Shift #26 - Collections Research
Tuesday, June 18, 2024 | 9-10:30 pm CST/10-11:30 pm EST (1 hr 30 min)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the "Criminal calendar" book. It's really cool that we can zoom in a lot in order to view the material.
Tonight, I continued my research on Robert Kidd. My assumption was correct - due to his and his crew's lack of success in capturing pirates, he decided to become a pirate himself. His crew was supportive of this decision. He was also afraid that his owners would be upset that he had not been successful and remove him from his position. He ordered some of his men to search for nearby ships in the area and they noted that there were at least 14 ships they could plunder. Eventually they found the fleet and attacked a Moorish ship but were unsuccessful in taking it. Kidd and his men continued on and eventually took over a ship, albeit a small one. He treated the native crew very badly and didn't even get much plunder (except for a case of pepper and a case of coffee). He let the crew go but kept an Englishman and Portuguese man and took them as new members of his crew (they went willingly). He and his ship traveled on and landed at a different place along the coast but by then, people had heard of his awful acts upon the first ship. Two businessmen who were British had been notified of Kidd and his exploits and went on his ship to ask about the two missing crewmen, which of course Kidd denied and didn't divulge that he had them hidden on his ship. Kidd thought he was in the clear but eventually more people found out about his piracy and soon, a Portuguese man of war (a big warship) found Kidd's ship. The two ships fought for six hours but Kidd managed to escape, after realizing he was in over his head and that his own ship couldn't defeat the man of war.
Kidd took another ship, this time a French ship. However, when the opportunity came to attack another ship (a Dutch one), he wasn't keen on doing so, although half of his crew were. They threatened to leave but Kidd declared if they boarded the Dutch ship, they could not come back to his ship. At the end, Kidd and his men did not attack the ship. Unfortunately, there was still some hostility about this incident among the crew. One of the men, a Muslim, expressed his frustration over the events, they exchanged harsh words and Kidd ended up striking the man on the head with a nearby bucket. The man ended up dead. Kidd felt guilt only for a short while, which soon disappeared after he saw another ship to plunder. From Malabar, he traveled and attacked many boats and smaller ships. At one point, his ship neared an island and there, one of his crew members who was a craftsman left the ship to go to the island, where he was attacked and killed. Kidd initially just wanted to get supplies like wood and water but after his crewman died, he and his crew went to the island and burned some houses out of revenge. He ended up killing one person from the island. To be continued!
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