Captain Kidd’s Lost Ship

This true account of the merchant vessel Quedagh Merchant challenges the romance and mythology of piracy.Captain William Kidd was an ambitious man who lived and died during a time of emerging globalization that made the world smaller, and in which there were tremendous institutional and governmental shifts taking place around the world.In Captain Kidd's Lost Ship, Frederick Hanselmann brings to light the social, political, and human influences affecting world events between the close of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth-century age of pirates.During 1696-99, the actions of Captain Kidd, a privateer and affluent citizen in the British American colonies, together with the subsequent exertion of international political pressures and shifting personal and governmental alliances, resulted in his being accused, imprisoned, found guilty, hanged, and gibbeted over the River Thames in 1701; his lot became a symbol for all to witness the fate to be faced-going forwardfor acts of piracy.While he was not necessarily innocent, that is how he viewed his actions.To his dismay, instead of being heralded as a hero among his associates and benefactors for capturing Quedagh Merchant and delivering wealth to his allies, his life was destroyed.This fascinating book explores archaeology, historical fact, human nature, and psychology to tease out the true story of Captain Kidd and the Quedagh Merchant.Hanselmann begins with a chronology of events between the 1500s and the twenty-first century, guiding readers through the complexities of history that resulted in Kidd's emergence and decline, and the capture and loss of his ship.He uses theoretical foundations to examine the archaeological shipwreck site that was discovered in the Dominican Republic, making history tangible, and analyzes social institutions, processes, and networks in primary and secondary sources.And he probes the interaction between institutions and individuals to reveal the influence of human activity in this case.The first chapter, "Theoretical Models for Interpretation," introduces theoretical, multiscalar analysis, maritime archaeology and world systems, networks, and agency, and applies these to the Quedagh Merchant story.The second chapter, "Globalization, Trade, Piracy, and Scandal," takes readers on a journey to the Eastern Hemisphere to explore the relationship of the English East India Company, founded in 1600, with Armenian trade networks, and eventually the history of the mission and capture by Kidd of the Quedagh Merchant.It then moves to the Western Hemisphere to examine the trade and political economy of seventeenth-century British America, as well as the networks of

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