“Mr. Bass went to Prayer with them; and some little time after, the Rev. Mr. Clap concluded with a short Exhortation to them. Their Black Flag, with the Pourtrature of Death having an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, at the end of which was the Form of a Heart with three Drops of Blood, falling from it, was affix’d at one Corner of the Gallows. This Flag they call’d Old Roger, and often us’d to say they would live and die under it.”[156]
“Never was there a more doleful sight in all this land, then while they were standing on the stage, waiting for the stopping of their Breath and the Flying of their Souls into the Eternal World. And oh! how awful the Noise of their dying moans!”[157]
The bodies were not gibbetted but taken to Goat or Fort Island and buried on the shore between high and low water mark.
After the execution had taken place, Captain Solgard set sail in the “Greyhound” for his station at New York, taking with him the pirate sloop.[158] His exploit was looked upon as a great service rendered to the country and the merchants of New York were anxious that some public acknowledgment be made, and so it came about that the Common Council of the City, at a meeting held July 25, 1723, passed an order presenting to Captain Solgard the Freedom of the City and providing that the seal of the Freedom be enclosed in a gold box, the Arms of the Corporation to be engraved on one side and a representation of the engagement on the other, with this motto: Quaesitos Humani Generis Hostes Debellare Superbum 10 Junii 1723. The clerk was instructed to have the Freedom handsomely engrossed on parchment and when ready the Council voted to wait upon Captain Solgard in a body and present the same.
“VIEW OF NEWPORT, R. I., IN 1730,” SHOWING AT THE LEFT, GRAVELLY POINT, ON WHICH THE PIRATES WERE HANGED IN 1723
The original painting really represents the town at a somewhat later date. Reproduced from a lithograph copy made in 1864, now in the George L. Shepley Library, Providence, R. I.
But the “Greyhound,” in March of the previous year, had an encounter with Spaniards, in which her officers came off less happily. Captain Waldron, then in command, was trading on the coast of Cuba and “invited some of the Merchants to Dinner, who with their Attendants and Friends came on Board to the Number of 16 or 18 in all; and having concerted Measures, about six or eight dined in the Cabin, and the rest waited on the Deck. While the Captain and his Guests were at Dinner, the Boatswain Piped for the Ship’s Company to dine. Accordingly the Men took their Platters, received their Provisions, and went down between Decks, leaving only 4 or 5 Hands besides the Spaniards, above; who were immediately dispatched by them, and the Hatches laid on the rest. Those in the Cabin were as ready as their Companions, for they pull’d out their Pistols and shot the Captain, Surgeon and another (Jacob Lopez, a merchant) dead, and grievously wounded the Lieutenant; but he getting out of the Window upon a Side-ladder, thereby saved his Life, and so they made themselves Masters of the Ship in an Instant. But by accidental good Fortune, she was recovered before she was carry’d off; for Capt. Waldron having mann’d a Sloop with 30 Hands of his Ship’s Company, had sent her to Windward some days before, also for Trade, which the Spaniards knew very well; and just as the Action was over they saw this Sloop coming down, before the Wind, towards their Ship; upon which the Spaniards took about 10000£. in Specie, quitted the Ship, and went off in their Launch unmolested.”[159] The Greyhound eventually made her way to her station at New York under command of the lieutenant, where she was joined on Oct. 19th by her new commander, Capt. Peter Solgard, Doctor Fisher, and twenty sailors.
FOOTNOTES
[154] Formerly the “Mary,” 80 tons, owned by Joseph Dolliber of Marblehead and captured at Port Roseway, Nova Scotia.
[155] An account of the Pirates, with divers of their Speeches, etc., Boston, 1723.