Quedagh Merchant - Capture By Captain Kidd

Capture By Captain Kidd

On 30 January 1698, Captain Kidd, aboard his ship Adventure Galley, spotted the Quedagh Merchant about 25 leagues from Cochin, and raced to catch up with her. After approximately four hours, the Adventure Galley caught up with the Quedagh and hoisted a French flag for its colours, and Kidd commanded the other captain to board his ship. A Frenchman came over by boat, and when he stepped upon the Adventure Galley, Kidd gave the command to hoist an English flag. The Frenchman, upon seeing the flag change, reportedly replied, "Here is a good Prize."

Kidd, whose mission to capture any enemy and pirate ships, was commissioned by several English Lords to seize all loot and return to England to split the treasure among himself, his crew, and the Lord investors. Although this ship was Indian owned, flying Armenian colours, captained by an Englishman, and had a mostly Indian crew, seemed to not fit Kidd's commission; the fact that the voyage had been promised safe passage by the French, an English enemy, technically made this seizure a legal capture.

When Kidd and his crew began the inspection of the Quedagh Merchant, while inventorying the loot, the Frenchman mentioned that he was not actually the captain of the vessel, but that Mr. Wright was indeed the man in that role. Kidd located Captain Wright down below deck, and he denied being the captain, although the French pass identified him as the captain with the inscription "pilot Rette". Wright also informed him that an agent for the English East India Company had brokered the voyage, Kidd, acknowledging that looting this ship could raise concerns back in England, decided that the crew vote on whether to take the ship and its cargo, or sell it back to the Armenians. A man named Cogi Baba offered to buy the ship and its cargo back for what amounted to 1/20th of the actual value of the cargo, but the men of Kidd's crew rejected the offer. Kidd did not fight the vote, knowing that this was a legal capture.

Unfortunately, Kidd did not know that hundred of the bales below deck belonged to a nobleman, Muklis Khan, who was close to the Grand Moghul. The crews of the Adventure Galley, Quedagh Merchant, and the Rouparelle, another ship captured by Kidd and renamed the November, set sail for Cochin and Kalliguilon harbour to sell some of the goods to finance his trip back to England. After selling much of the cargo for gold, he left the harbour hurriedly to escape four ships of the Dutch East India Company that were attempting to capture him. Kidd gave orders that if his group of three ships broke up, to meet at St. Mary's Island, Madagascar.