetts, to seek out and capture Blackbeard. Failing to capture Blackbeard, Kidd
became a pirate himself - although he denied being one until his dying day. Returning to
Boston in 1699, Kidd was arrested and shipped to London for trial. He was sentenced to be
hanged at Execution Dock in London on May 23, 1701. On the first attempt, the rope broke,
but the Sheriff's men dragged him back to the gallows and hanged him successfully the
second time. Kidd's body was painted with tar, wrapped in chains and placed in an iron
cage on the river bank. For almost twenty years, his body remained gibbeted as an example
to other would-be-pirates.
WILLIAM FLY. A boatswain aboard a slave ship, William Fly led a
mutiny, killed the captain, renamed the ship "Fame's Revenge", and became a
pirate chief. Known for his cursing rages and inhuman brutality, Fly often whipped his
captives for up to one hundred lashes. He pirated many vessels along the New England
coast. Finally captured off of the coast of Newburyport, Fly was bought to Boston for
execution. Fly went to his execution with a nosegay in his hand and reproached the hangman
for not knowing his craft as Fly fixed the noose around his neck with his own two hands.
Fly was gibbeted at Nix's Mate island in Boston Harbor. His pirate career had lasted only
one month.
JOE BRODISH. Attacking and capturing Spanish ships, Joe Brodish
made a fortune for himself and his pirate crew. Returning to New England, he was
recognized and arrested. After Brodish escaped from the Boston jail twice, it was
discovered that the jail keeper was his uncle. Brodish was shipped off to England and
hanged.
EDWARD TEACH - BLACKBEARD. Although Ocracoke Inlet in North
Carolina was his base of operations, Blackbeard (Edward Teach) terrorized the New England
coast. Teach's beard was the talk of two continents. Jet black, it completely covered his
face, even growing around his eyes and giving him a fierce appearance. He never took
marriage seriously and during his lifetime he had fourteen wives and fathered forty
children. In 1691, he and a sizeable crew landed at Lunging Island in the Isles of Shoals
off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There he buried a large treasure of silver bars which has
never been discovered.
JACK QUELCH. Chosen commander of the "Charles" after its
captain had been dumped overboard at Half Way Rock outside of Salem Harbor, Jack Quelch
led the crew in pirate raids off of the coast of South America. Upon returning to
Marblehead, Quelch and many of his crew were arrested. He was hanged in Boston in 1704.
THOMAS VEAL. One of four pirates to seek refuge in the Lynn Woods,
Thomas Veal avoided capture by hiding in Dungeon Rock. Pirate Veal reportedly stashed his
treasure in the cave there.
RACHEL WALL. Rachel Wall was a Beacon Hill maid, and her husband,
George, was a Boston Fisherman. After stealing a ship at Essex, they began pirating off of
the Isle of Shoals. Pretending to be in distress, Rachel would stand out at the mast and
cry for help. When the rescuers arrived, George and his men would kill them, rob them of
all valuables, and sink their ship. In 1782, George Wall drowned in a storm. Rachel was
rescued. She returned to Boston where she continued to steal from the cabins of ships
docked in Boston Harbor. She was accused and convicted of murdering a sailor - a crime
that she denied. At her hanging on October 8, 1789, she confessed to being a pirate. She
is the only known woman pirate of New England.
