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Song Lyrics Index
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Ballad of Captain Kidd
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Album: I Love Scottish and Irish Sea Songs
Album: Branches of the Green Oak Tree
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Captain William Kid (or Kidd) was born in Scotland in about 1645. Little is
known of him before 1688, by which time he was living in New York. In the
following year he saw action against the French in the West Indies as captain of his own sloop. In 1691 he married, and acquired a comfortable estate in
Manhattan. Four years later he travelled to London in search of a command in
the navy. Captain Kidd was a highly-respected Scottish sea captain, and was enlisted as a commissioned privateer for the Crown in 1696, with specific instructions to operate against pirates as well as craft of "unfriendly" nations. As he sailed for the Indian Ocean, after an argument, he fatally injured the gunner, Thomas (or William) Moore, by hitting him over the head with a bucket. By the time he arrived at Anguilla (Leeward Islands) in April 1699, he had been declared a pirate in London.
Captain Kidd's conviction and execution may be a gross miscarriage of justice. He was charged with murdering the seaman Moore, although Kidd later claimed that the killing was accidental and took place as a suppression of mutiny. Kidd was hung at Wapping on the shore of the Thames, May 23, 1701, following a trial in which the accused was denied the right of counsel, evidence was missing, and the leading witnesses for the Crown were "turncoat" government informers who thereby saved their own necks.
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My name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed
My name is Captian Kidd, as I sailed
My name is Captian Kidd, God's laws I did forbid
And most wickedly I did, as I sailed
I was born in Greenock town, afore I sailed, afore I sailed,
I was born in Greenock town, afore I sailed
I was born in Greenock town, from where great ships they did abound
And they sailed the whole world round, afore I sailed.
Oh, my parents taught me well, as I sailed, as I sailed
My parents taught me well, as I sailed
My parents taught me well to shun the gates of Hell
But against them I rebelled, as I sailed
Well, I murdered William Moore, as I sailed, as I sailed
I murdered William Moore, as I sailed
I murdered William Moore and I left him in his gore
Not forty leagues from shore, as I sailed
Now to execution dock I must go, I must go
Now to execution dock I must go
Now to execution dock, lay my head upon the block
And no more the laws I'll mock, as I sail
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