1.
Cape Cod
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Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months, as defined by the Cape Cod Commissions enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It extends from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, since 1914, Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal. The canal cuts 17.5 miles roughly across the base of the peninsula, though portions of the Cape Cod towns of Bourne. Two highway bridges cross the Cape Cod Canal, the Sagamore Bridge, in addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight and limited passenger services onto the Cape. Cape territory is divided into fifteen towns with many villages, like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of the Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to become resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and other tourists. Both islands are also famous summer tourist destinations, commonly accessed by ferry from several locations on the cape, the phrases Cape Cod and the Islands and the Cape and Islands are often used to describe the whole region of Barnstable County, Dukes County, and Nantucket County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island, Monomoscoy Island, Popponesset Island, the Forbes family-owned Naushon Island was first purchased by John Murray Forbes. Naushon is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned, one of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk, with a year-round population of 52 people. Cape Cod in particular is a retirement area,27. 8% of the population of Barnstable County is 65 years old or older. And the average age of residents is the highest of any area in New England, by voter registration numbers, Democrats outnumber Republicans by less in the three counties than in the whole of Massachusetts, to varying degrees. The name Cape Cod, as it was first used in 1602 and it remained that way for 125 years, until the Precinct of Cape Cod was incorporated as the Town of Provincetown. No longer in use over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all of the land east of the Manomet and Scusset rivers – essentially along the line that became the Cape Cod Canal. The creation of the canal separated the majority of the peninsula from the mainland, most agencies, including the Cape Cod Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, treat the Cape as an island with regard to disaster preparedness, groundwater management, and the like. Cape Cod Bay lies in between Cape Cod and the mainland – bounded on the north by a line between Provincetown and Marshfield. North of Cape Cod Bay is Massachusetts Bay, which contains the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east of Cape Cod, and to the southwest of the Cape is Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay, Cape Cod extends 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, with a breadth of between 1–20 miles, and covers more than 400 miles of shoreline. Its elevation ranges from 306 feet at its highest point, at the top of Pine Hill, in the Bourne portion of Joint Base Cape Cod, one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, Cape Cod shields much of the Massachusetts coastline from North Atlantic storm waves
2.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Samuel Bellamy
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Captain Samuel Bellamy, later known as Black Sam Bellamy, was an English pirate who operated in the early 18th century. This reputation earned him another nickname, the Prince of Pirates and he likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves Robin Hoods Men. Bellamy was the youngest of six children born to Stephen and Elizabeth Bellamy in the parish of Hittisleigh in Devonshire, England. Elizabeth died soon after, and was buried on February 23,1689, the future pirate became a sailor at a young age, in his late teens, he joined the Royal Navy and fought in several battles. Though it has been speculated that he may have had a wife and child, Bellamy traveled to Cape Cod around 1715, allegedly to seek some of his relatives there. According to an abundance of local lore on the subject, it is believed that he took up an affair with a local beauty, Goody Hallett — the Witch of Wellfleet. Professor Elizabeth Reynard, in her 1934 book, The Narrow Land, gave her the name Maria, other modern authors have called her Mariah and Mary. Her age and marital status remains a subject of much debate, some stories depict her as a young lady between 16 and 25, while others depict her as a very old woman. For whatever reason, he left Cape Cod in early 1716 with a group of men to seek the vast treasures on the Florida coast from the Spanish wreck of the 1715 Treasure Fleet. Wealthy jeweler Palgraves Williams, son of Rhode Island Attorney General John Williams, joined Bellamy, after Bellamy left the Cape, Hallett was found to be pregnant by Bellamy. It is said that she gave birth to a son and hid the child in a barn for warmth while she foraged for food, and when she returned she found that the child had choked to death on the straw. Some legends say that it was the barn of the notable Knowles family, in either case, she was arrested for the childs murder and imprisoned in Barnstable Gaol. Her sentence was relatively short, but she was exiled from the town, even after that, she still waited for him in Eastham. In the summer of 1716, the crew became irritated by Hornigolds unwillingness to attack ships of England, by a majority vote of the crew, Hornigold was deposed as captain of the Mary Anne and left the vessel with his loyal followers, including Teach. The remaining 90-man crew then elected Bellamy as captain, upon capturing a second ship, the Sultana, it was made into a galley, and with approval of the crew, Bellamy assigned his friend Palsgrave Williams as its commander. However, Bellamys greatest capture was to come in the spring of 1717, Bellamy chased the Whydah for three days before getting close enough to fire. After a single shot, Captain Lawrence Prince surrendered the Whydah by lowering its flag, true to his reputation for generosity, Bellamy rewarded Princes lack of resistance by trading the Sultana for the Whydah. Removing the captains quarters and upgrading the ship to 28 guns, Bellamy turned his new flagship northwards along the eastern coast of the Carolinas and on to New England
5.
Golden Age of Piracy
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The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given to usually one or more outbursts of piracy in the maritime history of the early modern period. The modern conception of pirates as depicted in culture is derived largely, although not always accurately. The colonial powers at the time fought with pirates and engaged in several notable battles. Powell uses the only once. Its golden age may be said to have extended from about 1650 to about 1720, Pirate historians of the first half of the 20th century occasionally adopted Fiskes term Golden Age, without necessarily following his beginning and ending dates for it. This idea starkly contradicted Fiske, who had denied that such Elizabethan figures as Drake were pirates. Of recent definitions, Pringle appears to have the widest range, as early as 1924, Philip Gosse described piracy as being at its height from 1680 until 1730. Bottings definition was followed by Frank Sherry in 1986. In a 1989 academic article, Professor Marcus Rediker defined the Golden Age as lasting only from 1716 to 1726, angus Konstam in 1998, reckoned the era as lasting from 1700 until 1730. David Cordingly, in his influential 1994 work Under the Black Flag, defined the age of piracy as lasting from the 1650s to around 1725. Rediker, in 2004, described the most complex definition of the Golden Age to date, most of these pirates were of Welsh, English, Dutch and French origin. This involved considerable seaborne trade, and an economic improvement. The buccaneers migration from Hispaniolas mainland to the more defensible offshore island of Tortuga limited their resources, the growth of buccaneering on Tortuga was augmented by the English capture of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. In the 1660s, the new French governor of Tortuga, Bertrand dOgeron and these conditions brought Caribbean buccaneering to its zenith. A number of factors caused Anglo-American pirates, some of whom had cut their teeth during the buccaneering period, the fall of Britains Stuart period had restored the traditional enmity between Britain and France, thus ending the profitable collaboration between English Jamaica and French Tortuga. The devastation of Port Royal by an earthquake in 1692 further reduced the Caribbeans attractions by destroying the pirates chief market for fenced plunder. Furthermore, much of the Spanish Main had simply been exhausted, at the same time, Englands less-favored colonies, including Bermuda, New York, and Rhode Island, had become cash-starved by the Navigation Acts. This set the stage for the piracies of Thomas Tew, Henry Every, Robert Culliford
6.
United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, by the 1860s, the service was known as the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse, the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War. As of 2014 the Coast Guard had over 36,000 men and women on duty,7,350 reservists,29,620 auxiliarists. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the worlds 12th largest naval force. Because of its authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the U. S. Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 1–3. The Coast Guards enduring roles are maritime safety, security, to carry out those roles, it has 11 statutory missions as defined in 6 U. S. C. §468, which include enforcing U. S. law in the worlds largest exclusive economic zone of 3.4 million square miles, the Coast Guards motto is the Latin phrase, Semper Paratus. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, the Coast Guards most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit. Wil Milam, a swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, In the Navy. Practicing for war, training for war, in the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself. The Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are subdivided into eleven statutory missions. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, and have responsibility for military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators, previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports, details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution, the five uniformed services that make up the U. S
7.
National Geographic Society
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The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D. C. United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world and its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. In partnership with 21st Century Fox, the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website that features extra content and worldwide events, the National Geographic Society was founded in 1888 to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge. The Society believes in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world, National Geographic is governed by a board of trustees, whose 21 members include distinguished educators, business executives, former government officials and conservationists. The organization sponsors and funds research and exploration. National Geographic maintains a museum for the public in its Washington and its Education Foundation gives grants to education organizations and individuals to improve geography education. Its Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded more than 11,000 grants for scientific research, National Geographic has retail stores in Washington, D. C. The locations outside of the United States are operated by Worldwide Retail Store S. L and it also publishes other magazines, books, school products, maps, and Web and film products in numerous languages and countries. National Geographics various media properties reach more than 280 million people monthly, the National Geographic Society began as a club for an elite group of academics and wealthy patrons interested in travel. After preparing a constitution and a plan of organization, the National Geographic Society was incorporated two weeks later on January 27, Gardiner Greene Hubbard became its first president and his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, succeeded him in 1897. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership, the current National Geographic Society president and CEO is Gary E. Knell. The chairman of the board of trustees is John Fahey, the editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine is Susan Goldberg. Gilbert Melville Grosvenor, a chairman of the Society board of trustees received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 for his leadership in geography education. In 2004, the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D. C. was one of the first buildings to receive a Green certification from Global Green USA. The National Geographic received the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in October 2006 in Oviedo, in 2013 the society was investigated for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to their close association with an Egyptian government official responsible for antiquities. This new, for-profit corporation, will own National Geographic and other magazines, as reported by The Guardian, a spokesman for National Geographic in a November 2,2015 e-mail statement, briefly discussed the rationale for the staff reductions as part of the. Process of reorganizing in order to move forward following the closing the National Geographic Partners deal. Additional specifics were provided to Photo District News by M. J. Jacobsen, National Geographic’s SVP of communications, similar to the contents of a formal announcement by the two companies
8.
Pittsfield, Maine
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Pittsfield is a town in Somerset County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,215 at the 2010 census, Pittsfield is home to the Maine Central Institute, a private boarding school, and the annual Central Maine Egg Festival. The area was part of the Kennebec Purchase, first called Plymouth Gore, it was settled in 1794 by Moses Martin and his family from Norridgewock. In 1815, the town was organized as the Plantation of Sebasticook, in 1824, the name was changed to Pittsfield after William Pitts of Boston, a large landowner. Pittsfield was noted for fine orchards, and became a trade center. Water power from the Sebasticook River attracted industry, and a gristmill and sawmill were built at the falls, blacksmith shops and a carriage shop were established. In 1855, the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad arrived, and Pittsfield developed into a mill town. In 1869, the first woolen mill was established, the Riverside Woolen Company was the first mill in the state to sell cloth direct from loom to wearer. Fire destroyed the downtown in 1881, but it was soon rebuilt, woodworking plants and a canning factory were established. The Waverly Woolen Mill was built in 1891–1892, together with 52 dwellings the company rented to workers, Pittsfield was also home to the Sebasticook and the Pioneer woolen mills. In 1914, the Waverly and the Pioneer mills were sold to the American Woolen Company, the Pioneer Mill, the largest, remained in operation until after World War II, but as the New England textile business moved to Southern states. The Waverly mill was converted into a factory in the 1940s. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 48.72 square miles. Pittsfield is drained by the Sebasticook River, the town is located at approximately latitude 44°4657 North, longitude 69°232 West. As of the census of 2010, there were 4,215 people,1,639 households, the population density was 87.5 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,828 housing units at a density of 37.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 94. 4% White,0. 7% African American,0. 2% Native American,2. 6% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,0. 3% from other races, and 1. 8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 3% of the population,26. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
9.
Western State Colorado University
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Western State Colorado University, also known as Western, is a four-year public liberal arts college located in the bucolic valley of Gunnison, Colorado. Approximately 2,400 undergraduate and 200 graduate students attend Western, of the 22 undergraduate majors, the most popular are business administration, biology, exercise and sport science, recreation and outdoor leadership, and psychology. Western also offers programs in petroleum geology and professional land and resource management. Further, it offers a low residency MFA program in writing, including genre fiction, poetry and screen. Students participate in the low residency MFA program from as far as way as China, the college has one of the oldest collegiate radio stations in the state,91.1 KWSB, which has been on the air since 1968. The institution was established in 1901 and opened for classes in 1911 as the Colorado State Normal School and this initial focus as a preparatory college for teachers resulted in a commitment to teacher preparation programs that continues to today. In 1923 the colleges name was changed to Western State College of Colorado in recognition of its programs in the liberal arts at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In 2012 the institution was renamed Western State Colorado University, the Western State Colorado University Mountaineers compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at the NCAA Division II level. Facilities include Mountaineer Bowl and Paul Wright Gym, which are both the highest collegiate facilities in the world, the Mountaineers have won 93 RMAC team titles and 15 team National Championships. Individually, Western has produced 990 All-Americans and 30 Academic All-American honors, in 1994, the school commissioned Santa Fe sculptors Gene and Rebecca Tobey to create a new work for the campus. The result was Pathfinder, a six-foot-tall bronze grizzly bear, which students have a custom of kissing for good luck during exams. A bronze bull elk titled Wind River stands out by the park, also a Tobey work of art, as well as inside Leslie J. Savage Library. The Western State Colorado University Foundation is a private non-profit corporation founded in 1975 and it is the primary depository of private gifts from alumni, friends, corporations, and foundations used to advance the mission and goals of Western State Colorado University. Each year, the Foundation gives more than $2 million to the University, Western State Colorado University is one of the settings in Eternal Starling, the first book of the Emblem of Eternity trilogy by Angela Corbett
10.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
11.
William Kidd
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William Kidd, also Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, legends and fiction surround this character, his actual career, however, was punctuated by just a handful of skirmishes. Kidd was born in Dundee, Scotland, ca.22 January 1654, his father, Captain John Kyd, Kidd gave Greenock as his place of birth and his age as 41 in testimony under oath at the High Court of the Admiralty in October 1694 or 1695. A local society supported the Kyd family financially after the death of the father, others still hold the contrary view. Kidd later settled in the newly anglicized New York City, where he befriended many prominent colonial citizens, some published information suggests that he was a seamans apprentice on a pirate ship during this time, before partaking in his more famous seagoing exploits. There they renamed the ship Blessed William, and Kidd became captain either as a result of election by the crew, or by appointment of Christopher Codrington. The governor did not pay the sailors for their defensive services, Kidd and his men attacked the French island of Marie-Galante, destroying its only town and looting the area, and gathering for themselves something around 2,000 pounds Sterling. Later, during the War of the Grand Alliance, on commissions from the provinces of New York and Massachusetts Bay, in New York City, Kidd was active in the building of Trinity Church, New York. It would have viewed as disloyalty to the crown to turn down this request, carrying much social stigma. The request preceded the voyage which established Kidds reputation as a pirate, Kidd was presented with a letter of marque, signed personally by King William III of England. This letter reserved 10% of the loot for the Crown, Kidd and his acquaintance Colonel Robert Livingston orchestrated the whole plan and paid for the rest. Kidd had to sell his ship Antigua to raise funds, the new ship Adventure Galley was well suited to the task of catching pirates, weighing over 284 tons burthen and equipped with 34 cannon, oars, and 150 men. The oars were a key advantage, as they enabled Adventure Galley to manoeuvre in a battle when the winds had calmed, Kidd took pride in personally selecting the crew, choosing only those whom he deemed to be the best and most loyal officers. As the Adventure Galley sailed down the Thames, Kidd unaccountably failed to salute a Navy yacht at Greenwich, the Navy yacht then fired a shot to make him show respect, and Kidd’s crew responded with an astounding display of impudence — by turning and slapping their backsides in. Because of Kidds refusal to salute, the Navy vessels captain retaliated by pressing much of Kidds crew into naval service, thus short-handed, Kidd sailed for New York City, capturing a French vessel en route. To make up for the lack of officers, Kidd picked up replacement crew in New York, among Kidds officers was his quartermaster Hendrick van der Heul. The quartermaster was considered second in command to the captain in pirate culture of this era and it is not clear, however, if van der Heul exercised this degree of responsibility, because Kidd was nominally a privateer. Van der Heul is also noteworthy because he may have been African or of African descent, a contemporary source describes him as a small black Man
